Naerys Targaryen

Princess Naerys Targaryen is the youngest child born of King Rhaegar II Targaryen and his sister-wife, Queen Rhaenys Targaryen.

One of the more enigmatic Targaryen children, Naerys was largely detached from the royal court until late adolescence, retaining only a muted stake in the grand political game.

Instead, the princess is noted for a withdrawn temperament, though like many of her lineage she possesses a firm tendency toward boldness and entitlement when so inclined.

Since a young age Naerys has been the intended match for Arthur Hightower, and is known to currently be the only dragonless Targaryen royal. By virtue of their spring wedding in 438 A.C, she is now the Lady of the Hightower.

Appearance and Character
Slender and willowy, delicate features embody the fragility found in noble blood. Only a strong jaw and elevated cheekbones bring the definition that make Naerys appear more haughty than meagre.

An air of self importance is well-matched by an outwardly detached demeanour. Possessed of simple charm, hers is a capricious kind utilised only when it befits the wielder. Despite this projection, Naerys is amongst the quieter members of the royal line, and entrusts her carefully cultivated presence to convey more than words in the majority of situations.

While all true-blooded dragons possess some shade of violet eye and platinum hair, the youngest is easily distinguished by a quarrelsome head of loose curls and a shade of eye so diluted by blue that they can only just be counted purple.

Social contemporaries close to the royal family know Naerys to be an odd amalgamation of the better-known Targaryens. Whilst not as forceful as Rhaenyra, as willful as Aerion, or as formidable as the King himself, she remains a woman rounded by the variety of influences that shaped her.

The observation does give credence to the question of how the smallest dragon could hope to claw her way from beneath the colossal shadow of the monarchy. Little is truly known of Naerys herself - some call her the Dragonless, and some few know her better by the moniker of Dreamer.

In black and crimson, Naerys makes herself a living representation of fire and blood, reminding all who would lay eyes upon her the weight to be measured by any Targaryen presence - even if she does not stand as entirely equal to her siblings, their blood is the same. One hand is oft adorned by ornamental claws, harkening the practical stylishness of Visaera I, with cold metal sharp enough to slice skin if so compelled.

Early Life
Born in the eleventh moon of 418 A.C, Naerys is the sixth and final child of Rhaegar and Rhaenys. A healthy child, the Princess was unremarkable save for the surprising dilution of her violet eyes. Following the death of Visaera Targaryen in 420 A.C, she is also one of the few royals to have no memorable interaction whatsoever with the storied Black Queen.

Though offered all the opportunities of those who came before her, particularly those her mother Rhaenys felt denied as a child, Naerys' early childhood years were boring and predictable by choice. Owing partly to no inherent boisterous nature as one may expect in young children, the erudite tendencies of the Queen were imprinted upon her daughter from the very beginning.

An intensive formative education further shaped a precocious nature, and her natural proclivities lay with becoming learned. To the slight displeasure of Maesters however, tales of all things magical or mythical were often more appealing than letters and numbers. Some few considered her inquisitorial disposition lacking, for surely intelligence could be measured only in her capacity to study the histories and the houses.

The first major event of her time, the Springtide Tourney, gave the first inkling of how truly introverted she was even as a child. During the festivities her brother Aerion Targaryen was elevated to become Prince of Summerhall. Though the boy had only sixteen years to his name and was no font of emotional intelligence, out of sibling concern he took the young Naerys under his wing for the duration of the tourney. In youth his personality may have been in the infancy of its domineering and intense nature, but it was enough to stir his sister from her shell. Shaped beneath the banner of the Dragon at its height, her mind was instilled with specific conceptions of House Targaryen, its role in the realm, and her place in the workings of such. Naerys easily comprehended the customs that would dictate her behaviour, and grew up with the knowledge she was intended to unify House Targaryen and House Hightower.

Adolescence
In the later years of Queen Rhaenys' life she had been preoccupied with Naerys more so than any of her other children. This did much to foster the Princess' sense of self-worth, as well as honing her intellectual acumen, for much of what Naerys came to know what imparted directly by her mother. However, Rhaenys was also given to spend long stretches at Summerhall, and in her final six years was rarely given to leave. Often with her mother, this isolation did little to curb Naerys' introverted tendencies; though never reserved or soft-spoken, she simply grew to care little for the company of others, much in the way Rhaenys herself did not.

In the shadows of Summerhall, the Princess first became proficient in the picking and plucking of even rare plants. Initially trusted to do no more, she would spend her days pouring over floristics, let loose upon the great orchards by the castle to stockpile the milling cabinet. With time came credit, and gradually did Rhaenys instruct upon the subtleties of basic alchemy. The craft was one volatile and unstable in nature, prone to inconsistency, but this proved no deterrent. Through the reaching influence of the Queen, Naerys did all she could to hone herself as an alchemical adept.

