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- "Prince Aenar Targaryen of Bloodstone was the youngest of Baelon's surviving sons, and he was a terror from birth to death... "
- ―Grand Maester Munknun's account of Aenar
Prince Aenar Targaryen was a member of House Targaryen and the younger brother of King Viserys I Targaryen, and Prince Daemon Targaryen. He was the third son of Prince Baelon Targaryen, and the grandson of King Jaehaerys I Targaryen. Commonly called the Prince of Ashes and Aenar Dragonheart, Aenar was the brother-husband to his younger sister Taena. He is one of the earliest examples of a truly mad Targaryen.
He was the husband of Princess Taena Targaryen, and the dragonrider of the she-dragon Veramyx.
Appearance and Character[]
Aenar was younger than Daemon, but they were of a height, and the former was by far the comeliest of Baelon's children. Slim and beautiful, Aenar had fiery purple eyes that could have been the eyes of an actual dragon, considering the light they cast. He had lustrous silver hair that, in war, he shortened. While Daemon was saturnine and Viserys was plump, Aenar was fierce and possessed a godlike sense of gravity and power, which reflected his personality. He is often described to deign from wearing black, instead being resplendent in golden armour and with a red cape in battle, and on his dragon he often neglected to wear a harness to commit spectacular acts while fighting. It is often remarked that he looks a lot like his grandfather, King Jaehaerys, but people often remark that he has a certain resemblance to Aenys I Targaryen. As he got older, he remained clean-shaven, but after the Dance of the Dragons he became unhealthily pale and even skeletal, overcome by tragedy, combat and exhaustion. Towards the very end of his life, Aenar became prone to silent moods and almost seemed to turn to stone in these moods.
Aenar was handsome and could be courteous when the situation absolutely demanded it, but underneath Aenar was recognised as cruel, fiery, spiteful, warlike and ambitious. He was one of the earliest examples of Targaryen madness, in that he actually believed himself to be Aegon the Conqueror reincarnated, and believed that he was destined to rule after the demises of his brothers and all their descendants. He easily, even gleefully resorted to terrible violence. He often laughed while riding his dragon into battle. Despite these delusions, he was a terrifying supporter of House Targaryen, and one of the most dangerous men in the family at the time. He idolised his brother Daemon, so much that Daemon made him his lieutenant and leading general during his campaigns in the Narrow Sea.
While he is often compared to Daemon, Aenar is considered significantly crueller than his brother, and he never forgot a slight, real or fabricated. Responsible for massacres, scandals and disasters in the Stepstones and the Dance of the Dragons, Aenar was a chaotic man, whereas Daemon favoured strategy. He had a black temper, and even his allies, including the Velaryon children of Princess Rhaenyra, were frightened of him. Despite this, he despised sycophants and didn't suffer fools the way Aerys II Targaryen did over a hundred years later.
Aenar was a skilled swordsman, dancer and rider, and preferred getting his own hands dirty to utilising other people to do his own work.
History[]
Early life and reign of Viserys I[]
Aenar was born the third son of Prince Baelon Targaryen in 89 AC during the reign of King Jaehaerys I Targaryen and Queen Alysanne Targaryen, with his older brother Daemon being at least eight years his senior.
He was born on Dragonstone, where he was raised the first two years of his life with his mother Princess Alyssa, before being presented at court to the king. Upon encountering the infant, Jaehaerys had a nightmare that haunted him for days to come - the only thing he divulged about the nightmare was that he saw dragons fighting over a huge river in it. A green dragon egg was placed in his cradle, and hatched when he was nine months old. When he was six he named the she-dragon Veramyx, after a storm god of Valyria.
