Before "House of the Dragon" there was "Fire & Blood."
Will Daemon Targaryen's life follow the same course as the source material?
Here's what we know about "Fire & Blood's" Daemon Targaryen.
Spoilers ahead.
Prince Daemon was knighted by his grandfather, King Jaehaerys, upon his 16th birthday, having
already shown great promise as a fighter.
Around the time of his father's passing, the King bestowed upon him what had been his father's
blade: Dark Sister.
The Valyrian steel sword was one of only two that had been passed down from Targaryen to
Targaryen for at least 100 years.
Daemon lost an early tournament against his frequent adversary, Ser Criston Cole, with
Dark Sister by his side.
But he and the ancestral weapon got to know each other better, and Daemon would go on
to use the sword to conquer lands and slay his enemies.
Though she died when he was only a small child, Prince Daemon learned to ride dragons from
his mother Alyssa.
In his early 20s, Daemon claimed his late uncle Aemon's dragon, Caraxes, for himself.
Prince Daemon's newly appointed steed was an excellent fit in terms of both physicality
and temperament.
Like Daemon, Caraxes was fast, strong, and intimidating, though he was also lean and
nimble.
Together, they conquered the Stepstones, toured the Free Cities of Essos, and fought in the
Targaryen Civil War that pitted the Greens against the Blacks.
Caraxes met his end during the Battle above the Gods Eye.
Prince Daemon and Caraxes challenged Aemond Targaryen and his enormous dragon, Vhagar,
to a fight above the vast lake at Harrenhal.
Caraxes took a bite to his underbelly and lost a wing, but he managed to land a fatal
blow to Vhagar's throat, who fell dead upon the shores of the lake.
A mortally wounded Caraxes died a little later outside of the walls of Harrenhal.
Had Daemon's father Baelon not died suddenly from appendicitis, he would have been next
in line to rule the Seven Kingdoms, and Viserys would have presumably succeeded him.
But with his own named heir gone, King Jaehaerys had to make a decision.
He convened a Great Council composed of the Seven Kingdom's many lords to determine who
should inherit the Iron Throne.
The main choices were between Viserys, the eldest child of the man who had been the King's
eldest surviving son, and Laenor Velaryon, the only son of Rhaenys Targaryen, herself
the daughter of Jaehaerys' first born, Aemon.
Daemon supported his brother's claim and raised an army to show strength, while Rhaenys and
her rich and powerful husband, Corlys Velaryon, assembled a fleet.
The Council had much to deliberate.
Viserys was 24 years old and in his prime.
He'd already sired a daughter to continue the lineage in Rhaenyra.
On the other hand, Laenor was only seven, though he came with his father's unparalleled
fortune.
In the end, the Council decided to name Viserys the heir apparent.
This allied Daemon to Viserys and against Corlys... for a while.
King Jaehaerys passed away in his old age, freeing up the throne for King Viserys I.
Prince Daemon was appointed to his Small Council, first as Master of Coin, then as Master of
Laws.
The hot-tempered and restless prince was ill-suited to these positions.
Before long, King Viserys gave him a job that was much more to his liking: Commander of
the City Watch.
In his new position, Commander Daemon was finally effective.
The City Watch was a relatively new special palace force that patrolled and protected
the streets of King's Landing.
The prince whipped them into shape, and they became known as the Gold Cloaks.
"Beginning tonight, King's Landing will learn to fear the color gold."
During Daemon's tenure as Commander of the City Watch, Kings Landing experienced a two
year period of safety and prosperity, as he and his men personally doled out justice.
The size of his personal army plus his newfound popularity made Prince Daemon a more powerful
player in the game of thrones than he'd ever been before.
Though Prince Daemon made enemies throughout his life, one followed him from his brother's
ascension to his probable death.
Ser Otto Hightower took over as Hand of the King when Daemon's father, Baelon, died.
He served King Jaehaerys as well as King Viserys in that capacity.
Otto and Daemon butted heads early, and it was Otto Hightower who suggested that King
Viserys remove Daemon from the Small Council and stick him in some largely ceremonial post.
"Putting Daemon in charge of the City Watch was your solution."
Hightower would have given anything to keep Daemon away from the Iron Throne, so he publicly
supported Viserys' daughter Rhaenyra as the rightful heir, though she was a young girl.
Again, this put him at odds with Daemon, who believed himself to be a more sensible candidate.
Hightower improved his station when King Viserys I chose to marry his daughter, Alicent after
the death of Viserys' first wife.
But the ambitious advisor overplayed his hand.
Years later, after Alicent had given Viserys sons, Hightower began to incessantly argue
for their place in the succession.
King Viserys grew tired of this and dismissed him.
This rift would soon spill over into civil war, which would pit Daemon and Otto against
each other yet again.
Daemon's post with the Gold Cloaks meant that he spent less time at court with the nobles
and more time with the common folk of King's Landing, who lived far outside the walls of
the Red Keep.
This won him the affection of citizens throughout the Kingdom, who bestowed upon him a new unofficial
title: Prince of the City.
But, since Daemon could so often be found in the city's many establishments of ill repute,
he earned himself a second nickname: Lord Flea Bottom.
His behavior became a point of contention between him and his brother, the King.
The prince further upset his brother when he was overheard drunkenly mocking Viserys's
newborn son, who had died within a day of his birth.
"The heir for a day.
Did you say it?"
