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Targaryen heredity explained - spoilers


Pukisbaisals

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First, let’s look on the hair color pattern in children born from Targaryen father and non Valyrian mother.

In all known such cases firstborn children of the couple didn’t have silver gold Valyrian hair. But second and subsequent children have Valyrian traits.

 

Baelor Breakspear, firstborn of Daeron II and Maria Martell looks Dornish – had dark hair and dark eyes. His younger brother had Valyrian look.

Daeron the drunkard, firstborn son of Maekar I and Dyanna Dayne, had sandy brown hair (I guess it was his mother’s hair color), other sons had Valyrian look.

Dunkan the Small, firstborn son of Aegon V and Black Betha Blackwood, was dark haired, other brothers had Valyrian look.

Rhaenys, firstborn child of Rhaegar and Elia of Dorne looked Dornish, second child, Aegon VI had Valyrian traits.

Orys Baratheon, rumored bastard son of Aerion Targaryen, had black hair and black eyes.

Jeyne Lothston, rumored daughter of Aegon IV and Fallena Stokeworth, looked non Valyrian.

Bittersteel, firstborn son of Aegon Unworthy and Barba Bracken looked non Valyrian, but Brynden Rivers - thirdborn child of Aegon IV and Melissa Blackwood - was albino.

Bellenora – firstborn daughter of Bellagere Otterys and Aegon V took name “Black Pearl of Bravos” – this probably means she had non Targaryen look.

 

These samples suggests simple conclusion - Targaryen males somehow transfer Targaryen traits to their wives and lovers, so second child of the couple inherits Targaryen traits from both mother and father and has Valyrian look. Targaryen genes are somehow “infectious”.

 

One possibility, mother and her children acquire some new heredity not from husband himself, but from first fetus, so in this case pregnancy is required (stillborns and miscarriages also count in). This model parallels microchimerism phenomenon in our world.

 

There also is telegony theory (in our world) which claims that child can inherit traits not only from his biological father, but from previous partners of his mother (in some cases also from previous partners of his biological father). This theory was popular until 19 century (in our world), later disproved. But maybe it works on Planetos, with some magic perhaps. In this case no pregnancy is needed to transfer traits. May be it is even possible for first child to have Targaryen traits if he is conceived not during honey moon but after some time later (after mother becomes “infected”).

 

Third possibility (and may be most plausible one) is that no genes are actually transferred to mother, just some infectious factor (let’s call it Targvirus), which persists in mother’s body and switches off genes responsible for pigment synthesis in her fetuses. Thus second and subsequent children become partial albinos – silver golden hair, purple eyes.

In this case Valyrian traits are even not, in fact, inherited. It’s just damaged pigment synthesis.

May be not only hair and eye colors are affected (switched on or off) by Targvirus, but some other traits also – perhaps the ones associated with heat resistance or temper.

On other hand dragonriding genes are probably inherited in different way. It is obvious that Valyrian colors are not necessary linked to dragonriding. Only several Valyrian families were dragonlords and some dragonriders – Nettle, sons of Rhaenyra - didn’t look Valyrian.

I think Preston Jacob’s theory about connection of dragonriding and dragonhatching to X chromosome is convincing. That would explain incest marriages - they would be not required if dragonriding would be inherited so effectively.

 

So Valyrian silver gold hair and purple eyes are recessive trait. They show up in firstborns only when mother and father both have at least partial Valyrian descent.

It seems like second and subsequent child is more Targaryen than firstborn child. Or at least looks more Targaryen.

It may explain conspiracies to promote younger children to the Iron Throne - Maekar I,   Aegon V Unlikely. May be the abdication of Dunkan the Small was staged and for the same reason.

 

It seems this infectious transfer of traits doesn’t work through the females. All three sons of Rhaenyra didn’t have Valyrian look. It may explain why Targaryens don’t support female claims to the throne.

