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The Forging of Lightbringer: Its Unnatural History; Chapter 5: The Great Empire of the Dawn


wildrussie

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Introduction

Hello friends! This is the fifth chapter in a six part series detailing a Grand Unified Theory of the Dawn, which I believe compellingly explains most of the legends surrounding Azor Ahai, the Doom, Lightbringer, Hardhome, the Blood Betrayal, the origin of dragons, black stone, and the eastern versions of the Long Night (with partial proposed explanations of the western versions).

In the last chapter I went over two theories that support each other. The first is called Dracomorph, a theory that explains a possible hosting process for the creation and bonding of dragons to the purple-eyed people of Valyria. The second is the theory that the dragons are Lightbringer, the Red Sword of Heroes.

This chapter we’ll be discussing the ancient people that created the dragons: The Great Empire of the Dawn. If you haven’t given the previous chapters a read, I would highly encourage it. Up until now each chapter has been more or less free-standing, but now we’ll be building on and tying together parts of our conclusions from past chapters.

I will once again have to credit Lucifer means Lightbringer. This theory is one of his oldest theories, and he was the first to post about it years and years ago on Forum of Ice and Fire. He’s got a website where he does mythical and astronomical analyses of the text; check out his stuff. Some of it is really out there (as he himself admits), but here we’ll be going over one of his most grounded and popularly accepted theories.

The Rising Sun

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He lifted his eyes and saw clear across the narrow sea, to the Free Cities and the green Dothraki sea and beyond, to Vaes Dothrak under its mountain, to the fabled lands of the Jade Sea, to Asshai by the Shadow, where dragons stirred beneath the sunrise. - A Game of Thrones - Bran III

 

At long last, our journey takes us to the Dawn Age, when the world was young.

It’s a place that the current inhabitants of planetos would hardly recognize. We are told that giants and Children walked the land, treating and warring with early mankind. Magic was powerful in those days, when the weirwood trees were plentiful and greenseers could summon storms so powerful that they shattered and drowned entire landforms. It was a time when immortality was within reach, and we are told that in East and West alike, Gods walked the earth.

Maesters and readers are left with many questions about this ancient past. Who were the first men? Who carved the seastone chair? How was the Battle Isle fort constructed, and for what purpose?

We’ll be focussing primarily on the tales of the Far East. Maybe at some point I’ll write a different series about the Dawn Age and Age of Heroes in Westeros, but for right now, let’s focus on the Great Empire of the Dawn.

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In ancient days, the god-emperors of Yi Ti were as powerful as any ruler on earth, with wealth that exceeded even that of Valyria at its height and armies of almost unimaginable size.

In the beginning, the priestly scribes of Yin declare, all the land between the Bones and the freezing desert called the Grey Waste, from the Shivering Sea to the Jade Sea (including even the great and holy isle of Leng), formed a single realm ruled by the God-on-Earth, the only begotten son of the Lion of Night and MaidenMade-of-Light, who traveled about his domains in a palanquin carved from a single pearl and carried by a hundred queens, his wives. - The World of Ice and Fire - The Bones and Beyond: Yi Ti

 

Fantasy City by Kimberli MacShirrie

 

In these ancient days, we hear tell of an ancient, fantastical civilization that spanned thousands of years and thousands of miles. The empire was ruled by a line of semi-divine gemstone emperors, magnificent to match the realm they ruled. Each one seemingly ruled for centuries, until the last empress was betrayed by her brother, and the Long Night splintered the empire forever.

As vast and magnificent as the Great Empire of the Dawn seemingly was, however, they apparently were not alone. Cities, castles, statues, and thrones are among the strange artifacts left behind by some nameless race of people from a time before time.

The artifacts I’m referring to are those made of Black Stone.

Strange Stone

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The dragonlords of Valyria, 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 - A World of Ice and Fire - The Reach: Oldtown

 

As far as the fandom can tell, these artifacts can be separated into two distinct categories.

First there is Fused Black Stone, which comes in a single piece of rock, not joined or cut in any place. Structures and statues built with this stone are confirmed to have been made by melting stone with dragonfire, shaping the stone with magic, and then fixing it in place to form a magically hardened structure. We speculate that this is the only way to make structures of this type.

Second, and more mysterious, is Oily Black Stone. The method to achieve this stone is unknown, but the stone seems to be cursed in some way. In Asshai, children and animals cannot survive. In Yeen, the jungle will not grow, and settlements end in horror. Those who sit the seastone chair appear to grow old unnaturally quickly. Oily Black Stone has also been said to bear a certain likeness to the Fused Black Stone above.

