The Long Night, Azor Ahai, strange stone, dragonlords & ancient bloodlines! This episode on The Great Empire of the Dawn, with Mythical Astronomy of Ice & Fire has it all! GRRM gave us all a lot to think about with regard to the (way)back-story provided in TWOIAF. That’s on top of what was already present in ASOIAF proper. Here we attempt to cover as much of it as possible in one place. We also recorded a Q&A episode where we answered the questions you submitted, included below!

Credits

Our introduction, stone animations, and the awesome new Essos map were created by Michael Klarfeld (Klaradox). dutchmogul created the cyvasse pieces.
The Reader (Martin Lewis of Echoes of Ice and Fire).
Durran Durrandon’s “Daenerys is the Amethyst Empress Reborn” Essay.

Ghosts lined the hallway, dressed in the faded raiment of kings. In their hands were swords of pale fire. They had hair of silver and hair of gold and hair of platinum white and their eyes were Opal and Amethyst, Tourmaline and Jade. “Faster,” they cried. “Faster, faster!” – Daenerys IX, AGOT

Even more enigmatic to scholars and historians is the great square fortress of black stone that dominates that isle. For most of recorded history, this monumental edifice has served as the foundation and lowest level of the Hightower, yet we know for a certainty that it predates the upper levels of the tower by thousands of years. – The Reach, TWOIAF

If indeed this first Fortress is Valyrian, it suggests that the dragonlords came to Westeros thousands of years before they carved out their outpost on Dragonstone, long before the coming of the Andals, or even the First Men.
– The Reach, TWOIAF

The Bones and Beyond

In ancient days, the God emperors of Yi Ti were as powerful as any ruler on earth, with wealth that exceeded even that of Valyria at its height and armies of almost unimaginable size. In the beginning, the priestly scribes of Yin declare, all the land between the Bones and the freezing desert called the Grey Waste, from the Shivering Sea to the Jade Sea (including even the great and holy isle of Leng), formed a single realm ruled by the God-on-Earth, the only begotten son of the Lion of Night and Maiden Made-of-Light, who traveled about his domains in a palanquin carved from a single pearl and carried by a hundred queens, his wives. For ten thousand years the Great Empire of the Dawn flourished in peace and plenty under the God-on-Earth, until at last he ascended to the stars to join his forebears. – The Bones and Beyond, TWOIAF

How long the darkness endured no man can say, but all agree it was only when a great warrior – known variously as Hyrkoon the Hero, Azor Ahai, Yin Tar, Neferion, and Eldric Shadowchaser – arose to give courage to the race of men and lead the virtuous into battle with his blazing sword Lightbringer that the darkness was put to rout, and light and love returned once more to the world. – The Bones and Beyond, TWOIAF