100 Things Game of Thrones Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die

The Game of Thrones-themed book market is booming nowadays. One of the newest entrants is 100 Things Game of Thrones Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die, from Triumph Books.

100 Things comes from the mind of Rowan Kaiser, who’s written for The A.V. Club, The American Prospect, Polygon, Inverse and more. Using his encyclopedic knowledge of all things Game of Thrones and A Song of Ice and Fire, Kaiser delivers profiles of key characters, locates the show in the larger landscape of fantasy storytelling, gives a detailed look at the geography and history of Westeros, a guide to sitting the Iron Throne in real life, and more.

This excerpt from 100 Things Game of Thrones Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die, by Rowan Kaiser, is presented with the permission of Triumph Books. For more information, or to purchase a copy, please visit TriumphBooks.com.

50. The Dragons of Valyria
The biggest sign that Game of Thrones is fantasy? The dragons. Sure, the ice
zombies are cool and all, but nothing in the universe screams “fantasy!” more than a flying,
fire-breathing lizard. But dragons aren’t common in the world of Game of Thrones. Far from
it. Daenerys’ dragons, hatched at the end of the first season, are the first dragons in 150
years. And for the rest of the world, this is both terrifying and seductive.
It’s terrifying because dragons are, essentially, the nuclear bombs of Westeros and
Essos. If you have them, and your opponent doesn’t, you win. Aegon the Conqueror landed
an army of a little over a thousand men on the shores of Westeros, but because he and his
sisters rode three dragons, they conquered the Seven Kingdoms (save Dorne) with relative
ease. But if both sides have dragons, well, then wars would become epic tragedies, like the
Dance of the Dragons, the Targaryen civil war that bled the kingdom dry for decades and
led directly to the dragons’ extinction.
But it’s also seductive because the dragons represent uncontrolled power. In some
cases, this is direct: if you can ride a dragon, or control a person who does, you hold
immense power. There’s more to it than that, though. The rebirth of the dragons is also
described by multiple characters as a rebirth of their magic. The warlocks of Qarth,
previously viewed as charlatans, had enough power to make an attempt to take control of
the city. The pyromancers of King’s Landing, at the same time, suddenly found their ability
to make wildfire vastly improved, something that could only happen if dragons returned.
The rest of the world is wise to be wary of the dragons’ power, as the example of Old
Valyria proves. Valyria, a peninsula of Essos, was nondescript in most ways until its
residents managed to find the secret to taming the local dragons. From this, they managed
to create an empire known as the Valyrian Freehold, burning all who opposed them. (One
group of defeated people from the river Rhoyne fled all the way to Westeros led by Queen
Nymeria and joined with the Dornish.)
The Valyrian Freehold wasn’t a single political entity, but something closer to the
Athenian empire of the ancient Mediterranean, where a series of politically independent but
economically and culturally joined colonies dominated their region. The Valyrians took over
most of Essos, from Slaver’s Bay to the Free Cities, and even Dragonstone in Blackwater
Bay.
They ruled for thousands of years, with their language, High Valyrian, becoming the
most important in world, and their silverhaired, purple-haired scions representing the
highest racial class.
The Valyrians also gave their name to the art of forging Valyrian steel, a special
metal connected to the dragons. Early in Game of Thrones, Valyrian steel seems less like
the magic swords of other fantasy stories and more like a prestige metal—stronger and
more beautiful but not materially different. But in the fifth season, at “Hardhome,” we see
that Valyrian steel swords actually are magic. They can stop the White Walkers’ ability to
shatter steel, as Jon discovers with a single parry, and can kill White Walkers with a single
swing, as he does in his follow-up.
There’s no reason to doubt that this is because of the Valyrian connection to
dragons. The only other material we’ve seen that can defeat White Walkers with a touch is
dragonglass, which, well, is clearly dragon-related. Both materials seem to be imbued with
the power of the dragons, and so most believe that the endgame of Game of Thrones
involves Daenerys’ three dragons taking flight to burn the White Walker horde.
But there’s still danger, as the history of Valyria shows. Roughly 400 years before
Game of Thrones, Valyria just…disappears. Okay, it’s more violent than that. Massive seismic activity causes earthquakes, tidal waves, and volcanoes to essentially destroy the
peninsula. What remains is a terrifying wasteland, known as the Doom of Valyria, that no
sane person approaches. (Jorah Mormont, on the other hand, does try to sail through in the
fifth season, and gets greyscale for his troubles.)
What exactly happened to Valyria is one of the great mysteries of the world of Game
of Thrones. It’s entirely possible that we won’t get any answer to how the Doom was
created, although given the importance of dragons to the overall plot, I’d say it’s pretty likely.
What is well-known is that a “century of blood” followed in Essos, where the collapse of the
Freehold led to international anarchy.

What exactly happened in Valyria is indeed one of the greatest mysteries of the Song of Ice and Fire world. YouTube’s Patrick McCarthy even created a 20-minute animated pilot on the topic.