Targaryen information

[Arataniello]

In no particular order, I'd like to see in the World Book -

- the names of the other Targaryen siblings of Rhaenyra and Aegon, and the parts they played in the Dance of Dragons;

- the names all spouses and children of the ruling Targaryens;

- fleshing out of the backstory to all of the Targaryens that have been mentioned in passing, for example mad Rhaegal's children, Aerion's son and Daeron's daughter;

- explanation for any unusual successions - eg how did Maegor the Cruel succeed Aenys, rather than Aenys' own child?

Feel free to continue to add to the list.

Aratan

[Vercint]

A family tree for the Blackfyres, from Daemon to Maelys, would also be interesting, as well as Bittersteel's descendants if he had any, although that might be spoilerish if they are still part of the Golden Company.

[RhaegarReborn]

Personally I would like to see more on the Conquest. We have little information on some of the battles but I would like to know all of it. A timeline might do...plus some insight into why Aegon I thought he should conquer a continent.

[Jon Blackfyre]

Maybe even go back to when the Targ's still lived in Valayria, and how prominent they were in the Freehold.

and I'm not sure if this should go along with this thread, but it'd be nice to have the complete list of Kingsguard brothers from Aegon I thru Tommen I, including Renly's and Dany's King and Queen's gaurds as well. Just a timeline of their service, how they died, who took over for who and such.

[Myrddin]

I'd like to see Jon officially added to the Targ family tree.

That wouldn't be giving everything away, would it?

[Ran]

There's no chance we'll get a list of all the Kingsguard, I expect. George tends not to make more information than he really needs, with "needs" being anything from, 'I need this in the book _NOW_' to 'Lets create a bit extra so that people we get the sense that there's a whole lot more behind it.'

That said, a list of notable Kingsguard, with some new details about some of the ones we've learned of over the series (like the Greatheart), doesn't seem impossible to me. We definitely need something of some sort about the Kingsguard, anyways.

[Werthead]

Perhaps a detailed account of the Valyrian military expansion. For example, why it took five thousand years for the Valyrians to go from conquering the Lands of the Long Summer and the Ghiscari Empire to get to where the Free Cities are. Was it simple ennui? Is the distance much, much greater than perhaps has been hinted at so far (I maintain it's about 3,000 miles, which in itself would be a hurdle, if less so to an empire equipped with dragons)? Were the Valyrians generally kind of chilled, only attacking those who attacked them, but suddenly exploded into aggressive expansionism about a thousand years ago?

I'd also like more info about the Valyrian attitude to women. Did they have equality or were men regarded as the stronger throughout? What was their attitude to the female-dominate Rhoynar? Was that a factor in deciding to attack them?

A long-term history of the Targaryens through all of this could be good. Were the Targs relative latecomers to power in the Freehold? Were they an old and storied house of the empire? If so, why did they go to Dragonstone? And so forth.

[Ran]

Well, the Andals invaded Westeros because they were fleeing the Valyrians (or fleeing others who were fleeing the Valyrians). And the Rhoynar went on the move for similar reasons. I suspect Valyrian policy changed with the centuries, much as Rome's did. Sometimes they'd be happy with their borders, sometimes not.

But we'll certainly try and dig some more info out of GRRM regarding the history of Valyria.

[Jughead of the Round]

As for the famous members of Kingsguard past, I think it would be cool to create the pages found in the White Book... ie. Kingsguard's own house sigil at the top, followed by details of service (with different hand writing for whoever was writing it in the book), ended by the white shield found at the bottom of the page.

[Xray the Enforcer]

Jughead pwnd my idea. I would love to see at least a couple of reproductions of pages from the White Book. I do not, however, need to see images from Renly's picture book that Loras claimed would make a septon go blind.

[Mister Manticore]

I must third the idea to reproduce pages from the white book, though that should be done carefully so as to not create pages and pages of hard to read text.

(I'm thinking the beginning of the Changling RPG)

[Odie]

I mused on the pipe dream of making up The White Book about a month ago...probably on a smaller scale than the one and a half by two foot monstrosity that is the "real" White Book, but I was thinking of making it a unique thing - like hand painted and hand lettered.

But then again I'm insane

[Fenryng]

First and foremost to my interest would be a Targaryen family tree. I do not need to have an exhaustive description of each member of the family (the book does need to be finite to some extent), but what I would like to have, if humanly possible, is -

The years of their births and deaths.

Whom each married and what house their spouse was from.

Who all of their children were, legitimate or otherwise, and who their non-Targ parents were.

This last piece obviously means that all of the Blackfyre Pretenders would be included. I find it endlessly amusing, ironic, and frustrating that George could mention something in the storyline that might very well have been just a throwaway line, but it becomes more interesting to me and peaks my curiosity more than any of the POVs or the main storylines.

I would also love to have actual pictures of what each family's heraldry actually IS. I realize that the Concordance has a great number of them, but having them all gathered together would be a great thing. Descriptions only go so far, particularly when you have parts of the designs described in french, which I do not understand.

Obviously more information about the Dance of the Dragons would be nice.

That is all that I can think of at the moment, but I am sure others will have other, better ideas to add as well.

[Ran]

Well, there's the Heraldry at Westeros.org with actual images of (almost all) the heraldry we have details on.

That said, a Targaryen genealogy is almost 100% certain now, I think, since GRRM has said in public that there'll be genealogies and, as far as I'm aware, the Targaryen family tree is the only one he has written out extensively (I did joke that maybe we'd finally learn who Eddard Stark's mother was

I'm quite keen on the Dance, myself, and I know for a fact that George has a bit more info about it on hand than he has revealed as of yet.

[Fenryng]

Oh, yes. Please don't misunderstand; I love the fact that the heraldry section allows me to actually see what the family crests are, and obviously I appreciate the work that went into them. I just happen to prefer the format where they are shown like they were in the Hedge Knight comic graphic novel, where you had the heraldry and who it belonged to directly underneath. Maybe not so crowded in rows like it was, but other than that.... Sorry, by the way. I am presuming you have the graphic novel, so it occurs to me that you may not know what I am talking about. On the off chance that you don't, did you have any interest in my faxing what I am talking about to you? I would be mildly astonished to learn that you don't, though....

[Ran]

We've got it.

George had suggested laying them out in that sort of way -- maybe not all 350+ of them, but at least each major house surrounded by the shields of some of the vassal houses.

We suggested, in turn, that perhaps a cool way of displaying a lot of them would be to actually have them on the regional maps -- you know, the shield next to each house's castle.

Which way we'll go is still being decided. Heck, we might be able to do both, for all I know. A lot of this will depend on the art director's advice, I suspect, as they'll have more experience regarding what does and doesn't work on the printed page.

[Ran]

A page from the White Book? Nice. Yeah, that one we're definitely passing along.

[Jesatria]

Although this isn't related to the Targs specifically, I'd love to find out more about Valyria

-Details on the Valyrian Wars of Conquest

-How were women treated in their society?

-How did their lines of succession work?

-How did they manage to control dragons? (although I suspect this one may be mentioned in the actual series at some point...)

[Krafus]

If we do get additional information on the Dance of Dragons, then it would be very interesting to see the White Book page of Ser Criston Cole. I wonder if it would hint just why he went against the king's wishes?

A Targaryen family tree would also be welcome.

[Arya Stark]

Basically, a fleshing out of the reigns of the Targaryen kings. Looking at Robert and Aerys, they weren't exactly exmplar kings, and the other rulers don't seem to be the "old" kind. I'm curious to see how Westeros was ruled, and what the balance of power, etc. was.