Caraxes, also known as the Blood Wyrm, was a male dragon who lived during the height of the Targaryen rule in Westeros. A powerful and very large dragon, he was extremely battle-experienced and was bonded first to Aemon Targaryen, and later to Daemon Targaryen. He was one of the major draconic participants in the Dance of Dragons, the brutal civil war between the forces of Rhaenyra Targaryen and Aegon II that resulted in the deaths of almost every known member of his species in Westeros, leading the world to believe dragons went extinct for the next 130 years. He appears in the novel Fire and Blood the television series House of the Dragon.
Description[]
Caraxes was red in color, and was huge and lean; a dragon in his prime. In battle he was formidable, fearsome, and experienced. During the Dance of the Dragons, Caraxes was about half the size of the huge and elderly Vhagar. Meanwhile, Vhagar was three times the size of younger dragons such as Tessarion or Seasmoke. Due to his larger size, Caraxes was not as fast as his smaller brethren, among whom was Meleys, a female dragon who was of similar color.
In the TV series House of the Dragon, Caraxes is shown to have a very long neck and horns over his eyes like the dinosaur Carnotaurus. His hind legs have wing membranes that allow him increased maneuverability and stability in the air, and he possesses a "beard" of small spikes on his jowls.
History[]
Caraxes was born sometime before the year 72 AC (the conquest of Westeros by Aegon Targaryen). Aemon Targaryen, Prince of Dragonstone and heir apparent of the Iron Throne, claimed Caraxes for the first time in 72 AC. The Dragonkeepers that fed and cared for the Targaryen dragons considered him to be the fiercest of all the young dragons of the Dragonpit and nicknamed him the "Blood Wyrm" for his temperament and blood red scales. The Targaryen siblings Alyssa, Baelon and Aemon liked to fly together on their dragons (Meleys, Vhagar, and Caraxes respectively) whenever they had the chance.
Aemon used Caraxes against the Dornish fleet during the Fourth Dornish War in 83 AC. When rogue Myrmen invaded parts of the island of Tarth in 92 AC, Aemon flew to the island on Caraxes's back to help lords Cameron Tarth and Boremund Baratheon fight back the invaders. Caraxes easily outdistanced the Velaryon fleet led by Lord Corlys Velaryon in the process. Caraxes was eating goats when Prince Aemon was killed by a crossbow bolt in the throat in an ambush by Myrish scouts.
Caraxes would remain unbonded afterwards until he was claimed by Aemon's nephew, Prince Daemon Targaryen in 105 AC. Shortly after Daemon's brother, King Viserys I Targaryen proclaimed his daughter Rhaenyra as his heir to the Daemon took his lover Mysaria with him on Caraxes when he retreated from King's Landing for the island of Dragonstone.
Daemon used Caraxes in battle during the War for the Stepstones (106–115 AC). During those years, Daemon divided his time between the Stepstones and Dragonstone where he would often fly with his niece, Princess Rhaenyra, and her dragon Syrax. After Daemon remarried to Lady Laena Velaryon after annulling his first marriage, the newlyweds toured the Free Cities of Essos with their dragons Caraxes and Vhagar. Huge crowds came to see both dragons everywhere they went.
At the start of the Dance of the Dragons, Daemon landed Caraxes atop Kingspyre Tower during the assault on the stronghold of Harrenhal. Caraxes would survive much of the war, seeing many of his fellow dragons or their riders killed.
Atop Caraxes later in the civil war, Daemon challenged Aemond "One-Eye" Targaryen and Vhagar (whom he had claimed sometime in the years after Laena's death during childbirth) at Harrenhal. All four combatants were killed in the ensuing Battle Above the Gods Eye. At the end of the fight, Vhagar locked with Caraxes and they fell into the Gods Eye. While in freefall, even as Vhagar's claws opened up Caraxes's belly and used her teeth to tear off one of his wings, Caraxes locked his teeth onto the larger dragon's throat and tore it out. Vhagar did not survive the force of the fall. Somehow, Caraxes managed to live long enough to pull himself out of the water and onto the shore, even though his entrails were falling out and one of his arms had been torn clean off. The dragon soon died of his wounds in front of the walls of Harrenhal.
After his death, Caraxes' skull was put inside the Targaryen castle known as the Red Keep. it would remain there until it was moved into the palace cellars by Robert Baratheon, who usurped the throne from Aerys Targaryen, the Mad King.
Trivia[]
- Caraxes' appearance in House of the Dragon was based off a combination of Eastern and Western dragons. His head was based off that of a wolf.
- Caraxes' four wings are reminiscent of the dinosaur Microraptor.
- In the Behind-the-Scenes book House of the Dragon: Inside the Creation of a Targaryen Dynasty, concept artists Constantine Serkeris and Kirill Barybin used snakes as a heavy reference for Caraxes' body shape and movements, and described him as being "almost like a deformity in the way it slithers and undulates through the air versus just straight flying".
- Caraxes' personality was said to match Daemon's in the TV series; never at rest, always twitching and ready to fight.