Embedded Files
Pronunciation:
kuh-RAK-sees
Valyrian Name:
N/A
Nickname(s):
"The Blood Wyrm"
Status:
Alive
Gender:
He-Dragon
Age:
≈ 57+ years old
Coloration:
Deep Blood Red Scales
with Bright Red Wing Membranes
Disposition:
Menacing, Vicious, Restless, Cunning, Mercurial
Current Rider:
Prince Daemon Targaryen
Former Rider(s):
⬦ Prince Aemon Targaryen
CARAXES - Design Development (Images):
CARAXES - Design Development (Images):
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- Promotional Material -
- Promotional Material -
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Caraxes from Game of Thrones: Dragonfire
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CARAXES - Design Development (Quotes):
CARAXES - Design Development (Quotes):
- House of the Dragon -
- House of the Dragon -
MYSARIA: You are Daemon Targaryen. Rider of Caraxes. Wielder of Dark Sister. The King cannot replace you.
- House of the Dragon Season 1 Episode 1 "The Heirs of the Dragon"
BARTIMOS: Pray forgive my bluntness, Your Grace, but talk of men is moot. Your cause owns a power that has not been seen in this world since the days of old Valyria. Dragons!
RHAENYRA: The Greens have dragons as well.
DAEMON: They have three adults, by my count. We have Syrax, Caraxes, and Meleys. Your sons have Vermax, Arrax, and Tyraxes. Baela has Moondancer.
RHAENYRA: Daemon, none of our dragons have been to war.
DAEMON: There are also unclaimed dragons. Seasmoke still resides on Driftmark. Vermithor and Silverwing dwell on the Dragonmont, still riderless. Then there are the three wild dragons, all of whom nest here.
RHAENYRA: And who is to ride them?
DAEMON: Dragonstone has 13 to their 4. I also have a score of eggs incubating in the Dragonmont.
- House of the Dragon Season 1 Episode 10 "The Black Queen"
DAEMON: Take your mount again. We're flying out.
RHAENYS: I alone patrol over 100 miles of open sea, endlessly, to hold the blockade.
Meleys must gorge and rest, as must I.
DAEMON: We're going to King's Landing.
RHAENYS: To what end?
DAEMON: Killing Vhagar. I cannot face that hoary old bitch alone. With my dragon and yours together, we can kill Vhagar and her rider.
- House of the Dragon Season 2 Episode 1 "A Son for a Son"
RANDO: Ah, Your Grace, a word.
It seems the sheep on our land has been sold upriver. My vassals have sent a drove of swine instead.
Dragons do eat pigs, I assume?
DAEMON: Caraxes prefers them. How goes your muster?
RANDO: We'll be ready to march in two days' time.
DAEMON: See to those pigs.
RANDO: At once, Your Grace.
- House of the Dragon Season 2 Episode 8 "The Queen Who Ever Was"
- Behind the Scenes -
- Behind the Scenes -
Caraxes, nicknamed the Blood Wyrm, is ridden by Daemon Targaryen. He is a formidable, lean dragon with blood-red scales and an unusually long neck.
- https://www.hbo.com/house-of-the-dragon/dragon-index#caraxes
To understand the heart of Daemon, you need only look at his dragon, Caraxes, a gargantuan winged red steed.
Smith thinks of the beast as "a very grumpy, tough, surly sort."
Caraxes is constantly annoyed, but Daemon loves that about him. "He's like a huge rabid dog, in many ways, who only calms and soothes around Daemon," Smith says. "He's almost an untrainable dragon in many respects."
- https://ew.com/tv/house-of-the-dragon-cover-story-game-of-thrones-enters-new-age/
Daemon's Caraxes is slightly dangerous, aggressive, and a little bit untrustworthy—all because Daemon's got a bit of a screw loose and is unpredictable, which is great.
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The animation team started thinking about even the way they shake their head….while Caraxes was unique and different from the others. He's much more serpent-like and slightly twitchy; a bit on edge.
