Jump to content

Existence of the Dragonpit


travisaholland

Recommended Posts

I would guess they built the pit because they lacked the same amount of control over their dragons that the Valyrians had. There's nothing about them having magic horns or anything in TPATQ and the dragons in the pit were chained up when the mob stormed building.


Link to comment
Share on other sites

Why would the Targaryens build the Dragonpit instead of open roofed towers in the style of Old Valyria?

This is from the wiki article for Dragonstone:

The ancient fortress of Dragonstone was built using advanced Valyrian techniques of masonry that were lost in the Doom...

Dragonstone was built roughly a century before the Doom, King's Landing - about a century after it (the Red Keep itself wasn't finished until Maegor's reign, some 40 years after the Conquest). I would guess that the construction of those high towers (and the Valyrian roads, too) required similar masonry techiques (probably magic-related) to those used on Dragonstone.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It always did strike me as odd that they'd house the dragons in a (at least semi) enclosed structure when it seems to be common knowledge that locking dragons away stunts their growth. Maybe that wasn't as common knowledge back then as current events (doesn't Jorah drop this knowledge on Dany?) but it seems that keeping their dragons as huge & intimidating as possible would be among the top goals for Targaryen kings. Locking them away seems the opposite of that.


Link to comment
Share on other sites

It always did strike me as odd that they'd house the dragons in a (at least semi) enclosed structure when it seems to be common knowledge that locking dragons away stunts their growth. Maybe that wasn't as common knowledge back then as current events (doesn't Jorah drop this knowledge on Dany?) but it seems that keeping their dragons as huge & intimidating as possible would be among the top goals for Targaryen kings. Locking them away seems the opposite of that.

Which to me suggests that the dragonpit was a Targaryen invention that went wrong, rather than a standard Valyrian practice that they brought to Westeros.

In order, they didn't know that putting the dragons in a pit would slow their growth.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would guess they built the pit because they lacked the same amount of control over their dragons that the Valyrians had. There's nothing about them having magic horns or anything in TPATQ and the dragons in the pit were chained up when the mob stormed building.

The Targaryens may have brought their genes and existing dragons with them, but beyond that they don't seem to have had much knowledge or magic from the old country.

I can see both of these. There's no evidence that they really brought any of the technological or architectural achievements of Valyria to Westeros with them, so it makes sense that dragon-keeping could be one of the "lost arts" that kind of fell by the wayside. Building the types of towers that housed dragons in Valyria depends on them being able to build such towers. Apart from the Red Keep and the Great Sept, most of the truly impressive feats of Westerosi engineering (the Wall, Storm's End, the Eyrie, etc.) all predated the Targaryens.

The use of chains in the pit does seem to imply a lack of control over the dragons. It could be that they kept them chained up in the densely populated city to prevent them from killing people or destroying property. Whereas the dragons on Dragonstone seem allowed more or less free reign on a less-populated island, and as a result grow larger.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The mentions of Valyrian steel always stood out to me, always seeming to have originally been forged before the Doom. I have to think if the Targs could have, they would have. And I think the same about the dragons. I think there's just something they didn't have, or some knowledge they didn't have. Those that already existed lived on, and had offspring of their own, but there was key knowledge or tools the Targs didn't have.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's a great point about building. What building is really attributed to the Targaryen era outside of KL? The roads to and from KL? And even KL may have been built up in Westerosi techniques and styles?

I think the roads to and from KL are just your typical medieval roads, the everlasting Valyrian roads are only in Essos.

What are those Valyrian roads anywyas? Asfalt?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's a great point about building. What building is really attributed to the Targaryen era outside of KL? The roads to and from KL? And even KL may have been built up in Westerosi techniques and styles?

The Kingsroad and that's about it. And the Targaryens didn't build the Red Keep and the Great Sept so much as they ordered them built. Whereas people of First Men descent did build the Wall, Winterfell, Casterly Rock, etc.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm not sure how the Targs could have lost much knowledge from Valyria simply by moving to Dragonstone. They had been dragonlords for several thousand years, and should have remembered what they needed to know. The Doom, however, undoubtedly was the beginning of the loss of magic in the world, so that might explain why they couldn't forge new Valyrian steel swords or build new roads.



Perhaps the weather was a consideration. Valyria was part of "The Lands of the Long Summer", and we're not sure just how the wonky seasons affected it. Dragons may not handle cold very well. Or maybe many of the Valyrian cities were close enough to mountains (volcanic or not) that the dragons could be housed in caves. King's Landing doesn't have any natural mountains in the immediate vicinity that would make good dragon lairs.


Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm not sure how the Targs could have lost much knowledge from Valyria simply by moving to Dragonstone. They had been dragonlords for several thousand years, and should have remembered what they needed to know. The Doom, however, undoubtedly was the beginning of the loss of magic in the world, so that might explain why they couldn't forge new Valyrian steel swords or build new roads.

It is said that the Targs weren't really important dragonlords amongst the Valyrians. And let's not forget that the Targs is only a familly of few people. We don't really know how the Valyrians lived and how things worked for them so we don't know how things were constructed and forged. But I don't see how the Targs should know how to build roads, structures or forge Valyrian steel. For all we know only a few could do it and they died in the doom.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...