House of the Dragon stars Matt Smith and Milly Alcock in an image from season 1

‘House of the Dragon’ Season 1 Timeframe Explained

The ‘Game of Thrones’ prequel ‘House of the Dragon’ comes with a whole new cast of characters — but when does season 1 take place?

by Perry Carpenter

Published on August 28, 2022

3 min read

‘House of the Dragon’ is based on George R. R. Martin’s novel ‘Fire & Blood’

Fans have been waiting for the next novel in George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire book series — The Winds of Winter — for well over a decade. But instead of finishing that long-awaited book, which should have been source material for the final season of Game of Thrones, Martin decided to write an extremely long Westeros history book called Fire & Blood.

The tagline of the book is “300 years before A Game of Thrones, dragons ruled Westeros.” It begins with Aegon I and his Wars of Conquest — aka “After Conquest” or 1 AC in Martin’s world — which is when House Targaryen began their three-century rule over the Seven Kingdoms.

Aegon I Targaryen was crowned by the High Septon at Oldtown and he forged the Iron Throne from “the melted, twisted, beaten, and broken blades surrendered by his enemies.” But, this isn’t where the story begins in House of the Dragon.

The prequel’s season 1 timeline, explained

The story in Fire & Blood begins three centuries before the events in Game of Thrones. It takes place well before Ned Stark (Sean Bean) lost his head, Joffrey (Jack Gleeson) took the throne, and Jon Snow (Kit Harington) went north of The Wall.

However, the beginning of House of the Dragon isn’t the same as the beginning of Fire & Blood. The new HBO series is set approximately two centuries before the events of Game of Thrones — around 100 AC — which translates into one hundred years into the rule of House Targaryen.

King Viserys (Paddy Considine) is on the Iron Throne, the grandson of King Jaehaerys, who himself was the grandson of Aegon the Conqueror.

Jaehaerys ruled for 55 years, but it was who succeeded him that planted the seeds of the Dance of the Dragons. Ultimately, he had to call a Great Council to make a decision among the claims to the throne — the two best being from Jaehaerys daughter Rhaenys (Eve Best) and his grandson Viserys.

The young dynasty didn’t have the rules of succession set in stone. But, tradition always favored male heirs. That changes, though, when Viserys names his daughter Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) as his heir instead of his brother Daemon (Matt Smith) in the House of the Dragon pilot.

‘House of the Dragon’ won’t cover the entire era leading up to ‘Game of Thrones’

Everything that viewers see in House of the Dragon will lead into Game of Thrones, but it won’t make it all the way to the events of the original series. The new HBO prequel isn’t going to cover 200 hundred years of Westeros and Targaryen history in a single show.

Instead, it’s about the civil war among the Targaryen family that was just briefly mentioned in Game of Thrones.

“This period in Westeros was a very decadent time, so you get to see what the realm looks like before it descends into the detritus and post-decadence of war that you see in the original series,” showrunner Ryan Condal explained in a recent HBO video.

The fact that the Targaryen family went from being one of the most powerful in Westeros history to being nearly wiped out was an important part of Game of Thrones. And it’s what made Daenerys’ (Emilia Clarke) rise to power such a big deal. Now, fans will get to see the reason why.

House of the Dragon airs Sunday nights on HBO.