Lady Laena Velaryon, born Laena Baratheon, is the Lady of Driftmark. She is Lord Gwayne Baratheon and Princess Aelinor Targaryen’s firstborn child, late King Aegon VII Targaryen’s first cousin, and Lord Vaemond Velaryon’s wife. She was named in honour of her mother’s childhood companion, Laena Longwaters.

At court in King’s Landing, Laena has accrued a reputation for clandestinity. After the Great Council of 439 AC, she came out in favour of Queen Visenya Silvermoon and her son, King Daeron III Targaryen.

She was once rumoured to have had a hand in the death of Lucerys Velaryon, King Rhaegar II Targaryen’s Master of Coin.

She is the rider of Tyraxes, the Gilded Queen, and her second rider after Queen Visaera I Targaryen.

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Appearance and Character

Burdened by her father’s features, Laena has black hair, dark eyes, angular eyebrows, and a short, protruding chin. Her frame is frail and accented by a hunch developed during adolescence.

Laena is quietly proud and vindictive, her fragile ego especially ferocious when her children are involved. Convinced of the worst in everyone, she assumes guilt before innocence and punishes everyone who purportedly crosses her.

A woman of whispers and a seller of secrets, Laena is rivalled by few in the covert arts. Unseen and unheard, she penetrates the most private of places, prying for present or future information.

History

The first living child born to Lord Gwayne and Princess Aelinor, Laena entered the world a healthy, albeit protected baby girl. Her overbearing parents, scarred from the loss of a child that never made it, strictly surveilled her throughout her childhood. Having few friends and fewer females to grow up with, she clung close to her ever-present mother, staying always within her shadow even as they soared in the sun’s embrace, mounted on Moonfyre.

Aelinor’s sudden death in 418 AC devastated Laena, who, at the meager age of eight, ought to have been too young to feel her heart calcify. She laid the blame for her mother’s “murder” on her youngest brother, Edric, whom she would go on to call ”killer” well into adulthood. Had her father not stopped her in the immediate aftermath of her mother’s death, she would have fled after Moonfyre, the only being who could understand her pain, for they had both been her mother’s most cherished children.

Adolescence revealed to Laena the almost literal prison she had hitherto been kept in, sparking rebellion in her as it did in most children. Drawing on the tricks she had seen employed by her mother’s agents, she taught herself to slip past her father’s vigilant wardens. She nearly escaped Storm’s End on her first successful attempt, hoping to reunite with Moonfyre; the novel, fulfilling rush of freedom, however, so utterly overwhelmed Laena that she ended up changing her mind – she hoped Moonfyre had the chance to feel freedom too, wherever she was.

For a time, Laena risked the ire of her father and abused her newfound covert abilities, defying curfews to spend time instead with other girls from the caslte. Though she had tried hard to join their established gossip circles, she wound up becoming their subject instead: “Lord Baratheon’s ugly son,” they often called her. They were viscious towards her, and it was from them that she learned how to be viscious in return. She had started out spreading retributive rumours, but by early adulthood graduated to reporting irrefutable, exagerated facts, which she would report to her father‘s knights and administrators, the swords and quills that in turn destroyed the lives of her enemies.

Upon turning ten and six, Laena finally felt ready to tame Moonfyre, having studied the relevant lore for years in anticipation, but was instead bound to a far lesser dragon, Vaemond Velaryon. As part of the agreed upon bride service, Vaemond and his dragon, Garnet, were to help her with the taming, but by the time they had set off from Driftmark, they had long consummated their marriage (and it started to show). Her brother, Robar, was the one to point out her barely bulging stomach, betraying her to her husband and bringing the expedition to an abrupt end. Instead of fulfilling her dream of reuniting with Moonfyre, Laena would push out the first of five children that she would never want.

