whats your opinion on valyria as a state? do you think it might have modernized over time, or was it forever doomed to being an warmongering/slavemongering empire that would never change its ways if it had survived?

Well, I think your question hits on the difficulty of the term “modernize.” The Valyrians absolutely saw themselves as a modernizing, civilizing force, bringing literacy, public works, commerce, freedom of religion, and republican government to the less civilized ends of the earth. I’m sure that during the Freehold, the proudest boast one could make was “dāero valyrio iksan.” (not sure about the Valyrian there, but hey, you get what you pay for…) But to the slaves toiling underneath the Fourteen Flames, they were anything but modernizing.