Dragon Habitat

[Bobity.]

In my mind, it's been made clear that a dragon's natural habitat is volcanic. Wild dragons make homes on volcanic slopes. During the burning of the Rhoyne hundreds of dragons were seen in the air yet only a handful of dragons were abroad from volcanoes when the Doom fell.

Quote

“We have more,” said Princess Rhaenys, the Queen Who Never Was, who had been a dragonrider longer than all of them. “And ours are larger and stronger, but for Vhagar. Dragons thrive best here on Dragonstone.” - F&B - They Dying of the Dragons - The Black and the Greens

Dragonrider cultures live near volcanoes, because dragons grow stronger there which impacts the influence of their riders. This biological reality, reflected into politics and power, is likely constant across the history of dragons, placing volcanic locations on the top of the list when looking for evidence of past dragon riding cultures.

Here is a look at volcanic regions on Westeros and Essos:

• Dragonstone 
• Fourteen Flames
• Hardhome  
• Winterfell
• Marahi

Dragonstone, Fourteen Flames and the twin peaked Marahai islands are all clearly volcanoes, Winterfell’s hot springs are grouped with the Fourteen Flames in describing the “furnaces of the world” and six months of ash falling north of the Wall after the Hardhome incident is evidence of some sort of volcanism. Though accounts of the aftermath of the Hardhome incident are confusing as bloated dead bodies do not sound like victims of volcanoes.

Since the Long Night only Dragonstone and the Fourteen Flames are known to have been a choice settlement by the Valyrian/Targaryens with dragons. What about dragonriders before the Long Night?

Westeros

Age of Heroes stories contain legends of Serwyn of the Mirror Shield defeating the dragon Urrax and the Hightowers are said to have expelled dragons from Battle Isle. The notion of dragons on Westeros before the Valyrians also appears to be an acceptable academic point of view at the Citadel.

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Maester Vanyon's Against the Unnatural contains certain proofs of dragons having existed in Westeros even in the earliest of days, before Valyria rose to be a power. - WOIAF - Beyond the Free Cities: Sothoryos

While Winterfell has no mentioned history of dragons living there, myths among the small folk of sleeping dragons fueling the hot springs and Mushroom’s improbable story of laid dragon eggs does make loose connections between the beasts, the volcanic hot springs and the ancient castle. 

Hardhome remains mysterious and has no connections to dragons, but being on the far side of a magical Wall apparently warded against dragons does invoke the imagination.

Here is another mystery. What was the name of the volcanic island in the mouth of Blackwater Bay before the Valyrians arrived with presumably the first dragons to ever visit the island? Unknown. The Valryians arrived on Dragonstone 600 years past, putting Dragonstone on the same timeline as the Twins and well after New Castle, built 1,000 years past. No mention of the volcano prior to the arrival of the Valyrians, or any older history of Blackwater Bay for that matter.

Essos

Valyrians claim to have been mere shepherds and were the first to train dragons after the Long Night, but “impossibly ancient” Asshai text speaks of dragons being first bound in the Shadow and the practice being brought to the Fourteen Flames by an unknown culture. The Five Forts north of Yi Ti also point to an older dragon riding culture, the Five Forts being older than the Long Night and built in fused stone, established to require dragons to construct.

Any volcanoes in that corner of Essos for dragonriders to potentially call home? Yes, Marahi in the Jade Sea. Heard of it? Probably not, only a single sentence describing it on the back pages of the world book.

Quote

Marahi, the paradise isle, a verdant crescent attended by twin fire islands, where burning mountains belch plumes of molten stone day and night. - WOIAF- The Bones and Beyond

While GRRM does not include scales on his maps, other fine folk have gone through the effort. Using this extrapolated map scale the extent of the Marahi isle is over 200 miles in length. Based on the crescent shaped caldera Marahi is not a docile gurgle of lava to the surface like Hawaii and Iceland, it's more of the explosive Krakatoa type. The two separate volcanic islands of Marahi appear to be vents of a larger volcanic structure, and if they are producing “plumes of molten stone day and night” then it's very active. Prior to its last caldera creating supereruption Marahi could have been whole shore to shore with a sky high mountain, like the big island of Hawaii, but twice as large. With vents likely along its slopes pre supereruption Marahi would have been a large dragon habitat in the middle of the Jade Sea.

Quote

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. - AGOT - Daenerys lll

If any past dragon riding culture had resided on Marahi during its last major caldera creating supereruption, all physical evidence would have been obliterated and the resulting tsunami would have devastated any population along the shores of the Jade Sea. Boom.

I know that is unpacking a lot from a map and a couple words, but this is basic volcanism. Calderas are craters, clear evidence of past mega explosions and GRRM is thorough in his worldbuilding. Besides, volcanic eruptions snuffing out dragonrider civilizations is already baked into the ASOIAF narrative.

Biggest gap for me is, as the Dragonstone volcano is the only conclusive dragon habitat in Westeros, what was happening there during the Age of Heroes when dragonriders were established to be actors on the continent? It is difficult to physically date Dragonstone castle, being built entirely of fused stone…
 

[Darth Sidious]

The opposing elements of fire and ice must stay apart. The Valyrians had access to historical records. Perhaps an agreement exists that the two sides had agreed on long ago. Humans are not supposed to be on the western continent unless they are willing to sacrifice to the Old Gods and the Others. 
 

Dragons and people in general would prefer the warmer climates. 

