Lucerys Velaryon (son of Vaemon)

Lucerys Velaryon is the second son of Vaemond Velaryon and Princess Vaella Targaryen. He rides the dragon Seastar, tamed after his mother's death, and has been a permanent fixture at court in King's Landing for more than a decade. Though he serves the queen as master of coin and is renowned as a warrior, his erratic behavior and vicious actions have permanently severed his ties with most of House Velaryon, especially his eldest brother and rival, Aurane.

Appearance and Character
Blessed with physical strength, grace, and beauty, in his youth Lucerys was a strapping example of the height of knightly achievement. The arrogance he carries himself with even now makes it plain that he has never forgotten that, even as the years have taken their toll upon him. Too fond of drink for his own good, he has developed a prominent gut and a permanent flush to his cheeks, as well as a pox that occasionally flares up in unsightly boils around his mouth. Beneath his weathered exterior, though, he is still the same hardened and reckless warrior - albeit perhaps a bit less quick on his feet.

His silver blonde hair is threaded through with wiry bits of white and gray, and a beard disguises the scars that mar his mouth and cheek. Still as mischievous as ever, his eyes are deep indigo, hovering between his mother's violet and a rich ocean blue.

Fiercely independent, stubborn, and aggressive, he benefits from the moderating influence of a firm hand - most often Visaera Targaryen - but cannot take no for an answer where his desires are concerned. His tenacity and determination won him the loyalty of his dragon, but those same traits burned his bridges with his older brother. Too often, Lucerys is held in thrall by blind ambition, regardless of the consequences that it may bring. The grudges he holds are violent and long-lasting, simmering under the surface for years on end.

Lucerys has never had the patience nor inclination for intellectual pursuits; books bore him, lessons tire him, and common sense evades him. He views education in others as an eccentricity at best - or as an object of outright scorn. Instead, he vastly prefers carousing and revelry, striking up an easy rapport with whores and gamblers wherever he roams.

Youth In Revolt (378 AC - 407 AC)
Lucerys was born upon the isle of Driftmark as the third product of Vaemond Velaryon and Vaella Targaryen's union, only minutes before his twin sister, Rhaella. Their birth was met with joy, and from an early age, both enjoyed the doting attention of their mother and father.

As children, the twins were inseparable. Saera Celtigar, Lucerys' grandmother, commented that she could hardly tell them apart; both he and Rhaella boasted the same head full of snow-white curls, tumbling past their shoulders. As they grew, they would work their likeness to their advantage, with Rhaella adopting a jerkin and breeches in pursuit of a life beyond books and knitting, and Lucerys delighting in his own part in the deception and the gratitude his sister showered him with.

Lucerys was no older than nine when his father arranged his mentorship beneath Prince Aemon Targaryen, one of the finest swordsmen of his age. To their great distress, the twins were separated for the first time in their lives when Lucerys was sent to ward at Dragonstone. That loneliness began to dissipate, however, when he warmed to both the young royal couple and their storied home. The sight of the Painted Table stirred in him an insatiable desire for greatness - any fragment of a past in which his ancestors had sat around it and plotted their conquests. Soon, the boy began to lose himself in daydreams of valiance in battle and a victor's laurels, but more insidious was the ambition he never voiced: that it would be him, and not his brother, who would lead House Velaryon in the years to come. At the end of his education, Lucerys was knighted by Prince Aemon - though he had been carefully shielded from any brush with real combat. In the years following, Lucerys traveled the realm, returning home to Driftmark sparingly. Rhaella had been wed long ago, and years away had alienated him from his remaining siblings. He noted the births of their children with little interest and kept his distance as their families grew. His curiosity was piqued, however, upon learning that his eldest niece's fledgling dragon had mauled its mistress's sister. What might have passed for a tragedy had it ended otherwise struck him as terribly amusing, and he wondered what potential might lie in both girl and beast. As the years passed, he wormed his way back into the family, ingratiating himself towards Daenaera with gifts and lavished attention. Aurane, ever suspicious, saw more than just an uncle's natural affection - and his instincts, in time, would prove disastrously right.

