Aemon Targaryen

Aemon was born on Dragonstone in 55 AC, the second son and third child of Jaehaerys I and his sister-wife, Queen Alysanne. Aegon and Daenerys came before him, and ten more siblings followed: Baelon, Alyssa, Maegelle, Vaegon, Daella, Saera, Viserra, Gaemon, Valerion, and Gael. On the night of his birth the king placed a dragon's egg in his cradle, and a month later, back in King's Landing, Jaehaerys lifted him above the walls of the Red Keep before a cheering crowd.

From the cradle his father called him his heir, which troubled the queen, who held that Daenerys had the better claim. The king always gave the same answer: that his daughter would be queen the day she married Aemon, and that the two would rule together. As a boy Aemon was quiet, careful and obedient, fond of being read to even before he could join letters himself; it was said his first words were a simple "why?".

His brother Baelon was born in 57 AC, and the two grew close through mock sword-fights that turned into a lasting friendship. Not long before, his elder sister Daenerys had died, clearing Aemon's path to the throne, and in 62 AC his father named him Prince of Dragonstone. In 68 AC his betrothal to his aunt, Lady Jocelyn Baratheon, daughter of Lord Rogar Baratheon and Alyssa Velaryon, was announced; a match with his own sister Alyssa had briefly been considered, but the queen opposed it and kept that marriage for Baelon.

Aemon and Jocelyn married in 70 AC in a ceremony grand enough to rival the Golden Wedding. She was sixteen, with black hair falling straight to her waist; he, a year younger, was tall, with pale lilac eyes and hair almost white-gold. Those who saw them agreed they made an unusual pair, the dark lady beside the pale prince.

Two years later, in 72 AC, Aemon joined his brother Baelon and sister Alyssa at a tourney held in Duskendale for the wedding of the young Lord Darklyn to a daughter of Lord Theomore Manderly. He won the squires' melee at his own brother's expense and also distinguished himself in the lists, earning his knighthood. Back in the capital he became the rider of Caraxes, whom the Dragonkeepers called the Blood Wyrm for being the fiercest of the young dragons at the Dragonpit.

In 74 AC his only child, Rhaenys, was born, with her mother's black hair and her father's pale violet eyes. As the firstborn of the Prince of Dragonstone, many began to see her as next in line after Aemon.

In 81 AC, twenty-six years old and the acknowledged heir, Aemon took a seat on his father's Small Council: when Lord Rodrik Arryn stepped down to return to the Eyrie with his new wife, Jaehaerys named his son Chief Justiciar and Master of Laws.

Two years later the Fourth Dornish War broke out, and Aemon flew with his father and his brother Baelon, each on his own dragon, to burn the fleet of Prince Morion Martell. Vermithor, Vhagar, and Caraxes fell on the Dornish, and a single day of dragonfire ended the war; father and sons returned to a triumphant welcome.

In 92 AC Myrish pirates seized the eastern coast of Tarth, and Aemon prepared to strike them alongside his son-in-law, Lord Corlys Velaryon. On the ninth day of the third moon, Corlys sailed from Driftmark with his fleet; Aemon followed a few hours later on Caraxes, after bidding farewell to his wife and his daughter Rhaenys, who had just learned she was carrying a child and so stayed behind instead of joining them on Meleys. On hearing this, Aemon said: "Tilting? As if I would allow it. You have your own battle to fight. Lord Corlys will want a son, I am sure, and I would like a grandson."

Aemon reached Tarth ahead of the Velaryon fleet and met Lord Cameron Tarth, who had withdrawn with his men into a hidden valley in the island's central mountains to watch the Myrish movements. A Myrish scout spotted the camp, and one of the raiders fired a crossbow at the Evenstar; the bolt went wide in the darkness and struck Aemon instead. The iron shaft entered his throat and came out the back of his neck; the prince fell to his knees clutching at the arrow, trying to tear it free, and died drowning in his own blood before he could speak.

His death left a succession problem behind: Jaehaerys would go on to name Baelon, Aemon's younger brother, his heir, passing over Rhaenys, the daughter Aemon had left behind.