Other explanation is that Jacaerys, Lucerys and Jeoffrey were, in fact, fathered by different men. Which is unlikely, but possibly - there were three Strongs in Kings Landing - remember Cersei and Kettlebacks.

We will know this for sure if we find out how children of princess Daenerys and Moran Martell look like - whether all of them, or only the firstborn child, looked like salty Dornishmen.

Also if we find out how did children and husbands of princesses Elaena (Penrose) and Rhaena (Hightower) looked like.

 

Maybe firstborn (non Valyrian looking half Targaryen) son can also transfer some Valyrian traits to his children the same way – prince Valarr has streak of golden silver hair.  This, or his mother Jena Dondarrion had some Valyrian ancestry.

 

Widows and ex-lovers of Targaryens probably remain infected for lifetime and can transfer some of Targaryen traits to their future children fathered by other men, only these traits most likely wouldn't be obvious (they are recessive) unless fathers of the children also have some Valyrian ancestry.

 

It is not clear if this sort of heredity is unique to Targaryens. Probably thus colors are inherited in all Valyrians.

Also, may be it can work in some other noble families, because their traits persist through generations even without strict incest marriages.

For example Lannisters still are golden-haired as their legendary forebear Lann the Clever, who lived thousands years before. May be they are infected by some Goldenvirus?

Colors of Tuly’s also very persistent and probably take their origin from Lothstons.

 

If this heredity theory is correct hair color of some Targaryen descendants can be predicted.

 

Sisters and daughters of Aegon V had to look Valyrian, because they were younger children.

Eldest sister of Bloodraven probably had her mother’s dark hair color, but younger sister looked Valyrian.

Nettle could be half Targaryen – firstborn to some lover’s couple (I think she could be daughter of prince Daemon).

 

Firstborn child (or twins) of Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar could’t look Valyrian, he or she had to inherited Lyanna’s hair color. (Which is very disappointing, I prefer theories with Dany as changeling. But maybe she still is).

 

Child of Dany and Drogo would have looked as Dothraki (which is also disappointing, I have cute Rhaego = Hrakkar theory).  So remains unclear who was lord in Dany’s vision in the House of Undying: “tall lord with copper-skin and silver-gold hair beneath a banner of a fiery stallion.”

That is, unless Drogo himself had some Valyrian blood. This is not impossible, maybe magisters of Pentos presented Drogo’s father with beautiful Lyseni slave. Also, may be it was not the first attempt of Illyrio and Varys to gain dothraki army and some Blackfyre girl was presented to Drogo’s father as a gift.

 

This heredity theory works well with theories about parentage of Cersei, Jaime and Tyrion.

If Cersei and Jaime are  fathered by Aerys, they can’t have visible Targaryen traits, because they are firstborn. Joanna’s color genes totally dominate over Targaryen’s.  So Jaime and Cersei could be half Targaryens after all. Still strange, that none of their incest children look Valyrian (in this case they all have Targaryen ancestry on both sides). Maybe Goldenvirus somehow ate Targvirus J.

 

But if Joanna was lover of Aerys, she became “infected” and could transfer Valyrian traits on her next children. If Aerys and Joanna would have other child he would look Valyrian.

If Tyrion is fathered by Aerys, Tywin or both of them (as chimaera twin) it is difficult to explain black color of his eye. Still one possible explanation exists. Aerys was descendant of Black Betth Blackwood (she was his maternal and paternal grandmother) and had her genes, only they were switched off by Targvirus. May be in Tyrion these traits for some reason were turned on again. So in this case Tyrion have black eye from Black Betha Blackwood J.

Another origin of black Tyrion’s eye is alleged black haired lover of Joanna (prince Lewyn Martell as a suspect). If he is Tyrion’s father, Tyrion still could inherit some Aerys genes from Joanna.

Funniest case if Tyrion is chimaera twin and have even four parents - Tywin and Lewyn as fathers and Joanna and, well, Aerys as mothers J.