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Miguel was always saying that Caraxes should not really look like he belongs on the ground, because of the shape. I've got a couple of racing dogs, like lurchers and greyhounds, and he sort of linked them to that. They're amazing when they're in full speed, but when they lay down, they look a bit awkward. They're almost built for a specific thing. In episode one, there's a moment where Daemon's calming Caraxes in the cave, and it's twisted and trying to fit into the cave, but he's feeling like he doesn't like to be confined. He wants to be out there flying, like Daemon.
Bickerton says Caraxes — ridden by Prince Daemon Targaryen — was the most unusual dragon to create "because it's very long and almost looks like a red Chinese dragon. Daemon, being the sort of spirit of chaos that he is, they wanted him to have this curious, serpentine, slightly demonic dragon."
- https://www.televisionacademy.com/features/news/mix/enter-dragons
Snakes also became an important point of reference for Daemon's mount, Caraxes, the most battle-tested of all the dragons.
Nicknamed the Blood Wyrm for its distinctive crimson scales, Caraxes is roughly half the size of Vhagar.
More so than any of the other dragons, it represents the greatest deviation from the Drogon template, its serpentine shape inspired by dragons found in Chinese folklore. "The Blood Wyrm almost looks like a deformity in the way it slithers and undulates through the air versus just straight flying," Condal says.
"He's never at rest. Even if he's down on the ground, he's always twitching and barking fire and swishing his tail and flapping his wings." Caraxes's personality closely mirrors that of its rider. Daemon, too, is never at peace-even if he manages to be physically still in a moment, his mind is always racing. “He's this guy who's up at night thinking, My brother never made me heir, never made me Hand. The world has taken away from me the things that I need and want," Condal says. "All the things that keep Daemon up and awake and fighting the way that he does, we see that in Caraxes."
- Game of Thrones: House of the Dragon: Inside the Creation of a Targaryen Dynasty
To determine how Caraxes would fly given the elongated shape of its body, Serkeris drew a series of sketches in which he experimented with the proportion of the creature's legs and wingspan.
"Caraxes [required the most] problem-solving of all the dragons," Serkeris says. "It needs to be believable that this dragon can get off the ground and maintain flight in the air. We had to break it down-if this dragon existed in real life, how would it work? How would it function? How would it move?"
He then turned Caraxes over to Barybin, who began to "dress" the dragon with scales and to refine its facial features.
“I was referencing snakes," Barybin says. "They have this certain quality of being mischievous or sinister, and that's what I was trying to incorporate, especially into the face, where most of the emotion really gets through."
- Game of Thrones: House of the Dragon: Inside the Creation of a Targaryen Dynasty
“Caraxes, which is uh the bloodworm, which is Demon's dragon, is a dragon that's super long he's basically a deformed dragon. We call him the elephant man and um uh and the the funny thing about Caraxes is Caraxes really shouldn't fly because his body's too long for any aerodynamics to work properly and so it was going back and say oh we've got to put little kind of wings in his behind legs for this to actually work that kind of stuff is pretty fun to do um…”
- https://youtu.be/3oToves5uPg?list=PL8mo-m0aqLPxKYOwymPxgFDgpZ0NpKLHm
Like Daemon (played by Doctor Who alum, Matt Smith), for instance, Caraxes "is much more unpredictable, kind of dangerous," Bell added. "You like Caraxes, but you’re also terrified of him because you don’t know what he’s gonna do. [He’s] a bit more uncontrollable and needs calming down." In particular, MPC referenced the transparent eyelid crocodiles use for protection while swimming underwater. "When Caraxes is angry, his eyes literally glaze over and he suddenly becomes a lot more uncontrollable."
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"There’s a scene in Episode 1 where Daemon's trying to calm Caraxes down in the Dragonpit tunnel. There's a shot from the front and it’s kind of twisted and contorted and doesn't feel like it fits in there," Bell explained. "And even in the last episode, there's a scene where Caraxes climbs over the rock, and it's kind of slipping and skidding. That’s an interesting idea — you're looking at something that's meant to be scary and terrifying, but it’s also a little bit skinny and clambering over these rocks."
