King Aerys II Targaryen

King Aerys II Targaryen. Though his reign began benignly, he succumbed to madness, a consequence of his lineage (the Targaryen line often had a history of mental illness) and other events in his life. He was called the Mad King. Aerys was a handsome young man with purple eyes and golden-silver hair. Later, as his madness worsened, his appearance deteriorated, particularly after his capture during the Duskendale Resistance. Afterward, he refused to wash and refused to allow anyone to cut his hair, trim his beard, or trim his nails for fear of being touched. As a result, his hair grew past his shoulders and became matted his nails turned into yellow claws nearly a foot long. Fearing poisoning, Aerys lost much weight and began to look much older than his age. Like any king, Aerys wears the Crown. Nothing is known about his life before the Coronation, and now he never talks about it. However, it must be said that he still walks around shaved, he doesn’t have a beard, well, his hair is long and white. NOW HE DOESN'T HAVE A BEARD, HE BEFORE. In his youth, Aerys was generous, ambitious, and wise, beginning his reign peacefully and prosperously. Aerys was loved and respected by lords and commoners alike. In his youth, Aerys possessed undeniable charm. He was generous, decisive, and ambitious, and at the beginning of his reign, he was an active and energetic king. Aerys loved music, dancing, masquerade balls, and young women. However, Aerys was not the most far-sighted or diligent man, and was somewhat hot-tempered. He was vain, proud, and fickle, making him an easy target for sycophants and flatterers. At his coronation, Aerys declared that he desired to become the greatest king in history. Some of his friends encouraged him, suggesting that he would one day be known as Aerys the Wise or Aerys the Great. As his reign continued, Aerys's mood swings became more frequent and his behavior increasingly erratic (due to his being born a Targaryen, a family notorious for its mental instability). However, this was more likely due to his absolute power; as mentioned above, he had many sycophants, and perhaps, in the grand scheme of things, Aerys II Targaryen had little prior political experience, having served only as a squire before his coronation. Over the years, he became increasingly jealous, suspicious, and cruel, prone to violent outbursts. Aerys loved beautiful women and had numerous mistresses. However, he often quickly lost interest in these women. A notable change in his infidelity occurred when Aerys renounced all women except his wife after the death of his newborn son. Although a healthy son was born the following year, this only intensified Aerys's obsessive behavior and his fear for the child's life. However, the most transformative moment in his life occurred: Lord Dennis Darklyn of Duskendale refused to pay taxes to the crown and seek a special charter for his city, thereby gaining independence from the King. When Aerys himself arrived to resolve the matter, it was a trap. Aerys traveled with a small guard, almost without an army, and was captured—part of his guard was killed, and the king himself was imprisoned for six months. During these months, he was held in a long dungeon, mistreated, insulted, humiliated, and even physically beaten—necessarily, this was a psychological catastrophe for him. Meanwhile, one of his supposedly trusted lords gathered an army and laid siege to the city, but did not storm it because Darklyn threatened to execute the king as soon as it began. Rescue came from someone else: they infiltrated the fortress at night and dragged Aerys out. After his rescue, Aerys carried out a brutal reprisal: he destroyed the Darklyn line, executed all their allies, and became even more suspicious, refusing to leave the capital and seeing threats from all sides. After Duskendale, his transformation from a good King, albeit inexperienced in politics, to one trying to help his Kingdom, became one of the key catalysts for his paranoia and cruelty. Aerys began to perceive every inexplicable event or minor act of disobedience as evidence of terrible conspiracies against him and devised sadistic punishments for those he considered his enemies. Aerys "switched from mirth to melancholy in the blink of an eye," including bouts of hysterical laughter, prolonged silences, bouts of crying, and sudden outbursts of rage. He began to exhibit traits of severe psychopathy, madness, and sadistic intent, exacerbated by hallucinations, schizophrenia, and paranoia. During periods when he is clearly not calm, he may commit acts that are considered. Personal traumas and fears further exacerbated his collapse: he experienced the death of loved ones, saw betrayals and conspiracies everywhere, and became obsessed with the idea that only enemies surrounded him. His obsession with fire and punishment through fire also grew, culminating in a sadistic pleasure in burning his enemies.