Daemon Velaryon son of Aethan

Daemon was the eldest son and heir of Lord Aethan Velaryon and Lady Alarra Massey; among his siblings was Alyssa, who married Prince Aenys Targaryen.

When King Aenys I died and his brother Maegor seized the throne that belonged to Alyssa's son, the family fled to Driftmark and proclaimed the boy Aegon as king. The dowager queen Visenya arrived there on her dragon Vhagar and persuaded the Velaryons to give up that stand: in 42 AC, Daemon, his siblings, and his cousins swore fealty to Maegor as the rightful king.

As Master of Ships to King Maegor, Lord Daemon sat on his Small Council. When Queen Alys Harroway died and the king looked for a new wife who could give him an heir, Daemon proposed his own niece, Princess Rhaena: the match, he reasoned, would merge the family's claims, choke off any rebellion that might form around her, and give the king a hostage against the dowager queen Alyssa. Maegor ended up taking three wives, following the advice by making Rhaena one of them.

In 48 AC, when Prince Jaehaerys began gathering troops at Storm's End, Daemon and Lord Rogar Baratheon were among the first great lords to abandon Maegor's cause, and the rest of the realm soon followed. Since the Velaryons were the realm's traditional admirals, Daemon's break left the king without the royal fleet. When Jaehaerys took the Iron Throne, he confirmed Daemon once more as Lord Admiral and Master of Ships.

Daemon proposed that Jaehaerys marry Queen Elinor Costayne, one of Maegor's widows: the match would show that the king forgave those who had backed his predecessor, and Elinor's proven fertility spoke in her favor. He even suggested the king adopt the children she had had with her first husband, Ser Theo Bolling. The Small Council did not get its way: Jaehaerys married his sister Alysanne instead, even though Lord Rogar Baratheon had planned that match for his own brother.

While Daemon stayed with the regents in King's Landing, the king and queen flew to Driftmark to tour the shipyards, taking Daemon's children with them. Rogar asked him to use the Velaryon fleet to keep lords from visiting Dragonstone to curry royal favor; Daemon answered with a flat refusal, which Baratheon took as an insult. When Rogar schemed to crown Princess Aerea Targaryen in Jaehaerys's place, Daemon joined the other councillors in blocking him, and Alyssa forced her own husband's resignation as Hand of the King.

Alyssa named her brother Daemon Hand of the King in the post Rogar had left. With the queen withdrawn from public life, Daemon ran the realm alongside the Small Council for the rest of the regency; Grand Maester Benifer described him as saying little and doing less. When Jaehaerys came of age in 50 AC, he confirmed Daemon as his Hand, while Lord Manfryd Redwyne, Lord of the Arbor, took over as Master of Ships — the first time that office had gone to someone outside House Velaryon.

After the High Septon died in 54 AC, Daemon argued for a show of force, urging the use of the royal fleet to stop the septon Mattheus, a fierce opponent of the Targaryens, from being crowned in his place. Later that year, an unexplained illness killed every one of Queen Rhaena's companions on Dragonstone; Jaehaerys ordered Daemon to send galleys to keep the sickness from spreading off the island, and Daemon complied while mourning his own young niece, Lianna Velaryon, one of the dead.

After his sister Alyssa's death that same year, Daemon resigned as Hand, saying he wished to spend what time he had left with his family; not every maester believed him, and some point to a bitter quarrel with Lord Redwyne. Lord Myles Smallwood succeeded him in the office.

In late 58 AC, Daemon attended a tourney in King's Landing marking the tenth anniversary of Jaehaerys's coronation. The following winter the shivers spread through the Crownlands, and Daemon fell gravely ill at Driftmark, coming close to death; he recovered, but lost his second son and three of his daughters.

In 73 AC, when Ser Lucamore Strong of the Kingsguard was disgraced for breaking his vows and keeping several families at once, his second wife and her children by him were sent to Driftmark, into Daemon's care. He died at eighty-eight, having outlived his eldest son; his grandson, Ser Corlys Velaryon, succeeded him as Lord of the Tides.