- https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/house-of-the-dragon-vfx-interview-game-of-thrones-prequel?amp
According to Mike Bell, visual effects supervisor at Moving Picture Company (MPC) Caraxes was largely based on the awkwardness of “a greyhound [dog] laying down or sitting.” The thinking there, according to Bell, was that Caraxes isn’t meant to be lying down. “Caraxes is supposed to be flying,” said Bell. “Which is why he has that kind of almost snake-like animation.”
- https://dot.la/house-of-the-dragon-vfx-2659111238.html?utm_campaign=post-teaser&utm_content=o7onj0gt
JASON: Paula, I read that you were told to create Caraxes' roar as if he was a failed white boy rapper. How do you take that direction and do something with it?
(GRETA LAUGHS)
PAULA: The direction, actually, was that Caraxes was deformed, he was the dragon nobody loved, and he had a deviated septum. And so I kind of added the white boy who wanted to be a rapper for the swagger. That is Daemon's, in a way, but it's like misplaced in the sort of dragondom.
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PAULA: ...And so, you know, we had a good chuckle over that one, but it really was about coming up with something really unique for that dragon. He's got a lot of presence in the show, as does his rider, as does Damon, you know? I mean, he's irritating, he's loud, he burps a lot.
PAULA: And I started playing around with these wild whistles that are great for his announcement. And you hear the whistle now, you know it's him. And that was sort of part of it, too. It's like, because he's a very iconic dragon in this show, you want that kind of like, "Oh, that's Caraxes." I mean, I developed the whistle earlier for, you know, while I was working on episode two. But episode three, it was perfect for the announcement of his arrival at the battle, you know? And you could just hear it long before he shows up. And we use that in a couple of instances. So, it's about finding something wild. And I remember when two came out. And people were like, "What the hell is that?" -And... -
PAULA: Because it was not what they were used to hearing, because so couldn't be more different from the Game of Thrones dragons, from Drogon in particular. But I love that by the end of the season, they were doing dragon polls like, "What's your favorite dragon?" And Caraxes was, like, winning by a mile. And when people were asked what they liked about him, one of the things was that they loved his singing. And I love that, you know, because it was sort of a thing that won people over and made him kind of very unique and sort of endearing in his weird-ass way.
And, uh... (LAUGHS) (GRETA LAUGHS) Going from last season to this season, there's small adjustments, but I'll take wide swings. I mean, Caraxes was a wide swing, obviously. It's like deep, wide swing to come up with something completely wacky and unexpected, you know? And I think that's the thing. Initially, it took everybody off guard, but then he kind of literally wormed his way into everybody's hearts. (ALL LAUGHING)
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JASON: Ballpark, how many sounds go into a dragon roar? How do you-- How do you make them? How complicated is that recipe?
PAULA: It depends on the dragon. Caraxes and Vhagar-- but Caraxes probably more so.
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PAULA: ...So, yeah, I would say probably Caraxes right now is the most complex because he's got the squeals, he's got the burping, and gross shit with his mouth. He's got the crazy stuff. He's got some low-end stuff too for intimidation. So, Caraxes has four levels of voice, and each level has-- can have up to ten layers maybe.
PAULA: You know, in like episode two, we're right-- You feel the spit on your face and smell that skanky breath. And he like, you know, the closer they are, the more detail you need to really... Because you want that-- you want to feel that spit on your face. I do. Maybe I'm weird, but I do. (ALL LAUGHING) PAULA: You know, smell his nasty teeth. I mean, all that. I like viscerality. I like to kind of feel it, like almost like you can touch it, you know?
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PAULA: Oh, Caraxes. Jeez. (GRETA AND JASON LAUGH) PAULA: Our boy, our boy, our best boy.
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PAULA: ...He's our deviated septum boy. He's got lots and lots of stuff. He's got dolphins, whales...
GRETA: Wow!
PAULA: ...seals. I think he's got some bison in there. He's got, I think, some walrus. He's got lots of things. And he has lots of issues, too, but... This show is not long enough for that.