During his earlier years, Aenar was raised largely by his elder brothers, but he gravitated more to the youngest of these, Prince Daemon. He admitted that he loved Viserys, but found his austere and amiable nature to be both boring and even enraging, whereas the exciting and lustful Daemon was his idol. He squired for Daemon after serving as a cupbearer to Queen Alysanne. As the prince's squire, Aenar quickly became a frightening young man, and aspired to be a knight equivalent to him. He broke limbs during training, and even dealt virtually mortal wounds gleefully. Outside of the training grounds, Aenar was a terror to the maesters, who considered him temperamental and even slightly dangerous. He once threatened the Grand Maester with gelding if the man ever slapped him across the face again, even though the maester had done so only because he was repeatedly provoked by the prince. Baelon was the only reason that Aenar ever apologised to the old man for his words.
Following his father's death when he was eleven years old, Aenar became despondent and extremely moody, refusing to speak to anyone other than his younger sister Taena, who was his closest friend and confidante. Baelon's death marked a turning point for him in the eyes of many, for Baelon lacked the weakness that everyone else who knew Aenar possessed - they couldn't control him. After the subsequent death of King Jaehaerys I Targaryen, this fact became even more apparent.
Early reign of Viserys I[]
During the reign of his eldest brother, Aenar's behaviour became more and more erratic, as did his reputation throughout Westeros.
When he was fourteen, an assassination attempt was made on him by a beggar in Flea Bottom, for which the assassin was fed to Veramyx. Two more followed, and both of them ended the same way to the first, though it was often said around court that Aenar personally tortured these killers and categorised being fed to his dragon as a mercy in comparison to other options. At the tourney to celebrate Viserys' rise to the throne, Aenar continued to squire for Daemon, until he was harassed by two young knights of House Darry. The two of them, who were larger and more experienced than Aenar in single combat, bullied the youth in the hopes that they could 'make a dragon weep'. In the skirmish that followed one of these squires was almost killed and the other one had his arm broken before Ser Erryk Cargyle of the Kingsguard arrived and broke up the fight. They never went near Aenar again.
A handsome and lustful youth, by the time he was fifteen, he had courted nearly two dozen ladies at court and bedded reportedly two of them that are known, though he had no recognised bastard children. Prone to violence, he once killed a defected member of the City Watch in single combat after pretending to be his ally in a gambling match. In addition to this, he started making cruel and even destructive claims to people at court: when his betrothed was insulted at a dance by a member of House Lannister, he actually offered to burn Casterly Rock to a ruin and everyone in it. For this, his enraged eldest brother and king exiled him to Driftmark until Taena begged Viserys to bring him back. When he returned, he brought with him a paramour in Lady Elinor Velaryon, whom he would only discard if Viserys apologised for exiling him in the first place.
After this, Viserys, who had grown terrified of his youngest brother, kept him always at arm's length. Archmaester Gyldayn wrote that, while Daemon was a nuisance and a thwart to Viserys, Aenar was a terror and a constant beacon of controversy for him. While Daemon was the Commander of the City Watch, Aenar joined him on patrols and witnessed his dispensations of justice, even participating on occasion. Whenever his brother proved too busy to dote on him, Aenar would fly to an unknown castle in the Dornish Marches with his wife and they would elope there. It was in one of these elopes where Aenar participated as a mystery knight in a tournament in Starfall, coming out as the reigning champion and proclaiming Taena as the queen of love and beauty by placing a crown of red roses on her lap, before removing his helm and calling his dragon to the castle, announcing who he was. This made him famous in Dorne and he even attended the Prince of Dorne, but not before the king demanded he return to King's Landing. He obeyed, but not before courting the Princess of Sunspear.
It was revealed when he returned that Daemon was to be exiled to the Stepstones. Hearing this, Aenar took Taena and flew to the Stepstones with his own personal army of sellswords, where he joined Daemon in exile.
War in the Stepstones[]
Corlys Velaryon once wrote home to Driftmark that 'the youngest dragon is wildfire made flesh - green, but hot and frightful'. Of this, it can be surmised that Aenar made a name for himself during the War for the Stepstones. Daemon absorbed Aenar's men into his own army, while Aenar himself formed a personal guard made up of famous pirates and even Braavosi water dancers. With this personal guard, he sacked islands across the Stepstones and took their riches for himself. Riding his dragon, he burned entire fleets of the Triarchy.
