The Rise and Fall of Valyria Explained | House of the Dragon

all of what we know of Illyria has been passed down through generations of histories maesters have written their stories and documented what they could but there is still so much that we do not know we know the basics Valyria is where the targaryen come from Valyria is what the Dragons come from Valyria was the most magnificent city that ever was one who's like has never been duplicated Valyria was magical and Valyria was lost in the doom but what about the in-between the details the Forgotten things or the things that aren't as popular to speculate on we will venture into ancient Essos before the Dragons dominated Westeros when Valyria was at the peak of her reign when Essos lived in the Dragons shadow in the dawn of her days Valyria was nothing to be feared if the tales can be believed Valerians were but meek Shepherds that guarded their flocks for all we know Valyrian could have been worshippers of the great shepherd much like the lazarino that the Dothraki slaughtered before called Drogo was wounded in a game of Thrones according to one legend Valyrians were Shepherds that turn to Dragonlords when dragons allegedly sprang forth from the 14 flames the 14 flames is a chain of volcanoes that encompass the Valyrian Peninsula but there are many legends that conflict with each other when it comes to the origin of dragons in Qarth there is a legend that the moon was an egg and got too close to the Sun and Dragons came forth from that solar union there are legends that dragons originated in a shy and it was the Shahi that taught the Valyrians how to tame dragons Septon barth has a theory that Valyrian blood mages made the Dragons theorists that have been studying the ancient dragons of old Valyria and their legends and lore have found evidence that the Valyrians would be descendants of the great Empire of the dawn theorists have also suggested gene mutating interspecies mating which could suggest the septum bark has the right of it what is more probable is that pieces of these legends could all be true a piece from each legend could solve the puzzle of the true origin of dragons but the origin of dragons isn't important here what is important is that no one anywhere in the known world no one anywhere in any Legend in any history book mastered the art of taming dragons like the Valyrians did the Valyrians raised dragons tamed them trained them and use them to conquer a continent this didn't happen overnight some say the true art of riding a dragon and bending a dragon to your will requires a special blood blood of the dragon blood of old Valyria there is evidence that supports this but then there is also things that occur during the dance of dragons that muddy the water a little bit rhaenyra targaryen invited dragon seeds bastards of Dragonstone believed to be of Targaryen or Valyrian descent to come and tame wild dragons of Dragonstone or the Dragons that did not have riders nettles who was believed to be a Targaryen bastard some suggest even the bastard daughter of daemon targaryen she bonded with her dragon sheep stealer by bringing sheep to him every morning and people that we know were of Valyrian descent were almost killed trying to tame dragons Daenerys used no instrument to mount drogon but Victarion has a curious horn that he got from euron greyjoy it's covered in Valyrian glyphs it's a dragon horn and the noise that it makes sounds like the screaming of a thousand souls and it seems to listeners as if their very bones are on fire and searing their flesh from within that horn you heard I found amongst the smoking ruins that were buleria where no man has dared to walk but me you heard it's call and felt its power it is a dragon horn bound with bands of red and gold and Valyrian steel graven with enchantments the Dragonlords of old sounded such horns before the doom devoured them with this horn iron men I can bind dragons to my will so maybe it wasn't blood maybe it was just magical horns mokoro the black flame tells Victarion Greyjoy the horn reads no mortal man will sound me and live blood for fire fire for blood any dragon that hears the horn will obey the horns master but dragon binder is only one of the many enchanted mysterious things to come out of Valyria did the Valerians use enchanted horns whips magical spells was it their blood does it matter however they did it they conquered dragons and with dragons they conquered everything else before Valyria gained control over much of Essos they lived in the harpies shadow five thousand years ago the Empire of old geese dominated much of Essos as crassness would say old geese ruled an empire when the Valyrians were still [ __ ] sheep records indicate that the geese khari empire was in full bloom during the long night in Westeros about 8,000 years ago so the ghiscari Empire was the lands of slavers Bay ask the poor young Kai and marine but it was expanding how the conflict with the gas khari Empire came to be is of dispute some say that the kakari wanted their own dragons and the Valyrians were only defending themselves the