Aerion Targaryen

Aerion was born around 192 AC, the second son of the then-prince Maekar Targaryen and Lady Dyanna Dayne. From childhood he had a dark streak his younger brother Aegon never forgave: once he threw Aegon's cat down a well, and another time he crept into his room at night and held a knife to his groin, joking about turning him into 'a sister he could marry.'

He kept a dragon egg streaked with gold and silver, a fitting possession for how he saw himself. He was slender and of middling height, with pale gold curls and dark violet eyes; he dressed almost always in fire's colors, red and gold, even at tournaments, where his black helm bore a crest of flames and his lance was striped red, orange and yellow.

Before his father he was all courtesy and smiles; away from him, according to Raymun Fossoway, he showed his true face. His brother Daeron called him a monster, and Aegon thought him a compulsive liar. He was also said to dabble in dark arts.

In 209 AC Aerion travelled with his father to a tourney at Ashford. He mistook Ser Duncan the Tall for a stableboy: 'If you cannot handle a horse, bring me some wine and a pretty girl,' he told him, not knowing how well Duncan would remember it. In the lists he nearly faced his cousin Valarr but switched opponents at the last moment, jousting Ser Humfrey Hardyng instead; he lowered his lance and impaled the man's horse, which died in agony on the field, something Duncan's squire, a boy called Egg, never believed was an accident.

Days later, at a puppet show depicting the death of a dragon, Aerion took offense and attacked the players, breaking the fingers of a girl named Tanselle and smashing the puppets. Duncan beat him and had him arrested, and Aerion demanded a trial of seven champions rather than single combat.

Standing with Aerion were his brother Daeron, his father Maekar, and three Kingsguard knights, among them Ser Roland Crakehall; on Duncan's side stood Prince Baelor. In the fighting, Aerion unhorsed Duncan with a morningstar, but Duncan beat him in the melee that followed and made him recant before Lord Ashford. Baelor died soon after from wounds taken in the trial.

Once the tourney ended, Maekar sent his son to Lys, where he stayed for several years; some say he may have fathered bastards there.

Aerion returned to Westeros sometime before 219 AC. In Lys he had joined the Second Sons, and that year the Third Blackfyre Rebellion broke out, in which he fought for the crown.

When Aegor Rivers, Bittersteel, was taken prisoner, Aerion joined the Hand of the King, Brynden Rivers, in urging King Aerys I to have him killed. Aerys chose otherwise, sending Bittersteel to the Night's Watch.

In 232 AC his wife and cousin Daenora Targaryen bore him a son, whom they named Maegor. That same year Aerion drank a cup of wildfire, convinced the fire would turn him into a dragon, and died of it. His son, still very young, was left out of the succession matters that followed.