Game Of Thrones : Behind The Scenes Tales That You’ve Been Missing Out On!

Age of Valyria (8,000 years before Aegon’s Conquest)

 

Meanwhile in Essos, a group of shepherds of the “Valyrian” Peninsula discovered dragons lairing in the fourteen flames, an immense chain of volcanoes, now present near Slaver’s bay. The Valyrians believed that dragons were the children of the volcanoes.They tamed their dragons with magic, providing them with the means to conquer cities. They went on to establish the Valayrian Freehold. In the capital city of Valyria, topless towers rise toward the heavens where dragons soar, as seen by Daenerys when she lands at Dragonstone. The Valyrians would go on to fight multiple wars, firstly the Ghiscari wars against the Old Empire of Ghis, the greatest and foremost empire on the eastern continent. They fought a total of 5 wars, the fifth Ghiscari war being the penultimate as the Old Ghis was destroyed in its totality. The Valyrians continued to practice slavery, adopting the Ghiscari traditions and expand their influence over the remaining cities of Slaver’s Bay (i.e. Astapor, Yunkai and Meereen). Even today, remnants of the Old Ghis Empire are ever-present, such as the Unsullied of Astapor and the adoption of the harpy as a symbol by the Slaver cities.

The harpy was an old Ghiscari symbol.






Following the defeat of Old Ghis and its Empire, The Freehold sought to expand westward. They drove out the Andals, who would go on to establish themselves in Westeros. The next iconic wars of the Valyrian Conquest were the Rhoynish wars, as the Freehold came into conquest with the Rhoynish cities along the great river of Rhoyne. The series of wars between the Valyrian and The Rhoynar started around 950 BC, with the First Turtle War, and lasted for 250 years ending with the second Spice war. The second spice war distinguished for Nymeria, a Rhoynish war queen who evacuated its people after defeat on 10,000 ships. She sailed across the Narrow Sea, landing in Dorne. She would further go on to marry Lors Martell, unifying House Martell as the ruling house of Dorne.

Princess Nymeria and Lors Martell

 

The Valyrian freehold would go on to annex a small island at the mouth of Blackwater Bay. The Targaryen Family sought the island, building castles identical to dragons and henceforth naming it Dragonstone.

Years later, a forewarning dream is witnessed by Daenys, the daughter of then Lord Aenar Targaryen. Following the same, he decided to move his entire family on to Dragonstone to seek refuge. Exactly twelve years later, as foreseen by Daenys, the Doom of Valyria was witnessed. The entire peninsula was shattered and Valyria laid to waste. The dragons were wiped out, and most of the remaining cities broke apart, only to assert their independence as singular states. The only dragons that remained were the five that the Targaryen family brought with themselves to Dragonstone.

“The proudest city in all the world was gone in an instant, its fabled empire vanished in a day, the Lands of the Long Summer scorched and drowned and blighted.” – Tyrion Lannister

 

Andal Invasion (6,000 years before Aegon’s Conquest)

The Andals after being driven out of Andalos, travelled across the narrow sea and land in the Fingers of Vale. Before the expansion, the Faith of the Seven was found and established, after the seven deities appeared to Hugor of the Hill, the first king of the Andals. The seven aspects of the deity are:

• Father, or the Father Above, representing judgment. He is depicted as a bearded man who carries scales, and is prayed to for justice.
• Mother, or the Mother Above, representing motherhood and nurturing. She is prayed to for fertility or compassion, and is depicted as smiling with love, embodying the concept of mercy.
• Warrior, representing strength in battle. He is prayed to for courage and victory. He carries a sword.
• Maiden, representing innocence and chastity. She is usually prayed to protect a maiden’s virtue.
• Smith, representing crafts and labour. He is usually prayed to when work needs to be done, for strength. He carries a hammer.
• Crone, representing wisdom. She carries a lantern and is prayed to for guidance.
• Stranger, representing death and the unknown. Worshipers rarely seek favour from the Stranger, but outcasts sometimes associate themselves with this god.

 




For centuries the Andals fought with the children and the First Men, sweeping the land with steel weapons. One after another, they conquered six out of the seven kingdoms, with only the north remaining under the rule of the First Men, due to strategic placement of Moat Cailin. This is probably why even today the old gods are worshipped in the north as opposed to the Faith of the seven in most other kingdoms. The Andals sought to conquer the iron islands a thousand years later, and could only do so with the help of prominent alliances in battle with the other houses, though they never grew in favour of their spiritual traditions, eventually converting to the native Drowned God.

Andal invasion of the Stormlands

Even though each aforementioned event in History brought about new and notable aspects, none would be as important as Aegon’s Conquest and it’s subsequent, which can’t be easily summarized. At present, The Nights King and the great Storm approaches the living, and it will surely be an interesting spectacle.

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