A Valyrian dragonlord family that fled the Freehold twelve years before the Doom and settled on Dragonstone. Under Aegon the Conqueror they subdued six of the Seven Kingdoms and ruled from the Iron Throne for nearly three centuries. Their bond with dragons — including Balerion the Black Dread, mount to three kings — was both the source of their supremacy and, after the Dance of the Dragons, the beginning of their decline. Among their early members, Maegor the Cruel stands as the reign that nearly ended the dynasty in its first generation.