Here is a list of all known black stone structures that are likely not Valyrian in origin:

Fused Black Stone:

  • Battle Isle Fort:
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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...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 - A World of Ice and Fire - The Reach: Oldtown

  • Five Forts:
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Certain scholars from the west have suggested Valyrian involvement in the construction of the Five Forts, for the great walls are single slabs of fused black stone that resemble certain Valyrian citadels in the west...but this seems unlikely... - A World of Ice and Fire - The Bones and Beyond: Yi Ti

Oily Black Stone:

  • The Seastone Chair:
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The throne of the Greyjoys, carved into the shape of a kraken from an oily black stone, was said to have been found by the First Men when they first came to Old Wyk - A World of Ice and Fire - The Iron Islands

  • The Toadstone:
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On the Isle of Toads can be found an ancient idol, a greasy black stone crudely carved into the semblance of a gigantic toad of malignant aspect, some forty feet high. - A World of Ice and Fire - Beyond the Free Cities: The Basilisk Isles

  • Yeen:
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Maester and other scholars alike have puzzled over the greatest of the enigmas of Sothoryos, the ancient city of Yeen. A ruin older than time, built of oily black stone, in massive blocks so heavy that it would require a dozen elephants to move them, Yeen has remained a desolation for many thousands of years, yet the jungle that surrounds it on every side has scarce touched it. - A World of Ice and Fire - Beyond the Free Cities: Sothoryos

Unconfirmed Black Stone:

  • Pirate Fortress:
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Ruins found upon the Isle of Tears, the Isle of Toads, and Ax Island hint at some ancient civilization, but little is now known of these vanished men of the Dawn Age...The Qartheen pirate Xandarro Xhore was the first to raise his banner there, using the stones he found on Ax Isle to erect a grim black fort above his anchorage - A World of Ice and Fire - Beyond the Free Cities: The Basilisk Isles

  • Moat Cailin
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...she glimpsed the walls and towers of Moat Cailin … or what remained of them. Immense blocks of black basalt, each as large as a crofter's cottage, lay scattered and tumbled like a child's wooden blocks, half-sunk in the soft boggy soil. Nothing else remained of a curtain wall that had once stood as high as Winterfell's - A Game of Thrones - Catelyn VIII

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Some had sunk so deep into the bog that only a corner showed; others lay strewn about like some god's abandoned toys, cracked and crumbling, spotted with lichen. Last night's rain had left the huge stones wet and glistening, and the morning sunlight made them look as if they were coated in some fine black oil. - A Dance with Dragons - Reek II

 

The Maesters confirm that all of these artifacts have blanketed the world since long before the Valyrian Freehold, but we have no record of their builders' existence.

Who built these? For what purpose? They had to predate the Freehold, and they had to have access to dragonflame. It's possible that the Oily stone and the Fused stone were left by two different groups, but I don't think that's the case given the likeness observed by Maester Theron. More importantly, how is it that a group could have had the resources and reach to leave structures from the Grey Waste to Oldtown and escape any records or tales? Does nobody remember these mysterious ancient dragonriders? Let's set those questions aside and continue.

Asshai

Arguably the most impressive and mysterious of the black stone structures left behind is Asshai by the Shadow.

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Few places in the known world are as remote as Asshai, and fewer are as forbidding. Travelers tell us that the city is built entirely of black stone: halls, hovels, temples, palaces, streets, walls, bazaars, all. Some say as well that the stone of Asshai has a greasy, unpleasant feel to it, that it seems to drink the light, dimming tapers and torches and hearth fires alike. The nights are very black in Asshai, all agree, and even the brightest days of summer are somehow grey and gloomy. - The World of Ice and Fire - The Bones and Beyond: Asshai-by-the-Shadow

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Easternmost and southernmost of the great cities of the known world, the ancient port of Asshai stands at the end of a long wedge of land, on the point where the Jade Sea meets the Saffron Straits. Its origins are lost in the mists of time. Even the Asshai'i do not claim to know who built their city; they will say only that a city has stood here since the world began and will stand here until it ends. - The World of Ice and Fire - The Bones and Beyond: Asshai-by-the-Shadow

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Asshai is a large city, sprawling out for leagues on both banks of the black river Ash. Behind its enormous land walls is ground enough for Volantis, Qarth, and King's Landing to stand side by side and still have room for Oldtown. - The World of Ice and Fire - The Bones and Beyond: Asshai-by-the-Shadow

 

Wait, what? The city is how big?

