Steve Toussaint as Lord Corlys ‘The Sea Snake’ Velaryon

William Stephen Toussaint is a British actor and writer born March 22, 1965. His part in the ITV crime drama The Knock (1994–2000) was where he first gained prominence. His role as Corlys Velaryon on the HBO fantasy show House of the Dragon began in 2022.

Shooting Dogs (2005) and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time are two of his movies. He was in the second season of Line of Duty (2014), the ninth season of Lewis (2015), the Australian show Pine Gap (2018), and the American show Small Axe: Red, White, and Blue (2020).

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Name	Steve Toussaint
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Steve Toussaint as Lord Corlys ‘The Sea Snake’ Velaryon

People used to talk about Corlys Velaryon as the Sea Snake. He was the legendary Lord of the Tides, Master of Driftmark, and head of House Velaryon. He was married to Princess Rhaenys Targaryen. He was Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen’s Hand during the Dance of the Dragons.

Steve Toussaint, Character and How he Looks Like

By the time he was seventy, Corlys was known as the best sailor the Seven Kingdoms had ever seen. A lot of people said that Corlys was smart, restless, and eager to try new things. He did many great things in his life, but he was never pleased.

Even when he was old, Corlys was known to be hard to get along with. People thought he was smart in peace and brave in Battle. He was delighted. Queen Alicent Hightower thought he was cocky. Corlys used to say that he was holding on to life “like a sailor drowning clinging to the wreckage of a sunken ship.”

Steve Toussaint Birth and Early Life

Corlys was born in Driftmark in 53 AC to Corwyn Velaryon and his lady wife. Lord Daemon Velaryon’s oldest son was Corwyn. His name comes from Ser Corlys Velaryon, the first Lord Commander of the Kingsguard for King Aegon I Targaryen and an uncle of his.

Corlys learned to sail when he was young. When he was six, he crossed the narrow sea to Pentos with an uncle. After that, Corlys would go on these kinds of trips every year as a part of the ship’s crew. Two of the leaders he worked for said they had never seen a sailor as natural as Corlys.

When he was sixteen, he sailed the Cod Queen from Driftmark to Dragonstone and back, making him a captain. When he was twenty-three, Corlys was already a well-known sailor.

Corlys took a boat trip to Oldtown, Lannisport, Lordsport, Lys, Tyrosh, Pentos, and Myr. He took the Ice Wolf to Braavos, Eastwatch-by-the-Sea, Hardhome, Lorath, Port of Ibben, and the Summer Maid to Volantis and the Summer Isles. He also took Ice Wolf past the Wall, but in the Shivering Sea around Westeros, he couldn’t find a way to get north. At some point, Corlys was made a knight.

The Sea Snake was Corlys’s ship, which he planned and built. He took it on nine long trips to Essos. On his first trip, he went past the Jade Gates at Qarth and sailed to Yi Ti and Leng. Corlys returned with riches like jade, spices, and silk, making House Velaryon twice as rich.

Many stories say that on his second trip, he “lost his love and half his crew” in Asshai. When Corlys got to Asshai, he saw a ship in the harbor that he thought was Elissa Farman’s Sun Chaser. On his third trip, Corlys became the first person from Westeros to sail through the Thousand Islands in the Shivering Sea and visit Nefer in N’ghai and Mossovy.

Corlys built up the ship’s hold with gold during his ninth trip on Sea Snake. He also bought twenty more ships at Qarth and loaded them with spices, elephants, and silk. Only fourteen ships made it to Driftmark, and all of the elephants died. However, Corlys made a huge amount of money from the trip. The name “Sea Snake” came from his well-known ship. Maester Mathis wrote The Nine Voyages about Corlys’s trips on the Sea Snake.

Lord Corlys as the Lord of the Tides

After his grandfather died, Ser Corlys took over as head of House Velaryon and Lord of the Tides. Through his travels, Lord Corlys became richer than Lords Lannister or Hightower. He built a new seat called High Tide to store his eastern riches. As Hull and Spicetown grew, trade moved away from King’s Landing.

Corlys married Princess Rhaenys Targaryen, who was sixteen years old at the time. She was Prince Aemon Targaryen‘s only child, the oldest son of King Jaehaerys I Targaryen. After two years, Corlys sailed his ship to Tarth to help Prince Aemon fight the Myrish refugees who had come to the island. Corlys’s wife told them she was pregnant right before they left.

