that mysterious fortress at the foundation of the Hightower

[Syl of Syl]

I've been re-reading some of the sections on the regions of the seven kingdoms lately. In particular, I am intrigued in thinking about the section on Oldtown:

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The stony island where the Hightower stands is known as Battle Isle even in our oldest records, but why? What battle was fought there? When? Between which lords, which kings, which races? Even the singers are largely silent on these matters.

Even more enigmatic to scholars and historians is the great square fortress of black stone that dominates that isle. For most of recorded history, this monumental edifice has served as the foundation and lowest level of the Hightower, yet we know for a certainty that it predates the upper levels of the tower by thousands of years.

Who built it? When? Why? Most maesters accept the common wisdom that declares it to be of Valyrian construction, for its massive walls and labyrinthine interiors are all of solid rock, with no hint of joins or mortar, no chisel marks of any kind, a type of construction that is seen elsewhere, most notably in the dragonroads of the Freehold of Valyria, and the Black Walls that protect the heart of Old Volantis. The dragonlords of Valryia, as is well-known, possessed the art of turning stone to liquid with dragonflame, shaping it as they would, then fusing it harder than iron, steel, or granite.

If indeed this first fortress is Valyrian, it suggests that the dragonlords came to Westeros thousands of years before they carved out their outpost on Dragonstone, long before the coming of the Andals, or even the First Men. If so, did they come seeking trade? Were they slavers, mayhaps seeking after giants? Did they seek to learn the magic of the children of the forest, with their greenseers and their weirwoods? Or was there some darker purpose?

Such questions abound even to this day. Before the Doom of Valyria, maesters and archmaesters oft traveled to the Freehold in search of answers, but none were ever found. Septon Barth's claim that the Valyrians came to Westeros because their priests prophesied that the Doom of Man would come out of the land beyond the narrow sea can safely be dismissed as nonsense, as can many of Barth's queerer beliefs and suppositions.

More troubling, and more worthy of consideration, are the arguments put forth by those who claim that the first fortress is not Valyrian at all.

The fused black stone of which it is made suggests Valyria, but the plain, unadorned style of architecture does not, for the dragonlords loved little more than twisting stone into strange, fanciful, and ornate shapes. Within, the narrow, twisting, windowless passages strike many as being tunnels rather than halls; it is very easy to get lost amongst their turnings. Mayhaps this is no more than a defensive measure designed to confound attackers, but it too is singularly un-Valyrian.

A really old battle and a mysterious fortress. Could the battle and the fortress be connected with the Long Night? I think they are. I also tend to find the insights provided from Barth to be reliably intriguing throughout the book. So putting those things together, I think I have an interesting theory that the Battle Isle is the sight of an ancient battle connected to the long night where Valyrians fought riding dragons for the first time beside the Children of the Forest. We know that Oldtown is super old, perhaps pre-dating even the arrival of the First Men. From just before the above quote:

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We can state with certainty, however, that men have lived at the mouth of the Honeywine since the Dawn Age. The oldest runic records confirm this, as do certain fragmentary accounts that have come down to us from maesters who lived amongst the children of the forest. One such, Maester Jellicoe, suggests that the settlement at the top of Whispering Sound began as a trading post, where ships from Valyria, Old Ghis, and the Summer Isles put in to replenish their provisions, make repairs, and barter with the elder races, and that seems as likely a supposition as any.

So we've got the possibility of Valyrians visiting Westeros at Oldtown and trading with the Children and the Giants. Remember, before the breaking of the arm of Dorne, there wasn't going to be much trade in the Narrow Sea. No Braavos, Pentos, Myr or Tyrosh at that time either. The seafarers coming from the Summer Sea traveling west would arrive at Oldtown as the obvious location to trade with Westeros. So all this makes a ton of sense to me. And we have an inkling that the Targaryens used some version of warging ability to control their dragons. Warging seems to be something that comes from the Children of the Forest. So maybe the dragonlords of Valyria received this ability or learnt some version of it from them. And maybe the Children specifically taught them in order to bring this weapon to bear against the Others. Not sure how the fortress connects to all this except that it may have been a stronghold that these Valyrian dragonlords helped the Children to build.

Furthermore, we know that the Children fought with dragonglass weapons, and this passage gives clues to how Valyrian steel is made - the ancient Valyrians used dragonflame to meld create an alloy of iron and dragonglass. That Valyrian steel contains the dragonglass element is the reason it works in killing Others. The Valyrians brought the making of dragonglass weapons back with them to Valyria where they eventually developed Valyrian steel. Once they learned to work iron it was an obvious step to mix the working of dragonglass and iron together.

One more thing. There is the mystery of the sword Dawn which is supposedly a sword created from meteor. If the Valyrians were coming regularly to Oldtown, the mouth of the Torrentine where Starfall is, is just next door. The Valyrians could have been involved in making Dawn as they had the ability to work stone using dragonflame. Not sure how the timelines all work together, but it seems plausible for whatever that is worth.

 

[Free Northman Reborn]

It predates the Valyrians. It was built by the mysterious ancient race of Dragonlords from Ashai, a remnant of which taught the primitive Valyrians how to tame dragons around 5000 years ago.

The fortress at Oldtown, however would be 10000 years old or more, built by Dragonlords who predated the Valyrians by at least 5000 years.