Scarce anyone in the ninetieth year After the Conquest could have thought that Viserys Targaryen, the firstborn of the King's second son, was destined to inherit the throne. Scarce anyone in the one hundredth year could have thought that it would happen so swiftly and be entwined with such a major political event as the Great Council at Harrenhal.
Ascending the throne at four-and-twenty years of age, Viserys II reigned, standing simultaneously in the shadow of his grandfather and in the rays of his glory. It was he who reaped the happy fruits of that long rule: a full treasury allowed him to live in grand style, to arrange hunts, feasts, and tournaments, and to patronize his passion, which transformed the face of King's Landing and all the Seven Kingdoms. The Obelisk on the Field of Fire, the Tarth Obelisk in memory of Prince Aemon, the Queen's Sept in the capital—this is but an incomplete list of what was erected by order of Viserys the Builder. There was coin enough in the treasury for the pursuits of the King's brothers as well: wars and coups wrought by Prince Daemon in Pentos and Dorne, his conquest of the Stepstones, Prince Aegon's journey through Essos and his researches—all these expenses were investments, which, however, quickly paid for themselves.
Let us return, then, to Viserys, the Second of His Name. It was he who allowed those seeds of discord sown by Jaehaerys to take root. It was under him that they were diligently watered, cultivated, thinned, and weeded, so that later they might yield a bloody harvest.
From the course of lectures on history delivered by Archmaester Perestan in the Citadel of the Dragonheart in the 299th year After Aegon's Conquest.
"O Great City! Thou wert home not only to me, but to all that I have endured herein. The brightest days of blooming youth burn within me like unquenchable pyres. The most resplendent days of glorious maturity I revere as days of the gods. Memories—such is what remains to me. I remember the City and rejoice that I remember so much, and for that very cause do I suffer."
"Farewell to Valyria", Song of Ainar, verse 5.Ainar Targaryen, Lord of Dragonstone, styled the Exile.Prose translation into the Common Tongue from High Valyrian, executed by the White Dragon.