#the thing about dragons

[aboutdragons]

Marq's Guide to [ttad's] Valyrian Fourteen

DISCLAIMER START

This depiction of the Fourteen Flames of Valyria has been tailored exclusively for my fanfiction, the thing about dragons, and it represents them as they appear in that story as characters with speaking roles. It is by no mean a canonical or a mainstream version of them.

This is a work of fiction. The clothing of the characters is vaguely inspired by a wide array of traditional fashions of East Asia Continent, but it is not them, nor meant to represent them. Creative liberties have been taken, and inaccuracies and embellishments will follow. I’m no expert, no historical reconstructor, just a person with a tablet and an idea; I saw pretty things and became inspired by them, and that is as far as it goes.

Additionally; these are fictional lizard people. They're not even mammals, and they're in no way supposed to represent any human ethnic group.

A Song of Ice and Fire and all associated published works, including the concept of the Valyrian Pantheon, belong to GRRM.

The concept of the appearances of the Valyrian Pantheon showcased below belongs to me. Nobody but me is allowed to use it without permission. 

Contains spoilers for the thing about dragons and its worldbuilding.

(You may ask for permission to use my version of them if it compels you.)

(You may not use or repost my art without explicit permission.)

DISCLAIMER END

[a little legend, full arts, and domains under the cut]

They Of Many Names

The Fourteen Blasphemers

Devourers of Divinity

Ancient Relics of a Bygone Era

Once upon a time, long long ago when the lands were one and mountains were seas and seas were mountains, there lived a race of people under the protective purview of their serpent-god so massive and unfathomable it could wrap twice around the world and bite its own tail. The people were wise and prosperous in their cities of shining black stone, commanding magic and science with equal skill in equal measure.

And then a star fell, and shattered killing their serpent-god and its divine body fell from the sky onto the cities of the black stone along the shattered star. The catastrophic impact killed millions; the aftermath killed more as the sun was blacked out by the smoke and ash and the vegetation and animals and people began their great dying.

And then the star awoke, shattered but alive and wicked and incomprehensible, and its only goal was to consume all semblance of life.

The people, desperate and dying and acutely aware of the impending totality of their doom, turned to the gravest heresy, the foulest blasphemy in one last bid of survival; they imbibed the fallen flesh of their serpent-god, took what power festered in its divine corpse.

It changed them.

Most who committed this sin died; few lived, and soon they were the very last of their kind. Dozens, of what was once billions, extinct in a blink.

And they fought that star that fell, shattered by their serpent-god into a thousand-and-one shards, and made mortal with it. And they fell, but so did it, until only the mightiest on each side were left. And the shattered star, that wicked, hungry interloper--it ran. And it burrowed deep, deep into the ground, underneath the mountains and seas where none could reach. And there it slumbered, awaiting its chance to once more wake and mindlessly devour.

There were fourteen of them left, those sinners. Battered and lost and all alone, their species extinct, their god dead, their world gone. And they, too, slumbered and recovered for years and centuries and millennia and eons; and the continents shifted, and land recovered, and new life grew like the mountains around them, and the world they knew was truly forever gone.

And in time they were found, by accident or providence, and the sinners became gods, their past ignored and forgotten in favour of worship of their heretical power.

None remember the scalefolk anymore. Gone is their wisdom and the world could never recover its magic enough to match their mundane use of it. Their black cities lost under mountains and in the darkest crevices of the world, the great lizards they tamed and commanded gone with them.

There’s a new people now. They inherited this planet bereft of it’s protector serpent-god and most its magic, and all of its impending doom. But they’re hardy, determined folk, and the ancient relics of a long-forgotten sin never quite left. They lay in wait, dormant yet aware, gathering power for the one final hunt.

And then they, too, will go, for even gods die. For the sake of these new people and their future, marred by the catastrophe of the past who grew bereft of divine protection, orphaned in the vastness of space, yet hardy enough to rekindle the magicks most ancient and make them their own.

Balerion

God of Death

Also: Souls, Afterlife, Decay, Funerary Rites

Younger brother of Vhagar, older brother of Morghul, godson of Meleys. A somber yet gentle heart hides under his corpselike visage, for he is Death; foe to some, friend to others, yet inevitable to all.

Vhagar

Goddess of War

Also: Violence, Conquest, Tactics, Peace, Martial Arts

Older sister of Balerion and Morghul, goddaughter of Meleys, wife of Vermithor. The mightiest of gods, unyielding and stubborn, slow to anger and wise in the face of it.

Morghul

God of Darkness

Also: Shadows, Secrecy, Eclipse, Politics, Assassins

Younger brother to Vhagar and Balerion, he who treads in shadows and trades in whispers. Forever content to remain overlooked as he continues trading in secrets and conspiracies.

Meleys

Goddess of Blood

Also: Childbirth, Pregnancy, Motherhood, Life, Magic

Godmother of Vhagar, Balerion, and Morghul, the queen of the gods; the witch of blood, the mother of all. It's easy to forget the visceral horror of her power in the face of her nurturing kindness.

Vermithor

God of Prosperity

Also: Earth, Precious Gems and Metals, Commerce, Trade, Eloquence

Husband of Vhagar, lover of luxuries, trader of goods. With a silver tongue and a golden touch he is said to bring prosperity to anyone he bestows the tiniest morsel of attention on.

