Visenya Targaryen

Visenya Targaryen was the older sister and one of the wives of Aegon I Targaryen, the Conqueror, and mother of Maegor the Cruel. She was the rider of the dragon Vhagar. Titles: Lady of Dragonstone Queen Dowager Queen Loyalty: House Targaryen Nationality: Valyrian Culture: Crown Lands Born: 29 BC Dragonstone Died: 44 BC Dragonstone Buried: 44 BC Dragonstone Father: Lord Aerion Targaryen Mother: Mrs. Valaena Velaryon Spouse: King Aegon I Targaryen Son: Maegor I Targaryen

Like her siblings, she possessed classic Valyrian features with silver-gold hair, which she kept braided and held in place with rings, and violet eyes. She possessed a harder, more austere beauty than her sister, Rhaenys. Voluptuous, sensual, and impetuous, Visenya was also firm, serious, and ruthless. Some also claim that Visenya was no stranger to the dark arts and handled poisons. Visenya was both a dragonrider and a warrior, comfortable in both silk and armor. When dressed as a warrior, she always wielded the Valyrian steel sword, Dark Sister.

Visenya was born on Dragonstone, the daughter of Lord Aerion Targaryen and Lady Valaena Velaryon. She had two younger siblings, Aegon and Rhaenys. As expected, Visenya married her brother Aegon, following Valyrian custom. However, he also took his younger sister as his wife. People say that Aegon married Visenya out of duty and Rhaenys out of desire. Before the wedding, Visenya rode a dragon, forming a bond with the beast Vhagar. In her youth, she visited the Citadel in Oldtown and the Isle of the Arbor with her brother Aegon.

When Aegon began his conquest of the Seven Kingdoms, Visenya sailed with him from Dragonstone. She subdued House Stokeworth and then defeated House Darklyn with the help of her half-brother Orys Baratheon, taking Duskendale. After subduing a dozen Houses, Aegon was crowned king. The now-queen Visenya placed a Valyrian steel crown upon her brother-husband's head as Rhaenys proclaimed him King of All Westeros. Following the coronation, Visenya accompanied the Targaryen fleet to Gulltown and the Vale. When the Arryn fleet managed to sink more than a third of the Targaryen fleet, Visenya descended from the sky on her dragon Vhagar and burned the Arryn ships. Soon after, Aegon sent Visenya to Massey's Hook. The lords of the region learned of the Burning of Harrenhal, which had killed King Harren Hoare and his entire family, and therefore decided to surrender and submit to the Targaryens. That region became part of the Crownlands, directly subject to the Iron Throne. Visenya met with Rhaenys, Aegon, and the Targaryen army at the Sept of Stone, and from there they marched south. Soon they confronted the combined forces of the Reach and the Westerlands. Visenya and her brothers, mounted on dragons, burned the grass of the region, and four thousand men of the enemy army were burned alive in the battle that became known as the Field of Fire. King Mern IX Gardener of the Reach died, while King Loren I Lannister survived by fleeing the battle and later bent the knee to Aegon I. According to legend, Visenya thanked the gods that Loren had marched south and faced the Targaryens in open field, for upon seeing Casterly Rock, she believed that dragonfire would not be able to subdue the Lannisters while they remained within the Rock.

Visenya was wounded by an arrow in the shoulder during the Field of Fire, but she soon recovered. After King Loren's surrender, the three Targaryens set out once more, this time for the Trident, where they faced the northern army led by King Torrhen Stark. However, Torrhen chose not to fight and bent the knee. Visenya returned to the Vale, where the Arryns had strengthened their defenses. A strong force guarded the Bloody Gate, and there were also large garrisons in the castles of Stone, Snow, and Sky. However, Visenya flew above these defenses and arrived at the Eyrie riding Vhagar. She landed in the garden, where she met the boy-king Ronnel Arryn. His mother and regent of the Vale, Lady Sharra Arryn, decided to surrender to Visenya.

