Westeros

<h3>History of Westeros </h3>

For a more detailed history of the Seven Kingdoms, see the <a title="Timeline" href="https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/Timeline">timeline</a>of Westerosi history.

Twelve thousand years ago, Westeros was inhabited by the diminutive <a title="Children of the Forest" href="https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/Children_of_the_Forest">Children of the Forest</a>, a nonhuman race who lived in peace and harmony with nature, worshipping the <a title="Old Gods of the Forest" href="https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/Old_Gods_of_the_Forest">Old Gods of the Forest</a>. The <a title="First Men" href="https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/First_Men">First Men</a>, a human ethnic group, invaded Westeros across the <a title="Arm of Dorne" href="https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/Arm_of_Dorne">Arm of Dorne</a>, armed with weapons of bronze. In a significant military <a title="Wars of the First Men and the Children of the Forest" href="https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/Wars_of_the_First_Men_and_the_Children_of_the_Forest">conflict</a>, in which the Children allegedly destroyed the Arm of Dorne with magic (resulting in the Stepstone islands) and flooded <a title="The Neck" href="https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/The_Neck">the Neck</a>, the two sides fought to a standstill and made a <a title="The Pact" href="https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/The_Pact">pact</a> of friendship and alliance. The First Men adopted the worship of the old gods at this time.

Two thousand years after the Pact, Westeros was invaded by the White Walkers during a <a title="Long Night" href="https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/Long_Night">winter</a> that lasted for a generation. In the <a title="Long Night" href="https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/Long_Night#The_War_for_the_Dawn">War for the Dawn</a>, they were defeated by an alliance of the First Men and the Children, though only at grievous cost. The Children disappeared from Westeros at this time. <a title="Brandon Stark (the Builder)" href="https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/Brandon_Stark_(the_Builder)">Brandon Stark</a>, known as Bran the Builder, raised <a title="The Wall" href="https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/The_Wall">the Wall</a> to bar the White Walkers from returning and founded the <a title="Night's Watch" href="https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/Night%27s_Watch">Night's Watch</a> to guard it. He also built the castle of <a title="Winterfell" href="https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/Winterfell">Winterfell</a> and established <a title="House Stark" href="https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/House_Stark">House Stark</a> as the ruling house of the <a title="Kingdom of the North" href="https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/Kingdom_of_the_North">Kingdom of the North</a>with himself as the first <a title="King in the North" href="https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/King_in_the_North">King in the North</a>. Two thousand years later, the <a title="Andals" href="https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/Andals">Andals</a> <a title="Andal Invasion" href="https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/Andal_Invasion">invaded</a> Westeros from across the <a title="Narrow Sea" href="https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/Narrow_Sea">Narrow Sea</a>, landing in the <a class="mw-redirect" title="Vale" href="https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/Vale">Vale</a> and sweeping across the continent. The Andals conquered the southern half of the continent but failed to seize the North, being thrown back several times at the defensive chokepoint of <a title="Moat Cailin" href="https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/Moat_Cailin">Moat Cailin</a>. A patchwork of numerous small Andal kingdoms took shape across the south, eventually coalescing into several larger nations.

A thousand years ago, the <a title="Rhoynar" href="https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/Rhoynar">Rhoynar</a>, the warrior-people of the upper <a title="Rhoyne" href="https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/Rhoyne">Rhoyne</a> (a river network on <a title="Essos" href="https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/Essos">Essos</a>), fell into warfare with the mighty <a title="Valyrian Freehold" href="https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/Valyrian_Freehold">Valyrian Freehold</a> The <a class="mw-redirect" title="Valyrian" href="https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/Valyrian">Valyrians</a> destroyed the Rhoynar cities using <a title="Dragons" href="https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/Dragons">dragons</a>. <a title="Nymeria" href="https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/Nymeria">Nymeria</a>, warrior-princess of the Rhoynar, led her people across the <a title="Summer Sea" href="https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/Summer_Sea">Summer Sea</a> in ten thousand ships to land in <a title="Dorne" href="https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/Dorne">Dorne</a>. Making alliance with King <a title="Mors Martell" href="https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/Mors_Martell">Mors Martell</a> of <a title="Sunspear" href="https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/Sunspear">Sunspear</a>, Nymeria conquered the myriad small kingdoms and lordships of Dorne to establish a powerful, proud and independent principality (though a kingdom in all but name).

Four centuries ago, Valyria was destroyed in a volcanic cataclysm, the <a title="Doom of Valyria" href="https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/Doom_of_Valyria">Doom</a>. A century later, the scions of <a title="House Targaryen" href="https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/House_Targaryen">House Targaryen</a>, the last Valyrian noble family and the last with dragons, who ruled the Valyrian trading outpost on the island of <a class="mw-redirect" title="Dragonstone" href="https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/Dragonstone">Dragonstone</a>, invaded Westeros with a small army and three dragons. <a title="Aegon I Targaryen" href="https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/Aegon_I_Targaryen">Aegon Targaryen</a> accepted the fealty of six kingdoms and forged the <a title="Iron Throne" href="https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/Iron_Throne">Iron Throne</a>, while several generations later his descendants were able to bring Dorne into the union through peaceful alliance, hence the term "<a title="Seven Kingdoms" href="https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/Seven_Kingdoms">Seven Kingdoms</a>".

For centuries the Seven Kingdoms have been shaped by rebellion and war.<a href="https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/Westeros#cite_note-0">[1]</a> However, through civil wars and the loss of their dragons to time and conflict, the Targaryens ruled the entire continent (bar the lands <a title="Beyond the Wall" href="https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/Beyond_the_Wall">beyond the Wall</a>) for over 280 years with relative peace and stability (bar the aforementioned rebellions and wars that would occasionally break out) until the actions of the Mad King, <a title="Aerys II Targaryen" href="https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/Aerys_II_Targaryen">Aerys II Targaryen</a>, triggered the civil war known as <a title="Robert's Rebellion" href="https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/Robert%27s_Rebellion">Robert's Rebellion</a>. At the end of this civil war, Aerys II and most of his family were slain and his surviving children, <a title="Viserys Targaryen" href="https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/Viserys_Targaryen">Viserys</a> and <a title="Daenerys Targaryen" href="https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/Daenerys_Targaryen">Daenerys</a>, fled into exile in the <a title="Free Cities" href="https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/Free_Cities">Free Cities</a>. <a title="Robert Baratheon" href="https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/Robert_Baratheon">Robert Baratheon</a> took the throne and at the start of the series has ruled for seventeen years.

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