Prince Aemon died during the Battle, so King Jaehaerys I Targaryen chose a new heir. He picked his second son Baelon, over Rhaenys, Aemon’s only heir, and also skipped over Corlys and Rhaenys’s pregnant child. Corlys was so angry about this choice that he quit his job as skipper and his spot on the king’s small council. He then took his wife and went back to Driftmark.

Rhaenys had a girl named Laena in late 92 AC. In 94 AC, a son named Laenor was born. When Prince Baelon died in 101 AD, it wasn’t clear who would replace King Jaehaerys I, and word got to the court that Corlys was getting ships and people to protect his son’s rights. The king said there would be a Great Council at Harrenhal to decide who would be king, so Corlys and his wife went.

They used their money and power to get the lords there to vote for Laenor, since Rhaenys and Laena had already been passed over because of their gender. Laenor’s claim was helped by Corlys’s fame, wealth, and good name, but in the end, Viserys, Baelon’s son, got most of the votes and was named Prince of Dragonstone.

After Queen Aemma Arryn died in 105 AC, Grand Maester Runciter offered to King Viserys I Targaryen that he marry Corlys’s twelve-year-old daughter Laena. But Alicent Hightower was picked by King Viserys. After being turned down three times by House Targaryen, Corlys and his family did not go to the wedding in 106 AC. They were angry that they had been left out again. Instead, he joined forces with Prince Daemon Targaryen, who was King Viserys’s younger brother and also very angry about the king’s marriage.

 Corlys had been hurt by the Triarchy’s control over the Stepstones, and he and Daemon were determined to take control of the Stepstones for themselves. The war started in the year 106 AC, with Daemon in charge of the army and Corlys in charge of the fleet. In the first few years, they won a lot of battles.

By 109 AD, they had control of all but two of the islands and the water between them. Corlys put the crown on Daemon’s head when he said he was King of the Stepstones and the Narrow Sea. It has been said that Corlys did not get involved in any more battles after 109 AC.

In 113 AD, King Viserys I and his small court started discussing a marriage proposal for Viserys’s daughter, Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen. They finally chose Laenor, Corlys’s son. It was in 114 AC that Laenor and Rhaenyra got married. Rhaenyra gave birth late that same year, but Corlys wouldn’t let his son have his way.

He demanded that the child be named after a traditional Velaryon. His name was Jacaerys. They had two more boys after that. Lucerys was born in 115 AC, and Joffrey was born in 117 AC.

Laena, Corlys’s daughter, had been engaged to the son of a past Sealord of Braavos for almost ten years by the year 115 AC. Once the Sealord died, the son turned out to be a rogue and a fool, losing all of his family’s money and power.

He then showed up on Driftmark. Corlys couldn’t think of a classy way to break the engagement, but she didn’t want to get married, so she kept putting off the wedding over the years.

As a result, Corlys agreed when Prince Daemon Targaryen came to Driftmark and asked Laena to marry him. Daemon made fun of the late Sealord’s son until the son ordered a duel, which Daemon killed. Two weeks later, Corlys saw Laena and Daemon get married. These two marriages gave Corlys two more grandchildren: the twin girls Baela and Rhaena Targaryen, who were born in 116 AC.

Laena, Corlys’s daughter, died a few days after giving birth to her third child, who had died just an hour after birth, in the first few days of 120 AC. Later, soon after, Ser Qarl Correy killed his son Laenor by stabbing him at a fair in Spicetown.

In the same year, a fire at Harrenhal killed Lord Lyonel Strong and his son, Ser John Strong. There are a lot of stories about this fire, but the court fool Mushroom says Corlys started it to get back at Harwin for cheating on his son.

In 126 AC, when Corlys got a sudden fever, the question of who would take over Driftmark came up. Laenor’s oldest son Jacaerys, was legally entitled to receive since both of his children had died. But Jacaerys, the Princess of Dragonstone’s oldest son, was already set to take the Iron Throne after his mother. Because of this, Rhaenyra told Corlys to name Lucerys, her second son by Laenor, as his heir.

However, Ser Vaemond Velaryon, the oldest of Corlys’s six nephews, argued that he should be named heir because Rhaenyra’s three sons by Laenor were the children of the late Ser Harwin Strong. Vaemond’s wife, children, and brothers ran away to King’s Landing when Prince Daemon captured and killed him. There, they were punished by King Viserys I for spreading rumors about who the father of Rhaenyra’s oldest children was. In the end, Corlys got better from his sickness.

