Aenar Targaryen

Aenar Targaryen is the current Prince of Summerhall and Lord of the Marches, as well as Hand of the King.

Biography
Biography: The firstborn of Prince Rhaegar Targaryen and his lady wife Alicent Lannister, though only the eldest by a few minutes, followed quickly by his brother Matarys, Aenar was a robust child from the first. Large, loud, and lusty, Aenar had the promise to be the kind of man men wanted to follow. Though both of the brothers were possessed of a fiery temper, Aenar learned first to control it, turning anger into a tool rather than a hindrance, a tool which served him well.

His father was a kind man, wise, yet for some reason always quite sad, and the songs he sung while playing the harp made even him cry. Though he could never say why, and his elder sister Viserra, Rhaegar’s sole child from his first marriage to his deceased sister-wife Jaehaera, was quick to assert he was just ‘a little baby’, much to their mother’s ire.

Both of the twins first stepped into the yard for drills at the tender age of five, though only for the lightest of training under their father’s guidance. He often reminded the young boys he would be too old to train their brother Aegon, or, as they were told in 291, their little brother Aelor, if their mother’s child was indeed a boy. The both of them adored their father, each would sit at his knee every night as he read them stories of dragons, and the heroes who rode them, of the bravery of their great-great grandsire Aegon, and his kindness towards all, even smallfolk.

It was the stories of Aegon, and the Hedge Knight he’d once squired for, Duncan, that the boys loved the most. But the time for stories would end, when their uncle Gaemond sparked a war. Gaemond and the sister of Lord Jon Connington, a bitter rival of Rhaegar’s, had eloped in secret earlier in the year 290. It had been the cause of great controversy, and strong words, but it did not bring about bloodshed. However when Jocelyn Connington perished in childbed, having meant to deliver triplets, the Griffin’s and their allies called their banners, though Storm’s End remained out of the conflict.

The demands were simple, Gaemond Targaryen and the three bastards who had survived the birth be delivered to House Connington for retribution. Rhaegar did not consider such an act for a moment, for he had a bastard of his own who he loved dearly. Aemon Stone, a bastard sired between Rhaegar’s first and second marriage had grown up alongside Aenar and Matarys from the first, and though wrecked by grief the Prince of Summerhall knew Gaemond would never surrender his children, nor would Rhaegar surrender him.

House Targaryen of Summerhal and several allies marched to meet the Stormlords, and a series of bloody skirmishes followed before Dornish intervention forced it to a close. The cost of this conflict was high. Lord Jon Connington and Prince Rhaegar met on the field of battle, and songs say they clashed for nearly an hour, though it was likely much shorter. The end result remained the same though, the Prince of Summerhall and the Lord of Griffin’s Roost slew one another, leaving his children orphaned, and the heavily pregnant Alicent Lannister, his lady wife, widowed.

This however was not the only tragedy to strike Summerhall, the second son of Aerys and Rhaella, Jaehaerys, might’ve saved his brother Rhaegar had he ever arrived with reinforcements. Instead, he was found a moon later, hanging in the woods outside Summerhall, disemboweled, with the most likely cause being that he and his forces were ambushed by the Marcher Lords sworn to Summerhall themselves.

With Jaehaerys gone, of the now four groups of children, including Gaemond’s bastards, half had lost their fathers. This would soon grow when in order to equally punish those involved, Gaemond, but eight and ten was sent to the wall with the Stormlords King Aemon deemed responsible. Until such time as Aenar reached his age of majority, Aerys and Rhaella’s middle child, Valarr, would serve as Prince of Summerhall.

Aenar was devastated, this pain would only grow when his mother died giving birth the Rhaegar’s last son, a frail child named Aelor. Both he and Matarys began to act out, becoming terrors to the castle despite Aemon and even Viserra’s attempts to stop them. Valarr, raising his own children and now six more was overwhelmed, when King Aemon himself offered to have the twins come to court.

Valarr would agree, but also send forth pleas that both Gaemond’s children, and Aemon Stone be legitimized, as was written into Rhaegar’s will. For whatever reason, perhaps fearful of bastards, the Old King refused. Regardless, the twins would bear the name ‘Redwing’ at Valarr’s insistence, in honor of ‘Rhaegel the Redwing’, the hero of one of Gaemond’s favorite tales of Old Valyria. Aemon however, would keep the name Stone, insisting he would earn his name on his own merit and that ‘he was strong as stone anyways’.

At court, the two found themselves curtailed by the Old King, who had the both of them serve as his cupbearers. But where Matarys found a place for himself following at the heels of Ser Gyles Penrose of the Kingsguard, Aenar found himself, on occasion, getting into even more trouble than at Summerhall.

From the moment the boy entered the Red Keep, young Princess Vaella, sister to the queen, cousin to the king, had taken a liking to him. Rebellious, wild, and relentless, the girl quickly roped the boy two years her junior into her antics at court. All of her septa’s discipline failed when she had Aenar with her, and the two regularly egged each other on, quickly becoming close friends.

