Dragon

   

Appearance

  Dragons are scaled, reptilian creatures. They have four limbs: two wings, which are used as forelegs like bats, and two rear legs. The Westerosi historically have referred to dragons as wyverns interchangably though in the modern age a distinction has been made by the Citadel that Wyverns are a smaller, more aggressive species where Dragons are generally larger and more inclined to 'domestication.'   Dragons have strong jaws, sharp teeth and claws, leathery wings, and long necks and tails, with horns on their heads. As young hatchlings, they are around the size of a cat. If it has enough food and freedom, a dragon never stops growing. A dragon given such freedom can reach a span width of twenty feet within a year and a half. Dragons which are locked up such as those housed in Valyrian dragon pits before the doom, do not grow as large as dragons left free to fly as they wish such as Balerion and Vhagar who were young during the Century of Blood and allowed to fly free. Although increasing age means increasing size, a larger size does not necessarily show a higher age according to Valyrian accounts known to the Citadel. Balerion, the largest dragon known in history, is large enough to swallow an aurochs or a mammoth from Ibben whole and is no more than 150 years old.   According to Maesters, the color of a dragon has no bearing on its character. The Citadel also states from studies of the Valyrian Freehold before the doom that dragon bones are black, due to their high iron content. The polished skulls of Valyrian dragons looked like glittering onyx, and their teeth look like curved daggers of black diamond.  

Characteristics

  It is said that dragons are fire made flesh. Great heat emanates from dragons' bodies, to the point that they steam during cold nights. When a dragon is wounded, their blood is known to smoke. Smoke often comes from a dragon's mouth and nostrils, and dragonflame is expelled from a dragon's gullet and out of its mouth.   Dragons are carnivorous creatures, eating meat as well as fish, and breathing fire to cook their food before consuming it. They are also said to exhibit behavior of opportunistic cannibalism.   A dragon's scales are largely, but not entirely, impervious to flame, and serve as protection for the more vulnerable flesh and musculature beneath. As a dragon ages, its scales thicken and grow harder, affording even more protection, leaving dragons nearly immune to fire, although they can still be wounded by dragonflame in scalefree area's such as beneath the wings and eyes. Similarly, as dragons age, the fire they breathe becomes hotter and fiercer. Where a hatchling's flame can set straw aflame, the flames of older dragons, like Balerion and Vhagar in the fullness of their power, can melt steel and stone.  

Life and death

  The lifespan of dragons is many times that of a human, though their maximum natural lifespan is difficult to determine: as beasts of war, most of the known examples died in battle even during the Valyrian Freehold. Balerion, the largest and oldest Targaryen dragon, was already alive when House Targaryen moved from Valyria to Dragonstone in 114 BC. Balerion is at least one hundred and fifty years old.   Dragons are not invulnerable. The eyes are where a dragon is most vulnerable, and the brain behind them. A scorpion's iron bolt through the eye killed Meraxes. Unlike in stories, a dragon's underbelly scales are just as strong as those along their back and flanks though it is said there is a soft spot beneath the wings, where they meet the body. Young dragons, with their softer scales, are more vulnerable than older ones. Tales from the Free Cities also speak of killing dragons with a spear down the gullet, but this is suspected to be tall tales from the age of Valyrian Slaves.   Though it is rare for a man to be a dragonslayer, dragons have often been known to wound and kill other dragons, both in Westeros and Valyria. Balerion notably crushed Quicksilver's neck with his teeth while tearing off her wing with his claws.  

