Tarth

Tarth is an island whose eastern side was occupied by Myrish exiles during the conflict known as the Myrish Bloodbath. In the account of the campaign to reclaim it, the island’s central mountain spine and a hidden valley shape the fighting: they shelter the defenders, but cannot keep their position concealed. The invasion also became the setting for the death of Prince Aemon Targaryen, making Tarth the place where a military campaign turned into a profound loss for the royal family.

Setting and Invasion

After losing their struggle for power in Myr and being driven from the Stepstones, a faction of Myrish exiles landed on Tarth and surprised its ruler, Lord Cameron, the Evenstar. They soon occupied the island’s entire eastern side. The king and his council judged the invaders to be a force that could be expelled, and Prince Aemon was chosen to lead the assault.

The operation depended on bringing forces safely to the island. Corlys Velaryon was to lead his fleet south to protect Lord Boremund and his stormlanders as they crossed to Tarth, where they would join the Evenstar’s levies. The plan combined maritime protection with local forces and royal leadership; Prince Aemon’s dragon, Caraxes, was an additional advantage if the campaign met unexpected resistance.

The Mountain Campaign

Lord Cameron had withdrawn into the mountain spine running down the center of Tarth and established a camp in a concealed valley, from which he could observe Myrish movements below. Prince Aemon reached the island ahead of Corlys’s fleet on Caraxes and met the Evenstar there to make plans. The camp’s apparent concealment proved unreliable: smoke from the dragon’s fires drew the attention of two Myrish scouts moving through the heights.

At dusk, one scout recognized Lord Cameron in the camp and fired a crossbow bolt at him from a position among the rocks. The shot missed the Evenstar and struck Prince Aemon, who was standing beside him. Aemon died of the wound. The attack turned Tarth from the setting of a planned reconquest into the site of a royal death, before the main force had even completed its work.

Defeat of the Invaders

Prince Baelon came to Tarth on Vhagar seeking vengeance for his brother. The Myrish ships were burned, while Lord Cameron and Lord Boremund descended from the mountains against the invaders. The Myrish forces were defeated, and their losses on the island’s beaches marked the end of their attempt to hold it.

The campaign thus joined Tarth’s geography to both the course and cost of the fighting: its mountains gave Lord Cameron a concealed position, while the island’s shores became the scene of the invaders’ defeat. For the Targaryen family, however, victory did not reverse the loss. Baelon returned to King’s Landing with Aemon’s body, and the grief that followed remained attached to the island’s reconquest.