What happened to all the Dragons? How did they become extinct?

Dragons are by far the most impressive and mysterious things in the world of Game of Thrones. With Daenerys Targaryen’s dragons being the only dragons in the world, and also being the first ones seen in over a century, these marvellous creatures had been thought of as extinct for a long time. Of course, this was not always the case. There was a time when there were thousands of dragons in the world. With that, the question arises – what exactly happened to all the dragons? To know this, you first need a brief history of dragons.

The history of dragons in Game of Thrones

Dragons were first found in the city of Valyria. The people of Valyria, Valyrians, did common jobs with most of them being shepherds. Five thousand years ago, they found dragons living among the volcanic mountains of their land. Once they learnt to tame the mighty beasts, they became a force to reckon with. They used the dragons to conquer other kingdoms. At the height of their rule, the Valyrians ruled more than half of the Known World and had become the greatest dynasty the world has ever seen.

During the reign of Valyrians, the rules waged several wars but never lost as they had the powerful dragons. One of the lower royal houses of Valyria, the Targaryens, built a castle at Dragonstone from where they ruled their empire and used it as a trading spot as well.

Just 400 years before the War of the Five Kings, an event occurred that wiped most of the dragons in world. Everything on the city of Valyria turned to ashes in a single day when a calamitous volcaniceruption took place. That was the last day for dragons and humans, alike, in the Kingdom of Valyria. The only dragons now left in the world were that of the Targaryens, who had left the city of Valyria years before this event.

Migrating Dragons to Westeros

Aegon Targaryen and his sister-wives, Visenya and Rhaenys, with their small army conquered the land of Westeros around three hundred years ago and unified six of the seven kingdoms. They had three huge dragons, one being the Great Balerion that Aegon himself rode along with his sister’s dragons, Vhagar and Meraxes. These dragons reproduced over time and kept the population of their species thriving.

The new climate of Westeros and minimal reproduction led to the extinction of the dragons in a century and a half after the reign of Aegon the Conqueror started. The last dragons left were just the size of cats before they died. The only trace of dragons left were a handful of petrified dragon eggs. A couple of centuries later, Daenerys Targayen manages to hatch her dragon eggs and bring the dragons back in the world once again.

Now that Viserion is in the army of Dead, Drogon and Rhaegal are the only two dragons left in the world.

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