#vae headcanons

The first one is pretty straightforward. Valyria was built on blood, and so that shows here, which transitions into the next scene, where we see Valyria (particularly, the Anogrion, which we are told was the 'source of power' of the valyrian bloodmages) be formed or 'weaved' from this first sequence of the blood.

We then get the blood continuing the path down to the figure that looks almost like a sphynx, with wings of fire, body of a dragon/lizard creature, and a valyrian head. This is reminiscent to the song Daemon sings to Vermithor, especially with the next sequence:

We see a valyrian seemingly 'offering' themselves to the creature, while apparently being stabbed, with their blood gathered in a bowl. We also see glass candles, three to be specific. Again, the number three, like the song tells of a 'winged leader, fire breather, two heads to a third sing'. In the original english song (not the literal translation) it's more clearly stated:

"One who breathes fire, one who bears wings, but two heads need three, and a spell that sings."

The song is describing a ritual, more specifically, a bloodmagic ritual:

"Follow my voice blood magic old the price has been paid as the fires foretold.

In visions of flame listen to me the spell that needs three is made whole through me."

What I initially take from this all is that we're being shown how the dragon bond was formed. This could also explain why Daemon sings this to Vermithor as a way of 'appeasing' the dragon, as it was once part of the spell/bloodmagic used to bond with the dragons. It would seem that the ritual requires a union of dragon and human blood (DNA?) for the bond to happen, which explains various aspects about Dragonlords and dragons themselves.

The intermarrying to keep the blood pure. GRRM has said that not all valyrians practiced this, only/mostly the Dragonlord or noble families. If only the blood of that original valyrian that was part of the ritual to bond with the dragons is what works then, of course, you would have to preserve that blood as pure as possible. However, does this mean that only certain dragons (from the lineage of that original dragon that bonded with the original family member) can bond with that family? Can this be used as an explanation to why the Cannibal ate other dragons, because he was hatched from an egg that was already there from the original valyrians that founded Dragonstone and not Targaryen bonded dragons? Does this confirm that Dany's eggs are Dreamfyre's? Maybe, maybe it's coincidence. I personally prefer to not take it as coincidence, especially for the sake of lore building.

The miscarriages and 'dragon/lizard babies'. If the dragon bond is through a magical fusion of human and dragon blood, then this means Dragonlords have dragon DNA in them, which of course, would probably not make for a great combination sometimes. And we get the deformities and dragon features in the unborn babies from that dragon DNA overpowering the human. It's no surprise that miscarriages can also be common because of some 'error' or incompatibility on the cellular level (magic can only do so much I guess?).

The creation of dragons. In TWOIAF and F&B both we are given the possibility that dragons were actually created. In the song/spell, I believe we are given a little hint to support that theory in the very first stanza: "One who breathes fire, one who bears wings, but two heads need three."

One who breathes fire = fire wyrms. We are told these are essentially blind, wingless, worm-like lizards that live under the Fourteen Flames. This can be supported with the appearance of Caraxes, the Blood Wyrm (the dragon looks like a winged worm pretty much), and the 'dragon' that hatched to little Laena Velaryon (a wingless wyrm, maggot-white and blind). One who bears wings = wyverns. We are told they are reptiles that look like smaller dragons since they have wings, but they don't breathe fire. They are wild in Sothoryos, where we know Valyrians liked to 'experiment' with creatures (because maybe a certain civilization already did as much? little bit more on that below).

In the rest of the song, we have the "But two heads need three" and "The spell that needs three is made whole through me". That second one is particularly interesting to me with the 'made whole' part. It could simply be symbolic only to the dragon bond, since the literal translation of the song says "To bind the three, to you I sing". I think this can be taken as in a fusion of three DNAs are needed to create the dragon, as much as three 'heads' are needed to forge the original dragon bond of a valyrian Dragonlord lineage.