Lord Corlys Velaryon In Dance of the Dragons

As soon as King Viserys I Targaryen passed away in early 129 AC, his eldest son Aegon II Targaryen took the throne instead of Viserys’s chosen child Rhaenyra. Corlys went to Dragonstone to help his ex-daughter-in-law in her fight.

He was the strongest among the lords who promised their strength to Rhaenyra’s cause. Men sworn to House Velaryon comprised more than half of Rhaenyra’s troops. The blacks were also better at sea, thanks to Corlys’s ships.

Corlys told Rhaenyra, “We want to rule the city, not burn it to the ground,” when Lord Bartimos Celtigar told him to burn King’s Landing down to ash and bone. Corlys’ force blocked the Gullet and sailed back and forth between Dragonstone and Driftmark.

This stopped all ships from entering or leaving Blackwater Bay, which stopped trade going to and from King’s Landing. Corlys was on Dragonstone when the black council heard that Lucerys Velaryon had died. He and his wife stopped Lucerys’ younger brother Joffrey from riding his own dragon to get revenge for his brother’s death.

Mushroom says that while Rhaenyra was so sad about Lucerys’s death, Corlys and his wife Rhaenys were put in charge of the war council. It was Rhaenys who flew to Rook’s Rest to help Lord Staunton, who was under attack by Aegon II’s forces.

However, she was killed in fight by King Aegon II, Sunfyre, Prince Aemond Targaryen, and Vhagar. When news of Rhaenys’s death reached Dragonstone, Corlys blamed Rhaenyra because she had told her boys they couldn’t go with Rhaenys.

When Prince Jacaerys Velaryon made Corlys Hand of the Queen, he brought him back into the group. They worked together to make a plan to attack King’s Landing. As part of his plan, Jacqueerys gave land, wealth, and the title of knight to anyone who could ride one of the dragons without a rider.

Addam of Hull, who is fifteen years old, could claim Seasmoke, which had been ridden by Corlys’s late son Laenor. Many people thought it strange that Addam’s mother, Marilda, said that Laenor had fathered Addam and his younger brother Alyn. Corlys seemed to agree with her and asked Rhaenyra to legalize both of them, making Addam his new heir.

Laenor’s sexuality had been the subject of rumors for a long time. In contrast, the court fool Mushroom says in his Testimony that Corlys fathered both Addam and Alyn and kept them away from court while his wife was still alive. However, he did recognize them in a roundabout way after she died.

Fight of the Gullet, which took place in late 129 AC, was the last fight that broke the Velaryon blockade in the Gullet. The Velaryon fleet lost a third of its power in the fight, and 62 of the Triarchy’s 90 ships were sunk. The people were still alive after the Triarchy burned down High Tide and destroyed all the riches Corlys had gathered in the east. It was also destroyed in Spicetown.

Corlys said, “If this is victory, I pray I never win another.” after being praised for his victory over the Triarchy. What Addam Velaryon and Corlys said to each other after the fight is unknown.

When Rhaenyra took over King’s Landing in 130 AD, Corlys’s ships blocked off Blackwater Bay. Rhaenyra’s troops won the Butcher’s Ball, but the blacks lost the First Battle of Tumbleton. King Aegon II and his two younger children were not seen. Prince Aemond and Vhagar were terrorizing the riverlands, and Lord Ormund Hightower’s host, Prince Daeron and his dragon Tessarion, was slowly approaching the city.

Lord Corlys told Rhaenyra that she should forgive Lord Borros Baratheon, Ormund Hightower, and House Lannister, send Queen Alicent Hightower and Queen Helaena Targaryen to the Faith, take care of Aegon II’s daughter Jaehaera as her own child, and marry her to her own son Aegon when the time came, while letting her half-brothers wear the black.

Rhaenyra had other ideas. She said that her half-brothers had broken vows before, so the Night’s Watch promises wouldn’t mean much to them. Corlys was horrified by Prince Daemon’s plan to destroy both House Lannister and House Baratheon and give their seats to Ulf White and Hugh Hammer, two of the four Dragonseeds. He insisted that half of the Westerosi lords would turn against them if they destroyed two old and noble houses.

