Difference between revisions of "Daenerys Targaryen"

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===A Feast of Crows===
 
===A Feast of Crows===
Tales are reaching Westoras of Dragons and a beautiful young queen.
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Tales are reaching Westeros of dragons and a beautiful young queen.
  
 
===A Dance with Dragons===  
 
===A Dance with Dragons===  

Revision as of 08:32, 11 August 2011

House Targaryen.PNG Daenerys Targaryen House Targaryen.PNG
Emilia Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen

Aliases
  • Dany
  • Daenerys Stormborn
  • the Unburnt
  • Mother of Dragons
Titles
  • Queen of Meereen
  • Queen of the Andals and the Rhoynar and the First Men
  • Lord of the Seven Kingdoms
  • Protector of the Realm
  • Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea
Allegiance House Targaryen
Culture Valyria
Born 284 AL
Dragonstone
Books

Played by Emilia Clarke

Daenerys Targaryen, called Dany, and also known as Daenerys Stormborn, is the the daughter of King Aerys II and his wife Rhaella. With most of her family slain during Robert's Rebellion, when her mother died giving birth to her the Targaryen dynasty was reduced to only her older brother Viserys and herself. In the TV series Daenerys is played by Emilia Clarke.[1]


History

Daenerys was conceived during the rebellion led by Robert Baratheon (also known as the War of the Usurper) that would ultimately end her family's reign. After her eldest brother, Crown Prince Rhaegar Targaryen, was slain in the Battle of the Trident, her mother and brother Viserys were sent to Dragonstone, the ancestral seat of her House, for their safety. Not long after, her father would be slain in the Sack of King's Landing.

Daenerys was born as a fierce storm struck Dragonstone, and so was called "Stormborn." Her mother died as a result of the labor. When the garrison began plotting to turn them over to the rebels, Daenerys and Viserys were smuggled away to the Free City of Braavos by a loyalist knight, Ser Willem Darry. In Braavos, they lived in a house with a red door. Ser Willem was old and sickly, but he treated Daenerys kindly. After his death, the servants drove Daenerys and Viserys from the house. Daenerys wept as they were forced out, and the house with the red door became her symbol for the childhood she had never known.

Viserys and Daenerys considered themselves the rightful rulers of Westeros: Viserys III, King of the Seven Kingdoms, and his heiress-presumptive Daenerys, the Princess of Dragonstone. In the years that followed, she and Viserys wandered among the nine Free Cities looking for aid, which earned Viserys the mocking title of "the Beggar King". He was often a cruel, abusive companion, prone to mood swings and fits of violence. His abiding obsession with regaining the crown that he felt was his by bloodright instilled in Daenerys a similar belief that reclaiming Westeros was the paramount goal of her life.

Family

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Aegon V
 
Betha
Blackwood
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Duncan
 
Jenny
of Oldstones
 
Jaehaerys II
 
Shaera
 
Daeron
 
Rhaelle
 
Ormund
Baratheon
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Aerys II
 
Rhaella
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
House Baratheon.svg
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Rhaegar
 
Elia
Martell
 
Shaena
 
 
Stillborn
child
 
 
Jaehaerys
 
 
Drogo
 
Daenerys
 
Hizdahr
zo Loraq
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Rhaenys
 
Aegon
 
 
 
Daeron
 
Aegon
 
Viserys
 
Rhaego
 

Recent Events

A Game of Thrones

Daenerys and her handmaidens Doreah and Irri

In the Free City of Pentos, the Targaryens were the guests of Illyrio Mopatis, a rich and powerful magister. Illyrio and Viserys arranged to marry the thirteen-year-old Daenerys to Khal Drogo, a great leader among the Dothraki people, who are nomadic horse lords. Viserys hoped to use the thousands of men in Drogo's khalasar to conquer Westeros. Despite Daenerys' fear and apprehension, she had no choice but to accept her brother's will and wed Drogo. At her wedding, the exiled knight Jorah Mormont pledged his service to Daenerys. He would become her closest companion. Two of Daenerys's wedding gifts were a magnificent silver filly and a set of three petrified dragon eggs.

Daenerys, her brother, and the khalasar traveled east to the only Dothraki city, Vaes Dothrak, in the heart of the Dothraki Sea, where Daenerys was presented to the crones known as the Dosh Khaleen. Viserys grew increasingly impatient, demanding that Drogo help him invade Westeros. Meanwhile, Daenerys, now fourteen, became pregnant with Drogo's child. At Vaes Dothrak, the crones prophesied that her child, to be named Rhaego after her late brother Rhaegar, would be "the stallion that mounts the world", a long-prophesied Dothraki conqueror. During a drunken rage, Viserys broke Dothraki law by drawing a blade in the holy city, inciting Khal Drogo to "crown" him by dumping a pot of molten gold over his head, killing him.

