i.ndigenous westeros: the first men before the arrival of the andals, the rhoynar, the valyrians & the targaryen & baratheon dynasties.
from 12,000 to 10,000 BC, according to the notes of maesters of the citadel of oldtown, the first men crossed into westeros from essos by the arm of dorne, a land bridge then intact, bearing bronze weapons & great horses unknown to the elder peoples of the children of the forest โ a small, ancient nonhuman race who carved faces in weirwoods & worshipped the old gods โ fought to drive them out for two thousand years & the giants, the children's greenseers worked the hammer of the waters at moat cailin to flood the neck & (by some accounts) at the arm to shatter the land bridge into the stepstones, but the destruction came too late to halt the migration, where the first men cut down the weirwoods, the children loosed their magic; where the children's bows whispered from the trees, the first men hewed deeper into the forests with the wars ended at last not in conquest but in covenant โ the pact, signed upon the isle of faces in the lake of the god's eye, by which the open lands belonged to men & the deep woods to the children & the carved weirwoods were forever sealed; the first men eventually took up the worship of the old gods; for 4,000 years, the pact held; with some maesters believe that the first men originated in the grasslands of essos, in the lands now known as the dothraki sea & possibly distant relatives of the dothraki, ibbenese, lhazareen & the sarnori peoples; ancient oral legends of the first men in the north & beyond the wall & rural communities, however, claim that the first men had always been in westeros side by side with the children of the forest, giants & the flora & fauna of the land, sea & sky.
while each community is different, for the first peoples, the knowledge of the natural world, the lands, plants, animals, seasons & cycles of nature were central tenets of their lives & worldviews since the dawn age. their understanding of the natural world is sophisticated & comprehensive, not viewed as a separate entity but one, interconnected aspect of the whole. this interconnectedness equates to a moral responsibility to care for, live in harmony with, & respect the natural world. in many traditional beliefs the animal people have spirits & enter the human world to give their bodies to supply men with food, fur & other materials. after their flesh is used the animals return home, put on new flesh & re-enter the human world whenever they choose. the traditional concepts of respect & sharing that form the foundation of the traditional way of life are built around the seven natural laws, or sacred teachings. each teaching honors one of the basic virtues intrinsic to a full & healthy life. each law is embodied by an animal to underscore the point that all actions & decisions made by man are manifest on a physical plane. the animal world taught men how to live close to the earth, & the connection that has been established between the animal world & that of man has instilled a respect for all life in those who follow the traditional way. given this interconnected relationship between animals & humans, the first men were careful & respectful of the natural lifecycles of the animals they shared the land with, they made efforts to not overfish, overhunt or overharvest; they hunted, fished & collected what was needed to sustain their families, tribes, & clans & every part of the animal was used, & in many cultures, there were accompanying celebrations & rituals of appreciation. there was no species depletion due to overharvesting; this came with the andals.
manyย civilizationsย & tribes of first men existed long before the arrival of the andals, the rhoynar & the valyrians, developed permanent settlements, towns, cities, castles, agricultural practices, civic & monumental architecture, majorย earthworks, with some societies even developing complex writing systems like runes & inscriptions on trees & rocks with the oldest runic records of the first men, as well as records from maesters that claim to have lived among the children of the forest, confirmed men lived at the mount of the honeywine since the dawn age (most andals upon arrival in the vale viewed such texts as heretical against the faith of the seven & burned most of them) & complex societalย hierarchies. when the andals arrived in westeros, the first men already led a wide range of lifeways from sedentary, agrarian societies, city-states, chiefdoms & kingdoms, to semi-nomadic to hunter-gatherer societies to even vast empires in southern westeros in what is now the southernmost parts of the reach, the dornish marches & dorne competing with one another for honor, territory, power & prestige. while not as widespread as in essos, the first men did have dogs, horses & livestock, such as turkeys & vast herds of bison & reindeer in northern westeros & beyond the wall while in southern westeros, llamas, alpacas, guinea pigs & corn were transmitted from southern dorne & was being farmed as far east of the current day riverlands, & as far north as the mid-north & potatoes, tomatoes, cassava, pumpkins, peppers, squash, beans, pineapple, sweet potatoes, the grains rice, quinoa amaranth, guava, cocoa beans, onions, peanuts, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, cranberries, blackberries, papaya, avocados, maple, cotton, sunflowers, tobacco, vanilla & chocolate were used, these things have & still are all highly sought after by many different civilizations, including old valyria & even as far away as ibben, the golden empire of yi ti & asshai.
