>>15829273Yes. Valyria was originally a piss poor country run by sheepfuckers. At the time, the greatest power in the world was Ghiscari Empire. Then Valyrians discovered dragons on a mountain or some shit and started raising them. With dragons, they fucked everyone's shit up and conquered pretty much the entire known world (They never went to Westeros for some reason, though. Well, they did conquer Dragonstone, but that's it. They probably planned to eventually conquer Westeros as well, just never got around to do it.). The people of Dorne, for example, settled there when they fled from Valyrians because they knew they couldn't fight them. The city of Braavos was created in a secret location by various peoples who fled the Valyrian onslaught.
Targaryens were a Valyrian noble family back then. One of them had a vision of Valyria falling apart (I think this is vaguely mentioned by Pycelle in the fourth book. Or maybe third?), so they fled to Dragonstone, which owned by them. Then the Doom of Valyria happened. It was never exactly explained how it happened or what it actually is, except some mentions of demons and shit like that. The empire fell apart.
Then Targaryens, who were the last Valyrias to have dragons (The Free Cities - except Braavos - are all former Valyrian colonies.), used those dragons to conquer Westeros. Dragons eventually died out ~150 years later, and Targaryens were overthrown ~285 years later. Viserys and Dany survived by fleeing across the sea as children.