When Daemon was wounded in battle, Aenar had the man who wounded him drowned on a beach in a similar fashion to the ironborn. When word reached King's Landing of this, Viserys cried out with incredulity, thinking aloud what Daemon had turned their brother into. Matters were made worse when Viserys learned that Daemon had knighted Aenar for his actions, and that Aenar was becoming even more powerful because of it. After a lengthy battle against a Myrish pirate, Aenar returned to Bloodstone, where his wife was being kept safe, and seduced her. Shortly afterwards, she was reported unable to ride her dragon Valkor because she was pregnant with Aenar's children. The children, a twin boy and girl, were born in 108 AC and named Prince Baelon in honour of Aenar's father, and Visenya in honour of his ancestor.
Daemon was later dubbed King of the Stepstones and the Narrow Sea, for which he named Aenar Prince of Bloodstone. Finally earning titles and lands for himself, Aenar fashioned himself a crown, just as Daemon did. He also planned to have a crown fashioned for his wife and children. When Daemon advised him to send his princess home with her twins, he sent them to Driftmark, the home of Corlys Velaryon, who had become a drinking partner of Aenar's and a staunch ally. Throughout the remainder of the war, Aenar's actions became fiercer and bloodier, and he took a number of paramours, none of whom lasted particularly long. He abused many of these paramours, proving that he didn't betray the love of his wife - at least, not in his own mind - and that he utilised them only to vent his frustrations or wrath after battles.
After charging into a settlement in Grey Gallows alone on horseback, while his dragon obliterated the enemy fleet, Aenar earned the moniker of 'Aenar Dragonheart'. During a famous battle near Bloodstone, Aenar put his dragon dangerously close to the ocean, so much that shark tails were close to her belly, and leaped from Veramyx' back to kill the captain of a fleet by plunging the two of them into the sea - he was called the Flying Prince for this. Despite his valiant and sometimes mad efforts, the war remained a pain for Prince Daemon, who started to lose it when Dorne joined the efforts against him. While Daemon bored of ruling such a small kingdom, Aenar thrived in the warring it afforded him and protested when Daemon decided to return. When the Rogue Prince did return, Aenar returned with him and found his wife at Driftmark. There, Aenar brought her to his bed and they loudly engaged one another. Soon after, Taena gave birth to a son whom Aenar named Jaehaerys in honour of his grandfather.
This act horrified Viserys, who at this point was repulsed by his youngest brother, and considered the naming of his children after treasured members of the Targaryen family a grievous insult. Nevertheless, he welcomed Aenar back into court providing the young warlord set aside his crown as his king had done.
Between wars[]
Much like Daemon, Aenar was unchanged by his return to Westeros - in fact, the one thing that the War in the Stepstones had done to Aenar was make him infinitely bolder and infinitely crueller. While he was kind, sweet and loving to his wife and three children, all of whom were begrudgingly blessed by Viserys, he was a terror to anyone who crossed him. When Lord Dondarrion proclaimed that Prince Jaehaerys, the youngest, was actually his bastard son, he was called to court and put on trial by Viserys. In the trial, ample evidence (compiled conveniently by powerful people in Westeros who deeply hated Aenar) was presented in favour of Lord Dondarrion, but nevertheless Aenar provided equivalent proof to the contrary. Eventually, after five days of trial, the Lord of Blackhaven called for a trial by combat, in which he was killed vengefully by the man he had insulted.