The 'three' aspect is the base of a lot of things throughout the whole of ASOIAF, it's not exclusive to just one particular thing, or even the prophecy itself. So I do believe that it's possible it can apply to both the dragon bond and the creation of dragons. I would go as far as to wager that the hidden symbolism behind the Targaryen three-headed dragon is not just to represent the conquerors, but the original recipe of the 'three ingredients' (for lack of a better term) necessary for dragon creation, dragon bonding, and all else that the three symbolism is used for valyrians and bloodmagic. Let us not forget that the 'Fire and Blood' the Targaryens use is also based on Valyrian culture as a whole, not exclusive to the Targaryens alone, as Fire and Blood are what valyrian magic was rooted on.

However, it's important to note that we are also given in books how dragons pre-date Valyrians, and the existence of ancient Dragonlords before the founding of the Valyrian Freehold. What is an even older civilization that started out great but descended into brutality and slavery, that also practiced incest, dark arts (like manipulating DNA of creatures?), necromancy, bloodmagic, etc.? The Great Empire of the Dawn.

It's an old and pretty possible theory that GRRM might be giving us clues through Dany's dream of those 'gemstone eyed kings' that valyrians are either directly descended from this civilization or are its inheritors, and it's from their legacy that valyrians 'learned' how to forge the dragon bond ( and other magical aspects, including valyrian steel, which is also very likely forged through bloodmagic ). It could be valyrians did not create dragons but instead this older civilization ( that, interestingly, occupied the east of Essos, very likely Asshai, which is often used as the place from where dragons 'originate' from).

Lys is the paradise resort island that many valyrian nobles venture to for an array of reasons and when one visits for the first time, it's not difficult to see why. This was not his first time, though, since House Valarys possesses a villa in the island that they rent out to others whilst no one of the family is in residence. There were guests when he arrived but it didn't stop him from allowing them half a day to pack their belongings and leave, returning them whatever coin was equivalent to the days they would be losing with the early departure. He had a lavish party to plan and needed the space pristine by the date he'd announced it to whatever nobility was currently in the island to attend. It was a rather successful venue, judging by the erotic symphony of moans and gasps that competed with the musicians. It was also the first time he took to bed someone else other than Helys, and the first as well to do so with two others simultaneously. Vaedar does not seek to heal for what was done to him because that's not what he wanted—The heir decided he would hence forth seize every opportunity that granted if even a semblance of control. He would use his power to abide by that in every aspect possible of his life. Starting with the choice of who he fucks. Maybe it was a tad excessive to make such an extravagant occasion of it by hosting a debauchery, but he's never been one for modesty. For almost three weeks he remained in the paradisiac island, attending festivals, dallying around art galleries and visiting several of the many pleasure houses Lys the Lovely was famous for. It didn't fill that hole inside but it did aid him in forgetting it existed, and it helped erase the memory of Helys's touch on his body.

For a little context, in his 'canon', Helys is the first woman he forms an emotional connection with, but it ends up that she was manipulating him in a moment of vulnerability ( having just lost his grandfather, who was very important to him ). Helys is basically a narcissist, and when Vaedar learns of her intentions, then all of what is up there happens.

Now, onto the explanations. Vaedar is both a simple and complicated character simultaneously, and this is an example of that. He's a passionate individual with a romantic personality, doesn't know how to do things halfway. But when it comes to emotions that can control him, he's very defensive. He sees love as something that gives power to the other person over him, and he's scared of giving that power to the wrong person ( as he already did once ). He knows himself, and knows he will go full in, so he will be easy to break all over again and it's what he wants to protect himself against.

And so, that's where a part of his personality comes in, carved out greatly in part to achieve this. His charm, his confidence, the devil-may-care attitude, the flirtations, are examples of results of that, because he uses those to keep things casual on the outside, making himself in a sense 'untouchable'. From this also develops the 'manwhoring'. He realizes that being like this lets him take control on who he allows to give him pleasure, who he gives pleasure to, separating the emotional from the physical, so it lets him protect himself from going through the heartbreak again.

It is important to remember that the details and descriptions given here apply only to interactions in this blog for RP purposes and references. Only those that I otherwise reference to canon are as such, canon and/or official. Also important to remark that some of the descriptions may not fit the laws of reality because this is fantasy, and GRRM himself has stated so when people try to give logical, realistic and scientific explanations to how the ASOIAF world works. I will be using real life references here and there, mostly in comparison to the Latin language, spoken by the ancient Romans, which have very similar historical characteristics to the history of the Valyrian Freehold. 

