Caraxes - Tumblr Posts
Caraxes the blood noodle
Joking about his neck, sorry
You have my full attention ma’am!!!
(from Disney, Race-Bending, and Whimsical Racism video essay by Shanspeare)
In 60 AC, the first egg of the latest clutch laid by Vhagar hatched. At the age of 112, Vhagar was already a seasoned mother. Vhagar was an adequate mother by all accounts, but up until then, a hands off and tough love type. She made no fuss until Caraxes hatched from his egg. Born with a birth defect, he at first had a hard time flying or even walking. Vhagar was extremely attentive, always nuzzling and “talking” to him, making sure he was alright. Caraxes, always the performer, soaked up the attention of his mother. He always yipped at her and followed her around, none the wiser of her concern or his defect.
beautiful commission by the lovely @moonwyvern
I haven’t shared my dragon family tree on here yet, but I firmly set Caraxes as the offspring of Balerion and Vhagar. This is for a few reasons; first off, they are one of only two canon mated pairs at this time. Second, I believe the theory that Caraxes’s neck is not due to genetics but rather a congenital mutation caused by environmental factors picked up in Valyria by Balerion. Not sure how that would work exactly, but it’s a cool theory. All that to say, it definitely is a punch to the gut that Caraxes and Vhagar were made to kill each other. There was a time, in my opinion, that Vhagar felt instinctual “love” for her hatchling, and I wanted to show that. We also usually see Vhagar as blood thirsty and a war dragon, and she is, but my goal was to represent that she’s just an animal at the end of the day, and to show a softer side of her in more peaceful times (also the idea that dragon naturally have a bond with their offspring, and how tragic it is that human beings severed those ties because they thought themselves above nature and more qualified to take care of the babies themselves). I also have an upcoming commission of Vhagar and her mate Balerion with hatchlings even earlier on in the timeline, so watch out for that. Vhagar has a special place in my heart, and I’m always here for more content.
Also, Vhagar was riderless at this time; if Visenya had taken away Caraxes it would have been easy, but I imagine when Jaehaerys proclaimed that they must take Caraxes away from her, she screamed and squalled and bit off the dragonkeeper’s hand and burned two others. I reckon the dragonkeepers always had a hard time taking babies away from their mothers, but an especially hard time in this case (pls pls somebody talk to me in my inbox if you want to talk dragonposting, I’m itching to talk about it).
Thank you so much to moonwyvern, they really brought my idea to life and their prices were extremely reasonable given the quality that I received. They were also very accommodating to feedback, and pleasant to work with. I am in awe of how they were able to portray exactly what I was going for. Vhagar usually looks mean or stern in artworks, but here she is curious and perhaps a little concerned, but mostly amused with her little one. Honestly, I’d recommend anybody looking for a dragon commission to go to this artist because they were great to work with and are quite versatile within their niche.
Bonus because the artist wanted to experiment with the dragonpit in the day versus night and the shadows that come with that
Hi💙 Just saw your latest post and I'm so excited now for the Balerion x Vhagar with their little ones😍 And I loved reading your thoughts about her bond with Caraxes as younger. Do you have more theories to share?👉🏻👈🏻
Yes!!! Dragons and trying to figure out how they work in GRRM’s universe has been my hyperfixation lately. Here are some, but I’m not going to ramble for tooooo long.
- Cannibal is described as older than Sheepstealer, and Sheepstealer was born as early as 35 AC, so I’m relatively confident that Cannibal was hatched from Balerion and a mate, most likely Vhagar but possibly Meraxes (the other explanation for his origin is that he’s an egg from a yet unmentioned dragon, but I doubt this as his description is very similar to Balerion’s). This makes him an old dragon during the Dance! My headcanon is that as a hatchling, he was actually extremely shy and flew away away due to fear of the other dragons. Later on, his fear manifested in violence instead and he became the dragon we know in the story. I don’t think this is meant to be canon, buuuut I like it.
