Dawn Age
A History of Ice And Fire
Hopefully you’re reading this because you watch Game of Thrones and you’re trying to figure out answers to questions like “Who the hell were the Andals?” or “Why should I care about what happened during the “Blackfyre Rebellion”. Obviously the best answer I can give you is to just…you know…read the books. Or I guess I could just — uh — tell you.
Before man inhabited Westeros it was a continent covered in magic and mythical creatures like Giants, Dire Wolves, and Unicorns.
Well, you know, the HBO version.
Much better.
Westeros was also inhabited by the Children of the Forest — which are basically immortals that always look like children. Kind of like that creepy movie about the orphan. The Children of the forest were gifted with many supernatural powers, worshipped the nameless gods of forest, stream and stone, and lived off the land. It is unknown how long the children lived alone in Westeros, nor where they themselves came from.
The First Men crossed into what would later be called Dorne from Essos, using the land bridge that connected the continents called the Arm of Dorne.
This happened about 12,000 years before the events of the show take place.
They came with weapons of bronze and shields of boiled leather, and brought the first horses and their own gods. They cut down and burned weirwoods to clear land for themselves. Weirwood Trees were sacred to the Children of the Forest, so they took up arms against the human invaders.
It is said that the war lasted for a thousand years. Although the Children of the Forest possessed powerful magic, the First Men were more numerous, larger, stronger, and more technologically advanced.
Using their powerful magic in a futile attempt to end the invasion, the Children of the Forest broke the Arm of Dorne separating Westeros from Essos, and flooded the Neck creating the swampy landscape it is today.
Eventually wise men of both races forged the Pact at the Isle of Faces, marking the end of the Dawn Age and the beginning of the Age of Heroes.
