𝕽𝖍𝖆𝖊𝖓𝖞𝖗𝖆 𝕿𝖆𝖗𝖌𝖆𝖗𝖞𝖊𝖓

Name: Kait
Are you over 18?: Yes
Contact: pm, pp kaitniss or kaitniss on discord!
Other characters: n/a
Permissions & opt-out: Permissions & Opt-out


Name: Rhaenyra Targaryen
Canon: House of the Dragon
Age: 35
Gender: Female, she/her
Species: Human (Targaryen-flavor)
Appearance: Here

Canon point: 2x08: The Queen Who Ever Was (after receiving Lord Strong's letter and before arriving at Harrenhal)
History: Wiki of Westeros

Personality answers:

Who in your character's canon influenced the most growth in your character? What do they think about this character?
*cw: incest, abuse/grooming, age gap, etc.
Without a doubt, the person who most influenced growth in Rhaenyra, for better and for worse, was her uncle Daemon Targaryen. In her own words, “he was everything [she] wanted to be – carefree and dangerous.” At first she admired his boldness and charm, but later, Daemon would be the one to introduce Rhaenyra to a new way of thinking about sex and marriage – that sex could be a pleasure for the woman as well as the man, and that marriage could be more like something negotiated, like any other political rule or expectation. However, Daemon taking advantage of her young age and naivety left her reputation within her family sullied and began a series of events that led to her first complicated marriage and the birth of her secretly bastard-born children, then later to their own marriage. About Daemon himself, Rhaenyra is sorely conflicted. He is her great love and for much of her life she believed that she had pursued, tamed, and won him, though recent developments have (possibly forever) tainted her view of him. She wants to believe in his love and support of her, the thing about him she truly values the most, and so far that has been enough to sustain them.

Explain which event in canon is most pivotal to your character's development, and who they are today.
Being named heir to the Iron Throne after the death of her mother and newborn brother when she was fourteen years old. Besides having to accept the incredible political weight of being the Protector of the Seven Kingdoms one day, her father also revealed an apocalyptic prophecy to her that had been passed from heir to heir for over a hundred years. It declared that one day their line would have to stand against death and the end of all things and in order to lead the realm through the darkness. Aegon’s Dream has lived in the back of her mind ever since, but the political ramifications of a woman being named heir to the throne have been so many that while the prophecy may be what drives her conviction to rule, the responsibilities and attacks that have come with her status as heir have been countless and have driven her in their own spiteful way. Her status has also made her more than just a wife and a mother, as most other women in her realm are relegated to, which has gifted her a sense of individuality strong enough to cause her more problems in a world built on sexism and misogyny.

What is your character's biggest ambition at their current canon point? To what lengths would they go to see it to fruition?
Rhaenyra has slowly come to believe with her whole heart that she is ordained to be the one true ruler of Westeros, divinely selected to be the saviour of mankind against the coming darkness of prophecy. She believes that the gods are speaking through the dragons and that the coming war is now justified by her ordained importance. Where she began extremely reluctant to break the long peace managed by her father Viserys and commit the continent to war and dragonfire, taking great personal risks to negotiate a peace, she has now come to believe she must fight for the throne “or die in the attempt”. Despite the fact that it is her half-brother Aegon that currently sits her usurped throne, she is willing to see him executed in order to assure her own safety and the safety of her family and heirs. She is also willing to risk the damage to the smallfolk that dragon warfare promises. In short, she is willing to risk everything because in the long view, she believes the end of the world is at stake. In the short term, she knows her own life and the lives of her children will be lost if she loses.

What would be your character's lowest, darkest moment they've lived through? How did they respond to their troubles and face their demons?
The lowest moments of Rhaenyra’s life would be the days immediately following the death of her son, and later, the discovery of his little dragon’s body. Despite having been named Queen and the killing of her son constituting an act of war requiring quick and decisive response, she disappeared for days on her dragon Syrax to search for proof of his death. Upon discovery of his remains, she was able to return to her council, but in such a state of rage and emotional disarray that she could only demand one thing: the person responsible for her son’s murder. Due not only to this vengeful drive but also to her vague instructions and lack of leadership in this moment of crisis, Daemon was able to commandeer the moment for his own ill-conceived ends. His making a botch of the assassination attempt only led to more violence and enmity on both sides of the war and while she regrets allowing this to happen, it has not dampened her ability to order violence done on her behalf. She just wants her people to get it done right.

Inventory:

Her mother's gold Arryn ring
Jaehaerys the Conciliator's crown
Aegon the Conqueror's dagger
Her dragon riding boots

Powers/Abilities:

It is said that Targaryens are of a bloodline bound by magic to have a deep psychic connection to dragons, and Rhaenyra certainly proves this true. A dragonrider from a young age (she rides the dragon that hatched from the egg she shared a cradle with), she has also communed with Vermithor, the second largest living dragon, and commanded him. It is also said that Targaryens have an elevated resistance to heat and fire, evidenced by them surviving the closeness of dragonbattle and dragonflame, as well as elevated resistance to disease - although Rhaenyra has not yet been tested in such ways.

Samples: Here & Here
Goals: Rhaenyra's purpose in life is very much driven by her setting and her lineage, so I'm looking forward to stripping both from her to see how she develops a sense of self that would have been available for her to explore if she had not been born a royal and named heir to the throne. She also has some, erm, Targaryen traits like megalomania and messiah syndrome, which will hopefully only be aggravated by the transformation options and corruption that the game allows for. Her character arc is all about slowly becoming the worst version of herself because of choices made to combat external pressures, so let's do that in monster-flavor!
Soul Choice: Aves