The people of Westeros lived in divided lands and fought for power for their first several thousand years. The Seven Kingdoms unified under Aegon the Conqueror’s iron fist. His campaign of violence and brutality brought each sovereign region to its knees until all were one. Aegon was the father of a new dynasty and the son of an old one. Before dragons and their riders forged the Seven Kingdoms, they ruled Valyria. To get Valyria, they had to burn the Ghiscari Empire.
Almost all of Gameof Thronesis set during a war that throws countless lives into turmoil. The War of the Five Kings is the natural consequence of the despotic child sociopathwho inherits the throne. The history of the Known World is laden with similar conflicts. The old continent, Essos, was frequently dominated by empires that fought as savagely as the Seven Kingdoms. Their most notable war left the once-dominant government in ruins and set the stage for the realm’s future.
Where was the Ghiscari Empire?
The Old Empire of Ghis rose from Ghiscar, a central southernregion of Essoswest of the Red Wastes. It sits on the eastern banks of the Gulf of Grief and due north from the Summer Sea. On the southern coast, just north of the Ghiscari Straight, a man named Grazdan the Great founded a city called Old Ghis. Grazdan was a legendary leader and a mighty warrior. He assembled and commanded an army called the Lockstep Legion, which was thought to be unbeatable. Grazdan’s mighty force spread from the small city, taking control of Sailor’s Bay. They invaded and consumed all they could reach, enslaving millions to their cause.
Old Ghis expanded into the Old Empire of Ghis, using their enslaved masses to construct spectacular structures. They built pyramids, assembling their capital in the Great Pyramid of Ghis. They walled off Old Ghis with high brick structures. The Ghiscari are considered the firstempire in the Known World. Unfortunately, most of Old Ghis is forgotten to time.
How did the Ghiscari Empire die?
The Valyrian Freehold sat southwest of Old Ghis. The beautiful Valyrian peninsula occupied the other side of Slaver’s Bay. As Grazdan colonized the surrounding areas and expanded his Ghiscari Empire, Valyria experienced a similar growth.Valyrians discovered dragonsin the high mountains that surrounded their land. That tremendous advantage allowed them to rocket ahead of most competitors and rapidly widen their influence. The Ghiscari Empire scrambled to check their advance, desperate to steal their dragons. The conflict became inevitable, bringing the Lockstep Legion to war with the mighty new dragonlords.
The Old Empire of Ghis went to war with the Valyrian Freehold five times. The Ghiscari Empire lost all five times. They claimed victories in battle, but each conflict eventually ended with another brutal victory for Old Valyria. The Valyrians had allies in the neighboring Sarnori Kingdoms. Though Valyria won each war, the conditions of their victory varied. Each came with more treasure and success than the last. Their battles spread across Essos, claiming new territories as part of the conflict. In the third war, Valyria captured and renamed a Ghiscari colony. They took another city in the fourth war. Finally, in their fifth and final war, the dragonlords razed the walls around Old Ghis and burned the ancient city to ashes. Valyria took every surviving Ghiscari town as a colony and every citizen as a slave. They salted the soil, ensuring nothing would ever grow where Grazdan’s Ghiscari Empire once stood.Daenerys Targaryen describedthe events succinctly:
Five times had Old Ghis contended with Valyria when the world was young, and five times gone down to bleak defeat. For the Freehold had dragons, and the Empire had none.
What was the Ghiscari Empire’s legacy?
Most Ghiscari culture died with its home. The Valyrian Freehold erased theirgovernment, religion, and traditionsfrom the history books, assimilating them into their ways. Grazdan took a harpy as his symbol, and it decorated most structures across Old Ghis. Those harpies are among the last remaining remnants of Old Ghis. Unfortunately, the most notable lingering influence of the Ghiscari Empire is its legacy of slavery. Valyria was said to have learned slavery through its battles against the Ghiscari. The Empire of Old Ghis' former colonies regained their independence after the Doom of Valyria consumed their conquerors. Astapor, Yunkai, and Mereen came to be known asthe Slaver Cities, taking most of their policies from Old Ghis. Astapor’s Unsullied armies are thought to be the legacy of the Lockstep Legion.
The Empire of Old Ghis was as cruel and terrible as its conquerors. They deserve no pity, nor will they receive any. Their fate was inevitable. The Ghiscari Empire developed a skilled army and used it to kill, rob, and enslave their neighbors. It only seems fitting that the next evolution in military tactics,riding dragons in this case, would wipe them from the map. No matter how mighty an empire might be, its doom is always waiting in the wings.
