The Blood of Old Valyria Part V: How to Build a Dragon (Spoilers Extended)
Another day, another post and another corny title but this is Part V of what should be an 8 or 9 part series (I originally said 3-4, hey George I can do it too) on Valyrian Blood, Valyrians, Dragons, etc. in which I hope to discuss any of any and all things involved.
Part I: Current Cast of Characters(about current characters with Valyrian blood)
Part II: Here There Be Dragons(about dragon history/origin/myths)
Part III: The Last of the Dragons(about the last dragons alive)
Part IV: How to Build a Dragon(how to kill/who killed the dragons)
"They shall come day and night to see the wonder that has been born again into the world, and when they see they shall lust. For dragons are fire made flesh, and fire is power." -ACOK,Daenerys II
Part V is about attempts to bring dragons back
#Intro
The death of dragons has altered the asoiaf world in numerous ways. From a power vaccuum created by the Doom allowing the Dothraki to become a power to the downfall of the Targaryens a world without dragons and the magic associated with them is readily apparent:
Viserys had told her that the last Targaryen dragons had died no more than a century and a half ago, during the reign of Aegon III, who was called the Dragonbane. That did not seem so long ago to Dany. "Everywhere?" she said, disappointed. "Even in the east?" Magic had died in the west when the Doom fell on Valyria and the Lands of the Long Summer, and neither spell-forged steel nor stormsingers nor dragons could hold it back, but Dany had always heard that the east was different. -AGOT, Daenerys III
and
"Oh, pardon, I was just remembering something old Wisdom Pollitor told me once, when I was an acolyte. I'd asked him why so many of our spells seemed, well, not as effectual as the scrolls would have us believe, and he said it was because magic had begun to go out of the world the day the last dragon died." -ACOK, Tyrion XI
#Attempts
"He is always with the red woman, and . . . he is not in his right mind, I fear. This talk of a stone dragon . . . madness, I tell you, sheer madness. Did we learn nothing from Aerion Brightfire, from the nine mages, from the alchemists? Did we learn nothing from Summerhall? No good has ever come from these dreams of dragons. -ASOS, Davos III
and:
The look Stannis gave her was dark. "Nine mages crossed the sea to hatch Aegon the Third's cache of eggs. Baelor the Blessed prayed over his for half a year. Aegon the Fourth built dragons of wood and iron. Aerion Brightflame drank wildfire to transform himself. The mages failed, King Baelor's prayers went unanswered, the wooden dragons burned, and Prince Aerion died screaming."-ASOS, Davos V
The Nine Mages
They even attempted to restore the Targaryen dragons, despite Aegon's fears—for which none could blame him after witnessing his mother being eaten alive. He dreaded the sight of dragons—and had even less desire to ride upon one—but he was convinced that they would cow those who sought to oppose him. At Viserys's suggestion, he sent away for nine mages from Essos, attempting to use their arts to kindle a clutch of eggs. This proved both a debacle and a failure. -TWOIAF, The Targaryen Kings: Aegon III
Months of Praying
Baelor the Blessed prayed over his eggs for over 6 months and it resulted in nothing:
There were dragons here two hundred years ago, Sam found himself thinking, as he watched the cage making a slow descent. They would just have flown to the top of the Wall. Queen Alysanne had visited Castle Black on her dragon, and Jaehaerys, her king, had come after her on his own. Could Silverwing have left an egg behind? Or had Stannis found one egg on Dragonstone? Even if he has an egg, how can he hope to quicken it? Baelor the Blessed had prayed over his eggs, and other Targaryens had sought to hatch theirs with sorcery. All they got for it was farce and tragedy. -AFFC, Samwell I
Build Me Dragons!
This was far from the greatest folly of Aegon IV's stillborn invasion of Dorne, however, for His Grace had also turned to the dubious pyromancers of the ancient Guild of Alchemists, commanding them to "build me dragons." These wood-and-iron monstrosities, fitted with pumps that shot jets of wildfire, might perhaps have been of some use in a siege. But Aegon proposed to drag these devices up and through the Boneway, where there are places so steep that the Dornishmen have carved steps.