The next time Lucerys would return home would be by summons. A raven reached him at an inn nestled in the heart of the Reach bearing the news that his mother had passed of a wasting illness. While Vaemond bore no animosity towards his son for his absence, Aurane accused him of irresponsibility and callousness, making no small matter of the fact that Lucerys had not been present to ease Vaella's suffering or help with her care. Tensions heightened between the two brothers brothers whose distaste for one another had begun as children, blossomed with the amount of time Lucerys spent with Daenaera that Aurane deemed inappropriate, and met fruition when both sought to take their late mother's dragon for their own.

Seastar chose Lucerys, perhaps recognizing in him a kindred spirit and chafing at Aurane's more iron-fisted attempts. Soon after, he departed for Dragonstone to seek Visaera Targaryen's aid in fully taming the dragon. He spent each year since his mother's death among the Dragonstone Targaryens, ofttimes accompanied by Daenaera, until the realm was summoned to Harrenhal, in celebration of the Red Comet.

A Clash of Brothers (407 AC - 408 AC)
At the Harrenhal tournment, disaster struck for House Velaryon. Its patriarch had kept the peace among his children for decades, soothing tempers and moderating ambitions, but his sudden death would break that fragile piece. Aurane believed Lucerys responsible for his father's poisoning, a suspicion that only deepened when it became clear he had fled the tournament with Daenaera in tow. For his own part, Lucerys saw an opportunity - if he was able to convince the garrison at Driftmark that blame lay on Aurane's head, he could claim the lordship for himself and take advantage of the sudden tragedy. He laid an ambush for his brother, and the trap sprang closed when Corlys' ship arrived in port with House Velaryon's new lord aboard.

He faced his elder brother in single combat, beating him down until his sword rested at his throat. A second more, and he would have claimed the man's life and title for his own. But a moment of boasting gave Daenaera the opportunity to do what he had never dreamed she would - bite the hand that had fostered her and betray him. The girl drove Erinnon into the ships' deck, shattering the scene with claw and flame, and Seastar rose to give her chase. The pair of dragons devastated the harbor at Hull and set the ship ablaze, costing the lives of many. While Aurane's family swam ashore and the lord himself helplessly bled, an injured Lucerys went on a maddened chase after his niece and her dragon, swearing vengeance.

He lost her in a storm above the Blackwater and was forced to retreat back to Dragonstone and the welcoming breast of the not-yet-crowned queen. Displeased to learn of his failed attempt at kinslaying, Visaera tightened her leash around her protege, keeping a careful eye upon him in the months that followed. Stewing with resentment and murderous intent, Lucerys directed the full force of his anger at Daenaera and her betrayal, paying dearly for informants who might know of her whereabouts. Yet the girl and her beast seemed to have vanished like smoke, and the rising tides of rebellion proved a much more pressing threat.

The queen charged Lucerys with the protection of her son, Prince Rhaegar, fearing the young man might be led astray by those who wished to crown him and supplant her. But her doubts proved unfounded. Amongst the pouring rains of a summer storm, the bastard Maegor Waters called for a parlay at the Quiet Isle, and Rhaegar brought along both his newfound bodyguard and his mother. That night, Maegor would be slain in cold blood and Morghul torn asunder by Iraxes; Lucerys witnessed all of it, noting that the prince, it seemed, was made of crueler stuff than he had ever been willing to admit. The cover story of an honorable duel amused him as much as it annoyed him - dragons, he reasoned, ought not justify their actions to the realm or sanitize their vices. Was not the truth enough to strike fear into hearts around the realm? Was Rhaegar afraid of it? His doubts remained quiet - a rare moment of restraint for him. Instead, he directed his energy towards taunting commanders on the field of battle, even hurling Maegor's rotten, decapitated head at the feet of Alaric Arryn. Lucerys and Seastar participated in the Battle of the Ford, roasting many a knight of the Vale, and burning a baggage train full of whores and their whelps for his own savage pleasure.

