Daenerys Targaryen - History

Daenerys is the only daughter and youngest child of King Aerys II Targaryen and his sister-wife, Queen Rhaella. Daenerys was conceived during the last month of the rebellion that would ultimately end her family's reign over the Seven Kingdoms. Shortly thereafter, her mother was sent with the young prince Viserys to the family ancestral seat of Dragonstone to escape the coming Sack of King's Landing. Daenerys was born while a great storm raged above Dragonstone, sinking what remained of the Targaryen fleet, for this reason she is sometimes known as "Daenerys Stormborn." Her mother died in labor.

By this time, the war was already lost. Robert Baratheon had claimed the throne and Aerys had already been killed along with the rest of the royal family, leaving Daenerys and her older brother Viserys as the only known living Targaryen heirs. The garrison at Dragonstone decided to surrender and turn them over to the rebels in exchange for their lives, but before they could act on this plan, Ser Willem Darry and several other loyal retainers rescued the children and smuggled them into exile, sailing to theFree City of Braavos, where they lived for years in a house with a red door. Ser Willem was old and sickly, but Dany remembers that he always treated her kindly. After his death, the servants drove the young Targaryens from the house. Dany wept as they were forced out.

The Targaryen loyalists who raised the two children considered Viserys the rightful ruler of the Seven Kingdoms despite the family's defeat and exile, as did Viserys himself. He regarded it as his duty to revenge himself on the usurpers who murdered his family and reclaim the birthright that had been stolen from him when he was only a child. In the years that followed Ser Willem's death, Viserys wandered the nine Free Cities with his sister, trying to raise support to retake the Iron Throne, which earned him the mocking title of "The Beggar King."

As a result of this long humiliation, Viserys grew bitter and obsessed with his long-denied birthright. Dany was the only convenient target for his frustration, and over time he even came to blame her for their mother's death. He took pride in his lack of control of his own temper, regarding it as proof that he was a true heir to the Targaryen kings; he regularly warned Dany not to "wake the dragon" by angering him. He often spoke to her of the importance of preserving the purity of their royal bloodline through the ancient Valyrian practice of dynastic incest, so Dany grew up believing she would one day wed her brother. She was bright enough to realize that most of Viserys' plans for retaking the Seven Kingdoms were unrealistic, and as she had no memory of Westeros herself, his dream meant little to her; instead she longed to return to the house with the red door, which in her mind became a symbol for the childhood she had lost. With no family other than the abusive Viserys and no expectation of ever escaping his control, Dany grew into a fearful and docile young woman.

Viserys and Daenerys eventually found the help they sought in the Free City of Pentos, in the form of a rich and powerful magister,Illyrio Mopatis, who invited them to stay in his manse and offered his help in reclaiming their throne.