Things you should know before watching Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon

House of Dragon, the prequel of Game of Thrones became popular even before release because of the already existing loyal fan base of Game of thrones. Whether you watch Game of Thrones or House of Dragon, it is very much likely to get confused about certain characters or incidents owing to the vast History of Game of Thrones Universe.  If you want to get some clarity about their vast History in simple and crisp manner without any spoilers of the show, continue reading the post.

The Game of Thrones Universe

This Universe of Game of thrones started 1000s of years back and to understand the story first you need to understand the map of this Universe. The story of this world revolves around two Continent of this Universe-Essos and Westeros.

Let’s start with Essos first……

Essos

The first Kingdom of Essos was The Great Empire of Dawn, its Ruler used to be called the God on Earth and this Kingdom remained in power for almost 10,000 years. This Kingdom is so much old having magical Legends in it that even in the present world of Game of Thrones, it is considered Mythology. Next Empire in Essos was Golden Empire of Yiti, they also ruled for many centuries having several dynasties over the period of time. In Parallel, there were two more Kingdoms in Essos, Kingdom of Sarnor and Old Empire of Ghis.

Old Empire of Ghis was very powerful. The Slavery and the concept of Unsullied Soldiers as shown in Game of Thrones started from this Empire only. This Empire gradually expanded and ruled over most of the Essos.

The Rise of Valyrians in Essos

During the rule of Old Empire of Ghis, there was a group of Islands in Essos called Valyria. This Island was mainly ignored by The Ghis Empire as the habitants of Valyria were primarily Shepherds. One day, these Shepherds found Dragon Eggs near Volcano and that changed the entire History of Essos. These Shepherds petted the Dragons, trained them and slowly the Valyrians became the most powerful people in Essos and after some battles, the Valyrians completely destroyed the Empire of Ghis. Some people of Ghis who survived ran away by crossing the Sea to a small Island and called it the New Ghis.

With the help of Dragons, the Valarians started ruling Entire Essos except the area beyond a range of Mountains called Bone Mountains where some tribes used to live (Dothraki and other tribes).

All these incidents happened in Essos over a period of thousands of years simultaneously a lot happened in Westeros as well.

Westeros

Thousands of years back in Westeros, there were only Children of Forests, a magical race and Giants in entire Westeros. About some twelve thousand years before the main events of Game of Thrones series, some people referred as First Men came to Westeros from Essos through a narrow land bridge. This happened much before the Valyrian Rise in Essos, probably during the time of Great Empire of Dawn or even before that.

The First Men when came from Essos started destroying the trees of Westeros which used to be carved by Children of Forest. First Men used to believe that Children of Forest are spying on them through these trees. This led to regular conflicts between Children of Forests, Giants and the First Men. In view of these conflicts, the Children of Forest destroyed the land bridge between Essos and Westeros to prevent more people of Essos from coming to Westeros.

Such Conflicts between Children of Forest, Giants and First Men continued for almost 2000 years. Due to these conflicts, the Children of Forest used their magical powers to make White Walkers to strengthen their side against the First Men. Eventually, the First Men forged a peace treaty with Children of Forest, according to which the Forests of Westeros were given to Children of Forest and the farms & fields were given to the First Men. The two races coexisted in peace for a thousand years.

Then, they were attacked by army of White Walkers who were not in control of Children of Forest anymore. During this war, the First Men unified with Children of Forest & Giants against White Walkers. This war called, the Long Night continued for almost 10 years. The White Walkers were pushed back to extreme North and the Bran, the Builder from First Men build a wall called “The Wall” to separate White Walkers. After this war, only a few of Children of Forest were left and some of the First Men trapped on the other side of the Wall and had to remain there only (Commonly known as Wildlings in Game of Thrones).

How Targaryens came to Westeros?

After the rise of Valyrian Freehold due to Dragons, the entire Essos was under the rule of some Dragon Lords. One of such Dragon Lord family was Targaryen Family. One day, the daughter of Targaryen Lord had a prophetic dream, showing destruction of Valyria by Fire. Her father paid attention to her dream and moved his entire Targaryen family and other belongings to Dragonstone, an island in the narrow sea on the eastern coast of Westeros. With them, they took five dragons including Balerion. After 12 years, the dream came true and whole Valyria got destroyed by volcanic eruption and thereafter, the House Targaryen was the only family of Dragon Riders that survived.

Aegon: The Conqueror

The Targaryen family remained peacefully in Dragonstone for some centuries until the Aegon I Targaryen became the Lord of Dragonstone. The Aegon I Targaryen decided to conquer Westeros with his sister wives, Visenya and Rhaenya. He conquered Westeros and united the lands (except Dorne and the land beyond the Wall). To rule over Westeros, he made Iron Throne in Kings Landing from the Swords of defeated Kingdoms.

The downfall of Targaryen Rule

Targaryens continued to rule over Westeros for almost two centuries, then the Civil war of Targaryens began. It made Targaryens very weak, their dragons died and no one knew how to hatch the remaining few Eggs (The Eggs hatched by Daenerys Targaryen in Game of Thrones).Targaryens continued to rule for many centuries through politics, they even merged House of Martell (Dorne Kingdom) in their Kingdom through a marriage alliance.  Eventually, the Targaryens reign came to end after Robert’s Rebellion, the story thereafter we have seen in Game of Thrones.

This was the basic History of Game of Thrones Universe, although we have skipped many important incidents to avoid Spoilers of Game of Thrones & House of the Dragon.

Hope you liked it.