before the arrival of the andals, the first men lived in the continent for thousands of years before the andals invaded from the eastern continent of essos in old andalos in what's now known as the free city of pentos. at that time westeros' vast landscapes were home to millions of peoples in vastly different societies & civilizations, considered one of the cradles of civilization in the world. scholars suggest the first men in the region of what's now oldtown, the origins of the oldest city in westeros have been lost to time, according to maester jellicoe, he suggests that the settlement at whispering sound began as a trading post where ships could resupply & trade with the so-called "elder races" & eastern & southern empires, from the nigh-mythical the great empire of the dawn, the old ghiscari empire, sothoryos, the summer isles, ulthos & in more recent millennia, the old valyrian freehold, sarnor, the free cities & the golden empire of yi ti. after the arrival of queen daenerys i targaryen, new communities from the new valyrian empire from the regions of slaver's bay then renamed to dragon's bay, the dothraki sea & the red waste & the free cities began to introduce themselves with the acceptance of the first men, particularly from the dothraki, the lhazareen, the lyseni, the myrish, the tyroshi, the ghiscari & freedmen & freeborn from all over essos who follow their queen. aside from the four ancient migrations of the first men, the andals, the rhoynar & the valyrians, westeros frequently sees localized, smaller-scale immigration from essos, the summer isles, sothoryos & even ulthos; including merchants, sellswords, scholars, & displaced nobles who resettle in westeros to trade, serve in royal armies, or seek asylum. migrants that come to westeros are largely driven by trade, a new life, exile & refugees. as a result, even the ghiscari have a very diverse ethnic background & the current populations of freedmen from slavery's bay renamed to dragon's bay are even more diverse, some brought in from the far corners of the known world, originating from across the summer sea to take captives from sothoryos, naath, the summer isles & ulthos as the ghiscari slavers would slap chains onto anyone they could catch, often through piracy, so at the same time it was not unusual for other slaves in the same area to be blonde-haired & blue-eyed descendants of slaves taken from lys or the other free cities. moreover, over the centuries some slaves have won their freedom & risen in social rank, while the aristocrats from the losing sides in wars were sold into slavery, jumbling up the ethnic mixture in the region even further with some individuals even coming from yi ti, as yi ti was located on the other side of qarth from slaver's bay, reasonably close, & pirates have sold captives from yi ti into slavery over the centuries. the multiethnic appearance of the dothraki, commented upon by the dosh khaleen, indicated that even the dothraki are multiethnic over years of intermarriage & raids. naturally, westeros now has many different ethnic groups from all over the known world.
within westeros, long before the beginnings of king's landing created by house targaryen of dragonstone, westeros had many towns & cities, some are ruins, but the four out of the five cities in present-day westeros of first men origins are: oldtown, ruled by house hightower in the reach, lannisport, ruled by house lannister (later considered an andal house) in the westerlands, gulltown ruled by house grafton (later considered an andal house) in the vale & white harbor ruled by house manderly in the north. westeros is one of the most geologically diverse continents in the known world, ranging from the arctic in the north & beyond the wall, the frozen tundra & glaciers of the north, rolling plains, valleys, hills & rugged & stony coastlines, sandy shores, swamps in the neck, to lands of vast rivers, grand lakes, dense forests, flat fertile prairie grasslands, towering high & cold mountains, white sandy tropical beaches, crystal-clear waters, coral reefs, beautiful waterfalls, volcanoes, coastal deserts, deep, dry arid deserts & hot, humid jungles & tropical rainforests in the southernmost parts of dorne & into the stepstones.