[Daeron the Daring]

On 10/2/2021 at 6:36 PM, Bobity. said:

In my mind, it's been made clear that a dragon's natural habitat is volcanic. Wild dragons make homes on volcanic slopes. During the burning of the Rhoyne hundreds of dragons were seen in the air yet only a handful of dragons were abroad from volcanoes when the Doom fell.

It's been clear that dragons do prefer volcanic areas. That doesn't necesarilly mean they weren't living anywhere else. As an example, Silverwing went wild and established her lair after the Dance at Red Lake. Dragons been living all around the world, volcanic areas weren't the only choice they could have. They are said to have a special bond to the place of their birth as well. I suppose it depends on the climate. And even then, I could still imagine dragons living in colder climates. Of course, one that lived its life in a warmer place won't like it, but they don't seem to object too much. They lived all around the world, and if they were to be born closer to the polar circle, I think they just would consider that climate their natural habitat. 

[Turandokht]

Volcanoes may be their mating habitat. Many animals migrate to conditions better suited for mating and hatching young than for feeding. Silverwing may have been at Red Lake because she liked the fishing, and I suspect fishing is an important element for dragons; the way they hunt, going after whales and sharks and extremely large fish would probably be the easiest source of calories. Though, from the description of dragon flames, it sounds like they pretty much have a Mr. Fusion inside of their stomach that can let them consume anything sufficiently charred!

[Daeron the Daring]

1 hour ago, Turandokht said:

Silverwing may have been at Red Lake because she liked the fishing, and I suspect fishing is an important element for dragons; the way they hunt, going after whales and sharks and extremely large fish would probably be the easiest source of calories. Though, from the description of dragon flames, it sounds like they pretty much have a Mr. Fusion inside of their stomach that can let them consume anything sufficiently charred!

I assume Silverwing was too big to only eat fishes from a lake (assuming dragons ever bothered with fishes. They were too large to have fishes as their primary source of food). For larger dragons (we can consider them large from a really young age) wide flat terrain would be the best, where animals that live in herds reside most of the time, domesticated or not. 

We might even assume wild dragons didn't grow as big as the ones that were regularly fed to by their captors/owners, since aquiring so much food in the wild would not be possible. Altough I assume Balerion the Black Dread didn't eat horribly much, since he didn't leave his cage in the dragonpit for decades. He ate, but didn't move too much. That likely reduced the amount he required. 

[Turandokht]

28 minutes ago, Daeron the Daring said:

I assume Silverwing was too big to only eat fishes from a lake (assuming dragons ever bothered with fishes. They were too large to have fishes as their primary source of food). For larger dragons (we can consider them large from a really young age) wide flat terrain would be the best, where animals that live in herds reside most of the time, domesticated or not. 

We might even assume wild dragons didn't grow as big as the ones that were regularly fed to by their captors/owners, since aquiring so much food in the wild would not be possible. Altough I assume Balerion the Black Dread didn't eat horribly much, since he didn't leave his cage in the dragonpit for decades. He ate, but didn't move too much. That likely reduced the amount he required. 

A Belunga Sturgeon can mass 3,500 lbs, which is twice the weight of a full-grown steer (typically around 1,650 lbs). Freshwater fish can actually be immense, a better food source than cattle, and we know at least one dragon (Grey Ghost) preferentially ate more or less exclusively fish. So, it's not unreasonable to image Dragons fishing, particularly one the size of Balerion the Black Dread. Even if they do get larger in captivity, which is indeed perfectly reasonable, dragons like Cannibal and Sheepstealer who had lived exclusively in the wild reached a respectable middling size which made them more formidable than other, smaller dragons who had been claimed and tamed much earlier in life, so we are still talking about 200 - 300 ft long flying obligate carnivores here; whales would be a fairly ideal food source for them.

[Daeron the Daring]

2 minutes ago, Turandokht said:

A Belunga Sturgeon can mass 3,500 lbs, which is twice the weight of a full-grown steer (typically around 1,650 lbs0. Freshwater fish can actually be immense, a better food source than cattle, and we know at least one dragon (Grey Ghost) preferentially ate more or less exclusively fish. So, it's not unreasonable to image Dragons fishing, particularly one the size of Balerion the Black Dread. Even if they do get larger in captivity, which is indeed perfectly reasonable, dragons like Cannibal and Sheepstealer who had lived exclusively in the wild reached a respectable middling size which made them more formidable than other, smaller dragons who had been claimed and tamed much earlier in life, so we are still talking about 200 - 300 ft long flying obligate carnivores here; whales would be a fairly ideal food source for them.

That doesn't mean dragons can find enormous fishes in every corner. Sharks and whales aren't and weren't that common. That being said, I didn't say they didn't eat fish, but fish likely couldn't be the primary food source of a dragon the size of Silverwing and Sheepstealer. Grey Ghost was relatively young (I think), so that could be the reason why he preferred fish. But we don't know how deep dragons can dive or if larger ones can take wings from the top of the water. Or if they can swim properly with their wings.

And fish aren't more easy to aquire than larger mammals anyway. Hope you see my point. 

[The Commentator]

Everybody has a preferred habitat. It does not mean they are not adaptable.  The Valyrians chose to live near fire because it made their style of magic more powerful. 
 

Dragons are individuals. Their food preferences will vary on the individual dragon.  They look at mountains differently than we do because they can fly. Height and rugged terrain are not obstacles to them. They will pick a location which gives them the best view of their surroundings.  A quiet location serves best because they prefer to nest. The nest serves to protect the eggs and the hatchlings.