This part: "they delved into blood-magic, created chimeras by genetically and biologically twisting the flesh of animals and people to make chimeras (Fire and Blood) and were generally used to use dark magic and blood magic as well." is excellent! I think the creatures in Aerea's body in Fire & Blood are Valyrians without their magic. Rhaego with his inhuman features is the result of Targ genes like Maegor's children with various women. Dragons also get weird like Laena's freaky human arm eater.
I think the number of clues pointing in this direction are too many to be simply coincidences.
I mean, Maegor's children with various women (also women who had already proved they could bear living children, living sons as well) were born eyeless and with small wings (too similar to the way Rhaego is described to be something not to be accounted for, especially since in her previous chapter Daenerys claims to be the blood of Maegor the Cruel).
Aerea's case is most compelling as well.
Starting from the beginning even historians claim there might have been a swap of identities pertaining Aerea and Rhaella, two twins of different attitude.
Aerea before Jaehaerys coronation in Oldtown was considered to be frightful and cautious (she was afraid of everything, from booming voices, bearded men, horses, hounds and dragons as well), after the coronation she did a complete turnover (to the point maesters and historians speculated she had swapped places with her twin sister Rhaella who was a novice of the faith while in Oldtown) and became a right terror, reckless and unafraid, to the point she even claimed Balerion (who had been rode by Aegon the Conqueror and Maegor the Cruel, another coincidence? It's possible, but unlikely) and flew away from the 7K, to Valyria (possibly, but maybe even Asshai).
According to Lord Rogar Baratheon she had a "fire" in her. Archmaester Gyldayn likewise described her as a "fiery young girl".
Which is suspiciously similar to Daenerys being resistant to fire and claiming that since Viserys wasn't he was no real dragon. Because fire cannot kill a dragon. Yet...
There she spent a whole year. When she returned she was burning so hot with fever that the maester was convinced she was cooking from within. She was covered in boils and was so monstrous that the king forbid anyone of speaking about it. Whatever she had done, or be exposed to with the ignorance of a girl who had not studied those arts (because let's face it, like when the Roman Empire fell, when the Freehold was destroyed much of its history and knowledge went lost), had been retorted against her and she was dying from it, she had become a chimera. Because how else would you describe a creature of twisted flesh, as if with dark arts and sorceries and blood rituals had Aerea previously impeccable appearance changed so drastically? It looks to me like the consequences of a blood ritual, or dark sorcery gone wrong or getting out of hand of a young girl who had dabbled in something she had little knowledge of (kind of like Daenerys when she did the first sacrifice by sacrificing the stallion and unawarely, to which point unknown by her own words, her son to save Drogo) and was paying the consequences, consequences that, in Daenerys' case latched upon her unborn child.
The creatures that were inside of Aerea' body, and got out of it killing her and causing her immense degree of pain, are described like some sort of mutant worms (maybe the product of some other sorcery went wrong or awry after the doom of Valyria) they were the one causing the immense heat in the body of the princess yet they died because of the ice in which the princess had been immersed (kind like the dragons, which are fire made flesh, who are weaker and almost unusable in the cold). It is way too similar to the description Mirri gives of Rhaego at his birth, with worms feasting on his flesh as if he had been dead for a thousand years, blind and with small wings and the beginning of a small tail.
Also, Laena Velaryon was considered a fiery young girl by the age of eleven.
Another nudge, imo, to Daenerys Targaryen who was reborn in the fire of the pyre.
Should I also add that all the ladies we cited (Daenerys, Aerea/Rhaella, Laena) all loved flying above all else? Because they did. Another similarity.
Another similarity?, Laena was considered, at first, as a suitable prospect to bride for Viserys, who instead married another noblewoman. Daenerys, in her youth, believed she would become her brother's bride before he sold her to Drogo to further his ambition and get the Iron throne, at which point — if he ever managed — he would've had to marry another noblewoman in her place. Instead both Laena and Daenerys ended up marrying a warrior. Daemon Targaryen provoked Laena' betrothed so much that they duelled and killed him; Drogo was unbeaten in every duel he ever fought.
Also, she flew to Pentos, and remained there for a while. The same place we find Daenerys in when the story begins, just saying.
And the last pregnancy Laena has, she births a twisted and malformed son, who died within an hour of his birth. Another striking similarity with Daenerys and Rhaego.
At which point the whole question begs an answer...was it really only genetics or part of it was because of some blood rite they did and continued to do maybe even unawarely? The intermarriages sure helped none. And the fact that the dragons themselves starts to wither, to become twisted in the flesh, malformed and such more the time passes suggests also that maybe whatever source of magic they drew from in Valyria (both dragon riders and dragons themselves) may have been lost long enough to weaken them.
I am acutely aware much of this is speculation, but it is based on the text and I find it very compelling! Thank you anon for your input and suggestions, I had not thought about the similarities with Aerea and Laena!
post being referenced to is this one in which I considered the implication of the fact that Daenerys has used deliberately (like all valyrian before her) blood magic to get her dragons from the eggs, and why this makes her and the dragons the exact opposite to the Starklings and the direwolves. Especially considering the connotations Martin gives magic as something often twisted, dangerous and dark — often taking life and consequences of its own, just look at Hodor — it does not bode well neither for Daenerys nor for the Seven Kingdoms she means to come and conquer for her own.
