Aerys II Targaryen

King Aerys Targaryen, Second of His Name, also called Aerys the Dreamer, was Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and the sixteenth man to sit the Iron Throne. Aerys was the son of Prince Jaehaerys Targaryen and grandson of Aegon V Targaryen, King on the Iron Throne. Expected to inherit for most of his life, Aerys was, in his youth, regarded as a charming and gallant young knight, whose generosity was revered throughout the realm. Though undeniably having his favorites, Aerys was believed to have the makings of a great king from a young age. Guided by loyal and diligent advisors, including Steffon Baratheon and, eventually, Prince Rhaegar Targaryen, Aerys' reign was long-lived and peaceful.

Aerys would be called "the Dreamer" for both his fanciful ideas of ruling and his alleged prophetic dreams, though his prophecies were far from foolproof. He would be succeeded by his son, Rhaegar, who would take the throne as Rhaegar I Targaryen.

Early Life
Aerys was born to Prince Jaehaerys, the second son of King Aegon V, and his sister-wife, Princess Shaera. While still a teenager, Aerys was married to his sister Rhaella, in accordance with the family tradition of dynastic incest. While Aerys's grandfather, King Aegon V Targaryen was against this incestuous marriage (as he had been against incestuous marriages for his own children), Jaehaerys was allowed to arrange it. Jaehaerys's motivation for the marriage was a prophecy, made by a woods witch, which had been interpreted to mean that the prince that was promised would be born of the line of Aerys and Rhaella. According to Ser Barristan Selmy, who was present at the wedding, there was no fondness between the two siblings.

During his youth, Aerys befriended the young heir to Casterly Rock, Tywin Lannister, who served as a page at the royal court. Aerys also befriended the heir to Storm's End, his cousin, Steffon Baratheon. The three became inseparable.

In 259 AC, Rhaella gave birth to their firstborn son and heir, Prince Rhaegar. He was "born in blood and grief" during the disaster known as the tragedy of Summerhall, which almost ended in disaster for House Targaryen. Aerys's father, Jaehaerys, soon perished from an unrelated illness and Aerys was quickly confirmed as the Crown Prince of Dragonstone.

Aerys was a squire during the War of the Ninepenny Kings, and fought in the Stepstones. There, at the age of sixteen, he received his knighthood for his valor in reclaiming the sword Blackfyre from the Golden Company. Aerys chose to be dubbed a knight by his friend, Tywin, shortly before the Lannister knight’s death. When King Aegon V passed away from illness in 264 AC, Prince Aerys was crowned as King Aerys II Targaryen.

Reign
Aerys’ reign began with great promise, and he made a vow before the assembled lords in the Red Keep on his first time sitting the Iron Throne that he would make good on that promise and be the greatest king the Seven Kingdoms had ever known.

His first act was to dismiss many of his grandfather’s councilors and fill the positions with younger lords who were of a similar mindset to Aerys’ own. Lords like Steffon Baratheon, Aerys’ new Hand of the King, helped assist His Grace in ensuring that Westeros kept the same peace and prosperity that King Aegon had bequeathed to them.

With the Iron Throne still recovering from the War of the Ninepenny Kings, Aerys was persuaded that he could make his mark upon the history of Westeros by improving the realm. This suited Aerys, who had all sorts of visions for how to improve the Seven Kingdoms. When Lord Rickard Stark of Winterfell visited the capital in 264 AC, the king hatched a plan to build a new Wall hundreds of miles north of the current one and claim all the lands in between. After complaining about the stink of King's Landing in 265 AC, Aerys wanted to build a new city of white marble on the south bank of the Blackwater. In 267 AC, after a dispute with the Iron Bank of Braavos, Aerys claimed he would build a war fleet and bring the Titan of Braavos to its knees. When he visited Dorne in 270 AC, he told the Princess of Dorne that he would build an underwater canal and make the deserts bloom. It was during this latest of the king’s projects that Lord Steffon Baratheon had seen enough. Unlike all the other times that he had let the king dream to his heart’s content, he put his foot down and said that the Iron Throne would follow through with this plan. When the Master of Coin and Grand Maester Pycelle approached him and begged him to reconsider this folly, Steffon grimly stared back at them and declared that “sooner or later, the colt must learn there are consequences to bucking about. It is pleasant for neither rider nor horse, but it must be done all the same.”

