Lucerys Velaryon

Lucerys was born on Dragonstone in 115 AC, the second son of Ser Laenor Velaryon and Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen. Like his brothers Jacaerys and Joffrey, he had brown hair and eyes that owed nothing to his parents' Valyrian blood, a detail the court was quick to whisper about.

King Viserys I left no doubt about his affection: every one of Rhaenyra's sons received a dragon's egg at birth, and those who muttered the eggs would never hatch fell silent when Lucerys's egg cracked open. He named the hatchling Arrax.

In 118 AC, with his grandfather's blessing, Rhaenyra betrothed Lucerys to his cousin Rhaena Targaryen, daughter of Daemon Targaryen and Laena Velaryon. The match bound two branches of the family that already shared blood and dragons.

Ser Laenor Velaryon died in 120 AC, and the court traveled to High Tide, in Driftmark, for the funeral. Vhagar, Laena Velaryon's dragon, had gone riderless only months before, and ten-year-old Prince Aemond resolved to claim her in secret before anyone could stop him.

Little Joffrey caught him at it, and Aemond slapped him and shoved him into a pile of dragon dung to keep him quiet. Joffrey called his older brothers, and when Aemond climbed down from Vhagar after his flight he found Jacaerys and Lucerys waiting. The fight with fists and wooden swords ended when Aemond called his nephews "Strong": Lucerys drew his dagger and slashed his face, cutting out his right eye.

Queen Alicent demanded Lucerys lose an eye of his own; Rhaenyra demanded to know who had put the word "Strong" in Aemond's mouth. King Viserys cut the dispute short without punishing either boy, though from then on Rhaenyra and her children lived at Dragonstone while Alicent and hers stayed in King's Landing. That same year, Rhaenyra married her uncle Daemon Targaryen.

In 126 AC Lord Corlys Velaryon fell ill, and the question of who would succeed him as Lord of the Tides was debated at Driftmark. With Laenor and Laena both dead, Rhaenyra pressed for the title to pass to Lucerys, her second son.

Ser Vaemond Velaryon, Corlys's nephew, objected, calling Rhaenyra's sons bastards fathered by Ser Harwin Strong rather than Laenor. Rhaenyra had Daemon behead him before the court and feed his body to her dragon.

Vaemond's kin fled to King's Landing seeking justice. King Viserys heard them out, then had their tongues torn out for having been warned. Stepping down from the Iron Throne, he cut his hand to the bone on one of its blades.

King Viserys I died in 129 AC, and the crown split between Rhaenyra and her half-brother Aegon II. Lucerys was thirteen, already a squire and Arrax's rider, when his mother sent him to Storm's End to seek Lord Borros Baratheon's alliance. Before leaving he swore on the Seven-Pointed Star that he would take no part in any fighting.

At the castle he found his uncle Aemond, sent on the same errand. When Lord Borros asked which of his daughters Lucerys would marry, the boy had to admit he was already betrothed to Rhaena; Borros sent him home and gave the alliance to Aemond instead, though he refused to have Lucerys killed as Aemond asked.

Lucerys flew for Dragonstone through a gathering storm, and Aemond followed him on Vhagar. Arrax was younger and faster, but Vhagar, five times his size, bore the wind better. They met over Shipbreaker Bay; Archmaester Gyldayn doubts any fight, if there was one, could have lasted long. Arrax fell wounded into the sea, and his head and neck washed ashore beneath the cliffs of Storm's End three days later.

Lucerys's body was never found. Some say Vhagar swallowed it; others that he survived the fall and lived out his days as a fisherman with no memory of who he had been. Mushroom claimed Aemond found the body, cut out both eyes, and brought them to Lady Maris Baratheon, who had goaded him into the killing, but Gyldayn thinks it more likely a slander.

The news ended any hope of diplomacy. In King's Landing, Alicent Hightower went pale at the word; Aegon II welcomed Aemond home with a feast. At Dragonstone, Rhaenyra collapsed, Joffrey swore vengeance, and Daemon sent letters from Harrenhal repeating a single line: an eye for an eye, a son for a son.

Revenge came soon after: two men, Blood and Cheese, crept into the Red Keep and killed young Prince Jaehaerys, Aegon II's heir. Aemond would later be caught by his stepfather Daemon, who killed him in the battle over the Gods Eye. Rhaena, Lucerys's betrothed, would go on to marry Ser Corwyn Corbray and, after being widowed, Garmund Hightower.