Daenerys Targaryen

Born on Dragonstone as her father's rebellion collapsed, Daenerys spent her childhood a beggar-princess in the Free Cities, sold at thirteen to the Dothraki horselord Drogo in exchange for an army her brother promised and never delivered. It was in Drogo's khalasar that she stopped being Viserys's possession and started being a queen.

From the funeral pyre that killed her husband she walked out with three newborn dragons — the first seen in the world for a hundred and fifty years. She freed the slaves of Astapor and Meereen, learned that ruling is harder than liberating, and built a kingdom in Slaver's Bay before abandoning it to sail for Westeros with the Unsullied, the Dothraki and three growing dragons.

Her claim to the Iron Throne is the strongest by blood and the least supported by friends. In the last published chapters she lives on the Dothraki grass with her war at her back and her dragons overhead; what comes after — the crossing, the landing, the fire — the singers promise, and the maesters have not yet set down.