16. Mirroring real-world natural disasters of apocalyptic proportions, the “Doom of Valyria” was a cataclysmic event which single-handedly wiped out an entire civilization
Occurring almost four hundred years before the events of Game of Thrones, the “Doom of Valyria” was a catastrophic event which precipitated the collapse of the Valyrian Freehold. Destroying the city of Old Valyria, the devastation caused by “The Doom” shattered the landmass known as the Valyrian Peninsula and sunk much of the ancient civilization beneath the seas. Whilst the precise origin of “The Doom” remains uncertain, with it unclear whether natural misfortune or magic triggered the calamity, it is known that the Fourteen Fires – a chain of volcanoes located near Valyria – simultaneously erupted in a legendary natural disaster of epic proportions.
Within the brief timeline of recorded history, similar instances of natural forces conspiring to devastate human civilizations tell similar stories. Most famously, the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE, releasing more than one hundred thousand times the thermal energy of the nuclear bombings of 1945, obliterated the surrounding cities including Pompeii. An even closer comparison, however, is the Minoan eruption during the mid-second millennium BCE. Devastating the island of Thera, the eruption triggered the downfall of the Minoan civilization and its destruction upon nearby islands spawned the legend of Atlantis.