Laena Velaryon

Laena Velaryon was a daughter of Corlys Velaryon and Rhaenys Targaryen, a dragonrider whose marriage and children linked the powerful Velaryon family to Daemon Targaryen and Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen. First proposed as a bride for King Viserys I Targaryen to repair a political breach, Laena instead married Daemon after the death of her original betrothed. Her story culminated in childbirth and a final, failed attempt to reach her dragon, Vhagar, so she could fly once more.

Identity and Early Prospects

Laena was born into a family with a strong claim to royal influence. Her mother, Rhaenys Targaryen, was a dragonrider and the daughter of the Old King’s eldest son; her father, Corlys Velaryon, was one of the realm’s wealthiest and most ambitious lords. Laena inherited Targaryen beauty through her mother and, according to the account of her proposed marriage, her father’s bold and adventurous spirit. She loved flying and claimed Vhagar, the oldest and largest of the Targaryen dragons after the death of Balerion in 94 AC.

When Viserys was urged to remarry, Grand Maester Runciter recommended Laena, then twelve. A marriage to her might have healed the growing rift between the Iron Throne and Driftmark, while giving the king a wife who could make a splendid queen. Viserys refused the match: he would marry again, but not a twelve-year-old and not for reasons of state. He chose Alicent Hightower instead. The choice again disappointed Corlys, whose son Laenor Velaryon had already lost out in the Great Council’s decision to name Viserys heir. Laena herself appeared untroubled; a maester at High Tide reported that she was more interested in flying than in boys.

Marriage to Daemon Targaryen

By the time Laena was twenty-two, her own intended marriage had become an obstacle rather than a prospect. Betrothed at twelve to a son of the Sealord of Braavos, she remained unwed after the Sealord died. His son proved wasteful and foolish, squandering his family’s wealth and power before turning up on Driftmark. Corlys repeatedly postponed the wedding, unwilling to proceed but unable to find a graceful way to end the arrangement.

Daemon encountered Laena at High Tide after leaving the Vale. The singers presented his interest as love; more cynical accounts treated the match as a means of reversing his declining political fortunes. Once considered Viserys’s heir, Daemon had fallen far down the succession, while the Velaryons had enough power to stand apart from the rival factions gathering around the throne. He asked Corlys for Laena’s hand. The Braavosi betrothed still stood in the way, until Daemon provoked him into a duel. Armed with Dark Sister, Daemon killed his rival and married Laena a fortnight later, leaving the Stepstones and the precarious kingdom he had established there.

The couple soon crossed the narrow sea on their dragons, away from the likely displeasure of Viserys. Their travels were later surrounded by conflicting accounts: one claimed that they went to Valyria, but the more concrete report places them first in Pentos, where the city’s prince welcomed them, then in Old Volantis, Qohor, and Norvos. Their journey carried them through cities concerned about the Triarchy’s growing power, and made Daemon a potential ally beyond Westeros.

Children and Family Alliances

In 116 AC, in Pentos, Laena gave birth to twin daughters, Daemon’s first trueborn children. He named them Baela, after his father, and Rhaena, after Laena’s mother. Both infants were small and sickly at first, but had silver-white hair, purple eyes, and fine features. When they were six months old and stronger, Laena and the girls sailed to Driftmark while Daemon flew ahead with both dragons. From High Tide, he sent word to Viserys and asked permission to bring his nieces to court. The king agreed despite heated objections from his Hand and small council, saying that fatherhood might have changed his brother; the visit brought the sons of Baelon Targaryen together in reconciliation for a second time.

Laena also became close to Rhaenyra, her good-sister. With Driftmark and Dragonstone near each other, the families visited often, and Laena, Daemon, and Rhaenyra sometimes flew together on their dragons. Their connection extended beyond companionship into dynastic planning: in 118 AC, with Viserys’s approval, Rhaenyra betrothed her sons Jacaerys Velaryon and Lucerys Velaryon to Baela and Rhaena. When Laena became pregnant again in 119 AC, Rhaenyra went to Driftmark to be with her during the birth.

Death and Final Attempt to Fly

Laena’s last labor began on the third day of 120 AC, later called the Year of the Red Spring. After a day and a night she gave birth to the son Daemon had long wanted, but the child was malformed and died within the hour. The ordeal left Laena weak; grief compounded her exhaustion, and childbed fever took hold. The young maester on Driftmark could not halt her decline. Daemon flew to Dragonstone to bring back Rhaenyra’s older, more experienced maester, Gerardys, but he arrived too late. After three days of delirium, Laena died at twenty-seven.

In her final hour, Laena is said to have risen from her bed and pushed away the septas praying over her. She tried to make her way to Vhagar, intending to fly one last time, but her strength failed on the tower steps and she collapsed there. Daemon carried her back to bed. Rhaenyra kept vigil with him over Laena’s body and comforted him in his grief. The scene gathers the defining elements of Laena’s life into one unfinished gesture: a woman remembered for her love of flight, still turning toward her dragon even when death had nearly overcome her.

Dynastic and Narrative Significance

Laena’s life repeatedly placed her at the intersection of personal choice and political calculation. Her proposed marriage to Viserys offered a way to reconcile the crown and Driftmark; her eventual marriage to Daemon strengthened his connection to Corlys’s powerful family. Her daughters’ betrothals to Rhaenyra’s sons further joined the two branches of the family, even as rivalry between the Greens and Blacks deepened around them.

Her death was the first of the major losses of 120 AC. The account emphasizes not only the stillborn child and the fever that killed her, but also Laena’s own final act of resistance to her failing body: trying to reach Vhagar. Her death left Daemon bereaved and ended the life of a dragonrider whose family ties had helped bind together the political and personal strands of the Targaryen succession conflict.