House Velaryon of Driftmark

Velaryon family lore holds that they reached Westeros even before the Targaryens, fleeing the Doom of Valyria as they had, and settled at the Gullet on Driftmark. Like the Targaryens they carry the old Valyrian look, gold-and-silver hair and violet eyes, and legend says the sea god granted them the Driftwood Throne.

They never rode dragons — the water was their domain, not the sky — and allied with the Targaryens of Dragonstone and House Celtigar, splitting dominion between sea and air while filling their coffers on trade passing through the Gullet into Blackwater Bay. When the Conquest came, Velaryon ships ferried Aegon's men across that same bay, and Lord Daemon Velaryon, named Master of Ships as soon as the mouth of the Blackwater was secured, died fighting for the king at the Battle of Gulltown.

In 10 AC Ser Corlys Velaryon became the first Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, while his elder brother Lord Aethan inherited their father's post as Lord Admiral and served as Aegon I's Master of Ships, fighting the pirate Sargoso Saan at the Stepstones before his son, Lord Daemon, succeeded him. Aethan's daughter Alyssa married Prince Aenys, heir to the throne, in 22 AC, and became queen at his coronation.

When Aenys died in 42 AC, his younger brother seized the throne over Alyssa's sons and held her prisoner at Dragonstone; two years later she escaped, and her surviving son claimed the crown, with Lord Daemon Velaryon — until then admiral to the usurper — turning against him along with much of the realm. The new king took the throne at fourteen, Alyssa ruled as his regent alongside Lord Rogar Baratheon, and once the regency ended she married him; under that reign the Velaryons carried as much weight at court as the Lannisters.

Daemon's grandson, Corlys Velaryon, the Sea Snake, inherited the title Lord of the Tides, famed for voyages that made him the first Westerosi to reach Yi Ti and return laden with silk and spice. He grew so wealthy that House Velaryon became the richest in the realm, ahead of the Lannisters and Hightowers, and since the old castle of Driftmark had grown damp and crowded, he built a new seat: High Tide.

He married the daughter of the heir Prince Aemon and had two dragonrider children with her, Laena and Laenor. At the Great Council of 101 AC, held at Harrenhal, Laenor's claim to the throne was put forward; despite primogeniture and his father's wealth, he lost to Prince Viserys, opening a rift with the Crown that widened when, after Queen Aemma Arryn's death, another house was favored over Corlys's own daughter Laena — the Velaryons answered by boycotting Viserys's wedding to Alicent Hightower.

Corlys grew close to Prince Daemon Targaryen and joined him in invading the Stepstones in 106 AC; when Daemon's wife died in 115 AC, he gladly married Laena to him. Laenor had already wed Princess Rhaenyra the year before, though it was whispered their three children were actually Ser Harwin Strong's. Laena bore Daemon twin daughters, Baela among them, and died in childbirth years later; Laenor was murdered soon after.

Corlys and his wife backed Rhaenyra Targaryen when her half-brother Aegon II claimed the Iron Throne despite her earlier proclamation as heir. Prince Jacaerys flew to Winterfell and sealed the Pact of Ice and Fire; Prince Lucerys, sent as envoy to Storm's End, was killed there by Prince Aemond; and Corlys's wife fell at the Battle of Rook's Rest. His fury at Rhaenyra over that death cooled when she named him Hand of the Queen.

When Jacaerys opened dragon-claiming to the smallfolk of Dragonstone, brothers Addam and Alyn tried during the Sowing of the Seeds, and Addam claimed Seasmoke, once ridden by Laenor; with his wife dead and the boys' true parentage in doubt, Corlys adopted them into House Velaryon and asked Rhaenyra to strip their bastardy so he could name them heirs.

He blockaded Blackwater Bay with his fleet, but Jacaerys died and the blockade broke at the Battle of the Gullet, costing the Velaryons nearly a third of their ships while the Triarchy sacked Spicetown — never rebuilt — and High Tide. When a paranoid Rhaenyra ordered Addam's arrest, Corlys warned him to flee; Addam later died proving his loyalty at the Second Battle of Tumbleton, while Corlys was thrown in a dungeon and his fleet abandoned the queen's cause. Prince Joffrey Velaryon fell to his death in the assault on the Dragonpit; Rhaenyra fled the capital and, after the fall of Dragonstone, was fed to Sunfyre.

Corlys was freed when Aegon II retook King's Landing after the Moon of the Three Kings and, in exchange for his pardon, lent the king his wealth, though he refused to accept the execution of Rhaenyra's surviving son and demanded the boy be betrothed to Princess Jaehaera instead. He sat on the council until Aegon II's death, handed the capital to the Boys, and during the Hour of the Wolf was arrested by Lord Cregan Stark on suspicion of poisoning the king, until his granddaughters and Lady Alysanne Blackwood won his release. He served afterward as regent to the young Aegon III until his own death in 132 AC.

On Corlys's death, Alyn Velaryon, once Alyn of the Hull, became Lord of Driftmark. During Aegon III's regency he was the great rival of Lord Unwin Peake, the Hand of the King, who denied him the regency his grandfather had held and sent him instead to fight in the Stepstones during the War of the Daughters; the assault there earned him the name Oakenfist.

Unwin hoped he would fail by sending him next to the westerlands against Dalton Greyjoy, the Red Kraken, but the expedition became the first of six great voyages; he later played a key role in bringing Aegon III's brother home after negotiating his release from captivity in Lys. In 157 AC, as Master of Ships, he was decisive in King Daeron I's conquest of Dorne, commanding a fleet that destroyed Planky Town and swept half the Greenblood while the king fought the main Dornish force; he returned in 160 AC to crush the rebellion that followed.

Married to Lady Baela Targaryen, Laena Velaryon's daughter, he loved Princess Elaena nonetheless and had twin bastards with her, Jon and Jeyne Waters; Elaena hoped to marry him, but Alyn vanished at sea. His son Jon was knighted, and Jon's own trueborn son founded House Longwaters.

Generations later, Lucerys Velaryon served King Aerys II as Master of Ships and was among his strongest supporters against his own son, Prince Rhaegar. After the rebellion, King Robert Baratheon granted Dragonstone to his brother Stannis, and the Velaryons have owed him fealty ever since.

When Stannis crowns himself king, Lord Monford Velaryon answers his call, and when Stannis publicly accuses Joffrey Baratheon of being born of incest, Monford declares that only steel will settle it; during the siege of Storm's End he urges Stannis to storm the walls, and dies burning with his ship at the Battle of the Blackwater after sinking two royal vessels. His half-brother Aurane Waters is captured and surrenders to King Joffrey.

Monford is succeeded by his six-year-old son, Monterys, and the house remains loyal to Stannis all the way to the Wall; Jon Snow spots a seahorse banner among Stannis's loyal lords at the Battle of Castle Black.

Aurane Waters wins the favor of queen regent Cersei Lannister, who finds in him a resemblance to Prince Rhaegar thanks to his Valyrian looks; despite his youth and Ser Jaime Lannister's objections, Cersei names him the new Master of Ships, and Aurane proposes building new dromonds crewed with thieves and poachers.

When Queen Margaery Tyrell is accused of adultery, Aurane suggests sending the new ships to the Blackwater to keep order and quietly threaten her father, Lord Mace Tyrell; but on learning of Cersei's own imprisonment, he flees to sea and vanishes. Grand Maester Pycelle suspects the Bastard of Driftmark means to set himself up as a pirate lord in the Stepstones.