To be able to contain within its walls Qarth, Volantis, King's Landing, and Oldtown, this city would have to have room for well north of a million inhabitants. The four cities mentioned are the two largest cities in Westeros, the largest of the Free Cities, and a sizeable eastern city as a bonus. It seems extremely likely that Asshai is comfortably the largest city in the known world.

And yet, nobody lives there:

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Yet the population of Asshai is no greater than that of a good-sized market town. By night the streets are deserted, and only one building in ten shows a light. Even at the height of day, there are no crowds to be seen, no tradesmen shouting their wares in noisy markets, no women gossiping at a well. - A World of Ice and Fire - The Bones and Beyond: Asshai-By-The-Shadow

 

It seems a waste to build all of these buildings for such a small population. Further, it seems a strange place to build a city:

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...for beyond the walls of Asshai little grows save ghost grass, whose glassy, glowing stalks are inedible. If not for the food brought in from across the sea, the Asshai'i would have starved...The ships bring casks of freshwater too. The waters of the Ash glisten black beneath the noonday sun and glimmer with a pale green phosphorescence by night, and such fish as swim in the river are blind and twisted, so deformed and hideous to look upon that only fools and shadowbinders will eat of their flesh. - The World of Ice and Fire - The Bones and Beyond: Asshai-by-the-Shadow

 

The water is toxic? No food grows here? Everything has to be shipped in? On boats? Whose idea was it to build a city with room for a seven digit population in a place where nothing edible grows and nobody lives?

A few explanations come to mind. The people who built it were mind bogglingly stupid/wasteful? This level of frivolous construction beggars belief, even in a fictional universe. The people who built it wanted to prank future historians? This seems similarly unlikely. When Asshai was built, the Shadowlands were not toxic, and Asshai was not empty?

Perhaps the obvious explanation is the correct one. Maybe the Shadowlands were not always the way they are and, instead, became that way in some dark magical event. We've seen magically blighted places before, as Aerea Targaryen will tell you.

So who built and fed Asshai? Cities that large require large tracts of farmland to feed them, probably more than even the Shadowlands pre-blight could have provided. Where did they get all their food?

Speaking of large tracts of land, the Great Empire of the Dawn seems fishy too. How did they rule over such an impossibly large area for such a long time? Even communicating across such vast distances must have taken weeks, if not months. Westeros has Ravens, and Valyria had glass candles; how did the Great Empire of the Dawn do it? More questions left unanswered by the Maesters, and thus we must puzzle through them ourselves.

The Obvious Answer

So, we have a mysterious ancient society with access to magic and dragonfire, with a global reach, unaccounted for in the histories.

We have an impossibly large city, seemingly missing the farmland required to feed its once-vast population.

And we have The Great Empire of the Dawn, in need of a means of ruling its vast domain. It's also, incidentally, in need of a capital.

The simplest explanation once again seems the most likely. These were not three civilizations, but one. The Great Empire of the Dawn had access to magic and dragonflame, and used them to rule their vast domains and build structures all over the world. They also used them to build a massive capital, the largest city the world has ever known: Asshai.

Up until now this has all been speculation. Is there any textual evidence to suggest that the Asshai'i had dragons?

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She had heard that the first dragons had come from the east, from the Shadow Lands beyond Asshai and the islands of the Jade Sea. - A Game of Thrones - Daenerys III

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In Asshai, the tales are many and confused, but certain texts—all impossibly ancient—claim that dragons first came from the Shadow, a place where all of our learning fails us. - A World of Ice and Fire - Ancient History: The Rise of Valyria

 

Interesting. What about evidence that the gemstone-kings of the Great Empire of the Dawn had dragons? From Danaerys’ “wake the dragon” dream:

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Ghosts lined the hallway, dressed in the faded raiment of kings. In their hands were swords of pale fire. They had hair of silver and hair of gold and hair of platinum white, and their eyes were opal and amethyst, tourmaline and jade. "Faster," they cried, "faster, faster." - A Game of Thrones - Daenerys IX

 

Aerion Targaryen, art by Scherma, eyes colored by Lucifer means Lightbringer

 

It's worth noting that the eye colors of the people in Dany's vision match 4 of the 8 gemstone colors of the Emperors of the Dawn. Amethyst, the final gemstone in the line, matches the eye color of Daenerys and the Valyrians, possibly implying that the Valyrians are descendants of the Great Empire. Perhaps they fled after whatever cataclysm blighted the land on which they once lived, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Our working theory is that the Great Empire of the Dawn was founded by a race of gem-eyed sorcerers, who ruled their realms with magic and built great structures with dragonflame. The capital of the Great Empire of the Dawn was Asshai, and at one time the Shadowlands and Asshai were nice places to live, safe for children and pets both. The capital of the Great Empire must have been a sight to behold at the height of its power.