A Daughter's Grief
The eventual death of Rhaenys Targaryen brought forth a cooling upon her entire brood, but as the youngest of her children, Naerys was perhaps agonised more than her elders by the early loss. Without the shadow of her mother to stand in, Naerys grew to feel diminution and loneliness. Returned to the Red Keep to be with her family, she had in truth never felt so disjointed. In public she shed silent tears, and in private she wept.

In this solitude came forth the full force of her dragon dreams. Largely would she speak no words of the intensity with which they gripped her, and shared with none how her mind blurred the lines of reality and vision in slumber. In grief, whatever force captured her sleeping consciousness took up a greater fraction of her mind as a whole, and its power over her cognizance was a major factor in why she continued to distance herself from personal attachment. The trait proved to be one that would pervade far into her adult life.

Taken under Rhaenyra's wing, her sister saw to continuing the legacy of their mother in Naerys' education. Though there was little she could do to erase the deep seated wariness her sister held toward others, perceptive enough was Rhaenyra to know that displacing her distrust could not be forced.

Though never particularly close, it was during this period that Visenya Silvermoon made attempts to rectify the distance between them. The future Queen may have hoped to see Naerys grow to bear something of her own warmth and ease with people, but regardless of her influence, few found lasting friendship with the Princess. It was said that when all else failed, Visenya would stir forth the Leviathan's Song in all her glory to bring a smile to her sister's face.

The Silver Wedding
When her brother Aegon took a second wife in 431 A.C, the Silver Wedding was an event that shook the foundations of the Realm even as it brought great celebration to the capital. Swept up in the revelry, the mourning period was at last broken for a young Naerys, and gradually did she come to accept that those yet living could not truly do so if they chose to live in constant grief.

Despite being too young to understand the subtle intricacies and consequences of the event, the wedding of the Silvermoon Queen would mark the beginning of a decline between them. Between Rhaenys and Rhaenyra, an unshakeable sense of duty and respect for the legacy of House Targaryen had been cultivated; Visenya was, in many ways, in direct defiance of the Targaryen imperative, creating a weakness and an imbalanced divide - a fact Naerys would come to appreciate in the years that followed.

Silanax, the Golden
Silanax was ever amongst the most beautiful of the dragons known to the pit, heralded to one day eclipse the glory of the Gilded Queen. Famed for the obedience it showed its rider, and in the years that would come its prowess in the Bleeding, Rhaenyra herself was a font of knowledge for things only a dragonrider could know. Naerys had grown tired of reading tales and studying tomes - to see the grandeur of dragons in person, to study and understand them, was a gift that would enshrine the Golden Queen in Naerys' favour.

In her sister's shadow she could stand beside the great beast, respectfully observant of Silanax's behaviours and traits. For many moons, attempting to offer food or interact in any way was met with cold disinterest. Tolerance was all that was afforded, and only that by the grace of the Queen. Even as a child Naerys understood that absent Rhaenyra, surely would she have been bathed in the golden wrath of Silanax's flame.

Persistence was a thing common in children however, and few more so than in Naerys. She would not be deterred by the passage of time. When finally Silanax deigned to allow her to touch resplendent golden scales, she was ecstatic. The journey that followed was long and arduous; but by the time she was ten, Rhaenyra had successfully mounted Silanax with her sister nestled in her grasp atop the saddle. The experience brought about a change in Naerys, heralding the true beginnings of the preoccupation with her own unhatched egg.

The lessons captivated her, and she went on to compile journals worth of musings. Having taken flight less than five times in the entirety of her nineteen years, the volumes of her thoughts alone stand testament to the depth of her interest.

As she grew older, she took to visiting Dragonstone to observe the island's untamed inhabitants from afar. Though the glamour of Starfyre was a vaunted fact, named the most beautiful dragon alive by some, even she did not capture Naerys' attention as Tyraxes did. Her burning curiosity however was not enough to drive her into the proximity of the Gilded Queen.

Some mistook the study, resulting in the rise of murmurs that she may make an attempt at taming. The closest in her circle however recognised the forays for what they were; another step on the ladder of a deepening curiosity regarding Visaera Targaryen.

The Bleeding
Through the series of conflicts known as The Bleeding, like many of the royal children Naerys was kept to the safety of castles. With her brother Daemon Targaryen and Visenya Silvermoon, she remained under protection for the duration of 432 - 435 A.C. As the humors of the Realm were balanced, Naerys became a young woman beneath the banner of a Dragon at war.