They did not come even that far, however, for the first of the dragons went up in flames in the kingswood, far from the Boneway. Soon all seven were burning. Hundreds of men burned in those fires, along with almost a quarter of the kingswood. After that, the king gave up his ambitions and never spoke of Dorne again. -Aegon IV
The Prince who thought he was a Dragon
Aerion Brightflame drank a cup of wildfire thinking it would transform him into a dragon.
"Aerion the Monstrous?" Jon knew that name. "The Prince Who Thought He Was a Dragon" was one of Old Nan's more gruesome tales. His little brother Bran had loved it.
"The very one, though he named himself Aerion Brightflame. One night, in his cups, he drank a jar of wildfire, after telling his friends it would transform him into a dragon, but the gods were kind and it transformed him into a corpse. Not quite a year after, King Maekar died in battle against an outlaw lord." -ACOK, Jon I
The Mad King
This one isn't confirmed by any means, but Aerys was mad and Jaime's thoughts do seem to make some sense.
"My Sworn Brothers were all away, you see, but Aerys liked to keep me close. I was my father's son, so he did not trust me. He wanted me where Varys could watch me, day and night. So I heard it all." He remembered how Rossart's eyes would shine when he unrolled his maps to show where the substance must be placed. Garigus and Belis were the same. "Rhaegar met Robert on the Trident, and you know what happened there. When the word reached court, Aerys packed the queen off to Dragonstone with Prince Viserys. Princess Elia would have gone as well, but he forbade it. Somehow he had gotten it in his head that Prince Lewyn must have betrayed Rhaegar on the Trident, but he thought he could keep Dorne loyal so long as he kept Elia and Aegon by his side. The traitors want my city, I heard him tell Rossart, but I'll give them naught but ashes. Let Robert be king over charred bones and cooked meat. The Targaryens never bury their dead, they burn them. Aerys meant to have the greatest funeral pyre of them all. Though if truth be told, I do not believe he truly expected to die. Like Aerion Brightfire before him, Aerys thought the fire would transform him . . . that he would rise again, reborn as a dragon, and turn all his enemies to ash. -ASOS, Jaime V
Euron's Myrish Wizard
"Woe." The Crow's Eye sipped from his silver cup. "I once held a dragon's egg in this hand, brother. This Myrish wizard swore he could hatch it if I gave him a year and all the gold that he required. When I grew bored with his excuses, I slew him. As he watched his entrails sliding through his fingers he said, 'But it has not been a year.'" He laughed. "Cragorn's died, you know." -AFFC, The Reaver
So why didn't any of those work? Apart from some of them just being completely idiotic (I'm talking to you Aegon the Unworthy) most of them didn't have the right spell/elements/magic/whatever. And while I doubt we will ever know the exact "recipe", from my research I have found that most "magical" events require several things:
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Some type of sacrifice
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Blood (Preferably king's blood)
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Magical Element you are trying to use/summon (such as dragon egg)
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Source of Magic you are trying to use (Fire/Ice/etc.)
Ive posted/commented before on how each of these is present in most magical things we see happen:
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Children of the Forest/Hammer of the Waters
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Forging of Lightbringer
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Creation of the Others (possible)
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Victarion/Moqorro
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Summer's "Winged Snake" (very unlikely imo)
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Possibly even the Doom
#Current/Future
Daenerys' Dragons
Let's start with the first and most obvious. In this situation, on Drogo's funeral pyre, she has:
a)Three dragon eggs (gifted to her from Illyrio Mopatis)
b)King's Blood (Drogo)
b)Blood Sacrifice (Mirri Maz Durr)
c)Fire (She burns the funeral pyre)
This resulted in the hatching of Drogon/Viserion/Rhaegal.
