House of the Dragon Family Tree

Greens and blacks: who is on which side?

When Viserys I dies, the family splits in two. The colours come from a tournament in the book: Alicent wore green, and Rhaenyra’s supporters wore black. On the chart, almost every split follows a line of descent, with the important exception of the Velaryons, who back Rhaenyra because her sons are (officially) Laenor’s.

• The blacks (Rhaenyra): Daemon, Rhaenys and Corlys Velaryon, Rhaenyra’s sons Jacaerys, Lucerys and Joffrey, Daemon’s daughters Baela and Rhaena, and later the dragonseeds such as Addam of Hull.
• The greens (Aegon II): Queen Alicent, her father Otto Hightower, and her children Aegon, Helaena, Aemond and Daeron, together with Ser Criston Cole and most of the small council.

King Viserys I and his two families

Viserys has one surviving child with his first wife, Aemma Arryn: Rhaenyra. After Aemma dies giving birth to a short-lived son, Viserys names Rhaenyra heir and makes the lords swear to support her. He then marries Alicent Hightower, the daughter of his Hand, and they have four children: Aegon, Helaena, Aemond and Daeron.

That makes Rhaenyra the half-sister of Alicent’s children. By the custom of male-preference succession, Aegon as the eldest son would usually inherit, and that conflict between the king’s word and custom is the whole story of the series.

Rhaenyra’s children and the question of the Strong boys

Rhaenyra marries her cousin Laenor Velaryon, and her first three sons, Jacaerys, Lucerys and Joffrey, carry the Velaryon name. The series makes clear that their real father is Ser Harwin Strong, which is why the boys have brown hair and why the greens call them bastards. The chart records Laenor as their father, as the court does; Harwin is left off the chart for that reason.

After Laenor’s staged death, Rhaenyra marries her uncle Daemon. Their sons Aegon and Viserys are the only children whose Targaryen descent nobody disputes, and both later become kings.

Daemon Targaryen’s three marriages

Daemon is the most married character on the chart. His first wife, Lady Rhea Royce of Runestone, dies in a suspicious fall. His second, Laena Velaryon, gives him the twins Baela and Rhaena before dying on Vhagar in Pentos. His third, his niece Rhaenyra, makes him prince consort. Because of those marriages Daemon is at once Rhaenyra’s uncle, her husband and the stepfather of her elder sons, while his daughters are the boys’ cousins through Laena and Laenor.

The Velaryons of Driftmark

House Velaryon, also of Valyrian blood, is the richest family in the realm thanks to Corlys’s voyages. Corlys married Princess Rhaenys, the cousin who lost the throne to Viserys, so their children Laena and Laenor are Targaryens on their mother’s side. Season two introduces Addam and Alyn of Hull, who turn out to be Corlys’s sons by a shipwright’s daughter. Addam becomes a dragonrider because Targaryen-Velaryon blood lets him claim Seasmoke.

Once you see the Velaryons on the family tree, Rhaenyra’s plan for Driftmark becomes clear: her son Lucerys, officially Laenor’s child, is the heir to Corlys’s seat.

Too many Aegons: names that repeat

Targaryens reuse a small set of names, and House of the Dragon has three Aegons in play: Aegon II, Rhaenyra’s son Aegon (later Aegon III) and, in memory, Aegon the Conqueror. There are two Rhaenys (Daemon calls his cousin by that name, and Aegon I’s sister shared it), two Jaehaerys (the Old King and Aegon II’s son) and two Viserys. The Roman numerals on the chart help: only kings receive them.

How House of the Dragon connects to Game of Thrones

Daenerys Targaryen descends from Rhaenyra and Daemon through their younger son, Viserys II, and from him through eight more generations of kings. Alicent’s line ends: Aegon II’s daughter Jaehaera marries Aegon III but has no children. In that sense the blacks win the long game even though the war devastates both sides. Follow the line forward on the full Targaryen family tree and the Game of Thrones family tree.