Vermax

God of Justice

Also: Law, Order, Wisdom, Oaths

Both fluid and inflexible, they are a god of contradictions. Of justice without law and wisdom without oaths; for they understand the order of things, that one may make the other, but never in reverse.

Arrax

God of Knowledge

Also: Medicine, Diseases, Poisons, Learning

The Pale Serpent bereft of the crown of horns of his kin, the last true scion of the serpent-god. He before whom no illness nor poison may retain its mystical secrecy.

Tyraxes

Goddess of Flowers

Also: Spring, Nature, Growth, Rebirth, Chaos, Visions, Madness

The willing sacrifice, imbibing a piece of the Waytree and paying with her very mind for a chance of tomorrow; and though the fairest flower became corrupted, her wish was nonetheless granted.

Tessarion

God of the Sky

Also: Art, Music, Wind, Birds, Freedom, Revolution

A creature of freedom of beauty, both flighty and incredibly steadfast in their convictions. A lover of all beauty, intolerant of oppression, an inspiring force for the deepest of desires.

Shrykos

God of Journeys

Also: Doors, Keys, Travels, Adventures, Transitions, Change

Change is necessary, stagnation, no matter how comfortable, brings doom. And they are willing to take any risk necessary to push the causality ever so slightly off its trajectory in hope of something better.

Meraxes

Goddess of the Moon

Also: Tides, Seafoam, Fish Migrations

Older twin sister of Caraxes, wife of Syrax. The calm before the storm and the pragmatic face of the moon and sea both, who leads sailors forward with calm seas and the grace of her cold light.

Caraxes

God of the Sea

Also: Salt, Reefs, Seastorms, Sealife

Younger twin brother of Meraxes, the storm after the calm, the violent unpredictability of the sea and its unbridled beauty. One thing is known; he shall not suffer any who'd limit him.

Syrax

Goddess of the Sun

Also: Rituals, Festivities, Celebrations, Alcohol, Daytime

Wife of Meraxes. The warmth of the sun, the safety of the daylight, the joy of celebration, yet she is who brings the warning, and the holy reverence of all rites and bonds forged in flame.

Gaelithox

God of Fire

Also: Heat, Volcanoes, Metallurgy, Forging, Smithing, Glass

The second mightiest of all gods; the dragonmaker who found a way to bestow the most ancient magicks of living fire and blood unto mortals by forging flesh and magic into living shape that became known as dragons.

Which one do you like the most? If you have any questions/thoughts don't hesitate to share them.

(I'll post it on other platforms soon enough)

[killergirlfuria]

just binge read the thing about dragons on ao3, I'm obsessed! I love the characterizations and the dragons! Do you have an upload schedule for it or? Might have to do some fanart 😎

Awe, I'm really happy you enjoyed it! People liking my writing makes me happy in general <3

I don't have an upload schedule for any of my fics, as I kinda write them before I post them. For ttad specifically the ideal pace is a chapter a month, but like now between ch3 and ch4 I can get gripped with procrastination again. I have things pre-planned, but I have nothing pre-written.

I welcome fanart wholeheartedly <3

[artkaninchenbau]

A h-heartfelt reunion..?

Bonus

[mothwriter]

[allyriadayne]

House Strong during the Dance of the Dragons

[imjulia-andilikecats]

Jacaerys "OH Not Another Step Parent" Targaryen

[catmask]

okay i think i am learning.... something

[crispyliza]

I've got you all figured out fanartists

[caemidraws]

---

[proxycrit]

(I point. Gently, in the voice of somebody who’s mind touched by the outer gods, i whisper truth in your ears:

Your honor the horses are now lesbians

(Anyways here’s the designs)

[aboutdragons]

Why does Rhaenyra not like Lyra, and what will their relationship be going forward

Simply jealousy. Rhaenyra is currently a teen, which makes a bad-boy-coded guy like Daemon incredibly appealing to her. Given that Daemon is very firmly Team Lyra and follows her around like a stray puppy is making Rhaenyra upset. She wants his attention and she's not getting it and she doesn't get why.

(It's because she's a child barely older than Lyra, and with Daemon's character development he's been having in ttad, he could never see her as a potential partner.)

Lyra is going to try to not to antagonize Rhaenyra too much, but she's no Rhaenyra's minder, so they will largely exist in this tentative neutrality where they don't really like eachother but they don't hate eachother either.

Rhae is going to make several choices Lyra vehemently disagrees with before she learns some very important lessons, but ultimately she will learn them and her and Lyra will end on a mostly positive-neutral grounds. There will be no real love or friendship there, though, they're much too different to truly get along.

[5ftboy]

How is Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves different from other blockbuster action films?

[egophiliac]

I have SO many thoughts about everything and they are in no kind of order yet, so here's just some quick little bits in the meantime!

I am not normal about any of these characters!

[myosotisa]

some of y'all have seriously forgotten that Eddie is an absolute loser who doodles dragons on every single piece of paper he can get his hands on

[littlegirlinvisible]

So what was the fucking point in all this then?

AEGON S1EP09: Let me go! I have no wish to rule! No taste for duty! I'm not suited.