Why Orys got a Lordship When so Many Other Dragonseeds got Nothing?

[Corvo the Crow]

Title. We know TargAryans are known rapists, raping the smallfolk of Dragonstone, getting so many bastards left and right that they even gave them a collective name "Dragonseeds". Why out of all them that it was Orys who got a lord paramountship and a wife of one of Westeros' most noble bloodlines?

[Lord Varys]

Obviously because he was Aegon the Conqueror's half-brother, best friend, and, especially, because he not only proved his valor and ability during the Conquest, but also played a crucial role in securing the Stormlands for Aegon.

The fact that Aegon had offered/promised Orys Argella's hand earlier may have also played a role. The fact that the last Durrandon ended up being this very unmarried woman would have also played a role. It allowed Aegon to install a new lord there by marrying a close ally and friend to her, so that's what he did.

(Although in hindsight it is quite odd that Sharra Arryn didn't also get a new, Targaryen-friendly husband - she wasn't yet too old to bear children, it seems, but even if that had been the case it would have been pretty wise to give Lord Ronnel a stepfather more positively inclined towards the Targaryens.)

[Canon Claude]

My question is where the name “Baratheon” came from. Is it a Valyrian name? Essossi? Westerosi?

[Corvo the Crow]

42 minutes ago, Lord Varys said:

Obviously because he was Aegon the Conqueror's half-brother, best friend, and, especially, because he not only proved his valor and ability during the Conquest, but also played a crucial role in securing the Stormlands for Aegon.

The fact that Aegon had offered/promised Orys Argella's hand earlier may have also played a role. The fact that the last Durrandon ended up being this very unmarried woman would have also played a role. It allowed Aegon to install a new lord there by marrying a close ally and friend to her, so that's what he did.

(Although in hindsight it is quite odd that Sharra Arryn didn't also get a new, Targaryen-friendly husband - she wasn't yet too old to bear children, it seems, but even if that had been the case it would have been pretty wise to give Lord Ronnel a stepfather more positively inclined towards the Targaryens.)

But rape is so rampant in DS, Aegon probably had several bastard siblings. Why Orys was chosen to grow up with Aegon?

[Lord Varys]

49 minutes ago, Corvo the Crow said:

But rape is so rampant in DS, Aegon probably had several bastard siblings. Why Orys was chosen to grow up with Aegon?

A historian claims that the Dragonstonian Targaryens had a lot of fun with their peasant women. Doesn't mean it was truly the case, especially in the case of Aerion Targaryen.

That said - even if it was the case, there could be lots of reasons why you would favor one dragonseed over another. Although, of course, it seems as if Lord Aerion didn't actually favor Orys or his legal family. After all, neither he nor Aegon did ever acknowledge nor legitimize the boy as a Targaryen bastard.

One way to make sense of this is to assume that Orys' mother wasn't a peasant woman as such, but a servant woman living at the citadel of Dragonstone - perhaps the wetnurse of Aegon and his sisters - so Orys simply would have grown up at the castle anyway, without the Targaryens needing to show special favor to his mother and legal father. Then we would have a scenario where Orys and Aegon's friendship developed naturally because they grew up at the same castle - not because Orys was given a special treatment. He would have only become somewhat special when Aegon decided that this boy was his best friend now.

The Baratheon husband of Orys' mother could have been also a servant in the castle - a steward or cook, say. You kind of get the feeling that Lord Aerion must have died when his children were still pretty young, since Aegon's plans were apparently all his own, and he (and Visenya) apparently did quite a few things before starting the Conquest. If Orys were born in the same year as Rhaenys or 1-2 years younger still, Lord Aerion could have died before Aegon and Orys developed their friendship. After all, the man may have at least acknowledged the boy if he and Aegon had been close friends while he was still around.

Of course, the other reason why this never happened could simply be that Orys' legal Baratheon father was a man regarded very highly by Aerion, Valaena, Aegon, his sisters, and Orys. Say, if he was a steward at Dragonstone he could have been a great help to an ailing Lord Aerion and subsequently to a widowed Valaena and young Aegon during his minority and thereafter (although he would have likely have died shortly before the Conquest at the latest). If the Targaryens felt they owed 'Orys' father' they may have been reluctant to mess with their internal family dynamics by making it official that Orys wasn't the biological son of his legal father. The same could be true if Orys was simply very close to the man he called father and never had any intention that a shadow fall on their relationship even if he himself knew that his father wasn't the man who sired him.

[Ser Lepus]

We don't know who was Orys's mother. She may have been the daughter of a vassal, a household knight or favored servant, so he was raised next to Aegon, instead of growing in some shitty ramshackle fishing halet, far from the sight of the Targayrens...