Syrax

Syrax was a dragon, apparently female, ridden by Rhaenyra Targaryen during the reign of Viserys I Targaryen and at the Dance of the Dragons. It is named after an ancient goddess of Valyria.

Syrax laid several clutches of eggs in her lifetime. Her scales were yellow.

By the time the Dance of the Dragons came around, she had long been used to chains and had grown fat from being overfed without hunting.

History

Before the Dance of the Dragons

At the tender age of seven, in the year 104, Rhaenyra Targaryen rode Syrax for the first time. In 111, when her uncle Daemon Targaryen returned to King's Landing, Syrax and Caraxes often flew together to Peyredragon.

After the marriage of Laena Velaryon and Daemon Targaryen, Syrax laid several broods, probably between 117 and 118, after the couple returned to Lamarck.

In the year 126, Rhaenyra feeds Syrax with the corpse of ser Vaemond Velaryon, who had questioned the legitimate paternity of his first three sons.

Just before the beginning of the Dance of the Dragons, Syrax produces a new clutch: one of the eggs entrusted to the young Rhaena Targaryen, who goes to the Val d'Arryn, gives birth to Point du Jour, one of the last dragons.

During the Dance of the Dragons

Syrax kills Ser Byron Swann, who tried to approach him by repeating Serwyn's legendary trick with the Mirror Shield (Grand Maester Munkun recounts this event in The Dance of Dragons: A True Chronicle, indicating that the dragon was Vhagar.

However, the first-hand account of Ser Byron's squire preserved in a letter to his daughter names Syrax, which is more consistent with House Swann's allegiance to King Aegon II Targaryen).

Very well fed, Syrax has not hunted in years. After Rhaenyra Targaryen took King's Landing, she is kept in chains in the Red Keep.

Her chains are long enough to allow her to move, but not to fly. Soon after, Prince Joffrey Velaryon, seeing the sack of Fossedragon from the Red Keep, and despite his young age, decides to try to ride Syrax to rescue Tyraxes, his own dragon.

Unfamiliar with this rider, Syrax gets nervous and ends up knocking Joffrey off his horse over Flea Bottom, who dies in the fall.

After the collapse and destruction of Fossedragon, the survivors emerge from the smoldering ruins to see Syrax rise and dive upon them. She burns and devours hundreds, even thousands, of rioters before succumbing to their attacks in the night.