The Doom of Valyria

[TalalOfDorne]

I really want to know. I dont have any theories about it though.

[King of Winters]

I think the FM were involved in some way, and they either made the 14 Fires explode and destroyed Valyria or they done something else that caused an explosion. But I definitely think they were involved.

[The Weirwoods Eyes]

I'm not familiar with super-volcanos. I guess I underestimated their capacity. But still, I don't think it could have been god-involving. R'hllor has never been proven to exist. Frankly, his only two objects of "evidence" are the healings of Thoros of Myr (who, by the way, could have learned maegi magic from someone while in Myr) or the predictions of Melisandre, which can either be put down as chance or Melisandre is also a maegi. The leech killings I'll put down as chance, since Euron probably killed Balon, the Freys/Lannisters killed the Starks, and Littlefinge/Olenna killed Joffrey. I also noticed that Moroqqo's Red God failed and left him to the sea. And, kind of, sorta, let his most powerful follower (Stannis) lose a major battle involving...fire. Azor Ahai is just a myth from Asshai. R'hllor is either incompetent, malicious, or fake. Take your pick, and choose wisely.

Not trying to blow my own trumpet here, as others have contributed to this thread but hey check out my thread. I've tried to group together all the known information we have on both the religion itself and the priests whom we have met.

I think the Red God has been born out of the ruins of the Doom

.http://asoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/topic/90666-examining-the-cult-of-the-red-godwhat-is-going-on-with-them-there-red-priests/

[mindchap]

Until we actually put eyes on Valyria through one of the POVs it's really hard to guess what it could have been, looking at the map it looks more like it was separated from the mainland rather than just sunk. Kind of like the way the Arm of Dorne looks, maybe they were experimenting with CotF magic.

[Pootie Tang]

Meteors are unlikely as we would see destruction on a more global scale unless some god pinpointed Valyria for some reason and threw them like a dart. The doom is more likely to have been a mirroring of Italian volcano Vesuvius that destroyed the city nearby when it erupted. A movie was even made about it IIRC.

[Hrafntýr]

The Doom has been discussed extensively over in the Heresy threads, with lots of attention to every bit of information delivered by the Kindly Man, but also in relation to the Long Winter, with the Doom being the Fire equivalent to the Ice of Long Winter, à la Song of Ice and Fire, and to the fact that the Targaryens managed to escape the Doom via the dreams of Daenys the Dreamer.

[Scipio Africanus]

Valyria was pretty much Rome in A Song of Ice and Fire, and it died...because of some volcano problems? There had to be more than that. Your thoughts?

Why should there be more than that?

It is thought that the Minoan civilization, a Greek people existing roughly between 2600-1400 BC, was destroyed by vulcanic activity. The super eruption, dated around 1400 BC, literally destroyed islands, blowing them up whole. It was reportedly the largest vulcanic explosion in human history. It definitely would've caused a minor climate change, certainly at "ground zero", and filling the locale with vulcanic ash, smothering all life.

A meteor could also have been responsible but I find this less likely.

Of course, this is a fantasy, and for all we know the Great Other him/herself made Valyria go boom.

[Daemul]

Yellowstone is going to erupt one day and I'm hope I'm not around when that day comes. The human race will be fucked.

[joluoto]

Why should there be more than that?

It is thought that the Minoan civilization, a Greek people existing roughly between 2600-1400 BC, was destroyed by vulcanic activity. The super eruption, dated around 1400 BC, literally destroyed islands, blowing them up whole. It was reportedly the largest vulcanic explosion in human history. It definitely would've caused a minor climate change, certainly at "ground zero", and filling the locale with vulcanic ash, smothering all life.

People always forget the neo-palatial period. Minoan civilization did survive Thera.

[Kienn]

The Doom has been discussed extensively over in the Heresy threads, with lots of attention to every bit of information delivered by the Kindly Man, but also in relation to the Long Winter, with the Doom being the Fire equivalent to the Ice of Long Winter, à la Song of Ice and Fire, and to the fact that the Targaryens managed to escape the Doom via the dreams of Daenys the Dreamer.

Heresy threads are like unreadable... Forums use distinct threads for different topics for a reason, when you jam everything into 1 megathread it's... unpleasant.

From what little I've managed to read they sound like that have interesting stuff, but it's all drowned in a flood of disorganized repetition and random utter garbage with no way to sort through it.

I figure most of their stuff trickles over here in much nicer format with a nice thread title and idea fully explained in the first couple posts.

[Hrafntýr]

Heresy threads are like unreadable... Forums use distinct threads for different topics for a reason, when you jam everything into 1 megathread it's... unpleasant.

From what little I've managed to read they sound like that have interesting stuff, but it's all drowned in a flood of disorganized repetition and random utter garbage with no way to sort through it.

I figure most of their stuff trickles over here in much nicer format with a nice thread title and idea fully explained in the first couple posts.

No, I think most of the heretics stay away from the General forum. I come over here on occasion, but, as above, can do little more than point people toward the Heresy threads when they broach a topic that's been discussed in so much detail that it would take a 2-3 page essay to cover the general theory and supporting evidence. I don't disagree with your point, it's an overwhelming volume to deal with, though we often recommend that people check out Heresy 50 as general background reading. The repetitiveness you mention is, I'd submit, because the heretics are genuinely receptive to newcomers, and thus willing to rehash ideas that have been discussed at great length before. You're right, it makes for repetition, but new ideas are generated by the slight variations that come up in each new discussion. I'd agree, the Heresy threads aren't for everyone, but as someone who inhabits both places, I'd say that there's way more repetition in the threads here, where people often just respond to the OP without reading the discussion that follows, or offer their opinions with no supporting evidence from the texts.

Sorry, this is off topic, but I responded in order to suggest that it might be worth it for someone who is genuinely interested in theories of the Doom to site search Heresy + Doom, because there is some thought-provoking stuff there.

[Arya_Ghostface]

People always forget the neo-palatial period. Minoan civilization did survive Thera.

That. The Thera explosion was very very big, but the damage to the Minoan civilisation in Crete happened through a tsunami. Even at just 160km of open sea away, it was the waves that did them in, not the explosion itself. And there must have been a volcanic winter like the one in 1816 (Year without a Summer) which didn't help their survival, but it was far from explosions and fire. Also, in most volcanic eruptions it's vast amounts of smoke and ash that come out of the volcano, not fire or lava, lava just trickles down, and it's not present in all eruptions.

So, I think that either GRRM doesn't know much about volcanos, or he chose to make the Valyria volcanos extra fiery, or the Doom was a magical event. I believe in the magical event theory, though I don't think it's the FM.

For me, Valyria sounds very much like a fiery Atlantis. They were too advanced, mined too deep, became too arrogant and confident in their own strength, and they were -somehow- punished with the destruction of their home. Only one House survived, the Targaryens. If the Targaryens were the humblest Valyrians, that would go some way to explain why the Doom was really necessary. lol

[Morienthar]

For me, Valyria sounds very much like a fiery Atlantis. They were too advanced, mined too deep, became too arrogant and confident in their own strength, and they were -somehow- punished with the destruction of their home.

Sounds like the Dwemer from TES.

[Arya_Ghostface]

Sounds like the Dwemer from TES.

Or the dwarves of Moria :P

[Ser Duncan of Flea Bottom]

99% of the readers want to know about it, if not 100%

I think in the future Martin can write a encyclopedia about planetos facts, explained some stuff, like, the great empires of that world and other stuff, like, the Age of Heroes, and some legends

But now he needs to focus on A Song of Ice and Fire :D and The Tales of Dunk and Egg