Corlys Velaryon and Daemon Targaryen

Corlys Velaryon and Daemon Targaryen were allies whose partnership joined maritime power to dragonfire, and whose private and political ties repeatedly converged around House Velaryon. Their relationship was not simply a matter of personal affinity: it gave Daemon a powerful fleet and a route to renewed influence, while Corlys gained a formidable partner in resisting the Triarchy. From the Stepstones campaign to the later war over succession, their alliance linked military ambition with the politics of family and royal power.

An alliance forged at Driftmark

In 106 AC, while King Viserys Targaryen celebrated his marriage to Alicent Hightower, Corlys and Daemon met at High Tide on Driftmark to plan a campaign against the Triarchy. The absence of House Velaryon from the royal wedding marked a political distance from the court; Daemon, too, had become estranged from his brother and had turned toward another path to power. The partnership they arranged divided command according to their strengths: Corlys would lead the fleet, while Daemon would command the land forces and bring Caraxes into battle.

The cause was rooted in Corlys’s interests as a sea lord. The Triarchy had taken control of the Stepstones, a chain of islands that dominated important shipping lanes. Its increasingly burdensome tolls drove merchants to seek ways around its galleys, and its forces were also associated with the seizure of people from passing ships. Corlys’s fleets and wealth made him especially exposed to the consequences of Triarchy rule. Daemon, for his part, was eager for the gold and glory a victory might bring. The evidence presents their agreement as a convergence of purpose: Corlys sought to break a maritime power that threatened his interests, and Daemon found in the campaign a chance to win distinction and command.

The Stepstones campaign

The war began in 106 AC. Daemon assembled an army of landless adventurers and second sons and won a series of victories during the first two years. In 108 AC, when he encountered Craghas Drahar, known as the Crabfeeder, Daemon killed him himself with Dark Sister. Corlys’s naval command and Daemon’s army and dragon together made the alliance effective on land and sea, though the account distinguishes their roles rather than treating them as interchangeable leaders.

By 109 AC, Viserys was sending regular supplies of gold to support the campaign. Daemon and his forces controlled all but two of the islands, while Corlys’s fleet held the surrounding waters. At the height of this success, Daemon declared himself King of the Stepstones and the Narrow Sea, and Corlys placed a crown on his head. The gesture gave visible form to their partnership: Corlys did not merely provide ships but publicly endorsed Daemon’s new claim. Yet the crown did not make their position secure. The following year, the Kingdom of the Three Daughters sent a new invasion force under Racallio Ryndoon, and Dorne joined the opposing side. The fighting resumed, exposing the limits of their early gains.

Marriage and renewed ties

In 115 AC, after the death of Daemon’s wife, Rhea Royce, he flew to the Vale to pursue a claim to her lands and income. That claim failed, and he was warned that his presence there was unwelcome. On his return toward the Stepstones, Daemon stopped at Driftmark to pay a courtesy visit to Corlys and Princess Rhaenys. High Tide was one of the few places where he could be confident of being received. The visit brought him into contact with Corlys’s daughter Laena, whose earlier betrothal to a son of the Sealord of Braavos had remained unresolved after the Sealord’s death and the son’s loss of wealth and standing.

The account leaves Daemon’s motive open to interpretation. Singers attributed his interest in Laena to love; more cynical observers saw a political calculation. By then Daemon had fallen far in the succession, while House Velaryon had the power to stand apart from both factions. He asked Corlys for Laena’s hand. The existing betrothal was an obstacle, but Daemon killed the young man after provoking a challenge, and married Laena a fortnight later. He then abandoned his precarious Stepstones kingdom. Their marriage thus strengthened the personal bond between Daemon and Corlys, while placing Daemon within Corlys’s family; the narrative, however, does not reduce the match to a single motive.

From private campaign to royal conflict

The later succession crisis placed the two men in a renewed military partnership. During the conflict between Rhaenyra Targaryen and Aegon II, Daemon proposed an attack on Harrenhal, while the Velaryon fleet was to close the Gullet and blockade shipping entering or leaving Blackwater Bay. Corlys was to command the fleet, with Princess Rhaenys flying above it to guard against dragon attack; Daemon would lead the assault on Harrenhal aboard Caraxes. Their earlier division of military labor had a later counterpart: Daemon’s force would seize a mainland stronghold, while Corlys’s ships would restrict the enemy’s movement by sea.

This later cooperation unfolded in a changed political landscape. Daemon had once declared himself king with Corlys’s support; now their plans served Rhaenyra’s claim against a rival king. Viserys had tolerated Daemon’s Stepstones war, reportedly regarding it as a way to keep his brother occupied, but the later blockade and assault formed part of a direct struggle for royal power. The evidence shows the alliance operating across both settings without establishing that their aims or relationship remained unchanged in every respect.

The character of their relationship

Corlys and Daemon’s connection repeatedly joined individual ambition to larger political arrangements. Corlys’s fleet gave Daemon reach and resources; Daemon’s military leadership gave Corlys an armed partner against the Triarchy. Corlys’s crowning of Daemon recognized their shared success, while Daemon’s marriage to Laena brought their alliance into the family. Years later, the assignment of the fleet to Corlys and the assault to Daemon again made their cooperation a practical foundation for strategy.

The relationship is therefore defined less by private confession than by acts of trust and political consequence: meeting at High Tide, sharing command, publicly supporting Daemon’s brief kingship, welcoming him after his failed claim in the Vale, and coordinating forces in the later war. The narrative also preserves uncertainty about Daemon’s motives in seeking Laena, and it records the failure of the Stepstones kingdom despite their joint effort. Their alliance was powerful, but not a guarantee of lasting control; its enduring significance lies in how often their interests, military resources, and family ties brought them together.