THE VALYRIAN FREEHOLD,
CIRCA 4,802 B.D. TO THE dOOM:

TL;DR:

Aftermath - The Doom, and The Bloody Years: Collapsed

Trade and Economy:

All goods found in Essos
Sea Trade: The Valyrians are believed to have traveled as far as Oldtown, predating the arrival of the First Men and trading with the elder races. [Canon]
- It is said that the glass candles of Oldtown were brought there from Valyria a thousand years before the Doom.[Canon]

Surviving Colonies:

Westeros: Dragonstone, Houses Targaryen, Velaryon, and Celtigar, Battle Isle in Oldtown
Essos: the Free Cities, the Orosian League, and Slaver’s Bay.

Ancient Valyria was a civilization sheltered in the Fourteen Flames, a ring of volcanoes on the lower Valyrian peninsula. Valyrian stories claim that dragons originated in their lands, although tales from Asshai claim the beasts were brought to Valyria from the Shadow Lands. The Valyrians tamed the dragons with magic, taught by a vanished people from the Shadow Lands, according to the Asshai'i, and mastered the technique of raising and training the dragons into devastating weapons of war.

They began expanding their influence, eventually establishing the Freehold with the settlement of Valyria as its capital. Magic flowered, topless towers rose toward the heavens where dragons soared, stone Valyrian sphinxes gazed down through eyes of garnet, and smiths used spells to forge Valyrian steel weapons of legendary strength and sharpness.

At the height of their power, the Valyrian Freehold held a great territory that spanned much of the continent of Essos, reaching as far as the current Free Cities and the island of Dragonstone off the coast of Westeros and parts of Old Town. While the Freehold was technically never an empire, for ease of reference, it is often referred to as such.

THE FOURTEEN FLAMES:

An immense chain of volcanoes extending across the now-shattered Valyrian peninsula. There were deep mines beneath the Fourteen Flames, and their fires lit the Valyrian Freehold's nights of old.

The Doom of Valyria, an eruption of all of the Fourteen Flames, destroyed the Valyrian Freehold. Great earthquakes destroyed settlements, mountains exploded, and fires burned so hot that even dragons were killed. The lower Valyrian peninsula became separated from the now-ruined Lands of the Long Summer by the Smoking Sea.

VALYRIAN FREEHOLD, GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY:

CORE VALYRIAN FREEHOLD CITIES:

VALYRIA: located centrally in the lower peninsula near volcanic ridges, later the heart of the Valyrian Freehold. The city was connected by dragon roads to early settlements such as Draconys, Mhysa Faer, Rhyos, and Tyria; eventually, those roads extended to Oros, Aquos Dhaen, Mantarys, and beyond.

DRACONYS: perched along the foothills south of Valyria at the farthest tip of the peninsula’s volcanic ridgelines. Draconys was a city of terraces and volcanic ridgelines. The mountains behind it were riddled with caverns where dragons nested and were worshiped.

MHYSA FAER: nestled along a wide, natural harbor east of Valyria, Known for its pale stone quays and tiered gardens that overlooked the Smoking Sea, it served as a sanctuary for Valyrian scholars and the lesser scions of the Forty Families. The city’s name, meaning “Mother’s Light,” reflected its long association with healing rites and lunar divination.

RHYOS: located west of Valyria against the volcanic edge of the lesser mouths of the Fourteen Flames. Rhyos was the most politically volatile of the Valyrian cities. Its open plazas and forums reflected its obsession with ideology and debate.

TYRIA: located north of Valyria at the mountain pass that helped shelter the lower peninsula. eventually it became connected by a Valyrian road to the capital and Oros. The ruins of Tyria are rumored to still be inhabited to some extent, although it is not clear whether by descendants of its original inhabitants or something far worse.

THE RISE OF THE VALYRIAN FREEHOLD:

The rise of dragonbonding shattered the symmetry of older, more balanced elemental practices by demanding submission to flame and war. With the grinding oppression of the Ghiscari Empire’s expansion, the introduction of dragons became the impetus for the rapid transformation to Proto-Valyrian society. Earlier elemental practices became superstitions, relics, or heresies within the new societial restructuring. Fire, once a sacred rhythm among many, became the total law of power. The Freehold was born not just through conquest, but through the violent erasure and subjugation of their own more peaceful nature. Non-dragonlord nobility found themselves stripped of status, absorbed, or relegated to lesser roles as the flame-bound rulers began to rewrite the identity of their people.

This marked a sharp divergence from their pastoral roots. Magic, once marginal or ceremonial, became institutional. Dragonlords rose to dominate society, and the political structure coalesced into the Forty Families, a loose oligarchy bound by magical bloodline and mutual interest. The Freehold was born not as a nation, but as an order of dragonlords whose authority came from their bond with beasts turned into instruments of war. This transformation reshaped Valyria from a regional backwater into a power capable of confronting, then eclipsing, the Ghiscari Empire.

VEIL OF FIRE GAME OF THRONES INSPIRED ROLEPLAY ​

THE VALYRIAN FREEHOLD, CIRCA 4,802 B.D. TO THE dOOM: