VEIL OF FIRE
GAME OF THRONES INSPIRED ROLEPLAY
PRE-DOOM TIMELINE:
CIRCA 4,800 b.d. - 600 b.d.
THE AGE OF WESTERN EXPANSION AND RIVER CONFLICT
(CIRCA 4,500 - 600 B.D.):
With the east subdued, Valyrian ambition turns westward. This phase is marked by colonial expansion along major trade arteries and frontiers rather than imperial annihilation. The Freehold established its initial colonies along major waterways and trade routes, most notably the Rhoyne, founding Volantis and its satellite settlements such as Selhorys, Valysar, and Volon Therys. These early outposts were intended to secure trade, extend influence, and test the limits of Valyrian power without provoking sustained resistance.
It is during this age that Valyria encounters people it cannot fully destroy or absorb. The Rhoynish Wars dominate the period, stretching over centuries and revealing the limits of Valyrian power. Dragons win battles but not submission. The Rhoynar endure, and ultimately flee rather than kneel. The Andals migrate rather than be conquered. Empire expands, but unevenly, shaped as much by resistance as by fire.
This is the Freehold at its widest reach, but also at its first real strain.
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CIRCA 4,500 B.D., THE FREE CITY OF VOLANTIS IS ESTABLISHED:
The first colony of the Valyrian Freehold, remembered in later tradition as its first daughter, was founded to secure Valyrian interests beyond the peninsula. In its earliest generations, Volantis remained little more than a fortified garrison, enclosed behind the Black Walls and tasked with guarding the Freehold’s eastern reach.
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CIRCA 4,400 - 4,000 B.D., SELHORYS, VALYSAR, AND VOLON THERYS:
In the generations following the founding of Volantis, Valyrian expansion continued upriver along the Rhoyne. The settlements of Selhorys, Valysar, and Volon Therys were established during this period, each positioned to support trade, production, and the movement of goods between the interior and the coast.
Though modest in their early forms, these communities functioned as extensions of Volantis rather than rivals to it, supplying labor and resources while benefiting from Valyrian protection and access to wider markets. Together, they formed the foundation of a river network that bound the lower Rhoyne to Valyrian interests and set the pattern for later colonial growth.
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CIRCA 4,200 B.D. THE FREE CITY OF TYROSH IS ESTABLISHED:
The Valyrian Freehold established the settlement of Tyrosh upon a bleak and stony isle, positioning it as a military outpost to control shipping through the Stepstones. Its early purpose was strategic rather than commercial, serving to secure sea lanes vital to Valyrian movement and trade between Essos and the Narrow Sea.
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CIRCA 3,900 - 3,700 B.D., VELOS AND LOPOR:
In the generations following the collapse of Ghiscari power, Valyria moved to secure its hold over contested territories along the southern seas. On the Isle of Cedars, the settlement of Velos was established as a fortified garrison, positioned to suppress unrest and assert Valyrian authority alongside the older Ghiscari city of Ghozai.
At the same time, Valyria founded the outpost later known as Lopor upon a small island west of the Isle of Cedars. Unlike Velos, Lopor served primarily as a naval garrison, tasked with safeguarding trade routes and controlling sea traffic through the surrounding waters. Together, these settlements marked Valyria’s transition from conquest to occupation, extending control by land and sea over regions long resistant to rule.
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CIRCA 3,800-3,500 B.D., SOTHORYOS:
During this period, the Valyrian Freehold made repeated attempts to establish a permanent presence at Basilisk Point along the coast of Sothoryos. Three separate colonies were founded in succession, each intended to secure trade routes and extend Valyrian influence into the southern lands.
All three settlements failed. Disease, hostile terrain, and resistance from the land itself eroded each attempt in turn, and none endured long enough to take root. These failures stood as a rare and sobering reminder that even dragonfire could not compel every shore to submit.
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CIRCA 3,400 B.D., THE CITY OF ELYRIA IS ESTABLISHED:
During this period, Valyrian settlers established the city of Elyria upon an island off the eastern coast of the Lands of the Long Summer, south of Tolos and west of Slaver’s Bay. Its position offered sheltered harbors and access to fertile volcanic soil, conditions well-suited to cultivation and long-term settlement. In time, Elyria became known for the production of luxury crops and exotic flora, its agricultural wealth distinguishing it from the military and industrial colonies established elsewhere.
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CIRCA 2,900 B.D., THE FREE CITY OF ESSARIA IS ESTABLISHED:
During this period, the Valyrian Freehold founded the city of Essaria upon the inland plains east of the Forest of Qohor, north of the Painted Mountains, and west of the Dothraki Sea. Valyrian roads linked Essaria to Qohor to the west and Saath to the north, binding the city into the Freehold’s expanding network of movement and trade. Through these connections, Essaria served as both an inland anchor and a point of contact between the Valyrian order and the unsettled lands beyond.