One of the most influential to follow Aenar's return was that of Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen, the proclaimed heir to the Iron Throne under Viserys. Rhaenyra was younger than Aenar, and he had known her since she was a child before he went into exile, but at this point she was twenty and a woman grown. He confessed to his wife that he had lustful thoughts of the princess, but she laughed in response and suggested that the two of them could have him. Unfortunately, while Rhaenyra admired and loved Aenar, she was besotted with Daemon, who was older and more mysterious than he was. Unperturbed by this, Aenar petitioned Viserys, and later the High Septon, to enter a polygamous marriage with Rhaenyra, so that she could have two husbands and him two wives. Repulsed by Aenar's arrogance, both the High Septon and Viserys refused.
In response, Aenar flew to Dorne and brought back with him Lady Roslin Dayne, taking a second wife, and then a third in the eighteen-year-old Meria Darklyn, and with these women he fathered at least three bastards. With three wives, at least six children and a dragon, Aenar was often viewed among the more opinionated Lords of Westeros as a reincarnation of Maegor the Cruel, even though he would have moods where he genuinely believed himself to be a reincarnation of Aegon the Conqueror.
The bastards - named respectively Aegon Sand, Rhaenyra Waters and Daella Sand - became dragonseeds and were given dragon eggs of their own. Aenar doted on them as much as his own true children, as did Taena, who didn't mind at all that Aenar slept with other women to sire these bastards. When he was confronted with his actions in taking Roslin Dayne as a paramour, he coldly retorted 'If dragons fly to the stars, why can they not mate with them?', and about Lady Darklyn, who had already been married to a lord who fought and died in the Stepstones, he simply said that her former husband should be honoured that the only man who replaced him was a dragonlord and conqueror, and proclaimed the man's bravery in the Stepstones.
After provoking the Faith and the king so many times, Aenar became an extremely popular prince, and his children were revered. He remained a charming and exuberant man even after taking his paramours and wife, and women found him exciting, but he refused to bed any other woman afterwards. Though he never admitted it himself, it is often believed that the only reason he courted these people was so that he could watch Viserys' blood boil at the prospect of yet another bastard for a nephew. He then married his eldest son Baelon, who was now twelve years old and popular, to his twin sister, initiating early beliefs that he was hoping to overthrow both of his brothers and marry Rhaenyra, with heirs of his own. However, he never did, and Viserys even blessed the marriage. For a wedding present, Aenar and Viserys had an elaborate suit of armour forged for him, and for Alysanne a riding saddle for her young dragon Veraxes.
When Veramyx mated with Caraxes and hatched a clutch of dragon eggs, Aenar presented them to his bastards, but they refused to hatch. Varamyx herself became a more popular mount of Aenar's as Taena became a little wearier with the children she had sired. However, she still entertained her husband and, in 122 AC, they sired another daughter Allyria. However, the twin who was born with her was a stillborn monstrosity who shattered upon coming out of the womb, as brittle as old metal. Later that year, Aenar's mistress Meria Darklyn was mysteriously killed in a fire that also took her bastard daughter Rhaenyra Waters, who had barely turned nine at the time. Her death provoked the horror and violence of both Aenar and Taena, who took it as an attack from one of Aenar's multiple enemies. Testimony showed, however, that her death was suicide as she couldn't stand not being the sole priority of Prince Aenar.
At the wake for Lady Meria, Aenar arrived to the mixed scorn and sympathy of the crowd. Of them all, the biggest surprise was King Viserys, who comforted his brother and offered to give him another girl if he wanted. To the alarm and laughter of all present, Aenar refused, stating that he should focus on his wife - this led to the disowning of Lady Roslin Dayne, who returned to Starfall and remarried, but left her children with Aenar. The Prince of Bloodstone never sired another bastard again, devoting himself completely to his wife. His dragonseeds were banished to Dragonstone after the departure of their mothers. Afterwards, Aenar was actually welcomed to court and danced with Princess Rhaenyra and the new Queen Alicent Hightower, although the latter despised him. At the tourney that followed, he broke lances against Prince Aegon, Alicent's son, and defeated him, wearing Taena's favour. He spent his days afterwards flying Varamyx, and his nights sleeping with Taena, but he maintained his cruelty.
