Rhaenys Targaryen (daughter of Visaera)

Princess Rhaenys Targaryen is the second-born child of the late Prince Aemon and Princess Visaera Targaryen, the youngest of twins, and their eldest daughter.

She and her twin brother Rhaegar are both dragonriders. Rhaenys rides the dragon Vhaegon.

Appearance and Character
Though not as statuesque as her mother, the eldest of Visaera's daughters does bear the most resemblance to the woman - if only in the dark depths of those indigo irises and the cold demeanor she affects. Otherwise, she and her twin Rhaegar have the most in common beyond the color of their silvery locks - something about their cheekbones, their nose and lips - though one would be hard-pressed to find something masculine lurking within her heart-shaped face.

Many assume that the daughter has grown up much like her mother - at least until that all too often barely-restrained temper breaks past a thin veneer of ice and leaves a swath of destruction in the princess’s path. Rhaenys is a prideful thing, confident in abilities honed alongside her kin and kind, and with a disdain for demands made of her. She cannot boast of a particular closeness with any of the members of her family beyond her brothers, though currently her relationship with her twin may be described as strained at best. She still works to keep him at arm’s length, lest either of them become confused about their duty to their mother. His is to be her heir, and king long after she is gone.

Early Years
Rhaenys Targaryen came into the world on the heels of her twin brother, Rhaegar, literally, and has been determined to fight her way out of his shadow ever since. Born upon Dragonstone as the second child and eldest daughter of Prince Aemon and Princess Visaera, Rhaenys has never felt truly at home anywhere else - whether the family traveled to Essos for extended periods of time, or lived within the Red Keep - and has always proven restless when away from those familiar grounds, wracked by sleepless nights or nightmares, or even screaming fits as a baby, calmed only by close proximity to her twin, if calmed at all.

The two were inseparable as children, and even the traditional dragon eggs placed with the babes must have felt the strength of the siblings’ bond - for the beasts hatched on the same stormy night in their cribs. Rhaenys proved the more willful and stubborn of the pair, speaking the word “no” before uttering so much as another sound, while the twins terrorized the nursemaids tasked with their handling under the supervision of a mother who was not wont to embrace or shower them with affection beyond the time allotted them at her breast.

The sibling’s rivalry began innocently enough once they had outgrown the nursery with the games that all small children tend to play: monsters-and-maidens, lord of the crossing, come-into-my-castle, hopfrog, rats and cats, and even one of their own creation - dragons and knights, which got their animals involved and too-often ended with something set ablaze. Favors were traded in the end, or toys usurped, and now and then a stolen kiss was the ultimate prize - affections neither encouraged nor discouraged by parents that held the secret of the betrothal of their eldest children close to their hearts.

Taming a Dragon
In their youth, it was Rhaenys who flew in the face of caution, issuing dares and answering them herself without hesitation. At the age of eight, it was the princess who was the first to climb upon the back of her dragon, Vhaegon, and usher orders for him to take flight with her holding fast, racing the wind. Her sense of accomplishment and the victorious smile that shone bright enough to light up features were tarnished when instead of being praised by her mother, she watched as Visaera turned her back and forced Rhaegar upon the back his own beast, bidding him to bring Nightwing to heel. That her father, Prince Aemon, had regaled her as his very own Visenya when he learned of the news was a triumph that paled somehow by comparison.

A Call to Arms
When time came that Rhaegar was shown to the yard to begin training at arms after breaking his fast each day, Rhaenys found that she was forced onto another path instead at the behest of a well-meaning Septa who had long-since learned to hold fast to the girl’s arm lest she wrest herself free and disappear to play outside. While time in the library often led to books of dragonlore stolen away, up the steps of the Stone Drum, where their pictures might be perused in the comfort of the Chamber of the Painted Table, Rhaenys would have much rather been at her brother’s side. One particular afternoon found her embroidery threads knotting, leading to a tempestuous rage and a refusal to waste any more of her time at the task. While her septa sought after her mother to make a report, the princess found her way to her twin brother, stealing away the practice sword he’d been fumbling with and using it instead to swipe and slice at any men-at-arms who threatened to take it away from her.

That her mother paused long enough to watch as Rhaenys exorcised a righteous fury in the yard that left pale any of her brother’s training to date was no small matter; it was attention enough that saw a sword of her own fitted into her hand the following day at her father's behest - after being sent to her room without supper by her mother's will. The end had justified the means, and the princess proved herself to those that trained her, as well as to her mother. Praise from the woman, however, was withheld as usual, while barbs were the encouragement that the prince and heir received for being bested by a girl time and again.

Brotherly Love
As teenagers, the pair remained as close as ever, seeking comfort in the other’s company in lieu of expectations of affection from parents who seemed increasingly unable to express such emotions as the years went on - even to one another. The games of childhood were long forgotten, but not the thrill of contesting each other - and the competitive streak between them grew more fiercely with each passing year. By their five-and-tenth name day, Rhaenys was no longer taller than her brother, nor was she the sure bet when they sparred together in the yard, though her confidence would not be shaken. As such, she laughed when a new game proposed by her brother demanded a kiss for a prize.

In the wake of his victory, the simple caress satisfied neither of them. On the grassy floor of Aegon’s Garden, she would give Rhaegar her maidenhead.

