1.1. The Freehold of Valyria
- It is held that the ironsmiths worked with spells as well as hammer (I: 20)
- Valyria suffered a Doom (I: 20)
- The writing of Valyria was in glyphs (I: 27)
- Depictions of the Doom of Valyria exist (I: 29)
- Ayrmidon's Engines of War is quite rare, and written on scrolls (I: 72)
- The Free Cities speak a bastard version of Valyrian, as most have their origins as colonies of Valyria (I: 84. SSM: 1)
- The Valyrians carved sphinxes with garnet eyes and black faces (I: 161)
- Valyria left many roads, as old as a thousand years, that run straight as arrows on the eastern continent. These roads show no sign of wear or tear despite their age. Made of magically fused stone and raised half a foot off the ground to allow rain and snow to melt off their shoulders, the roads are broad enough to allow three wagons to pass abreast. (I: 193. V: 76, 77)
- Magic had died away when the Doom fell on Valyria and the Lands of the Long Summer (I: 197)
- Some claim to still know the spells that must be used to rework Valyrian steel (I: 235. III: 359. SSM: 1)
- The topless towers of Valyria were reputedly very beautiful (I: 313)
- Old Valyria is now old ruins (I: 374)
- High Valyrian is still used by some (I: 603)
- The Targaryens were on Dragonstone for about two centuries after the Doom before invading Westeros (I: 692. SSM: 1)
- Dragonstone was the westernmost outpost of the Freehold of Valyria (II: 3. V: 76)
- The Valyrians had great skill in shaping stone, although much of their knowledge is now lost (II: 3)
- The idols of the Seven on Dragonstone were carved from the masts of the ships that had carried the first Targaryens from Valyria (II: 109)
- The maesters say that Valyria was the last ember of magic, and even that is now destroyed (II: 325)
- The Valyrians commonly wed brother to sister (II: 364)
- Valyria produced items known as glass candles, at least as of a thousand years before the Doom. They are said to burn with a light that does not flicker and casts strange shadows only under the influence of magic, or perhaps during portentous times. They are made of obsidian, twisted in shape with razor-sharp edges, and can be green or black in color (II: 638. IV: 9)
- Dracarys means dragonfire in High Valyrian (III: 94)
- North of Valyria the Smoking Sea is demon-haunted (III: 98)
- The cities of Slaver's Bay are descended from Old Ghis, which was destroyed by the might of young Valyria 5,000 years ago. Its legions were shattered, its brick walls were pulled down, its streets and buildings turned to ash and cinder by dragonflame, its fields sown with salt, sulfur, and skulls (III: 257)
- The gods of Ghis were destroyed with its fall, and so were its people. The inhabitants of the slaver cities are mongrels, and the Ghiscari tongue is largely forgotten; the slave cities speak the High Valyrian of their conquerors, or what they made of it (III: 257)
- Old Ghis ruled an empire while the Valyrians were still savage, or so it's said (III: 265)
- The Ghiscari lust for dragons. Five times had Old Ghis fought with Valyria when the world was young, and five times it lost because the Freehold of Valyria had dragons and the Empire had none (III: 307)
- Valar morghulis is a well-known phrase in High Valyrian, and means "All men must die" (III: 308, 748)
- Valyrian steel blades are scarce and costly, especially since the Doom, yet thousands of them remain in the world, perhaps some two hundred in the Seven Kingdoms alone (III: 359. SSM: 1)
- It is often said that the old wizards of Valyria did not cut and chisel stone, but worked it with fire and magic as one might work clay (III: 603)
- There is a haunting ballad about two dying lovers amidst the Doom of Valyria, sung in High Valyrian (III: 676)
- Most people in Westeros, even among the nobility, do not know High Valyrian (III: 676)
- Obsidian was known as "frozen fire" in High Valyrian (III: 885)
- Valonqar is a word in High Valyrian, meaning "little brother" (IV: 55, 533, 584)
- Braavos was discovered by the Moonsingers, who led refugees there to a place where the dragons of Valyria could not find them (IV: 89)
- Archmaester Marwyn's Book of Lost Books, containing among other things information concerning three pages from Signs and Portents, a book of visions written down by the maiden daughter of Aenar Targaryen before the Doom (IV: 162)
- The dragonlords of old used enchanted dragon horns to call and command their dragons, it's claimed (IV: 277, 279)
- Prince Garin the Great is called the wonder of the Rhoyne. It's said he made Valyria tremble, leading an army of a quarter of a million men strong against them, but he and his followers were destroyed (IV: 299)
- The Fourteen Flames were the fourteen volcanoes of Valyria. In blisteringly hot mines underneath them, thousands of slaves from across the continent toiled, burned, and died to find gold and silver (IV: 321)
- Firewyrms, creatures that lived in the caverns and mines beneath the Fourteen Flames, were a danger to miners (IV: 321)
- When there was war, the Valyrians took thousands of slaves, and when there was peace they bred them (IV: 321)
- Slave revolts were common in the mines, but the Valyrians were strong in sorcery and able to put them down (IV: 321)
- It's said the first Faceless Man existed in Valyria. There he brought death to the slaves who lived horrid lives toiling in the heat of the Fourteen Flames, praying for an end. He came to realize that the many gods they prayed to were one god, and that he was an instrument of the gods (IV: 321-322)
- The Faceless Men may have had a role in the Doom of Valyria (IV: 322)
- The very existence of Braavos was a secret for a century, and its location was hidden for three centuries more (IV: 506)
- Braavos was founded by people from many different lands, with half a hundred different gods between them, who fled there to find safety from the Valyrians. It's said that the Nine Free Cities are the daughters of Valyria, but that Braavos is a bastard (IV: 506-507)
- The gates of the Citadel are flanked by a pair of towering green Valyrian sphinxes. They have the bodies of lions, the wings of eagles, and the tails of serpents. One has a man's face, the other a woman's (IV: 677)
- All Valyrian magic was rooted in blood and fire. They could set dragonglass candles to burning with strange, unpleasantly-bright light. With the obsidian candles, they could see across vast distances, look into a man's mind, and speak with one another though they were half the world apart (IV: 682)
- Dragonlore was once accumulated in Valyria (SSM: 1)
- The Freehold of Valyria was neither a kingdom nor an empire. Instead, all "free holders" -- freeborn landowners -- had a say in its governance. In practice, however, families of great wealth, high birth, and strong sorcerous ability tended to dominate (SSM: 1)
- Dragonbone was not used in the process of making Valyrian steel (SSM: 1)
- There are descendants of the Valyrians scattered across the world. Many are in the Free Cities, most of which had their origins as Valyrian colonies, although they have become intermarried and mixed with other peoples (SSM: 1)
- The Valyrians settled Dragonstone not long before the Doom (SSM: 1)
- Valyrian steel must be made, as it cannot be found as a raw material (SSM: 1)
- Valyrian steel was mostly used for weapons, although there were probably non-weapons made with it as well (SSM: 1)
Last revised February 21, 2016
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