Queen Mysaria Rogare was the second wife of the late Viserys III Targaryen and mother of his only son and apparent heir, Aenys. She is an Essosi noblewoman, however minor; she wears her name proudly despite merely being a distant cousin to the Rogares of Lys.
Her marriage was rendered controversial throughout the Seven Kingdoms following the War of the Seven Banners. Many assumed the union an insult to those that had collided with her family and fallen in battle, and her presence as Queen of Westeros remains unsettling still.
History[]
Prelude, Birth and Youth[]
Lynesse Rogare had a name that advertised the famed beauty of her Valyrian features; it had always been a valuable asset for a courtesan of her measure. Once retired, her mother married not for love but for wealth and returned to Lys. The years following would uncover not only his infidelity, but his infertility- though aging and painfully aware of her own mortality, the Rogare remained childless for a number of years still.
Mysaria was the long-awaited child she had always sought to nurture. Her birth was heralded as though whatever Gods that existed beyond this plane they inhabited had lifted the curse that had rendered their coupling fruitless; though she was the product of an affair with a Tyroshi slaver- the truest love Lynesse would ever know- she would allow her husband to believe he had fathered the babe he so dearly loved.
Mysaria went untouched throughout the drunken beatings her mother would endure in the final years of their marriage. Her youth was consumed by the torment she had never seen, but only heard through the walls of the manse whilst kept by hired nannies. It was the man she had always known to be her father that ensured she was educated and well-mannered, but it was the same man that delivered to her the the brunt of hardship when the flow of strong-wine would not suffice. Despite the love he professed for her at her birth and each day following, his anger would turn to balled fists that struck her, and hands that lingered beneath her skirts.
Each bruise intensified the strength of her fits. She was not an unruly child- she listened well and oft without protest, she was willful but harmless, and well-versed with little effort by her tutors. However, the frequency of her seizures aligned with that of her battering, and many a time her mother was left with naught to do but hold the young girl as she trembled so violently. Mysaria was made bitter by her fragility, which manifested a hunger to prove herself capable elsewhere.
The father she had grown to know suffered an untimely death first in her dreams, and at last when Mysaria maneuvered the balcony furniture just so that his nightly routine with glass in hand would end in a misstep and thus the fall that would conclude his living as she had seen in her dreams a number of nights before. Her mother was neither relieved nor devastated by being made his widow, but returned to her former profession when they were rendered homeless and penniless without him.
Lynesse Rogare could never reclaim the former fame she possessed as a successful courtesan in Tyrosh, though in her fifty-odd years she could still attract a formidable number of patrons. She drowned her self-sorrow with their company and fortified medicines that borrowed the light that Mysaria had always found so familiar in the eyes of her mother. On her deathbed, her mother revealed to her the truth of her heritage. Moons after her eleventh birthday, Mysaria attended her funeral, and donned black gowns for her mourning long after her memory grew stale. Her death signaled a chain of homes that could never truly house her; she was shipped away to board with the next of kin over and over again, though none could properly care for her illness.
The War of the Seven Banners[]
Mysaria had blossomed into a sightly maiden at the age of twelve and served as a cupbearer in Tyrosh at the time the War of the Seven Banners ignited. Though she was no great beauty, she was young and shapely, and her soft Lysene features were admired in Tyrosh, particularly by the family she served. In her free time, beyond the kitchens and dining hall, Mysaria had tied the ends of the thread that had been the mystery of her sire. It was evenfall when her caretakers retired to their quarters and she was met without boundary to do as she would when she escaped the walls of their home and walked the streets of the besieged city, cloaked and incognito in an effort to locate the man her mother had hinted at. It was the night that Mysaria was captured and taken as hostage of King Viserys III Targaryen of Westeros, and her simple, quaint life as a humble cupbearer was no more.
Months later, the war would end with a ceasefire between Westeros and Essos and the king of their foreign land refused to return empty-handed. Mysaria was five-and-ten when Viserys claimed her as his war bride, and the couple married promptly after his return. Mysaria's presence in the Seven Kingdoms was met with hostility, as many lords and ladies deciphered their match illogical and insulting. Despite their displeasure, Mysaria would quickly cement herself as a capable, if not adept player in Westerosi politics, skilled particularly with the art of knowledge and deception, though most often she would work silently through manipulating her new husband to her will.
Queen of Westeros[]
The King and Queen would find some difficulty securing an heir of the Iron Throne. Mysaria would suffer a slew of miscarriages and still-births that took toll upon her health. The first child she carried to term was the Princess Aemma, disappointingly a daughter when the couple clearly yearned for a healthy son, though in reflection Mysaria would realize she would have loved the infant girl all the same had she been born wriggling and teary rather than grey and still. Their prayers seemed to be answered when the Kingdoms welcomed the birth of their son Lucerys in 370 AC, though his birth leaves the queen bedridden for nearly a year. The Maesters predict that she will never conceive again, or perhaps die in childbed should the couple require more children.
When an illness sweeps the Red Keep in 373, the young Prince Lucerys is the first to perish and Mysaria plunges into alcoholism that plagues her still, to this day. The failures of her past and unfortunate losses with children makes Mysaria especially doting upon the unlikely survival of her son Aenys Targaryen when he is born a year later, in 374.
Whilst her husband has gone to Oldtown, Mysaria speaks to the Lord Hand Arthur Redwyne to make preparations regarding the follies of the traitors of the Iron Throne.[1] Later, the Queen is visited by Alaric Rosby.[2] Mysaria invites Draeghar Targaryen to join her as she breaks her fast.[3]
Thread Tracking[]
Family[]
- Lynesse Rogare, her late mother, a distant cousin of the Rogare legacy in Lys and former famed courtesan of Tyrosh
- A Tyroshi Slaver, her father whose identity she has never been able to place, though her birth is largely believed legitimate by the husband of her mother at the time of her birth
- Mysaria Rogare (b. 351)
- Her husband, King Viserys III Targaryen (b. 327)
- Princess Aemma, stillborn (d. 369)
- Prince Lucerys (370-373)
- Prince Aenys (b. 374)
Supporting Characters[]
- Johanne Bar Emmon (43), her closest friend and confidant and Lady Dowager of Sharp Point until her eldest son comes of age. Her youngest two children Bron (8) and Sarya (7) are close friends with Prince Aenys.