other legends say that Valerians wanted power and had the means to gain it through dragons and they used their dragons as weapons of war and started with the ghiscari because the ghiscari was not about to give up one inch of land to the sheep [ __ ] of Illyria when I look at the records and all of the information that we had it indicates to me that the Valyrians did not know the power that they had in dragons because if they did they wouldn't have went to war with the ghiscari people five times they would have went to war with them one time and they would have just ended them all but there wasn't there were five five wars between the Valyrians and the ghiscari seems to indicate that the Valyrians were not using their dragons as they could have maybe they didn't know the Dragons full potential maybe they hadn't mastered the arts maybe they didn't want to kill thousands of people throughout these wars for dominance old yeast won some battles sir Barisan notices an ancient tapestry and the pyramid of murine that depicted one of their victories on the walls were priceless tapestries ancient and much faded depicting the glory of the old Empire of geese the largest of them showed the last survivors of a defeated Valyrian army passing beneath the yoke and being chained so like I said the goose khari won some battles and enslaved some Valyrians but they never won the wars and with each victory Valyria gained more ground but the harpy would not give up so easily the fifth time the harpy and the dragon went to war Valyria made sure there would not be a sixth war maester Yandell describes it best the ancient brick walls of old geese first erected by Grass Dan the Great in ancient days were raised the colossal pyramids and temples and homes were given over to dragon flame the fields were sewn with salt lime and skulls many of the ghiscari were slain and still others were enslaved and died laboring for their conquerors thus the discard became but another part of the new Valyrian Empire and in time they forgot the tongue that grass dance book-learning instead high Valyrian so do empires end and others rise it was from the ghiscari that the Valyrians learned slavery the more they conquered the more they enslaved with the ghiscari completely defeated nothing stood in the way of the Valyrian expansion and they expanded west Valyria is often referred to as an empire but it really wasn't an empire is usually ruled by an emperor and there is a different political structure than what existed in buleria Valyria was actually a capital city of the freehold of Valyria the political structure of the freehold or those that held power were about 40 noble families they were Lords landowners rich families and the most powerful of all were Dragonlords one of the biggest misconceptions is that every Valyrian was a Dragon Lord or every Valyrian had a dragon that doesn't seem to be the case House Targaryen was one of the noble families that held power in Valyria they were dragon Lords but they were not the most powerful by a long shot the dragon Lords were also known to feud with each other rival houses vie for power and glory in court and council rising and falling in an endless subtle off savage struggle for dominance as would be expected in any political structure house valerian also a noble house of Valyria they were a lesser house they weren't referred to as dragon Lords they didn't have dragons but they left Valyria before the doom and before the Targaryen stood settling on an island in the Blackwater Bay known as drift mark whenever house of the dragon comes out house valerian will be a prominent house but the Valyrians they did what they did they conquered they conquered most of Essos and established what are called the Free Cities volantis ty roche norvos pencils lys meer larec and qohor all of these cities were born from Valyrian colonisation they are known as the daughters of Illyria Braavos which is also a free city is often referred to as the bastard daughter of Illyria because Braavos was founded by escaped Valyrian slaves and it wasn't actually founded by Valyria so these city were used for different things and they were taken for different reasons volantis was the first daughter of Valyria and seemed to just be a military outpost with walls of black stone made to protect the Valyrian borders not any black stone though the walls weren't made of just any black stone they are made of black stone that is forged and Dragonfire given its location on the Rhoyne and its proximity to Valyria volantis became rich and grew even bigger still ty roche was another military outpost that Valyria constructed to control the trade through the steps tones pentose was another city found as a trade post lease was also formed as a trade post but due to the climate and or pleasure houses it became a resort destination for dragon Lords and the blood of the dragon still runs deep and lease their silver and gold headed lilac eyed people all about the westernmost trading post of Illyria was Dragonstone a citadel on an island off of Blackwater Bay Valyria grew rich and powerful and the