Timeline: 

In the reign of King Viserys I Targaryen, years of seeming peace concealed the quiet sowing of discord. His first queen, Aemma Arryn, bore him but one living child, Princess Rhaenyra. Deprived of sons, the king resolved that his daughter should follow him upon the Iron Throne, instructing her in the duties of rule and granting her honors seldom afforded to women. Lords and knights from across the realm were summoned to King’s Landing to swear their oaths to her as his rightful heir. Yet even as the vows were spoken, doubts remained, for many recalled the Great Council of 101 AC, when the realm had chosen not Princess Rhaenys but her son Laenor Velaryon, and even he had been passed over in favor of Prince Viserys.

 

In 106 AC, King Viserys took to wife the Lady Alicent Hightower, daughter of his Hand, Ser Otto Hightower, against the advice of his Small Council who suggested Lady Laena Velaryon. In time she bore him three sons, Aegon, Aemond, and Daeron, and a daughter, Helaena. Thus two branches of House Targaryen arose, each with its own claim and company of loyalists: Princess Rhaenyra, the named heir, and Prince Aegon, the eldest son of the king’s second marriage. 

 

By the eleventh year of their union, the divisions within the court had hardened into factions. At a great tourney held in King’s Landing, Queen Alicent appeared clad in the green of her house, while the princess wore the red and black of House Targaryen. From that day forth, those who supported the queen’s cause were called the Greens, and those loyal to Rhaenyra, the Blacks.

To strengthen her claim, Rhaenyra was wed in 114 AC to Ser Laenor Velaryon of Driftmark, binding her cause to the Sea Snake and his powerful fleet. Yet whispers followed her sons, Jacaerys, Lucerys, and Joffrey, claiming their true father was not Laenor but possibly Ser Harwin Strong. The king forbade such talk, but the slander endured.

In 120 AC, the Velaryon family gathered on Driftmark for the funeral of Lady Laena Velaryon, wife to Prince Daemon Targaryen. There, grief and anger met in violence when young Lucerys Velaryon struck out the eye of Prince Aemond Targaryen during a quarrel over the dragon Vhagar. King Viserys forbade vengeance, but harmony within the royal family was lost forever. Not long after Laena’s death and the strife at her funeral, Rhaenyra and Daemon were wed on Dragonstone without the king’s leave, a union that bound them together in strength and scandal alike.

When King Viserys I Targaryen breathed his last in the year 129 after the Conquest, Queen Alicent and Ser Otto Hightower moved with secrecy and haste. The doors of Maegor’s Holdfast were closed, and none were permitted to leave. Even the servants who attended the king’s deathbed were confined, lest word of his passing reach Dragonstone before the queen’s purpose was achieved.

Within the Red Keep, a small council was held in secret. There it was resolved that the late king’s eldest son, Prince Aegon, should be raised to the Iron Throne in place of his elder sister, Princess Rhaenyra, despite the oaths once sworn to her. Lord Lyman Beesbury protested the decision and called it treason. In his defiance, he met his death—how precisely, the chronicles do not agree. Some say Ser Criston Cole slit his throat; others claim he was thrown from a window or left to die in the black cells. Thus fell the first man of note in what would become the Dance of Dragons.

The queen’s party, thenceforth known as the Greens, set about securing the city. The gold cloaks of the City Watch were brought into their confidence, and the gates of King’s Landing were barred. Those suspected of loyalty to Rhaenyra were seized or confined. At the same time, messengers were sent in secret to the Hightowers of Oldtown, the Lannisters of Casterly Rock, and the Baratheons of Storm’s End, seeking their oaths to the new king.

Prince Aegon himself was found not in readiness but in reluctance. Septon Eustace writes that he was discovered in his cups and required much persuasion, for the prince knew well that his sister would never yield her claim. Ser Criston Cole, called the Kingmaker thereafter, is said to have convinced him that to refuse would mean death for himself, his mother, and his kin. In the end, Aegon consented to take the crown.

Yet the matter of where and how to crown him caused division. Ser Otto counseled patience, fearing unrest should the deed be done within the Red Keep. Ser Criston argued that the realm must see their king anointed swiftly, before the princess could act. It was Criston’s counsel that prevailed.

Thus, on the eighth day after King Viserys’s death, Aegon was crowned in the Dragonpit before a great gathering of lords, knights, and smallfolk. Ser Criston Cole placed the crown of Aegon the Conqueror upon his brow, the same crown his grandsire Jaehaerys and father Viserys had worn. Grand Maester Orwyle anointed him with the seven oils, naming him Aegon of House Targaryen, Second of His Name, King of the Andals, the Rhoynar, and the First Men.

When the trumpets sounded, Ser Otto proclaimed him to the people, and the Dragonpit echoed with their cries of “Aegon! Aegon! Aegon the King!” Whether this joy sprang from loyalty or fear, none can say. The crown had found its bearer, yet the peace of the realm was already lost. For on distant Dragonstone, Rhaenyra Targaryen, rightful heir by her father’s own decree, would soon learn of her brother’s coronation—and in that moment, war became certain.

News of King Viserys’s death reached Dragonstone only after many days, carried upon wings both literal and false. At first came whispers, then ravens bearing tidings that Prince Aegon had been crowned in King’s Landing and hailed as Aegon II. When the truth could no longer be denied, Princess Rhaenyra was seized by rage and grief in equal measure. Heavily with child, she went into a labor brought on by fury and despair, cursing her half-brother and those who had betrayed her father’s word.

 

Her daughter was stillborn. Some say the babe was born twisted and scaled, a dragon’s tail coiled about her body. Mushroom writes that Rhaenyra named the child Visenya and that she swore vengeance over the little corpse, vowing that her brother would pay for every pain she had suffered. Whether true or no, the loss hardened her resolve.

