The House of Targaryen and its Cadets

by Corramon

Summary:

We know the Targaryens; from the Conqueror to the Mad, these royals have made their mark on Westeros.

But what of their lesser known relations? What happened to Princess Elaena's seven children? Who were the Lord Velaryons after Alyn? What became of Mya and Gwenys Rivers, sisters of the infamous Lord Bloodraven? What if Saera and Viserra had better fates?

All these questions and more are explored in this expanded family tree of the House of Targaryen, and their related families including the Martells, Baratheons, Velaryons, Plumms, and yes, even the Longwaters.

Notes:

After years of on and off work, and way to much time spend on the ASOIAF wiki, I've finally decided to publish my fully fleshed out Targaryen family tree.

"But", you may be asking right now, "hasn't George already given us a complete Targaryen tree?". And yes, you would technically be correct. However, the current canon tree excludes a lot of information; what happened to the Penroses? The descendants of Corlys? How is Aelinor Penrose related to the main royal family? This "fanfiction" attempts to answer these questions in a satisfactory way, and one which feels natural to canon.

This tree is also the result of work on a world-building exercise being carried out on alternatehistory.com, making the breathtakingly expansive and beautiful world of GRRM and adding more depth to it and making it a bit more in line with the history it is inspired by. The hope is that these ideas; including a fully fleshed out system of ranks and nobility, a utterly amazingly detailed map of a expanded Winterfell, information on language groups and lexicons, educational institutions, embroidery, estates and law systems, fashion, trade, theology, agricultural packages, and basically whatever else you can think of will serve as a resource to the fan fiction community in their writings!

So this work of "filling out" what GRRM has yet to give is technically fan fiction, but also hopefully serves the purpose of filling in and inspiring fan fiction stories until we get more from GRRM on these lesser known Targaryens and their relations.

I've tried to make sure all OC's and new pairings fall directly in line with the spirit of canon, and have also tried to fit their stories within canon. I've also taken inspiration from fan fictions on this site, treading some of the same ground this work covers. The lore additions here also reference the world building thread I mentioned above, but I have tried my best to remove or contextualize these references to the collaborative thread referenced above.

Anyways, without further ado, here is the family echo link: https://www.familyecho.com/?c=ht39ak1ajg6an6gd&f=217682243198542663

I will always be open to constructive criticism, corrections, and ideas for changes. Please do not hesitate to discuss this, or use it for your own fan fictions! That is what it was made for. Just don't forget to credit it please! I hope you enjoy your readings!

Chapter 1: The House of Targaryen

The House of Targaryen​

• King Jaehaerys I established that all male Targaryens are born Princes, no matter how far they descend from a King. He also established that, generally, when Princesses marry outside of the royal family, they lose their status as Princesses. This was to encourage in-marriages.

• The Princes Gaemon and Valerion, younger sons of Jaehaerys, live [1]. 

  • Growing up, both boys were playmates of Viserra and Saera. Saera found interest in the other lordlings of the Court eventually, and Gaemon took to training under Baelon and Aemon quite well. Valerion and Gael became the closest to their mother Alysanne, as the youngest children of the Old King. Rhaenys, Daemon, and Viserys also were included in this grouping of princelings, who all got along well as Princes of the Royal House.

  • Gaemon, the more sickly of the younger sons of King Jaehaerys, took to his studies with vigor and found the bow-and-arrow to his liking; eventually Prince Gaemon came to be regarded as perhaps the finest archer Westeros had seen in a generation. While Valerion, though fighting through a sickly childhood, came to be a Prince full of vitality and took to the lance, longsword, and rapier. Valerion became close with Princes Viserys and Prince Daemon, and developed a familial rivalry with the latter.

• Jaehaerys believed it was merely a matter of time before his younger children were wed to each other in some form, but he left exactly how to Queen Alysanne. [2] 

  • Viserra and Gaemon, close as children but distant in their adolescence, had shocked Court and their family after asking to be betrothed to one another. Of course, later it was remarked that the two Targaryens had always been destined to wed as Gaemon was known to be the only one able to soothe Viserra’s vanity and Viserra temper Gaemon’s arrogance.

  • Saera seduced Corlys for her desire to be the “first lady” in the realm behind her mother. Corlys married her in 82 AC. Saera’s eldest son by Corlys is named Jaecaerys, who is born the same year. Saera’s Court at High Tide in many ways surpasses the one in King’s Landing, as she patronises artists, musicians, and great thinkers from both sides of the Narrow Sea, outdoing her parent’s court and making Driftmark and High Tide famous worldwide for its wealth and culture. Her own "Kingdom", if you will.

  • Gaemon claimed Dreamfyre in 87 AC, and was married to Viserra the same year on Dragonstone.

