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House Hightower A Complete Mystery?


Sages

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With the release of the worldbook, house hightower has just become my favorite house to keep an eye on.



-The worldbook says they may or may not be descended from first men, as the author can only speculate on their origins. One idea that I personally doubt but think would be really interesting is if they are in some way the descendants of the mazemakers, that knew the secret to shaping the oily black stone. And that perhaps the book of spells that Lord Leyton is currently consulting holds some of their secrets.



It's not clear who built the base of the hightower, it is fused black stone that supposedly has similarities to the seastone chair, the black walls in volantis, valyrian roads etc. It is also said that in the early days, the first hightowers lived in the base of the tower and only later did they build the tower we know of today(piece by piece) on top of it. For some reason the base of the tower reminds me of the crypts in winterfell. What's down there? It's supposedly maze-like and is one of the most ancient structures in the entire world.



Also one more thing that I noticed is that the more I looked at the hightower, the more it started to resemble a huge candle. Now I know it's a lighthouse so that is kinda obvious. But then I thought it has that mysterious fused black stone structure that forms the base. And then I thought aren't glass candles black and don't they never burn? They say that you can see the wall from the top of the hightower. The words of House hightower are "we light the way" it would be extremely interesting if perhaps this were a reference to using glass candles.



Lord Leyton hasn't come out of the tower for ten years and yet he's sending his sons on various missions. The Hightower family throughout the years have seemed rather cautious and for the most part seem to make pretty good decisions. They started the citadel, they didn't oppose the Andal invasion, they opened their gates to Aegon the conqueror, they supported the greens(I know they had family involved) And I just wonder is there more to them,that we have yet to see? Perhaps not but I like reading the speculation. And I'd love to hear what everybody else thinks about the hightowers.


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The High Tower is probably a space ship.

Lol. And the dragons are the aliens. The mazes were built to contain them while they hibernate in space. Or perhaps the hightowers are aliens and they built the hgihtower to signal their counterparts in space. :cool4:

They have been mentioned too much not to have a very big role. I think that their role will become clearer once the others start invading

Yea. In my mind they have been around so long it seems like they should be the most powerful house in westeros. I wonder how they responded when Aegon gave highgarden to the tyrells and made them overlords of the reach. You would think that a ancient house like the hightowers wouldn't want to be ruled by some stewards. I'm thinking they would have preferred to give their oaths to the targaryens instead and rule their own lands like the lords of crackclaw point.

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Throughout history, the Hightowers have been a big deal also.

From causing the Dance of the Dragons, to manipulating the Faith and Citadel and to having feet in both the Blackfyre and Targ camps, to ignore would be ones undoing.
They can field like 10-15'000 men I think.

Were once kings, hate ironborn, rich af and married to as many Reach houses as the Tyrells are.

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Before the World Book, I suspected that the Hightowers would eventually have to come into the story and play some sort of role, but I never thought it would be BIG; if anything I thought Lord Hightower would meet and talk to Sam, explain some "things" about Westeros, magic, ect.



But then the world book goes and makes the Reach fascinating and the High Tower has those oily black stones and I'm just like...wtf.



After reading the Reach section, all I could think about was how badly I needed a Samwell "Winds" chapter of Sam in Oldtown.


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Throughout history, the Hightowers have been a big deal also.

From causing the Dance of the Dragons, to manipulating the Faith and Citadel and to having feet in both the Blackfyre and Targ camps, to ignore would be ones undoing.

They can field like 10-15'000 men I think.

That's what I'm saying, they started the Citadel, they built the stary sept they have oldtown and the hightower. It just seems like they just have thier hand in everything. How is it that these guys haven't at least taken over the Reach?

Before the World Book, I suspected that the Hightowers would eventually have to come into the story and play some sort of role, but I never thought it would be BIG; if anything I thought Lord Hightower would meet and talk to Sam, explain some "things" about Westeros, magic, ect.

But then the world book goes and makes the Reach fascinating and the High Tower has those oily black stones and I'm just like...wtf.

After reading the Reach section, all I could think about was how badly I needed a Samwell "Winds" chapter of Sam in Oldtown.