more it grew the more people fled West to Westeros to escape the Valyrian tide while we don't know for sure the first man could have been fleeing dragons the Andals fled Angelo's Landing their ships in the Vale of Arryn and waging war on the children of the forest the histories claimed they are the only race to withstand the Valerians but the history lies because they wrote it masters point to their invasion of Westeros being a tuck tail and running from the Valerians kind of thing the rhone are were also pushed from their civilizations and into Westeros they did fight the Valyrians and they lost badly there were wars fought and thousands and thousands of rhoynish died before Nymeria led her people to safety with ten thousand ships meanwhile in Valyria coffers are swelling slaves are toiling in the mines beneath the volcanic 14 flames are mines the kindly man tells Aria how the faceless men came to be deep in the shafts of the minds of Valyria we first took root in Valyria amongst the wretched slaves who toiled in the deep mines beneath the 14 flames that lit the freehold nights of old most mines our dank and chilly places cut from cold dead stone but the 14 flames were living mountains with veins of molten rock and hearts of fire so the mines of old Valyria were always hot and they drew hotter as the shafts were driven deeper ever deeper the slaves toiled in an oven the rocks around them were too hot to touch the air stank of brimstone and would sear the lungs as they breathed it the soles of their feet would burn and blister even through the thickest sandals sometimes when they broke through a wall in search of gold they would find steam instead or boiling water or molten rock certain shafts were cut so low that the slaves could not stand upright but had to crawl or bend and there were worms in that red darkness to fire worms some say they are akin to dragons for worms breathe fire - instead of soaring through the sky they bore through the stone and soil if the old tales can be believed there were worms amongst the 14 flames even before the Dragons came the young ones are no larger than that skinny arm of yours but they can grow to monstrous size and have no love for men burnt and blackened corpses were off to find in the shafts where the rocks were cracked or full of holes yet still the mines drove deeper slaves perished by the score but their masters did not care red gold and yellow gold and silver were reckoned to be more precious than the lives of slaves for slaves were cheap in the freehold during war the Valyrians took them by the thousands in time of peace they bred them though only the worst were sent to die in the red darkness the Valyrians have slaves mining an active volcano now there is much to be said about fireworms and we will speak on them but the 14 flames are what would eventually cause the doom one way or another as we know Valyria is one of the most if not the most magical places in the world of Ice and Fire Valyria bread birth raised and tamed dragons they spell forged Valyrian steel they made magical glass candles that are quite literally the Skype of their error they had magical horns that control dragons everything in the name of fire and blood sorcery and fire magic which likely came at a great cost blood sacrifice everything the Valyria lost in the doom cannot be duplicated today magic was strong in old Valyria Septon Barth claimed that Valyria had used spells to tame the fourteen flames for thousands of years and that deir ceaseless hunger for slaves and wealth was as much to sustain these spells as to expand their power Valyria was an advanced civilization the dragon roads they paved are still standing today in Essos their gargoyles on Dragonstone still keep their shape hundreds of years after the doom the black wall of Atlantis still looms large Valerians had plenty guides it seemed maybe too many gods while we don't know much about their religion we do know that balerion MARAC sees and Veigar the dragons of Aegon Rhaenys and Visenya were named for Valyrian gods as Valyria continued to rise slaves were mining Valyria was getting richer the faceless men were forming wars were ongoing people were dying their lands being conquered but the Sun was setting on Valyria and for most it would never rise again twelve years before the doom the Targaryen left for the westernmost outpost of the freehold Dragonstone rival Dragonlords saw this as an act of cowardice as a Targaryen defeat but Danny's the dreamer ancestor to Aegon the conquerer allegedly dreamed that Valyria would be consumed by fire there are rumors that the Targaryen may have even caused the doom and we will get into that in a few minutes the ancient mighty freehold home to the dragon and Sorcerer's of unrivaled skill was shattered and destroyed within hours it was written that every hill for 500 miles split asunder to fill the air with ash and smoke and fire so hot and hungry that even dragons in the sky were engulfed and consumed great rents opened in the earth swallowing places temples and entire towns lakes boiled and turned to acid mountains burst fiery