[1][2] It is set on the continent of Westeros of Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, hundreds of years before the events of A Game of Thrones (1996) during the reign of King Viserys I Targaryen.
The Rogue Prince serves as a prequel to Martin's earlier 2013 novella The Princess and the Queen and focuses on the reign of Viserys I, from his grandfather Jaehaerys I Targaryen's death to his own.
Despite standard succession law that the elder brother's children should come first, Viserys wins the council by a ratio of twenty votes to one, and is declared the rightful heir.
King Viserys, married to Aemma of House Arryn, names his daughter Rhaenyra as his successor, ahead of his hot-tempered and mercurial younger brother Daemon (the titular "rogue prince").
This decision contradicts the new inheritance law established at the Great Council, which should put a male heir ahead of any female one, but Daemon's reputation is so scandalous that Viserys's powerful advisor Otto Hightower eagerly goes along with it.
After defeating Volantis to the east, the other southern Free Cities — Lys, Myr, and Tyrosh — set aside their differences to unite as a triple-alliance with a shared government, called "the Kingdom of the Three Daughters" of Valyria or "the Triarchy".
Pressured by her father, Rhaenyra eventually submits to an arranged marriage with her cousin Laenor Velaryon (son of Corlys, brother of Laena).
The subsequent death of King Viserys — in his bed, from old age and poor health — sets the stage for The Princess and the Queen, and the outbreak of the Dance of the Dragons.