House Velaryon. Your people too strong-willed. Your ships too powerful. Your rizz too unmatchable. They’ll kill you! Okay, this isn’t exactly a House of The Dragon spoiler, people.
This is the game of thrones: You either win or you die. And we know enough of the peripheral history of Westeros to know that House Velaryon doesn’t quite win this game, but it sure plays an important part in the Dance of the Dragons and Targaryen history.
A house so rich and prominent, with dragons and ships on their side, yet we don’t hear much from them in Game of Thrones. So what happened to House Velaryon during the Dance of the Dragons and the aftermath? Let’s set sail for some lore, shall we?
Anchors down, spoilers for House of the Dragon and Fire and Blood ahead!
Before the Dance of the Dragons
In House of the Dragon season 1, when we meet the Velaryons, all their members are intact. Lord Corlys Velaryon, the Sea Snake, a very powerful naval commander, is the head of the house. His wife is Princess Rhaenys Targaryen, the Queen That Never Was. And they have two children—a son, Ser Laenor Velaryon, and a daughter, Lady Laena Velaryon. Corlys also has a brother we meet in the course of the season, Ser Vaemond Velaryon.
Laena Velaryon
From the events of season 1, we know that Lady Laena marries Prince Daemon Targaryen, the younger brother of King Viserys I. With him, she has two daughters, Baela and Rhaena. She dies while giving birth to her third child, when she commands her dragon, Vhagar, to set her on fire once she knows she won’t survive childbirth.
Laenor Velaryon
Her brother, Ser Laenor, is married to King Viserys’ heir, Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen. Laenor can’t get Rhaenyra pregnant, but she still has three sons—Jaecaerys Velaryon, Lucerys Velaryon, and Joffrey Velaryon, fathered illegitimately by Ser Harwin Strong, but accepted by Laenor and given the Velaryon name.
After the death Ser Harwin, when questions are raised on the legitimacy of her sons’ parentage, Rhaenyra needs someone strong to stand by her. Her recently widowed uncle, Daemon, and she hatch a plan to fake Laenor’s death (in the book, he actually dies) so he can escape and live his life as a warrior the way he wanted, while Rhaenyra is free to marry Daemon.
In light of Laenor’s death, and Lord Corlys taking severely ill after a battle in the Stepsons, Rhaenyra’s son Lucerys Velaryon is declared the heir of Driftmark. However, Corlys’ brother, Vaemond, challenges Lucerys’ claim before the king, calling all Rhaenyra’s sons by Laenor “bastards.” For this, Daemon, her now husband, slices his head off with his Valyrian steel sword, Dark Sister, in the throne room. An ailing King Viserys dismisses all claims against Luke’s legitimacy, and declares him heir to the Driftwood Throne.
Lucerys Velaryon
Lord Corlys returns healthy. However, a young Lucerys Velaryon, sent as an envoy to the Baratheon’s of Storm’s End to get support for his mother’s claim to the Iron Throne, is killed by the usurper King Aegon II’s younger brother, Prince Aemond Targaryen, and his dragon, Vhagar.
During Dance of The Dragons
Princess Rhaenys Targaryen
We’re going to be sorry to see this badass boss lady go, but according to Fire and Blood, King Aegon II’s new Lord Hand, Ser Criston Cole, plans a more aggressive and shrewd approach. A battle with dragons and soldiers is fought at Rook’s Rest in the Crownlands, where Princess Rhaenys and her dragon Meleys fall from the sky. Meleys is ripped to pieces, while Rhaenys is charred to death.
Jaecaerys Velaryon
In season 2, the Velaryon fleet had blocked the Gullet that allowed naval routes into King’s Landing, and suspended their supply routes. In a battle of the Gullet that broke the blockade, Rhaenyra’s eldest son and heir to the Iron Throne, Jaecaerys Velaryon, was killed.
Addam of Hull
You remember the two new characters introduced in the start of House of the Dragon season 2? Alyn of Hull and Addam of Hull, two brothers, are what they call dragonseed. They’re illegitimate children who have blood of the two dragon rider houses, the Targaryen and Velaryon dynasties, and can bond with and command dragons because of this.
Alyn and Addam of Hull, it is later discovered, are the bastards of Lord Corlys. After his wife’s death, Corlys has Queen Rhaenyra legitimize them as his sons and heirs to the Driftwood throne after him. The two also become dragon riders, with Addam claiming the late Ser Laenor’s dragon, Seasmoke.
Unfortunately, there were other dragonseed who betrayed the Blacks, which made Rhaenyra paranoid. She had Addam imprisoned, until Lord Corlys helped him escape. For this, Lord Corlys was thrown into prison. The escaped Addam, on Seasmoke, fought a battle to prove his loyalty to Rhaenys at Tumbleton, which he won for her, too. But he lost his life.
The imprisoning of Lord Corlys lost Rhaenyra the support of House Velaryon.
Joffrey Velaryon
Once Rhaenyra claims King’s Landing, there’s a lot of unrest in the capital. A storming of the Dragonpit happens, where her third and last Velaryon son, Joffrey, falls to his death.
Lord Corlys Velaryon
Lord Corlys, the oldest, is sadly the ultimate survivor of House Velaryon and still has many important parts to play. Once Rhaenyra is killed and King Aegon II takes over, Lord Corlys is freed from the dungeons after his granddaughters Baela and Rhaena advocate for his release.
Queen Alicent and Lord Larys Strong want Corlys to support King Aegon II, and Corlys agrees but on the condition that Rhaenyra’s fourth son (first by Daemon), Aegon III, be allowed to live and get married to King Aegon II’s daughter, Princess Jaehaera. Despite Aegon II’s reluctance, this wedding happens, and Lord Corlys is invited to serve on the king’s Small Council, as well.
King Aegon II doesn’t live for too long, and he dies without an heir. After a lot of political machinations, Rhaenyra’s son, the young Aegon III, is crowned king. Lord Corlys rules in his stead as his regent.
After the Dance of the Dragons
Alyn of Hull/Alyn Velaryon
After the death of Lord Corlys, his adopted heir, Alyn of Hull, later Alyn Velaryon, becomes the Lord of Driftmark. He goes on to perform several voyages, becomes King Aegon III’s Master of Ships, and also fights and defeats a Greyjoy lord!
Eventually, he marries Laena and Daemon Targaryen’s daughter, Baela (originally betrothed to Jaecaerys Velaryon) in a rushed wedding to protect her from being forced to marry someone else. They have a couple of kids, but he also has an affair with the youngest daughter of King Aegon III, Princess Elena, who gives birth to a son and daughter by him. Before they can marry, Alyn is lost at sea.
Baela and Rhaena Targaryen
Daemon Targaryen and Laena Velaryon’s daughters both survive the war.
While their grandfather Lord Corlys is alive and regent to King Aegon III, Baela and Rhaena live a royal life in King’s Landing. However, when he dies, a small council gets together to plan for an heir to the young King Aegon III, and decides to wed Baela against her will to some Lord. However, Baela flees to Dragonstone, where she marries Alyn Velaryon. She has a two children by him. Baela eventually returns to the king’s court at King’s Landing.
The same council gets Rhaena married too, and she chooses Lord Corwyn Corbay as her husband. She has a miscarriage, and later, her husband dies while trying to sort out some issues for the king in the Vale. She is staying at Dragonstone at the time. Eventually, she marries again to Garland Hightower and has six daughters by him