fountains spewed molten rock a thousand feet into the air and red clouds rained down dragonglass and the black blood of demons to the north the ground splintered and collapsed and fell in on itself and an angry sea came boiling in the proudest city in all the world was gone in an instant the fabled Empire vanished in a day the lands of long summer once the most fertile in all the world were scorched and drowned and blighted and the toll and blood would not be fully realized for a century to come no one knows what caused the doom there are theories that the faceless men caused the gym or the doom was just a natural Cataclysm the 14 flames were always a ticking time bomb there was another more sinister tale and it has to do with House Targaryen and the Valyrian steel sword bright were bright roar was the Valyrian steel sword that House Lannister bought the sword bright Lord came into the possession of the Lannister in the century before the doom and it is said that the weight of gold they pay for it would have been enough to raise an army so a Lannister King buys a Valyrian steel sword pays a lot of gold for it and then the Valyrians had this prophecy that was written in ancient texts Septon Barth speculated on the matter referring to a Valyrian text that has since been lost suggesting that the freehold sorcerer's foretold that the gold of cashel iraq would destroy them so was it the gold for bright roar could that gold of casually rap been used by House Targaryen to pay off someone to cause this scale of an event it is suspicious that this one family and their dragons survived because their little daughter has a prophetic dream if you look at it who benefited the most from the doom of Valyria House Targaryen they became the last living dragon Lords and the most powerful people in the world they ended up building a dynasty that lasted 300 years no one knows really some argue that it was the curse of Garen the Great at last coming to fruition others speak of the priests of real or calling down the fire of their God and queer rituals some wedding the fanciful notion of Valyrian magic - the reality of the ambitious Great Houses of Illyria have argued that it was the constant world of conflict and deception amongst the Great Houses that might have led to the assassination of - many of the reputed mages who renewed and maintained the rituals that bank the fires of the fourteen flames however it happened it happened in Valyria today is a ruin shrouded in mystery euron greyjoy has said to have been civil area he even has a suit of Valyrian steel armor and the dragon horn dragon binder area Targaryen who claimed balerion as her mount was taken to Valyria by balerion and when she returned she had worms with human faces burning her from inside out it was horrid and she died in agony even balerion was wounded when he returned Jerry and Lannister set sail with bright roar and him nor his sword ever returned when Tyrion is on the ship with mokoro he sees Valyria from a distance a dull red glow lit the sky to the northeast the colour of a blood bruise Tyrion had never seen a bigger moon monstrous swollen it looked as if it has swallowed the Sun and woken with a fever it's twin floating on the sea beyond the ship shimmer dread with every wave what hour is this he asked mokoro that cannot be sunrise unless the East has moved why is the sky red the sky is always red above Valyria hue Gor he'll sue this day Valerius still glows red in the night and Tyrion mistaking the Sun rising in the West makes me wonder about Mirri Maz doors prophecy and if Illyria has anything to do with that Valyria of old is gone a new sea is in its place the smoking sea cutting right through the city that was 14 flames erupting causing the night sky to glow red mokoro caused them the flames of God's wrath what once was the greatest city in the known world as now a ruined and anyone that should step foot on the ancient ruins doom will be his fate until what is left sinks beneath the waves Valyria will remain an ancient wonder drawing the careless souls of treasure hunters and adventure seekers for years to come Bali Rhea is the last ember but an ember in the ashes can still ignite a great blaze as long as House Targaryen prospers Valyria lives on and Aegon the Conqueror and his sisters are going to serve Westeros fire and blood I really hope you guys like this Valeria video I will be doing lots of videos like this very inform videos on fire and blood I cover Valyria and next we're going to be doing Aegon's conquest we're moving on to the fire and blood reread so I am super duper excited as always thanks for watching thanks to everyone that supports me on patreon if you like this video please give it a thumbs up please click the subscribe button hit that notification bell and join the sweet summer family okay my sweet summer children have a good day

Channel: GrayArea

Views: 699,562

Keywords: Game, of, Thrones, House of the Dragon, Valyria, Orgin of House Targaryen, Orgin of Dragons

Id: 9wN03USUmH0

Length: 24min 52sec (1492 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 27 2020