#visenya had killer arms at least

[viranelle]

Visenya Targaryen - The Fierce Dragonrider and Warrior

Queen Visenya Targaryen was the older sister and wife of King Aegon I Targaryen, the first Lord of the Seven Kingdoms. Her younger sister, Rhaenys, was married to Aegon as well. Visenya was a dragonrider, and rode the dragon Vhagar.

Biography

Born on the island Dragonstone, Visenya was the eldest child of Lord Aerion Targaryen and Lady Valaena Velaryon. Her two younger siblings, Aegon and Rhaenys, were born within a few years following her birth.Since young age, Visenya trained together with Aegon at arms, and she became a skilled warrior.

Like her siblings, Visenya possessed the classical Valyrian features: long, silver-gold hair, which she often braided or bound up in rings, and purple eyes. Hers was a harsher, more austere beauty than her sister, Rhaenys. A voluptuous, sensual, and passionate woman, Visenya was also stern, serious, and unforgiving. Some claimed that she dabbled in dark sorceries and played with poisons. Visenya Targaryen was a great warrior. She had a Valyrian steel sword she called 'Dark Sister'. Her most notable action was the single-handed conquest of the Vale of Arryn. 

As expected, Visenya was wed to her brother Aegon following Valyrian custom. However, Aegon took their younger sister as a wife as well. People claimed that he had wed Visenya out of duty, and Rhaenys out of desire. Prior to her wedding, Visenya became a dragonrider, having bonded with the dragon Vhagar.

Visenya was also responsible for bringing the Vale to heel. The Vale's seat of power, the Eyrie, was impossible to take by conventional means owing to its natural defenses atop a mountain. Visenya, however, merely flew her dragon Vhagar over the narrow pass and mountain peaks to land in the courtyard of the Eyrie, where the young king Ronnel Arryn was at play. Recalling the fateof Harrenhal and its lords who refused to bend the knee, the Queen Regent of the Vale, Sharra Arryn, surrendered peacefully on the condition that her son Ronnel be allowed to ride on Vhagar; Visenya kindly complied.

Visenya was the mother of Maegor Targaryen, known as Maegor the Cruel, the third King of the Seven Kingdoms, but he died without issue, so all of the subsequent Targaryen rulers (including Daenerys Targaryen) claim their descent from Visenya's sister, Rhaenys.

Visenya (left) with her brother Aegon I and younger sister Rhaenys.

When her brother Aegon began his conquest of the Seven Kingdoms, Visenya sailed with him from Dragonstone. Visenya subdued House Stokeworth and, following the defeat of House Darklyn in battle against Aegon and his bastard half-brother Orys Baratheon, did not hesitate to claim the riches of Duskendale, greatly swelling the coffers of House Targaryen. After having conquered a dozen houses, Aegon was crowned king. Visenya, now queen, placed a Valyrian steel circlet on Aegon's head while their sister Rhaenys hailed him as the new king of Westeros. Following the coronation, Visenya accompanied the Targaryen fleet to Gulltown and the Vale. When the Arryn fleet sunk a third of the Targaryen ships and captured many more, Visenya descended from the sky upon Vhagar, burning their ships.

Next, Visenya was sent to Crackclaw Point by Aegon. The local lords had learned of the faith that had befallen Harren Hoare at Harrenhal, and submitted quickly, swearing oaths of fealty. Visenya took them as her own men, and from that day forth the lord owed their loyalty directly to the Iron Throne.

Visenya met Rhaenys, Aegon, and the Targaryen host at the Stoney Sept, from where they raced south. There, they met the combined hosts of the Reach and the westerlands in battle. Visenya and her siblings fought from dragonback, setting the dry grasses and stands of wheat on the battlefield afire. With more than four thousand men dead from the fire, and tens of thousands wounded by the flames, the battle became known as the Field of Fire. King Mern IX Gardener of the Reach died in battle and King Loren I Lannister of the westerlands fled, giving the Targaryens the victory.

Visenya riding Vhagar into battle.

Visenya fought alongside her siblings in the First Dornish War, which lasted from 4 AC to 13 AC. After Rhaenys died in Dorne in 10 AC, Visenya and Aegon, grief-stricken at her death, set every castle, keep, and holdfast in Dorne ablaze at least once, with the exception of Sunspear and it's shadow city. They also placed bounties on the heads of the Dornish lords. Although half a dozen and more of those lords were killed by assassins, only two of the killers lived to collect their reward. In retaliation, the Dornish lords hired catspaws themselves. Visenya and her escort were once attacked in King's Landing, and she cut down the last would-be assassin down herself with Dark Sister. At another occasion, in 10 AC, Aegon and Visenya were attacked on the streets of King's Landing, where Visenya's actions saved Aegon's life. When Aegon argued that his guards were still sufficient for his protection, Visenya drew Dark Sister. Before the guards could react, she had cut Aegon's cheek, pointing out to him that his guards were slow and lazy. This event led to the birth of the Kingsguard. Visenya modeled the vows of the Kingsguard upon the vows of the Night's Watch, and selected the first seven members herself. 

In 13 AC, Princess Deria Martell arrived in King's Landing in 13 AC with a delegation from Dorne to discuss a peace. With her, she brought the skull of Rhaenys's dragon, Meraxes, which was ill-received by Visenya. Deria and Aegon eventually reached an agreement, striking a peace which ended the war. 

The day-to-day governance of the realm was often left in the charge of Visenya and Rhaenys, and Aegon's councilors.