At war's end - if it could even be called a true war - he settled back into courtly life in the capital, content to do the bidding of the queen as he waited for news of his errant niece. Whispers reached him at last as the last months of the year crept past; livestock along Cape Wrath had been disappearing for months, and locals blamed a shadow of bright blue, filling the skies. Without a word to the queen, he departed the city, eager to see if there was any truth in the rumors, and found Erinnon among the cliffs and caves overlooking the churning seas.

With no hesitation, he ordered Seastar to pin her offspring down, and the younger dragon's shrieks of pain and fear were audible throughout the cape. It was bait that did not take long to lure in his quarry - Daenaera, ever attuned to the needs of her mount, appeared to rescue Erinnon. Instead, her life was stolen from her and her corpse defiled - a fitting punishment, her uncle decided, for the betrayal he'd endured. Her mount was left for dead there on the cliffs, with open wounds and torn wings, not far from what was left of the body of its mistress.

Lucerys' brutal murder of his young niece went unpunished and unnoticed, her family having long since given up hope of her return. But when Erinnon's silhouette was seen on the horizon at Driftmark, limping back to the only home the beast had ever known, Aurane knew for certain that Daenaera was no more.

The Realm and The World (409 AC - 416 AC)
Revenge against his niece was truly sweet, but life afterwards took on a certain monotony, especially once he assumed his duties as master of coin. The post was given to him out of a combination of nepotism and a wish to keep him content - the crown could ill afford another outburst of kinslaying, and he was far more useful as a lapdog than as a thorn in the queen's side.

In hopes of completely removing the possibility of a feud as destructive as the one that had raged on years before between Velaryon brothers, Queen Visaera decided that Lucerys' talents would best be utilized across the Narrow Sea and sent him on errands abroad rather than allowing him to brood and stew in King's Landing. By all outward appearances, the decision was a success. Visaera employed him sometimes as a charming diplomat, negotiating new trade arrangements with merchants across the Narrow Sea, and elsewhere as an enforcer of sorts - bullying petty princes or wayward port overseers into compliance with the crown. He relished any opportunity to get his hands dirty, but had little patience for more tedious tasks, even if they were part and parcel to his office. During the rare council meetings he actually attended, he often played the part of the petty troll, baiting and prodding at his fellow councilors, then finding great amusement in their consternation. As such, his performance in the role could only be described as mediocre - the bare minimum to retain both his seat and the queen's good graces. All seemed sanguine until he returned from one mission to find the queen had wedded and bedded his own younger brother, Corlys Velaryon. He had never regarded the man as anything more than an annoying child, distant from him for all of their lives, and the idea that somehow that child might be worthy of the queen's affections was inconceivable. If she had wanted a consort, why had it not been Lucerys himself?

He could not bring himself to forgive or forget what he saw as a grotesque slight against him - after all, was he not Corlys' superior in every way? More clever, more daring, more loyal to the queen? Though he made the polite noises expected of him, he did not understand the queen's decision and resented it deeply. To name his baby brother as a superior - even as an equal - was more than Lucerys could stomach. A seed of bitterness had been planted, and it found fertile ground in a heart as black as his.

The next mission abroad came just in time - if he had remained in close proximity to the new couple much longer, he would not have been able to restrain himself from another spree of messy revenge. As it was, he lost himself in wine and women and games of chance, throwing himself fully into a live of depraved debauchery. Loathe as he was to admit it, the queen's choice represented a chink in his armor, undermining the fantastic - and occasionally delusional - sense of self-worth he'd cultivated. It was easier to forget, he decided, and to embrace the seedy underbelly of life fully. That was what a tainted lapdog deserved.

In the Free Cities, he became notorious for his behavior and extravagance, but that made him a favored guest in the halls of less scrupulous magnates. He had a special affinity for slavers, smugglers, and madames, and was not averse to underhanded dealings and copious bribes. When he could, he also ran various harebrained, get-rich-quick schemes, including selling rides on Seastar for exorbitant prices. That particular venture earned him a tidy fortune, until the daughter of one Pentoshi oligarch fell to her death from the dragon's saddle, and he scrambled in a blind panic to cover up the accident.

