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Why did the First Men come to Westeros?


Anglo

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So the First Men invaded Westeros twelve thousand years ago, thousands of years before the Long Night or the reign of the Valyrian empire. Basically in prehistory. But my question is, why? What compelled them to come to this new land in the first place and what were they thinking when they went to war with the COTF? Sure they may have seemed like an easy foe to beat at first, but if I was leading an invasion and the natives of the land literally destroyed landmasses to stop me, I'd probably call it quits. Why did the First Men after witnessing the power of the Children persist? Clearly such a conflict would be too costly. Sure, we know about the Pact but at the time the First Men didn't. They just saw a foe that could sink entire lands into the ocean and wield powerful magic. Surely there must have been something other than blind human conquest to compel them to invade the land of such terrifying foes.

Or maybe it really is just dumb human conquest. Just a question I thought I'd ask. 

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I'd say human nature to expand.  In our own world's prehistory, humans crossed the Bering Land Bridge, even against some pretty nasty megafauna.  Humans colonized the islands in the Pacific, as well. 

Sure, the First Men saw the COTF shatter the Arm of Dorne, but against that power, your best bet was to probably get in amongst your foe so the strike would hurt them, as well.  The FM probably also guessed that such powerful magic was something that took a great deal of time, effort and even expenditures to perform. 

 

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Not so sure everything should be taken at face value in the series. It's possible that the Breaking of the Arm was a natural event that the First Men attributed to the CotF. 

As for your question, I don't think it has ever been stated why the First Men crossed into Westeros

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1 hour ago, StarkofWinterfell said:

Not so sure everything should be taken at face value in the series. It's possible that the Breaking of the Arm was a natural event that the First Men attributed to the CotF. 

As for your question, I don't think it has ever been stated why the First Men crossed into Westeros

Seems very unlikely that it broke due to a natural disaster. Plus the story we get about how it was broken was from Old Nan, and she has basically been the most accurate history teller in the series.

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Maybe they were small fry in Essos and were trying to find a place where they could be the big dogs. Essos has been the place that has been full of many powerful civilisations, Westeros by comparison probably seemed like an easier place to carve out something of their own.  Also they maybe knew nothing of the COTF until they got there and once they were there and realised they only had two enemies to beat to have the run of the place it might have looked like quite an appealing prospect.

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8 hours ago, Heartofwinter said:

Seems very unlikely that it broke due to a natural disaster. Plus the story we get about how it was broken was from Old Nan, and she has basically been the most accurate history teller in the series.

Old Nan is also the one telling the Stark children their bedtime stories at night, which we'd associate with our modern day fairy tails. 

Probably nothing more than just a story. The description of the event resembles something like an earthquake and tsunami.

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14 hours ago, StarkofWinterfell said:

Not so sure everything should be taken at face value in the series. It's possible that the Breaking of the Arm was a natural event that the First Men attributed to the CotF. 

As for your question, I don't think it has ever been stated why the First Men crossed into Westeros

It could be although we know from the Rhoynish that they have wizards who could cause enough waterspouts from large bodies of water. Perhaps the Children were capable of the same thing with their magic.

As to why the First Men came to Westeros. I for one think its the same reason Europeans came to America. There is no mystical reason why the Spanish, British, French and other European nations started colonizing the Americas it just happened simply because there was mostly vacant land on the other side of the world for people to settle.

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