Because it spans one hundred and fifty years, there are many characters in ‘Fire and Blood.’ From court ladies to great Kings, many people had a part to play in the events that shaped the Seven Kingdoms. It all began with the arrival of Aegon I Targaryen, popularly called Aegon the Conqueror, on Westeros after King Argilac Durrandon’s disrespectful outrage. With Aegon’s landing, Westeros’s history changed as a few years later, Aegon, a member of House Targaryen, one of the noble houses from the Valyrian Freehold, would be anointed by the High Septon of Oldtown and sit on the Iron Throne as the King of the Andals and the First Men.
‘Fire and Blood‘ shows how a brutal dog-eats-dog world created a hotbed of political rivalry and antagonization. Like the previous novels in A Song of Ice and Fire, most characters in the novel are grey as they thread between evil and good.
Primary Characters in Fire and Blood
There are many interesting characters in the story of ‘Fire and Blood.’ Here is a list of them:
Aegon I Targaryen
Aegon I Targaryen, also called Aegon the Conqueror, was the first Targaryen King of Westeros. He led the conquest of the Seven Kingdoms after a botched agreement between him and King Argillac Durrandon, the Storm King. Aegon is tall and powerful in appearance. He had short-cut silver-gold hair and broad shoulders. Described as a charismatic and domineering man, he led a small army of men against the seven kings of Westeros.
Aegon was known to ride Balerion the Black Dread, a mighty dragon that breathed fire so hot that it could melt steel and stone and turn sand into glass. The King also wielded a bastard sword made of Valyrian steel. It was called Blackfyre.
On landing in Westeros, Aegon I Targaryen quickly conquered every King that stood in his way. However, he faced a formidable foe when he tried to take over Dorne. His conquest of the city would lead to immense bloodshed and the loss of his wife, Rhaenys Targaryen. In the end, he agreed to a peace deal. Most of Aegon’s reign as King was peaceful, and when he died, his son, Aenys, became King.
Visenya Targaryen
Queen Visenya Targaryen was Aegon’s elder sister and wife. She married her brother according to Valyrian tradition and had one son for him, Maegon Targaryen. Visenya was a fierce warrior and a beautiful woman. She had purple eyes and silver-gold hair. However, many people cited she had a harshness to her personality. Some people even claimed she dabbled in mysterious arts like the mastery of poisons and sorcery.
When Aegon landed in Westeros, Viseyan rode alongside him on her mighty dragon, Vhagar. With her help, Aegon subdued all his enemies as they were no match for Vhagar and Balerion. When the First Dornish War began, the Dornish lords placed a bounty on Aegon’s head. Bearing this in mind, Visenya convinced her brother to form an elite bodyguard unit that would guard the King day and night, protecting him from all harm, leading to the kingsguards’ creation.
Visenya also wielded a Valyrian steel sword called Dark Sister.
Rhaenys Targaryen
Queen Rhaenys Targaryen is the youngest of the Targaryen siblings. She was also Aegon’s wife and the love of his life, as he spent more time with her than Visenya. Unlike her sister, Rhaenys was a playful, impulsive, and curious woman who loved singing, dancing, and music. However, above everything, she loved riding atop her dragon Meraxes. Though no one doubted her loyalty to Aegon, she was known to surround herself with handsome men.
Rhaenys followed her brother to Westeros and participated in the conquest of the Seven Kingdoms. As the war ended, she flew to Dorne, where she met Princess Meria Martell. Rhaenys told the princess to surrender and bow to Aegon as King, but Meria rejected the proposal, saying Doirne would burn that bow to the Targaryens; this led to a brutal war that cost the lives of thousands of soldiers. During one of the battles, the Dornish soldiers shot Rhaenys and her dragon from the sky, killing them.
On learning of his wife’s death, Aegon became a bloodthirsty maniac who burned everything Dornish in sight. However,e he eventually made peace with the city. Before her death, Rhaenys had a son, Aenys, who later became King after Aegon’s death.
Orys Baratheon
Orys was the rumored bastard half-brother of Aegon Targaryen. He marched with the conqueror to Westeros and fought against the opposition. In a battle against the Storm King, Argillac Durrandon, Orys fought in single combat, and she agreed. A brutal fight between him and the Storm King ensued, and though he won, he forever respected Argillac. He honored the dead King by marrying his daughter, Argella Durrandon, and becoming the first Lord of Storm End; this marked the beginning of House Baratheon.
When Aegon went to war with Dorne, Orys fought as his esteemed commander. He was later captured and lost his sword hand to Wyl of Wyl. However, during the second Dornish War, he retaliated for his hand by taking the limbs of Lord Walter Wyl, Wyl of Wyl’s son. He later died a happy man while returning from war.