Reproduction

  Historians, like Septon Boros, Arch Maester Muntel, and Maester Thomas, disagree on the mating habits of dragons. Dragons lay large, scaled eggs to reproduce. According to Archmaester Granden, and agreed upon by Maester Yelsten, the ability of a dragon to lay eggs is proof that said dragon is female. When a dragon is never observed to have laid eggs, this is taken as proof that it must have been male. However, according to Boros and Maester Aiden, dragons have no fixed gender, but are “now one and now the other, as changeable as flame”. Boros believes that dragons can change sex at need, but Maester Aston believes this to be erroneous, and states in his Truth that Boros' statement is simply a misunderstood esoteric metaphor.   Dragons believed to be female, e.g., Dreamfyre, and Meleys, are referred to as a she-dragon or sometimes a queen.   It is implied that the bonds of a dragonrider and their dragon may affect the dragon's mating habits. King Daemon I Targaryen's dragon Vermithor often coiled with his Queen Rhea Targaryen's Silverwing.   Targaryen princes are said to receive a dragon's egg in their cradle, allowing the infants to bond with the dragons as soon as the eggs hatched. This is a young tradition supposedly started during the reign of King Aegon I Targaryen, when Princess Rhaela Targaryen placed a dragon egg in the cradles of her younger siblings, Daemon and Rhea shortly after their births. From these two eggs, the dragons Vermithor and Silverwing hatched.   Un-hatched eggs can become petrified at an old age, turning to stone and are common decoration for the rich and powerful in the Free Cities.  

Culture

Dragons (sometimes referred to as Wyverns) are depicted in the sigils of several Westerosi Houses, such as:   House Targaryen, House Toland, House Vance of Atranta, House Vance of Wayfarer's Rest, House Willum   Dragonbone is as strong as steel, but lighter and far more flexible, and impervious to fire. It has been used to make brooches, bows, hilts of Valyrian steel daggers, and whip handles nearly all of which exist in the Free Cities or were lost in the Doom, but are said to have been quite common in the Valyrian Freehold.   Dragon eggs are highly valuable, for their beauty and rarity, as well as their potential to hatch a dragon.   There are many songs and tales of legendary dragonslayers, most existing long before dragons definitely arrived in Westeros.  

Dragonriders

  Dragons are intelligent creatures which can be trained to serve as battle mounts and understand vocal commands. They are said to be capricious in nature, and have to be trained to keep them from laying waste to everything around them. However, dragons will not allow everyone to mount them. In Valyria, the noble-born dragonriding families, the dragonlord families, frequently married brother to sister to keep the bloodline pure, and it is generally believed that Valyrian heritage plays a large part in bonding. Having Valyrian blood (no matter how directly) is not a guarantee that bonding with a dragon will be successful.   Once a dragon has bonded with a rider, that dragon will not allow anyone else to mount it alone while its rider lives, no matter how familiar said person might be to the dragon. But when the person bonded to the dragon is on the dragon's back, they may take a passenger. When the rider of a dragon dies, that dragon can bond with a new rider. No rider has ever ridden a different dragon while their current dragon was alive. Dragons who have had a rider once before are said to be easier to bond with than wild dragons.   A dragon might to be able to sense when its current rider is in distress or has died.   Dragonriders usually ride their dragons using special saddles. Chains attached to the saddle are fastened to the rider's belt, for security. However, a rider could leave their chains dangling, if they wish. A dragonrider may also ride without a saddle, their legs around the dragon's back or neck which Rhaenys is said to have occasionally done for sport.  

History

Ancient Dragons

  In Boros' Unnatural History, the septon considered several legends regarding the origins of dragons. The Valyrians claimed that dragons sprang forth from the Fourteen Flames, a ring of volcanoes on the Valyrian peninsula. In Qarth, tales state dragons came from a second moon in the sky, which was scalded by the sun and cracked like an egg, and a million dragons poured forth. Dragons are also said to have originated from the Shadow Lands beyond Asshai and the islands of the Jade Sea. Ancient tales from Asshai claim that an unnamed people first tamed these dragons, brought them to Valyria, and taught the Valyrians their arts before departing from the annals of history. Boros put forth the theory that dragons were created by Valyrian bloodmages using wyverns from Sothoryos, which are flying reptiles that do not breathe flame. Dragons may also be related to firewyrms, which are wingless reptilian creatures that do breathe flame, that may have lived in the Fourteen Flames before the dragons arrived there.   Dragons populated most of the known world in ages past, and ancient dragon bones have been found as far north as Ib and as south as the jungles of Sothoryos. Stories of the yellow emperor Chai Duq of Yi Ti say he kept a dragon at his court after marrying a noblewoman from Valyria.   In Westeros, Ser Galladon of Morne is said to have slain a dragon with the Just Maid, Crackbones allegedly twisted a dragon's neck into a knot, and Serwyn of the Mirror Shield slew the dragon Urrax. Davos the Dragonslayer is a hero beloved in the Reach, and dragons are also said to have once roosted on Battle Isle until the first Hightower put an end to them. Smallfolk claim that the hot springs below Winterfell are warmed by the breath of a subterranean dragon.   Outside of Westeros, dragons, demons, and other creatures are said to inhabit the cliff caves above the Ash north of Asshai. Sea dragons in the Sunset Sea and ice dragons in the Shivering Sea are recalled in legends and folklore, but scholars have no proof of their existence, or how closely related they are to modern dragons. Nagga is said to have been the first sea dragon.  