Let’s start off with a general background on the history of Latin. It was originally spoken by peoples who lived in a place called Old Latium, in what is today Italy. They were tribal people, living by the bank of the Tiber River, in a space of fertile, volcanic soil which would eventually be part of the land that housed the city of Rome. Latin was derived from Greek, Etruscan and Phoenician scripts, and it’s divided into classical and vulgar latin. Classical Latin is the one that survives in literature while Vulgar Latin was the one spoken, with Old Latin being the earliest form of the language. Following Rome’s conquests, Latin was widespread, being the language the conquerors spoke and used, subjecting the many colonies it possessed to it. With the years, and following the collapse of the Roman Empire, Vulgar Latin evolved into distinct languages of different regions of the roman expansion, into what are now the romance languages. 

High Valyrian was spoken by the peoples in the valyrian peninsula ( much like Italy is a peninsula ), which were originally said to be simple sheep-herding folk in the fertile, volcanic lands of the peninsula. We know close to nothing about how they grew to become the most powerful civilization in the ASOIAF world ( yes, with dragons, but how did they tame dragons? up for debate still ), but I believe it makes sense to think they were once clans or tribespeople in archaic times as those in Latium were, united by the same language; which could eventually become the ancestors of the forty noble dragonlord families. 

Throughout history, language has united people. For example, the Greeks, who were divided and spread out in their city-states with different individual styles of governance and variances in their customs. But still spoke the same language and revered the same gods. Like the Romans following their victory in the punic wars with Carthage, the valyrians defeated Ghis, enslaved their people, and imposed their language on them as a means of unity and control. Culture and language are what united the valyrians, not race, for slaves could be of any nationality or ethnic origin ( westerosi, ghiscari, rhoynar, yitish, even other slaveborn/lowborn and/or bastard valyrians captured or sold into slavery ). 

Like Latin after the collapse of the Roman Empire, even after the Doom of Valyria, the Valyrian tongues survived in its dialects and in those who keep with them the purer High Valyrian language ( Like Valyrian houses in Westeros, Targaryens, Velaryons, Celtigars, Baratheons, Qoherys ). Each of the Free Cities and those in Slaver’s Bay speak a form of what’s known as Bastard Valyrian, some so indistinctly from one another that they are on the verge of becoming separate languages with the years. This is just as it happened with Latin, being the common ancestor of the romance languages. The valyrian of the slave cities that once belonged to the Old Empire of Ghis is particularly different in its ‘growl-like’ ghiscari influence, which makes them close enough to be mutually intelligible ( Astapori Valyrian and Yunkai Valyrian ). An example of this can be used between Spanish, Portuguese and Italian. Spoken Spanish is often easier for Portuguese natives to understand while native Spanish speakers may find it more challenging to understand spoken Portuguese, and easier to understand spoken Italian with its spoken accent being more similar to Spanish. Yet, they might find written Portuguese easier to read than Italian.

Also like Latin, High Valyrian is still used as a clerical language by priests, septons, maesters, etc., who also may teach others. Children of westerosi nobility are taught High Valyrian as part of their studies, as a sign of that noble education their position grants them. We have Tyrion, Quentyn and Arya as examples of this, though most of the westerosi nobility can’t fluently understand or speak it, even if a great number of poems, scrolls and songs are written and sung in the language. This can be similar to how privileged Roman children were taught Greek as part of their studies, which can also be applied into Valyrian nobility being taught Common Tongue, since we know Valyria and Westeros engaged in business trade ( like valyrian steel swords ). 

Unlike Latin with its originally three grammatical genders ( Femenine, Masculine and Neuter ), High Valyrian’s grammatical genders are not based on male or female figures, like the English examples of Masculine = man, boy, actor; Feminine = woman, girl, actress; Common ( no gender specified ) = friend, parents, child; Neuter ( having no gender ) = table, rock, pencil. They are instead composed of four genders called Lunar, Solar, Aquatic and Terrestrial. 

