Hi there my fellow Steemians! I'm pretty sure all of you are anxiously waiting for Season 7 to premiere in July this year. So I was just watching the shows and reading the books again when I realised that the we never learn a lot about Valyria. All we know is that it was the greatest civilisation to have ever existed and all of their secrets and dragons were lost in the Doom except for the Targaryen dragons. This leaves the empire of Valyria open to interpretation and I feel that Valyria is no other civilisation than our very own one today.
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Probably the first argument one could make against this statement is, “But hey, all of these events are set in the past so we can definitely not be Valyria. Plus just looking at the map tells us that we cant be the same.” Well at first glance it may look like the events in A Song Of Ice And Fire happen in the past and probably the most misleading facts are that the ‘lifestyle’, the ‘swords’ and ‘horseback’ all seem so medieval. But there are many factors suggesting that these events may be part of the future. It is quite possible that in the distant future tectonic plate movement could cause the continents to arrange themselves in a shape as depicted by G.R.R Martin. I will later discuss what caused these sudden movements to break the peninsula of Valyria and take the world back to the Dark ages. (For anyone who doesn’t understand what tectonic plates are, they are basically the plates which form the Earth’s crust and allow continents to move or break apart. Their motion also causes earthquakes.) So that solves the issue that the map will look different than our current one.
Of course, there is a possibility that this could very well be another planet and thus, not resemble Earth in any manner at all. Also the presence of magic and creatures like dragons may seem like concrete proof for this. However, a great science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke came up with 3 laws, the third of which being “Any technology sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic.” Given that Valyria survived for more than 4000 years, could quite possibly suggest that humans have greatly advanced their technology and maybe even genetically created dragons. Another thing is that the history of the two worlds, ours and ASOIAF, are too similar to be a mere co-incidence. The Long Night is analogous to the last Ice Age here on Earth. The fall of Old Ghis symbolises the fall of slavery in our world. You may argue that Valyria adopted slavery from Old Ghis but what are we now if not but slaves to the internet and our governments? These coinciding histories strongly suggest that Earth is the planet in discussion for both worlds.
Now if we really are Valyria what stage are we in right now? Well, I feel that we are barely in the stage of infancy. This is what Viserys narrates in a special featurette of the blu-ray edition of season 1.
“The precise details of their origins are lost to us, but it is said the Valyrians were once a modest community of shepherds, tending their flocks on a small peninsula of the great eastern continent. One fateful day, in a volcanic area known as the Fourteen Fires, they made a shattering discovery: dragons.
They were monstrous, scaled creatures, with massive wings, sharp claws and fiery breath. They were also said to have a deep-rooted connection to magic.
In time, the Valyrians were able to tame the beasts. Harnessing their immense power, they established a city of wonder unlike any before or since. They became skilled at sorcery and metallurgy, creating uncommon weapons of spell-forged steel. Wielding these weapons, astride their dragons, the Valyrians conquered the surrounding lands and slowly expanded west.”
[Source: http://gameofthrones.wikia.com/wiki/Valyria_and_the_Dragons]
I really think that the dragons which the Valyrians found were not the type of dragons that we see that Daenarys has. Rather they are the modern invention of the aeroplane. It is quite common for history and lore of any civilisation, whether a real one or ASOIAF, to be largely metaphorical. It could be quite possible that the description of the dragons could be a fighter jet. They too are largely made of metal and their wingspan is quite large. Considering that modern day jets are equipped with missiles, this could be the kind of metaphorical fire that is being referred to in the lore. This could also be the reason why the Valyrians won all of their 5 battles against the empire of Old Ghis. It would be nearly impossible for a ground infantry team to survive air-raids against technology that hasn’t been seen before! As this technology was groundbreaking and so uncommon, it could have been referred to as a kind of magic. Additionally, our technology would shape throughout time and humans will be successful in creating biological dragons which would explain the existence of Dany’s dragons.
It is mentioned that in the Doom, everything about Valyria was lost. In today’s world, we are becoming ever more digitalised and who knows, maybe a day will come when we completely stop writing things down. If in this world, all the digital data were to vanish, it will become quite literal that everything will be lost in the Doom.
Now you might be wondering what caused the Doom. Well if we look at the total number of nuclear warheads we have in the world today, it amounts to over 10,000. That is a lot. And these things make Hiroshima and Nagasaki look like tiny snarks and grumkins! If an all out nuclear war were to be waged, or if all of these nuclear warheads were detonated, I think that it would definitely be enough to destroy a peninsula. Also, I think that it could be strong enough to start a chain of tectonic events in motion that cause the map of ASOIAF to look different from our planet’s geography.
So that’s my theory! Please let me know if you have any suggestions to add to my theory or if you think that there may be other counter-claims to my theory. I am always open to these suggestions and I’ll try my best to incorporate them into it. Thanks for reading!
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