The events of the year 121 After the Conquest became a watershed, a boundary dividing the entire reign of Viserys II into two halves, unequal in time, but not in intensity.

The first eighteen years of King Viserys’s rule remained on the pages of chronicles and in people’s memory as a calm, well-fed, and blissful time, blessed by the gods, when the Seven Kingdoms grew in territories, wealth, glory, and wonders, in one of which you and I have the pleasure and honor to be today. Yes, a war happened in those years, but it ended quite prosperously and happily for the realm. Yes, in those years the royal house was sometimes shaken by scandals, like the demonstrative banishments of Daemon Targaryen, who at that time bore only one unofficial title—the Rogue Prince. However, all these were merely separate annoying moments, dissolving in the general mass of calm years, as a drop of wine dissolves without a trace in the Gods Eye.

The period that followed differed strikingly. House Targaryen did not simply grow like a branching tree, but reached such a degree that we must speak of its division into separate lines.

The senior branch, embodied in Viserys himself, the second of his name, and his offspring by his second wife, Alicent Hightower, remained in King’s Landing. Although they used the old Targaryen sigil with a red three-headed dragon on a black field, the young princes were more often called the Greens behind their backs, not so much in honor of the colors of their mother’s maiden sigil, but in honor of the color of Vhagar’s scales—the strongest and oldest not only among their dragons, but among all living at that time. Besides her, they had at their disposal Sunfyre of Prince Aegon and Dreamfyre, whose rider Prince Daeron became in 124 AC, as well as a young she-dragon named Tessarion, who chose Princess Helaena as her rider.

The middle line was formed from the two marriages of Daemon, King of Tyrosh, to the Pentoshi Princess Calla Karlaris and the eldest daughter of Viserys II, Princess Rhaenyra. Having barely received Tyrosh as a fief and his own niece as a wife, Daemon changed his sigil: the red dragon became single-headed, but now it was accompanied by a similar golden dragon. It is not hard to guess that the pair of beasts facing each other represented the dragons of Daemon and Rhaenyra—Caraxes the Blood Wyrm and Syrax. Even from the time of King Viserys’s wedding to Alicent Hightower, thanks to their spectacular appearance, they were known as the Blacks; this nickname passed to their numerous offspring; by 126 AC, five of Prince Daemon’s children had become dragon riders. Prince Viserys and Princess Visenya had yet to take to the saddle, but this did not threaten their younger sister, the three-year-old Princess Daenerys—she received no dragon egg, and her parents were in no hurry to introduce her to young dragons.

Finally, the junior branch descended from our founder and first patron, Prince Aegon the Clubfoot, and his wife, Lady Laena Velaryon, in whom the blood of Aemon the Pale Prince also flowed. This faction received the nickname White in honor of the dragon on the sigil Prince Aegon adopted after his wedding. Although the Blacks could rival the Whites in the number of saddled dragons, the advantage was on the side of the latter: besides Vermithor the Bronze Fury and Silverwing, Dragon’s Heart was home to four young dragons of the White princes, and besides them, Meleys and Seasmoke nested in the Dragonpit on Driftmark.

Among our brethren, it is customary, digging down to the true background of events, to establish with all possible precision the single true cause of everything that happened. Such a linear perception of history requires seeing only one cause, while there may be a whole multitude of them, and I especially warn you against such an approach in everything concerning the Dance of the Dragons. Everything we spoke of before and will speak of further are grains of sand of events which, lying on the scales of history, slowly but inevitably brought war closer.

I assure you, had Viserys II not made the decision to make his eldest son, whom we know as Aegon III, his heir instead of his brother Daemon, there would still have been a war. Had he done this earlier or later, the dragons would still have begun their dance of death, and no one, neither I nor the gods, can give you a guarantee that it would have been less terrifying than we know it.

However, one of such grains of sand seems particularly curious. We still do not know what prompted King Viserys to let his eldest sons fly on Sunfyre. Prince Aegon the Younger claimed Prince Aemond asked him to; the latter, in the presence of his father, mother, and Septon Eustace, swore on the Seven-Pointed Star that from beginning to end it was his elder brother’s idea. Their uncles also held opposite positions. Daemon the Elder, until the end of his days, apparently remained firmly convinced that the Queen and Father, or even the Master of Dragons, egged the children on. Aegon the White believed all this was nothing more than the consequence of the actions of a carefree king who did not think about the consequences, and the childish folly of the princes.