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18 hours ago, Pukisbaisals said:

Child of Dany and Drogo would have looked as Dothraki (which is also disappointing, I have cute Rhaego = Hrakkar theory).  So remains unclear who was lord in Dany’s vision in the House of Undying: “tall lord with copper-skin and silver-gold hair beneath a banner of a fiery stallion.”

I've come to the same conclusion, that Rhaego would have looked Dothraki, subverting the expectation. I operate on the assumption that the copper skinned, silver-haired prince in the HotU is Aegon. The banner is Bittersteels. This keeps the visions chronological by birth order of Dany's children (if that vision was related to Rhaego it would have come first, not second) assuming that her second child will be born and/or conceived during her conflict with Aegon and her conquest of the South, which seems likely.

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I ran out of tinfoil halfway through. I doubt GRRM considered the inheritance of traits to this level of complexity; he just wanted families to have specific traits, and by making some members not have those traits when resulting from mixed marriages (e.g. Baelor as the son of Mariah Martell, Daeron as the son of Dyanna Dayne, Duncan as the son of Betha Blackwood) makes everything more believable than these rare Valyrian genes constantly triumphing over every dark haired mother. In reality of course everyone would be a lot more mixed (my uncle, for example, has a daughter with black hair and brown eyes, a daughter with auburn hair and brown eyes, and three blonde haired blue eyed children, all from the same wife). I assume the retention of traits in the Westerosi dynasties is a mixture of plot contrivance, magic, coincidence, and the high frequency of first and second cousin (and in the case of the Targaryens, sibling) marriages. For the Lannisters in particular, I always expected that mainline Lannisters intentionally chose wives with golden hair and bright green eyes to maintain their traits - some of that may be going on in other houses too. In House Lannister at least, it doesn't appear there's a firstborn inheritance thing going on - the mainline Lannisters are mostly golden haired while Daven Lannister, iirc, has brownish hair. 

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19 hours ago, Pukisbaisals said:

Bellenora – firstborn daughter of Bellagere Otterys and Aegon V took name “Black Pearl of Bravos” – this probably means she had non Targ looks

 

Child of Dany and Drogo would have looked as Dothraki (which is also disappointing, I have cute Rhaego = Hrakkar theory).  So remains unclear who was lord in Dany’s vision in the House of Undying: “tall lord with copper-skin and silver-gold hair beneath a banner of a fiery stallion.”

That is, unless Drogo himself had some Valyrian blood. This is not impossible, maybe magisters of Pentos presented Drogo’s father with beautiful Lyseni slave. Also, may be it was not the first attempt of Illyrio and Varys to gain dothraki army and some Blackfyre girl was presented to Drogo’s father as a gift.

I imagine that, as in our world, skin colour is caused by multiple genes that would result in most mixed children having a shade of skin approximately in the middle of their parents' skin colours. If the child seen in the HotU vision was Rhaego, I always found the hair colour difficult to believe, so Valyrian ancestry of Khal Drogo may not be unlikely. It may be though that, as the Dothraki care little for bloodlines, Drogo has a grandmother or great grandmother with Valyrian features, whether through a captured Valyrian featured woman or through an interracial marriage which the Dothraki appear accepting of (as with Drogo and Daenerys, but that ancestor of Drogo need not be a Blackfyre or anything related to Westeros). I doubt Drogo's mother was Valyrian, otherwise it'd probably be mentioned that his skin was a lighter shade than the other Dothraki. 

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I like this theory, but why would Daenerys and Drogo's son need to look like Drogo? The cases discussed in your theory involves a Targaryen/valyrian father and a mother of different ancestry. Maybe the traits are mainly passed through the mother, and therefore her children will look valyrian no matter the order? I can see the "targvirus" thing work with a Targaryen father, but I don't really see how a woman could give "targvirus" to a man.

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This is actually a theory I've had for quite a while, but I just haven't been able to word it properly.