 

Soon after, Ser Steffon Darklyn of the Kingsguard, who had fled King’s Landing, came to Dragonstone bearing the late king’s crown—the circlet of gold with points of iron worn by Jaehaerys the Conciliator and by Viserys himself. With him came others who had slipped from the capital, declaring their allegiance to Rhaenyra. The Sea Snake, Lord Corlys Velaryon, and Princess Rhaenys stood foremost among her supporters, as did Prince Daemon Targaryen, her husband.

 

It was decided that Rhaenyra should be crowned without delay. On the beach below Dragonstone, before the great black dragon Syrax and the banners of her house, Ser Steffon placed the crown upon her head. Ser Harrold Westerling had long since died, so it was Ser Steffon, one of the remaining loyal Kingsguard, who knelt before her and hailed her as his queen. The knights and lords of her party followed, bending the knee and crying out, “Long live the queen!”

 

Grand Maester Gerardys anointed her with the holy oils, declaring her Rhaenyra of House Targaryen, First of Her Name, Queen of the Andals, the Rhoynar, and the First Men, Lady of the Seven Kingdoms, and Protector of the Realm. Bells rang across Dragonstone, and for the first time in the history of Westeros, a woman was crowned sovereign upon the isle of dragons.

 

Word of her coronation spread swiftly by raven and by ship. Many lords of the Narrow Sea and the Vale swore to her cause, while others hesitated, torn between oaths sworn to Rhaenyra and the fear of Aegon’s power in the capital. Yet the queen’s court upon Dragonstone grew strong, for she held the loyalty of the Velaryons, whose fleet ruled the Gullet, and the might of Daemon’s dragons besides.

 

Thus was Rhaenyra Targaryen crowned, and thus were two monarchs raised against one another, each claiming the Iron Throne by right and blood. The crown of Viserys rested upon her brow, the crown of Aegon the Conqueror upon her brother’s. The die was cast, and the realm stood poised between fire and fire.

 

After the rival coronations of King Aegon II and Queen Rhaenyra, the realm stood divided. Though no formal declaration of war had yet been made, both sides understood that peace could not endure. The greens held the Iron Throne and the strength of the Crownlands, while the blacks controlled Dragonstone, the Velaryon fleet, and the greater number of dragons. Each sought to win the realm to their cause before swords were drawn in earnest.

 

Prince Daemon Targaryen, husband to Queen Rhaenyra and rider of the dread dragon Caraxes, struck first. Taking advantage of confusion in the riverlands, he flew upon Harrenhal, that vast and cursed ruin whose lords had long been wary of both crown and queen. The men of House Strong, fearful of the prince and his beast, yielded the castle without bloodshed. Daemon took the great fortress for the queen and established his seat there, from which he might threaten both the Trident and King’s Landing itself. From Harrenhal he sent ravens, calling upon the lords of the riverlands to remember their oaths to Rhaenyra. Many answered, for the Tullys, Blackwoods, and Mootons all bent the knee to her cause.

 

Meanwhile, Rhaenyra’s eldest son and heir, Prince Jacaerys Velaryon, took wing upon his dragon Vermax to win allies in the Vale and the North. In the Eyrie, Lady Jeyne Arryn received him with courtesy and pledged her strength to the queen, remembering both blood and honor. From there he flew across the cold winds of the Neck to Winterfell, where Lord Cregan Stark awaited him. The two young men swore oaths of friendship beside the heart tree in the godswood, sealing their pact in the old northern fashion. Thus the Blacks gained the allegiance of the Vale, the North, and many of the riverlords—a triad of strength that would soon march to war.

 

Yet even as these bonds were forged, tragedy struck. Seeking to secure the Stormlands, Queen Rhaenyra sent her second son, Prince Lucerys Velaryon, to Storm’s End to remind Lord Borros Baratheon of his sworn fealty. Mounted upon his dragon Arrax, the boy flew south through winter wind and rain, unaware that his uncle Prince Aemond had gone before him.

 

Prince Aemond Targaryen had come to Storm’s End upon Vhagar, the mightiest living dragon, bearing King Aegon’s offer of marriage between House Baratheon and the crown. Lord Borros, ever proud and fond of spectacle, received him with honors. When Lucerys arrived not long after, he was met coldly. Aemond mocked him as a bastard and demanded an eye for the one he had lost years before at Driftmark. The young prince refused, and Borros forbade bloodshed beneath his roof. Lucerys mounted Arrax and took flight into the rising storm.

 

Aemond pursued. Over Shipbreaker Bay, beneath thunder and lightning, the dragons clashed. Some say Aemond meant only to frighten his nephew, but the fury of the storm and the will of dragons are not easily mastered. Vhagar fell upon Arrax, tearing him apart. The smaller dragon’s remains were found upon the rocks below, and Lucerys’s corpse was washed ashore the next day.

 

When word of the prince’s death reached Dragonstone, Queen Rhaenyra fell into despair. The Sea Snake wept for his grandson, while Prince Daemon, grim and cold, sent word to his wife that “an eye for an eye, a son for a son” would be repaid. Mushroom claims that it was then Daemon hired the assassins known as Blood and Cheese, setting in motion one of the darkest acts of vengeance in the annals of the realm.

 

Thus were the first blows struck in the Dance of Dragons: Daemon’s swift capture of Harrenhal, Jacaerys’s winning of the North and the Vale, and the storm-born death of young Lucerys above Shipbreaker Bay. From these deeds the realm learned that the war would be fought not only with swords and banners, but with fire and blood, and that none—neither prince nor peasant—would escape the ruin to come.