Alyssa Velaryon

At fifteen, in 22 AC, Alyssa married her cousin, Prince Aenys Targaryen, in a match arranged by their families. She was the daughter of the Master of Ships and Lord Admiral Aethan Velaryon and of Alarra Massey, and had been born at Driftmark. She was said to have the silver hair and purple eyes of Valyrian blood, called beautiful even as a child, and grew into a reputation for charm, intelligence and kindness. She would bear Aenys six children: Rhaena, Aegon, Jaehaerys, Alysanne, Viserys and Vaella.

Barely a year into the marriage, Rhaena was born, and Queen Visenya proposed betrothing the infant to her own brother Maegor, then twelve years old. Both Aenys and Alyssa refused. The High Septon backed their refusal and warned the king that the Faith of the Seven would look poorly on such a match, offering his niece Ceryse Hightower as a bride for the young prince instead.

From 33 AC onward, the couple began touring the castles of the Seven Kingdoms every year, spending half the year on the road to shore up King Aegon's political work.

Once her husband was crowned, Alyssa and their children joined him on a royal progress through Oldtown, Riverrun, Lannisport and Highgarden, cheered by the common people along the way. When Harren the Red fled Harrenhal and King's Landing seemed exposed, Aenys chose to send his wife and children to safety at Dragonstone.

In 41 AC, with the Faith Militant growing more hostile, the king himself rode out to the island to join Alyssa and their younger children. A year later Aenys died, and at his funeral it was Alyssa who sang the dirge for him. Hours afterward she set out for Driftmark, seeking shelter in her father's castle.

The crown that should have gone to Aegon, Alyssa's eldest son, passed instead to the dead king's younger brother, crowned as Maegor I. While Maegor lay comatose after the Trial of Seven against the Warrior's Sons, Alyssa proclaimed her own son the rightful king from Driftmark.

That same year, the queen mother Visenya arrived at Driftmark on Vhagar, and Alyssa chose to return to court at King's Landing with her younger children, her siblings and her cousins, finally acknowledging Maegor as king. She attended his wedding to Tyanna of Pentos and took part in the bedding ceremony.

The following year Aegon rose in rebellion against his uncle. Tyanna, now Mistress of Whisperers, warned the king that the widowed queen had sought support for her son from Storm's End, the Eyrie, Winterfell and Casterly Rock, though the great lords preferred to wait and see who won before choosing sides. Forewarned, Maegor met his nephew and defeated him at the God's Eye.

In 44 AC Alyssa settled at Dragonstone with Jaehaerys and Alysanne, who became wards of the queen mother Visenya. Visenya died that same year, and amid the confusion Alyssa sailed off with her children toward an unknown destination, perhaps Tyrosh or Volantis, across the Narrow Sea, taking the sword Dark Sister with her.

Maegor answered by having Viserys tortured to learn his mother's whereabouts. The boy died without speaking, and the king left his body in the Red Keep's courtyard for a fortnight, hoping Alyssa would come to claim it. She never returned, and stayed hidden for years.

In 48 AC, Lord Rogar Baratheon proclaimed Alyssa's third son king on the shores of Shipbreaker Bay, with his sister and mother present. Maegor died shortly after, and when the new king was crowned at fourteen, it was Alyssa herself who served as regent, with Rogar as Lord Protector of the Realm and Hand.

Half a year later, the regent queen and Rogar married in a ceremony so lavish it would be remembered as the Golden Wedding.

When her surviving children married without telling her, Alyssa grew uneasy about what might follow: her daughter wed Androw Farman on Fair Isle, while her two youngest married each other in secret at Dragonstone, sparing the girl from a match with another man. Alyssa had once favored marriages among her own children, but the war the Faith had waged over a similar union had turned her against the idea.

The next day, she and Rogar rode to Dragonstone with guards, only to be turned back by the young king's dragon and his Kingsguard. The secret marriage held while the regent and her Hand looked for a way to part the newlyweds — Alyssa sent septas and companions to persuade the new queen that her marriage was a sin, a plan that backfired when the women sided with the girl instead.

Seeing that nothing more could be done, Alyssa told the small council she would oppose the marriage no further. Rogar disagreed, and went so far as to propose deposing the king in favor of his sister; Alyssa opposed him and stripped him of the Handship, opening a deep rift between them. Septon Barth would later write that the woman who had survived her husband's death, the deaths of her two eldest sons, an infant daughter who died in the cradle, and years of terror under Maegor could not survive this: she was, in his words, "destroyed." Grieved but resolute, Alyssa named her brother Daemon Velaryon the new Hand and withdrew from government in her last years as regent.

Despite her age and the discord with Rogar, she gave him two more children, Boremund and Jocelyn. She died in 54 AC at Storm's End, in the childbed that brought Jocelyn into the world.