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CIRCA 2,500 B.D., THE FREE CITY OF LYS IS ESTABLISHED:
During this period, the Valyrian Freehold founded the city of Lys upon an island in the Summer Sea, near the Broken Arm of Dorne and the Orange Shore of Essos. Established largely through the efforts of wealthy merchants and noble families, Lys developed primarily as a center of trade and exchange. Owing to its mild climate and fertile lands, the island soon gained a reputation among Valyrian elites as a place of retreat. Palm and fruit trees flourished, and the surrounding waters provided abundant fish. In time, Lys became closely associated with leisure and luxury, a character that distinguished it from other Valyrian colonies and shaped its future prominence.
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CIRCA 2,000 B.D., THE FREE CITY OF MYR IS ESTABLISHED:
The early history of Myr remains uncertain, with fragmentary evidence suggesting that the region was inhabited by now-vanished peoples during the Dawn Age and the Long Night. These earlier settlements left little trace, and no continuous tradition survived into later centuries.
What is known is that the city recognizable as Myr emerged after its conquest by merchant-led expeditions from the Valyrian Freehold. Following the capture of a walled town upon the site, Valyrian settlers rebuilt and expanded the settlement, laying the foundations of a city shaped by trade, craft, and commerce rather than military rule alone.
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CIRCA 1,898 BD., ANDALS IN ESSOS:
The Andals were a tall, fair-haired people whose earliest origins are traditionally placed in the region of the Axe in northern Essos, though some accounts situate their beginnings south of the Silver Sea. Over generations, they spread westward and founded the realm of Andalos in northwestern Essos, extending their influence into the Flatlands and the Velvet Hills. Their expansion brought them into conflict with earlier inhabitants of those lands, remembered imperfectly in later tradition as the “hairy men,” a term that reflects more the limits of Andal memory than reliable ethnography.
Andal tradition holds that the Seven appeared to them in human guise and crowned their first king, Hugor of the Hill, promising his descendants greatness and dominion. Through contact with the Rhoynar along the Rhoyne, the Andals learned the working of iron, a craft that transformed their society and warfare. These accounts, preserved by septons and singers, blend faith and memory, and cannot be disentangled with certainty from historical fact.
ANDAL MIGRATION TO WESTEROS:
Septonical teaching maintains that the Seven later promised Hugor and his descendants vast kingdoms across the narrow sea, and that this divine covenant guided the Andals westward into Westeros. Maesters, however, offer a more complex interpretation. As the Valyrian Freehold expanded across western Essos, Andal lands increasingly lay within the orbit of Valyrian influence. This expansion brought disruption rather than outright conquest. The founding of Myr upon the site of a walled Andal town, and the intermarriage of Valyrian colonists with local Andals in Pentos, suggest pressure and displacement rather than annihilation. Crucially, Valyria never fully subdued the Andals, nor did it conquer the Rhoynar, whose resistance would later erupt into open war. Both peoples endured beyond Valyrian reach, adapting to the growing shadow cast by dragonlords rather than submitting to it. Some scholars, including Archmaester Perestan, have argued that Norvos was originally founded by Andals, while the Lorathi Isles were ruled by Qarlon the Great, who styled himself King of All Andals before Valyrian intervention altered the balance of power. When the Andals crossed the narrow sea remains a matter of dispute. Competing sources place the migration anywhere from six thousand to two thousand years before the present age. What can be said with confidence is that the movement was gradual, uneven, and driven by many causes. Later histories tend to place the Andal migration in the generations following the rise of Valyria, when the Freehold’s influence spread unevenly across western Essos. This does not suggest conquest in the narrow sense, for neither the Andals nor the Rhoynar were ever wholly subdued. Rather, Valyrian expansion altered the balance of power, narrowing the spaces in which older peoples could endure without accommodation or compromise. For the Andals, migration offered a different answer. They departed not as a defeated people, but as one choosing distance over submission, carrying their gods, their iron, and their customs into lands beyond the reach of dragonfire.
"And those who would not be slaves but were unable to withstand the might of Valyria fled. Many failed and are forgotten. But one people, tall and fair-haired, made courageous and indomitable by their faith, succeeded in their escape from Valyria. And those men are the Andals."
