The Rise of the Dragon

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THE HISTORY OF Westeros stretches back thousands of years, but the period in which House Targaryen unified the various realms into the Seven Kingdoms as we know them covers less than three hundred. The history of the family goes back further than that, however, to its beginnings in the Freehold of Valyria. The Targaryens were an ancient and noble lineage—dragonlords who bred and rode the great beasts that had extended the Freehold’s power across western Essos—yet they were still a relatively minor family among the great Valyrian houses. When Aenar Targaryen sold his lands and properties and moved his entire family and their dragons to Valyria’s westernmost outpost, the isle called Dragonstone in the narrow sea, his rivals thought him a coward. Little did they know that his daughter, Daenys the Dreamer, had foretold the Doom of Valyria. Twelve years later, the Freehold was destroyed in a cataclysm when the volcanic Fourteen Flames erupted, shattering the Valyrian peninsula and the empire along with it. In the chaos that followed, all the dragonlords of Valyria perished, along with their dragons … apart from the Targaryens on their rocky isle of Dragonstone.

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