Yes, my feelings exactly. I would love to lay some eyes on a new sam chapter. Also the world book seemed to really make a big deal about the oily black stone stuff. Before the world book I never thought twice about the black walls in volantis, or even the seastone chair. I also liked reading about the oaken seat even though its not related to the other two.

Also as I understand it the heir to hightower is along the same generation as eddard. He's already married but I wonder if he has a son daughter as heir, that could have some interesting implications.

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That's what I'm saying, they started the Citadel, they built the stary sept they have oldtown and the hightower. It just seems like they just have thier hand in everything. How is it that these guys haven't at least taken over the Reach?

That's what I've been thinking about.

We know pre-Andal the Reach was four kingdoms. Hightower, Gardener, Redwyne and the Marchers (Caron or Tarly kings I think, maybe Peake or Vyrwel).

Garth Greenhand spawned house Redwyne and Tarly, so they were assimilated in quickly. The Hightowers held out.

Lyonel Hightower the Sea Lion was a big deal.

But Oldtown has been sacked by Dornish, Ironborn and Gardener kings in history. The Dornish sieged it recently. They don't have the most loyal bannermen.

They never took up arms against Aegon, so retained a lot of power, so I applaud the Tyrells for maintaing their power for so long.

I imagine its all marriages and marriages. Plenty of Tyrells go to be maesters (SPIES) and a Tyrell controls the City Watch of Oldtown. They are powerful, but the Tyrells have been keeping them in check.

They only shine when everyone else is obliterated.

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One of my personal theories is that the three lies Dany has to slay are three people who claim or have the claim made about them that they are the PTWP. Stannis and Aegon are obviously the first two. I speculated that Euron or Leyton Hightower was the third. Since TWOIAF, Leyton Hightower has become even more likely. (And I could have sworn I remember a Targaryen woman marrying into the Hightowers at some point, although I can't find it now.)


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It's also interesting that the Hightower sits on Battle Isle. No one knows why it's called that, but there it is, looking unassailable and benefiting from those black walls.



My guess is that battle isle is the site of some battle during the Long Night, maybe even the Battle for the Dawn? Perhaps it will play a key part when the Others invade again?


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I like the story and station of the Hightowers as much as the next guy, but I'm tiring of this "House ____ will play a big role in the upcoming book" narrative based on the World Book content. At this point, we have at least the Hightowers, Royces, Daynes, and Blackwoods all of a sudden expected to somehow play integral roles in the endgame. I just tend to think there's a forest/trees problem here. Are all of those houses interesting? Certainly. Will they play a relatively more prominent role in the next two books? Likely. But will their contribution be much more than what could already discerned in regards to their respective importance before the release of the World Book? Doubtful. I'm as enthusiastic about the added details in world-building that has resulted from the accounts of these houses - particularly the Blackwoods - but I think this needs to be put into perspective.


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I like the story and station of the Hightowers as much as the next guy, but I'm tiring of this "House ____ will play a big role in the upcoming book" narrative based on the World Book content. At this point, we have at least the Hightowers, Royces, Daynes, and Blackwoods all of a sudden expected to somehow play integral roles in the endgame. I just tend to think there's a forest/trees problem here. Are all of those houses interesting? Certainly. Will they play a relatively more prominent role in the next two books? Likely. But will their contribution be much more than what could already discerned in regards to their respective importance before the release of the World Book? Doubtful. I'm as enthusiastic about the added details in world-building that has resulted from the accounts of these houses - particularly the Blackwoods - but I think this needs to be put into perspective.

Agreed. If it's going to appear later in the story, it would have had to be reasonably set up in the main series books, especially since those all came before the world book. Martin is admittedly an organic author so he changes a lot of details along the way, but I think at most each of the houses mentioned above will play a large part in their region at best, not in the broader shaping of future Westeros.

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(...)

The words of House Hightower are "we light the way" it would be extremely interesting if perhaps this were a reference to using glass candles.

(...)

That's a nice catch!

As Meisandre says: «The brightest flame casts the darkest shadow.»

Very interesting post.

I really want to read Samwell's chapters now that he's in the Citadel. He's there with all those characters, the Sandsnake, the FM, the Hightower and the Tyrell characters, the maesters... and I'm sure I'm forgetting some of them... I like the recipe, all the ingredients are very good and GRRM knows how to mix them!

