Preview of THE WORLD OF ICE AND FIRE

[Fire Eater]

The Dawn Age

There is none who can say when the world began with certain knowledge, yet this has not not stopped many maesters and learned men from seeking the answer. Is it forty thousand years old as some hold, or perhaps as large a number as five hundred thousand or even more? It is not written in any book that we know, for in the first age of the world, the Dawn Age, men were not lettered.

We can be sure that the world was far more primitive, however a barbarous place of tribes living directly from the land with no knowledge of the working of metal or the taming of beasts. What little is known to us of those days are in the oldest of texts: the tales written down by the Andals, by the Valyrians and the Ghiscari, and even by those distant people of fabled Asshai. Yet however ancient those lettered races, they were not even children during the Dawn Age. So what truth their tales contain are difficult to find, like seeds among chaff.

What can be accurately told about the Dawn Age? The eastern lands were awash with many peoples, as uncivilized, as all the world was uncivilized, but numerous. But on Westeros, from the Lands of Always Winter to the shores of the Summer Sea, only two peoples existed, the children of the forest and the race of creatures known as the giants. Of the giants of the Dawn Age, little and less can be said, for no one has gathered their tales, their legends, their histories. Men of the Watch have claimed the wildings have tales of the giants living uneasily alongside the children, ranging where they would and taking what they wanted. All the accounts say that they were huge and powerful creatures, but simple. Reliable accounts from the rangers of the Night's Watch who were the last men to see the giants while they still lived, state that they were covered in a thick fur rather than simply being very large men as the nursery tales claim. There is considerable evidence of burials among the giants, as recorded in Maester Kennet's Passages of the Dead a study of barrow fields and graves and tombs of the North in his time of service at Winterfell during the long reign of Cregan Stark. From bones that have been found in the North, and sent to the Citadel, some maesters estimate that the largest of the giants could reach fourteen feet, though others say twelve feet is nearer to the truth. The tales of long dead rangers written down by maesters of the Watch all agree that the giants did not make homes or garments, and knew no better tools or weapons than branches pulled from trees.

The giants had no kings and no lords. They made no homes save in caverns or beneath tall trees, and they worked neither metal nor fields. They remained creatures of the Dawn Age even as the ages passed them by, as men grew ever more numerous, and as the forests were tamed and dwindled. Now the giants are gone even in the lands beyond the Wall, and the last reports of them are more than a hundred years old. And even those are dubious tales that rangers of the Watch might tell over a warm fire.

[Lord Varys]

I found it always strange that the Great Sept of Baelor was built atop the hill of Aegon's warrior queen. But since that sept has been during the reign of King Baelor it's actually possible that Baelor chose this very spot as a sign to the Realm that the Iron Throne and the Faith have reconciled and are one now. Baelor never was King and High Septon, but it's clear that he very much ruled over the Faith in his day.

I'm not sure if the High Septon moved from Oldtown to King's Landing only after the construction of the Great Sept, or was forced to move there by the Targaryens of the early era. Jaehaerys could have done it after the backbone of the Faith was finally broken.

Since the Red Keep seems to be finished on the page, my guess is that this actually happened during the later years of Maegor's reign. The war most likely also caused Maegor's death upon/through the Iron Throne. We know that Aegon I commanded the construction of the Red Keep, but Maegor got it done. Since Maegor is credited for the construction, and not Aenys I who ruled between Aegon I and Maegor I, we have to assume the Red Keep was finished during Maegor's rule (most likely at the beginning). I also doubt that Aenys would have allowed his brother to deal with the architects and workers the way Maegor did...

Since the fortified sept was on Rhaenys' Hill, we have to assume that there was not yet a Dragonpit during these days. The text may even indicate that Maegor kept Balerion close during this time (i.e. he may have lived in the Red Keep). I'd not be surprised if it turned out that the Dragonpit was only reacted during the reign of Jaehaerys I or Viserys I when both the Targaryens and the dragons had multiplied. Jaehaerys took five dragons to Winterfell, more could have been left behind.

We don't yet know if Rhaenys is still alive during that time. Visenya is quite an old woman in this time She was born 29 B.C, Aegon ruled 37, and Aenys I another five years, which makes her 71 when her son Maegor ascended the Iron Throne. Since the page does not describe the beginning of Maegor's rule she may already have been 75 or so.

If so, and if House Targaryen was somewhat at odds with itself who should succeed Aenys I, there might have been other sons of Rhaenys (not necessarily sons of Aegon, since Rhaenys apparently may have had a lot of lovers). Some of them could have been used as figureheads by the Faith (Militant) and the High Septon against Maegor who most likely won his reputation as 'the Cruel' during Aenys' reign (or maybe even during the reign of his father).

