For Valyrian culture, what are your headcanons when it comes to their rituals/magic, dragon lords houses, and how they were before coming to Westeros ?
Prior to the doom, the dragonlord houses were in constant competition with each other over power, always trying to grow their own strength while secretly tearing down the other families. It was a never ending cycle of greed, schemes and violence with the dragonlords. The families were incredibly mistrustful of each other as a result, and though political marriages did occur on the rare occasion between houses, the child who's house they married into was expected to conform entirely to the customs of that family. Essentially, "you become one of us, your allegiance bound to us, or you'll never be one of us".
Of course it was difficult for betrothed lords or ladies to abandon their family's customs and their house allegiances at a grown age, so these betrothals/marriages often took place while the children were very young and the child was sent off to foster with their new family. Many of these children grew up believing and treating their in-laws as if they were their born family, with their sole connection to their birth house being their blood and the political obligations of their marriage. This unconventional marriage practice was unique only to the dragonlords, however, as the lesser nobility lacked the same intensity of infighting the dragonlords had. Furthermore, political marriages between houses did, on rare occasions, take place between adults/older children, but they were know to be rife with strain, hate, suspicion and scheming.
Many dragonlords did not want to sacrifice their children in political allegiances, so they ultimately preferred incestful marriages within their own houses to maintain their dragonlord blood. Sibling marriages were the most typical and common, then cousin marriages, and then uncle-niece/aunt-nephew marriages. Opposite sex twins were almost always wed to each other, with twin marriages being viewed as sacred, while same sex twins would have their weddings held in double ceremony. Incest with ones parents or grandparents was the one boundary dragonlords never crossed. If a dragonlord house did not have enough marriage options for themselves/their children, they would choose to wed a member of one of their vassal houses over another dragonlord family.
The governing system of Valyria is identical to the governance of the Roman Empire in that freemen have the right to vote for their leaders, Archons, who manage the Freehold as a whole (in truth its more of an oligarchy as the dragonlord's power cements their authority over Valyria). As a result, the dragonlord's fight fiercely amongst each other for the chance of being elected into the senate of archons, and even when elected, they continue to fight within senate for power and dominance. The Archon Senate is majority dragonlords with a few elected average nobles, but it is always the dragonlords whom have greatest authority, and amongst the dragonlords, it is those with both vast wealth, magic, dragons, and public appeal that hold the most influence, able to greatly sway Valyria's governance to their benefit. Younger archons also struggle within the senate, as elder, more experienced archons will try to suppress their attempts at rising in power/authority. If a certain archon appears to be rising in power too rapidly, other archons that are politically opposed to them may form temporarily alliances to scheme ways to take down the new political threat. The backstabbing and treachery never ends with the dragonlords, and this makes the role of archon powerful but dangerous. Sometimes nepotism would also come into play with the senate elections, with the sons or daughters of powerful archons being elected into the senate due to their parents influence or reputation, further strengthening their house's influence on the freehold's governance.
Magic and rituals in Valyria are performed with great ceremony and seriousness. Most of said rituals were often violent, spiritual or sexual in nature, or all three at once. Dragonbonding was done with great ritual and ceremony, an act treated with much greater reverence than the simple claiming the Targaryens performed in the Dragon Pit. Ritualistic practices included blood and blood letting, sometimes their own, sometimes another's, and the usage of strange, medicines and drugs where used to induce dream-like spiritual states. Magic was in everything, was everywhere, in Valyria, the people practically breathed it. Seers and mages peered into the flames in search of symbols and signs, finding meaning in the dancing firelight, answers to their endless questions. Though, while magic was common in Valyria, dragon dreams were not. The gift of dragon dreaming was rare, and so very few Valyrian prophets existed within the Freehold, the few that were there held great influence and power in the Freehold. But because dragon dreaming was so rare, it was often difficult to prove if one was a capable dragon dreamer or not. If one claimed to be a dreamer they were often met with great scrutiny and scoffs, and were seldom taken seriously unless they could prove their skill. If said skill was proven, they were often whisked away to be trained in the art of dream interpretation by the Valyrian prophets. Though in the case of Daenys the Dreamer, she was met with mockery despite her great gift, for the dragonlords refused to accept a future where their empire had fallen. Denial was their downfall.
That's all for now. I'd keep going but this response would get to long and I'm starting to get a bit tired. T_T
