Read an excerpt from ‘100 Things Game of Thrones Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die’

The Game of Thrones-themed book market is booming nowadays. One of the newest entrants is 100 Things Game of Thrones Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die, from Triumph Books.

100 Things comes from the mind of Rowan Kaiser, who’s written for The A.V. Club, The American Prospect, Polygon, Inverse and more. Using his encyclopedic knowledge of all things Game of Thrones and A Song of Ice and Fire, Kaiser delivers profiles of key characters, locates the show in the larger landscape of fantasy storytelling, gives a detailed look at the geography and history of Westeros, a guide to sitting the Iron Throne in real life, and more.

This excerpt from 100 Things Game of Thrones Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die, by Rowan Kaiser, is presented with the permission of Triumph Books. For more information, or to purchase a copy, please visit TriumphBooks.com.

"50. The Dragons of ValyriaThe biggest sign that Game of Thrones is fantasy? The dragons. Sure, the icezombies are cool and all, but nothing in the universe screams “fantasy!” more than a flying,fire-breathing lizard. But dragons aren’t common in the world of Game of Thrones. Far fromit. Daenerys’ dragons, hatched at the end of the first season, are the first dragons in 150years. And for the rest of the world, this is both terrifying and seductive.It’s terrifying because dragons are, essentially, the nuclear bombs of Westeros andEssos. If you have them, and your opponent doesn’t, you win. Aegon the Conqueror landedan army of a little over a thousand men on the shores of Westeros, but because he and hissisters rode three dragons, they conquered the Seven Kingdoms (save Dorne) with relativeease. But if both sides have dragons, well, then wars would become epic tragedies, like theDance of the Dragons, the Targaryen civil war that bled the kingdom dry for decades andled directly to the dragons’ extinction.But it’s also seductive because the dragons represent uncontrolled power. In somecases, this is direct: if you can ride a dragon, or control a person who does, you holdimmense power. There’s more to it than that, though. The rebirth of the dragons is alsodescribed by multiple characters as a rebirth of their magic. The warlocks of Qarth,previously viewed as charlatans, had enough power to make an attempt to take control ofthe city. The pyromancers of King’s Landing, at the same time, suddenly found their abilityto make wildfire vastly improved, something that could only happen if dragons returned.The rest of the world is wise to be wary of the dragons’ power, as the example of OldValyria proves. Valyria, a peninsula of Essos, was nondescript in most ways until itsresidents managed to find the secret to taming the local dragons. From this, they managedto create an empire known as the Valyrian Freehold, burning all who opposed them. (Onegroup of defeated people from the river Rhoyne fled all the way to Westeros led by QueenNymeria and joined with the Dornish.)The Valyrian Freehold wasn’t a single political entity, but something closer to theAthenian empire of the ancient Mediterranean, where a series of politically independent buteconomically and culturally joined colonies dominated their region. The Valyrians took overmost of Essos, from Slaver’s Bay to the Free Cities, and even Dragonstone in BlackwaterBay.They ruled for thousands of years, with their language, High Valyrian, becoming themost important in world, and their silverhaired, purple-haired scions representing thehighest racial class.The Valyrians also gave their name to the art of forging Valyrian steel, a specialmetal connected to the dragons. Early in Game of Thrones, Valyrian steel seems less likethe magic swords of other fantasy stories and more like a prestige metal—stronger andmore beautiful but not materially different. But in the fifth season, at “Hardhome,” we seethat Valyrian steel swords actually are magic. They can stop the White Walkers’ ability toshatter steel, as Jon discovers with a single parry, and can kill White Walkers with a singleswing, as he does in his follow-up.There’s no reason to doubt that this is because of the Valyrian connection todragons. The only other material we’ve seen that can defeat White Walkers with a touch isdragonglass, which, well, is clearly dragon-related. Both materials seem to be imbued withthe power of the dragons, and so most believe that the endgame of Game of Thronesinvolves Daenerys’ three dragons taking flight to burn the White Walker horde.But there’s still danger, as the history of Valyria shows. Roughly 400 years beforeGame of Thrones, Valyria just…disappears. Okay, it’s more violent than that. Massive seismic activity causes earthquakes, tidal waves, and volcanoes to essentially destroy thepeninsula. What remains is a terrifying wasteland, known as the Doom of Valyria, that nosane person approaches. (Jorah Mormont, on the other hand, does try to sail through in thefifth season, and gets greyscale for his troubles.)What exactly happened to Valyria is one of the great mysteries of the world of Gameof Thrones. It’s entirely possible that we won’t get any answer to how the Doom wascreated, although given the importance of dragons to the overall plot, I’d say it’s pretty likely.What is well-known is that a “century of blood” followed in Essos, where the collapse of theFreehold led to international anarchy."

What exactly happened in Valyria is indeed one of the greatest mysteries of the Song of Ice and Fire world. YouTube’s Patrick McCarthy even created a 20-minute animated pilot on the topic.

You can also pick up100 Things Game of Thrones Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die on Amazon, where it runs $14.95 for the paperback version and $11.99 for the Kindle version.

Thank you to Triumph Books!

Next: HBO releases official photos from “Eastwatch”

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