[Fire Eater]

The children of the forest were, in many ways, the opposites of the giants. As small as children but dark and beautiful in appearance, they lived in a manner we might call crude today, yet were still less barbarous than the giants. They worked no metal, but they had great art in working obsidian (what the smallfolk call dragonglass, while the Valyrians knew it by a word meaning "frozen fire") to make tools and weapons for hunting. They wore no clothes, but were skilled in making garments of leaves and bark. They learned to make bows of weirwood and to construct flying snares of grass, and their men and women both hunted with these.

Their song and music was said to be as beautiful as they were, but what they sang of is not remembered save in small fragments handed down from ancient days. Maester Childer's Winter Knights, or the Legends and Lineage of the Starks of Winterfell, contains a part of a ballad alleged to tell of the time that Brandon the Builder sought the aid of the children of the forest in raising the Wall. He was taken to a secret place to meet with them, but could not at first understand their speech which was described as sounding like a song of stones in a brook, or the wind through leaves, or the rain upon the water. The manner in which Brandon learned to comprehend the speech of children is a tale in itself, and not worth the repeating here. But it seems clear that their speech originated, or drew inspiration from, the sounds they heard everyday, and probably shared much of its beauty.

The gods the children worshiped were the nameless ones that would one day be the gods of the First Men the innumerable gods of the streams and forests and stones. It was the children who carved the weirwoods with faces, perhaps to give eyes to their gods so that they might watch their worshipers at their devotions. Others, with little evidence, claim that the greenseers the wise men of the children were able to see through the eyes of the carved weirwoods. The supposed proof is the fact that the First Men themselves believed this, and that it was their fear of the weirwoods spying upon them that drove them to cut down many of the carved trees and weirwood groves, to deny the children such an advantage. Yet the First Men were less learned than we are now, and credited things that their descendants today do not believe; consider Maester Yorrick's Wed to the Sea, Being an Account of the History of White Harbor from the Earliest Days, which recounts the practice of blood sacrifice to the old gods. Such sacrifices persisted as recently as five centuries ago, according to accounts from Maester Yorrick's predecessors at White Harbor.

This is not to say that the greenseers did not know lost arts that belong to the higher mysteries, such as seeing events at a great distance or communicating across half a realm (as the Valyrians who came long after them did).

[Eir]

Transcription

Transcription

Thank you thank you thank you! I'd resorted to a very painful squint!

[sifth]

thanks for posting this info guys

[MallisterTheMighty]

I would club a baby seal to get my hands on the "Legends and Lineages of the Starks of Winterfell" book...

[Gurkhal]

Holy heaven! This was awesome! I don't post much now a day since I'm on rehibilitation for my Asoiaf addiction but this was just what could push me straight back into earlier habits. :D

[Free Northman]

Yes!

I loved this! Thanks Fireater! The Legends and Lineages of the Starks of Winterfell! Wed to the Sea - a history of White Harbor from the Earliest days! I want that. I want it badly!

[Free Northman]

I soooo love the reference to archeology being practiced by Maesters on the ancient barrows that litter the North. They can start right underneath Winterfell. There's probably more ancient history right there than in the entire Egypt!

So great to hear of the North having savage seperate practices like blood sacrifice right up to modern times. I bet it didn't really end there. It's just that it's happening farther away from White Harbor now. Like in the Wolfswood or the Umber and Karstark lands...

[Fire Eater]

I soooo love the reference to archeology being practiced by Maesters on the ancient barrows that litter the North. They can start right underneath Winterfell. There's probably more ancient history right there than in the entire Egypt!

I don't think the Starks would appreciate having their forebears being disinterred, and like in Indiana Jones, the crypts have their dangers with them being the favored place of Rickon and Shaggydog as Luwin found.

[Aslerys]

thanks for posting this info guys

:agree:

Thanks for taking the time to post the texts! I was dying to read them!

[Frey family reunion]

Wert,

actually, the way I read the page about the War against the Faith Militant it seems to we that there was some kind of assassination attempt against King Maegor I, and it seemed as if he was dying. Queen Visenya then dismissed 'her son maesters and septons and gave him over to Tyanna's care'. This Tyanna of Pentos apparently healed Maegor, and he appeared on the walls of the Red Keep on the following morning to present himself to a cheering crowd.

This does not sound like a coronation to me. Rather as if the Faith Militant struck first, tried to assassinate Maegor (perhaps through poison?), but he recovered and decided to get rid of them once and for all.