During the Second Battle of Tumbleton, when the Two Betrayers switched sides and sided with Aegon II, Lord Corlys spoke out to support the two living Dragonseeds, Nettles and Addam Velaryon. He said Addam and Alyn were “true heirs” and deserving of Driftmark. He also said that Nettles had fought bravely in the Battle in the Gullet.

Rhaenyra told Ser Luthor Largent to arrest Addam in the Dragonpit, so he didn’t get to say anything. Corlys told Addam what was going on, and he hid on Seasmoke’s back. When faced with an angry Ser Luthor, Corlys did not deny being accused of betrayal. Corlys was tied down and beaten before being taken to the vaults below the Red Keep and put in a black cell until he was tried and put to death.

When word got out that Corlys had been arrested, hundreds of his men, who made up half of Rhaenyra’s army at King’s Landing, left Rhaenyra. You couldn’t trust the people who were left. As the crowd in Cobbler’s Square got ready for the King’s Landing fight, some of Corlys’s men joined them. Some tried to climb the walls to free him, while others ran away from the city.

Ser Denys Woodwright and Ser Thoron True, two of Lord Corlys’ sworn guards, tried to sneak into the dungeons to free their liege, but a whore Thoron had been sleeping with told Lady Mysaria about their plan. Both men were killed, and Lord Corlys stayed in jail.

Rhaenyra had to leave the city in the end. Archmaester Gyldayn says that Corlys and the other prisoners were freed from the cells by Ser Perkin the Flea’s men when they took over the Red Keep to put Trystane Truefyre on the Iron Throne. Maester Yandel, on the other hand, says that Corlys was only set free when King Aegon II Targaryen’s troops took back the city.

Corlys was given a full pardon by Queen Alicent Hightower and Lord Larys Strong in exchange for his backing of King Aegon II. Corlys, on the other hand, had his own demands. He wanted everyone who had fought for Rhaenyra to be released, his niece Baela to be freed immediately, and Aegon the Younger and Princess Jaehaera to get married and be named Aegon II’s joint heirs.

The plans made Queen Alicent very angry, but Lord Larys Strong got her to agree, and Corlys swore his allegiance to Aegon II. But King Aegon II wasn’t as willing to listen to Corlys. When the king insisted on ending Rhaenyra’s line by either making Aegon the Younger a eunuch or having him take the black, and Ser Tyland Lannister argued for Aegon the Younger’s immediate execution, Corlys became furious. They called them “fools, liars, and oathbreakers” before storming out.

After that, Lord Larys Strong went to Corlys to get him back on the council. The two of them worked together in secret to end the war. After Lord Borros Baratheon lost the Battle of the Kingsroad, Corlys told Aegon II to join the Night’s Watch. There was an army of rivermen near the city, and a second army led by Lord Cregan Stark was coming down the Kingsroad. The king said no, but soon after he was poisoned, which ended the war.

In the Reign of Aegon III

After Aegon II Targaryen died, Corlys sent peacemakers to Casterly Rock, Storm’s End, and Oldtown, which had been Aegon II’s main backers. Lord Cregan Stark took over the court when he got to King’s Landing. He ensured the people who poisoned Aegon II were punished by arresting 22 men, including Corlys.

The Hour of the Wolf was given to this time. Corlys did not have to go to trial. This time, he was set free by an order from King Aegon III Targaryen that Baela and Rhaena Targaryen got him to make. Alysanne Blackwood told Lord Cregan she would marry him if he followed the order, and he did.

From 131 AD until he died in 132 AD, Corlys was one of Aegon III Targaryen’s regents. People thought that Corlys was the most powerful of the regents. He died of old age on the sixth day of the third moon in 132 AC.

He was 79 years old. For a week, his body was kept under the Iron Throne. Mermaid’s Kiss was taken to Driftmark by Marilda of Hull and her son Alyn Velaryon with Corlys’s body. Corlys was then buried at sea on his old Sea Snake east of Dragonstone. The Cannibal is said to have flown over the ship in honor as it sank.

What After Lord Corlys Death

Alyn Velaryon, Corlys’s grandson and chosen heir, and Baela Targaryen, his granddaughter, married right after he died so that Aegon III’s regents wouldn’t pick a husband for her without her letting them. Alyn wanted to name the baby after Corlys when Baela got pregnant. The baby was a girl, so they named her Laena, after Corlys’s daughter.

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