Chapter 1: The Landing
What we know of the Targaryen family before they came to the lands of Westeros is few and scattered. At one time they were part of another kingdom known as Valyria where they served among dozens of other families in a loose oligarchy of fellow dragon riders, which were known as 'dragonlords'. What had happened to this oligarchy has been lost to time; as well as the disappearance of the other dragonlords. Most likely causes of their sudden disappearance would either be a massive revolt ending in the destruction of the dragonlords in which the Targaryens had fled to Westeros in an attempt to escape it, or more likely a natural event such as a disease which killed off the dragons and so ended the oligarchy. The Targaryens could have simply escaped this destruction because they did not live on the mainland, but on their small island of Dragonstone.
With their loss of power on Essos, the Targaryens would soon invade the lands of Westeros. Those who led the attack was the first King of Westeros, Aegon Targaryen, his sister-wives Visenya and Rhaenys, as well as their younger bastard brother Orys Baratheon. With only a few thousand men under his command, but three great dragons named Balerion, Meraxes, and Vhagar, they made quick work of the current Kings of this land. First to fall was the Storm King, Argilac the Arrogant. He rode out with his army to a field just south of the Bronzegate where he would be swallowed and eaten by the dragon Meraxes.
With the death of their King, the Stormlords surrendered to the invading forces. Argilac's daughter would be wed to Orys Baratheon and he would take up his place as Lord of the Stormlands. Around this same time, Visenya Targaryen would give birth to the young Aerion Targaryen who would one day follow his father to the throne. Aegon and Visenya would have only one other child together, a daughter named Aelinor. These two would years after they were already adults and having children of their own, have a younger bastard brother named Jaehaerys Oldiron. Jaehaerys will be spoken of more in length in the coming chapter.
With the Stormlands pacified, the Dragon King set his sights northward where he made quick work of the Iron Islands splitting them into two separate lands. The islands which would be continued to be ruled by the Hoare family, who would eventually be removed from power and given over to the Greyjoys of Pyke when they tried to reclaim the Riverlands from the Tully family who had aided Aegon in his War of Conquest. The Vale and Westlands both surrendered without a fight, but both the Reach and North refused to do so. For their obstinance, Aegon burned their capitols to the ground, killing thousands. The Starks of Winterfell in the North and the Gardeners of Highgarden lost nearly their entire family from either the dragons or in the case of the Gardeners, executed by King Aegon. Before Aegon's death the Gardener line would come to an end, or at least the direct line which ruled over the Reach, and the Costaynes would find themselves the newest Lords of the Reach.
Only land remaining in Westeros that did not fall under the rulership of Aegon Targaryen was Dorne. However, the war to take these lands would end almost immediately after they began. Queen Visenya was away on Dragonstone giving birth to Aelinor while Rhaenys was assisting the Riverlands in keeping them away from the overly aggressive Hoare family. That left only Aegon with his dragon, Balerion, who took part in the conflict. During the first battle and honestly the only battle these two sides fought, Balerion took a scorpion bolt to the side sending it crashing into the mountainside. Both dragon and rider would survive the day, but Aegon's interest in Dorne greatly diminished.
These two would return to the newly constructed city of Kings Landing, where Balerion would die of its wounds a few months later. Under a semblance of peace, Aegon Targaryen began to make small reforms and changes to the lands he now controlled. Among these was the beginning construction of the city in which would be his and his heirs' capitol in Westeros, the aforementioned Kings Landing. He also formed a group of warriors which would become known as the Kingsguard who were seven knights bound to the King and his family to protect them as their personal guard. Few of these knight's names have made it through the history sadly.
Both of King Aegon's children would hatch dragons during their father's reign. First to succeed was Aelinor who hatched Wraithwing and then came Anaxigon who were both eggs from Meraxes, the elder of the two remaining dragons. Both of these dragons have a strong history in this family and will be brought up further in first hand accounts.
Surprisingly, despite King Aegon's dislike for Dorne, for killing his dragon, he did allow his son and heir to marry one. Linnet Dayne was not a great beauty but she did control the Tor and Scourge. This would cut a large chunk of lands out of central Dorne, nearly splitting the lands in two, thus bringing Dorne closer into King Aegon's grasp. This plan however would not succeed when Linnet first gave birth to a daughter named Rhae. She would spend half her early life in Dorne with her mother and then in Kings Landing where she saw the birth of both her cousins Baena and then Aenyx Velaryon. Upon her sixteenth name day, Rhae was escorted by her grandfather back to the border of Dorne where he presented her with, at the time, the only egg from Vhagar. These two would never see one another again.
In the year 33 AC, After Conquest, the first of the Targaryen Kings drew his final breath. Aegon Targaryen failed to conquer all of Westeros, but he had set his family on the path to being remembered. Dorne still needed to be brought to heel, more dragons would be needed to repopulate their loses from whatever happened to the dragons of Valyria, and the Seven Kingdoms still needed to become more unified into a true kingdom and not a collection of states forced into a union.
Now where Aegon had put his family on the path, Aerion on the other hand, took steps to bring about the first major civil war of this land.
(Both of my supervisors were let go last week without the company first hiring a replacement for them. Therefore, my time allocated towards writing this AAR has been drastically cut short. For this reason, I posted the beginning section of the first chapter. Chapter 1 is mostly filler about what happened at the beginning of the story and setting up the stage for Chapter 2. There will be a Chapter 1: The Landing (cont.) post in the next week or so. After that, I may need some time for Chapter 2 since it will cover 'the first major civil war of this land'. I hope you guys enjoyed this first little section of this story.)
