A handful of maesters, influenced by fragments of the work of Septon Barth, hold that Valyria had used spells to tame the Fourteen Flames for thousands of years, that their ceaseless hunger for slaves and wealth was as much to sustain these spells as to expand their power, and that when at last those spells faltered, the cataclysm became inevitable.
Of these, some argue that it was the curse of Garin the Great at last coming to fruition. Others speak of the priests of R’hllor calling down the fire of their god in queer rituals. Some, wedding the fanciful notion of Valyrian magic to the reality of the ambitious great houses of Valyria, have argued that it was the constant whirl of conflict and deception amongst the great houses that might have led to the assassinations of too many of the reputed mages who renewed and maintained the rituals that banked the fires of the Fourteen Flames.
Do you think that like the Night’s King made sacrifices to the Others, the Valyrians made sacrifices to beings (maybe fire versions of the Others) in Fourteen Flames in exchange for learning sorcery?
If the FM whacked the mages, then the shortage of sacrifices could have pissed those beings off enough to cause the Doom.
I don’t think that’s quite how it worked. The Valyrians were not the kind of people to sacrifice to a metaphysical entity; as the WOIAF puts it:
“Some scholars have suggested that the dragonlords regarded all faiths as equally false, believing themselves to be more powerful than any god or goddess. They looked upon priests and temples as relics of a more primitive time, though useful for placating “slaves, savages, and the poor” with promises of a better life to come.
The Valyrian practice of human sacrifice was squarely focused on blood magic (as Marwyn puts it “All Valyrian sorcery was rooted in blood or fire.”) rather than religious ritual.
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