Vhagar
Born in the year -52, Vhagar was a gigantic dragon, apparently female, ridden successively by Visenya Targaryen, Baelon Targaryen and Laena Velaryon.
She would have been bronze in color, with blue-green highlights, and bright green eyes. It is said that the heat of her breath could melt a knight's armor and cook the wearer.
At the height of its power, its dragon-fire would have been able to melt steel as well as stone. Archmaester Gyldayn claims that by the time of the Dance of the Dragons, she had grown almost as large as Balerion, but this is questionable since her skull, stored in the cellars of the Red Keep, is smaller than Balerion's. A mounted rider could easily pass through its mouth, however.
Like Balerion and Meraxes, his name was attributed to him by the rhapsods in a period after the Conquest, in reference to a god of the deceased Valyria.
History
Before the Conquest
Like Meraxes, Vhagar was hatched in Peyredragon after the Scourge of Valyria, during the Blood Age in 52 BC.
The Conquest
At the time of the Conquest, Vhagar was raised by Visenya Targaryen, the eldest sister-wife of Aegon the Conqueror. Shortly after the landing, Vhagar burns the roof of the keep of Castelfoyer, thus obtaining the submission of House Castelfoyer.
Vhagar and Visenya then accompany the royal fleet, led by Lord Daemon Velaryon, which sails towards the Arryn Valley. They destroy the Arryn fleet during the battle of Goëville, and Vhagar then helps to obtain the submission of the lords of the Claquepince peninsula. Vhagar and Visenya are then summoned by Aegon to confront the Two Kings of the Reach and the Rock, Mern IX Gardener and Loren Lannister.
Vhagar participates in the battle of the Field of Fire, alongside Balerion and Meraxes. For the first time together, the three dragons devastate the enemy armies and consume nearly four thousand men, including King Mern IX and his entire family, sounding the defeat and the end of the House of Gardener. Ten thousand men were severely burned and left with a lifelong stigma.
When the King of the North, Torrhen Stark, crosses the Neck, Aegon and his sister-wives go north with their dragons and their entire army. The dragons impress the Nordians, who have heard the stories of previous battles. While some suggest killing the dragons in their sleep before the battle, the king prefers to submit without fighting, rather than risk the lives of his men and the loss of his house.
The Targaryens split up again. Vhagar and Visenya fly to the top of the Eyrie, untroubled by either the armies of the Vale or the garrisons. This convinces the queen regent Sharra Arryn to bend her knee without fighting. The young lord Ronnel Arryn is even allowed to fly three times on the dragon with Visenya.
Visenya Targaryen
In the year 1, Visenya Targaryen and Vhagar accompany the fleet of Braavian sailors sent to the Three Sisters by Torrhen Stark under the command of Ser Warrick Manderly to suppress the rebellion of Marla Sunderland. At the sight of the dragon, the Sisters lay down their arms, depose their queen and bend the knee.
In the year 8, Vhagar burns Lancehélion, Boycitre, Spectremont and Le Tor in the first Dornian war. The following year, she returned with Balerion to burn Le Grès, Le Voi and Denfert.
The following year, she brought fire and blood to Meteors. The following two years, called the Wrath of the Dragon, Vhagar and Balerion set fire to every fortress in Dorne three times in retaliation for the disappearance of Rhaenys and Meraxes.
In the year 37, Vhagar set fire to the funeral pyre of King Aegon I Targaryen.
In the year 40, the King of the Seven Crowns, Aenys I Targaryen, gave the title of Prince of Peyredragon to his heir, Aegon, whereas it had previously belonged to his brother Maegor. Queen Visenya, angry, leaves King's Landing for Peyredragon on Vhagar's back. E
n the year 42, Aenys I suddenly dies in Peyredragon: Visenya rides Vhagar and flies to Pentos, to find her son Maegor, exiled two years earlier. Together they return to Peyredragon on their dragons, where Maegor dons his father's crown and proclaims himself King of the Seven Crowns.
The next day, Vhagar and Visenya accompany Maegor and Balerion across Blackwater Bay to King's Landing. At the end of the year, Visenya travels to Lamarck on Vhagar's back, where she intimidates House Velaryon and the dowager queen, Alyssa Velaryon, who had accused Maegor of usurping the crown from her son, Prince Aegon of Peyredragon.
In the year 43, Vhagar took part in the War of the Faith, burning the seats of the rebel lords of the Conflans who supported the Great Septon, notably the Blatane, the Terrique, the Desdaings, the Lychester and the Van.
Visenya then moves on to Villevieille to finish off the Great Septon, who is found dead the night before they arrive. Soon after, Vhagar wins Visenya over to Peyredragon.
