Targaryen family tree Game of Thrones’ dynasty explained

HBO’s forthcoming Game of Thrones prequel series, House of the Dragon, will explore the complicated dynasty of the Targaryens, the once-mighty clan whose dragons propelled their rise to power — but whose love of fire helped stoke their eventual ruin.

The new 10-episode series will take place approximately 300 years before the events of Game of Thrones and will follow the events surrounding Aegon I Targaryen’s conquest of the Seven Kingdoms. Don’t know who Aegon I is? Not to worry: This ultimate Targaryen family tree — created by a fan of both Game of Thrones and the novel series they’re based on, George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire — will help prep you for the history lesson to come.

Maryon B. is a 30-year-old French freelance artist and video game developer currently living in Helsinki. She’s also a die-hard Game of Thrones fan, which might explain why she’s illustrated the entire lineage of House Targaryen (home of one Daenerys, Mother of Dragons) — even though, as she says in her description of the project on DeviantArt, “I DON’T EVEN LIKE HOUSE TARGARYEN WHY DID I DO THIS[?]”

“I actually started the tree out of spite because all their descriptions (and fan representations) make them look the same — beautiful, silver-haired and purple eyes,” she told Vox via email after she published the family tree in 2016, “and it frustrated me to see them as elf-clones.”

The result is a gorgeous take on the lineage of House Targaryen. As Game of Thrones fans have heard time and again, this powerful family unified the Seven Kingdoms and ruled over the fictional land of Westeros until Robert Baratheon overthrew the “Mad King,” Aerys II, better known as Daenerys’s deceased father.

But if you think that portion of the Targaryens’ legacy is confusing, consider that the full family tree contains more than 100 characters and spans 16 generations of entirely fictional history (click here for the full-size version):

HBO’s new prequel series, House of Dragons, will most likely focus on Aegon I Targaryen and his immediate family. That’s the guy with the determined scowl in this section of the family tree: