Age of Heroes



"Singers call those times the Age of Heroes. A mask for a savage world that bred savage men."

- Lord Roose Bolton

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.

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 include Bran the Builder and Lann the Clever, whose descendants founded House Stark and House Lannister respectively.

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.

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.

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:
 * Bran the Builder: said to be the mastermind behind the Wall and to have raised the ancient keep of Winterfell. His name is also connected with other notable constructs, such as Storm's End and the Hightower. House Stark claims descent from him.
 * The Grey King: the first ruler of the ironborn, he slew the great sea dragon Nagga, took a mermaid as his wife and ruled for a thousand years. He also taught men how to weave nets and sails, and carved the very first longship from the wood of a demon tree. Nearly all the noble houses of the Iron Islands claim descent from him.

While the Age of Heroes occupies a significant place in the collective culture and history of Westeros, very little about this period can be accurately confirmed. 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.