• Princess Rhaenys "the Queen who never was" is born three years later; on the 7th day of the 7th moon of the 77th year after Aegon's Conquest. [3]

• The courtship of Princess Rhaenys in 97 AC was a hotly contested issue and a major event. The conflict between betrothing her to her young uncle or cousin. Prince Valerion, a noble Prince and a skilled swordsman, was favored by Jaehaerys. While Jaecaerys, heir to Driftmark, famed seafarer, and daring adventurer was favored by Alysanne, Corlys, and Saera. This conflict and the schemes resulting from it was fierce. However it ended rather simply when Rhaenys and Valerion were summoned in front of the Royal Couple, after the intrigues had become increasingly frustrating to Jaehaerys, and they were asked whether they should like to marry each other. “No”, they said, and the matter was laid to rest. Rhaenys was betrothed, and later married to Jaecaerys in a love match with great pomp, and Prince Valerion was given leave to travel to the Free Cities with Prince Daemon. Later Prince Valerion would be inducted into the Kingsguard as the first Prince given a white cloak. [4] 

• Rhaenys in 99 AC gave birth to the twins Laena and Laenor. [5] 

• Lord Jaecaerys is lost on an exploratory expedition to the Thousand Islands sometime before 129 AC. [6] 

• Gael Targaryen married Ser Aelor "Blackskull", a grandson of Gargon Qoherys, by his bastard son. Ser Aelor is known as the "Knight of Blackskulls" because his father, when knighted by King Aenys I while fighting in a rebellion during that King's reign, adopted the Qoherys arms inverted. Ser Aelor would be a member of the personal Royal/Dragon Guard (not the Kingsguard, they are separate) of the Targaryen family. When Princess Gael married Ser Aelor, he received a fat dowry which he used to greatly expand the keep his father built in the Kingswood. Blackskull Keep, as it became known, would be used frequently as hunting lodge for the royal family as Gael and Ser Aelor would have no children.

• Septa Rhaella, daughter of Aegon the uncrowned, lived until 105 AC.

• Both Prince Gaemon and Prince Valerion die before the Dance. 

  • In 102 After Conquest, Prince Gaemon had been asked to join Lord Ellard Stark in dispatching an invasion of Giants and wildings under a new King-beyond-the-Wall. Both Prince Gaemon and Lord Ellard were slain alongside the flower of the Northern nobility beyond the Wall in an ambush. Dreamfyre, Prince Gaemon’s dragon, was said to have whined and wailed for weeks after her Prince’s death, with her cries often being heard as far as Karhold, until she returned to Dragonstone. His death comes soon after Baelon’s, triggering the First Great Council.

  • Ser Valerion is killed at the beginning of the Dance of Dragons, along with Lord Beesbury. The death of the last living son of King Jaehaerys marked the beginning of the Targaryen civil war, and was also reminiscent of the ancient Valyrian civil wars which pitted dragon against dragon.

• Jaehaerys dies in 108 AC, after 60 years of reign, due to less stress and the survival of most of his younger children. As a result, the events of Viserys I’s reign are pushed back by three years.

• Prince Aerys, son of Gaemon and Viserra, is one of Rhaenyra's foremost Generals in the Dance of Dragons, though no dragon rider. He sires no legitimate children. He passes away during the Regency of Aegon III.

• Gael, Saera, and Viserra live to endure the Dance of Dragons. All sided with Rhaenyra.

• Princess Elaena, daughter of King Aegon III, proved to be one of the most consequential Targaryens of her day, like her sister Princess Daena. Her first very brief marriage to Lord Ossifer Plumm, a trusted counselor of five kings, proved prudent as the Princess soon gained a vast fortune for herself with no Lord to command her. Her possession of the Targaryen estates in the North allowed her to retain her rank as Princess in her own right, by personal decree of King Viserys II. She was one of the most prominent members of King Daeron II’s Small Council, and his steadfast ally - and remains to this day the only Lady ever appointed to the Small Council [7]. The fortune and influence she gained from her marriages to Lord Ronnel Penrose and Ser Michael Manwoody, in addition to the great intelligence and foresight of the Princess herself, allowed her descendants to maintain rank among the high nobility of the Realm and the Valyrian aristocracy of the Narrow Sea.

• The alliances and fortunes of Princess Elaena and her children would prove invaluable to the Iron Throne in the Blackfyre Rebellions, as all those Houses allied through her would remain steadfastly loyal to Daeron II, Aerys I, and Maekar I.