When Visenya dies in 44, Vhagar is left without a dragonlord. She resides on Peyredragon for several years, growing fatter and more lethargic as time goes on. At an unknown date, she is brought to Fossedragon.
Baelon Targaryen
During the reign of his father Jaehaerys I Targaryen, in the year 73, his second son, Prince Baelon, became the Dragonlord of Vhagar at the age of sixteen. On his first flight, the young prince travels to Peyredragon to surprise his brother Aemon.
Having become slow, Vhagar is easily outpaced by younger dragons, such as Meleys. In 83, Vhagar and her dragonrider took part in the fourth Dornian war and repelled the attack of the Prince of Dorne Morion Martell by setting fire to the ships used by the Dornians.
In the year 92, Baelon rained fire on Torth, avenging the death of his brother Aemon, killed by Myrian pirates.
In 94, Balerion dies of old age; Vhagar becomes the oldest, biggest and most powerful dragon still alive.
Baelon died in 101.
Laena Velaryon
Around the year 105, Laena Velaryon managed to ride Vhagar at the age of twelve.
After Laena's marriage to Prince Daemon Targaryen in the year 115, the couple flew away from Westeros. Rumor and the Book of Mushroom claim that they fly to Valyria to discover the secrets of the Dragon Lords of the Possessions, in defiance of the curse on the ruins. Instead, the chronicles state that they visit the Free Cities (avoiding those of the Triarchy), where Vhagar and Caraxes are admired. They pass through Pentos, Volantis, Qohor and Norvos.
After their return to Westeros in the year 116, the princess Rhaenyra Targaryen, mounted on Syrax, often joins Daemon and Laena to fly with them. Syrax has several bridges.
At the beginning of 120, Laena suffers from a terrible puerperal fever after giving birth to a deformed son who lives only one hour. She tries to ride Vhagar one last time before she dies, but collapses before she reaches her mount.
Aemond Targaryen
Having just lost his dragoness, Vhagar is particularly acrimonious. A few moons after Laena's death, during the funeral of ser Laenor Velaryon at Marée Haute, prince Aemond Targaryen tries to tame Vhagar.
He is surprised by the young Joffrey Velaryon, son of Rhaenyra, who goes to warn his brothers. Aemond jumps on Vhagar's back, who roars, snorts, breaks his chains and carries him on his back, circling twice over the castle towers.
When Aemond returns to the ground, an argument breaks out with the three sons of Rhaenyra, during which Lucerys pokes out one of Aemond's eyes. The valets who discover them find Aemond howling in pain and Vhagar roaring at his side.
Afterwards, Aemond asserts that he lost an eye to gain a dragon, which he calls a fair deal, while in reality retaining a strong resentment against the sons of his half-sister.
Upon the death of Viserys I Targaryen, the green council dispatches Prince Aemond Targaryen as ambassador for his brother, the pretender Aegon II Targaryen, to Lord Borros Baratheon of Accalmie.
Meanwhile, the dark council of the pretender Rhaenyra Targaryen greatly fears the confrontation of the dragons, especially with Vhagar, which leads her to choose other battle plans than direct confrontation.
Rhaenyra sends her son, Prince Lucerys Velaryon, to Accalmie, riding his dragon, Arrax. They arrive after Aemond and Vhagar. The latter perceives the arrival of the young dragon and roars at his approach, shaking the foundations of the fortress.
The meeting of the two princes turns out badly, and as a storm breaks out, Lucerys takes to the air with Arrax, and Aemond rides Vhagar to chase him.
Although older and slower than Arrax, Vhagar is also five times bigger, but also more seasoned and stronger. The dragons meet over Shipwreck Bay.
Through the storm, they breathe fire before they come to blows, one against the other. Arrax dies quickly and Lucerys disappears. This first bloodshed signals the beginning of hostilities and the Dance of the Dragons.
Aemond and his dragon return to King's Landing. During the siege of Roughhouse, King Aegon himself, riding on Sunfire, and Aemond Targaryen, riding on Vhagar, trap Rhaenys Targaryen riding her dragon, Meleys.
The princess and her mount are killed, and Aegon II and Feux-du-Soleyl are seriously injured. Vhagar and Aemond are the only ones to escape without injury.
With Aegon no longer able to rule, Aemond becomes regent of the kingdom. Confident in the power of his dragon Vhagar, he thinks that the real threat comes neither from Rhaenyra in Peyredragon, nor from the Blacks in the Reach, but from his uncle Daemon in Harrenhal, and the great ost of Riveters he has assembled there.
Aemond decides to fight him head on and plans an assault on Harrenhal. He counts on Vhagar's ferocity and size to prevail against Daemon and his dragon Caraxes. Meanwhile, the Blacks plan an assault on King's Landing, which is now defended only by Vhagar.
