Valyrian Freehold

The Valyrian Freehold was the dominant empire of the ancient world, ruled from the city of Valyria on the continent of Essos. For roughly five thousand years its dragonlords held mastery over much of the known world, until the empire was destroyed in a single day by the Doom of Valyria.

Origins

The Valyrians began as a humble people who herded sheep amid the Fourteen Flames, a chain of volcanoes on the Valyrian peninsula. There they learned to tame and ride dragons, and with that power they overthrew their neighbors. Their greatest early rival was the Ghiscari Empire, whose cities, including the slave city of Astapor, they conquered and burned, salting Old Ghis so thoroughly that it never rose again.

Government and Culture

Unlike the kingdoms of Westeros, the Freehold was not ruled by a single king. Power lay with the dragonlord families, the wealthy and noble houses who held dragons, and every freeholder with land was said to have a voice. The Valyrians practiced incestuous marriage to keep their bloodlines pure, worshipped many gods, and built their roads and structures of fused dragon-stone.

Fall and Legacy

The Freehold ended abruptly in the Doom of Valyria, when the Fourteen Flames erupted and shattered the peninsula. The Free Cities of Essos, many of them former Valyrian colonies, are its scattered heirs, and House Targaryen of Dragonstone survived as the last dragonlords, carrying Valyrian blood and dragons into Westeros.