In House of the Dragon, the Targaryens claim their “blood of the dragon” allows them alone to ride the creatures, but that may not be the whole story.
Warning: contains SPOILERS for House of the Dragon season 1 and George R. R. Martin’s book Fire & Blood.In House of the Dragon, Targaryens are said to be the only ones capable of riding dragons, but is that actually the truth? Hailing originally from Old Valyria in Essos, the Targaryens are the only dragonlords to escape the Doom of Valyria, having moved their House to Dragonstone just a few years before the cataclysmic destruction of their homeland. Targaryens in House of the Dragon take great pride in the attachments they form with their dragons — riders and dragons are even bound for life. The great power of the Targaryens over Westeros is due almost entirely to their unique mastery of dragons.
To mount a dragon, it is thought that one must have the blood of Old Valyrian dragonriders flowing through them. House Targaryen ruled Westeros as the only family with this ancestry, but after years of intermarrying with other families, that is no longer the case. In House of the Dragon, there are only a few dragons left, so the Targaryens guard their dragons and the resultant eggs vigilantly. It is a lie that they are happy to spread, that only a Targaryen can ride dragons. However, due to the ever-expanding bloodlines in Westeros, or because the Targaryen-dragon connection is not unique, other riders can be found across Westeros.
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Valyrian Blood In Other Houses
Even with dragons, the Targaryens had to solidify their rule of Westeros in the traditional way, by conquest. By the time of House of the Dragon, the Targaryens have married into many of the Houses of Westeros. Their blood has spread throughout most of the continent. This is seen in the family members of House Velaryon, another House from Valyria who never rode dragons and left Valyria long before the Targaryens. They are the only other House to boast dragonriders. While no other Houses have a named member mount a dragon, plenty of female lines of Houses can claim to be the mother of a rider.
The Dragonseeds
In George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood, which is the basis for House of the Dragon, Daemon Targaryen realizes that while the blacks of Rhaenyra have more dragons on their side, they don’t have enough Targaryens to ride them. This is a sign of his desperation that he is willing to ignore the message of blood superiority he used to proclaim and offer a dragon to any person able to mount one and fight for the blacks against the greens. The men and women who succeed are afterward known as Dragonseeds. These are bastards whose ancestry is not known but are believed to descend from House Targaryen or House Velaryon.
The named Dragonseed to appear after season 1 of House of the Dragon includes Addam and Alyn of Hull, brothers who bear a resemblance to Corlys Velaryon and are eventually naturalized as Velaryons. Hugh Hammer and Ulf the White are two other Dragonseeds whose ancestry is much more clouded — the fact that neither is proven to be part Targaryen nor Velaryon is a hint that it may not just be Targaryens who can ride. Both men are cruel and formidable warriors, and to have a tendency for violence seems to be a consistent driving factor for the ability to ride dragons in House of the Dragon.