Construction on the new canal in Dorne had barely begun when disaster struck as shoddily constructed dams burst apart and Prince Doran Martell was paralyzed from the waist down as he came to inspect the proceedings. Mortified, Aerys immediately ordered construction to be halted and after a strenuous conversation with the Lord Hand, ceased his fanciful, impractical plans. In addition, Prince Rhaegar was betrothed to the young princess Elia Martell to ensure that the Dornish did not bear a grudge because of the accident.

During the early years of his reign, Aerys was known to be incredibly fond of women, filling his court with fair maidens from all Seven Kingdoms. Despite his proclivities, Queen Rhaella gave birth to stillborn after stillborn, severely straining her relationship with the King. Aerys even considered confining her into the Red Keep and having her cook her own meals to ensure nobody was poisoning her. Only Lord Steffon was able to make Aerys see the folly of his ways, and the king instead went to the Sept of Baelor to confess his adultery and make peace with the gods. Soon after, Prince Viserys was born, and the singers tell us Aerys never so much as lustfully looked at another woman again as a sign of faithfulness to his wife and devotion to the gods.

Keeping the Peace
Under the close supervision of his Kingsguard and Prince Rhaegar, King Aerys presided over thirty-six years of nearly uninterrupted peace. Even the problems that plagued the Seven Kingdoms, such as the Kingswood Brotherhood and minor disputes with the Free Cities were resolved within the year. Knights in shining armor competed in tournaments, and for the most part, the peasants went about their daily lives without fear of marching off to war. Though much of the credit can be given to the various Hands of the King that Aerys had throughout his reign, the king himself deserves much of the credit for pursuing a policy of peace whenever he could, and deferring to men such as his oldest son when he was unsure.

Prophecies
Aerys revealed the prophetic visions which so often haunted members of House Targaryen soon after taking the throne, though he claimed he had been first struck by them soon after the birth of his son, Rhaegar, in 259 AC. While often doubted by maesters and some more bold members of his court, Aerys would come to be revered as "Aerys the Dreamer" by singers and smallfolk alike, for a number of his prophecies seemed to come true. Aerys would predict a number of things - a harpy and horse intertwined in battle, a dragon hatching amidst a storm, and a blue flower blooming in the desert of Dorne. He correctly predicted the first two being the assault of Slaver's Bay by the Dothraki and his daughter, Daenerys, being born during a massive storm. The last, however, would result in the disastrous canal project of Dorne that crippled Doran Martell and would forever stain the trust of his court.

Aerys' prophecies would grow more and more discordant and nonsensical as he grew in age, with the King unable to distinguish them from the waking world. There would always be rumors that Aerys had no prophetic ability, instead recalling upon the powers of a woods witch or perhaps a warlock, but, after his death, maesters have come to generally accept the idea that Aerys had the same dreams as his ancestors.

Death
The final years of King Aerys’ reign were in many ways similar to the rest of his life, but he made less and less appearances in public the older he became. Unbeknownst to all except the Small Council and Prince Rhaegar, the eccentricities that the king had displayed throughout much of his life had transformed into dementia.

His Grace would shuffle listlessly down the halls most of the time, whispering to himself and refusing to let anyone near him save his Kingsguard and his sons. Prince Rhaegar, Heir to the Iron Throne and Hand of the King, ruled in all but name, and ensured that the Seven Kingdoms stayed at peace, and kept his father’s illness quiet.

Finally, in the opening months of the three hundredth year since Aegon’s Conquest, Aerys Targaryen, Second of his Name, passed peacefully during the night from complications relating to his dementia. He left behind a legacy of peace and prosperity, ensuring that the peace King Aegon V had helped create was secure and long lasting. His reign was counted as the second longest continuous period of peace for the Kingdom of the Iron Throne, and his passing was mourned across all of the Seven Kingdoms.