Valyrian Steal - The Strongest Of Them All! - video Dailymotion

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The history behind the greatest swords in Westeros! #gameofthrones #fantasy #animation   Game Of Thrones Adventures never stop. SUBSCRIBE and join us as we post new stories from Westeros!  Game of Thrones is roughly based on the storylines of the A Song of Ice and Fire book series by George R. R. Martin, set in the fictional Seven Kingdoms of Westeros and the continent of Essos. The series follows several simultaneous plotlines. The first story arc follows a war of succession among competing claimants for control of the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms, with other noble families fighting for independence from the throne. The second concerns the actions of the exiled scion to reclaim the throne; the third chronicles the threat of the impending winter, as well as the legendary creatures and fierce peoples of the North.

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00:00Valyrian steel has an almost mythical reputation in the Game of Thrones universe.

00:04It's the highest quality steel, almost impossible to sharpen to a finer edge than human hair,

00:09and yet light enough to be used for swords by women and children.

00:12Yet it doesn't rust and degrades very slowly over time compared to any other metal.

00:17And unlike dragonglass, which is made from the treacherous dragonglass,

00:20a type of obsidian found only in Dorne,

00:23there have been several Valyrian steel weapons recovered from the ruins of Valyria itself.

00:27So if this stuff is so incredible, why don't more people make it?

00:30And how did the secret get lost?

00:32Let's explore.

00:33This is the Blade of Legend.

00:35Now we don't know a ton about Valyrian steel or how it's made.

00:38But what we do know suggests that it was forged by an incredibly advanced civilization,

00:42using techniques that are at least partly lost to history.

00:45The continent of Essos had many powerful empires before the arrival of the Valyrians.

00:49But no empire was able to project its power across the narrow sea

00:52and conquer the other continents until the Valyrians came along.

00:55And dragon lore is intrinsically linked to the rise of Valyria.

00:58We know they had dragons because the dragon egg that hatched dragon

01:01was purchased from a Valyrian slave who got it from somewhere further east.

01:05But dragons weren't the only thing that set them apart.

01:08Their mastery of metallurgy was unparalleled.

01:10They produced steel that was sharper than any other steel.

01:13Strong enough to pierce even dragonhide, and yet lighter than any other steel as well.

01:17It wasn't just their methods that were advanced.

01:20They had access to resources that others didn't.

01:222. Or mind in the mountains of the Shadowlands contained magic that amplified the power of the

01:26dragons, enabling them to grow larger and live longer than any other dragon breed.

01:31And all this was accomplished around 2,000 years before the events of Game of Thrones.

01:35And yet somehow this metallurgical knowledge was lost by the time of the series.

01:39Leaving us with only a handful of blades and no idea how they were made.

01:43So let's try to figure out how they made this amazing steel,

01:46and how the knowledge of that process was lost.

01:48What did the Valyrians have access to that we don't?

01:51Well, we know that the production of Valyrian steel required a huge amount of heat.

01:55The normal furnaces of medieval blacksmiths just wouldn't cut it.

01:59You needed a heat source hotter than anything that existed in Westeros.

02:02There were volcanoes near Volantis, but those aren't hot enough either.

02:05Even modern metallurgists trying to recreate Valyrian steel in the modern day,

02:09need something like a plasma torch to get the necessary temperatures.

02:13That would definitely have helped.

02:14But I don't think that's the whole story.

02:16After all, even the hottest fire in the world can't create a sword on its own.

02:20You still need special ingredients.

02:22I'm sure we'd all agree that the most exotic sounding material is dragonfire.

02:25In fact, in canon, dragonfire is explicitly mentioned as playing a part in the creation of Valyrian steel.

02:31But is it really so special?

02:33Wouldn't any fire produce the same results if it was hot enough?

02:36Well, yes, and no.

02:37You see, while it's true that dragonfire is hot enough to meet the minimum requirements,

02:42I think we have to take a closer look at what exactly dragonfire is.

02:46Now, since dragons have UNT actually been seen alive in the world of ice and fire for over 150 years,

02:52we don't know much about them, but they clearly aren't just big lizards.

02:56While they may not be able to breathe literally underwater,

02:58I do unthink it's much of a stretch to suggest that they could hold their breath for quite a long time.

03:03And yet they can swim in the water without drowning.

03:05So I think we can safely assume that dragons share some biological similarities with fish.

03:10Fish are able to stay underwater, because their gills extract oxygen from the water and allow them to breathe.

03:16But where does that oxygen come from?

03:18Ultimately, it comes from the air.

03:20The water therein must have originally come from the sky via rain, snow, or some other form of precipitation.

03:25So the surface of every body of water is slightly above ambient air pressure.

03:30If the fish gill acts as a sort of bellows, drawing air into its body,

03:33then this difference in pressure allows oxygen to flow through the gill and into the bloodstream.

03:38By this logic, if dragons had gills of some kind, perhaps internal gills hidden beneath their scales,

03:44then their ability to breathe underwater might not have anything to do with fire at all.

03:48What if dragonfire is just burnt oxygen?