Aenys Targaryen
King Aenys Targaryen was Aegon I Targaryen’s first son and heir. He was a lovely man with a sweet voice. Aenys was known to make friends easily, and he was the goal of every young girl in the kingdom. However, upon Aegon I’s death, his problems started.
A series of rebellions broke out through Westeros as some lords decided to leave the Targaryens’s rule. Because he thought he was beloved throughout the kingdom, Aenys faltered and refused to take decisive action. However, his half-brother, Maegor Targaryen, descended on the rebellious lords with dragon and fire.
For his unwavering support, Aenys made Maegor the Hand of the King. Things later turned sideways when Maegor announced he was getting a second wife. As his decision was unsanctioned by the Faith of the Seven, Aenys gave his brother the option of exile, which he took.
Aenys later made a grave mistake by betrothing his son, Prince Aegon Targaryen, to his daughter, Rhaena; this led to a massive rebellion by the Faith. When the King learned members of the Faith surrounded his children in a castle, he slumped to the ground and later died.
Maegor Targaryen
Maegor Targaryen was the second son of Aegon I Targaryen. Like his mother, Visenya, he was an exceptional swordsman and warrior who excelled at every combat experience. Like his father, Maegor had a dominating presence. However, he lacked social skills.
As a child, he was known to be so cruel that he stabbed a horse to death and slashed half the face of the stableboy who tried aiding the animal. Maegor had no true friends. When his brother Aenys became King, he hoped to be the next in line for succession. However, Aenys and his wife, Alyssa, had six children; this pushed Maegor down the ladder.
Maegor married Cerys Hightower. However, when he fails to sire a child with her, he decides to take a new bride, Alys Harroway; this leads to him getting banished. However, upon Aenys’s death, he returns with another extra wife, Tyanna of the Tower, and claims the Iron Throne. Maegor ruled Westeros with an iron fist and soon became the most brutal King to have sat on the throne.
He declared war against the Faith of the Seven and killed everyone who opposed him. Unable to sire a child, he killed his wives, as he stated they were adulterous. He also married three extra women, including Rhaenna Targaryen, after he killed her husband, Prince Aegon, who was also his nephew. Eventually, all the lords abandoned Maegor for being too cruel, and shortly after their desertion, he was found dead on the Iron Throne.
Jaehaerys Targaryen
King Jaehaerys I Targaryen, also called Jaehaerys the Conciliator, was one of the best Kings Westeros ever had. He became King at age 14, after Maegor’s death, and would rule for the next 55 years. Jaehaerys was a tall and handsome young man with purple eyes. He was skilled with the lance and longbow. He rode the bronze and tan dragon called Vermithor.
When Jaehaerys’s sister, Alyssane, learned she would be getting betrothed to Ser Orryn Baratheon, she went to her brother and dispelled the news to him. Quickly, Jaehaerys took his sister and the kingsguard to dragonstone, where he held a small wedding ceremony with the kingsgaurd as a witness. The Hand of the King, Lord Rogar Baratheon, arrived and tried to disband the event. However, the King’s guards stopped and swore to kill him if he laid a finger on the King.
When he came of age, Jaehaerys and his wife traveled around Westeros on royal progress. The Vulture King tried rebelling against the Iron Throne but died. Jaehaerys and his sons would end the Fourth Dornish War by destroying the Dornish fleet. Jaehaerys would later make Septon Barth the Hand of the King. The Septon would champion many reforms in Westeros, including settling the Crown’s debts and abolishing the Lord’s Right to the First Night.
Towards the end of his reign, Jaehaerys faced a succession problem as his heirs, Aemon and Baelon, died. He called a Great Council to order, and Viserys became the next King.
Viserys Targaryen
King Viserys I Targaryen was King after Jaehaerys I. His reign was prosperous but marked the end of peace as the next two years after his death, a civil war called the Dance of the Dragons occurred. Viserys was a handsome and well-loved King.
He married Aemma Arryn and had a daughter, Princess Rhynaera Targaryen. After being unable to have a son, Viserys declared his daughter heir. He later married Alicent Hightower and had four children, including Prince Aegon Targaryen, Prince Aemond Targaryen, Princess Helaena Targaryen, and Daeron Targaryen.
To prevent fighting between Queen Alicent Hightower and his daughter Rhaenyra, Aegon sent his heir to dragonstone. However, Alicent made her son, Aegon, King when Viserys died, leading to a civil war.
Alicent Hightower
Queen Alicent Hightower was Viserys I’s wife. She bore him four children and served on the small council during the later days of her husband’s life. When viserys died, Alicent held a small council meeting and convinced them to make her son, Aegon, King; this led to the Dance of the Dragons. Alicent survived the war but became derilious. She later died.