- Dragon Deep Dive with Sound Designer Paula Fairfield -
- George R.R. Martin Speaks -
- George R.R. Martin Speaks -
Which dragon in House of the Dragon is the most formidable?
Balerion, the Black Dread, is dead by the time House of the Dragon opens. So he was Aegon the Conqueror's dragon. He was the biggest of the Targaryen dragons that took over Westeros. So with him gone, the largest and oldest remaining dragon is Vhagar. Vhagar has been around for hundreds of years and has fought many wars, has reduced things to ash and flame and bone. But Caraxes, who's also a very large dragon, Prince Daemon's dragon, but is younger and not as huge as Vhagar. But he's younger and faster, and he's also very battle-hardened, very fierce, doesn't take any crap from anybody. So both of those dragons are really, really formidable.
- George R.R. Martin in https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxfWuqHxUrX3_25oRzAzN8XCQeSjfitDRq?si=iAl71YtcIPVFZBKV
- Fire and Blood by George R.R. Martin -
- Fire and Blood by George R.R. Martin -
Prince Aemon emerged victorious, in part by dint of hammering his brother into submission. Later he distinguished himself in the lists as well, and was awarded his knight’s spurs in recognition of his skills. He was seventeen years of age. With knighthood now achieved, the prince wasted no time becoming a dragonrider as well, ascending into the sky for the first time not long after his return to King’s Landing. His mount was blood-red Caraxes, fiercest of all the young dragons in the Dragonpit. The Dragonkeepers, who knew the denizens of the pit better than anyone, called him the Blood Wyrm.
- Fire and Blood "The Long Reign - Jaehaerys and Alysanne: Policy, Progeny, and Pain"
Meleys was as swift a dragon as Westeros had ever seen, easily outpacing Caraxes and Vhagar when she and her brothers flew together.
- Fire and Blood "The Long Reign - Jaehaerys and Alysanne: Policy, Progeny, and Pain"
He would never have the chance. Jaehaerys Targaryen and his sons Aemon and Baelon had been waiting as well, and as Morion’s fleet beat its way across the Sea of Dorne, the dragons Vermithor, Caraxes, and Vhagar fell on them from out of the clouds. Shouts rang out, and the Dornish filled the air with scorpion bolts, but firing at a dragon is one thing, and killing it quite another. A few bolts glanced off the scales of the dragons, and one punched through Vhagar’s wing, but none of them found any vulnerable spots as the dragons swooped and banked and loosed great blasts of fire. One by one the ships went up in gouts of flame. They were still burning when the sun went down, “like a hundred candles floating on the sea.” Burned bodies would wash up on the shores of Cape Wrath for half a year, but not a single living Dornishman set foot upon the stormlands.
- Fire and Blood "The Long Reign - Jaehaerys and Alysanne: Policy, Progeny, and Pain"
And if there proved to be unexpected difficulties, Prince Aemon would have Caraxes. “He does love to burn,” the prince said.
- Fire and Blood "The Long Reign - Jaehaerys and Alysanne: Policy, Progeny, and Pain"
Those were the last words he would ever speak to his daughter. Caraxes swiftly outdistanced the Sea Snake and his fleet, dropping down out of the sky on Tarth. Lord Cameron, the Evenstar of Tarth, had fallen back into the spine of mountains that ran down the center of his island, and established a camp in a hidden valley from which he could look down on the Myrish movements below. Prince Aemon met him there, and the two made plans together, whilst Caraxes devoured half a dozen goats.
- Fire and Blood "The Long Reign - Jaehaerys and Alysanne: Policy, Progeny, and Pain"
Prince Daemon was not amongst them, however. Furious at the king’s decree, the prince quit King’s Landing, resigning from the City Watch. He went first to Dragonstone, taking his paramour Mysaria with him upon the back of his dragon Caraxes, the lean red beast the smallfolk called the Blood Wyrm. There he remained for half a year, during which time he got Mysaria with child.
- Fire and Blood "Heirs of the Dragon: A Question of Succession"
Lord Velaryon would command the fleet, Prince Daemon the army. They would be greatly outnumbered by the forces of the Three Daughters…but the prince would also bring to battle the fires of his dragon, Caraxes, the Blood Wyrm.
