Chapter Text
GODS OF OLD VALYRIA
JAEHOSSA HEN VALYRIO UEPO
By Laena Velaryon
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Proem
A thousand Gods were worshipped in Old Valryia, but only fourteen are here enumerated: the Gods of the Fourteen Flames, the great volcanic mountains from where Dragons sprang forth. The Fourteen are the Gods venerated by the Dragonlords since the dawn of the Freehold, yet today very few know and pray them, and most of those few reside within the Black Walls that protect the heart of Old Volantis. They venerate the Fourteen as descendants of Valyrian Freeholders.
In Valryia before the Doom, a thousand gods were honored, but none were feared. Indeed, the Dragonlords possessed the power to tame both the Dragons and the Gods of flame that had generated them; such a power came primarily from the blood that the Dragonlords shared with both Dragons and Gods, and it was precisely to preserve this power that the custom was born of preserve the purity and strenght of the blood through unions between relatives. The relationship of the Valyrians with their Gods fluctuated between veneration and domination, indicating the greatness of men so powerful as to compare themselves to divinities.
Gods of Old Valyria are neither male nor female, but now one and now the other, as changeable as flame; the same can be said about Dragons. Each of the Fourteen has its own sphere of influence, an aspect of the world which patronises. None of the attributes of the Fourteen are perceived as unwanted: each of them is necessary.
Those who worship the Gods of Old Valyria do not do so to seek comfort or hope, nor in order to achieve with a miracle what are too weak to achieve with their own strength. The Gods of Old Valyria are honored as their own ancestors, and as sources of the true power that resides in blood and fire. Each God has his own rituals, manifested both as ceremonies and as Paths to be coursed in order to reach full control of the sphere the God presides over.
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