Visenya fought alongside her brothers in the war against Dorne, which lasted from 4 AC to 13 AC. After Rhaenys' death in 10 AC, Visenya and Aegon, overcome with grief, burned every castle and fortress in Dorne at least once, with the exception of Sunspear and the Shadow City. They also placed bounties on the heads of the Dornish lords. Although many of these lords were indeed killed by assassins, only two of the assassins came to collect their bounties. In retaliation, the Dornish lords also hired their own assassins. Visenya and her escort were attacked in the streets of King's Landing, where she killed one of the attackers. On another occasion, in 10 AC, Aegon and Visenya were again ambushed, and Visenya saved his life. When Aegon realized his guards were still sufficient for his protection, Visenya drew her sword, the Dark Sister, and wounded Aegon's cheek before his guards could react. After this event, she gathered a group of seven skilled knights and founded the Kingsguard. She made these men swear an oath of devotion similar to the oath of the Night's Watch. In 13 AC, Princess Deria Martell arrived in King's Landing with a delegation to negotiate peace. She brought the skull of Rhaenys' dragon, Meraxes, and Visenya disapproved of this gesture. Deria and Aegon eventually reached a peace agreement and ended the war.

The day-to-day running of the Kingdom fell to Visenya, Rhaenys, and Aegon's advisors. Rhaenys's death in Dorne in 10 AC ruined the health of her son, Aenys, and they began to question whether he would survive. Since Visenya had not yet conceived a child with Aegon after a decade of marriage, many believed she was infertile, and some suggested he should take another wife, which Aegon refused. In 11 AC, Visenya announced her pregnancy, and the following year she gave birth to Prince Maegor at Dragonstone, where she would spend the next few years raising him. She gave him her Valyrian steel sword, Dark Sister, when Maegor was only thirteen years old, on His Name Day. In 23 AC, Aenys had her first daughter, Princess Rhaena. A year later, Visenya proposed the marriage between Maegor and Rhaena to settle the succession issue, as there was a dispute over who would succeed Aenys when he ascended the throne: his own daughter or his brother. However, the High Septon protested and suggested that Lady Ceryse Hightower, his niece, should marry Maegor. The relationship between Visenya and Aegon, which had never been very loving, became more distant over time. When Aegon, in 35 AC, ordered the destruction of his fortress to begin construction of the Red Keep, Visenya was put in charge of the construction. According to Archmaester Gyldayn, Aegon made this decision and sent Visenya to King's Landing so that he would not have to deal with her at Dragonstone. In 39 AC, two years after the death of Aegon I, Maegor shocked the kingdom and took a second wife, Alys Harroway. Visenya officiated the marriage since no septon agreed to do so. The resulting uproar forced Maegor into temporary exile.

King Aenys I, now the king, abandoned King's Landing at the beginning of the Faith Militant Uprising and fled to Dragonstone. Visenya advised him to burn the Starry Sept in Oldtown and also the Sept of Remembrance in King's Landing. Aenys, unable to make a firm decision, fell ill and ignored her advice. Visenya began to care for him, and his health improved, but Aenys suffered a collapse when he learned that his son Aegon and his daughter Rhaena were besieged in Quailhold. The king died three days later. After Aenys's burial, Visenya mounted Vhagar and flew to Pentos, bringing her son Maegor home. Maegor claimed the Iron Throne (to the detriment of Aenys I's eldest son) and Visenya escorted him to King's Landing, where she threatened anyone who questioned her son's legitimacy to rule, resulting in a trial by seven between Maegor and knights of the Warrior's Sons. Despite being wounded, Maegor survived. Between 42 AC and 44 AC, Visenya held Aenys' widow, Alyssa Velaryon, and her two younger children, Jaehaerys and Alysanne, hostage at Dragonstone. Eventually, King Maegor killed Aenys' eldest son at the Battle of the God's Eye. Visenya died at Dragonstone in 44 AC. Alyssa and her children escaped the castle soon after. They took the sword Dark Sister with them. Angered by this escape, Maegor's third wife, Tyanna of the Tower, tortured Alyssa's eldest surviving son, Prince Viserys, who died as a result. After Visenya's death, suggestions began to circulate that she was responsible for Aenys's sudden death, and some people began to call her a kingslayer and kinsman-killer.