 

The Lost City, by Onur Cayli

 

Then, the last emperor, the Amethyst Empress, was cast down by her brother, the Bloodstone Emperor. This event, steeped in the evil sorcery of the Bloodstone Emperor, blighted the countryside and ushered in the Long Night. The Long Night caused the splintering of the Great Empire, and things have never been the same since. It even answers a question raised by Maester Yandel:

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Yet if men in the Shadow had tamed dragons first, why did they not conquer as the Valyrians did? - A World of Ice and Fire - Ancient History: The Rise of Valyria

 

They did conquer as the Valyrians did!

However, there’s one critical detail here that I’d like to bring your attention to: none of the tales about either the Great Empire or the Dawn Age make any mention of dragonriders conquering or ruling in the far east. In fact, such records and tales that we do have of ancient dragons all come from the Age of Heroes (specifically, near the Long Night), and all depict brave warriors slaying riderless dragons.

There’s the tale of the Winged Knight, which Maesters have speculated depicts a dragonrider, but even that seems to date to the very end of the Great Empire’s long history, about 6000 years ago. The tale of Uthor of the High Tower putting an end to the dragons on Battle Isle is contemporary with Bran the Builder, dating it to around the time of the Long Night; it, too, makes no mention of dragon riders. The Asshai’i tales of dragons state that they tamed dragons, brought them to Valyria, and disappeared, with no mention of thousands of years of conquest and dragon riding. Even the tales of the origin of dragons from Qarth depict them coming forth from the moon, not carrying sorcerous conquerors.

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Certain scholars from the west have suggested Valyrian involvement in the construction of the Five Forts, for the great walls are single slabs of fused black stone that resemble certain Valyrian citadels in the west...but this seems unlikely, for the Forts predate the Freehold's rise, and there is no record of any dragonlords ever coming so far east. - The World of Ice and Fire - The Bones and Beyond: Yi Ti

 

What if the dragons seem to appear so late because they do appear late in the Great Empire’s history? Perhaps dragons were only tamed (or, as we have discussed in a prior chapter, more likely created) near the very end of the Great Empire’s reign, and there are no tales of dragonriders because there were only a scant few before the empire collapsed. The Asshai’i never conquered with dragons because their civilization collapsed immediately after they created them, and the lion’s share of the dragons simply migrated, blanketing the world with a dragon-scourge that brave heroes cleared away one by one.

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If dragons did first spring from the Fourteen Flames, they must have been spread across much of the known world before they were tamed. And, in fact, there is evidence for this, as dragon bones have been found as far north as Ib, and even in the jungles of Sothoryos. But the Valyrians harnessed and subjugated them as no one else could. - A World of Ice and Fire - Ancient History: The Rise of Valyria

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"No dragon," Irri said. "Brave men kill them, for dragon terrible evil beasts. It is known." - A Game of Thrones - Daenerys III

 

This explanation would be well and good if it weren’t for the fact that many of the Black Stone structures are far older than that. It is said that the Five Forts, for example, were raised in the days of the Pearl Emperor, thousands of years before the Long Night and the Great Empire’s collapse. How could they have built such structures without dragons?

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A ruin older than time, built of oily black stone, in massive blocks so heavy that it would require a dozen elephants to move them… - The World of Ice and Fire - Beyond the Free Cities: Sothoryos

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Where once a mighty curtain wall had stood, only scattered stones remained, blocks of black basalt so large it must once have taken a hundred men to hoist them into place. - A Dance with Dragons - Reek II

 

In fact, some of these structures seem impossible to build even with dragons. The former quote is about Yeen and the latter about Moat Cailin; these blocks seem massive and near-impossible to move. They could have been formed in-place, but then why use blocks? If the molten stone is before you to shape as you will, it seems pointless to shape it into bricks that make a wall instead of forming them into the shape of a wall. This is verging into speculation, but it seems like these blocks were hauled into place by some massive creature. Dragons are awkward on the ground, and I doubt that they could lift blocks this heavy (dozens of tons apiece) into the air. What creature has that kind of towing capacity? They’d have to be of a monstrous size and competent on the ground.