It does not seem to me that the war started at this point. It seems as if it only started to escalate and became a crusade to annihilate the Faith Militant completely. It was also mentioned (either in AFfC or in TSS) that there was a Rebellion of the Lords upon Aegon's death from which eventually developed into the Faith Militant Uprising.

The Warrior's Sons praying on the fortified sept atop Rhaenys Hill may have been there to prepare themselves for a post-Maegor Westeros.

But I'd really like who this Tyanna of Pentos was? A sorceress in Visenya's service? One of Maegor's queens? And who is Alys Harroway, the other woman mentioned on the page?

I wonder if Tyanna could have something to do with the people of Crackclaw Point? In my reading they pledged their fealty to Visenya personally. There is also a history of sorcery in the area dating back to the legend of the Whispers. Also interestingly there is no mention of Visenya after Maegor makes his dramatic return to health. Life for a life?

[David C. Hunter]

I soooo love the reference to archeology being practiced by Maesters on the ancient barrows that litter the North. They can start right underneath Winterfell. There's probably more ancient history right there than in the entire Egypt!

So great to hear of the North having savage seperate practices like blood sacrifice right up to modern times. I bet it didn't really end there. It's just that it's happening farther away from White Harbor now. Like in the Wolfswood or the Umber and Karstark lands...

I suspect it will return in a big way too. The North is going to be extremely feral....cant wait. Winter is Coming for the Andals

[Gurkhal]

I suspect it will return in a big way too. The North is going to be extremely feral....cant wait. Winter is Coming for the Andals

Not untill its walked right over the Northmen.

[The hairy bear]

Great material. Thanks for the transcriptions.

amongst them Lord Meadows of Grany (?) Vale, commander of the king's host.

Lord Rupert Fahwell(?), famed as the Fighting Fool, led the ranks of the pious who had answered the High Septon’s call, with him rode Ser Lyonel Lorch, Ser Alyn Taerick(?), Lord Tristifer Wayn, Lord Jon Lychester and many other puissant knights. The army of the Faithful numbered twenty thousand men.

That must be Meadows of Grassy Vale, Rupert Falwell and Alyn Terrick.

It's interesting how the houses that sided with the Faith Militant paid the consequences of joining the wrong side in the future generations: Armory Lorch is just a landed knight used by Tywin to do the dirty work, Utherydes Wayn is a steward in Riverrun, the Meadows are marrying distant Tyrell cousins, and Lord Lymond Lychester's keep is described as small and fallen into disrepair. Falwell and Terrick don't even appear.

[Gurkhal]

Great material. Thanks for the transcriptions.

That must be Meadows of Grassy Vale, Rupert Falwell and Alyn Terrick.

It's interesting how the houses that sided with the Faith Militant paid the consequences of joining the wrong side in the future generations: Armory Lorch is just a landed knight used by Tywin to do the dirty work, Utherydes Wayn is a steward in Riverrun, the Meadows are marrying distant Tyrell cousins, and Lord Lymond Lychester's keep is described as small and fallen into disrepair. Falwell and Terrick don't even appear.

I agree entirely. I wouldn't be surpised if we'll find more and similar scenarios regarding those who picked the wrong sides during the Dance of the Dragons and the Blackfyre Rebellion(s).

[WinterKing]

The Arryns sided with the Blackfires,didn't they?

But they do not appear to have suffered from it...

[Fire Eater]

The Arryns sided with the Blackfires,didn't they?

But they do not appear to have suffered from it...

The Arryns fought against the Blackfyres in the First Blackfyre Rebellion, as revealed in their participation against Daemon in the Battle of Redgrass Field. The Arryns sided with Rhaenyra during the Dance of Dragons.

[The hairy bear]

Yes, apparently the houses that fought for the Faith Militant or for House Blackfyre were hit hard. The Dance of Dragons was more benevolent for the losing side, probably because after all Aegon III was Rhaenyra's son (the Arryns were his grandfathers).

Robert's Rebellion seems to have been some kind of a middle ground.

[Gurkhal]

Yes, apparently the houses that fought for the Faith Militant or for House Blackfyre were hit hard. The Dance of Dragons was more benevolent for the losing side, probably because after all Aegon III was Rhaenyra's son (the Arryns were his grandfathers).

Robert's Rebellion seems to have been some kind of a middle ground.

I wouldn't call Robert's Rebellion middle ground but rather a very benevolent rebellion for the losers. Only a few Houses seems to have lost shit or forced to give up hostages.