I will note only that the King of Tyrosh’s accusations can be confirmed, at least regarding the Queen, by the records of her lady-in-waiting, Lady Irma Florent. In her diaries, a copy of which her son so kindly provided to our Citadel, she noted the annoyance of her royal cousin (for their mothers were sisters) at the dragonlessness of her children and soothing promises to convince the father to give what belonged to them by right.

The final division of House Targaryen into three branches and the change of heir was supposed to be smoothed over by a mass betrothal among the descendants of Jaehaerys I. And yet the solemn ceremony was nothing more than a beautiful and pompous mask behind which the disunited royal family tried to hide the tension, anxiety, and distrust they themselves had sown among each other.

For a time, it could still be taken for a real face, but when the time came for the first of the chain of betrothals to turn into a full-fledged marriage, it became obvious to many that calm times were left behind. During the wedding festivities on the occasion of the wedding of Prince Aegon the Green and Princess Alyssa, guests raised their gazes to the heavens and counted how many dragons were flying over King’s Landing and the Blackwater. Undoubtedly, this spectacle was fascinating to the highest degree in its danger, captivating and magnificent in its resemblance to scenes from the times of Old Valyria, but the very fact of such comparisons testified that only the blind could be mistaken regarding the true background of events.

After the wedding, the King’s eldest son received the right to independently manage his fief. And though he showed no particular interest in the ancestral domain and left everyone who served there before in their places, the very fact of Prince Aegon’s coming of age marked a new page in the history of House Targaryen: the Young Dragons were spreading their wings and preparing to take their part in the game of political cyvasse.

Besides the heir to the throne and his spouse, his younger brother Prince Aemond, then a youth of fourteen, was present at the feast in their honor. At that moment, he had been his uncle’s squire for the fifth year, adopting martial arts from the wielder of Dark Sister. However, as the future showed, Prince Daemon made a rather mediocre mentor… But I run ahead.

Prince Jaehaerys Targaryen, Daemon’s eldest son by Princess Rhaenyra, doubtless known to you, was then heir to Tyrosh and had not even received knightly spurs yet, but managed to fly on his dragon Vermax over all his father’s domains not only on the islands but also in Essos. Another prominent heir, Prince Aemon the White, was even younger and took part in a squire’s tournament for the first time at his cousin’s wedding.

Besides Princess Alyssa, the eldest daughter of Prince Aegon the Elder, Princess Baela, can already be counted among the Young Dragons at that time. The wedding of her cousin, with whom she and her twin sister Rhaena remained friendly despite family quarrels and disagreements of parents, was a rehearsal for their own weddings for them.

However, another Young Dragon, deserving mention even more than the rest, was absent from that celebration. Many believed Aerion Ilyleon missing, or even dead, for from his very departure from Tyrosh in 120 AC he wrote neither to his uncle, nor to his grandmother, nor to his mother. It is worth saying that some counted on the latter turning out to be true, however, people have no power even over their own fate, let alone the fates of others.

And yet those fourteen days of continuous festivities, during which so much wine was spilled, and even more drunk, that a dragon could have been drowned in it, remained in human memory and on the pages of chronicles as one of the grand celebrations Viserys II was adept at arranging.

One might even say they were the last celebration arranged directly by the King himself, his swan song. In 125 AC, Viserys made a small journey, traveling with a small court through the Crownlands from Rosby to the Claw, and afterwards, through the islands of the Narrow Sea, to vassals on Massey’s Hook. Upon arrival from Duskendale to Dragonstone, the King suddenly fell ill with a fever, but recovered from it as quickly as he fell ill. It was announced that the Sovereign was struck down by a cold caused by the piercing winds of the Gullet, but the records of Maester Orwyle, who entered the Small Council shortly after this, testify that the illness was far more serious and, contrary to the court’s assurances, did not leave Viserys II completely.

In early 126 AC, he looked relatively healthy still, and only a very narrow circle of courtiers and councilors knew of the ailment. However, shortly after the wedding, the sickness made itself felt again, and the restless events of the subsequent months only exacerbated its development. One might even say that King Viserys bore the tragedy that befell Prince Aemond the following year even worse than the Prince himself. The Sovereign could no longer recover from this blow, and power, as in the last days of Jaehaerys I, concentrated in the hands of the Small Council. However, unlike that blessed time, both councilors and court, and indeed the entire realm, were far more disunited than thirty years ago.

From a course of lectures on history delivered by Archmaester Perestan at the Citadel of Dragon’s Heart in the year 299 After the Conquest.

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