Recall from the text that it’s never actually suggested that the only way to make fused architecture is with dragons. Nor is it implied that it’s the only way fused structures have been made. We are only told that that was the Valyrian method.

A Long Wait

For those of you that have been reading since the very first chapter, your patience is about to pay off, as this is where many of those first, seemingly unimportant points come to relevance.

It is important to observe, now, that dragons are not the only creature that can produce dragonflame.

The other is a flightless, subterranean beast connected to many volcanic events across the world. As discussed in chapter 2, they very likely inhabit Asshai. As discussed in chapter 1, they are heavily inspired by a Chinese dragon that carries a gigantic, flaming pearl as its most treasured possession, and was depicted as acting as a mount for magical beings known as the eight immortals.

 

Artwork by Serge Averbukh and Kevin Catalan

 

The fires of the earth, the furnaces of the world, the demons of the deep themselves; it’s our old friend the Firewyrm!

As discussed in the previous chapter, it seems likely that dragons were created using Wyrms in a blood magic ritual. Such a ritual could only have been performed by a group that had enough control over Firewyrms to breed them, and furthermore, if it ended with the creation of dragons there must have been consequences. After all, it was a Shadowbinder from Asshai who once said “Only death can pay for life, my lord. A great gift requires a great sacrifice.”

But we have no record of any such far eastern blood-magic ritual from the Dawn Age or early Age of Heroes. In fact, we only have records of two far eastern blood magic rituals, and both occurred at the onset of the Long Night. One of them even supposedly caused the Long Night.

More likely than the notion that the creation of dragons went unnoticed in the songs and histories is the idea that the ancient god-emperors of an Eastern civilization tamed and rode natural creatures not unlike Chinese dragons, using their flames to construct seamless structures and power spells.

 

Art by Bunch of Fun RubberStamps and Bonanza Marketplace

 

Others in the community have suggested that the Great Empire of the Dawn created dragons early in its history, and that the tales of the ritual and the millennia of ancient dragonriders were simply lost during the Long Night. This doesn’t satisfy me for three reasons:

First, we have a lot of stories from the Dawn Age, and an abundance of stories from the Age of Heroes preceding the Long Night. I think that if anything were to survive, surely it would be the tales of dragonlords roaming the skies. Further, people after the Long Night seemed to be downright familiar with Dragons; only the very earliest tales of dragons, from around the Long Night, seem to speak in corruptions and metaphors. It seems to me that people familiar with dragons for millennia before the Long Night wouldn’t call a dragon a “giant falcon”, for example. Why would the Qartheen call a meteor shower the birth of dragons if dragons had roamed the earth for thousands of years prior? (Stick around til next chapter for more on that)

Second, I don’t believe it’s a coincidence that George’s Wyrms so closely resemble Chinese dragons, especially considering the heavy Eastern flavor that most of the tales of Yi Ti and the Great Empire have.

Third, I’m beginning to believe that A World of Ice and Fire is George’s final, definitive world book, and that everything we need in order to figure out important world events is hidden within the text provided. I might expand on this in a future series, but I think this is truly George’s Silmarillion, written as a series of mysteries instead of cataloguing factual events. I don’t think there are any important events that aren’t referenced at least passingly in the legends and history he provides. The creation of dragons is impossible to place unless it occurs when I think it does. (We’ll come back to that one in next chapter too)

This all begs one glaring question, though. If the Great Empire of the Dawn had mastery over the fires of the earth, why did they want to create dragons?

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A dragon's natural span of days is many times as long as a man's, or so the songs would have us believe . . . but the dragons the Seven Kingdoms knew best were those of House Targaryen. They were bred for war, and in war they died. It is no easy thing to slay a dragon, but it can be done. - A Storm of Swords - Daenerys I

 

I’ll end this chapter on that little teaser. For an in-depth explanation of the majority of this theory, check out this video by Lucifer Means Lightbringer! If you're not convinced that the first dragons came at the time of the Long Night and not earlier, there's more on that coming, so stick around.

The next chapter will be the final chapter, and we’ll be wrapping things up with an in-depth description of the Blood Betrayal, the ritual that changed everything. See you in the next one!

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