House of the Dragon episode 10 has been released. The season finale of the show follows Princess Rhaenyra and Prince Daemon at Dragonstone. We see Princess Rhaenys inform them of the happenings in King’s Landing. She tells them about the passing of King Viserys and the crowning of Aegon II as King. This sends Rhaenyra into early labor which unfortunately ends in the miscarriage of her first daughter Visenya. Meanwhile, Daemon takes charge and prepares for war along with the other Lords and Knights who wore sworn to Rhaenyra. However, during the planning, a question arises and that is, how will the Blacks find more dragonriders. Daemon claims that they have many dragons but those dragons still needed riders to claim them.
Why does Daemon want to recruit more dragonriders?
As the Blacks were making their plans around the Painted Table, Daemon mentions how they have more dragons than the Greens. Daemon also raises an important point that is a few dragons such as Seasmoke who’s at High Tide and Vermithor are dragons who are yet to be claimed. That’s when Rhaenyra asks where they’ll find dragonriders to claim Seasmoke or Vermithor. Naturally, dragons will extremely strengthen the Blacks and their cause. One of the main reasons why the Greens lasted as long as they did during the Dance of the Dragons was because of Vhagar. Having the largest dragon alive on your side is obviously a big advantage. The Blacks may have had more dragons in number but most of them were inexperienced. So they required dragonriders who would be recruited from amongst the people of Westeros. This way they would strengthen the army of the Blacks.
How will they acquire more dragonriders?
Jacaerys Velaryon, son of Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen will fulfill Daemon’s goal of acquiring more dragonriders. In House of the Dragon episode 10 itself we see Daemon approach the great dragon Vermithor with a lullaby in High Valyrian. Additionally we already know that it is widely believed you need Targaryen or Valyrian blood to be a dragonrider. So the Blacks, led by Jacaerys Velaryon tried recruiting Dragonseeds. Dragonseeds was a term used to refer to those who were basically bastard children of Targaryens and their descendants. In fact, Jacaerys offered them lands, riches and even titles if they successfully claimed a dragon. This entire event was called the Sowing of the Seeds.
Several knights and Lords too tried their hand. In fact this led to the loss of many important members of the Blacks such as their Lord Commander Ser Steffon Darklyn and ally Lord Gormon Massey. Consequently a number of them were killed or burned alive by the dragons themselves. However, after several attempts around a handful of Dragonseeds were recruited by the Blacks. It was never confirmed whether they truly had Targaryen blood within them, but nonetheless were referred to as Dragonseeds from then onwards.
Who are the Dragonseeds that are expected to appear in House of the Dragon season 2?
Some of the Dragonseeds are extremely important for the storyline in Fire and Blood. These Dragonseeds are expected to appear in the next season of House of the Dragon. One of them is Hugh Hammer who claimed Vermithor. Another was Ulf the White who bonded with Silverwing. While these two Dragonseeds started off as allies to the Blacks, they eventually betrayed the cause of Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen and defected to the Greens. This betrayal severely angered Rhaenyra and made her distrust the rest of the Dragonseeds.
Another prominent Dragonseed was Nettles. She bonded with the dragon Sheepstealer by feeding him sheeps everyday. She becomes important to the storyline due to her rumored relationship with Prince Daemon Targaryen. In fact, Rhaenyra even orders her assassination in Fire and Blood. Lastly, two bastards of Lord Corlys Addam of Hull and Alyn of Hull entered the story. Addam of Hull is the one who claimed Seasmoke after the death or rather disappearance of Laenor Velaryon.
