Visenya Targaryen

Visenya was born on Dragonstone, the eldest child of Aerion Targaryen and Valaena Velaryon, ahead of her younger sister Rhaenys and their brother Aegon. Valyrian custom among the Targaryens meant she was meant to marry Aegon, but he cited family precedent to take Rhaenys as a wife as well, so Visenya ended up sharing both a husband and a throne with her other sister.

She bonded with the dragon Vhagar, whom she would fly on every campaign that followed. She was said to have pale, silver-blond hair and a beauty that struck people as harsh rather than soft; she preferred armor to silk and wore her hair braided or bound in rings. She trusted only her brother, and in battle she carried the Valyrian steel blade Dark Sister, forged, it was said, to fit a woman's hand.

Once Aegon was crowned, he sent his fleet under Daemon Velaryon, together with Visenya, to seize Gulltown. The Arryns broke that fleet and killed Daemon; Visenya answered from the back of Vhagar, burning the ships that had beaten her own. The military defeat didn't stop the Three Sisters from rising against Arryn rule, furious at the loss of their fleet.

After Harren the Black died at Harrenhal, Aegon sent Visenya to demand the surrender of the lords of a northern coastal stronghold. With no chance of holding out, they handed her their swords; she folded them into her own garrison and had them swear to answer to nothing but the Iron Throne.

Alongside Rhaenys and Aegon, Visenya fought at the Field of Fire, the one time in the whole war that all three dragons attacked together. She was also the only one of the three siblings to be wounded, taking an arrow to the shoulder.

After the Field of Fire, while Rhaenys marched on Dorne, Visenya was sent to bring the Vale of Arryn to heel. Its lord, the boy king Ronnel Arryn, ruled under the regency of his mother, Queen Sharra Arryn, who massed a great army at the Bloody Gate and then withdrew to the Eyrie for safety.

Visenya didn't attack that army: she flew Vhagar straight into the castle's courtyard. Seeing the boy king in his mother's lap, Sharra Arryn accepted Aegon's supremacy, and young Ronnel got the dragon ride he had been asking for. The Vale fell without a drop of blood spilled.

In the year 4 AC, Visenya fought in the First Dornish War. When her sister Rhaenys died in that same war, Aegon and Visenya's fury knew no limit: their dragons burned the castles the Dornish had abandoned, while the Dornish put a price on every Targaryen head.

A Dornish attempt on Aegon's life led Visenya, in the year 10 AC, to found the Kingsguard. She drew on the Night's Watch for the idea and set the number of its members after the sacred number of the Faith of the Seven, personally choosing every one of them. To her brother, who wore Blackfyre at his hip, she warned that no sword made him more than a man, and that she couldn't always be at his side to protect him. The war ended when Aegon accepted the peace terms Dorne offered.

While Aegon stayed on Dragonstone, Visenya oversaw much of the building and planning of King's Landing. With her brother she had a single child, Maegor.

With Aenys I already on the Iron Throne, a match was proposed between Maegor and Aenys's daughter Rhaena, but the High Septon objected, and Maegor ended up married to the High Septon's own niece, Ceryse Hightower.

In the year 39 AC, the prince stunned the realm by taking a second wife, Alys Harroway, with Visenya herself officiating the ceremony; his bigamy would later cost him a spell of exile.

During the Faith Militant uprising, Aenys I fled the capital with his family to Dragonstone, where Visenya urged him to answer with fire and blood against the Starry Sept and the Sept of Remembrance. Unable to commit, Aenys fell ill and didn't follow her advice; she took over his care herself, and for a while he seemed to improve.

Aenys's health collapsed when he learned his children Aegon and Rhaena were under siege at Refugio Quebrado, and he died three days later. Visenya then flew to Pentos to bring her son Maegor home.

By Visenya's doing, the Iron Throne passed to Maegor instead of Aenys's elder son, also named Aegon. Once Maegor I was crowned, Visenya sent Aenys's widow, Alyssa Velaryon, and her children to Dragonstone as hostages, and gave no quarter to anyone who questioned her son's right to rule.

The captain of the Warrior's Sons, Ser Damon Morrigen, challenged Maegor I to a Trial of Seven when the king reached King's Landing. Maegor won, though he lay in a coma for a month before he recovered.

Once her son was back on his feet, Visenya returned to Dragonstone, where she remained until her death in the year 44 AC.

After her death, rumors spread that her nephew Aenys's sudden death had been her doing, and she was branded a kinslayer and kingslayer. Even so, she is remembered and respected as a strong, capable warrior — a recognition few women received in the history of Westeros.