—writings of Yandel
"Somewhere beyond the sunset, across the narrow sea, lay a land of green hills and flowered plains and great rushing rivers, where towers of dark stone rose amidst magnificent blue-grey mountains, and armored knights rode to battle beneath the banners of their lords. The Dothraki called that land Rhaesh Andahli, the land of the Andals." —thoughts of Daenerys Targaryen
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CIRCA 1,500 B.D., THE FREE CITY OF PENTOS IS ESTABLISHED:
During this period, the city of Pentos emerged as a Valyrian trading settlement, founded by merchants, seafarers, and farmers drawn from across the Valyrian Freehold. Unlike colonies shaped primarily by conquest or fortification, Pentos developed through commerce and migration, attracting a mixed population from its earliest years. Many settlers were smallfolk who intermarried with local Andals, and over time the Pentoshi came to place less emphasis on Valyrian lineage than was customary in other Free Cities. This blending of peoples shaped the city’s character and distinguished it from colonies that guarded blood and custom more closely.
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CIRCA 1,334 B.D., THE FREE CITY OF LORATH IS ESTABLISHED:
During this period, worshippers of the Blind God Boash traveled north to the islands that would become Lorath, where they founded a temple upon the main isle. Settling within the ancient mazes left by the first Lorathi, they reshaped these winding structures into towns, temples, and tombs. For several generations, the followers of Boash dominated the islands, their authority rooted in faith rather than force.
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CIRCA 850-600 B.D.: THE RHOYNISH WARS
With the destruction of Old Ghis, the Valyrian Freehold turned its attention westward, and its slow expansion brought it into growing conflict with the Rhoynish city-states along the great river Rhoyne. At first, Valyrian outposts were tolerated, and in some cases welcomed, as trading partners. Over time, however, these settlements came to be seen as a threat to Rhoynish autonomy. Disputes between neighboring cities escalated into open violence, and what began as isolated clashes hardened into a long series of wars that would endure for nearly two and a half centuries.
The Rhoynish Wars were a long series of conflicts fought between the Rhoynar city-states and the expanding Valyrian Freehold, spanning roughly two and a half centuries, from circa 850 to 600 B.D. They arose not from an initial desire for conquest, but from the slow and destabilizing westward creep of Valyrian colonies along the Rhoyne. Early Valyrian settlements were tolerated and even welcomed for trade, but as they grew fortified and permanent, they came to threaten Rhoynish independence and control of the river.
THE FIRST TURTLE WAR:
What began as local disputes escalated into repeated wars, remembered under many names. Among the earliest was the First Turtle War, sparked, according to Rhoynish tradition, by the Valyrians killing one of the great river turtles known as the Old Men of the River, sacred consorts of Mother Rhoyne. In that conflict, the Rhoynar achieved a rare victory when their water wizards flooded the Valyrian city of Volon Therys, washing away much of it. Over generations, further conflicts followed, including the War of Three Princes, the Second and Third Turtle Wars, the Fisherman’s War, the Salt War, the War on Dagger Lake, and multiple Spice Wars, each deepening the hatred between river and fire.
THE SECOND SPICE WAR
Alarmed by the scale of Rhoynish resistance, the Freehold committed overwhelming force. Three hundred dragons were sent west, and Garin’s army was annihilated. The great Rhoynish cities of Sar Mell and Chroyane were destroyed, and Garin himself was taken captive. Rhoynish legend holds that, before his death, Garin called down a curse upon Valyria, giving rise to the Sorrows where Chroyane once stood, though this remains unproven.
The wars concluded not with the extinction of the Rhoynar, but with their breaking. Valyria never fully conquered the Rhoynar people, nor did it erase their culture, but it destroyed their great cities and shattered their power along the Rhoyne. In the aftermath, many Rhoynar fled west under Nymeria, abandoning Essos entirely rather than submit.
The wars reached their height during the Second Spice War, when Valyrian dragonlords, acting in concert with Volantis, destroyed the Rhoynish port of Sarhoy on the Summer Sea. In response, the Rhoynar united under Garin the Great, Prince of Chroyane, who raised an army said to number a quarter million. Garin’s forces swept through Valyrian holdings along the Rhoyne, capturing Selhorys, Valysar, and Volon Therys, and even slaying three dragons through the arts of Rhoynish water magic. For a brief time, Valyria itself was shaken.
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CIRCA 600 B.D., THE RHOYNAR MIRGARATION:
In the generations following the defeat of Prince Garin and the devastation wrought during the Rhoynish Wars, the last resistance of the Rhoynar collapsed under Valyrian dragonfire. The river cities of Ghoyan Drohe upon the Little Rhoyne, Ar Noy, and Ny Sar were destroyed, their ruins standing as grim testimony to the cost of defiance. With their power broken and their lands laid waste, the Rhoynar faced extinction if they remained.
Led by Nymeria, the surviving Rhoynar, largely women, children, and the aged, abandoned Essos and took to the waters in a fleet said to number ten thousand ships. This exodus marked the end of the Rhoynar as a people of the river and the beginning of their long journey westward. For Valyria, the victory was complete but hollow. The Freehold had shattered a civilization, yet could not claim it. The Rhoynar endured by leaving its grasp entirely, carrying their memory and defiance beyond the reach of dragons.