INFORMATION.

[draconic]

CHARACTER: Daenerys Targaryen ( AKA: Daenerys Stormborn, Mother of Dragons, the Unburnt, Khaleesi )
FANDOM: A Song of Ice and Fire, by George R. R. Martin
GENDER: Female
AGE: 23, close to 24*

APPEARANCE:

( Look at her. That silver-gold hair, those purple eyes... she is the blood of old Valyria, no doubt, no doubt... )

Currently, her hair is very short, almost stubbly, from being burned off by dragonfire. She has a bandaged wound on her shin and healing burns on her palms.

HISTORY:

( LINKS CONTAIN SPOILERS )

➤ Before canon
➤ A Game of Thrones
➤ A Clash of Kings
➤ A Storm of Swords
➤ A Dance with Dragons

PERSONALITY:

( "If I look back, I am lost." )

When the dragons died, the strength of magic dwindled almost to nothing, and the winters grew longer and colder. When they returned, the world once more began to change — and so did a young girl, who had been the one to give them life again.

Yet before that night of fire and blood, before she held those dragon's eggs in her hands, Daenerys Targaryen was truly only a young girl, both literally and figuratively. She was a child, shy and timid — someone who would not have even dared to dream of a day when others would bow down at her feet. Meek and unsure of herself, she had little influence of her own, accustomed as she was to following her older brother's lead in all matters. Though Viserys had often told her that they were "the blood of the dragon," she had never taken it to heart as much as he did. On the contrary, it only made her more uncertain and afraid. Back then, it was not the restoration of her family name or the Iron Throne that she yearned for... but a house with a red door, a home she had once lived in and lost. Having spent most of her early years fleeing from city to city in terror of assassins, that house came to represent the childhood that she never had — and the peaceful, simple life she wanted. But since Viserys disapproved violently of that dream, Dany soon learned to keep it to herself, so fearful she was of her brother's terrible anger. She grew used to having to swallow her true feelings, letting Viserys make her decisions for her, and also submitting to the will of others. Of the one who would be hailed as the "Mother of Dragons," there was hardly a trace.

However, that was all about to change.

After she wed Khal Drogo, Daenerys rode by his side as khaleesi, a queen over the forty thousand warriors in the band of people who followed Drogo — his khalasar. Though men in the Dothraki culture do not consider women to be their equals, neither do they tolerate weakness. Becoming khaleesi, then, was a very empowering occurrence for Dany. For the first time in her life, she tasted power and freedom. Not only did it help her shed much of her timid demeanor, it allowed her to begin breaking free of her tendency of depending solely on other people. She became less afraid, and more certain about herself and her place in the world.

But the change was a gradual one. As Dany became more independent, Viserys's influence over her steadily waned. She was able to see him for who he truly was — a cruel, weak, and foolish man — and understand why he was constantly mocked by the Dothraki despite being the true heir and king of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros. Instead of making her more confident, though, it became something else to worry about. After all, Viserys had been the one who had taught her about the world, her heritage, and the kingdom snatched away from them; to Dany, he had been a father, mother, and brother all at once. He was all the family she had left, and it was disquieting for her to see him scorned as "less than the shadow of a snake" instead of feared like she had always done.

Yet in the midst of that fear, there was also love. Viserys had taken care of her in the past, and so she wanted to make him happy. It was mainly because she was terrified of his temper — but also because he had once been kind to her. But since becoming khaleesi, her eyes were no longer closed to his follies and faults. Dany came to the realization that she would never ever see the shores of Westeros if she continued relying on her brother, and that made her less timid around him. She still felt hesitant whenever she defied him, but those moments grew fewer and fewer. Respected and loved as she was by Drogo and ( most of ) his khalasar, Viserys no longer had much of a place in her life. Still, the memory of the boy who would tell her stories of the home they had both lost was not one that was easily forgotten for Dany, so she continued to defend his behavior, hoping that he would become more patient and that he would return to Westeros with her.

Until she couldn't, anymore. On the night when he threatened the life of her unborn son, she stood by and watched without flinching as Viserys died at Drogo's hands, "crowned" with a pot of molten gold. In a sense, one could say that Dany was freed by Viserys's death. Certainly, she became more outspoken after that night, giving voice to her feelings after so many years of having to keep silent. Yet the shadow of her brother still loomed over her. With his passing, Daenerys was the very last member of House Targaryen, the only one left alive who was the blood of the dragon. Though she had found happiness with Drogo, it was not enough. When he had been alive, Viserys was obsessed with reclaiming the Seven Kingdoms, and his fervor led Dany to believe that was something that must be accomplished for them to be happy at last. She wanted a home — Westeros, where she might finally find the peace she once had in a house with a red door, even if she had never seen any of it except in stories. For a while, it seemed that she might have been able to grasp that dream with Drogo's aid... until he perished as well, at the hands of another. The khalasar broke apart when he died, leaving Dany bereft of all but a handful of supporters, along with a ragtag band of women and old men and young boys. They were the weakest of those who had followed her husband, and now it was up to her to give them shelter and protection.