Valyrian Freehold

  The Valyrians were originally a civilization sheltered in the Fourteen Flames, a ring of volcanoes on the Valyrian peninsula. They mastered the art of raising dragons, and used them as weapons of war to carve out a massive empire, the Valyrian Freehold. Valyrians told tales of themselves that claimed they were descended from dragons, and were kin to the ones they now controlled. The Valyrians are said to have used binding spells and sorcerous dragon horns to control their dragons.   The Valyrians used dragons to conquer the Old Empire of Ghis in the Ghiscari wars, and hundreds of dragons were employed by Valyria during the Rhoynish Wars.   On the day of the Doom of Valyria in 102 BC, the Fourteen Flames and every hill for five hundred miles exploded, filling the air with ash and smoke and fire, which killed even the dragons in the sky. The dragonlords and dragons gathered in Valyria were all killed. A few dragonlords in Lys and Tyrosh survived, but they were soon killed in the political chaos after the Doom, along with their dragons. In Qohor, the dragonlord Aurion declared himself Emperor of Valyria and led a host of thirty thousand men toward Valyria, but he, his great dragon, and his followers were not seen again.  

Recent Events

 

The Targaryen Dragons

See also: House Targaryen   After the Doom and the chaos afterward, the only dragons known to have survived were on the island of Dragonstone. They belonged to House Targaryen, who had brought five dragons from Valyria when Lord Aenar Targaryen and his family emigrated twelve years before, in 114 BC. Four of these dragons eventually died on Dragonstone, leaving only Balerion. However, the other dragons left eggs behind, and from these hatched Vhagar and Meraxes.   Balerion was eventually claimed by Lord Aegon Targaryen, some time before he married his sisters Visenya and Rhaenys. Aegon became involved in the wars in the Disputed Lands when Pentos and Tyrosh approached him, inviting him to join a grand alliance against Volantis. Aegon flew Balerion to meet the Prince of Pentos and the magisters of the Free City, then flew to Lys in time to set ablaze a Volantene fleet trying to take the city.   As the Century of Blood came to an end, Aegon's interest in Westeros grew. His sister-wife Visenya had claimed Vhagar, and his other sister-wife Rhaenys rode Meraxes. In 2 BC – 1 AC, Aegon and his sisters used Balerion, Vhagar, and Meraxes in their Wars of Conquest against the Seven Kingdoms. Dragons were instrumental in the burning of Harrenhal and the Field of Fire, and the threat of dragons led to the submissions of Torrhen Stark and Sharra Arryn. Dragons were also used in the First Dornish War, which caused the death of Rhaenys and Meraxes at the Hellholt in 10 AC.   Many dragons were hatched after Aegon's Conquest. During Aegon I's reign, "half a dozen" hatchlings were born on Dragonstone. One of the first was Quicksilver, hatched in 7 AC, who bonded with Aegon I's elder son and heir, Aelyx. Another two dragons hatched during the first year of Aelyx's reign, in 38 AC. Dragon fought dragon for the first time since the Doom of Valyria in the Battle Beneath the Gods Eye, resulting in the death of Quicksilver in 43 AC.  

Known Dragons