Tyraxes

Tyraxes was a dragon, apparently male, ridden by Prince Joffrey Velaryon during the reign of Viserys I Targaryen and at the Dance of the Dragons.

History

While Prince Lucerys Velaryon is still in the cradle, he receives a dragon egg by royal decree from his grandfather, Viserys I Targaryen. The paternity of Rhaenyra Targaryen's sons being questioned by her political opponents, rumors are circulating that the eggs given to her sons will not hatch. The birth of Tyraxes refutes them.

When he is only three years old, Joffrey regularly leaves his bed early in the morning to visit his dragon, Tyraxes. The dragon grows larger every year and Joffrey rides it for the first time before the Dragon Dance is called.

At the first meeting of the Black Council, the feisty eleven-year-old proposes riding his own dragon to support his mother's side, the pretender Rhaenyra Targaryen, but she resolutely opposes it.

When he learns of the death of his brother Lucerys Velaryon, who was sent as an ambassador to Accalmie, Joffrey swears to avenge him and pretends to ride Tyraxes to attack Lord Borros Baratheon and Aemond Targaryen.

He is dissuaded by Lord Corlys Velaryon and his wife, Princess Rhaenys Targaryen. The jester Mushroom claims in his Testimony to have intervened as well.

At the end of the year 129, Joffrey and Tyraxes are sent to the Vale of Arryn by the Prince of Peyredragon Jacaerys Velaryon, in order to honor the promise made to Lady Jeyne Arryn of the Eyrie to send her a dragon rider to help her defend herself against her enemies.

They left less than a year later, in the year 130, to reach King's Landing, which Rhaenyra's followers had just taken. Prince Joffrey wishes to help his mother in her war, but the Black Council manages to convince him that it is more useful to stay in the Red Keep with his dragon, to defend the city in case of an attack.

After the betrayal of the Two Traitors and the loss of Chutebourg, Joffrey looks forward to facing Lord Ormund Hightower's army on his dragon, but once again his mother forbids him to fight.

Terrible riots soon break out in King's Landing against Rhaenyra. During the Last Day of Rhaenyra's reign, the prince asks permission to go to Fossedragon and ride Tyraxes to prove his bravery. The queen forbids him once again. During the following night, Fossedragon is taken by rioters, the Shepherd's lambs.

The rioters manage to get into the building by breaking down the lower doors. Bound by heavy chains and unable to fly, Tyraxes fights the mob with horns, claws and teeth, his breath turning the pits into a fiery inferno.

According to the chronicles, Tyraxes first tries to retreat to his lair: he systematically burns all those who approach him, so much so that the corpses soon block the entrance to his lair.

However, the Shepherd would have encouraged his men to go through the entrance on the side of Rhaenys' hill, in order to catch the dragon from behind. Tyraxes locks himself in his chains, when he turns around. Trapped, he is put to death by the crowd.

Half a dozen men and a woman later boast of having killed him. The lambs cut the membranes from his wings to make dragon skin capes.

His dragonlord, Joffrey Velaryon, dies the same night, disobeying his mother in a desperate attempt to prove his courage or to go and save his dragon.

Tyraxes' head and those of the other dragons who died that day are planted on poles inside the ruins of Fossedragon. Every night during the Three Kings Moon, the Shepherd appears near them to harangue the crowd with his apocalyptic preaching.

When Lord Borros Baratheon comes to arrest the preacher, the heads are in an advanced state of putrefaction. On the last day of the year 130, the Shepherd is tied to a post, surrounded by the heads of the five dead dragons, and King Aegon II Targaryen sets his body on fire himself.