Though always had she tended toward maintaining a private personal life, secretive and even paranoid behaviours became common when left to her own devices. Now reputed to be blessed with the double-edged sword of prophecy, though none could truly find the origins of such rumour, the most well-guarded facet of Naerys' personality became her propensity for dreaming. Conflict, it seemed, brought upon the Princess more sleepless nights than ever before. Handmaidens whispered not of the portents of her dreams, for rarely did Naerys speak of them, but instead of the terrible nightmares that plagued their mistress. Leaving her tangled in sheets, whatever Valyrian beauty she possessed blighted by trepidation, some

few in her service were given to whisper of the taint of madness. Those who did were not long for service, silenced with a brutality few could anticipate from a woman usually so subdued from action - yet fewer still ever knew what had occurred.

Edification remained, as always, a primary pursuit. King's Landing provided access not only to a more diverse panel of expertise from which she could learn, but also a greater berth of influence that could be utilised to further her exploration of the arcane. As her siblings departed to dispense justice against traitors to the Crown and her father consorted with the Faith for guidance, Naerys thrived by the side of Grand Maester Godwyn. Though likely bothersome at times, she was ever eager to assist with treating the wounded, and though requiring constant supervision the presence of the Princess was on occasion enough to improve morale amongst the smallfolk of the capital. Whilst her motivations in wanting to help were in truth selfish pursuits of bettering her knowledge, Naerys came to appreciate the value of appearances, and cherished distraction from the on-goings of a war she had come to dread the outcome of.

A Daughter's Regret
Victory for House Targaryen in the Second Hammer Uprising eventually came, but not without a blood toll. The death of King Rhaegar II Targaryen at the Battle of Bitterbridge in 434 A.C was a climatic event that heralded the ascension of Aegon and his sister-wives by right, but the closure of Rhaegar's reign brought none for his daughter.

Never a cruel father, yet in life Rhaegar loved none as he loved Rhaenys. Only through her favour did Naerys ever find his, and only in the final few years of Queen Rhaenys' life did her daughter become a favourite. Beforehand, Naerys' relationship with her father had been one of cordial affection, as was oft the case with a parent whose deeds would echo through history. Many things took precedence over hand-rearing the youngest of his offspring.

Still, most closely with Rhaegar did Naerys share an affinity for tales of mysticism and prophecy, an allure he indulged her fully in. In the King did she first confide fears of her lucid dreams, of the shadowed figures and great sunderings that plagued her in the dark.

As time progressed however, and with the passing of his wife, their relationship underwent a freezing. Though entirely unclear why, his youngest daughter had become morbidly interested in the late Queen Visaera Targaryen. Eventually did her probing questions cause a rift between them. By the time of his death, there had been no thawing, and their relationship was severed at odds with no resolution.

With dry eyes she mourned the loss of a King, but readily did Naerys embrace the ascent of another. In time, she came to realise that his rule had not been one of strength. He himself had not been a man of strength, and though unwilling to admit she was still bitter over the differences between them, silently did she blame Rhaegar for the troubles that had befallen the Seven Kingdoms.

Alannys Costayne
Aegon VII Targaryen came to be the King upon the Iron Throne, and peace took root in his land. Justice was dispensed across the Realm, and would not be abated even by the force of nature that came to be known as the Four Year Winter. Vassals disloyal to the Crown paid a varying price; some lost their heads, some were sent to the Wall, and some few were simply given a shove back into line.

House Costayne, a major supporter of the Warsmiths during the Second Hammer Uprising, had its ruling figures displaced in the aftermath of their catastrophic loss. Recalled from Pyke, Arianne Costayne was summoned to cast aside her Greyjoy name and rule Three Towers in the name of the King, duty-bound to restore her family honour whilst her father withered to a slow death in the North.

Her youngest daughter, Alannys Costayne, would be sent to King's Landing as a lady-in-waiting at the Royal Court. Separated from her family at sixteen, in 435 A.C Alannys moved from the custody of Lady Arianne and Ser Emmon Greyjoy to that of the Crown.

Never intended to serve Naerys, she was instead another face upon the train of the newly minted Queen, Visenya Silvermoon, who had advocated fiercely for such young women of Alannys' ilk to be brought under her direct wing.

Well-educated and demure, the Costayne girl's talents were everything a courtier might seek, with enough life experience to make her more than a 'babbling font of inane drivel' - as Naerys had once called one of her sister's attendants in a moment of droll irritation.

When it became clear that there existed a budding friendship between the two young women, Visenya saw an opportunity to reconcile a now distant relationship with her half-sister. Few had ever pervaded the inner circle of the youngest Targaryen, and Alannys proved the perfect counterpart to her unsociable nature.

