Dawn Age

The Dawn Age was the earliest epoch in the recorded history of Westeros, the dim and distant time before the coming of the First Men, when the continent belonged to the children of the forest and the giants. It precedes the Age of Heroes and lies at the very root of the world's history.

The First Inhabitants

In the Dawn Age, before men ever set foot in Westeros, the land was home to the children of the forest, a small and ancient people who lived among the woods and worshipped the nameless gods of stream and stone, and to the giants, great beings who dwelt in the cold places. The children carved faces into the weirwood trees and kept the deep magic of the land, leaving no written records, for they had no writing.

The Coming of Men

The Dawn Age ended with the arrival of the First Men, who crossed into Westeros from Essos across the Arm of Dorne, a land bridge that then joined the continents. Bearing bronze and riding horses, the First Men cleared the forests and carved out their holdings, coming into long and bloody conflict with the children of the forest, who, legend says, called down the Hammer of the Waters to break the land bridge and stem the tide of men.

Into Legend

Because no written records survive from the Dawn Age, almost everything known of it comes through the much later songs and tales of the First Men and the maesters who recorded them, blurred by thousands of years. The age represents the mythic prehistory of Westeros, before the Pact, the Age of Heroes, and the rise of the great houses.