Vhagar is a she-dragon who served House Targaryen in the centuries of 52 BC to 130 AC. Originally the smallest of the three dragons that belonged to House Targaryen at the time of Aegon the Conquer's successful campaign to unify Westeros under his banner, she became the largest of the dragons after the death of Balerion. She had multiple riders over the course of her life; Visenya Targaryen, Baelon Targaryen, Laena Velaryon, and finally Aemond "One-eye" Targaryen. She appears in the books Fire and Blood, The World of Ice and Fire, and the TV series House of the Dragon.
Appearance and Abilities[]
Vhagar was bronze with blue and green highlights. She also possessed green eyes. She was so large she could swallow a horse and his rider whole. In House of the Dragon, her design is based heavily off a theropod dinosaur with three-toed feet, a head like a Tyrannosaurus rex, and skin similar to old Galapagos tortoises; she is depicted as being very old, with sagging, wrinkled skin and flaking, missing scales, making it look as if she is developing cancer. She is also so large that she risks breaking her bones whenever she takes off and lands, literally bellyflopping when she sets down on the ground. She was the second-biggest dragon in Westeros, surpassed only by Balerion, and even then she grew nearly as large after nearly two centuries.
Vhagar was able to breathe fire hot enough to melt armor and burn men until their flesh was cooked or turned to ash. Her roar could shake the foundations of Storm's End and her ferocity and power were unmatched by any other dragon while she lived.
History[]
In the Books[]
Vhagar hatched from a dragon egg on Dragonstone during the Century of Blood. She was named after a god of the Valyrian Freehold. At some point during her youth, Vhagar was claimed by Visenya Targaryen. Visenya first rode Vhagar, demonstrating she was a dragonrider, some time before she married her brother, Aegon.
After Aegon landed on Westeros and began his conquest, Visenya flew Vhagar to Stokeworth, where crossbowmen loosed bolts until the dragon set the roofs of the castle keep ablaze. Following Aegon's first coronation, Visenya, upon Vhagar, accompanied the Targaryen fleet, commanded by Daemon Velaryon, to take Gulltown. In the battle in the waters off Gulltown, the Arryn fleet defeated the Targaryen fleet, sinking one-third of the ships and capturing near as many. Then, Visenya descended, and burned the ships of the Arryn fleet with Vhagar's fiery breath.
Visenya then flew to Crackclaw Point with Vhagar, to accept many pledges of fealty from the local lords. She then flew Vhagar to Stoney Sept to link up with her siblings, their dragons, and Aegon's army. They advanced south, where all three dragons took part in the decisive Field of Fire – the only battle in which all three of the Targaryen dragons took to the sky at the same time during Aegon's Conquest. Together, Vhagar, Meraxes, and Balerion killed four thousand men, burning them alive. King Mern IX Gardener died, and with him House Gardener. The army was broken, and House Targaryen was victorious.
Visenya next flew Vhagar to the Trident in the riverlands, where she met with her brother and sister and their dragons, to face King in the North Torrhen Stark. Brandon Snow, the bastard brother of Torrhen, offered to sneak into the Targaryen camp at night to slay the dragons, but the northern king refused the attempt, and instead sent his brother as an envoy, eventually bending the knee to the Targaryens.
Afterwards, Visenya flew Vhagar back to the Vale, where she landed with her dragon in the inner courtyard of the Eyrie. When Dowager Queen Sharra Arryn reached the courtyard she found her young son, King Ronnel Arryn, sitting on Visenya's knee, staring with wonder at Vhagar. The young king begged his mother for a ride on Vhagar's back. Realizing she had been defeated, Sharra bent her knee and surrendered politely, and Ronnel rode on Vhagar thrice about the summit of the Giant's Lance.
Following the deaths of her sister Rhaenys and Rhaenys' she-dragon, Meraxes in 10 AC at Hellholt in Dorne, Visenya and Aegon burned every Dornish stronghold at least once (except Sunspear and its shadow city) during a two-year period known as the Dragon's Wroth. The Dornish tell a tale that the Targaryens refused to attack Sunspear because they were afraid that Princess Meria Martell had purchased a device from Lys to slay Vhagar and Balerion, but Archmaester Timotty suggests the Targaryens intended to turn the other Dornish houses against the Martells.
When King Aegon I died in 37 AC, Vhagar supplied the flames to light the fire of his funeral pyre. In 41 AC, when King Aenys I Targaryen named his eldest son and heir, Prince Aegon, the Prince of Dragonstone at his wedding, Visenya angrily left for Dragonstone. It was said that the moon turned as red as blood when Vhagar passed it.
Later that year, when King Aenys arrived at Dragonstone, fleeing the first rebels in the Faith Militant uprising, Visenya asked him to grant her leave to take Vhagar and burn the Starry Sept in Oldtown. Aenys refused. When the king died early in 42 AC, Visenya left Dragonstone within an hour of his death, and flew to Pentos, where her son Maegor lived in exile. After Maegor had claimed the crown on Dragonstone, Visenya accompanied him upon Vhagar and crossed Blackwater Bay to King's Landing. The return of both Vhagar and Balerion to King's Landing set off riots in the city.