In the afterglow, a future that had always been assumed became far more real. Who better, after all, to be married to than her own twin? The boy she knew and loved best? Daydreams shattered like the looking-glass that fell to her feet when Rhaenys chanced to overhear one of her ladies boasting of time spent in the young prince’s arms. Walls sprang up overnight around a wounded heart to protect a bruised ego rendered foolish by a mind that knew better. Feelings were fettered while a certain coolness affected their interactions thereafter; kisses were refused and offered hands to hold ignored.

The Dragonmaids
Gossiping ladies-in-waiting who spent far too much time fawning over the latest fashions while fluttering their lashes at any and every knight-come-eligible bachelor that passed their way did not, Rhaenys decided, make for ideal companions - especially when they had designs on capturing the apparently fickle heart of her elder brother, Prince Rhaegar - and the three she had previously retained were summarily relieved of their positions with little explanation and a lot of assumptions about the whims of a mercurial Targaryen princess. Meanwhile, as mounting tensions between the twins too often came to a head and erupted during sparring sessions, it was decided that the pair ought to be trained separately in an effort to preserve the relationship beyond what had been perceived by their parents solely as sibling rivalry.

A Dornish girl, the daughter of an aging kitchen maid maybe half a year older than Rhaenys at the time, was the first to be offered the chance to train alongside the princess, a change from what accounted to the day-to-day doldrums of a handmaid otherwise. Others followed in her wake, two of them from other Crownlands houses who'd have made unlikely handmaidens if not for their size and bulk, then for eschewing more proper and far more ladylike pursuits.

With Prince Aemon at court serving as Hand of the King, the princess's change in retinue did not go unnoticed by her kin in the Red Keep. When her father presented his teenaged daughter and her ladies during a visit to King's Landing, King Aenar remarked about how his blossoming great-granddaughter looked more and more like her mother with each passing year and marveled at the sheer size of some of her dragon maids as he called them. The name was fitting and stuck.

The Black Princess
Rhaenys had never been accused of being a particularly pleasant sort of creature once the realization had dawned on the youth that there simply was no pleasing people like her mother, for instance. The princess had ever been defiant, willful, and quick to run afoul of, given an eager temper. Smiles became rare expressions even where her father and twin were concerned, for as years passed, time afforded them together seemed in short supply. Absence does not always make the heart grow fonder - even though separation was self-inflicted in some regards - but turns it colder. Darker.

And when Prince Aemon left for Essos in 405 AC, a foolish girl too long held out hope for the return of a beloved father, allowing mourning hues to taint far more than the clothes still adorned some two years after the Prince of Dragonstone was pronounced dead and his titles passed, not to his son, but to his sister-wife. When her twin disappeared without a word upon the back of his dragon Nightwing in a similar fashion in early 407 AC, with rumor suggesting a similar course, the princess might have feared the same fate, convinced by the night terrors that raged in his absence, but none have dared pose such inquiries for fear that it will be only by the grace of their blood spilled that scarlet ever return to her wardrobe elsewise.

407 AC
The year began with the announcement of the Tournament of Harrenhal, where all the lords and ladies of the Realm would compete against one another in a grand competition. For Rhaenys, it was a point of pride as the young woman had intended to enlist herself in the joust. Though her pride was thrown out the window by her mother, Visaera, Rhaenys went through with the plan during the Tournament.

Entering the lists as a Mystery Knight, Rhaenys went against Leyton Hightower during a round of the Joust. The Prince struck her arm as their lances met, and Rhaenys was wounded significantly, losing the majority of the use of her right arm, which was also her sword arm.

The two moons that followed were a tumult of loathing for Rhaenys as she slowly began to overcome the maiming, though not fully. Hers was a struggle to regain that which she most ultimately desired -- the ability to wield a blade once again.

Targaryen Family Tree

 * King Aenar I Targaryen, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms b. 320 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.
 * 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.
 * Princess Visaera Targaryen, Princess of Dragonstone b. 369 A.C.
 * m. Prince Aemon Targaryen, Prince of Dragonstone b. 371 A.C. d. 405 A.C.
 * Prince Rhaegar Targaryen b.387 A.C.
 * Princess Rhaenys Targaryen b. 387 A.C.
 * Prince Laenor Targaryen b. 388 A.C.
 * Princess Aelinor Targaryen b. 389 A.C.
 * Prince Viserys Targaryen b. 402 A.C.
 * Prince Valerion Targaryen, b. 373 A.C.
 * Princess Daemona Targaryen  b. 383 A.C.
 * Princess Vaella Targaryen b. 346 A.C d. 404 A.C.
 * m. Lord Vaemond Velaryon b. 344 A.C.
 * House Velaryon

The Dragonmaids

 * Teirrah - The first to become part of the princess's retinue. Likely a Santagar bastard, judging by the looks of the girl, but she is without a surname to suggest that she has been so much as recognized by her father, whoever he might be. One of Rhaenys' closest friends and confidants; rumored to also share her bed on occasion.
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 * Mei - The most recent of additions following the War of the Three Thieves. A YiTish girl of petite stature not to be underestimated. She either cannot speak the common tongue or refuses to do so - though few can claim to have ever heard her speak at all. Some say that she does not understand common, but the spark within those blue eyes often begs to differ.