In the year 130, according to his plan, Aemond Targaryen leads the army of Aegon II to reconquer Harrenhal. Vhagar accompanies the bulk of the troops to protect them from a dragon attack, leaving no dragon riders and no dragons to protect King's Landing.
After the recapture of Harrenhal and the fall of King's Landing, Aemond is furious. He executes Ser Simon Fort for treason and feeds his corpse to Vhagar.
The presence of the dragoness and the strength of the fortress walls discourage Rhaenyra's supporters from attacking Harrenhal. Unable to agree on their strategy, Ser Criston Cole and Amond Targaryen split up: the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard and his army headed south, while Vhagar and Aemond scoured the Conflans, burning the sieges of the houses that had sided with Rhaenyra.
Aemond adopts a guerrilla strategy, attacking quickly and disappearing in a flash. He burned Darry-le-Château, Lord Herpivoie-Ville, the Moulin du Seigneur, Nerboucle, Boucle, Mare-argile, Souillegué, Bois-l'Aragne, then Vieux-Saule, Saule-Blanc, Cochonneraie.
In the valley of the Joyeuse-Chute, Vhagar burned thirty men and three hundred sheep. Aemond returns to Harrenhal, meanwhile taken over by the Freys, to free his mistress, Alys Rivers; Vhagar burns the wooden structures of the fortress and kills six knights and forty men-at-arms of the Frey house, putting Sabitha Frey on the run.
Fearing that they will be Vhagar's next victims, the lords of Houses Nerbosc, Mouton and Sombrelyn seek the protection of Queen Rhaenyra.
Daemon Targaryen on Caraxès and Nettles on Voleur-de-Moutons go in search of Vhagar and his dragonrider, but without success: Vhagar still sets fire to Pointepierre, in the foothills of the Mountains of the Moon, Doussaule on the Verfurque, Forlane on the Ruffurque, the bridge of the Flèche-tirée, the Vieux Coche, the Aïeule's mill and the Bechester's matristry.
The unsuccessful hunt continues until Prince Daemon Targaryen sends word that he is challenging Aemond to a duel at Harrenhal. Aemond takes up the challenge on the twenty-second day of the fifth moon of this year.
The arrival of Vhagar causes the birds to flee from the sacred wood and the wind blows away the leaves from the courtyard. The dragoness circles the towers of Harrenhal twice before landing in the outer courtyard a hundred paces from Caraxes; the two dragons glare at each other.
Aemond helps his pregnant companion, Alys Rivers, down from Vhagar, and exchanges a few words with Daemon before climbing back onto the back of his dragoness, securing the four short chains that join his belt to the saddle. To Caraxès' whispers, Vhagar answers with a roar, before dashing into the sky.
Heavier and slower than Caraxes, Vhagar is also twice as big. As he climbs quickly, she slowly rises in ever-widening circles, taking her over the Œildieu.
Daemon uses the clouds that camouflage him and the setting sun to surprise his opponent: attacking from the blind side of Aemond, Caraxes charges Vhagar. The two dragons roar while fighting and tearing each other apart.
Their flames give the impression that the sky is burning. Embracing each other, they drag themselves towards the lake, and Caraxès grabs Vhagar by the neck. Despite the grip of the bite, Vhagar bites his wing and his claws rip it open.
During the fall, it is said that Daemon jumps from his saddle onto Vhagar, plunging his Valyrian steel sword Black Sister into his nephew's gouged eye just as the dragons hit the water. The resulting spray of water reaches the height of the King's Firestorm, the highest tower in Harrenhal. Vhagar's burning blood causes the water in the lake to boil around her.
Vhagar dies at the age of one hundred and eighty-one. At her death, Vermithor becomes the oldest and biggest dragon still alive.
Legacy
Vhagar's corpse is not found until years later, Aemond's body still strapped to his saddle, the Black Sister sword in his eye. The weapon returns to House Targaryen.
In The Dance of Dragons: A True Chronicle, Grand Maester Munkun reports that during Rhaenyra's reign, Ser Byron Swann died attempting to duplicate Serwyn's feat at the Mirror Shield: killing a dragon with a reflecting shield.
Based on the writings of Orwyle, Munkun claims that the dragon targeted was Vaghar. This version seems to be the best known, but scholars know that it may be wrong. Archmaester Gyldayn recalls that Orwyle was locked in a dungeon at the time of the incident, and other writings indicate that the target was Syrax or Feux-du-Soleyl.
During the reign of Aerys II Targaryen, the skulls of Vhagar and the other Targaryen dragons were hung in the throne room of the Red Keep.
After the end of Robert Baratheon's rebellion, they were taken down into the crypts of the Red Keep by the new king. Tyrion Lannister, then Arya Stark, find them and admire them.