Yet not every "accident" in those years of debauchery could be so easily glossed over.

For his three bastard by-blows - those he has acknowledged, at least - Lucerys spares only the bare minimum of attention; he is willing to keep them fed and with a roof over their heads, but they have received no education and are treated with nothing but disdain. They are often seen playing in the lanes below his apartment, barefoot and dirty, and are quick to scatter whenever they hear him approach, lest they catch a blow out of boredom or wanton cruelty.

To Tame A Dragon (417 AC - Present)
As he neared his fortieth year, Lucerys faced something of a midlife crisis, uncertain of what his ultimate legacy might be. In the past decade, his lust for excess and luxury left him overweight and afflicted with a pox or two, and his good looks had begun to fade beneath the grime of hard living. In a wishful attempt to rectify the situation, he demanded the hand of newly-flowered Gael Targaryen, seeing in her youthful beauty something he wished very much to capture and possess. The marriage was also meant to be a balm for the bitter sting of seeing Corlys as prince consort - the tight cunt of a virgin princess would no doubt be sweeter than the queen's dusty ruin.

What he did not bargain for was the girl's clever, bookish mind - but rather than suppress it, he's chosen to

take the opportunity to allow her to help him in his duties, privately leaving many financial matters in her control. He is not particularly kind to his new bride, and his volatile moods and trail of bastards do not bode well for long-term stability in their marriage. Nevertheless, he places in her a certain degree of trust - perhaps because deep down, some part of him empathizes with the plight of an erstwhile princess, robbed of any chance at inheritance and alienated from her family.

Already, the crown's coffers have begun to prosper from his new partnership, and he is not shy about reveling in his success. But as usual, his own rivalries, jealousies, and insecurities are a powerful force, and they hold the potential to undo the progress he's made at any time.

Recent Events
407 AC 408 AC
 * Fifth Moon: Lucerys resides on Dragonstone amongst his cousins, and travels to Harrenhal in the company of Princess Visaera and her family.
 * Sixth Moon: Harrenhal brings opportunities to grow closer to Princess Aelinor and her ladies-in-waiting, but his eyes most often rest upon Daenaera. When news breaks of his father's sudden, violent death, Lucerys convinces the girl to flee with him - believing Aurane to be behind Vaemond's murder.
 * Seventh Moon: On Driftmark, Lucerys prepares a violent surprise for his kin and ambushes Aurane while he is disembarking at its port. Accusing him of murder, he duels and disarms his brother, fully intending to murder him. At the last moment, however, Daenaera attacks and robs him of the opportunity - a betrayal that stings far more than Vaemond's death ever could.
 * Eighth Moon:
 * Ninth Moon:
 * Tenth Moon:
 * Eleventh Moon
 * Twelfth Moon:
 * First Moon:
 * Second Moon:
 * Third Moon:
 * Fourth Moon:

Family

 * Vaemond Velaryon (345 - 407)
 * m. Vaella Targaryen (346 - 404)
 * Shiera Vance b. 371
 * m. Perceon Vance
 * House Vance
 * Aurane Velaryon b. 375
 * m. Naera Sunglass (375 - 389)
 * Daenaera Velaryon (389 - 408)
 * m. Baela Targaryen b. 379
 * Valaena Velaryon b. 392
 * Aelora Hightower b. 394
 * m. Leyton Hightower
 * House Hightower
 * Lysa Velaryon b. 398
 * Vaella Velaryon b. 402
 * Daena Velaryon b. 408
 * Vaemond Velaryon b. 409
 * Lucerys Velaryon b. 378
 * m. Gael Targaryen
 * Zahra Waters b. 410
 * Aethan Waters b. 411
 * Alyn Waters b. 411
 * Rhaella Dayne b. 378
 * m. Ulrick Dayne
 * House Dayne
 * Corlys Velaryon b. 382
 * m. Visaera Targaryen
 * Aerys Velaryon b. 408