Rhaenys's death in Dorne in 10 AC shattered the health of her son Aenys, and people began to doubt as to whether he would live. As Visenya had not yet gotten pregnant by Aegon despite more than a decade of marriage, some had come to believe that she was barren, and even went as far as to suggest to Aegon that he should take a new wife. Although many young women were presented to Aegon, he refused to voice his opinion on the matter. In 11 AC, Visenya announced she was pregnant with a son, and the next year, she gave birth to Aegon's second son, Maegor on Dragonstone. Visenya raised Maegor on Dragonstone, and gave him her Valyrian steel sword, Dark Sister, as a nameday present when the boy turned thirteen. 

When he grew up, he became a tall, broad, and fearsomely strong man, larger than his father, Aegon I Targaryen. Maegor was a born warrior whose skill with weapons was unmatched. He lived for war, tourneys, and battle, and rose to become one of the youngest and finest knights of his time. However, he was also a hard and brutal man who craved violence, death, and absolute mastery over all he deemed his. His savagery in the field and his harshness toward defeated enemies was frequently remarked upon. The polygamous Maegor had six wives.

In 23 AC, Aenys's first child, Princess Rhaena, was born. Shortly after Maegor turned twelve, Visenya proposed a betrothal between her son Maegor and Rhaena, to settle the issue of the royal succession, as Rhaena's birth had sparked the discussion about who was next in line behind Aenys: his own daughter (Rhaena) or his brother (Maegor) However, the High Septon protested, and suggested his own niece, Lady Ceryse Hightower, as a bride for the young prince instead.

Visenya's relationship with Aegon, which had never been a warm one, grew more distant. When Aegon in 35 AC had the Aegonfort torn down so they could start building the Red Keep, Visenya was left in charge of the construction. In his histories, Archmaester Gyldayn states that it was suggested at court that Aegon had left Visenya at King's Landing so that he would not have to endure her presence on Dragonstone.

When Aegon died, both Visenya and Maegor were present as his body was cremated and Aenys I Targaryen was crowned. Aenys gifted Maegor with Blackfyre saying he was more fit to wield it. Visenya Targaryen voiced the opinion that Aenys was unfit to rule, claiming that, by giving Blackfyre to Maegor, Aenys had admitted that he lacked the strength to rule.

In 39 AC, Visenya's son Maegor shocked the realm by taking a second wife and married Alys Harroway. Visenya officiated the wedding for lack of a septon. The outrage that followed resulted in Maegor being sent into exile. Visenya was present the next year at the wedding of Princess Rhaena to Prince Aegon. (Prince Aegon was King Aenys’s son as was Princess Rhaena.) At the feast that followed the ceremony, King Aenys named Aegon Prince of Dragonstone, a title which had previously belonged to Maegor. Visenya left the feast in protest and returned to Dragonstone upon Vhagar. Singers claim that the moon turned red as they passed it.

When King Aenys abandoned King's Landing at the start of the Faith Militant uprising and fled to Dragonstone, Visenya counseled him to burn down the Starry Sept in Oldtown and the Sept of Remembrance in King's Landing. Aenys, incapable of making a firm decision, instead fell ill and chose not to heed her counsel. Visenya took over his care and for a time his health improved. Aenys suffered a collapse when he learned his son Aegon and daughter Rhaena were besieged in Crakehall, and he died three days later. As soon as Aenys was buried, Visenya then mounted Vhagar and flew to Pentos to retrieve her son Maegor from exile.

With Visenya's aid, Maegor claimed the Iron Throne. Visenya accompanied him to King's Landing, where she challenged anyone who denied Maegor's right to rule, which resulted in a trial of seven between Maegor and the Warrior's Sons. Though severely injured, Maegor was the only survivor.

In 42 AC, Visenya flew to Driftmark upon Vhagar to convince Aenys's widow, Dowager Queen Alyssa Velaryon, to leave her father's castle to where she had fled after her husband's death. At the royal court, it was said that Maegor's Hand of the Kingand council members enacted his will but did not have his ear - but instead, he was ruled by three queens: his mother Visenya, his paramour and second wife Alys Harroway, and his new third bride, the Pentoshi spymaster Tyanna of the Tower, a rumored sorceress. Visenya came to distrust Tyanna and a rivalry developed between them.

In 43 AC Visenya aided her son against those who refused his royal summons. Mounted upon her dragon Vhagar, she burned the seats of several houses in the riverlands, as once she had burned castles in Dorne: House Blanetree, Terrick, Deddings, Lychester, and Wayn. Next Visenya and Maegor turned towards Oldtown, threatening to incinerate the Starry Sept in response to the High Septon's condemnation of her sons polygamous marriages. When the High Septon suddenly died, Lord Martyn Hightower opened the city's gates, saving Oldtown from the fire. Visenya watched as the new High Septon anointed her son as king.

After Maegor's victory in the Battle Beneath the Gods Eye, Visenya persuaded her son to spare the lives of several highborn rebels. After Prince Aegon's death, Visenya held Alyssa and her two youngest children, Jaehaerys and Alysanne, as her wards on Dragonstone.

By 44 AC - despite being healthy enough to ride her dragon to battle the year before - Visenya had grown thin and haggard, as the flesh had "melted" from her bones. Visenya died that same year while Maegor was on campaign. Upon her death, Alyssa and her two children slipped away from the castle in the confusion, taking Visenya's Valyrian steel sword Dark Sister with them.

After Visenya's death, it was suggested that she had caused Aenys's sudden death, causing some to call her a kinslayer and kingslayer.

Visenya was cremated as per Targaryen custom. Her bones and ashes were interred beside those of her brother, King Aegon I Targaryen.

Information & pictures: A Wiki of Ice and Fire & Game of Thrones Wiki

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