But regarding it, it is my belief that only Valyrian men can pass on their Valyrian traits onto non-Valyrian women. We see the examples you stated above about Targaryen kings who had children with non-Valyrian women and the firstborn child always looks like their mother, but the subsequent children look like their father. All of Rhaenyra's sons by her first husband were allegedly not his, and given their description and the fact that their alleged father was "more interested in the company of men than women", the rumours to have some credibility. If the theory that firstborn half-Targaryens favour their non-Targaryen parent's traits, but all of their younger siblings will look like their Targaryen parent, then how come all three of Rhaenyra's three oldest sons looked more like Strongs? Shouldn't it be just Jacaerys who looked like a Strong, but Lucerys and Joffrey would have the traditional Targaryen traits?

I don't really know, but thank you for actually wording a theory that I've had in my mind for quite some time!

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I think this theory is maybe close, but I have read another thread a long time ago that explains it a little more simply. I am not sure that I can believe the idea that a parent, even a magic Targagryen parent, can pass on genes from previous partners. There are no hints to this in the books at all it seems. 

 

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This is a case of desperately looking for patterns where they aren't any.

Aegor Rivers does have Valyrian eyes, by the way. Just as Aurane Waters has Valyrian hairs without having Valyrian eyes.

We also have Princess Rhaenys with Valyrians looks despite her mother having been a Baratheon who would is not unlikely to have had black hair.

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12 hours ago, Universal Sword Donor said:

Targaryen Heredity Explained = GRRM needed it to work that way

Sadly I am starting to think this is how a lot of things are going to turn out this way.

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On 2017-06-02 at 3:26 PM, Dragonsmurf said:

I Maybe the traits are mainly passed through the mother, and therefore her children will look valyrian no matter the order?

 

 

Then first three sons of Rhaenyra would probably also look Valyrian.

Unless it matters, that Rhaenyra had one non-Valyrian grandfather (Rodrick Arryn) and herself was firstborn.  Daenerys (if she indeed is daughter of Aerys and Rhaella) was born in second generation of incest marriages (her last non Targaryen ancestor was her quadruple great grandmother Betha Blackwood) and she is eightborn!

 

On 2017-06-02 at 3:26 PM, Dragonsmurf said:

 I can see the "targvirus" thing work with a Targaryen father, but I don't really see how a woman could give "targvirus" to a man.

 

If Targvirus is transmitted in similar fashion as viruses and bacteria in our world, this is quite possible.

But, yes, so far is seems that Targvirus is transmitted only by male line.

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On 2017-06-02 at 4:54 PM, Vaedys Targaryen said:

 If the theory that firstborn half-Targaryens favour their non-Targaryen parent's traits, but all of their younger siblings will look like their Targaryen parent, then how come all three of Rhaenyra's three oldest sons looked more like Strongs? Shouldn't it be just Jacaerys who looked like a Strong, but Lucerys and Joffrey would have the traditional Targaryen traits?

 

 

Yes, it should be like that. But so far it seems that this doesn’t work through female line.

 

Another, though less plausible explanation is that Jacaerys, Lucerys and Jeoffrey were fathered by different men. There were two Strong brothers and their father. Or just maybe pug nosed knights were Rhaenyra’s type. There are parallels between Cersei and Rhaenyra, and Cersei laid down at least two Kettlebacks.

 

So far Rhaenyra’s sons are only examples of offspring from Targaryen mother and non-Valyrian father with known appearance, so it is hard to tell which is true.

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On 2017-06-02 at 6:12 PM, Ferocious Veldt Roarer said:

A few don't follow your pattern.

Viserys I, and his two marriages (Arryn and Hightower) defy the pattern with Rhaenyra and Aegon II. The same goes for Daemon Blackfyre's eldest twin sons with Rohanne of Tyrosh (no info on her being Valyrian).

 

Rhaenyra’s case doesn’t defy this pattern. Rhaenyra wasn’t born from non-Valyrian mother, she has Targaryen ancestry on both sides – her mother Aemma Arryn is half-Targaryen, daughter of princess Daella Targaryen, granddaughter of Jaeherys and Alysanne. Aemma Arryn herself, according this theory, didn’t have Valyrian look.

