Great rents opened in the earth, swallowing palaces, temples, and entire towns. It was written that every hill for five hundred miles split asunder to fill the air with ash and smoke and fire so hot and hungry that even the dragons in the sky were engulfed and consumed. The ancient, mighty Freehold-home to dragons and to sorcerers of unrivaled skill-was shattered and destroyed within hours. The one thing that can be said for certain is that it was a cataclysm such as the world had never seen. Ancient History: The Rise of Valyria, TWOIAF This may be a likelier answer to the mystery of the Valyrian origins although it does not explain the affinity with dragons that those with the blood of Valyria clearly had. Yet there are maesters who point out that, by careful breeding of animals, one can achieve a desirable result, and that populations in isolation can often show quite remarkable variations from what might be regarded as common. The great beauty of the Valyrians-with their hair of palest silver or gold and eyes in shades of purple not found amongst any other peoples of the world-is well-known, and often held up as proof that the Valyrians are not entirely of the same blood as other men. But the Valyrians harnessed and subjugated them as no one else could. And, in fact, there is evidence for this, as dragon bones have been found as far north as Ib, and even in the jungles of Sothoryos. If dragons did first spring from the Fourteen Flames, they must have been spread across much of the known world before they were tamed. But there were dragons in Westeros, once, long before the Targaryens came, as our own legends and histories tell us. Yet if men in the Shadow had tamed dragons first, why did they not conquer as the Valyrians did? It seems likelier that the Valyrian tale is the truest. These Asshai'i histories say that a people so ancient they had no name first tamed dragons in the Shadow and brought them to Valyria, teaching the Valyrians their arts before departing from the annals. In Asshai, the tales are many and confused, but certain texts-all impossibly ancient-claim that dragons first came from the Shadow, a place where all of our learning fails us. One day this moon was scalded by the sun and cracked like an egg, and a million dragons poured forth. The Valyrians themselves claimed that dragons sprang forth as the children of the Fourteen Flames, while in Qarth the tales state that there was once a second moon in the sky. In such fragments of Barth’s Unnatural History as remain, the septon appears to have considered various legends examining the origins of dragons and how they came to be controlled by the Valyrians. The tales the Valyrians told of themselves claimed they were descended from dragons and were kin to the ones they now controlled. Sheltered there, amidst the great volcanic mountains known as the Fourteen Flames, were the Valyrians, who learned to tame dragons and make them the most fearsome weapon of war that the world ever saw. It was on the great peninsula across from Slaver’s Bay that those who brought an end to the empire of Old Ghis-though not to all of their ways-originated. Below the cut, because this is a long list: I’m not necessarily including all of the quotes regarding Dany’s dragons, but all the quotes I could find discussing dragons and their nature, and knowledge people have of dragons. Here is a compilation of all the quotes I could find or remember about dragons in ASOIAF, to serve as a resource for anyone that might be interested.
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