Fire and Blood Summary: Plot & Targaryen Timeline, Explained

This Fire and Blood summary covers the complete Targaryen saga by George R. R. Martin explained from Aegon’s conquest to the Dance of the Dragons. If you want to understand the plot without reading 700 pages of fictional history, start here.

Let’s get one thing straight: if you’re picking up George RR Martin Fire and Blood expecting Game of Thrones 2.0, prepare for a reality check. This isn’t a novel, but rather a 700-page fictional history textbook, written in the smug voice of a Westerosi scholar with too much ink and way too much access. And yet, it’s completely addictive.

Covering roughly 150 years of Targaryen rule, Fire and Blood is George R. R. Martin’s dense, brilliant, occasionally exhausting attempt to answer every “what really happened” question in the Targaryen storyline. This is the origin story of the dragons, the mad kings, the doomed queens, and the endless backstabbing that built (and burned) the Seven Kingdoms.

This Fire and Blood summary skips the fluff and dives straight into the family drama, betrayals, and flaming lizard battles you’re actually here for. If you’re watching the show and need context, or trying to figure out which Aegon did what to whom, we’ve got you!

• • • Read More: George R.R. Martin Books, In Order

Before we dive into the Fire and Blood plot summary, here’s what you need to know (especially if you’re just trying to survive a dinner party with people who call themselves “Targaryen loyalists).

What is exactly Fire and Blood?

Fire and Blood it’s a fictional history book written by George R. R. Martin. It was published in 2018, as the first of a planned two-volume history of the Targaryen dynasty. It’s written from the point of view of a maester named Gyldayn. So yes, it’s biased, full of secondhand accounts, and openly contradicts itself at times — on purpose. That’s part of the fun. It reads like a mix of royal gossip and battlefield logistics.

How is Fire and Blood connected to House of the Dragon?

HBO’s House of the Dragon is based directly on a chunk of Fire and Blood, specifically the chapters about the Targaryen civil war, known as the Heirs of the Dragon (HBO Season 1) and Dance of the Dragons (HBO Season 2). If you want the full backstory behind Rhaenyra, Alicent, and why dragons are such petty creatures, this is where it lives.

How many volumes of Fire and Blood are there?

Right now, only Volume 1 of Fire and Blood has been published. It covers roughly 150 years of Targaryen rule, from Aegon the Conqueror to the reign of Aegon III. George R. R. Martin has confirmed that a second volume is planned, but there’s no release date — and given his track record, we might be waiting a while.

What would be a very short Fire and Blood synopsis?

It’s not a novel, so there’s no single storyline, but if you’re looking for an extremely short Fire and Blood plot summary, it’s this: Targaryens rise to power through conquest, rule through dragons and politics, and slowly fall apart thanks to bad succession plans, family in-fighting, and eventually, the loss of their dragons.

Before we start: this is a breakdown of Volume 1 of Fire and Blood. A second volume is planned (because of course it is), but we have no release date.

As also previously explained, HBO’s House of the Dragon is based on the chapters titled “Heirs of the Dragon” and “The Dying of the Dragons”. So if you’re watching the show and wondering why everyone’s name sounds like a password you forgot, this plot summary will help you survive it.

Aegon’s Conquest – How the Targaryens Took Westeros by Fire

Before Aegon, the Targaryens were minor nobility with dragons, exiled on a rocky island called Dragonstone. The Valyrian Empire had collapsed, Westeros was fractured into seven kingdoms that barely tolerated each other, and Aegon saw an opportunity.

He came ashore with his two sisters, Visenya and Rhaenys, who were also his wives. Between them, they had three dragons: Balerion, Meraxes, and Vhagar. No one else had anything close. Within two years, six of the seven kingdoms were defeated or surrendered. Only Dorne managed to resist, using terrain, speed, and patience to outlast the dragons.

Aegon didn’t erase the old order. He allowed the defeated kings to keep their lands as lords, as long as they bent the knee. Then, he melted the swords of his enemies into a throne and placed it in a new capital: King’s Landing.

The Sons of the Dragon – Aenys, Maegor, and the Bloody Throne

When Aegon died, the Iron Throne passed to his son Aenys I, who inherited exactly none of his father’s authority. Aenys was soft-spoken, indecisive, and completely overwhelmed. The moment he named his young son as heir, the kingdom erupted in rebellion, as no one liked the idea of a boy king backed by dragonless nobles.

Cue Maegor, Aenys’s half-brother, who returned from exile with a simpler strategy: kill everyone. When Aenys died under suspicious circumstances (possibly poisoned), Maegor seized the throne by force and launched one of the bloodiest reigns in Westerosi history. He built the Red Keep, outlawed any resistance to Targaryen rule, and massacred entire houses to keep his grip on power.

His rule turned the realm into a military state. He murdered his wives when they failed to give him an heir, and declared war on anyone who challenged him, including his own family. People called him Maegor the Cruel, and he lived up to it.

Eventually, his tyranny collapsed under its own weight. His court abandoned him, his last supporters vanished, and he was found dead alone on the Iron Throne. No one ever figured out how he died, and no one really wanted to.

Jaehaerys and Alysanne – Peace, Progress, and Targaryen Overload

After Maegor’s mysterious death, the realm was desperate for anyone less murdery. Enter Jaehaerys I, Aenys’s son, who became king at just 14. He ruled for over 50 years and actually knew what he was doing. With his wife (and sister) Alysanne, Jaehaerys rebuilt everything Maegor had torn apart.

They made peace with the Faith, stabilized the crown’s finances, and brought in reforms that actually improved life for commoners—roads, fairer laws, tax changes, the works. Jaehaerys was obsessed with order and planning. He held Great Councils to settle disputes and set clear lines of succession.

The problem? They had too many children, and therefore too many competing claims. Every time Jaehaerys solved one problem, another heir died or disappointed him. By the end of his reign, the carefully arranged Targaryen family tree was more of a thorn bush.

Still, he was beloved. People called him the Conciliator, and his reign was the most stable the realm would ever see. But beneath that calm surface, the seeds of disaster were already there, planted in bedrooms, betrothals, and backroom deals. His legacy was peace. His inheritance was a succession crisis.

Heirs of the Dragon – Viserys I and the Brewing Civil War

When Jaehaerys died, the realm passed to his grandson Viserys I, who inherited a peaceful kingdom and immediately made succession complicated again. Viserys named his daughter Rhaenyra as heir early on. She was smart, capable, and—crucially—had a dragon. For years, no one dared object.

Then Viserys remarried. His second wife, Alicent Hightower, gave him sons. Suddenly, the question wasn’t who would inherit, but whose children mattered more. The court split quietly. Old families aligned with Rhaenyra. The more conservative houses backed Alicent and her son Aegon. On the surface, everything stayed polite. Behind closed doors, it got icy fast.

Viserys refused to change his heir, because he believed naming Rhaenyra once was enough. But he also refused to publicly shut down Alicent’s ambitions. He wanted unity. Instead, he got silent rage, whispered plots, and two rival courts developing under one roof—the Blacks for Rhaenyra, the Greens for Alicent.

By the time Viserys died, the kingdom looked stable, but the succession was a bomb waiting to go off. Neither side would back down. Both claimed the throne, and unfortunately both had dragons.

The Dying of the Dragons – The Dance Begins

The moment King Viserys died, the Greens moved fast. Aegon II was crowned in secret at King’s Landing. Rhaenyra, still on Dragonstone and heavily pregnant, declared it treason. She crowned herself queen days later. The Dance of the Dragons had officially started, a civil war between siblings that would tear the realm apart.

At first, it was all about declarations and allegiances. Houses had to choose: back the usurper Aegon or the rightful heir Rhaenyra? Some tried to stay neutral, but it didn’t last. The war escalated quickly, and soon the sky was full of dragons and the ground full of corpses.

Key figures died brutally: Lucerys Velaryon, Rhaenyra’s son, was killed in midair by Aemond and his dragon. That single event pushed the conflict into full destruction mode. Cities burned. Castles changed hands. Alliances flipped. One by one, dragons died — in battles, ambushes, even at the hands of terrified mobs.

Rhaenyra eventually took King’s Landing. It didn’t matter. Her rule was short, bitter, and ended with her being betrayed, captured, and eaten by Aegon’s dragon, Sunfyre. That wasn’t even the end, as her son carried on the fight.

By the time it was over, both sides were broken. So were the dragons.

Aftermath – The Boy King and a Realm in Ruins

When the Dance finally ended, no one could call it a victory. Aegon II was dead, poisoned by his own men. His nephew, Aegon III, Rhaenyra’s surviving son, was crowned king at the age of 11. The war had left the realm in pieces. Half the royal family was dead. Entire regions had been razed. And the dragons — the Targaryens’ biggest weapon — were gone.

Aegon III hated dragons. He’d seen his mother devoured by one. Under his reign, the last surviving dragons died off, and none were born again. People whispered that the boy king was cursed, and honestly, no one could blame him. He rarely spoke, rarely smiled, and ruled through regents for most of his early life.

The court tried to pretend things were returning to normal, but everything had changed. The monarchy was weaker. The nobility had more power. And the myth of Targaryen invincibility was shattered.

The book ends here — with a traumatized child king sitting on a throne made of melted swords, and a realm that hadn’t yet realized just how much it had lost.