Life for a Life
Blood Magic and Rhaella’s Surviving Children
Originally posted on the Jade Compendium on 2025.04.23
Sweetrobin’s K-hole noticed something odd about Dany’s conception while we were writing our Dany and Jon long post, and I decided to tug the thread… spoilers for the World of Ice and Fire lore book.
Daenerys
What we know about Rhaella and Aerys is limited because they both died before the main events of the series, but we get the occasional insight beyond ‘Aerys was mad’ and ‘Rhaella died in childbirth’ from Barristan, Jaime, Ned, Viserys, and the World of Ice and Fire. What made us look deeper into Rhaella’s unhappy marriage was this quote from Jaime; But whenever Aerys gave a man to the flames, Queen Rhaella would have a visitor in the night. The day he burned his mace-and-dagger Hand, Jaime and Jon Darry had stood at guard outside her bedchamber whilst the king took his pleasure. "You're hurting me," they had heard Rhaella cry through the oaken door. "You're hurting me." In some queer way, that had been worse than Lord Chelsted's screaming. "We are sworn to protect her as well," Jaime had finally been driven to say. "We are," Darry allowed, "but not from him."
Jaime had only seen Rhaella once after that, the morning of the day she left for Dragonstone. The queen had been cloaked and hooded as she climbed inside the royal wheelhouse that would take her down Aegon's High Hill to the waiting ship, but he heard her maids whispering after she was gone. They said the queen looked as if some beast had savaged her, clawing at her thighs and chewing on her breasts.
Jaime had only seen Rhaella once after that, the morning of the day she left for Dragonstone. The queen had been cloaked and hooded as she climbed inside the royal wheelhouse that would take her down Aegon's High Hill to the waiting ship, but he heard her maids whispering after she was gone. They said the queen looked as if some beast had savaged her, clawing at her thighs and chewing on her breasts.
AFFC – Jaime II
Other than being utterly horrifying, what stood out the most to us is the first sentence in the above block quote: “But whenever Aerys gave a man to the flames, Queen Rhaella would have a visitor in the night.”
Although Jaime does not actually see Rhaella for himself and confirm the whisperings of the maids, he would certainly be aware of the comings and goings of Aerys and others if he was keeping watch outside the queen’s bedchamber. The above suggests that the only times Aerys ever raped Rhaella was after killing someone. Whether Aerys’s actions were intentional or not, taking a life before creating one and vice versa are practices we have seen elsewhere in the story: sex, birth, and death are often linked (Dothraki weddings involve feasting, gift-giving, and killing before consummation; Rhaego is sacrificed for Drogo as he is birthed, Melisandre births a shadow explicitly to commit a murder, and dying in childbirth is a common occurance in the Seven Kingdoms). Aerys, surrounded by his pyromancers, burned his former Hand and was able to impregnate Rhaella with a healthy girl. What about Viserys and Rhaegar? And all of the miscarriages and sickly infants?
The Dead
We know from the main series that there was roughly a seven or eight year age gap between Daenerys and Viserys and an even larger one between Viserys and Rhaegar. We learn from the lore book that in between these births, Rhaella had many recorded miscarriages, stillbirths, and even a few live births that did not survive past infancy.Relations between the king and queen grew even more strained when Rhaella proved unable to give Aerys any further children. Miscarriages in 263 and 264 were followed by a stillborn daughter born in 267. Prince Daeron, born in 269, survived for only half a year. Then came another stillbirth in 270, another miscarriage in 271, and Prince Aegon, born two turns premature in 272, dead in 273.
TWOIAF – The Targaryen Kings: Aerys II
I will always be the first to admit that everything here could be coincidence. There are no mentions or records of Aerys going on a murder spree or even attending a tourney before any of these births. A quick check through the Westeros.org entries for the 260s failed to turn up any massive violent events at which Aerys was present. His wife’s difficulties birthing children only make Aerys hateful and serve as an excuse for him to spend more time with his many mistresses. Strangely, although Aerys "loved music, dancing and masked balls, and was exceedingly fond of young women", "fill[ed] his court with fair maidens from every corner of the realm", and, according to some, "had as many mistresses as his ancestor Aegon the Unworthy", there is no mention of dragon bastards in the lore books or main series (a note on this below).
Things start looking up after the birth of Jaehaerys, a baby you probably have never thought about, born roughly two years before Viserys the Beggar King:
So profound was His Grace's joy that it seemed to restore him to his old self once again...but Prince Jaehaerys died later that same year [274], plunging Aerys into despair.
