before the Conquest — the histories fix no firmer year than that
Died
130 AC, over the Gods Eye, grappling Caraxes to their mutual ruin
Size
Second only to Balerion for most of her long life, and in her final decades large enough that some maesters ranked her his equal or better — a dragon who had gone from youngest of the Conquest's three to the single largest living thing with wings.
Temperament
An old and wicked-tempered beast by the time Aemond claimed her, quicker to violence than dragons half her age; the histories cannot even agree whether her killing of young Lucerys Velaryon over Storm's End was Aemond's design or simply Vhagar's own hunting instinct outrunning her rider's intentions.
Vhagar had the longest career of any dragon in Targaryen service, and very nearly the longest life. Hatched before the Conquest and flown first by Visenya, the fiercer of Aegon's sister-wives, she passed down through four riders across more than a century — from a queen, to a spare prince, to a Velaryon lady who flew her only briefly before her death in childbed, and finally to Aemond Targaryen, who took her up as a boy of the wrong age and never entirely let her wickedness soften him.
By the time of the Dance, Vhagar was a monster out of an older, harder age turned loose on a war fought mostly by dragons a fraction her size and years. It told. Over Shipbreaker Bay she ran down Arrax and killed Lucerys Velaryon in a chase the Citadel still argues over — command or appetite, no one now living can say. At Rook's Rest she and Sunfyre together brought down Rhaenys and the swift old Meleys, the first great dragon-death of the war proper. Her end came fittingly against an opponent nearly her own age: locked with Caraxes above the Gods Eye, she and the Blood Wyrm crashed together into the water, and Aemond went down with her — the last true duel of two dragons the Dance would produce, fought by two beasts old enough to remember a world before either side of the war existed.
The fate of Vhagar
This carries how the dragon's story ends in the published novels. Read on only if you do not fear to know.
Died the oldest dragon left flying in the Seven Kingdoms, brought down at last not by age but by another dragon nearly as ancient as she was — the two of them falling together into the lake in the closest thing the Dance had to a duel between elders.
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.
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Who was Vhagar?
Vhagar had the longest career of any dragon in Targaryen service, and very nearly the longest life. Hatched before the Conquest and flown first by Visenya, the fiercer of Aegon's sister-wives, she passed down through four riders across more than a century — from a queen, to a spare prince, to a Velaryon lady who flew her only briefly before her death in childbed, and finally to Aemond Targaryen, who took her up as a boy of the wrong age and never entirely let her wickedness soften him.
Is Vhagar 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.