This was a slight too far.
King Viserys officially named Rhaenyra Princess of Dragonstone and his heir, essentially cutting
his brother out of the line of succession.
Of all the titles and superlatives that Daemon Targaryen collected throughout his life, "The
Rogue Prince" was the one that stuck.
Being a second born son of a second born son, Daemon always knew he was a long shot for
the Iron Throne.
But that didn't mean he wanted it any less.
However, if he couldn't be Prince of Dragonstone and didn't have an immediate path to the crown
at King's Landing, he'd take any kingdom he could get.
Daemon and his former rival at the Great Council, Corlys Velaryon, joined together to conquer
the Stepstones, a chain of islands east of Dorne that had been troubled by piracy.
The land itself didn't make for much of a kingdom, but the Stepstones' location made
them important to lucrative sea trade, which interested Corlys.
With Caraxes, Dark Sister, and a mighty fleet, Daemon declared himself King of the Stepstones
and the Narrow Sea.
Corlys even made him a crown, and King Viserys supported his brother playing at war because
it kept him away from King's Landing.
Later, he tried to insert himself at Runestone, which had been his first wife's seat of power
in the Vale of Arryn.
He was not well-liked by the people of the Vale, mostly on account of how nasty he'd
been to his wife.
He was not only refused the throne at Runestone but turned away from the Vale altogether,
which left him in an increasingly weakened position.
Like most noble men of his day, Daemon used marriage as a political tool.
His first wife was chosen for him by his grandmother, who used his betrothal to Lady Rhea Royce
to strengthen King's Landing's hold over the Vale of Arryn.
On paper, Daemon and Rhea were a solid match.
In person, they hated each other and quickly became estranged.
He returned to his home city and pleaded with his brother to dissolve their union, but the
King refused.
When Rhea died in a fall from her horse, Daemon asked Corlys Velaryon for his daughter Laena's
hand in marriage.
Taking Laena as his princess would tie him to the richest and one of the most influential
families in the Seven Kingdoms.
She was, however, promised to another man, but that was no matter.
Daemon handedly slew him in a duel to claim Laena as his wife.
The wedding offended King Viserys, who hadn't given the pair his blessing first, as was
customary.
Viserys saw the marriage for what it was: A chance for Daemon to improve his standing.
This was a better match that resulted in twin daughters, but Laena and what would have been
Daemon's first son both lost their lives in childbirth.
Rhaenyra Targaryen had been favored by the king over his brother, which should have made
them enemies.
But uncle and niece were always fond of each other.
When he traveled, he would bring her back exotic souvenirs.
Prior to his second marriage, it was rumored that the two had begun an affair, which caused
yet another rift between the Rogue Prince and the King, who considered having his brother
executed.
Viserys insisted that his daughter marry Corlys Velaryon's son, Laenor.
Laenor had been the other claimant to the throne at the Great Council, and Viserys thought
it prudent to tie up any loose threats to his family's supremacy.
Rhaenyra relented, but was unfulfilled as Laenor was almost certainly gay.
Though the couple did have three sons, they were allegedly fathered by her tournament
champion, Ser Harwin Strong.
For a short time, Daemon and Rhaenyra were wedded to siblings Laena and Laenor Velaryon,
and the foursome got along well.
However, shortly after Laena died in labor, Laenor was killed in a suspicious incident
while with a traveling companion.
Gossip held that Daemon had paid the assassin so that he could marry a widowed Rhaenyra.
There wasn't proof, but the prince and princess did wed.
Their union wasn't controversial because of their blood relation or age difference, but
because, again, they didn't ask the King's permission and they didn't mourn for six months
before tying the knot.
As the largely peaceful reign of King Viserys I drew to its close, the aging monarch realized
he had a looming crisis on his hands.
He'd named his eldest daughter, Rhaenyra, as his heir, but she was a woman with what
might be bastard children now married to his scheming little brother.
His wife, Alicent Hightower, maneuvered to have her sons, Aegon and Aemond, moved up
the line of succession.
They were boys legitimately born to the King, but Viserys found the Hightower family's naked
ambition distasteful.
Two factions emerged: the Greens and the Blacks, so named for the color of the dresses worn
by Queen Alicent Hightower and Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen at a party to celebrate the king
and queen's fifth anniversary.
Being married to the princess and heir apparent put Daemon squarely on the side of the Blacks,
along with Corlys Velaryon and his wife Rhaenys.
The Greens had amongst their ranks Otto Hightower and Ser Criston Cole.
Tensions would simmer until the king died and his Small Council failed to agree upon
a successor.
When Criston murdered one of Rhaenyra's backers at a council meeting, the war began in earnest.
Daemon, who stood to be at least Prince Regent and perhaps to even see his sons with Rhaenyra
ascend to the throne one day, fought and won important victories for his wife upon his
dragon, Caraxes.
But the war would end in a bloody mess that saw neither Rhaenyra nor Aegon wearing the
true crown.
The last record of Prince Daemon's existence is the account of the Battle Above the Gods
Eye, where he and his dragon battled against Aemond and his own dragon.
Ultimately, both dragons and their riders plummeted to the lake below, all meeting their
deaths — or so the history books say.
Aemond's body, along with Dark Sister, was recovered, but Prince Daemon's remains were
never found.
Rumors that he survived the fight spread, but it's far more likely that the Battle Above
the Gods Eye was his final act.