Dance of the Dragons[]
If Aenar ever mellowed after the Stepstones, his fire was reignited by the death of his eldest brother and king Viserys Targaryen in 129 AC. Immediately after the king's departure, Aenar fled King's Landing with his wife, children and dragons, flying to Dragonstone, where he reunited with his bastards. There, he set about gathering an army from the Stepstones out of the survivors of his previous campaigns. As a result of his flight, he and his family were the only supporters of Rhaenyra who escaped King's Landing with their lives, as all others were killed by the treacherous Criston Cole and the usurping Aegon Targaryen, Second of His Name. The Dance of the Dragons began, and Aenar pledged immediately for the blacks.
When Rhaenyra was crowned and anointed by Prince Daemon, she sent Aenar north to Riverrun, where he confronted Elmo Tully and acquired his allegiance, though many thought that, if he had been refused, Aenar would have turned Riverrun into the next Harrenhal. Meanwhile, Taena travelled to Stone Hedge, but she was attacked and taken prisoner. In response, Prince Daemon Targaryen took Stone Hedge and helped free her, while Aenar burned the fields of House Bracken. Aegon, angry and desirous of Aenar's head, flew north to face him, leading to what became known as the Dance Above Raventree Hall, which ended in a stalemate after Aegon took a wound from Veramyx' tail.
Aenar pursued Aegon south, before being driven back by Vhagar and Prince Aemond Targaryen. The two dragons regrouped and attacked Princess Rhaenys at Rook's Rest, where Aegon was savagely wounded and Rhaenys was killed along with her dragon Meleys. While Prince Aemond contended with Prince Maelys, Aenar contended with Criston Cole later in the aftermath of the Battle by the Lakeshore, where his dragon incinerated those who fled into the Gods Eye. Intending to decimate Casterly Rock to the point of ruin at last, Aenar flew west, but Aemond Targaryen and Vhagar intercepted him. A dance took place between the two dragons, but Aemond retreated after Taena arrived on Valkor and matched him.
The two dragons then burned Ashemark, Silverhill and Lannisport, until Taena was wounded by a crossbow bolt to her stomach. While Aenar tried to carry her to safety on his dragon, more attackers arrived and tried to bring them down, but Veramyx scorched them. Aenar engaged in battles at the Crag, the Goldroad, Tarbeck Hall and again at Stone Hedge. Meanwhile, Aenar's children led a suicidal attack on Casterly Rock, riding their dragons against the armies their parents had faced. In a bloody battle that left the lands outside Casterly Rock in ruin. Aenar was later called back east by Rhaenyra, who told him to return to the Stepstones to fight the Triarchy that was rising against them during the war.
At the Battle of the Gullet's climax, in which Prince Jacaerys was bloodily killed, the dragons Sheepstealer, Vermithor, Silverwing and Seasmoke avenged him and broke the fleet of the Free Cities. As a reserve fleet, which was hastily made but with impressive and hardened sailors and warriors aboard the ships, was unleashed, the Triarchy hoped to support their navy at the Gullet. However, their hopes were dashed when a titanic roar rocked the very oceans beneath them and sent seagulls fleeing in flocks - Veramyx had come. Riding atop his mighty dragon, Aenar singlehandedly massacred the fleet and destroyed all of their ships, leaving a huge red swathe in the Narrow Sea. Singers paint no pretty picture in Westeros of how, after the flames finally died, the gallons of blood that dirtied the water attracted dozens of sharks, which led to a bloody feeding frenzy. Thus, the Massacre at the Gullet (as it is called in reference to Aenar) is said to have lasted as long as the sharks were fighting over the blood, ash and cooked flesh. The battle is not actually considered a battle, more of an inferno.
