Aegon had no such goal in mind. According to Stannis, he set his eyes on the whole continent and sought to take the entire land as a whole. He was not a follower of the Seven Gods of the Andals, and only tolerated the Faith because they supported him. It was not until later generations when the Targaryens actually took up the Faith on their own. The fact that Aegon & his sisters named their dragons after Valyrian gods is further evidence of this.
The Targaryens converted to the Seven after the fall of Valyria, believing that their old gods had abandoned them, IIRC. Theres a scene in ACOK where Stannis has seven statues dragged out of the Sept on Dragonstone and burned as an offering to R'hllor. Davos (the POC character for this scene) is quite troubled by it and describes how the statues had been carved from the masts of the ships that carried the surviiving Targaryens to Dragonstone after the Doom of Valyria. He also recalls that it is said Aegon knelt before that statue of the Warrior before setting sail fo conquer the Seven Kingdoms.
Now, obviously there will be variations within the family with regards to how religious the individual Targaryens were, but as a House they were followers of the Seven in the same way that the Starks are followers of the Old Gods. Aegon might have been a religious man, or simply a shrewd politicion who used religion to strengthen his fledgling realm, we can't really know since hes more a myth than a character by this stage. But we do know that his realm was officially termed the Seven Kingdoms and that he founded a knightly order which only ever has seven members. I doubt those came about by happenstance.
As to which regions are officially "Kingdoms" in modern day Westeros...
1. the North.
2. the Vale.
3. the West.
4. the Reach.
5. the Kingswood/Stormlands.
6. Dorne.
7. the Iron Islands.
I don't think the Dragonstone/King's Landing area would count. And I think the Riverlands miss out on "Kingdom" designation by having been part of the Iron Islands territory at the time of the Conquest. They have history of having been an indepedant realm its true, but so does the Neck and various other areas I'm sure.
Game of Thrones 1.06
23/05/2011 09:38:12 PM
- 1464 Views
I was disappointed by the lack of a flashback when Ned woke up
24/05/2011 12:49:20 AM
- 695 Views
Blame religion on the lack of the seven kingdoms including the riverlands, there are actually 9
24/05/2011 01:33:24 AM
- 610 Views
Yeah, no. What?
24/05/2011 03:09:03 AM
- 753 Views
Re: Yeah, no. What?
24/05/2011 07:37:16 PM
- 529 Views
Re: I was disappointed by the lack of a flashback when Ned woke up
26/05/2011 02:25:36 PM
- 506 Views
Here is another thing I missed entirely in the books...
24/05/2011 03:26:28 AM
- 584 Views
She said so. Drogo asked her why that name, and she told him it was for Rhaegar *NM*
24/05/2011 02:04:49 PM
- 233 Views
It was a great episode.
24/05/2011 08:24:20 PM
- 631 Views
Re: It was a great episode.
25/05/2011 01:19:45 AM
- 508 Views
I feel very bad for Sansa.
25/05/2011 02:47:07 AM
- 537 Views
I feel like I should.
26/05/2011 06:45:23 PM
- 587 Views
Yeah, she's pretty annoying
26/05/2011 08:53:24 PM
- 490 Views
Re: Yeah, she's pretty annoying
26/05/2011 10:22:19 PM
- 528 Views
Re: Yeah, she's pretty annoying
27/05/2011 01:54:21 AM
- 479 Views
Re: Yeah, she's pretty annoying
27/05/2011 02:04:50 AM
- 508 Views
Re: *HBO spoilers in here*
27/05/2011 05:13:20 AM
- 483 Views
As someone else who doesn't know the books...
25/05/2011 03:24:30 PM
- 596 Views
She becomes more ambiguous later on, not so much at the start. *NM*
26/05/2011 10:06:14 PM
- 215 Views
Re: Game of Thrones 1.06
26/05/2011 03:33:47 AM
- 585 Views
Re: Game of Thrones 1.06
26/05/2011 01:13:01 PM
- 538 Views
I cant stand Sansa
26/05/2011 05:03:26 AM
- 541 Views
Easy killer!
27/05/2011 12:04:25 AM
- 523 Views
Re: Easy killer!
27/05/2011 06:05:39 AM
- 495 Views
That's not entirely fair... she does grow a lot as a person. *NM*
27/05/2011 10:28:16 PM
- 222 Views