Aerys I Targaryen

Aerys was born the second son of the then-prince Daeron Targaryen and the Dornish princess Myriah Martell. Unlike his father, who loved books for their own sake, Aerys was drawn above all to prophecy and hidden knowledge; he is said to have read of a supposed return of dragons.

He married his cousin, Lady Aelinor Penrose, but never showed any wish to father children with her: he avoided her bed, and any other woman's. Rumor held that the marriage was never consummated.

The Great Spring Sickness took his father, King Daeron II, along with his nephews Valarr and Matarys, sons of Aerys's elder brother Baelor Breakspear. So, without seeking it, Aerys inherited the throne while the sickness was still ravaging the realm.

He named his uncle Brynden Rivers as Hand and let him rule in his stead, so that he could devote himself to his scrolls. From this habit came a saying that spread through the Seven Kingdoms: that Aerys would sooner take a book to bed than his wife. His small council, convinced he avoided Aelinor because he disliked her, urged him to set her aside and take another wife; Aerys would not hear of it, and they remained married.

During his reign the realm suffered a great drought, and the Iron Islands, ruled by Dagon Greyjoy, took advantage of the chaos left by the sickness and the Crown's concern with the Blackfyres to invade the Reach and push as far as the North.

Aerys was seen as a withdrawn, weak king, and that encouraged Blackfyre loyalists to try their luck again. Lord Gormon Peake brought Daemon Blackfyre the Younger back to Westeros and sought to gather support for a fresh revolt.

Bloodraven's network of spies, together with the intervention of Ser Duncan the Tall and his squire, were enough to keep the plot from becoming more than a failed attempt, uncovered during the tourney at Whitewalls.

Since his marriage to Aelinor produced no children, Aerys kept recognizing heirs who were never his own. His brother Rhaegel died in 215 AC, choked on a lamprey pie during a feast, and Rhaegel's son Aelor became Prince of Dragonstone and heir to the throne.

Two years later Aelor died in a confused accident at the hands of his own twin sister and wife, Aelora, under circumstances that were never fully explained and that left her maddened with grief. Aelora then took her brother's place as Princess of Dragonstone and heir.

In 219 AC a third Blackfyre revolt broke out, ending with the death of Haegon Blackfyre and the capture of Aegor Rivers, Bittersteel, brought prisoner to King's Landing.

Bloodraven called for his execution, but Aerys showed mercy and offered him the black of the Night's Watch instead. The ship carrying him to the Wall was intercepted near Eastwatch-by-the-Sea by Blackfyre loyalists, who rescued Aegor and returned him, across the narrow sea, to the Golden Company.

Aerys was thin and stooped, with long, straight hair, a long, narrow face, a long mustache and a pointed beard; his eyes were always red from reading. He wore rich clothes but neglected them, sometimes going without changing them even when they were soiled.

He always preferred his scrolls and his prophecies to lords and the laws of the realm, leaving those matters to Bloodraven; that made his rivals see him as a weak king, and neither the smallfolk nor the lords of Westeros ever came to love him.

Aerys I died in 221 AC and was succeeded on the throne by his brother Maekar.