She could not look back and let herself be trapped by who she had been in the past. She had to be strong for them.

So, when the fires of Drogo's funeral pyre died down to ashes, when Daenerys Targaryen rose unharmed with her newborn dragons cradled in her arms... she knew that there was no way left for her to go but forward.

( "I know that she spent her childhood in exile, impoverished, living on dreams and schemes, running from one city to the next, always fearful, never safe, friendless but for a brother who was by all accounts half-mad... a brother who sold her maidenhood to the Dothraki for the promise of an army. I know that somewhere out upon the grass her dragons hatched, and so did she. I know she is proud. How not? What else was left her but pride? I know she is strong. How not? The Dothraki despise weakness. If Daenerys had been weak, she would have perished with Viserys. I know she is fierce. Astapor, Yunkai, and Meereen are proof enough of that. She has crossed the grasslands and the red waste, survived assassins and conspiracies and fell sorceries, grieved for a brother and a husband and a son, trod the cities of the slavers to dust beneath her dainty sandaled feet.

The girl who drowned the slaver cities in blood rather than leave strangers to their chains... this Mother of Dragons, this Breaker of Chains, is above all a rescuer." )

By the time Daenerys becomes the "dragon queen" of Meereen, she is a very different person from the compliant, intimidated girl of Pentos a few short years ago. She has learned from her experiences as khaleesi and conqueror, and she has grown as surely as her dragons have. Dany is now someone who will not let herself be easily thwarted. She is stubborn, almost to a fault. Much like her brother Viserys, she has a fierce temper when angered, though she is nowhere near as unthinkingly cruel as he was. Instead, she prefers to keep her judgments about people and events to herself until she has had an opportunity to deliberate and think on them, although sometimes she does get carried away in the heat of the moment. Honor and justice are important to her, as well as loyalty. Since her discovery of Jorah Mormont's duplicity, she is no longer as trusting as she used to be, as she is on the lookout for the betrayals and other conflicts that were foretold in the prophecy she received in the House of the Undying Ones in Qarth. With that said, however, she isn't overly paranoid. Even with that prophecy, Dany is not someone who is given to actively seeking out a person's negative qualities. Her faith in those she trusts is usually steadfast — given, of course, that they have not given her a reason to doubt them. That she must conquer before she can rule is a lesson that she has long understood, but she will not look for opportunities to hurt innocents. Once wronged, though, she does not forget. She can hold grudges for a long time, and it does not take much for her to remember previous grievances.

But in many ways, she is still a child — and that is where her weaknesses lie. Whenever she encounters a problem that she cannot easily resolve, she does not always meet it head-on. This is especially true for situations in which most ( if not all ) the choices are unpleasant or will have unpleasant consequences. Placed in such a circumstance, Dany frequently hesitates, spending quite a long time wavering between one decision or the other before she actually makes it. Or she'll flee from the choice, seeking something more agreeable to divert her attention. When pressured, she sometimes acts largely on impulse — acting based on what she believes is right, and not necessarily what is best, though she is slowly understanding the dangers of doing that. She believes that compassion should always be rewarded, evil should always be punished... and many of her decisions are based on that philosophy. Dany wants to see the world as a place painted with such clear shades of morality, and that can interfere with her judgment.

Indeed, her idealism and her hopes for the future are often the reasons behind her moments of uncertainty. Beneath the guise of the dragon queen, Dany is generous and affectionate to those that she holds close to her heart. She is kind, prone to giving mercy rather than denying it, and disposed towards extending a helping hand to those in misfortune. In particular, her experiences in the past of being helpless and powerless have made her especially sympathetic to those who are in similar roles, trapped in situations that they cannot free themselves from.

Finally, though she does not often show it in front of strangers, Daenerys does have a more lighthearted side to her. Laughter and smiles come easily to her lips, and she can tease and banter when the mood strikes her. Because she had spent much of her life in ignorance of the world and her own potential, she is curious and will rarely pass up an opportunity to learn more about something that perks her interest.

Above all, Daenerys is someone who wants to make the correct choices and become a queen who rules wisely and justly. A queen, who can draw smiles and cheers from her people when she rides past.

ABILITIES:

Before it fell to doom and destruction, Valyria was a land where magic lived. The Targaryens were marked by it, their silver hair and violet eyes setting them apart from the other peoples of the Seven Kingdoms. But there have always been tales — songs and fables — that inhuman beauty wasn't all the Targaryens received...

Daenerys is a study in those rumors. By fate ( or just luck ), she does not possess the streak of insanity which runs through those of Targaryen descent, the madness that afflicted her father and her brother Viserys. Similarly, Dany has an unusually high resistance to heat and fire, where Viserys did not. However, while she is able to do things like taking scalding hot baths, she is not immune to fire. Though she was able to walk into the flames of a funeral pyre and emerge unscathed, it was more due to the fact that it was a ritual ( conducted with bloodmagic, which presumably protects the one performing it from harm ) linked to a prophetic occurrence than any inborn trait. Since then, Dany has suffered injuries due to fire, showing that it can indeed kill a dragon, should she walk into its embrace again.

