#old ghis – @horizon-verizon on Tumblr

This fandom is so baffling because you get people who claim that Valyria is an inherently and singularly evil civilization and that anyone who descends from it or emulates any part of it is also evil and that it's uniquely exploitative because for a time it ruled the slave trade that both predated Valyria and continued on after it. But then they wail about the poor Ghiscari slavers who *checks notes* actually established and once again rule the slave trade and how Dany is so evil and imperialist for "destroying their culture" but also it apparently makes her a slaver by association...

Idk there's a combination of some troubling ideologies behind this interpretation.

#dany antis #the targaryens #fandom critical #asoiaf fandom #the ghiscari #the valyrians #fandom commentary #old valyria #old ghis

horizon-verizon reblogged

[hair study] Old Ghis

#old ghis #the ghiscari #asoiaf fanart #a song of ice and fire #asoiaf #dreamsofdany

horizon-verizon

The most vital of the Ghiscari cities is also the smallest and the newest, and no less a pretender to greatness: New Ghis, left to its own devices on its isle. There, its masters have formed iron legions in mimicry of the legions of the Old Empire, but unlike the Unsullied, these are free men, as the soldiers of the Old Empire were.

A World of Ice and Fire, pg. 14

#old ghis #new ghis #the ghiscari #the ghiscari legions #awoiaf quotes #awoiaf #a world of ice and fire #asoiaf quotes #a song of ice and fire #asoiaf #ancient history: the rise of valyria

horizon-verizon

What now remains of the once-proud empire of Old Ghis is a paltry thing—a few cities clinging like sores to Slaver’s Bay and another that pretends to be Old Ghis come again. For after the Doom came to Valyria, the cities of Slaver’s Bay were able to throw off the last of the Valyrian shackles, ruling themselves in truth rather than playing at it. And what remained of the Ghiscari swiftly reestablished their trade in slaves—though where once they won them by conquest, now they purchased and bred them.

A World of Ice and Fire, pg. 14

#old ghis #slaver's bay #the ghiscari #essos #awoiaf quotes #awoiaf #a world of ice and fire #a song of ice and fire #asoiaf #asoiaf quotes #ancient history: the rise of valyria

horizon-verizon

The vast continent, stretching from the narrow sea to the fabled Jade Sea and faraway Ulthos, seems to be the place where civilization as we know it developed. The first of these (not withstanding the dubious claims of Qarth, the YiTish legends of the Great Empire of the Dawn, and the difficulties of finding any truth in the tales of legendary Asshai) was rooted in Old Ghis: a city built upon slavery. The legendary founder of the city, Grazdan the Great, remains so revered that men of the slaver families are still often given his name. It was he who, according to the oldest histories of the Ghiscari, founded the lockstep legions with their tall shields and three spears, which were the first to fight as disciplined bodies. Old Ghis and its army proceeded to colonize its surroundings, then, pressing on, to subjugate its neighbors. Thus was the first empire born, and for centuries it reigned supreme.

A World of Ice and Fire, pg. 13

#old ghis #the ghiscari #ghiscari slavery #grazdan the great #the ghiscari wars #the ghiscari empire #essos #a world of ice and fire #awoiaf quotes #awoiaf #asoiaf quotes #asoiaf #a song of ice and fire #the ghiscari legions #ancient history: the rise of valyria

horizon-verizon

In such fragments of Barth’s Unnatural History as remain, the septon appears to have considered various legends examining the origins of dragons and how they came to be controlled by the Valyrians. The Valyrians themselves claimed that dragons sprang forth as the children of the Fourteen Flames, while in Qarth the tales state that there was once a second moon in the sky. One day this moon was scalded by the sun and cracked like an egg, and a million dragons poured forth. In Asshai, the tales are many and confused, but certain texts—all impossibly ancient—claim that dragons first came from the Shadow, a place where all of our learning fails us. These Asshai’i histories say that a people so ancient they had no name first tamed dragons in the Shadow and brought them to Valyria, teaching the Valyrians their arts before departing from the annals. Yet if men in the Shadow had tamed dragons first, why did they not conquer as the Valyrians did? It seems likelier that the Valyrian tale is the truest. But there were dragons in Westeros, once, long before the Targaryens came, as our own legends and histories tell us. If dragons did first spring from the Fourteen Flames, they must have been spread across much of the known world before they were tamed. And, in fact, there is evidence for this, as dragon bones have been found as far north as Ib, and even in the jungles of Sothoryos. But the Valyrians harnessed and subjugated them as no one else could.

A World of Ice and Fire, pg. 13 [The Origin of Valyrian Dragons]

#awoiaf quotes #awoiaf #a world of ice and fire #the valyrians #old valyria #valyria #a song of ice and fire #asoiaf #the ghiscari #old ghis #ghis #valyrian history #fourteen flames #septon barth #barth's unnatural history #asoiaf dragons #ancient history: the rise of valyria

horizon-verizon

The five great wars between the Freehold and Old Ghis when the world was young are the stuff of legend—conflagrations that ended each time in the victory of the Valyrians over the Ghiscari. It was during the fifth and final war that the Freehold chose to make sure there would be no sixth war. The ancient brick walls of Old Ghis, first erected by Grazdan the Great in ancient days, were razed. The colossal pyramids and temples and homes were given over to dragonflame. The fields were sown with salt, lime, and skulls. Many of the Ghiscari were slain, and still others were enslaved and died laboring for their conquerors. Thus the Ghiscari became but another part of the new Valyrian empire, and in time they forgot the tongue that Grazdan spoke, learning instead High Valyrian. So do empires end and others arise.

A World of Ice and Fire, pg. 13 [Valyria vs Old Ghis]

#old valyria #valyria #the valyrians #awoiaf quotes #awoiaf #ghis #old ghis #the ghiscari #essos #a world of ice and fire #asoiaf #a song of ice and fire #the valyrian freehold #the valyrians vs the ghiscari #valyrian wars #the ghiscari language #ancient history: the rise of valyria

horizon-verizon

It was on the great peninsula across from Slaver’s Bay that those who brought an end to the empire of Old Ghis—though not to all of their ways—originated. Sheltered there, amidst the great volcanic mountains known as the Fourteen Flames, were the Valyrians, who learned to tame dragons and make them the most fearsome weapon of war that the world ever saw. The tales the Valyrians told of themselves claimed they were descended from dragons and were kin to the ones they now controlled.

A World of Ice and Fire, pg. 13 [Valyria PT1]

#old valyria #valyria #awoiaf #awoiaf quotes #a world of ice and fire #the valyrians #essos #old ghis #ghis #the ghiscari #a song of ice and fire #asoiaf #fourteen flames #ancient history: the rise of valyria