Aemond Targaryen

Aemond was born in King's Landing in 110 AC, the second son Queen Alicent gave King Viserys I. As a newborn he was said to be half the size of his brother Aegon and twice as fierce. His birth, coming after Aegon's, unsettled a court that was already uneasy: Viserys had named his daughter Rhaenyra his heir years before and had no intention of changing his mind, however many sons his second wife bore him. Two factions, greens and blacks, formed around that refusal, and even the boy's own uncle, Prince Daemon, grew cold toward him — every child Alicent had pushed Daemon one step further from the throne.

That tension among the elders settled fully on the children. Aemond and his siblings grew up measuring themselves against Rhaenyra's three sons — Jacaerys, Lucerys, and Joffrey — whom they saw as thieves of a crown that was theirs by blood. Shared feasts, lessons under the same maester, training side by side did nothing to bring the cousins closer; if anything, it wore them down further. Within that group Aemond carried a humiliation of his own: he was the only one without a dragon. Aegon flew Sunfyre, Helaena rode Dreamfyre, even Daeron, younger than him, already had Tessarion.

His chance to fix that came after Laenor Velaryon's funeral. The king meant to take Aemond to Dragonstone to see whether the boy was brave enough to claim an egg of his own, but Aemond, ten years old, aimed higher: he went straight for Vhagar, the oldest and fiercest dragon known, riderless since Laena Velaryon's death. His three-year-old nephew Joffrey caught him sneaking off; Aemond slapped him, shoved him into a heap of dragon dung, and flew away before anyone could stop him. When he landed, his nephews were waiting. A fight broke out, and in it Lucerys cut out his right eye with his own dagger.

What he kept from that day was the missing eye and a name that never left him again: Aemond One-Eye.

Losing the eye didn't pull him away from the sword. Trained by Ser Criston Cole, Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, Aemond became a fast, dangerous swordsman — the kind who didn't give second chances.

He was nineteen when his father died. The next day, Queen Alicent sent Ser Willis Fell to find him, and they found him in the armory, already dressed for his morning training, as if the world hadn't just changed his whole life.

With Viserys dead, Otto Hightower sent Aemond to Storm's End. The castle's former lord, Boremund Baratheon, had backed Princess Rhaenys, and the greens feared his heir Borros might do the same; to head that off, they offered Aemond in marriage to one of Borros's daughters in exchange for his banner.

Borros received him well and was ready to close the deal, but while they haggled over dates and dowries, Prince Lucerys Velaryon arrived, sent by Rhaenyra to ask for the same support. Aemond baited him in front of everyone, demanding he cut out an eye or die. Borros refused to let blood be spilled under his roof and sent Lucerys off with an escort.

Maris Baratheon called Aemond a coward for letting him go, and that was enough. Aemond went after him on Vhagar, straight into a storm. Arrax was younger and faster, but Vhagar was five times his size and rode out the wind better; they met over Shipbreaker Bay, and whatever fight there was couldn't have lasted long. Arrax fell wounded into the water, and Lucerys with him.

Aemond came back to King's Landing expecting a hero's welcome. Instead his mother and grandfather scolded him for what he'd done: with a prince dead, the war could no longer be stopped. His brother Aegon, though, threw a feast in his honor and called him true dragon blood. From then on his enemies had a new name for him: Aemond Kinslayer.

In the trap laid at Rook's Rest, Princess Rhaenys was fighting enemy troops when Aegon on Sunfyre and Aemond on Vhagar appeared without warning. Alone against Vhagar she might have stood a chance; against two dragons at once, she had none. Still, she didn't run — she stayed and fought.

The battle ended with Rhaenys and her dragon Meleys dead, Aegon badly burned, and Sunfyre's wing so damaged he would never fly the same way again.

While his brother recovered, Aemond ruled the realm for a year as Prince Regent and Protector of the Realm, Aegon the Conqueror's ruby crown resting on his head.

As Prince Regent, Aemond raised an army with Ser Criston Cole, now Hand of the King, to move against Prince Daemon at Harrenhal. While they marched, King's Landing fell to Rhaenyra and Daemon himself.

After retaking the castle, he had Ser Simon Strong and his kin put to death. He spared Alys Rivers, a bastard of the fallen house, who soon became his lover. It was she who saved a squire's life when Aemond was strangling him over bad news.

According to Mushroom the fool, Alys used potions and philters to inflame not just Aemond but Ser Criston too, sowing rivalry between the two men until they split. Aemond left Harrenhal on Vhagar and spent his time burning river lands villages loyal to the blacks, never fighting a real battle, just starving them out.

While he was gone, Lady Sabitha Vypren seized Harrenhal, and Alys with it. Aemond came back to get her out.

Prince Daemon and the dragonseed Nettles combed the riverlands looking for Aemond and Vhagar and found nothing. Eventually Daemon chose to wait for him at Harrenhal instead: he issued the challenge and held the castle for thirteen days with Caraxes at his side, until Aemond finally arrived, Alys beside him, already pregnant.

On the twenty-second day of the fifth month of 130 AC, the two princes met over the God's Eye, each mounted on his dragon. The fight ended with both riders and both dragons crashing into the earth, in the same instant Daemon drove his sword Dark Sister into Aemond's remaining eye.

His body, still strapped to Vhagar's saddle, sank into the lake. It was recovered years later, along with the dragon's skull, Dark Sister still lodged in the socket.

In 132 AC, with Aegon III still a boy under regency, word spread that outlaws had gathered at Harrenhal around a witch queen. Ser Tyland Lannister, then Hand of the King, sent Ser Regis Groves and Ser Damon Darry with a hundred men to put an end to it.

The witch queen turned out to be Alys, who claimed to be Aemond's widow. She brought with her a boy she called his son, and offered him as the rightful king in place of Aegon III.