In the aftermath of the slaughter, Aenar participated in the Fall of King's Landing. With three dragons behind them, the three Targaryens took the city. With King's Landing under their control thanks to Daemon's command of the gold cloaks, Aenar set about policing the gutters of the city, and executing anyone who tried to escape to aid Aegon. However, he was driven further away from Rhaenyra when news came that both of his bastards had tamed two huge wild dragons and had turned on him - they had killed Prince Baelon as a show of their loyalty to Aegon.
Flying back over to Dragonstone to deal with them, Aenar pursued his two children across the Narrow Sea, until the chase climaxed in the Dance Above the Bloody Gate, in which the two wild dragons plummeted out of the clouds with burning, gaping wounds. While Aegon was reduced to ash, Daella, who fell through a window in the Eyrie, survived for six days in a coma before painfully succumbing to her injuries. After the fight, Aenar flew back to King's Landing, while his wife set the Kingsroad on fire to draw back green loyalists. When he returned to King's Landing, however, Rhaenyra had consolidated herself as queen, but was becoming known as King Maegor with Teats, much to Aenar's disgust. Becoming withdrawn from killing his two bastard children, Aenar took to sleeping in the Tower of the Hand, where Taena pleasured him in an attempt at consolation.
This consolation proved impossible when Princess Alysanne was killed in combat with Vhagar and Aemond Targaryen, who had proclaimed himself Protector of the Realm after the disappearance of King Aegon. Daemon flew to the Riverlands to face Aemond, and later on engaged in the Battle Beneath the Gods Eye, ending in the death in two rival princes and two mighty dragons. After hearing of Daemon's death, Aenar wept and apparently turned towards insanity, having idolised Daemon his whole life. Rhaenyra sent him away to burn Aegon into ash if he tried to retrieve his brother, and Aenar left with Taena. They transformed Harrenhal's fertile lands into a black wasteland, until Valkor and Veramyx built a nest atop the Kingspyre Tower. There, Aenar waged a war against the Brackens who tried to take him back, and later when the Strongs stormed Harrenhal to try and take it back, Aenar burned a circle around the castle, entrapping the soldiers, and then brought his own warriors out of Harrenhal.
Defenceless and wounded, Simon Strong's younger warriors pleaded their case while the elder ones spat at Aenar and proclaimed him an abomination. Declaring that he always respected elder power and authority, Aenar put each and every knight, lord, squire and page in the captive army to the sword and allowed his dragons to feast on them. This became known as the Slaughter of the Cinder Fields, as the field outside Harrenhal became known when the smoke cleared and left a ruin blacker than the castle itself. Seeing the monster that Aenar had become as a result of grief, rage and bloodshed, Taena withdrew into the Widow's Tower with her surviving child Jaehaerys and refused to allow her husband near him.
Eventually, Aenar's silver tongue persuaded her out of the Tower, and she visited his chambers while he recovered from the battle. There, they slept together and, the very next day, Aenar learned of Rhaenyra's flight from King's Landing and the slaughter in the Dragonpit. Aenar flew his wife north and kept her at Winterfell under the protection of Cregan Stark, before going south and finding King's Landing the site of a brutal slaughter, with the Dragonpit littered with the broken corpses of other dragons. While Veramyx wept for her dying kin, Aenar searched for Rhaenyra and eventually learned of her fleeing to Dragonstone. Hearing that Aegon had arrived first and had murdered Rhaenyra, Aenar went into a fiery rage and threw the messenger who brought him the news out of the window of Maegor's Holdfast. Declaring that Dragonstone would be Aegon's tomb, he flew to the island with the intent of burning his birthplace with the Usurper inside it.
