Old Valyria - Tumblr Posts

Jaenara Belaerys and her dragon, Terrax.

I find it interesting that Targaryen antis will go on and on about protecting the cultures of the Andals, First Men, Dornish, and the Ghiscari while condemning and wanting to eradicate Valyrian traditions.

Valyrian customs, like incest, are constantly condemned and hated, meanwhile any incest the other houses engage in on a regular basis are ignored or excused. Joanna Lannister is Tywin's cousin, the Starks only married other Northern lords (meaning a very small gene pool to choose from), and uncle-niece marriages were common.

Antis also love to ignore a crucial fact about the Targaryens. They are one of the last Valyrian houses and the last house of dragonlords. Houses Velaryon and Celtigar are the only other Valyrian houses still in existence, and House Celtigar has long since lost their connection to their Valyrian roots. There's a reason why the Velaryons are the house the Targaryens marry with the most. It has nothing to do with "blood purity", it's about preserving their dying culture.

The Valyrian culture is basically dead by the time of the the Conquest, even more so in ASOIAF. The Valyrian religion is only practiced in Volantis by some aristocrats, Lys and Volantis are the only places where the Valyrian people still survive other than the Targaryens and Velaryons. As time goes on, the Targaryen and Velaryon blood becomes more and more mixed with that of the Andals and First Men, one day, they will be like the Celtigars, only having their roots be Valyrian.

Valyrian magic was once the most powerful in the world, able to even tame dragons. However, after the Doom, the secrets of their magic were lost. This is why Valyrian steel, glass candles, and their horns are so rare and valuable. The Freehold was once the center of magic in the world, now that has moved to Asshai and magic is slowly dying out.

Therefore, it makes sense that the Targaryens seek to protect their culture in what ways they can. Aegon the Conqueror sacrificed many of their traditions to appease the Westerosi lords and others were abandoned over time.

Now, it does make sense to not approve of some Valyrian traditions, like incest, blood magic, and slavery. However, using these as excuses to hate the Targaryens while supporting other cultures who have similar or identical traditions is just hypocritical. Condemning the Valyrians for slavery while saying Dany leading a fight against Ghiscari slavers is wrong is not a real argument against Valyria. Saying Targaryen incest is wrong makes sense if you hold everyone else to the same modern standards. Condemning the Targaryen and/or Valyrian conquests is fine, but then you'd have to condemn the Starks' conquest of the North or the Andals invasion.

Basically, if you have issues with Valyrian culture/traditions that makes sense, but condemning them while supporting other cultures that practice the same things you condemn Valyrians for is just hypocritical.

Gotta love all those people crying about incest who act as if Dany and Jon having sex is more immoral than 30+ year-old Drogo raping 13 year-old Dany. Incest is wrong because it can cause genetic defects and is often non-consensual (the older person taking advantage of the younger person) but I don't get how consensual relationships between adults of the same age who don't even know they're related is worse than child sexual abuse?

I know … People are so close-minded, and very ignorant about incest in general. Incest simply means sex between people who are related by blood. It is not “non-consensual” by definition. I have read scientific articles about it. Incest causes genetic defects only because it results in homozygosity, which means possessing two identical forms of a gene. In itself homozygosity is not bad (we all are homozygotes for some genes), but it increases the chances of being affected by deleterious (harmful) traits. There are very few practical studies made on the subject (because nowadays people don’t practice incest), most of them are theoretical, but this increase is not enormous. Besides, there is also something called “outbreeding” (the opposite of inbreeding,) which can also have bad consequences on the genes.

But anyway this is a quick scientific explanation (that you didn’t ask for I know I’m sorry) of incest in our real world, and the point I am trying to make is that real incest is nowhere near as dramatic as people think it is. 

Incest in ASOIAF is completely different. Targaryens and Valyrians didn’t suffer from any physical or mental deformitites - not more than those who didn’t practice incest. The Valyrians were, and by far, the most superior, advanced and powerful civilization on Planetos. They rode dragons, tamed volcanoes, built scyscrapers, used magic, and were the driving force for development and evolution in the world. Not to mention they were stunningly beautiful. So clearly inbreeding didn’t affect them in a negative way. The famous “Targaryen madness” that some members of the House displayed was an excess of cruelty, and there are no genes for cruelty. I don’t think it has anything to do with incest but rather with the dragon blood they have in them. Arguably the cruelest person of House Targaryen was Aerion Targaryen (Master Aemon’ elder brother) and he was not inbred at all. Neither his parents nor his four grandparents were related. Yet he still had the “Targaryen madness”. He is the one who drank wildfire because he believed it would transform him into a dragon.

And about the love part, I am so tired of fighting this battle … I don’t see anything wrong with two people loving each other and wanting to be together. One of the reason I ship Jaime and Cersei is because they are the only consensual couple among the main and recurring characters in ASOIAF till now (Jon and Daenerys haven’t yet met). All the other relations are either rape (Daenerys and Khal Drogo), arranged marriages (Catelyn and Eddard), prostitution (Shae and Tyrion), coerced sex (Ygritte and Jon) and so on. People are disgusted by incest although it is based on love and desire, but are fine with rape, arranged marriages, and other forms of abuse … 

Another thing that annoys me to no end about Jon and Daenerys is that fans of House Stark believe that the House didn’t practice incest … lol. Nobody in Westeros practices sibling incest apart from House Targaryen, but cousin marriages and uncle/aunt/niece/nephew marriages occur regularly. People who think they know House Stark are claiming that Jon was raised according to “Stark morals” and is “too honorable” for incest (as if incest is dishonorable), meanwhile here I am clutching my book The World of Ice and Fire in which it is plainly written that at least two Stark men married their nieces, and cousin marriages were regular. I don’t know what they will do on the show (with D&D you can never know, maybe they will even make Daenerys concerned about incest), but book Jon certainly won’t be much disturbed by the fact that she is his aunt.

Anyway. The excuse people use against incest that “children can have genetic defects” is just that, an excuse. A lot of people believe Daenerys is barren and can’t have children - yet the same people are still against Jonerys because “it is incest!”. Why would they be, if they think she can’t have children? Incest is taboo in our world, and they’ve been conditioned to be against it. And very few people are able to look past what they’ve been taught, even in a Fantasy book series.

𝙳𝚘𝚑𝚊𝚎𝚛ā𝚜, 𝚅𝚑𝚊𝚐𝚊𝚛! 𝙻𝚢𝚔𝚒𝚛ī

"𝘐'𝘮 𝘯𝘦𝘹𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘦 . 𝘚𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘮𝘦 𝘐 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥." - Aemond "One eye" Targaryen

cr: @.rogueprince

The dragon has three heads ✧.*

I absolutely love drawing the Conquerors and all the details that go into them. Aegon's design is heavily inspired by @/tumbledrylow___ on TikTok!

Daenys the Dreamer

Honestly enamoured by divine, slightly uncanny targaryen women. I love them.