As years passed, Vaella and Aenar became near as inseparable as he and Matarys were, an idea which brought about more than a few scraps between the brothers, but none too serious. When he and his brother would return to Summerhall to visit, Vaella would often accompany them, often hanging onto Aenar’s arm as he began to grow, though just as often she was finding some way to embarrass him.

At one point, at a grand tourney celebrating the wedding of Lord Hightower, Aenar entered as a mystery knight under the name ‘The Knight of the Starry Garden’, a small reference to how he and Vaella oft snuck away to the Red Keep’s gardens in the dead of night, and fought well. While he did not win, or get his spurs from the attempt, the boy did manage to make Vaella beam. She hated events where she was forced to wear a dress, preferring to dress comfortably, and seemed more eager to join the fights than watch them, but the sight of Aenar being unveiled, clearly with the intent to crown her the queen of love and beauty made her ecstatic.

Though all she did in the aftermath was tease him about how he fell from his horse, and plant a quick kiss on his cheek. Their fondness for one another became clear to all, even the Old King, who saw in them a way to bridge the gap between the two branches of the House of the Red Dragon through a marriage. They were betrothed at once, and set to marry on Aenar’s eighteenth birthday.

Before then, though, Aenar Targaryen received his first taste of war when the Pirate King of the Stepstones began his war. On the battlefield the boy killed his first men, managing to strike down a foe just before Matarys did, but unlike their competitions as children this was no game. The two came out of this war quiet for a time, blood staining their tunics, fresh wounds on their skin. They were but ten and four, and each privately wondered how Daeron the Young Dragon could’ve thrived in such an environment at the same age as they were now.

Then again, they found themselves dragged into the war of the Two Princes, where each of the twins fought valiantly, though each took a wound. Aenar found his arm ripped deep by a spear that punched through his mail, and gave him a long scar to wear with pride. But first he killed the man who gave it to him.

When the wars were finally done, a hardened Aenar returned to King’s Landing alongside his twin, where both of the young dragons were lauded for their bravery, and welcomed back with a feast at the order of the Old King. At this feast of course, Aenar sat next to Vaella, where the girl was uncharacteristically gentle with him, and seemed to shun any talk of the war, seemingly far more eager to have the boy to herself than celebrated by the others.

The years they spent together were happy, and filled with many a joyful antic and time together as Aenar took his place as Prince of Summerhall, with guidance from his uncle Valarr. While he returned, Matarys remained, choosing to stay with Ser Gyles and take a recently vacated spot on the Kingsguard. His twin was a knight of the Kingsguard, and he the Prince of Summerhall, with a fair Princess soon to rule beside him.

But dark omens loomed. While there was tension between Aegon and Aenar, Aemon was there to smooth it over, but the darkness came from Aelor instead. Though never close, Aelor confided in his eldest brother of strange dreams he had, of Vaella’s death and their child with her. Aenar dismissed these dreams, and angrily, but the future would see the tragedy come to pass.

After their wedding, which coincided with his knighting, the Prince of Summerhall and his bride seemed to struggle in conceiving a child for several years, with Vaella having at least two early miscarriages that left the two wondering if they should even continue to try. After some convincing, the two agreed to continue to try, and in late 303, Vaella grew pregnant.

The two were ecstatic, filled with joy at the possibility of a child of their own, be they son or daughter, but the joy soon turned to ashes when the baby came early. After an immensely troubled labor, the child, a small girl named Daenys was born. Aenar never once left his wife’s side through the entire affair, right up to the moment where childbed fever took her.

Aenar tried to remain strong, for his daughter. Valarr found himself ruling Summerhall once again as Aenar spent his every moment with the small Daenys, but where others in the past might’ve sought to gain, Valarr sought only to keep his house in order for the sake of his nephew.

That rare instance of selflessness ought to have been rewarded by the gods, but instead both Valarr and Aenar found themselves punished. In 305, an outbreak of fever occurred at Summerhall, slaying many a peasant and quite a few dragons. His uncle Valarr and his wife among them, along with Jaehaerys’ eldest child Daenera. Aenar became near comatose.

Rule of Summerhall largely fell to the wise Maester Glendon in those years, and despite their efforts, not even Matarys or Aemon could break Aenar from his spell. The Prince of Summerhall to train for hours, then return to his chambers, taking his meals there and little else. Those few who he allowed in said the prince simply stared from his window for at least three years, but ever so slowly he began to emerge, taking up his duties in full in the year 307, and distinguishing himself by besting a crew of bandits who had emerged on his lands.

Yet there remains no joy in him, no laughter, nothing but the occasional scant, and likely forced smile. But it is progress, perhaps there is more to be made. Curiously, he keeps his youngest brother Aelor close now, often consulting the young boy on the matters of his dreams, which he claims to trust.

Timeline
* 285: Born

* 291: Rhaegar’s death, sent to King’s Landing shortly thereafter

* 301: Knighted alongside his twin brother Matarys

* 303: Weds Vaella Targaryen

* 304: Vaella dies

* 305: Daenys dies

* 309: Present

Family Tree
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