We finally have some details about the upcoming Game of Thronesprequel series. HBO has announced that the new show will depict a period of time in the series’ history known as the Age of Heroes.
So what exactly is this Age of Heroes? What do we know about it, and what does that tell us about where HBO is taking this series? Here’s what you need to know.
Who Are the Heroes in the Age of Heroes? And Other Questions About the ‘Game of Thrones’ Prequel. HBO has announced a pilot for its first ‘Thrones’ spinoff. The Age of Heroes was an era during the history of Westeros which takes its name from the great men and women who lived in the years of peace that followed the forging of the Pact between the First Men and the children of the forest. The Age of Heroes covers a very broad period of time in the Game of Thrones universe. It began roughly 10,000 years in the past, when an event called The Pact resulted in an alliance between the.
It’s about 10,000 years before the events of the show
'Taking place thousands of years before the events of Game of Thrones, the series chronicles the world's descent from the golden Age of Heroes into its darkest hour. And only one thing is for sure.
The Age of Heroes is a period of time long before any of the events of the HBO series; it’s about 10,000 years in the past.
The era begins when the First Men and the Children of the Forest form a Pact. This ends a long war and brings about many years of peace between them.
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The Age of Heroes lasts about four thousand years, ending with the Andal Invasion; the Andals invade Westeros and end up killing just about all of the First Men.
Many houses trace their origin to this period, including House Stark
Isaac Hempstead Wright as Bran Stark in Game of Thrones | HBO
After the signing of the Pact, the First Men began to expand their territory. It was during this time that many houses were formed. According to the book The World of Ice and Fire, during the Age of Heroes, the First Men “[forged] the seeds of the kingdoms that are the ancestors of the Seven Kingdoms we know today.”
One of the houses that trace its origins to the Age of Heroes is House Stark; according to legend, Bran the Builder founded it and also built the Wall during this time. In Game of Thrones, Bran Stark is named after him.
Lann the Clever, the founder of House Lannister, also lived during this era.
The Long Night
Probably the most noteworthy period within the Age of Heroes is what came to be known as the Long Night, a winter that lasted for an entire generation. During this time, it is said that the First Men and the Children of the Forest fought the White Walkers, who emerged as a threat for the first time.
According to legend, a hero named Azor Ahai was able to defeat the White Walkers with his sword, Lightbringer. A prophecy states that Azor Ahai will be reborn again, and so many fans believe that either Daenerys Targaryen or Jon Snow is actually Azor Ahai reborn.
By the end of the Long Night, the White Walkers were driven back North, and a Wall was constructed to keep them out. Thousands of years later, that Wall remains standing at the beginning of Game of Thrones.
It’s shrouded in mystery
What’s especially noteworthy about the Age of Heroes, though, is how little we know about it for sure.
In Westeros, there are lots of tales told about the Age of Heroes and the great men who lived during this time. But nobody is really sure how much of what they know about it is true and how much is just a story. The book The World of Ice and Fire explains:
Did such heroes once exist? It may be so. But when the singers number Serwyn of the Mirror Shield as one of the Kingdsguard — an institituion that was only formed dring the reign of Aegon the Conqueror – we can see why it is that few of these tales can ever be trusted. The septons who first wrote them down took what details suited them and added others, and the singers changed them – sometimes beyond all recognition – for the sake of a warm place on some lord’s hall.
This gives HBO a tremendous amount of wiggle room to tell whatever kind of story they want. This is as opposed to an event like Robert’s Rebellion, which we know all about and wouldn’t give the showrunners much room to write what they want.
We’ll see the true origin of the White Walkers
The White Walkers in Game of Thrones Season 7 | HBO
Age Of Heroes Game Of Thrones
We mentioned that the Age of Heroes saw the White Walkers emerging as a threat for the first time, and that’s evidently something that we’ll see on the prequel series.
In its announcement, HBO said that the show will reveal the “true origin of the White Walkers.” This was surprising to hear since fans thought they already knew this origin; an episode of the show revealed that the Children of the Forest created them to fight off the First Men.
However, there’s apparently more to the story than that. In general, HBO says that this prequel is “not the story we think we know.”
It will reveal “mysteries of the east” and “Starks of legend”
HBO’s announcement also notes that the show will reveal “mysteries of the East.” This could be referring to a number of things, but a strong possibility is that it’s talking about Azor Ahai. After all, this legend comes from Asshai, which is located East of Westeros.
Plus, the announcement states that the show will reveal “Starks of legend.” This would seem to confirm that the series will go into the origin of House Stark. There also seems to be a strong possibility that Bran the Builder will be a major character.
A possible title
What might be the title of this show? Well, George R.R. Martin recently teased that he wants to call it The Long Night. This obviously confirms that the generations-long winter and the battle against the White Walkers will be the main storyline of the show. Martin isn’t sure The Long Night will end up being the title, though; he thinks HBO will want to incorporate Game of Thrones into the series’ name.