Prior to Maegor's wedding to Tyanna of the Tower, Visenya flew upon Vhagar to Driftmark to convince Alyssa Velaryon to appear at the wedding. When the Faith Militant continued to resist Maegor's reign, even after the losses they suffered at the Battle of Stonebridge and the Battle at the Great Fork of the Blackwater, Visenya mounted Vhagar and burned the seats of House Blanetree, House Terrick, House Deddings, House Lychester, and House Wayn in the Riverlands within a single night. Maegor flew Balerion to the westerlands, burning the seats of House Broom, House Doggett, House Falwell, House Lorch, House Myatt, and other "pious lords" who had defied his royal summons.
In 43 AC, Maegor and Visenya turned towards Oldtown, threatening to incinerate the Starry Sept in response to the High Septon's condemnation of his polygamous marriages. Only the mysterious death of the High Septon, which allowed Lord Martyn Hightower to open his gates before Balerion and Vhagar, saved the city from dragonflame.
Visenya later died on Dragonstone in 44 AC, leaving Vhagar without a rider.
Vhagar remained unridden for twenty-nine years after Visenya's death, spending much of that time on Dragonstone and later taking residence in the Dragonpit in King's Landing. It was in 73 AC that Prince Baelon the Brave after achieving knighthood, set out to follow his brother Prince Aemon and become a dragonrider claiming Vhagar. Vhagar along with Caraxes and Vermithor burned the Dornish fleet that attempted to invade the Stormlands during the Fourth Dornish War in 83 AC. After the death of Balerion of old age in 94 AC, Vhagar became the last of the three Targaryen dragons who had fought in the Conquest. Vhagar became riderless again, when Prince Baelon passed away in 101 AC.
Vhagar's next known rider was Lady Laena Velaryon, who had become a dragonrider before the age of twelve. According to the maester at Driftmark, the seat of House Velaryon, Laena loved to fly. When Laena wed Prince Daemon Targaryen in 115 AC, they flew upon their dragons across the narrow sea to Pentos, Volantis, Qohor, and Norvos. Everywhere they went, huge crowds came to catch a glimpse of Vhagar and Caraxes, Daemon's dragon. After Laena gave birth in 116 AC, Daemon brought both his own dragon and Vhagar back to Westeros. Laena and Daemon grew close with Daemon's niece, Rhaenyra Targaryen, and the three often flew together upon their dragons, Vhagar, Caraxes, and Syrax.
Laena died early in 120 AC during childbirth. It is said that Laena attempted to reach Vhagar in her final hour as she was in labor as to fly one last time, but she did not have the strength. Following Laena's funeral on Driftmark, the ten-year old prince Aemond Targaryen claimed Vhagar as his own dragon.
By 129 AC, Vhagar had grown nearly as big as Balerion had been during Aegon's Conquest, and had become the largest living dragon of her time. Prince Aemond flew on Vhagar to Storm's End, so they could win the support of Lord Borros Baratheon for King Aegon II Targaryen when Aemond and Aegon's mother set to putting Aegon on the throne over Rhaenyra Targaryen, their half-sister, (the rightful heir to their late father, Viserys I). There Aemond met with Prince Lucerys Velaryon, at Storm's End hoping to gain support for his mother Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen. Aemond was forbidden from attacking Lucerys while both were in Borros's castle, but was allowed to follow him outside. After Lucerys rose into the sky on his dragon Arrax, Aemond mounted Vhagar and followed the young prince. The two dragons fought during a great storm over Shipbreaker Bay, and Vhagar quickly overcame Arrax who stood no chance against him due to Vhagar being five times his size. Arrax's severed head would wash ashore days later, along with the corpse of Lucerys.
Aemond would continue to fly Vhagar in battle during the civil war between King Aegon II and Queen Rhaenyra. During the battle at Rook's Rest, Vhagar and Aemond, and King Aegon and Sunfyre, ambushed the dragon Meleys and her rider, Princess Rhaenys Targaryen. Meleys was an old and large dragon, and might have stood a chance against Vhagar alone, but the combined assault from Sunfyre and Vhagar was too much for Meleys to overcome. Vhagar was the only dragon who left the battle reasonably unharmed after all three dragons crashed to the ground.
The battle against Meleys left Aegon II severely injured, leaving him incapable of rule, and Prince Aemond was appointed regent. Aemond decided that the main threat in the war was Prince Daemon Targaryen, who was massing armies at Harrenhal. Aemond took Vhagar and most of the green forces from King's Landing north to attack Harrenhal, leaving King's Landing with very little defense. When Aemond and Vhagar arrived at Harrenhal, they found the castle undefended and empty, as Daemon had left some time before to attack King's Landing, after having lured Aemond and Vhagar away from the capital.
