*Spoilers for Season 7, Episode 4*

After an amazing Dragon filled episode last night (Bearded Robot Review incoming!), I think maybe we should go into the history of some of the major Dragons in A Game of Thrones.

Dragons originated from the Shadow Lands beyond Asshai, where some people still believe they roam to this day. They populated most of the known world, with their reign covering snow planes Westeros, Essos and the deep jungles of Sothoryos to the south.
The people of Asshai believe that an ancient race, so ancient that their name is lost in history, came from the East, riding atop great Dragons, and brought them to Valyria to teach the Valyrians the art of Dragon taming. According to legend, a dragon may be tamed by sounding a dragon horn.
The Valyrians used this to carve themselves out an amazing empire that covered nearly all of Essos, until one day when the Doom came for Valyria and the mighty empire was no more. It is unknown exactly what the Doom was, but there were mass volcanic eruptions and earthquakes, dragonglass rained down from the sky, and entire cities were swallowed in enormous tidal waves. Few Dragons, and even fewer of the Valyrian families, survived.


One lesser known family had already fled Valyria; the Targaryens. Aegon, the first of his name, had a keen interest in Westeros for years and had made a new home for himself and his sisters on an island just off the coast, calling it Dragonstone, following his families exile many years earlier. From here, he and his three Dragons; Balerion, Meraxes, and Vhagar, landed on Westeros, built a settlement (called Aegonfort, which would eventually grow and develop after the war to become King’s Landing) and from here, Aegon and his Dragons conquered the Six of the Seven Kingdoms (Dorne proved more difficult than the others).
The armies of Westeros were no match for the might of the Targaryen Dragons. They burnt Fortresses and Castles, Towns and Holdfasts. Nothing could stop the might of Dragon fire.

The last King in the North was Torrhen Stark, who bent the knee to House Targaryen during Aegon’s Conquest, thus making the north part of the Seven Kingdoms controlled by the Iron Throne. The crown of the Kings of Winter was surrendered to Aegon. Since then Lord Stark has traditionally held the title Warden of the North for the Iron Throne.

King Harren had spent over forty years of his reign on the construction of an enormous tower; Harrenhal, which was said to be the largest castle in all of the land. Thousands had died during the decades of its construction, and the day it was finally built, the moment the last brick was placed, Aegon and his Dragons came.
The walls were too high for an army to breach, but King Harren had never expected to be attacked from the air. The walls had only managed to keep all of Aegon’s enemies in one place, and with them trapped, Balerion burned the tower to nothing more than a smouldering ruin, along with King Harren and his whole family, ending his House indefinitely.

Balerion, known as Balerion the Black Dread, was the biggest and most dangerous of all three of Aegon’s Dragons. Apparently his fire was as black as his scales and his wingspan was so large that entire towns were swallowed beneath his shadow. Balerion burned many lords during Aegon’s conquest and was greatly feared throughout the land.
Balerion was also deployed in the battle that became known as the Field of Fire, the only time in history that all three of the fabled Targaryen dragons took to the sky at the same time. Between Vhagar, Meraxes and Balerion, four thousand men were burned to death.

During the conquest, Meraxes was brought down and slain by the Dornish army during the First Dornish war, after an Iron Bolt pieced through the Dragon’s eye. Her skull was eventually returned by the Dornish after the war as a symbol of peace.

Once Aegon’s war of conquest had finished, Balerion helped to forge the infamous Ironthrone by melting thousands of swords from Aegon’s fallen enemies, and thus the Targaryen dynasty was born.

Over the course of one hundred and fifty years the Targaryens rode their dragons as a symbol of their power. During this time, Balerion had died of old age, having been passed down through Aegon’s descendants. At one point there were twenty six living Dragons in Westeros, as well as three untameable Dragons who were living at Dragonstone.

Years later the Targaryens began the Dance of the Dragons, which was a civil war between Aegon the second and his half sister over their father’s throne. During this war, Dragon was forced to fight against Dragon in spectacular battles above the land, as their Targaryen riders held tight. Each side recruited Houses to fight for them, and in turn they would eventually become fuel for the Dragons’ fire. Not long after the civil war had become enormous, stretching all across Westeros.
Although one side became victorious, it was short lived and the victor perished not long after.

It was during this war that most Dragons began to slowly die out. Few hatchlings lived to maturity, some even dying hours after hatching.
With most Dragons being killed during the civil war year earlier, only four Dragons remained. While there were still Dragon eggs in the world, only one is known to have hatched. The last Dragon was a stunted, sick and misshapen thing who died very young. It was said to be no larger than a cat.
Rumours have it that he order of maesters, with their secret goal to suppress magic, was responsible for the extinction of dragons, but many have put this down to Targaryen madness.

Eventually the last remaining Dragons died out and no more were hatched from the stone like eggs left behind. The eggs themselves became valuable as ornaments of their beauty.
It was at this time that the summers grew short and the winters became longer and more dangerous.

In the years before the events of the show, many Targaryen Kings attempted to hatch Dragon eggs, but all of these were unsuccessful.
According to George R. R. Martin himself; “There are no more dragons known to exist… but this is a medieval period, and large parts of the world are still terra incognita, so there are always tales of dragon sightings in far off mysterious places. The maesters tend to discount those”.

 

Years later, a young outcast and descendant of the overthrown Targaryen dynasty; Daenerys Targaryen, was given three Dragon eggs as a gift at her wedding to the Dothraki Khal; Drogo. These were found in the Shadow Lands beyond Asshai, the place where the first Dragons were known to have come from.
At her husbands funeral, she stepped into the pyre with them and gave her life for a life, and thus she was reborn as the Mother of Dragons with three infant hatchlings beside her.
These; Drogon, Rhaegal, and Viserion (named after her lost child and her two brothers) were the same as the ancient Dragons of old, and with these she plans to conquer the Seven Kingdoms once more.
She has burned Warlocks in the House of the Undying, Slave Masters in Astapor, took control of Meereen, used them to fight against the Suns of the Harpy in the Fighting Pits, burnt armardas, and now entire Lannister armies, all at the sound of a simple word that, when uttered, shrikes fear into her enemies, the Valyrian word for fire…

“Dracarys”

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