c. 116 AC — no closer year survives, though she was flying by the time Prince Daeron reached the Reach
Died
130 AC, at Second Tumbleton, locked with Seasmoke and Vermithor
Size
A young she-dragon, swift and splendid, still shy of the mass the elder beasts carried into battle — speed and daring stood in for bulk, and mostly served, until Tumbleton asked more of her than either could give.
Temperament
Bright, biddable, and by most accounts the loveliest thing flying on either side of the war — a dragon suited to a soldier-prince's confidence rather than an old wyrm's caution, which made her a formidable weapon for exactly as long as her luck held.
Tessarion was Daeron Targaryen's dragon — youngest of Viserys I's sons by Alicent Hightower, and by most tellings the most soldierly of the greens' princes, sent west and south to the Reach to rally House Hightower's strength for his brother's cause while his elder siblings fought closer to the capital. The Blue Queen carried him well; Daeron the Daring, as the histories came to style him, proved a genuinely capable field commander at the head of Ormund Hightower's host, and Tessarion's cobalt-and-copper wings became as familiar a sight over the Reach's armies as any banner.
It ended at Tumbleton, twice over. The town changed hands once already amid treachery — Rhaenyra's dragonseed riders Hugh Hammer and Ulf White turned their borrowed dragons against her cause there for a better offer — and when the blacks returned in force for a second reckoning, Tessarion was drawn into a three-way dragon battle against Seasmoke and Vermithor that the Citadel still ranks among the costliest single engagements dragonkind ever fought. All three dragons died in the tangle, their riders with them, and Tumbleton itself burned so thoroughly that the maesters credit the fires still smoldering weeks later — a single afternoon that cost the war three grown dragons and left the smallfolk of the Reach cursing both colors equally.
The fate of Tessarion
This carries how the dragon's story ends in the published novels. Read on only if you do not fear to know.
Died in the three-dragon melee at Second Tumbleton, the single deadliest dragon-on-dragon engagement of the war — Tessarion, Seasmoke, and Vermithor tearing at one another until none of the three walked away, the youngest of the war's great dragons and the two claimed commoners' dragons spent together in one afternoon.
These partings name deaths, endings, and roads not yet ridden in the books. Unveil them only if both roads are known to you — or if you do not fear to know.
In the timeline
SourcesFire & Blood
Who was Tessarion?
Tessarion was Daeron Targaryen's dragon — youngest of Viserys I's sons by Alicent Hightower, and by most tellings the most soldierly of the greens' princes, sent west and south to the Reach to rally House Hightower's strength for his brother's cause while his elder siblings fought closer to the capital. The Blue Queen carried him well; Daeron the Daring, as the histories came to style him, proved a genuinely capable field commander at the head of Ormund Hightower's host, and Tessarion's cobalt-and-copper wings became as familiar a sight over the Reach's armies as any banner.
Is Tessarion from the books or the show?
Book canon. This entry follows George R. R. Martin's novels and histories, and notes where the television series diverges rather than following it.