After the Fall of King's Landing, Prince Aemond and Hand of the King Criston Cole no longer agreed on how to proceed during the war. Aemond took Vhagar on a one-man war of revenge, burning much of the riverlands starting with every wooden structure in Harrenhal. Vhagar caused more destruction than an entire army, and severely harmed Rhaenyra's supporters in the riverlands. However, Aemond's decision to abandon the army under Criston proved to be a strategic blunder: without Vhagar to protect them, Ser Cristan Cole's army in the east was later surrounded and destroyed in the Butcher's Ball, leaving the east wide open to Rhaenyra's forces.
Aemond and Vhagar continued the destruction of the riverlands and they became the terror of the Trident. Daemon Targaryen, on his dragon Caraxes, and the dragonseed Nettles, on the dragon Sheepstealer, were sent to hunt Aemond. They were allowed to use Maidenpool as their base, as Lord Manfryd Mooton feared an attack from Vhagar, and found himself safer this way. Daemon and Nettles unsuccessfully searched together for Vhagar, who continued to terrorize the riverlands.
After the First Battle of Tumbleton, Daemon had word sent out that he and Caraxes would await Aemond and Vhagar at Harrenhal. On the fourteenth day of Daemon's vigil at Harrenhal, Vhagar appeared in the sky, carrying Aemond and his lover Alys Rivers. Aemond left Alys in the castle's yard, and both dragons and their riders launched into the air. All four were killed in the ensuing Battle Above the Gods Eye, when the dragons locked together, Caraxes's jaws closed around Vhagar's neck, ripping out her throat as Daemon leapt from his dragon to Vhagar to put Dark Sister through Aemond's eye, and the dragons crashed into the lake. Even as she died, Vhagar fatally wounded Caraxes in turn, ripping off one of his wings in her jaws and eviscerating the red dragon with her talons. Some years after the end of the Dance, Vhagar's body was recovered, with Aemond's armored bones still chained to the saddle. Vhagar was one hundred and eighty-one years old when she died, on the twenty-second day of the fifth moon of 130 AC.
After she died, Vhagar's skull was hung on a wall in the Red Keep's throne room alongside the skulls of eighteen other dragons. After Robert's Rebellion and the deposition of House Targaryen, King Robert I Baratheon had the skulls removed from the throne room, and stored them in a dank cellar. Later, when Tyrion Lannister visited the capital for the wedding of his sister Cersei to Robert, he observed the skulls in the cellar, including Vhagar's. Some years later, Arya Stark encountered the dragon skulls while passing through the Red Keep cellars.
In House of the Dragon[]
Several notable differences occur for Vhagar in the TV series. In the show, she no longer resides in the Dragon Pit, having grown too large to be housed there. She is said to have a lair on the Narrow Sea, and that sailors sometimes hear her songs. Her eyes are yellow rather than green, as well.
Additionally, when Laena, her third rider is suffering in childbirth, Laena weakly manages to get outside to Vhagar and orders her dragon to help her commit suicide, knowing she will die a painful death otherwise. Vhagar is reluctant to act, but eventually acquiesces to Laena's desperate pleas.
When Aemond claims Vhagar, he sneaks out at night and confronts her while she is sleeping, waking her when he tries to climb the rope ladders that lead to the saddle her back. When she threatens to incinerate him, Aemond boldly orders her to obey, earning her trust and orders her to fly when he successfully mounts her. During their first flight, Aemond nearly falls off her back multiple times, but manages to succeed in mastering how to fly her.
During the fight at Storm's End, Aemond also uses Vhagar to bully Lucerys and Arrax, chasing and harassing them out of vengeance for Lucerys's stabbing him in the eye when they were children. As they desperately try to escape, Arrax spews fire at Vhagar against Lucerys' orders, causing the older and far larger dragon to become enraged, causing her to attack Arrax against Aemond's orders in turn. Briefly escaping above the clouds, Arrax and Lucerys are killed instantly as Vhagar ambushes and bites the smaller Arrax in half, with a horrified Aemond watching Arrax's mutilated remains fall to earth as he shouts in vain for her to stop her rampage.
Trivia[]
- Vhagar was the one of the first dragons in House of the Dragon that the concept artists Constantine Serkeris and Kirill Barybin designed for the series.
- In the Behind-the-Scenes book for the TV series, House of the Dragon: Inside the Creation of a Targaryen Dynasty, Barybin and Serkeris explained that They wanted to portray Vhagar as being so old and large that she was beginning to collapse in on herself, which they said was how dragons eventually die; she lost her horns due to how big her skull was getting, her gums were receding and her teeth were falling out, and she was in great pain every time she took off or landed. She was also hunched over from getting so old.
- Unlike in the books, Serkeris and Barybin depicted Vhagar as originally being jade, but fading to bronze-jade with age.