Dark Sister

Dark Sister is a Valyrian steel sword whose recorded appearances span royal flight, Daemon Targaryen’s military career, and the closing violence of the Dance of the Dragons. Given to Daemon by Jaehaerys Targaryen and carried by him through several decisive encounters, it becomes part of the account of his last battle: after Daemon leapt from Caraxes to Vhagar, he used it against Aemond Targaryen, and it was later found with Aemond’s remains on the lake floor.

Identity and Early Record

The histories identify Dark Sister as a Valyrian steel blade and as the sword of Queen Visenya. One earlier account places the weapon with Queen Alyssa during her escape from Dragonstone: after Visenya’s death in 44 AC, Alyssa fled with Jaehaerys and Alysanne, carrying Dark Sister with them. The account establishes the blade’s presence in the royal family’s flight but does not explain how it passed from that episode to its later wielder.

Dark Sister’s next clearly described transfer is to Daemon. Jaehaerys gave it to him in recognition of his prowess, an honor that connected the prince to the royal past as well as marking his standing as a warrior. The record does not describe the sword’s shape or workmanship beyond its Valyrian steel, but it repeatedly places the blade in Daemon’s hand at moments when his authority, ambition, or survival is at stake.

Daemon’s Weapon and Campaigns

Daemon had earned his knight’s spurs at sixteen. After Jaehaerys presented him with Dark Sister, the sword accompanied a prince whose gifts were more evident in combat than in routine governance. During his private war in the Stepstones with Corlys Velaryon, Daemon assembled an army of adventurers and second sons, won victories in the conflict’s first two years, and in 108 AC confronted Craghas Drahar. Daemon killed him single-handedly and cut off his head with Dark Sister, a direct demonstration of the weapon’s use in the campaign that made Daemon’s reputation there.

By 109 AC, Daemon and his sellswords 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 upon his head. That precarious rule soon faced a new invasion from the Triarchy and an alliance with Dorne. Dark Sister’s recorded role in the campaign is not an account of every battle: it is specifically attached to Daemon’s personal victory over Drahar, rather than presented as a general chronicle of the war.

Marriage and Departure from the Stepstones

When Daemon sought Laena Velaryon’s hand, a Braavosi betrothed stood in the way. Daemon mocked him, and the young man challenged the prince to defend his words with steel. Armed with Dark Sister, Daemon swiftly defeated his rival. He married Laena a fortnight later and abandoned his hard-won Stepstones kingdom. The account thus places the sword at a turning point in Daemon’s life: it ends the immediate challenge to his marriage, while the marriage itself draws him away from the island realm he had claimed.

Daemon expected that Viserys would be displeased by the union. Soon after the wedding, he and Laena left Westeros on their dragons. Stories attributed their travels to a journey to Valyria, but the history rejects that version: they went first to Pentos, then to Old Volantis, and later travelled up the Rhoyne to Qohor and Norvos. These passages do not mention Dark Sister, so they offer no account of what became of the sword during the couple’s travels.

The Gods Eye and the Sword’s Last Use

Dark Sister returns to the narrative in Daemon’s final confrontation with Aemond. On the twenty-second day of the fifth moon of 130 AC, Daemon took Caraxes into the air above the Gods Eye while Aemond rode Vhagar. As the dragons fought and fell toward the lake, Daemon left his saddle and leapt from Caraxes to Vhagar. The sword in his hand was identified as the blade of Queen Visenya.

Daemon struck Aemond with Dark Sister as the dragons plunged into the water. Neither prince nor dragon survived. Caraxes managed to reach the shore before dying beneath the walls of Harrenhal; Vhagar sank to the lake floor. Years later, after the Dance of the Dragons had ended, Aemond’s armored bones were found still chained to Vhagar’s saddle, with Dark Sister lodged in his skull. The blade’s last recorded use is therefore inseparable from the deaths of both princes and both dragons, and from the discovery that fixed the outcome of their otherwise little-witnessed battle.

Historical Significance

The histories distinguish evidence from legend in recounting what followed. Daemon’s remains were never found, and singers claimed that he survived the fall and returned to Nettles. The account rejects that story as poor history, noting that even Mushroom gave it no credence. Dark Sister, by contrast, supplies a material trace of the battle: it was found with Aemond’s bones, confirming the reported final encounter even though Daemon’s own remains were absent.

Across its recorded appearances, the sword moves from the royal household’s precarious escape to Daemon’s campaigns and finally to the lakebed where the Dance’s most consequential personal duel ended. Its history is not a continuous inventory of ownership; gaps remain between its presence with Alyssa and its gift to Daemon, and its later travels are not documented. What the record does preserve is a succession of high-stakes uses, culminating in a weapon recovered not as a trophy described in a courtly aftermath, but as part of the physical evidence of a battle whose participants and dragons did not return.