contrary to the records of the andals, the first men were not mindless savages, in fact, the first men are credited with many inventions: building pyramid temples aside from old ghis & sothoryos, mathematics, astronomy, medicine, writing, highly accurate calendars, fine arts, intensive agriculture, engineering, an abacus calculator, & complex theology. they also invented the wheel & in addition, they used native copper, silver, & gold for metalworking. these cities grew as centers of commerce, ideas, ceremonies, & theology, & they radiated influence outwards onto neighboring cultures in central dorne. they consolidated power & distributed influence in matters of trade, art, politics, technology, & theology. before the arrival of the andals, they functioned largely without money & without markets & instead, exchange of goods & services was based onย reciprocityย between individuals & among individuals, groups, & their rulers. when the andals arrived, westeros was the home of millions of people. advanced in agriculture, hydrology, aqueducts & roads that rivalled the valyrian dragonlords & the roads of yi ti, irrigation systems, transportation, mechanical engineering, civil engineering & astronomy & they made extensive use of fire to change the landscape & to create open areas for farming & hunting. the first men are the original human inhabitants of westeros. the andals overran most of southern westeros, but failed to take the north. while the blood of the first men & the andals has heavily intermingled over the centuries (through marriage or otherwise), the inhabitants of the north have the greatest amount of first men blood in their veins & still maintain many of their traditions. the first men had many different thousands of languages, both spoken & signed, with the latter oftentimes used to communicate across distances & function as a lingua franca between communities who spoke & occasionally wrote in different languages, traditionally used by both hearing & deaf communities, as well as enriching storytelling & ceremonies as an important part of gatherings, conversing across distances where voices could not be heard such as a battlefield or a busy campsite or used when silence was necessary, like during a hunt or during the beginnings of an ambush on enemies. the elders spoke of horses being in harmony with the first men since time immemorial, a trusty breed that was almost completely wiped out by the andal invasion that took hold of the vast majority of southern westeros prior to the rhoynar & later the valyrians & the targaryen dynasty. they were often killed by andal farmers as they were wild & eating their crops & fields & later, were killed by the warrior's sons as they were considered demonic horses of demon worshippers, a practice that was later outlawed by king aegon i the conqueror targaryen once he & his queens united the seven kingdoms, which gained him much respect from the north & specifically house stark & house ryswell who was known for breeding them as skilled equestrians in the north. the first men played a significant role in the dance of the dragons, particularly when the north led by lord cregan stark of winterfell fought for queen rhaenyra i targaryen's claim to the throne after prince jacaerys velaryon managed to win the north to the queen's cause. afterward the first & only queen of westeros of the first men was queen bethania blackwood, the great-grandmother of prince rhaegar, viserys iii & daenerys i targaryen, the beloved queen & wife of king aegon "the unlikely" v targaryen.
marriage, whether between a man & a woman, a man & a man or a woman & a woman, as well as monogamous & polygamous marriages were all seen as valid, as the old gods did not discriminate based on gender or sexual orientation when it came to marriage. the andals who arrived from andalos were horrified by this & sought to violently suppress & murder all those they did not see as "according to the will of the gods' design", murdering those who went outside of their strict binary of "acceptable" genders & sexuality, declaring them as "sinful" & even going so far as to murder them with dogs & left them to be killed of disease, starvation & exposure. once all noble houses had a godswood with a heart tree in its center, but the first men, in their wars against the children of the forest, cut down many of the trees, as did the andals later on, replacing the old gods with the seven in the southern kingdoms of westeros. several of the groups that descended from the first men practiced rule by consensus or election among several lords & chieftains in council. the ironborn of old chose their kings through a kingsmoot, where each man who owned and captained a ship might cast a vote for the new king. in dorne, before the coming of the andals or the rhoynar or the valyrians, the first men were divided into numerous petty kingdoms. the high kings of dorne who ruled the lands near the mouth of the greenblood were elected in a non-hereditary fashion from among a dozen noble families. this practice eventually collapsed when a dispute concerning an election set the families to war against one another. the free folk who live beyond the wall are led by chieftains & clan mothers. at several times during history, they have united behind a non-hereditary over-chief known as the king-beyond-the-wall & the vale mountain clans are led by chieftains as well & in council, they insist that every man or woman must be allowed to have their voice heard. after many centuries the andals & the first men made peace under treaties, as individual andal kingdoms carved out of southern westeros became more concerned with fighting each other than uniting to crush the remaining independent first men of the north. ties of dynastic marriage were made between the north & the southern kingdoms over the next 6,000 years, so that the blood of both peoples mingled together, a process that has continued under the rule of the targaryen kings & eventually the baratheon kings.