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen
Rhaenyra Targaryen is Viserys’s first daughter and heir. She had the typical Targaryen looks and was declared the most beautiful maiden in the seven kingdoms by her uncle, Daemon Targaryen. Rhaenyra married Laenor Velaryon and had three sons, including Lucerys, Jacaerys, and Joffrey Velaryon. She also had two living children, Viserys and Aegon, with her uncle, whom she later married.
When her father died, Alicent Hightower met with the small council and declared her son, Aegon, King; this led to Rhaenyra sending a message to the Lords who swore to defend her rights. While delivering a message, one of her sons, Lucerys Velaryon, was killed by Aemond on Vhagar; this led to retaliation by Daemon, who ordered the assassination of King Aegon II’s son Prince Jaehaerys.
With deaths on both sides, the Dance of the Dragons entered full force as Rhaenyra’s Blacks faced Alicent’s Greens. The war raged on for two years. Though Rhaenyra briefly became Queen, she fled from King’s Landing in a riot, but Aegon II’s dragon, Sunfyre, ate her. King Aegon II was also later killed, and Rhaenyra’s son, Aegon, became King.
Aegon II Targaryen
King Aegon II Targaryen, also known as Aegon the Elder, was King after Viserys I Targaryen. Though he never wanted to be King, his mother made him the ruler out of fear of what might happen if he did not. After Lucerys Velaryon’s death, Daemon ordered a hit on Aegon’s children, and Jaehaerys got killed by two assassins, Blood and Cheese. King Aegon II grew bitter toward his half-sister after his son’s death, and the Dance of the Dragons entered full effect.
In one of the battles of the war, Aegon II and his brother faced Rhaenys Targaryen, the Queen that Never Was; this led to Aegon sustaining brutal injuries that left him in a coma for most of the war. He later decided to face the pain of his injuries rather than continue taking the Milk of the Poppy. Aegon later traveled to Dragonstone, where he waited for Rhaenyra, who showed up after the Storming of the Dragonpit. He eventually fed her to his dragon and returned to King’s Landing as King. However, he died after getting poisoned.
Prince Aemond Targaryen
Prince Aemon was King Aegon II’s brother. He flew atop Vhagar and was the most formidable dragon rider for the greens. After his brother’s accident, Aemond became prince regent and fought valiantly for the Greens. However, he died in the Battle Above the God’s Eye.
Daemon Targaryen
Prince Daemon Targaryen was King Viserys’s younger brother. He married his niece, Princess Rhaenyra, and fought as the principal commander for the Blacks. Daemon flew on Ceraxes and died in the fight against Vhagar and Aemond.
Aegon III Targaryen
King Aegon III Targaryen is Rhaenyra and Daemon Targaryen’s son. He became King after Aegon II’s death. Known as the sullen King, Aegon III was not a happy man, as he witnessed the brutality of the Dance of the Dragons. He married Aegon II’s daughter, Jaehaera Targaryen. However, she committed suicide. After Jaehaera’s death, Aegon III married Daenaera Velaryon. An assassin tried to poison Aegon and his wife, but they survived. On his sixteenth name day, Aegon III became the official King of the Seven Kingdoms.
Mushroom
Mushroom was a dwarf who served as a fool for King Viserys I Targaryen, Aegon II Targaryen, Rhaenyra Targaryen, and Aegon III Targaryen. He was one of the principal narrators for ‘Fire and Blood.’ Though many of his accounts are shrouded in truth, they are known to be dark and twisted, making him an unreliable source of accurate information. Mushroom was three feet tall and had a large head. He also claimed to have a large penis to match his head.
Septon Eustace
Septon Eustace was a septon attached to the royal sept of the Red Keep during Viserys I Targaryen’s rule. He wrote in great detail about the events at the courts of Viserys. Archmaester Gyldayn used his writings in ‘Fire and Blood,’ and other tales of the Seven Kingdoms.
Other Remarkable Characters in Fire and Blood
Besides the primary characters, there are many interesting characters in ‘Fire and Blood.’ They include:
Septon Moon
Septon Moon was a bearded, barefoot, and smelling man who preached to the poor fellows of the Faith. Rumors began spreading that he could make any barren woman conceive; this led to husbands bringing their wives to him so he could impregnate them. Septon Moon was later found dead in his tent.
Ser Criston Cole
Ser Criston Cole served as the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard for King Aegon II Targaryen. He was one of the most formidable commanders for the Greens and fought against Rhaenyra’s supporters. He died on the battlefield.
Lord Cregan Stark
Lord Cregan Stark was the Lord of Winterfell and one of the principal supporters of the Blacks. He led the Northmen in the most brutal land battle of the Dance of the Dragons. It ended in the Lannisters’ defeat.
Other crucial characters include Ser Otto Hightower, Harwin Strong, Queen Aemma Arryn, Lucas Harroway, Lord Corlys Velaryon, Lyonel Strong, Laenor Velaryon, Tyland Lannister, Thaddeus Rowan, and Gaemon Palehair.
