Laena Velaryon

Accounts from her lifetime describe her as tall and slender, striking in a way people remarked on, with a mane of curls that mixed gold and silver and fell well past her waist.

She had her mother's beauty and her father's taste for risk, always pushing past what was sensible.

Princess Rhaenys's father, Prince Aemon, was King Jaehaerys I's eldest son and his natural heir. He died shortly before Rhaenys confirmed she was carrying a child, and the king chose to name his other son, Prince Baelon, as his successor instead, passing over both Rhaenys and the unborn child.

That child was Laena, born late in 92 AC. People argued over her place in the succession before she had even been born, and the fact that she turned out to be a girl went a long way toward settling the argument.

The question came back in 101 AC, when a Great Council met to decide who would succeed Jaehaerys I. Rhaenys and Laena both saw their claim to the Iron Throne set aside for the same reason: they were women.

Queen Aemma Arryn died late in 105 AC, and Grand Maester Runciter advised King Viserys I to remarry. Laena's name came up among the candidates; she had just turned twelve, a newly flowered girl who had already claimed Vhagar, the oldest and largest Targaryen dragon since Balerion's death in 94 AC.

The king chose Alicent Hightower instead, and House Velaryon was conspicuously absent from the wedding. A letter from the maester of High Tide to the Citadel suggests Laena wasn't troubled by the snub — by then she cared far more about dragons than about men.

Before Daemon, Laena had already been betrothed to a son of the Sealord of Braavos. When the Sealord died, her betrothed squandered his father's fortune and influence and moved to Driftmark, where Lord Corlys kept finding reasons to postpone the wedding for close to ten years, unable to break the match off cleanly.

Everything changed when Prince Daemon Targaryen arrived at Driftmark in 115 AC. He goaded Laena's betrothed until the young man challenged him, and Daemon killed him in the duel with Dark Sister. Two weeks later he married Laena, then twenty-two.

Knowing the king and the court would take the match badly, the couple flew their dragons to Pentos, then travelled on to Volantis and up the Rhoyne to Qohor and Norvos before returning to Pentos. There Laena learned she was pregnant and stayed for the rest of her term: in 116 AC she gave birth to twin daughters, Baela and Rhaena.

Once the twins were six months old, Laena sailed with them back to Driftmark while Daemon flew both dragons home. There she grew close to Rhaenyra Targaryen, who was said to feel enormous affection for her uncle's wife.

The visits went both ways: Laena and Daemon would call on Rhaenyra at Dragonstone, and Rhaenyra would visit them at Driftmark. In 118 AC, with King Viserys I's blessing, the two-year-old twins were betrothed to Rhaenyra's two eldest sons.

Laena fell pregnant again in 119 AC. In the early days of 120, after a day and a night of labour, she gave birth to a malformed son who died within the hour.

She died three days later of childbed fever, at twenty-seven, despite the efforts of the maester of Driftmark and Maester Gerardys, who had come from Dragonstone. She is said to have tried to climb to Vhagar one last time and collapsed on the tower stairs, where she died.

Daemon carried her back to her bed and sat with her body there, alongside Rhaenyra.

Years later, when her daughter Baela fell pregnant in 133 AC, she promised her husband, Lord Alyn Velaryon, that she would name a daughter after her mother.

The girl was born the following year, and Baela kept her word, naming her after the mother she had barely had the chance to know.