Daeron Targaryen

Daeron was born around 190 AC, though the sources do not fix the date with certainty. He was the eldest son of the then-prince Maekar Targaryen and Lady Dyanna Dayne, and was named for his grandfather, King Daeron II.

Five more siblings followed him: Aerion, Aemon, Aegon, Rhae, and Daella.

Maekar sent his sons Daeron and Aegon to the tourney at Ashford Meadows, hoping their showing would outshine the sons of his brother Baelor. Daeron had no interest in the tourney at all: he slipped away from his escort and took Aegon with him, first shaving the boy's head to hide the blood of the dragon in his features.

Drinking in disguise at an inn, Daeron ran into a hedge knight, Ser Duncan the Tall, and told him he'd dreamed of him and that he should keep his distance. Aegon, who did want to compete, stayed close to Dunk under the name Egg and asked to be his squire; Dunk turned him down, but the boy followed him to Ashford anyway.

Maekar sent Ser Roland Crakehall to find his sons and then went looking himself. Daeron lied to him, saying a huge knight had carried Aegon off, a lie that added to the charges already stacked against Dunk, who'd been arrested for assaulting Aerion. Daeron later apologized, and confessed another dream to him: one where a great dragon killed the knight while Dunk himself lived. He didn't know what it meant, but his dreams tended to come true, and that frightened him.

Daeron told Dunk beforehand how he meant to act in the Trial of Seven: he would not fight, and once he fell after the first pass, he would stay down and withdraw his accusations. He kept his word. Ser Robyn Rhysling unhorsed him, and his own courser trampled him as he fell, perhaps breaking his foot, but he survived.

The dream turned out to be a true prophecy: Prince Baelor died of his wounds in Dunk's own arms. Years later, Egg would recall that his brother had dreamed of the dragons' return, and that King Aerys had read the same thing in a prophecy.

In 221 AC, when Aerys I Targaryen died without living heirs, Maekar took the Iron Throne, and Daeron became Prince of Dragonstone and heir apparent — a title he accepted grudgingly, since he thought Dragonstone a gloomy seat and preferred to be called Prince of Summerhall instead. His brother Aemon, by then a maester, served at his side.

He married Lady Kiera of Tyrosh, and in 222 AC she bore him a daughter, Princess Vaella, born with an intellectual disability. Daeron died after catching a plague from a prostitute, and the question of who would inherit the Iron Throne went unresolved until the Great Council of 233 AC.

Daeron had sallow skin, sandy brown hair, and a blond beard. He hated riding and hated the sword, preferring wine and brothels to any exercise of arms, and had prophetic dreams more often than he would have liked. He wore a fine damask cloak and a red-and-black doublet, and only put on armor — black-and-gold scales, a green silk crest, a chestnut courser — when he had no other choice.

Of himself he said: "As far as I know, I've never asked anyone to rescue my honor. Whoever has it, let them keep it." And also: "When it comes to fighting, dancing, ideas, and books, my brothers are all ahead of me, but not one of them can match me at the art of passing out in the mud."