- I think I touched on this a little with my Caraxes Vhagar post, but my theory on Caraxes’s neck is that it’s not that he’s from other long-necked dragons that aren’t mentioned in the story, but rather that it is a result of a mutation. Environmental factors can play a role in birth defects/mutations, so I feel as if perhaps being in Valyria impacted Balerion and he passed on defect.
- Admittedly, GRRM probably doesn’t take into account lore of dragons in other media, I do think he makes his own rules. That being said, he tends not to *share* these rules, so my only choice to make sense of things is to go off other lore. In most dragon lore, dragons mate for life. We know, or at least it’s heavily implied, that Balerion, Meraxes, and Vhagar were mates. However, the general consensus of this and that this was a special case to mirror the conquerors (and a theory that has been going around that dragons mate in accordance with their rider’s opinions of other riders), and people have been pairing dragons mainly in duos. There’s a lot of unanswered questions if the duos mating for life theory is true, so my longstanding theory has been that they mate for life in trios. The trios being the one mentioned above, Vermithor-Silverwing-Dreamfyre, Syrax-Caraxes-Seasmoke, then potentially a duo with Vermax and Moondancer (if you believe that Laena daughter of Baela’s is offspring of Moondancer). However, I did have to adjust this to any one dragon having two mates, so Syrax can mate with Caraxes and Seasmoke, but Seasmoke is allowed a separate mate of Tessarion as well. That being said, this also doesn’t give Meleys a mate so I am coming around more to the possibility that dragons mate freely.
-Same disclaimer that I feel like GRRM prefers his own lore instead of something like lizards, but I’ll drive myself crazy without having something like this to tether my theories to, and lizards are some of the closest animals to compare to dragons. More often than not, a clutch of lizard eggs will be fathered by two different male lizards (meaning some of the eggs are fathered by one lizard, and the other eggs another). This was a large inspiration for my dragon trio theory, but would also work for dragons mating indiscriminately. Keeping this in mind is how I supported my idea of Syrax continuously producing fertilized by both Caraxes and Seasmoke. That means that Jacaerys, Lucerys, and Joffrey could receive eggs fathered by Seasmoke, but that Aegon, Viserys, and Rhaena’s eggs, as well as Mysaria’s egg, were fathered by Caraxes.
-As for the idea that dragon mating is influenced by their riders’ feelings, I am of two minds about it. We have Silverwing and Vermithor, whose riders were obviously in love and they continue to mate even after Jaehaerys and Alysanne’s deaths. However, this can also be explained by the fact that the two dragons were often in close proximity and the two riders oft flew together. It very well could have been that by the time Jaehaerys and Alysanne died, Silverwing and Vermithor had formed their own bond so strong that they continued to mate (this would always be true if you believe that all dragons mate for life, but would be true for these two regardless). As for the conquerors’ dragons, I do believe they were a special case. The three dragons were symbolic and thus no matter how Aegon and Visenya felt about one another, Balerion and Vhagar remained mated until Balerion’s death, and it’s my headcanon that she continued to remain without a mate for the rest of her life. Because their bond was more than them, it was a symbol of House Targaryen and the Conquest as a whole. As for Rhaenyra and Daemon’s bond, or even something possible between Daeron and Addam, I don’t know. I don’t have any strong opinions on it.
-Drawing my opinions/headcanons from lizards yet again, I do believe dragons can reproduce asexually. Lots of species of lizards can do this. That being said, I am not sure the trigger for this, because then what is the motivation from them to reproduce with male dragons when they can do it by themselves? Either dragons feel some sort of sexual pleasure (which I’m not getting into bc I’m not into that!) or they can only reproduce asexually in certain circumstances. I do believe that female dragons can only produce other female dragons asexually, and that there’s no magic involved in this.
-I do not believe dragons can change their biological sex. In real life, as far as my research has taken me, you cannot determine outwardly if a lizard is male or female. I would think the same would go for dragons. What I believe happened is that people were assuming if a dragon was male or female based on external features being more masculine or feminine, and that when they were proven wrong they took this to mean the dragon had changed sex. However, it has been confirmed that most of what Septon Barth wrote in his book about dragons was, in fact, true. Septon Barth wrote that dragons could change sex. This means that my headcanon very well is not meant to be the case. I simply believe this because it makes it far easier for me to nail down a family tree, which I’ve been attempting to do.
