Rhaegar Targaryen
"Fortune and Love favor the Brave."
Name: Prince Rhaegar Targaryen
House: House Targaryen; “Fire and Blood”
Age: 20
Hair: Silver; falls a bit past his shoulders, straight.
Eyes: Indigo
Height: 6’2”
Body Type: Muscular, strong arms and legs, and long fingers. Pale skin, without flaw.
General Attire: Wears the black and red of his family, and has black armor encrusted with rubies, as well as a sword with a black hilt and rubies. He tends to favor black over red, with red usually being the highlighting or accent color to what he wears. Occasionally seen in light creams, blues, or whites.
Rhaegar was the first-born son of Rhaella and Aerys, and was the only one until Viserys was born. His mother had frequent miscarriages, which seemed to be a part of the reason that Aerys went mad. He was not so mad in Rhaegar’s youth, and so he is quite bothered to see what his father has started to become. Of course, he also tended to keep his nose in books when he was young, and was obsessive about reading and practicing new things. He became a grand harpist as a youth, can speak High Valyrian fluently, and tends to be a jack-of-many-talents when pushed.
For a while, it was thought he would never be a knight, but one day he was inspired to it. He realized that he was only honing his mind and letting his body waste away – if he was to be good for his people, he should be holistic good. No part of him should go to waste, and so he quickly began to train with the Kingsguard, eventually being knighted at the age of 17. He was never a fan of the violence, but he felt the need to stay in shape.
He still preferred his harp, and had a habit of sneaking out of the palace to go play, disguising himself by covering his hair or using a temporary dye on it, to play out in the streets and see his kingdom. Barristan was never far. Selmy caught on to these habits, and let him go about it. It was good for Rhaegar to see his people, after all.
Barristan also followed him to Summerhall whenever he paid a visit, and was frequently in his shadow, when Arthur Dayne was not. The two kept tabs on their adventurous prince, and Rhaegar allowed them both, liked them both well enough, and was glad to have the freedom to move as he saw his mother lose more and more of her freedom over time, until it seemed that he was not even able to see her. When Viserys was born, she was not able to go to the tourney where he competed, and was defeated by Arthur Dayne, but not after taking down Selmy, Gerion and Tygett Lannister, and many others.
It was there that he learned Tywin tried to arrange his marriage to Cersei, and that the arrangement was not permitted. She was not near enough to his own blood for it to happen. Since then, Rhaegar has noticed more tension between Tywin and his father.
It was also at that Tourney that Melara Hetherspoon died. A tragedy, only truly recalled to him because of the woman, Aemilia Hetherspoon, who started to come into the picture then. He hadn’t heard of or seen the woman until after that moment, and he would not meet her until years later.
His father became obsessed with finding him a suitable bride after that, though Rhaegar was not all that interested. The Lord Baratheon went to look, and died in the process when his ship wrecked. His mother began to correspond with Princess Martell, who arranged for Elia to marry Rhaegar. After all, the Dornish had married into the Seven Kingdoms before. Rhaegar is aware that his father is no fan of this, but with his paranoia increasing around Tywin, he apparently thought this was a smart move.
Never mind that the Princess Martell once tried to have her children married to Cersei or Jaime. Rhaegar can’t help but wonder if spite is involved in this, but he has tried to be optimistic about the matter, and ignore it. He has to play his part as Prince, and Future King, and that means to guarantee heirs for his family. Like so many others, he is not allowed to choose who he will marry, and he only hopes he will grow to love Elia Martell.
What he wasn’t expecting was that she would be a Martell of frail health, far unlike others. Nor was he expecting that she would come with a half-sibling, a bastard named Saige.
- His parents are Rhaella and Aerys Targaryen. He has one sibling, a younger brother, Viserys Targaryen.
- His favorite colors are actually silver and blue, and he likes to be thought of as the ‘Silver Prince’.
- He does not believe that he was the “prince that was promised”, but does think it may be his future son.
- Fire does not burn him, nor does heat bother him – besides the ungodly heat of the sun in summer.
- Though he is one of the best musicians, most of the music he composes is in Valyrian rather than the common tongue.
- Rhaegar has a horse dear to him, a black destrier that Arthur gifted him; he’s creatively named it Balerion.
- He favors Smokeberry brown wine above all others, though it only comes from Volantis, and generally prefers sweet things. Honeyed hams are a favorite, as well as sweet potatoes and other such things.
Coming soon!