Aemma Arryn
Origin: House of the Dragon
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Species: Human
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Children: Rhaenyra, Baelon
Residence: Ryleev Street 52 (10-113)
Occupation: Former Queen Cosort
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Import Date: 2 (backdated (+)
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Queen Aemma Arryn was the first wife of King Viserys I Targaryen and queen consort of the Seven Kingdoms. She is the mother of Rhaenyra Targaryen.
Background
Aemma is originally from House Arryn, and married Prince Viserys sometime prior to the Great Council of 101 AC. She has a daughter with him, named Rhaenyra, and is heavily pregnant with a second child at the time of the Great Council.[2]
Aemma is half-Targaryen on her mother's side, and thus has Valyrian silver hair. Her mother, Daella, was a younger sister of Viserys's father Baelon, making them first cousins.
After producing the healthy daughter Rhaenyra, Aemma went on to have one child who died in the cradle, two stillbirths, and two miscarriages - five failed attempts in ten years at producing a healthy male heir for Viserys. Aemma felt duty-bound to keep trying, and became pregnant for a seventh time with a child that Viserys was convinced by a prophetic dream would be his male successor.[2]
Viserys times a great royal tournament to be held on the due-date of Aemma's pregnancy, to celebrate the planned birth of his son and heir.[2]
Rhaenyra visits Aemma in the Red Keep, telling her she worries about her health from this most recent pregnancy. Aemma insists to her daughter that as royal women, the childbed is their battlefield. She then playfully tells Rhaenyra to take a bath before seeing the council, as she smells of dragon after a day of riding.[2]
Later in private, Viserys visits Aemma while she is taking a bath. He reiterates to her that he is convinced this pregnancy will finally result in a healthy son, because he had a dragon dream, more real than any memory, in which he saw his son born with Aegon the Conqueror's iron crown and seated him on the Iron Throne. Aemma lovingly tells Viserys that if this pregnancy does not succeed she doesn't want to try again, because she cannot bear to mourn another dead child. Viserys gently concludes that not necessary because he's convinced this will be a male heir.[2]
As the Heir's Tournament begins, Aemma goes into labor as predicted on this date. In the middle of the tourney, however, a maester recalls the king to the Red Keep. Viserys finds Aemma has taken a turn for the worse, and Grand Maester Mellos informs him that the baby is in breech. Pulling him aside, Mellos tells Viserys that as the father he is now faced with an impossible choice: to sacrifice Aemma or lose both her and the child. Mellos informs the king that a technique taught at the Citadel involves cutting the babe directly out of the womb, and that the resulting blood loss will kill Aemma without a doubt.[2]
Horrified, Viserys reluctantly tells him to try to save his potential son. Viserys holds Aemma's hand and tells her that he loves her. Viserys does not inform Aemma of the impending caesarean section, only saying that they're "going to take the babe out" - the midwives then pull Aemma down on the bed and she sees Mellos holding a scalpel, and she realizes what is happening. Aemma screams and pleads "No!" and tries to struggle free, but the midwives pin her arms and legs down. Aemma wildly howls in pain as Mellos makes the first incision, until she fades from consciousness from shock.[2]
Aemma finally goes limp and dies, as the devastated Viserys stands over her. Mellos declares that the child is alive and a boy - the male heir that Viserys let his beloved wife die for. Stunned, he says they planned to name him "Baelon" after his father.[2]
Unfortunately, Baelon dies only a matter of hours later, making Aemma's agonizing death all for nothing. At their funeral pyre, Viserys is left stunned and near catatonic. Rhaenyra weeps bitter tears, telling her uncle Daemon that she wonders if in the brief hours her brother lived her father was finally happy, and she will never be a son: the pressure for the past decade to produce a male heir killed her mother. Daemon urges her that her father in his grief needs her now more than ever. Rhaenyra signals her dragon Syrax to set her mother and brother's combined funeral pyre ablaze, and their bodies are cremated.[2]
Aemma's death haunts Viserys for years, even after he remarries to Alicent Hightower. About three years later, in the midst of a drunken vent, a grieved Viserys says to Alicent that his obsession over the dragon dream of his son sitting the Iron Throne killed Aemma.[3] Additionally, when her time to be married comes, Rhaenyra worries that she will suffer the same fate for some other Lord: to churn out heirs and then die.[4]
When Viserys dies, his last words are "my love," calling out to Aemma.[5]