From the day Vaemond broke his contractual promise, Laena despised him. She grew to despise him even more as she got to know him for the peasant-loving, garden-tending, pacifist coward that he was. The closest she had gotten to love was with his father, Aurane, with whom she spent most of her time. While the periodic destruction bestowed upon her body by childbirth prevented her from fulfilling her dream, it did not prevent her from effectively ruling alongside Aurane, who had lost his wife to insanity. Together, they governed Driftmark and influenced King Rhaegar and Aegon’s courts, going so far as to bring a satisfying end to Aurane’s longtime blood feud with his brother, Lucerys.

Laena entered a period of melancholy after the stillbirth of her third child, Aelinor. For a time, Laena isolated herself in the lower tiers of Driftmark, refusing to see Aurane or their children. She emerged eventually with the desire to have another child.

After Juniper’s birth and Aurane’s death in 437 AC, Laena announced she had completed her obligations as a wife. Wielding against Vaemond the fact that he had yet to make good on his promise to her, the one meant to seal their union, she seized as much freedom from him as she could. For the majority of the years that followed, she attended King Aegon’s court with her children, cultivated numerous gossip networks, and inserted herself in the coveted inner-circles of various lords, ladies, princes, and queens. Only on one occasion, following a principal bannerman’s scheme to marry his secretly barren daughter to Prince Daeron Targaryen, did Laena compromise a clandestine operation, revealing herself to Queen Visenya Silvermoon. Years of unilaterally sharing the same room had fostered in Laena a nostalgic empathy for the unfairly victimized, albeit resilient Queen. By the time the bannerman reached the Iron Throne, Laena had already armed Visenya with the information needed to send him to his grave. Soon afterwards, word of Laena’s skillset made its way around court, and, for the first time in her life, she was able to be freely proud of it.

Recent Events

438 AC

10th Moon:

While her husband was away at tournament, Laena began preparing for her long-delayed attempt to tame Moonfyre, pouring over old tomes and practicing ancient techniques.

439 AC

3rd Moon:

After a brief stay at Driftmark, Laena arrived at the Red Keep, joining the remainder of her family through mariage. She continued her preparations to tame Moonfyre, not knowing of her cousin Alyssa Arryn’s success weeks earlier.

4th Moon

Laena fell into a rage after learning of Moonfyre’s taming. She let it out on Vaemond, who in turn nearly exiled her from Driftmark. After she had begged on her knees for a second chance, the two reached a detente.

5th Moon

Having scaled the walls of the Red Keep onto Visenya’s balcony, Laena overheard Prince Aerion Targaryen’s intentions to take Storm’s End and disposes her kin and maiden house.

At the Crownlander’s regional meeting, Laena vocally supported Visenya and Daeron while propagating the myth of Rhaenyra’s ruthless aggression.

During the Great Council, Laena came to Visenya’s defence against Lord Vorian Dayne, who had maligned the queen over her polygamous marriage. She shared what she had learned about Aerion to Robar midway through the debates. The revelation would go on to exacerbate a later confrontation between the prince and her father.



Laena joined Daena, the good sister she vilified, to tame Tyraxes and Starfyre. They flipped over libraries, hounded the keepers in the Dragonpit, and infiltrated places in which they did not belong.

6th Moon

After twenty-three years of preparation, Laena tames a dragon, though not the one she had dreamed of. Tyraxes and Laena bond with the intention to make man and dragon kneel.

7th Moon

After a sudden encounter turned hostile in the Kingswood, Laena kills Alyssa Arryn, having commanded Tyraxes to engulf the Arryn woman in flames. After arriving at Storm’s End, Laena spreads the rumour around King’s Landing through an intermediary that Aerion had killed Alyssa. Laena lies about the murder to Lord Godric Arryn of the Eyrie in a letter. She confesses the truth to her lord father, Gwayne, and her brothers, Robar, Lyonel, and Edric in front of King Renly Baratheon’s crown in the Baratheon vault.

On her arrival to Storm’s End, Laena leaves Tyraxes unsupervised long enough to allow the Gilded Queen to attack the other dragon flying around Storm’s End, Silanax. The fight is broken up by both riders before getting out of hand, but not before Silanax is wounded.

Family

Patrilineal

Matrilineal