She does, though, have two characteristics peculiar to her Targaryen blood. One is a tendency to have premonitions in the form of dreams, though they are often too ambiguous and enigmatic for her to make any real sense of them. Another is a resistance to illness and disease, though it does nothing when poison is involved.

Yet the events in her life have forced her to learn, and draw upon other strengths that she never had before. Because of her life with the Dothraki, Dany has become quite knowledgeable about horsemanship, as well as the Dothraki language. Other languages that she knows include the Common Tongue and the Valyrian of the Nine Free Cities of Essos. Her experiences as khaleesi, conqueror, and queen have also taught her something about the ways of command, rule, and strategy — but not enough for her to be completely confident with her decisions.

Drogon's talents, on the other hand, are far less subtle than Dany's. The most aggressive of her three dragons, Drogon is also the hardiest. By the standards of the dragons of legend and those belonging to the Targaryens of old, he is only half-grown. Though he is able to bear Dany's weight, he is not yet strong enough to do much beyond that; the carcass of a horse, for example, is too heavy for him to carry in his talons. What he lacks in strength, however, he makes up in ferocity. He can breathe intensely hot fire, the black flames swirled with red, and his body also emanates a great heat. Unlike Dany, Drogon is invulnerable to fire. Mentally, Drogon — while he cannot speak — possesses intelligence beyond that of nonmagical beasts, and he seems to be able to understand commands that Dany gives him.

Dany has a tenuous sort of connection to Drogon and her other dragons, as they can apparently detect her moods and react to them accordingly ( becoming agitated when Dany is upset, and the like ).

TIMELINE:

A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 52 — when Daenerys leaves Meereen.

INVENTORY:

1 linen undertunic
1 dragon, black-scaled with a wingspan of twenty feet, red eyes and horns and spinal plates — answers to the name of "Drogon"

FIRST-PERSON SAMPLE:

[ VIDEO ]

[ Dany sits in a chair, looking directly at the camera. Though the chair is a rude thing ( rough wood darkened with age ) and her garments are similarly unrefined, her gaze is clear and steady. ]

Those who aided me when I first arrived — I thank you. Such kindness will not go unpaid.

[ What do I have to give them? she wonders, but she presses on. ]

I have not introduced myself. I am Daenerys Stormborn of House Targaryen, Queen of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros.

[ she pauses, the sudden uncertainty showing in her voice and demeanor. In this strange place, the phrase rings hollow and empty to her ears. Others have hailed me as such, and I have dreamt of the day it becomes truly so... but I have seldom spoken it aloud to myself, she realizes.

Her hands grip the arms of the chair a little tighter. No. I may be far away from what I've always known, yet I must remember who I am. Who I am meant to be. ]

However, this is not that land. It is not necessary for anyone to bend the knee to me here, or call me "Your Grace" unless you wish to. [ she pauses again, tilting her head up just a little. Though there is no arrogance in the gesture, there is certainly pride. ] But I will ask from you some answers, that all here should be able to give. Before the dragons took you, where did you live? What was happening there, before you found yourself in this place?

And... [ the question lying on her tongue seems foolish, the answer perhaps too obvious to even warrant asking — but she must know. ] do any of you wish to go home?

THIRD-PERSON SAMPLE:

It did not take long for Drogon to become accustomed to this strange land.

At peace, however — that, he was not, and perhaps never would be. Many were the mornings that Dany awoke to his screeches and listened to the echoes of frustration in his voice. Every time, her heart ached for him. These dragons are no brothers of his. They are cruel, to show him a clear blue sky and yet deny him freedom. She, and all those she had met and spoken to, lived in this cage as well — but Drogon was the wildest of her dragons, and well accustomed to spreading his wings and flying wherever and whenever he wished. Unlike Dany, he had never allowed himself to be trapped by anyone.

So, it was rare to wake to birdsong instead. For half a moment, dread closed about her — until a brush of shadow overhead loosened its grip, and she looked up just in time to catch a glimpse of black-and-crimson wings crossing the sun before they disappeared from sight, swallowed up by the forest. A moment later, Drogon rose again, some small creature writhing between his talons.

My fierce child. Even here, he is still brave, she thought, watching him fly towards the mountains, toward the cave he had made his dwelling. I must be brave as well. The first day that she was here, she had felt like a small child again, trembling at the unfamiliar and unknown pressing around her. The first night was no better; she had spent most of it awake, plagued by dreams of all that had been taken away from her. Even those visions of King's Landing, its streets fills with smiling people and laughing children, did not soothe her as it usually did. If anything, it was worse — to know that now she was separated from her home by a vast sea of stars. The ordinary waters of the narrow sea seemed like nothing to her now... but what good was that, if she could not cross it?

Her lips pressed into a line, Dany turned her gaze away from the sky. It did no good to contemplate those thoughts now; a queen did not think such things. She was as far from Westeros as it was possible to be, and yet...

Wherever she was, she was still Daenerys Targaryen, the First of Her Name. And that was something she could never allow herself to forget.

NOTES:

* For personal ease and comfort, although this depiction of Dany is from the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, she will be the same age as her depiction in Game of Thrones.