The Tragedy at Summerhall
As we know Aegon V (Egg) wanted dragons in order to enforce pro smallfolk reforms across the realm and believed that he only would be able to do so with dragons. From the information we have it seemed he was trying to get the eggs to hatch at Summerhall when something went terribly wrong.
the blood of the dragon gathered in one … … seven eggs, to honor the seven gods, though the king's own septon had warned … … pyromancers … … wild fire … … flames grew out of control … towering … burned so hot that … … died, but for the valor of the Lord Comman … -TWOIAF
It seems like Egg tried to hatch dragons with:
a)Dragon eggs (7 eggs are mentioned)
b)King's Blood & c)Blood Sacrifice
I won't go as far as to say that Targaryen madness took over Egg and he was going to sacrifice someone, but it is interesting to note that those who survived the Tragedy (Rhaella/Rhaegar/Gyldayn/Ghost of High Heart) wouldn't speak of what happened. If it was just a fire that got out of control it seems like it would be easier to speak about. But if something involving blood/sacrifice it makes more sense.
Egg also spent the last years of his reign looking for ancient lore about the dragon breeding of Valyria, and it was said that Aegon commissioned journeys to places as far away as Asshai, with the hopes of finding texts and knowledge that had not been preserved in Westeros.
d)Fire (It is well known that the fire got out of hand and resulted in the death of Aegon V, Prince Duncan and Ser Duncan the Tall).
We also know that sorcery was involved.
Melisandre/Stannis/Stone Dragon
The discussion between Mel/Stannis about waking the "stone dragon" is well known.
1)Dragon eggs (The "fabled horde of dragon eggs" on Dragonstone is mentioned several times.) Including this once they leave for the wall:
Lord Hallyne of the Guild of Alchemists presented himself, to ask that his pyromancers be allowed to hatch any dragon's eggs that might turn up upon Dragonstone, now that the isle was safely back in royal hands. "If any such eggs remained, Stannis would have sold them to pay for his rebellion," the queen told him. She refrained from saying that the plan was mad. Ever since the last Targaryen dragon had died, all such attempts had ended in death, disaster, or disgrace. -AFFC, Cersei VIII
2)Blood Sacrifice & 3)Kings Blood
This is where Edric Storm came into the picture in ASOS, and where Shireen will come into the picture in TWOW.
4)Fire (Melisandre has already burned several people alive to aid their cause)
Do I think Mel/Stannis will wake a stone dragon? No (it is possibly she pulls an Alys Rivers thugh) But, similar to Summerhall I think they will come close and mess up what is needed to "wake a dragon".
Euron & Oldtown
Reading the Forsaken, informs readers that Euron is currently traveling towards Oldtown with the following:
A)Dragon Egg (He gave one to the Faceless Men to kill Balon, so he may have more, but I think Euron is actually trying to summon something else besides a dragon)
B)King's Blood (Falia Flowers is carrying his child and she is lashed to the prow of his ship)
C)Blood Sacrifice (Euron has gathered warlocks/septons/priests and tied them to the prows of the ships. I doubt he even means to defeat the Redwyne fleet, but actually just create a large blood sacrifice and try to summon something from the deep like Cthulu/sea dragon/kraken)
D)Fire (In this scenario Oldtown must burn)
From a smoking tower, a great stone beast took wing, breathing shadow fire. -ACOK, Daenerys IV
This vision Dany has could be Oldtown and Mel also sees towers by the sea being overrun:
I saw towers by the sea, submerged beneath a black and bloody tide. -ADWD, Melisandre I
and Moqorro describes what seems to be Euron:
"Only their shadows," Moqorro said. "One most of all. A tall and twisted thing with one black eye and ten long arms, sailing on a sea of blood." -ADWD, Tyrion VIII
Something else that should be noted is that since Euron paid the Faceless Men with a dragon egg, that egg could be in Oldtown with the FM who is wearing Pate's face currently and trying to get access to the Citadel's wealth of knowledge including "The Death of Dragons". During the burning of Oldtown this egg could hatch.
Another thing worth mentioning is that major themes in ASOIAF are that sorcery is like a sword without a hilt, there is no safe way to grasp it. And only death can pay for life.
TLDR: Discussion about attempts to bring back dragons
Posted Apr 30, 2020, 1:00 PM UTC