• Princess Elaena would have a love affair with the heir to Driftmark, Lord Corlys Velaryon, which produced twins; Jon and Jeyne Waters.[8] 

• Lord Robin Penrose, Princess Elaena’s second son, would become Lord Penrose in his own right and be a prominent Royalist commander in the Blackfyre Rebellions, but would fall in battle alongside his sons, slain by Lord Quentyn Ball, “the Fireball” , and the Penrose lordship would fall to his cousin. [9]

• Princess Elaena’s daughters by Lord Ronnel Penrose; Laena, Jocelyn, and Joy, became Great Ladies in their own right, thanks to their mother's influence at Court and shrewdness in putting her daughters in prominent positions to be married to Great Lords. Their names give a hint of who they married.

  • Laena, the eldest, was Lady of Driftmark, and married the grandson of Princess Baela and Princess Rhaena, Lord Corwyn Velaryon. He is the nephew of her mother’s friend Laena for whom the eldest Penrose daughter was named.

  • Jocelyn, the middle child, was Lady of Storm’s End, and married the son of Royce Baratheon - Lyonel Baratheon, "the Laughing Storm".

  • Joy, the youngest, became Princess of Dorne, and was married to the son of Princess Daenerys and Prince Maron.

• The sisters of Brynden Rivers, Gwenys and Mya Rivers, have no issue. They are very intelligent like their brother but preferred to stay out of court life. For most of their lives they chose to live near their mother's family in Blackwood Vale, in the histories being noted as remaining extremely close to one another. They refused to wed, having a large inheritance from their father and later being provided by their brother and Blackwood relations. Being constant companions of each other, both served as retainers of the Iron Throne's vast and rich holdings in the Riverlands and Crownlands.

• Princess Vaella, daughter of Prince Daeron and Kiera of Tyrosh, has no issue.

• Prince Maegor died in the Tragedy of Summerhall, as a bachelor. Being a disinherited Targaryen Prince with no prospects and little desire from Aegon V to see him wed to a powerful house, his marriage prospects were likely rather slim.

  • Interestingly, Prince Maegor is known to be cousin of Jon Arryn; likely a second cousin based on the age of Alys Arryn, Prince Rhaegel's wife and Maegor's grandmother, who was likely Jasper Arryn's aunt.

• The sisters of Aegon V, Daella and Rhae, wed Lord Velaryon and Lord Celtigar respectively. [10] 

• Jon Snow's Targaryen name is Aemon, simply because I think it just fits so well with his character and that's probably the name Rhaegar gave him in canon due to his relationship with Maester Aemon.

Notes:

The footnotes of the chapters are not necessary to read, but just provide a bit of explanation for my decisions.

[1] I did this mostly because having so many of Jaehaerys and Alysanne's kids die as children is just depressing. Not necessarily more "realistic", but most importantly less disrupting to canon than giving Viserra and Saera new OC husbands. 

[2] I really disliked the way especially Saera and Viserra were handled in Fire & Blood. Giving Gael a better fate was also a no-brainer. And yes, Saera is married fairly young, but also in line with the other matches made by Jaeaherys for his kids.

[3] This is to make her a bit younger so the match with Corlys and Saera's son has less of an age gap. But also, it is a really cool birthday!

[4] At the time of their betrothal, Jaecaerys is 15 and Rhaenys is 19-20. Yes again this is a bit young for Jacaerys but I feel Corlys and Saera would be scheming enough to let it slide to secure the eldest granddaughter of the King. Also, Jaecaerys would have been sailing by himself for many years at this point like his ancestors, so I don't find it *that* far-fetched.

[5] Yes, they are aged down due to the changing of their parents and grandparents. But actually they are closer in age to Rhaenyra which is convenient.

[6] This, of course, was to remove him from the Dance so not as to change it too much. In my mind, he is an adrenaline junkie and born adventurer even more so than his father, so it also would not be unexpected for him to go out this way. This also adds a bit of layering to Saera, who would have lost her only child and son, and Rhaenys, who would lose her husband.

[7] I thought it was kind of lame that Elaena never got a Small Council seat, considering what we know of her in canon. So, I just decided that Daeron II would not care that she is a Lady, and that her status as a Princess and daughter of a King would outweigh the protests of some Lords and appoint her to the SC anyway.

[8] I moved Elaena's affair down a generation. Mostly because Alyn was married to Baela, had two kids by her, and was 40 years older than Elaena! Not that this was unheard of in real life, but it just kind of felt off and out of place.

[9] Lord Robin's sons are not included in the tree.

[10] I know there is supposedly some Tarth-Targaryen connection, but for all we know it could be in-laws of Aegon V's sisters or other, more distant relations. We also know for sure that Brienne of Tarth is descended from Dunk and that's about it. So I really was just not sure where to put any Tarth connection here that fits with the Dunk connection.