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With the release of the worldbook, house hightower has just become my favorite house to keep an eye on.

-The worldbook says they may or may not be descended from first men, as the author can only speculate on their origins. One idea that I personally doubt but think would be really interesting is if they are in some way the descendants of the mazemakers, that knew the secret to shaping the oily black stone. And that perhaps the book of spells that Lord Leyton is currently consulting holds some of their secrets.

It's not clear who built the base of the hightower, it is fused black stone that supposedly has similarities to the seastone chair, the black walls in volantis, valyrian roads etc. It is also said that in the early days, the first hightowers lived in the base of the tower and only later did they build the tower we know of today(piece by piece) on top of it. For some reason the base of the tower reminds me of the crypts in winterfell. What's down there? It's supposedly maze-like and is one of the most ancient structures in the entire world.

I was intrigued by the mazemakers, too. I thought the Masseys could be their descendants. Because Massey could sound like Mazey and their sigil as given in wiki is a maze. But mazemakers are said to be larger than human beings. I still think there is some connection between greenseers of First Men and blind priests of Lorath. (http://asoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/topic/71976-twow-spoiler-justin-massey-sigil/?p=6443360),

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I like the story and station of the Hightowers as much as the next guy, but I'm tiring of this "House ____ will play a big role in the upcoming book" narrative based on the World Book content. At this point, we have at least the Hightowers, Royces, Daynes, and Blackwoods all of a sudden expected to somehow play integral roles in the endgame. I just tend to think there's a forest/trees problem here. Are all of those houses interesting? Certainly. Will they play a relatively more prominent role in the next two books? Likely. But will their contribution be much more than what could already discerned in regards to their respective importance before the release of the World Book? Doubtful. I'm as enthusiastic about the added details in world-building that has resulted from the accounts of these houses - particularly the Blackwoods - but I think this needs to be put into perspective.

Agreed. If it's going to appear later in the story, it would have had to be reasonably set up in the main series books, especially since those all came before the world book. Martin is admittedly an organic author so he changes a lot of details along the way, but I think at most each of the houses mentioned above will play a large part in their region at best, not in the broader shaping of future Westeros.

I disagree. While people all guessed that Dorne and the Iron Isles would come into play, no one expected Aegon.

The Hightowers have always existed as a force, even before the worldbook, especially in tPatQ and tRP.

The Daynes have little but Arthur and Ashara Dayne are two pillars of the backstory, and Arya meeting with Nedrick is not a coincidence.

Royces just seem to be getting started, but the Vale is only just coming into play itself. And have been a presence since the first book (Waymar).

Blackwoods have always been presented as the good guys and kinda a big deal. They've been heavily involved in both the Siege of Riverrun and the Red Wedding, and no one can dispute the significance of those events.

These are bigs book, so there is plenty of room for more houses. The first few books revolved around the large houses, and more large hosues in the second book. In the third secondary houses such as Frey and Bolton came into play, as with the Florents. Tarth/Tarly/Connington are also a presence, due to their POV characters.

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Yea. In my mind they have been around so long it seems like they should be the most powerful house in westeros. I wonder how they responded when Aegon gave highgarden to the tyrells and made them overlords of the reach. You would think that a ancient house like the hightowers wouldn't want to be ruled by some stewards. I'm thinking they would have preferred to give their oaths to the targaryens instead and rule their own lands like the lords of crackclaw point.

Oldtown somewhat reminds me of Dol Amroth from lotr.

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Lol. And the dragons are the aliens. The mazes were built to contain them while they hibernate in space. Or perhaps the hightowers are aliens and they built the hgihtower to signal their counterparts in space. :cool4:

It would also explain why Euron wants to take Oldtown. He wants to be a space pirate!

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Lord Harlan Tyrell was rewarded with Highgarden and dominion over the Reach for surrendering Highgarden to Aegon the Conqueror. That seems rather excessive. Lord Manfred Hightower opened the gates of Oldtown so Aegon the Conqueror could be crowned by the Faith and legitimise his rule and was rewarded with what? I wonder if Lord Manfred was severely annoyed that a mere steward was granted dominion over the Reach over him.


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