Queen Visenya formally named Alannys as the reclusive Princess' lady-in-waiting, and for several years since she has been the locus of Naerys' influence in court, utilised as both sword and shield in the great game. Her quick tongue and warm charms have proven invaluable, for more keenly does Alannys perceive the intrigues of the capital.

A Princess' Prerogative
To the present day, her most valuable possession remains a rose-gold dragon egg, borne from the arcane produce Seastar, now ridden by Gael Targaryen. The nexus of much of her paranoia and distrust, the egg is as well-guarded as the Princess herself, a woman already noted for a preoccupation with safety.

For years has she pursued traditional means of bringing forth the life within. Thus far, she has found only failure. Meticulous recordings are kept of the avenues already exhausted, and the list grows only longer with each passing year. As secretive about her pursuits as the egg itself, when probed Naerys is quick to shut down any lines of enquiry; if pushed, there exists no topic more likely to turn her usually neutral disposition to that of anger.

Pre 438 A.C.
Following the conclusion of the Bleeding, few knew what Naerys concerned herself with. In public, she was dutiful and poised, with a keen interest in the medicinal arts. For many the scope of the Princess ended there. Though not given to miss a formal appearance, outside of such she trusted in the sociable tendencies of her brother, Daemon Targaryen. Beautiful and self-assured, Daemon may have been a shadow in the Dragon's Court and yet he was also entirely unmissable. While never given to truly understand his complexities, she came to believe each served a purpose to the other, and would occasionally lean upon a perceived friendship.

Long years spent in the Red Keep have cultivated Naerys into the woman she appears as today, an erudite if enigmatic figure prone to both a pleasant disposition and bold entitlement. Maintaining public neutrality between the factions of the court, the Princess displays the appropriate deference and decorum with both sisters, but along with her brother Aerion Targaryen stays far from the brewing tensions between them when rumours begin to stir.

Targaryen Family Tree

 * King Aenar I Targaryen, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms b. 320 A.C. d. 407 A.C.
 * m. Queen Helaena Targaryen, b. 322 A.C. d. 346 A.C.
 * Prince Aenys Targaryen, Prince of Dragonstone b. 340 A.C. d. 368 A.C.
 * m. Lady Lenore Blackwood, b. 339 A.C. d. 367 A.C.
 * Maegor Waters, Bastard of Dragonstone b. 365 A.C, d. 407 A.C.
 * Prince Viserys Targaryen, Prince of Dragonstone and Hand of the King b. 342 A.C. d. 398 A.C.
 * m. Lady Gwynesse Lannister, b. 345 A.C. d. 415 A.C.
 * Queen Visaera Targaryen, Queen of the Seven Kingdoms b. 369 A.C. d. 420 A.C.
 * m. Prince Aemon Targaryen, Prince of Dragonstone b. 371 A.C. d. 405 A.C.
 * King Rhaegar II Targaryen, b. 387 A.C. d. 435 A.C.
 * w. Selenya Targaryen, b. 381 A.C. d. 408 A.C.
 * Queen Visenya Silvermoon, b. 408 A.C.
 * m. Luco Zalyne, b. 403 AC d. 429 A.C.
 * Taena Zalyne, b. 426 A.C.
 * Tregar Zalyne, b. 428 A.C. d. 429 A.C.
 * m. King Aegon VII Targaryen, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms b. 411 A.C.
 * Prince Daeron Targaryen, b. 431 A.C.
 * Princess Elaena Targaryen, b. 433 A.C.
 * Prince Valerion Targaryen, b. 436 A.C.
 * m. Queen Rhaenys Targaryen, b. 387 A.C. d. 430 A.C.
 * Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen, b. 408 A.C.
 * King Aegon VII Targaryen, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms b. 411 A.C.
 * Prince Aerion Targaryen, b. 412 A.C.
 * Prince Baelor Targaryen, b. 415 A.C.
 * Prince Daemon Targaryen, b. 416 A.C.
 * Princess Naerys Targaryen, b. 418 A.C.
 * Prince Laenor Targaryen, b. 388 A.C. d. 414 A.C.
 * m. Meria Martell, b. 381 A.C. 411 A.C.
 * House Martell
 * Princess Aelinor Targaryen, b. 389 A.C. d. 418 A.C.
 * Prince Viserys Targaryen, b. 402 A.C. d. 419 A.C.
 * Prince Daeron Targaryen, b. 373 A.C. d. 425 A.C.
 * Princess Saera Targaryen, b. 383 A.C. d. 435 A.C.
 * Princess Vaella Targaryen, b. 346 A.C d. 404 A.C.
 * m. Lord Vaemond Velaryon, b. 344 A.C. d. 407 A.C.
 * House Velaryon