- Fire and Blood "Heirs of the Dragon: A Question of Succession"
He praised her beauty, declaring her to be the fairest maid in all the Seven Kingdoms. Uncle and niece began to fly together almost daily, racing Syrax against Caraxes to Dragonstone and back.
- Fire and Blood "Heirs of the Dragon: A Question of Succession"
Everywhere they went, however, huge crowds turned out for a glimpse of Vhagar and Caraxes.
The dragonriders were once again in Pentos when Lady Laena learned she was with child. Eschewing further flight, Prince Daemon and his wife settled in a manse outside the city walls as a guest of a Pentoshi magister, until such time as the babe was born.
- Fire and Blood "Heirs of the Dragon: A Question of Succession"
Against that, Prince Daemon had Caraxes and Princess Rhaenyra Syrax, both huge and formidable beasts. Caraxes especially was fearsome, and no stranger to blood and fire after the Stepstones.
- Fire and Blood "The Dying of the Dragons: The Blacks and the Greens"
Surprisingly, Prince Daemon agreed with his wife. “In the Stepstones, my enemies learned to run and hide when they saw Caraxes’s wings or heard his roar…but they had no dragons of their own. It is no easy thing for a man to be a dragonslayer. But dragons can kill dragons, and have. Any maester who has ever studied the history of Valyria can tell you that. I will not throw our dragons against the usurper’s unless I have no other choice. There are other ways to use them, better ways.”
- Fire and Blood "The Dying of the Dragons: The Blacks and the Greens"
And so it was decided. Prince Daemon would lead the assault on Harrenhal, riding Caraxes.
- Fire and Blood "The Dying of the Dragons: The Blacks and the Greens"
Soon after, Jacaerys Velaryon was flying north upon his dragon, Vermax, his brother Lucerys south on Arrax, whilst Prince Daemon flew Caraxes to the Trident.
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Having no wish to suffer the fate of Black Harren, its elderly castellan Ser Simon Strong (uncle to the late Lord Lyonel, great-uncle to Lord Larys) was quick to strike his banners when Caraxes lighted atop Kingspyre Tower. In addition to the castle, Prince Daemon at a stroke had captured the not-inconsiderable wealth of House Strong and a dozen valuable hostages, amongst them Ser Simon and his grandsons. The castle smallfolk became his captives as well, amongst them a wet nurse named Alys Rivers.
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The sudden, bloodless fall of Black Harren’s seat was counted a great victory for Queen Rhaenyra and her blacks. It served as a sharp reminder of the martial prowess of Prince Daemon and the power of Caraxes, the Blood Wyrm, and gave the queen a stronghold in the heart of Westeros, to which her supporters could rally…and Rhaenyra had many such in the lands watered by the Trident.
- Fire and Blood "The Dying of the Dragons: A Son for a Son"
Led by Prince Daemon on Caraxes, a strong host made up of Darrys, Rootes, Pipers, and Freys had captured the castle by storm in the absence of so much of House Bracken’s strength
- Fire and Blood "The Dying of the Dragons: The Red Dragon and the Gold"
And if his uncle emerged from behind the castle walls to oppose them, as he surely must, Vhagar would overcome Caraxes, and Prince Aemond would return to the city with Prince Daemon’s head.
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Prince Aemond had no taste for such delays, however. He had no need of his brothers or their dragons, he declared; Aegon was too badly hurt, Daeron too young. Aye, Caraxes was a fearsome beast, savage and cunning and battle-tested…but Vhagar was older, fiercer, and twice as large.
- Fire and Blood "The Dying of the Dragons: The Red Dragon and the Gold"
CARAXES - Screengrabs
CARAXES - Screengrabs
Screenshot Timeline of Caraxes in House of the Dragon Season 1
Screenshot Timeline of Caraxes in House of the Dragon Season 2
Screenshot Timeline of Caraxes in House of the Dragon Season 3 Trailers (Temporary)
- Color Edits -
- Color Edits -
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