There is not yet an air date for the Game of Thrones prequel, but HBO previously stated that it would not premiere until at least 2020, one year after the finale of the original show.
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The Age of Heroes is an epoch in the history of Westeros. It began approximately 10,000 years ago with the sealing of the Pact, which brought about peace between the First Men and the Children of the Forest at the end of the preceding era, known as the Dawn Age. The Age of Heroes lasted for about four millennia, from the signing of the Pact until the Andal Invasion 6,000 years ago.
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This age is so-named for the great heroes who were said to live at this time and perform immense deeds. Some of these heroes were ancestors and founders of later noble Houses and institutions. The history of the Age of Heroes are only remembered through myths and songs and weren't canonized in books.
The major historical event of this age was the Long Night and the war against the White Walkers, which occurred about 8,000 years ago.[1]
During that Age, Westeros was divided in seven major regions/kingdoms. Although their names roughly correspond with what would later become the official Seven Kingdoms, their actual territory was likely quite different:
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In the books
In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, the Age of Heroes is one of several broad eras in the history of Westeros. It was preceded by the Dawn Age, in which the First Men crossed the land bridge into Westeros, encountered the Children of the Forest, and came into conflict with them. After many centuries of warfare, the two races met on the Isle of Faces and established the Pact, which created peace between them. The Age of Heroes is commonly accepted to date from that accord, and lasted for thousands of years after it.
During this period, many petty-kingdoms rose and fell across the continent, their rulers laying the foundations for what would later become the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros. A number of cultural traditions were also established during this time, many of which live on in the customs of the present-day Northmen: the laws of hospitality, guest right, and the notion that 'the man who passes the sentence should swing the sword' all date from the Age of Heroes.
The most notable event that took place during the Age of Heroes was the Long Night, the generation-long winter that descended upon Westeros and brought the First Men and the Children of the Forest in conflict with the White Walkers. The following war claimed many lives, and the Children never truly recovered from it, but the Walkers were driven back to the far north, and the Wall was raised to bar against their potential return.
Society
Westeros was very different during the Age of Heroes, especially when compared to the War of the Five Kings thousands of years later. Many familiar traditions and technologies currently associated with Westeros were absent during the Age of Heroes, only arriving with the Andals:
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Legendary figures
The Age of Heroes takes its name from the many legendary figures that lived during this time. Each of these figures performed great feats that are still talked about in the present-day, and many of the noble houses of Westeros claim descent from them:
The Riverlands, The Crownlands, and Dorne do not have legendary founders on the scale of a Bran the Builder or Lann the Clever. While every local noble House has legends about its ancestors, these are typically small scale legends and not nearly as prominent across entire geographical regions. During the Age of Heroes, the Riverlands rarely existed as a unified kingdom, so it has no unified founder myth; the Crownlands didn't even exist until the Targaryen Conquest, when it was carved out of land that had changed ownership between many kingdoms over the centuries; and Dorne was also not unifed during the Age of Heroes, but divided up into petty kingdoms for most of its history. It was only unified about one thousand years ago when the Rhoynar under Nymeria came from Essos and forged the many kingdoms into a single principlality.
Historical accuracy
While the Age of Heroes occupies a significant place in the collective culture and history of Westeros, very little about this period can, in fact, be confirmed with any accuracy. As Samwell Tarly points out to Jon Snow, Westeros did not possess a comprehensive written language until the arrival of the Andals. The First Men did possess a system of runic script (as seen on the sigil of House Royce), and surviving examples of this script can sometimes corroborate parts of stories from the Age of Heroes. For the most part, however, these stories were passed down orally through songs and poems, which can easily change depending on circumstances, especially over a long period of time. Therefore, nearly all the information known about the Age of Heroes was written down thousands of years after the events supposedly occurred, and many of those writers were septons whose accounts were likely influenced by their religious beliefs.
In such circumstances, the existence the legendary progenitors of various noble houses, or the occurrence of cataclysmic events such as the Long Night, cannot be conclusively proven, despite the importance they hold in the collective psyche of Westeros. By the same token, this lack of first-hand evidence (or simply the many thousands of years that have passed since) is one reason why some Westerosi believe the Long Night never occurred in the first place.
The legendary figures from the Age of Heroes share many of their traits with real-life culture heroes. Appearing in mythologies and histories from around the world, these archetypal figures - such as the Greek Prometheus, the West African Ananse, and the Polynesian Maui - usually contribute highly important technologies or traditions to a particular group, often very early in that group's history. Everything from agricultural techniques to the invention of language and writing have been attributed to culture heroes.
See also
ReferencesThe Age Of Heroes
Age Of Heroes Game Of Thrones Wiki
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