The Lunar gender are those words used for humans ( man, woman, mother, father ), nocturnal animals ( wolf, owl, cat ) and military equipment ( helmet, sword ). 

The Solar gender are those words also used for humans ( human, guest ), diurnal animals ( dragon, goat ) names of occupations ( king, soldier, priest ) and body parts ( leg, mouth, foot ). 

The Terrestrial gender are those words used mostly for food aspects ( meat, bread ), plants and metals ( silver, gold, steel ). 

The Aquatic gender are those words used mostly for liquids and bodies of water ( water, sea, blood, river ). 

This is why the famous word ‘darilaros’ in the prophecy can mean both prince or princess, because it belongs to the Solar gender of High Valyrian, where prince, princess, heir terms mean the same. Therefore, High Valyrian is not a genderless language ( it has four grammatical genders, not to be confused with gender neutral ), but one that does not use male of female figures as grammatical equivalents, much like dragons biologically are not defined as either male or female, since they can be both as needed. 

High Valyrian is an inflected, head-final language. This means it’s a language in which a word is modified to express different grammatical categories, particularly declensions of nouns and adjectives for numbers, case and gender and verbs for person, number, tense, voice and moods. An example is: 

dārys = king ( in the nominative case ). Dārys ēdrusi = The king is asleep. dāri = king ( in objective case ). Dāri urnen = I see a king. 

I won’t go into details because I am no expert and I have not extensively studied all of what has been created of High Valyrian as a language ( Only done Duolingo stuff LOL ), but I think it’s simple enough to explain the base. There are also cultural aspects of the Valyrian people that influence the language, such as the High Valyrian word ‘gō’ is used for ‘before, underneath, below’. This is because in Valyrian culture, the aspect of ‘time’ passes as a ladder climb... ( with the future being synonym with what’s ‘above’ and the past with what’s ‘under’. 

Written High Valyrian is a mixed script system of alphabetical, iconic and paradigmatic components. It also employs the use of double dots and single dots as punctuation. Double dots separate sentences, whether they are questions, statements or exclamations. Single dots separate words, since spaces are not used. Below is a screenshot from conlang creator David Peterson’s instagram with the phrase we all know ‘Valar Morghūlis’ ( all men must die ). 

Going by this, Vaedar’s last name ‘Valarys’ could be written like this ( first two glyphs = valar and third = ys ). Another interpretation can be from the Valyrian zālarys, which is composed in itself from the word zālagon = to burn. But I do believe the more accurate written word would be from ‘valar = men’ and ‘ys’ from ‘perzys’ = fire. 

It’s also important to note there are Ghiscari words borrowed into the Valyrian language ( according to the conlang creator ). One of these words, for example, is ‘jazdan’ which means ‘harpy’. This of course, makes sense, given the fact that Old Ghis predated Valyria. 

So the first two glyphs together are read as ‘Valar’ and means ‘all men’, and the last one is the glyph for ‘perzys’ which means ‘fire’. This fire glyph is used in words that end in ‘ys’ ( according to the language creator himself ). So, put together to make a single word, in this case a last name, it would read as ‘Valarys’. 

A literal translation for the last name’s meaning could be ‘All fire men’. Which is very convenient because Vaedar’s name = song ( vāedar ), so his full name would be something like ‘Song of all fire men’ or even ‘a song of fire men’ and if we conveniently take away the ‘men’, it would be ‘a song of fire’. 

Which as I am sure a lot of my RP partners are tired of hearing me say, fits too perfectly into why I made Vaedar as a character; to encompass what is known of the Valyrian Freehold, it’s magic, fire, dragons, etc., The ‘fire’ ( as GRRM has said a while ago ) in the ‘a song of ice and fire’. Because I picked his name without realizing it meant ‘song’ and now i learn that his last name ( which we dont know an official meaning for, this is just me putting two and two together ) is composed of the word ‘fire’ and ‘men’ = fire men, which is convenient term of valyrian fire mages. Which is what Vaedar’s dragonlord grandfather was ( and what his grandfather wanted him to also be and taught him for ).