As Drogo's khalasar continued west, conquering foreign lands, Daenerys saved a Lhazareen priestess named Mirri Maz Duur, who was labeled as a maegi, from rape and possible murder at the hands of Drogo's men, and took her into service. When Drogo took a wound in battle that threatened his life, Daenerys commanded Mirri Maz Duur to heal him. But the maegi betrayed her, leaving Drogo a brain-dead husk and slaying Rhaego in the womb. Daenerys ended Drogo's life herself, and was abandoned by most of his khalasar. She ordered Mirri Maz Duur burned on Drogo's funeral pyre, and entered the flames herself with her dragon eggs. The resulting magic restored life to the eggs, from which three dragons hatched, the first to be born in the known world for centuries. Daenerys emerged unharmed, and was called "the Unburnt" and "Mother of Dragons". She named her dragons Viserion, Rhaegal and Drogon, after her two brothers and husband respectively. Three warriors of her late husband's remaining khalasar swore themselves to Daenerys as her bloodriders, and she became the first female Dothraki leader, a khaleesi in her own right.

A Clash of Kings

Daenerys Targaryen by Carrie Best©
Daenerys in Quartheen dress File details

When the funeral pyre was lit, a red star appeared in the sky. Daenerys, her dragons, and what little remained of Drogo's khalasar wandered in its direction to a desolate area known as the red wastes, until they found an ancient, abandoned city. There they recovered from the deadly ravages of the desert while Daenerys sent out scouts in all directions. One scout returned with three emissaries from the great city of Qarth. Daenerys accompanied them to Qarth, hoping for aid in conquering Westeros from the merchant emissary Xaro Xhoan Daxos, but the merchants of Qarth were only interested in obtaining her dragons.

Daenerys turned to one of the other emissaries, a warlock called Pyat Pree. Against the judgement of her friends and counsellors, she agreed to visit the warlock's leaders, the Undying Ones, in their hall, the House of the Undying. After viewing several mysterious portents and hearing vague prophecies, Daenerys realized that the warlocks were plotting against her, and destroyed the House of the Undying with the aid of Drogon. With nowhere else to turn, Daenerys considered the suggestions of the third emissary, the masked woman Quaithe of Asshai, that she must go further east to conquer the west.

While unsuccessfully seeking passage out of Qarth, Daenerys noticed that two men she did not recognize were following her and Mormont. Daenerys became distracted and was off her guard when a Sorrowful Man assassin tried to poison her with a manticore. One of her mysterious followers interceded and knocked the manticore away just in time to thwart the murder. The two men introduced themselves as agents sent by Magister Illyrio. One of them, a huge eunuch and former pitfighter called Strong Belwas, was to be her bodyguard. The one who had saved her life was Belwas's squire, an older Westerosi man called Arstan Whitebeard. Along with the two men, Illyrio had sent three merchant ships to transport Dany and her people to Pentos. Instead of returning to Pentos, however, Daenerys claimed the three ships and their cargo for her own, and continued to the east.

A Storm of Swords

Daenerys next traveled to Slaver's Bay, a region whose cities thrived on the sale and labor of slaves. In Astapor, she purchased an army of elite eunuch slave soldiers called Unsullied by pretending to sell Drogon. After taking control of the Unsullied, she reclaimed Drogon, commanding him to use his fires against the Astapori leaders, and used the Unsullied to conquer the city. After forming a council to rule Astapor, she set out for the city of Yunkai.

Yunkai had hired two sellsword companies, the Storm Crows and the Second Sons, in addition to conscripting a force of some four thousand slave soldiers. Daenerys parleyed with the captains of the companies, hoping to convince them to switch sides. Her arguments convinced one of the Storm Crows' commanders to assassinate his colleagues and pledge the company for Daenerys. To the Second Sons, Daenerys offered a great store of wine as tribute, then attacked them in the night while they were drunk and sleeping. With the Storm Crows' betrayal and the Second Sons' drunkenness, Yunkai's slave army was unable to withstand Daenerys's Unsullied. The entire Yunkish army was slain, captured, or put to flight and Yunkai surrendered a few days later.

Near Meereen, Daenerys was nearly killed by the Titan's Bastard, the former captain of the Second Sons. Arstan Whitebeard slew the Bastard, and finally revealed his true identity as Barristan Selmy, a famous knight of her father's Kingsguard who had served the Usurper Robert Baratheon after the end of the Rebellion. He claimed to have seen the error of his ways and had sought her out as the true heir to the Seven Kingdoms. Selmy also revealed that Jorah Mormont, still Daenerys's trusted right arm, had been sending reports on her actions to the spymaster in King's Landing, hoping for a pardon from King Robert. Daenerys felt betrayed by each of them, though both fervently wished to atone for their actions. During her siege of Meereen, she sent them on a covert suicide mission through the sewers, half hoping that they would die in the attempt. The mission succeeded and won the city with minimal blood. Barristan humbly submitted to his Queen's judgment and was forgiven. Jorah stubbornly continued to insist that he had done nothing wrong, and Daenerys was forced to banish him from her service - despite her desire to pardon him.

