Valyria

Valyria was the seat of the greatest civilization in the known history of the world, a peninsula and city on the continent of Essos whose empire, the Valyrian Freehold, dominated much of the world for some five thousand years before its sudden destruction in the cataclysm known as the Doom of Valyria.

The Freehold

Main article: Valyrian Freehold

Valyria rose from a nation of shepherds who tamed dragons among the Fourteen Flames, the volcanic mountains that ringed the peninsula. With dragonriders and sorcery the Valyrians conquered rival powers, including the old Ghiscari Empire, and spread their dominion across Essos.

Arts and Sorcery

The Valyrians were unmatched in their craft. They forged Valyrian steel, rippling blades of surpassing sharpness whose secret was lost with the Doom, and they raised structures of fused stone using dragonfire and magic. The ruins of Dragonstone and the road-spanning works of Valyria still testify to their power.

The Doom

The peninsula was destroyed in a single day when the Fourteen Flames erupted, shattering Valyria into a smoking ruin of islands and a poisoned sea called the Smoking Sea. The land is now shunned as cursed; few who sail too near return, and stories tell of stone men and horrors haunting the wreckage. House Targaryen, having abandoned Valyria for Dragonstone before the Doom, survived as the last of the dragonlords.