That’s all for now, I do have more dragon thoughts but this is just what I thought of off the top of my head. If you’re interested in more dragon content, I’m posting Balerion, Vhagar, and their hatchlings next Friday and I am currently working with the artist moonwyvern (the lovely artist that did the art of Vhagar and Caraxes for me) on a long form project to create a dragon family tree art.
HOUSE OF THE DRAGON SEASON 2 APPRECIATION WEEK day 1 — dragons
Had an idea the other night that I can’t believe I havnt had already— might keep going with it
(Just sketchs rn to stretch my character design-legs)
- Long neck & flop neck!
🩸🔥The Blood Wyrm🔥🩸
The dragons having personalities and character traits is really fun. I live for the background info that Caraxes is a lovesick SoundCloud rapper with a crush on Syrax
Riders and their Dragons
By Anabel Rossi
lets play a game
what comes up in your tags when you types
bo
mi
ca
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ga
Now that I have finished all the Fourteen Flames of the Valyrian Pantheon, I decided to do a family tree. Due to the incest, it’s a bit confusing lmao
A little summary:
Terrax (the known world, “Earth”): is the antithesis of Chaos and her creation was set up by Fate. She is the Mother of all Creation, the light that came out of the darkness, the organization of the world from the chaos of cosmos. She is soil and earth and creates Arrax as her companion and they have six children together.
Arrax (Urano): The known world’s sky. Essentially the atmosphere that separates Terrax and the world she built from cosmos (the reign of chaos). Arrax is the first son of Terrax, and becomes her companion, husband and the father of her six children. He betrays her by trying to destroy all her creation and is slain and banished by his children with her aid. In many legends, he fathered Meleys with his daughter, Syrax.
Meraxes (Jupiter): the youngest of Terrax and Arrax’s children. She leads the war against Arrax and later banishes Terrax. The Queen of all the Gods, she becomes the Goddess of the Sky, giving the seas to her brother Caraxes and the underworld to her brother Balerion. Her sister Syrax becomes the new Goddess of earthly life and Vermithor forges the volcanoes. She marries her sister Shrykos, Goddess of marriage and family. She has many kids. Vhagar and Tyraxes with Shrykos, her wife. Vermax, by herself. Perzys and Tessarion with Vermithor. And in some legends, Meleys with Syrax.
Shrykos (Light of creation): Queen consort of all Gods, married to her sister, Meraxes. Mother of Vhagar and Tyraxes.
Caraxes (Neptune): King of the Sea, married to Perzys, God of Fire.
Perzys (Sun): Caraxes’ queen, and twin to Tessarion, the Sun to her Moon.
Tessarion (Moon): Twin to Perzys. Created by Vermithor and Meraxes, the twins meant to became fire and light in the sky.
Vermithor (the chain of Fourteen Volcanoes): the creator for the Gods, made the moon and the sun with Meraxes, and the fourteen volcanoes in the peninsula to represent all Fourteen. He was the one who started the cataclysmic events of the Doom.
Balerion (Pluto): King of the Underworld, married to his niece Meleys, the Goddess of Love and fertility.
Meleys (Venus): Balerion’s queen, daughter of Syrax with either Meraxes or Arrax. Is coveted by Vhagar, who fell in love with her (one-sided).
Syrax (Vegetation): Took over her mother, Terrax, as Goddess of Vegetation and Earthly life, and has a daughter, Meleys, whose paternity varies between legends.
Vhagar (Mars): daughter of Shrykos and Meraxes, lusts after Meleys.
Tyraxes (Chaos//Cosmus//Fate): son of Shrykos and Meraxes.
Vermax (Mercury): son of Meraxes, turns himself into a dragon to travel between worlds.
Every Dragon in House of the Dragon Season 2
Caraxes is really big so I drew a younger version of him to fit the frame and keep his wonderfully disturbing long neck 💕