Having captured Meereen, Dany turned her eyes toward Westeros, but through talks with Barristan about her homeland and its history, she learned that there was much she did not know about ruling. Upon hearing that Astapor and Yunkai could not maintain the peace she had hoped to bring, she resolved to bring order to Slaver's Bay before leaving it behind. By this time, she is close on seventeen years.

A Feast of Crows

Tales are reaching Westeros of dragons and a beautiful young queen.

A Dance with Dragons

Dany is struggling as ruler of Meereen mainly due to the constant threats surrounding her. A portion of Meereen's former slaving families who call themselves the Sons of the Harpy are fighting a shadow war with her followers, attacking lone freedmen or Unsullied in the black of night and drawing a harpy nearby with the man's blood. The sons have also scrawled graffiti on the walls of Meereen in blood promising a death to the families of any who serve the Dragon queen. Her dragons have grown wilder, hunting sheep and livestock. Eventually a petitioner comes to her, presenting the bones of his six year old girl daughter "Hazza", claiming the "winged shadow" (Drogon) had killed her. Prompted by this, Dany had her Unsullied capture the dragons using nets and chains and lock them below ground to prevent any more such killings in a closed fighting pit, Viserion and Rhaegal were captured (though not without several Unsullied men dying) but Drogon escaped and disappeared.

In Meereen, men traditionally wear their oiled black and red hair in varying shapes in homage to Ghiscari culture. The Meereenese who now serve Dany shave their heads, symbolizing the abandonment of old Meereen to serve the new (these men are known as Shavepates) and are led by Skahaz mo Kandaq, known as "the Shavepate". Another of her Meereen councilors is the seneschal Reznak mo Reznak. Dany has enemies outside Meereen as well as inside. Since she ended the slave trade in Slaver's Bay, several of the Free Cities who rely upon slaves from the slave cities to fuel their economy have promised help to the remaining slave city of Yunkai to bring her down. Yunaki have hired sellsword legions such as the Long Lances, the Company of the Cat and the Windblown, and legions have also arrived from New Ghis. The Yunkai army with its sellswords first take Astapor from Cleon. The city fell after a siege and thousands of its inhabitants were either put to the sword or sent again into slavery. An escaped rider upon a pale mare (who managed to flee in the confusion of the siege) managed to bring word of this to Dany in Meereen. Unfortunately word was not the only thing he brought as he has infected with the bloody flux and several other Astapor citizens fled to Meereen bringing the disease with them. The merchant emissary Xaro Xhoan Daxos arrived from Qarth bearing a gift of thirteen ships if Dany abandons Slaver's Bay and sails for Westeros. Dany wishes to go but the thirteen ships are not enough to take her entire army of Unsullied, Dothraki, sellswords and freedmen. The Shavepates beg her not to go, for if she does they who served her and their families would die by the Sons of the Harpy. She refuses Xaro which prompts Qarth to join the Yunkai against her. Deaths of freedmen and Unsullied continue to grow nightly, and several former freed slave women were raped by the Sons of the Harpy before having their throats slit open. In despair and loneliness, Dany takes Daario Naharis as a lover. A plan is put to her by the Green Grace (high priestess) Galazza Galare suggesting Dany wed the Meereenese noble Hizdahr zo Loraq which might bring peace. Dany agrees if Hizdahr can promise to bring her ninety days of peace first, to which he agrees. When Brown Ben Plumm learns Dany can no longer control her dragons, he and his company of The Second Sons go over to the Yunkai.

At this point Quentyn Martell of Sunspear arrives to make a marriage claim but he is rejected since Dany already promised to wed Hizdahr if he succeeds in bringing about the ninety days of peace. After Hizdahr zo Loraq succeeds Dany weds him and under his direction Dany (much to her disgust) suggests peace terms with Yunkai, promising them that if they leave Meereen alone and do not attempt to enslave any of the former slaves she freed she would not disrupt the slave trade of Slaver's Bay any further. The Yunkai agree. To mark the occasion the fighting pits are reopened and several gladiators (who freely agreed to compete) battle in the arena. During the event Drogon appears, drawn to the screams of the crowd and the smell of death. He kills a boar in the arena but is then attacked by the pit fighter. Dany, seeing her "child" in pain, runs out in the arena to him as she sees other pit fighters going to kill the dragon. She arrives just as Drogon kills the first man. Dany manages to mount the dragon and ride him out of the arena. Many suspect that she is dead in Meereen. However, she is alive with Drogon thousands of leagues away and she and her dragon are discovered by the khalasar of Khal Jhaqo.

Appearance

Daenerys is small of stature and very beautiful. She has silver hair and purple eyes.[2]

References and Notes

This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Daenerys Targaryen.
The list of authors can be seen in the page history of Daenerys Targaryen.
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