for several hundred years, the first men & the andals warred, fighting for control of the continent. eventually, the andals conquered or married into the kingdoms in the southern half of the continent, while the first men kings of winter stopped all andal incursions through the neck at moat cailin. since the andals were outnumbered by the defeated first men, the victorious newcomers pursued a policy of consolidating control over the native westerosi instead of extermination. godswoods were allowed to remain in many castles to prevent conflicts over religion as the faith of the seven spread throughout southern westeros. many andal kings married the wives, sisters & daughters of defeated first men kings & chieftains to demonstrate their right to rule. in time, they subjected the children of the first men to new education schooling by way of the septons & septas in the faith, forced labor & slavery, forced them to wear andal clothing, stole their children from their families & subjected them to famine as well as disease, both unintentionally & many times intentionally in the hopes of eradicating the population, forcibly converted them to the faith of the seven on pain of torture & death at swordpoint, violently punishing them for practicing their traditional languages, cultural practices & religions & forcibly assimilating them & instead introduced the common tongue of westeros by forcibly removing the native languages of the first men.
because of the faith of the seven, the few children of the forest on the isle of faces & their green men were forced to hide, the indigenous faith of the old gods of westeros & their sacred heart trees were cut down & their folk made out to be demonic savages, many southron houses of the first men were forced or coerced to convert to the faith or be massacred or forcibly assimilated with the only kingdom in westeros able to successfully resist the andal invaders was the north, women cannot inherit nor have the same rights as men nor any form of gender expression or love that isn't conforming to their binary is outlawed, that women are treated as demonic & evil for simply practicing their religion that has been on westerosi soil since beyond living memory from the dawn age & it is because of them that greenseers, the holy people of the first men, are seen as demonic & skinchangers seen as abominations, simply for being born the way they are.
while much of their culture was lost over the millennia, the people of the north retained the spirit of the first men & many are proud of carrying the blood of the first men in their veins, such as the starks & the karstarks. south of the neck there have been people that still proudly claim the blood of the first men, such as house blackwood, house bracken & the now extinct house strong of the riverlands, the now extinct house gardener of the reach, house dayne, house wyl & house yronwood in dorne, house redfort & house royce of the vale, house westerling in the westerlands after having intermingled with summer islander refugees, & the people of crackclaw point in the crownlands. house royce possesses a suit of rune-covered bronze armor dating back thousands of years. the vale mountain clans of the mountains of the moon are descendants of the first men. there is a mixed yet separate distinct population of mixed first men & andals, mostly andal riverlanders, andal westermen, primarily andal reachmen & andal stormlanders descendants just north of dorne, serving as intermediaries between both the first men & the andals, working as hunters in the fur trade & as farmers, knights & interpreters. it should be pointed out that while the targaryens ruled as kings & queens, the upper echelon & overall demographic remained completely unchanged & unlike the andals, the valyrians never sought to force their culture nor their language on the first men, something that the first men never forgot & were grateful to house targaryen for. however, ever since king aerys ii targaryen's tyrannical reign came to an end, communities of the first men has been ever distrustful towards the targaryens & eventually the baratheon dynasty with king joffrey i baratheon's reign on the iron throne horrifically damaged relations after he executed lord eddard stark lord of winterfell & the baratheon dynasty murdered his kin at the red wedding & it is up to empress daenerys i targaryen to win back their trust, which the empress does her best to meet their unique needs & struggles with a deep sense of solidarity, humility, compassion & respect. today, communities of the first men continue to thrive & resurface despite the odds.
