Aegon III Targaryen

Aegon III Targaryen, known to history as the Dragonbane, was the king under whom the last of the Targaryen dragons perished. His reign marks the definitive end of the dragonlords' power in Westeros, closing an era that had begun three centuries earlier with Aegon the Conqueror. The extinction of the dragons during his rule is a foundational fact of the world's history, shaping the political and magical landscape of the Seven Kingdoms for generations to come.

Identity and Background

Aegon III was the son of Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen, and his ascent to the throne followed the devastating civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons. He was a child when he became king, and his reign was marked by the final decline of the Targaryen dynasty's most potent weapon. The dragons that had once been the family's greatest strength dwindled and died out entirely during his time on the Iron Throne. The last two hatchlings, born on Dragonstone, were no bigger than mastiff's skulls and oddly misshapen; they did not live very long. These were the last of the Targaryen dragons, perhaps the last dragons anywhere in the known world.

The Extinction of the Dragons

The death of the last dragons under Aegon III is a pivotal event. The creatures that had enabled Aegon the Conqueror to unite the Seven Kingdoms, and that had been a symbol of Targaryen power for centuries, were gone. The dragon skulls that once hung in the throne room of the Red Keep were a constant reminder of this lost legacy. When Tyrion Lannister later sought them out, he found them stored in a dank cellar, nineteen skulls ranging from the oldest, more than three thousand years old, to the youngest, a mere century and a half. The most recent were the matched pair of small, misshapen skulls from Dragonstone, the last of the Targaryen dragons. The greatest of them all, Balerion the Black Dread, could have swallowed an aurochs whole, but even his immense skull was now a relic of a bygone age.

Legacy and Significance

Aegon III's epithet, "the Dragonbane," reflects the bitter irony of his reign: a Targaryen king under whom the very creatures that defined his house vanished from the world. The loss of the dragons fundamentally altered the balance of power in Westeros. Without them, the Targaryens were no longer the unchallengeable force they had once been, and the realm became more susceptible to the ambitions of the great houses. The memory of the dragons, however, persisted. The stories of their glory and their fiery breath were passed down through generations, and the dragon skulls remained as silent witnesses to a lost age of magic and power. The extinction of the dragons during Aegon III's reign is a constant, somber backdrop to the events of the present story, a reminder that even the most formidable powers can fade and die.