Rather a lot is product of dragons within the HBO exhibits – however there’s not a lot about the place they arrive from or how House Targaryen obtains and trains them. Let’s repair that.

The custom of elevating and coaching dragons and dragonriding got here from the Valyrian Freeholds, in historical occasions when the beasts have been plentiful. Dragons have been used as weapons of battle to assist create their huge empire hundreds of years earlier than Aegon the Conqueror used them throughout his campaign to take Westeros.

The Valyrian Empire

The Dragons and the Bees

The dragons of this universe have 4 limbs – their forelimbs are constructed into their wings like bats. Their scale shade has no bearing on their character. Otherwise, they’ve the weight-reduction plan and traits of most dragons present in fantasy. Their measurement is stunted in captivity, and so they can change into big within the wild the place they lived in cliff caves. As they age their scales change into stronger, their fireplace hotter, and their menace bigger.

Aegon the Conqueror on Balerion by Jordi Gonzalez, by way of The World of Ice and Fire

The Targaryens claimed that dragons have been born from a hoop of volcanoes on the Valyrian peninsula referred to as the Fourteen Flames. Barth (a Septon and historian) wrote a tome on the creatures. He posited that dragons have been made by Valyrian bloodmages.

While the home and its ancestors have been recognized for coaching, they didn’t understand how the beasts really reproduce. It was assumed that females produce eggs and males don’t, so that they have been gendered that means. Some of these concerned within the course of claimed that the creatures are gender fluid and reproduce at will. They’re dragons, they will do what they need.

House Targaryen did know easy methods to hatch eggs, nevertheless. And they’d loads of cash to maintain them fed.

During the reign of Aegon the Conqueror it turned a customized to put a dragon’s egg within the cradle of new child princes to bond the 2. That bond will hopefully result in the prince being a dragonrider, but it surely’s not assured. Having Valyrian blood and chilling with an egg as a baby doesn’t all the time result in somebody being a dragonrider. That’s as much as the dragon.

Syrax and Rhaenyra by way of HBO

The Dragons of House Targaryen

When Ancient Valyria was consumed by a volcano (The Doom) dragons have been nearly worn out with it. The solely survivors have been 5 House Targaryen dragons residing on Dragonstone, which have been moved there when the home left the Freehold. Four of these dragons died within the subsequent century, leaving the large Balerion and a few eggs to maintain the road going.

Balerion aka the Black Dread was the biggest of the Targaryen dragons. His shadow blanketed whole cities and his tooth have been so long as swords with big jaws to match. His first rider was King Aegon I Targaryen through the Conquest. After his victory, Aegon I used Balerion’s black fireplace to forge the Iron Throne. He additionally rode the beast throughout the newly based Seven Kingdoms to maintain everybody in line.

Balerion died at 200 and his black cranium (as a result of excessive quantity of iron in his bones) was enshrined within the Red Keep. King Viserys I Targaryen was his final rider.

Photograph by Ollie Upton, by way of HBO

Vhagar and Meraxes got here from the eggs dropped at Dragonstone. They have been the dragons of Queens Visenya and Rhaenys – King Aegon I Targaryen’s sister wives – who rode them through the conquest. The pair have been despatched to take and safe the closest castles firstly of Aegon’s takeover. Both have been integral within the becoming a member of and conquest of the Seven Kingdoms.

Meraxes was a necessary device for getting House Stark to kneel to the brand new king diplomatically. Queen Rhaenys then tried to take Dorne in the identical method, which failed. Both the dragon and the queen have been killed later through the first Dornish battle. Their deaths resulted in her spouses burning Dornish strongholds to the bottom.

Maraxes’s bones have been seen by bloodriders dispatched by Daenerys to seek out the ocean in A Clash of Kings:

“Between here and there lay only swirling sand, wind-scoured rocks, and plants bristly with sharp thorns. He had passed the bones of a dragon, he swore, so immense he had ridden his horse through his great black jaws. Other than that, he had seen nothing.”

by way of HBO

Vhagar was the dragon of Queen Visenya. Both survived the Conquest and the First Dornish War. The dragon offered the fireplace for Aegon I’s funeral pyre. After Visenya died, Vhagar went with out a rider for practically thirty years. Prince Baelon the Brave proved worthy to experience her and so they fought in battles for House Targaryen up till his loss of life of previous age.

Dragons in The House of the Dragon

Vhagar continues to be round through the Dance of the Dragons when the present takes place. Laena Velaryon – solely daughter of Lord Corlys Velaryon and Princess Rhaenys Targaryen – claimed her when she was twelve. You can see her driving (alongside her mom) to King’s Landing for her cousin’s wedding ceremony within the newest episode.

So far we’ve seen:

• Vhagar ridden by Laena Velaryon
• Meleys ridden by Rhaenys Targaryen
• Caraxes (seen beneath) ridden by Daemon Targaryen
• Syrax ridden by Rhaenyra Targaryen

They’ve proven a number of the youthful dragons within the previews for subsequent week. I’m certain we’ll be seeing loads of them in upcoming episodes. Any dragon that was sufficiently old and sufficiently big to battle was used within the civil battle.

by way of HBOMax

Pop tradition workers author that has been on the BoLS crew since 2010. Contributor on the One of Us podcast. Marvel, Vertigo, and dystopian sci-fi fan. Enjoys unhealthy films, superb stunt performances, and the web. Hates rom-coms. (she/they)

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