03:50Well this isn't just a random guess.

03:52Remember the slave from Valyria who sold Joffrey his dragon egg?

03:55He said this himself.

03:56Dragonfire can burn a man as easily as wildfire, yet it cannot boil water.

04:00The water on Aegon's Landing burned away as if by magic when Balerion flew overhead.

04:05When Vyvegor fought the Battle of the Four Kings near Harrenhal,

04:08her dragon Meraxes burned so brightly that she scorched all the wood on the Isle of Skye,

04:12and the fish in the Trident River fell dead into the river.

04:15According to Archmester Elliston, his records indicated that Balerion killed 4,000 men in battle,

04:207,000 by smoke and poison, and 6,000 drowned,

04:24when his victims fell into bodies of water while fleeing him.

04:27Sounds like dragonfire is both a fire, and not a fire.

04:29How does that make sense?

04:31Well, fire itself is just burning.

04:33The rapid oxidation of organic material fueled by heat.

04:37Oxygen is highly reactive, and will bind to almost everything.

04:40Given a high enough temperature, it will combine with metals like iron to form rust.

04:44But a sufficiently strong metal won't rust, even at very high temperatures.

04:48And by sufficiently strong, I mean literally the strongest metal in existence,

04:52which also happens to be one of the lightest.

04:55A metal that can exist in temperatures hotter than the sun.

04:57And that's pure speculative fiction.

05:00Okay, maybe you can't blow me out of the water with this carbon fiber bike helmet.

05:03Fair enough.

05:04But that stuff doesn't melt until nearly 2,500 degrees Celsius.

05:08Okay, but if dragonfire is just regular fire,

05:11then why couldn't the Valerians just use a normal furnace?

05:14Why did they need a dragon?

05:16Well, while ordinary fire may technically be hot enough,

05:19I doubt it has the same effect on molecules as burnt oxygen.

05:22That's like asking why a car can run on regular gasoline instead of rocket fuel.

05:26It'll get you where you want to go, but you probably won't get there nearly as fast.

05:31Maybe the extra heat from the dragonfire changes the molecular structure of the steel

05:35in some way that makes it stronger, harder, and more flexible.

05:38Whatever the case may be,

05:40the Valerians had mastered the art of creating steel,

05:42so sharp that it could cut dragon hot.

05:44But the steel itself didn't seem to degrade when exposed to dragonfire.

05:47Which is why I think the effect of dragonfire on the composition of the steel itself is so important.

05:52Whatever else the Valerians added to their steelmaking process,

05:55the effect of the dragonfire on the metal was an essential part of creating Valerian steel.

06:00Now, thanks to the cataclysmic Valerian doom, the secret of making Valerian steel was lost.

06:05Was this a sudden development or a slow decline?

06:08That's hard to say.

06:09Almost all of Valiera's metallurgical knowledge was lost after the doom.

06:13No pre-doom artifacts have ever been discovered outside of Valeria itself,

06:17but the few families who survived and resettled in other parts of Essos

06:20attempted to forge new Valerian steel after the doom, and they failed.

06:24Perhaps the process was forever broken by the cataclysm,

06:27or perhaps they simply didn't have access to the same resources as their ancestors did.

06:32Some theorize that dragonfire alone is not enough,

06:34and that dragon blood must also be present in the steel to make it properly.

06:38So maybe certain aspects of Valerian steel were intrinsically tied to the land of Valeria itself.

06:43Until they reclaimed their homeland,

06:45they could never hope to fully replicate their ancestral craft.

06:48But even after centuries, they still hadn't figured it out.

06:51So what led to the downfall of the greatest empire in history?

06:54According to Samuel Tarly, there were three major causes.

06:58The first was the overuse of magic,

07:00the second was overconfidence,

07:01and the third was hubris.

07:03Magic. Magic. Huh. Interesting choice of words.

07:06Magic is a pretty vague term when applied to this world.

07:09To some, it may sound like Valeria's overuse of blood magic

07:12or summoning dark powers brought about their doom.

07:15But remember, this is coming from the omniscient narrator.

07:18We don't actually know what happened to Valeria.

07:20However, if the Valerians used a lot of magical incantations as part of their steelmaking process,

07:25then that could explain why only the superpowered Valerians were able to make the stuff in the first place.

07:30In the world of ice and fire, however,

07:32there are still a few people who keep the memory of Valerian steel alive.

07:36Master smiths, like Tobomot, are able to repair existing blades,

07:39but none have ever managed to forge a new one.

07:42There are theories that Valerian steel will eventually be recreated

07:45by combining ancient texts with modern materials, science,

07:48and that's not totally far-fetched.

07:50But what do you think?

07:51Is there anything we missed?

07:53Do you have a different theory on how Valerian steel was made?

07:56Let us know your thoughts.

07:57Could modern science ever hope to unlock the secrets of Valerian steel?

08:00And should it be unlocked?

08:02Is some ancient knowledge better off lost?

08:04As always, thanks for watching.

Valyrian Steal - The Strongest Of Them All!

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