 

Alicent Hightower also possibly had some Valyrian ancestry (even if she hadn’t silver golden hair) - Old King sometimes mistook her for his daughter Saera.

But there is another, more intriguing explanation. There was a rumor, that Alicent was lover of Old King. Also a rumor, that Rogue Prince was lover of Alicent and a rumor that romance of Alicent and Viserys started some time before their official wedding. If only one of these rumors comes true, it could mean that Alicent was “infected” before she was married to Viserys. She even could have been pregnant and miscarry at early stage of pregnancy – that could pass unnoticed by court.

 

Tyrosh was colony of Valyria. First nobility of Tyrosh - as well of other free cities except Bravos – was Valyrian. So it is very likely that Rohanne had some Valyrian ancestry.

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19 hours ago, Lord Varys said:

Aegor Rivers does have Valyrian eyes, by the way. Just as Aurane Waters has Valyrian hairs without having Valyrian eyes.

We also have Princess Rhaenys with Valyrians looks despite her mother having been a Baratheon who would is not unlikely to have had black hair.

 

Princess Rhaenys Rhaenyra wasn’t born from non-Valyrian mother, she has Valyrian ancestry on both sides. Her mother was half Valyrian Jocelyn Baratheon, daughter of Alyssa Velaryon, who herself was half Targaryen.

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2 hours ago, Pukisbaisals said:

 

Princess Rhaenys Rhaenyra wasn’t born from non-Valyrian mother, she has Valyrian ancestry on both sides. Her mother was half Valyrian Jocelyn Baratheon, daughter of Alyssa Velaryon, who herself was half Targaryen.

Only all those halfsies water down your theory to the point of me not caring.

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4 hours ago, Pukisbaisals said:

 

Princess Rhaenys Rhaenyra wasn’t born from non-Valyrian mother, she has Valyrian ancestry on both sides. Her mother was half Valyrian Jocelyn Baratheon, daughter of Alyssa Velaryon, who herself was half Targaryen.

 

Sure, but the seed is strong. Jocelyn Baratheon should have had black hair, just Princess Rhaenys, Laenor and Laena, and Baela and Rhaena. But they did not.

Alicent Hightower didn't have any Valyrian ancestors, either.

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16 hours ago, Lord Varys said:

Sure, but the seed is strong. Jocelyn Baratheon should have had black hair, just Princess Rhaenys, Laenor and Laena, and Baela and Rhaena. But they did not.

 

Yes, Jocelyn most likely was blackhaired.

Unless targvirus does work through female line too – Jocelyn is seconborn child of Robar Baratheon and Alyssa Velaryon.

But this case is more complex, because Alyssa was widow of Aenys Targaryen and had six children by him. She was “targinfected” and it possibly had some effect on her Baratheon children.

Rhaenys was ¾ Valyrian, she has 50% chance look Valyrian and 50% chance inherit her mother’s hair color according ordinary Mendelian genetics. Same with Rhaenyra – she has 50/50 chance to look Valyrian or like Aemma Arryn.

 

Laenor and Laena  had no chance to look non-Valyrian, because both of their parents had recessive Targaryen traits (Mendelian genetics).

16 hours ago, Lord Varys said:

Alicent Hightower didn't have any Valyrian ancestors, either.

 

May be not, but can you know it for sure? Hightowers can marry nobles from Essos as other houses.

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I don't think Valyrian features are the same as common yellow blonde hair features amongst everyone else. The silver hair/silver - gold hair of the Valyrians goes with their special traits of (most) purple eyes and immunity to heat. I'm guessing that some Valyrians were immune to fire. It seems that the majority of Valyrians were just normal people with light coloured hair but the really magical ones had super powers, like Dany. 

Valyrians remind me of our own world's "lost Atlantis" people.

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