Great Empire of the Dawn: Dragonlords of Ancient Asshai

Evidence abounds for the existence of a pre-Valyrian, pre-Long Night civilization of dragonlords, now mostly vanished from the pages of history. The evidence leads us to Asshai, and a legend of a Dawn Age high civilization called the Great Empire of the Dawn...

[hypocycloidiaspora]

In Asshai, they have only ghost grass and frozen yogurt, which they call Frogurt. But the Frogurt is also cursed.

[LunchThyme]

I feel like the gemstones 'emperors' might actually refer to dynasties, or families, of the Great Empire dragon lords, each family having distinct traits (most prominently eye colour), with power shifting between them as time went on. The dragon lords who went on to found Valyria would've been members of the 'Amethyst' family (probably because they abandoned/fled the Great Empire after the blood betrayal) hence Valyrian dragon lords exhibiting 'amethyst' eyes exclusively.

This kinda makes sense from a meta standpoint too, as it basically makes the 'Great Empire -> Valyria' story a rehash of the 'Valyria -> Targaryen' story (both of them being an Atlantis story to begin with), which makes it easier to write, but isn't really a cop out considering it's just legends in a companion piece, left mostly un-explained anyway.

[ghostlyapples]

As a historian, the lore book is a gold mine! Treating as if it were real, the idea of mistranslation of primary sources, unreliable sources and how partial the main writer (maester) is, add to that a sprinkle of folklore and metaphors taken literally... Oh its so wonderful and rich!

[mihirlavande]

The Long Night sounds like a meteor impact which might have happened near Asshai. Smoke and debris clouding the sky for generations, the impact itself unearthing radioactive elements from the dregs of the earth, poisoning and ruining the waters of the Ash river, global temperatures dropping, empires crumbling, crops failing, people dying. And in the midst of all this, the Bloodstone Emperor going insane because he can't make any sense of what's happening.

[osoisko]

This was the perfect thing to watch as I take the occasional glance out my window on abandoned plague ridden streets...

[bensonfang]

Weird theory: some westerosi houses were founded by empire of dawn colonists. Valyrians were refugees after the fall of the empire. The last hero was himself a dragon rider and after saving the world went to the Valyrian peninsula. He had 40 sons and 40 daughters, founding the 40 dragonlord houses. That is why the targaryens are so important in the Azor Ahai prophecy: they are literally the last descendants of Azor Ahai.

[AriBelleDean]

With Asshai being so foreboding and basically deserted, there can be secrets and truths about the Great Empire located all throughout the city but if you 1. Were too frightened to go there, you wouldn’t find it
2. If you didn’t know what you were looking for/looking at, it wouldn’t mean anything to you.
This happens constantly with ruins of lost cities and empires in our own world.

[pyropulseIXXI]

The Golden Empire of Yi-Ti claiming inheritance of the Great Empire of the Dawn is like the Holy Roman Empire claiming inheritance of the Roman Empire

[erlkoenig]

... not to mention that Valyrian steel is usually described as almost black, not pale as the blades in the hands of Dany's "fever dream ghosts". Only one blade is described that way, and it's name directly links it to the Great Empire of the DAWN, the battle for the DAWN and therefore also Lightbringer.

[fabersoul_beats]

Shame D&D arent fantasy fans, cus i feel like we would have seen the more exotic fantastical elements of game of thrones like asshai and old valryia etc

[smr_]

maybe the valyrians came from Asshai escaping a sort of doom that happened over there, and started their freehold in Valyria, sort of like the Targaryens escaped the doom of valyria and went west to rule the 7 kingdoms

[shea]

I feel like any civilization who tames dragons meet a horrible apocalyptic end. The ruins of valryia are kind of exactly like the shadow lands except for the long night it was the long day

[zeera]

Here's the thing, the old Gods of Valyria are described as being part Human part Dragon, we know that Dragons live very long, and we know that The God Kings ruled for thousands of year at a time, what if the myth of the Valyrian Gods is based on the Emperors Of The Dawn?
It also makes sense if you consider Dany's dream, the people she saw. What if the God Kings weren't human, or dragons, but both.
That would also explain why sometimes, Targaryens give birth to winged lizard babies like Dany's son, Rhaego.

[mgtmoviemaker]

Loved the theory. I had never considered that a "bleeding star" could have been called a bloodstone once it landed. This is up there for my top five ASoIaF theories.

[a.j.cayenne]

it all goes back to the fused black stone, cant wait to see where else it shows up in the story.

[trickyagent]

The seastone chair having that stone is definatly interesting.

[serbryndenshiversthecool]

I can NEVER get enough asshai. Thank you for my daily dose. Cheers.

[travis]

its almost too big of a coincidence that magical seeming dooms happened to the 2 Kingdoms with Dragon lords.

[hecatesdaughter]

A meteorite that brings blight and turns those who worship it crazy? Sounds like Lovecraft to me.🌹

[uruk-]

This video is the one that healed the trauma of seasons 7 and 8 and put me back into ASoIaF