TWOIAF – The Targaryen Kings: Aerys II
The death of litte Jaehaerys had a horrible effect on Aerys.
Viserys
The conception of Viserys, coming on the heels of Aerys’ deep despair is even more troubling than that of Dany:In his black rage, he decided [Jaehaerys]'s wet nurse was to blame and had the woman beheaded. Not long after, in a change of heart, Aerys announced that Jaehaerys had been poisoned by his own mistress, the pretty young daughter of one of his household knights. The king had the girl and all her kin tortured to death. During the course of their torment, it is recorded, all confessed to the murder, though the details of their confessions were greatly at odds.
Afterward, King Aerys fasted for a fortnight and made a walk of repentance across the city to the Great Sept, to pray with the High Septon. On his return, His Grace announced that henceforth he would sleep only with his lawful wife, Queen Rhaella. If the chronicles can be believed, Aerys remained true to this vow, losing all interest in the charms of women from that day in 275 AC.
Afterward, King Aerys fasted for a fortnight and made a walk of repentance across the city to the Great Sept, to pray with the High Septon. On his return, His Grace announced that henceforth he would sleep only with his lawful wife, Queen Rhaella. If the chronicles can be believed, Aerys remained true to this vow, losing all interest in the charms of women from that day in 275 AC.
TWOIAF – The Targaryen Kings: Aerys II
Viserys was born some time in 276.
[An alternative reading of this is that all the fasting and prayer to the Seven is what led to Viserys’ birth, because that happened after the executions and therefore closer to the conception. Which then leads to the especially funny extrapolation that burning people alive gets you compelling and dragon-like Targaryens like Rhaegar and Daenerys, whilst prayer, prostrations, etc. to the Seven lead to fucked up mad Targaryens who sell their sister into sexual slavery for an army. Another point for based Rh’llor over the cringe Seven.]
Rhaegar
After the above lined up quite neatly, this post was nearly undone by Rhaegar. Rhaegar was born in 259 AC to his teenaged parents, before his father was burning people for fun or even just participating in normal princely activities, like fighting in the War of the Ninepenny Kings (Aerys would squire during the course of that war, which started just after Rhaegar was born). Rhaella and Aerys were wed at the instruction of their father against their grandfather Aegon V’s wishes, because of the woods witch’s prophecy that the Prince that was Promised would be born from the line of Jaehaerys and his sister-wife. Rhaella and Aerys were not particularly fond of each other, but Aerys was a handsome, popular prince in his youth before the madness. However, Rhaella was extremely young when she became pregnant with her first son: we do not know exactly when Rhaella was born, but she was likely 12-14 years old in 258 AC. A pregnancy at such an early age would be complicated and unlikely to be viable, and would probably damage Rhaella’s reproductive organs and decrease her ability to have healthy children in the future. This coupled with the fact that Aerys did not perform any killings that we are aware of in 258/259 makes it seem like Rhaegar should have been the first of Rhaella’s many children to die in infancy or before birth.But, of course, let us address the massive blood sacrifice and burning in the room: the tragedy at Summerhall. I was so busy looking for a sacrifice at conception, I forgot that death magic is very, very powerful and can be applied later to even the most hopeless of pregnancies! Rhaella gave birth as Summerhall burned behind her, and the boy I have no doubt was meant to die not only survived, but became an extremely skilled fighter as well as an intelligent, thoughtful crown prince and so far the longest-lived of Rhaella’s children (we at the Jade Compendium hope that Dany makes it well past 25).
Final Thoughts and Conclusion
One unexplained part of this little exercise is the apparent absence of miscarriages, births, anything between the births of Viserys and Daenerys. This is difficult to explain when we know that Aerys was burning a lot of people in this period: perhaps Rhaella had access to moon tea at King’s Landing but not on Dragonstone. The other head-scratcher is 'where are the bastards'? There are so many ways to answer this question: Aerys is completely infertile (and so his kids are all bastards), his fertility is directly linked to how recently he killed someone, he did not actually have any mistresses, or the fan-favorite: George forgot.Did Aerys perform human sacrifices to ensure his wife produced heirs? Probably not… intentionally. But it does seem like that could have happened, looking at the limited information we have on Rhaella’s eleven pregnancies. This is a little theory we are unlikely to receive any further information on unless Fire and Blood II is written, but it gives another meaning to Westerosi mothers dying in childbirth, a great and direct sacrifice to create powerful children, and it is interesting to think about in conjunction with main-series babies whose conception or birth coincides with many deaths (I’m looking at you, Monster and baby-swapped Monster).