However, a storm brought the maddened dragon down on the shores of Dragonstone, where she slew in droves the guards who tried to kill her. Aenar dismounted the dragon, striding through flames while men burned to death around him, and screamed for Aegon to come out and face him. When Aegon's personal guards emerged to arrest him, he slew them easily in single combat and stormed through Dragonstone searching for the king. He found only Rhaenyra's ashes and a perishing Sunfyre, but both the golden dragon and the Prince of Bloodstone were too weak and despairing to kill each other. Corlys Velaryon, stunned by the despair on his old ally's face, peacefully arrested him and put him in a cell. Aegon opted to send him piece-by-piece back to his wife at Harrenhal, but before he could he was assassinated. Aenar was among the prime suspects for his murder, but he was accounted for by the jailers and exempt from suspicion. When Prince Aegon was released and returned to King's Landing, he brought with him Prince Aenar, who at this point had been driven to paranoia and hysteria. His dragon Veramyx had disappeared into the caves of the island, where she made her nest.
After the Dance[]
Aenar was finally reunited with his wife, who had remained at Harrenhal the whole time with her son, who was now traumatised against going back to the castle. As a result of Aenar's violent actions, the fleet of the Free Cities was decimated, and they were in no position to demand retribution of him.
With Rhaenyra dead, and Aegon soon after, and with Sunfyre and Vhagar and Caraxes gone, the only surviving great dragons were Silverwing, Veramyx and Valkor. Sheepstealer had disappeared, and most of the other dragons that survived the Dance would not have long to live at all. Aenar was returned to the Red Keep, but he confined himself in Maegor's holdfast. He did not become one of the regents to his nephew Aegon Targaryen, the Third of His Name, and was deemed unfit to serve as Hand of the King. Nevertheless, the young Prince Viserys attempted to find company in him, although the visits would become sparser as the years went by as Aenar mistook him constantly for the previous King Viserys.
Aenar was deemed insane by the Grand Maester, and some historical accounts view him as mad, but his family loved him - although young Jaehaerys, his own son, feared him most of the time - and he even took company in his dragon. Grand Maester Munkun, who frequently treated Aenar for his moods, wrote how the prince would babble about Daemon as if he were still alive, and how he first met his wife and held his twins in his arms. He would speak bitterly of the Stepstones, which he had once coveted as a source of power, and even more bitterly of Dragonstone, where his final stand was made. Maesters believed they ought to give him the gift of mercy to protect him from himself, but soon Aenar attended his nephew's small councils and sought to restore dragons to the Targaryen family, the latter to no success.
Eventually, with his grandson, whom he named Daemon in honour of his dead brother, and daughter, whom he named Rhaenys, Aenar left to his wife to raise, beginning to realise the man he was slowly turning into after all these years. Having turned forty by the end of the Dance, Aenar was written to have started bearing the brunt of his own arrogance and cruelty, and now the small council (with the exception of the maester, and the eventual Hand Viserys) were frightened of him. Aenar took to flying his dragon through the Stepstones, brooding in his chamber in the Tower of the Hand, and playing a harp to the entertainment of his grandson and daughter.
In 149 AC, after festering wounds from the Dance, Valkor died, and a despairing Veramyx (who was at this point larger than Vermithor) soon followed. While a resolute Taena endured, Aenar never recovered from losing his dragon - he fasted and began to waste away, broken in body and spirit, and passed away in his wife's arms in bed, shortly after regaling Prince Daeron Targaryen, who would soon become known as the Young Dragon, with tales of his brothers' might. He was cremated on the orders of King Aegon.
Legacy[]
Aenar is not remembered well at all, much like Rhaenyra and both Aegons, by the people of Westeros - he had inspired fear, hate and vengeance his entire life, and his children, grandchildren and succeeding descendants, who never sat the Iron Throne, were the only members of his future family who held him in high regard.
Daeron Targaryen, as well as Prince Aemon the Dragonknight, considered him to be a frightful man, and Grand Maester Munkun categorises him as a mad Targaryen. He is often dubbed 'Maegor the Second', and 'Daemon's Creature', for his cruelty and his adherence to Prince Daemon respectively. It was nothing compared to how he is remembered in the Free Cities and Stepstones, who name him the Prince of the Ashes.