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Asshai by the Shadow is dying!


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TWoIaF tells us Asshai has a small population, but it is big, the size of King's Landing, Qarth and Volantis, and they could still fit Oldtown.



So, I thought that a city like that would probably have a huge population, population of millions of people. But we are told the population is the size of a busy market town.



Is the population of Asshai diminishing? Also, they say about the absence of children in Asshai, maybe there are some, but they are just a few and the people are becoming barren with the time. Would it be possible? Also few vegetables and fruits grow there and they are awful, gold and gems are keeping the population still alive as they buy food and water.



So I think Asshai is dying, the city is getting more empty with time and Quaithe wants Dany to go there because of her dragons, dragons are magic and maybe with that strong magic they carry they can make the city prosper again?



I don't know, but I think Quaithe will try more to bring Dany to Asshai and in a last attempt she will try to kidnapped her and her dragons. I can't see other reason why she keeps ''stalking'' Daenerys.



I can see why Asshai is a bad place. No good water, no food, no light. Maybe the magic is so dark in there that they are ''killing themselves'' with that.



What is your opinion?


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I think that Asshai once was a great magic studying and practicising place. Because of the magic the city has grown rich and powerful. But then magic became weaker and weaker and nearly dissapeared from the world. The city lost knowledge and power so it became dying. Now with Others/dragons/wathever magic is rising. I think if magic will become strong again Asshai-by-the-Shadow will arise.

Your theory may be true.

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Yes, we can't even assume Asshai might survive with magic, because we are told clearly they perform magic in there, it is a certain truth. Even Archmaester Marwyn is said to be there, Mirri Maz Durr told Daenerys she met him there when she was studying. What intregues me a lot is the river Ash and all that ghost grass. Ah, and of course, the Oily Stones.



I think these stones are important to the story, Martin mentioned it a lot in the world book, too many references.


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Yes, we can't even assume Asshai might survive with magic, because we are told clearly they perform magic in there, it is a certain truth. Even Archmaester Marwyn is said to be there, Mirri Maz Durr told Daenerys she met him there when she was studying. What intregues me a lot is the river Ash and all that ghost grass. Ah, and of course, the Oily Stones.

I think these stones are important to the story, Martin mentioned it a lot in the world book, too many references.

I don't think Martin would put anything exceptionally important to the story in only the Worldbook, without even really mentioning them beforehand.

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Yes, we can't even assume Asshai might survive with magic, because we are told clearly they perform magic in there, it is a certain truth. Even Archmaester Marwyn is said to be there, Mirri Maz Durr told Daenerys she met him there when she was studying. What intregues me a lot is the river Ash and all that ghost grass. Ah, and of course, the Oily Stones.

I think these stones are important to the story, Martin mentioned it a lot in the world book, too many references.

In ASOIAF books it's wasn't mentioned enough to play very important role. AWOIAF is a world-building book and not every ASOIAF reader knows it. We have to remember that this forum where we analize EVERY ;) word is only small procentage of ASoIaF fans. GRRM can't make something mentioned only few times a major plot point as 99% readers won't get it.
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Yes, they weren't mention in thr ASOIAF, but we never know if it will be mentioned in the next two books. We will see Asshai through someone's memory, probably Melisandre who became a POV in ADWD. We will also see Valyria, we just don't know if we will see Valyria now or the old Valyria, at least that was what he hinted. I also think we will se Qarth again (About Qarth I am following Preston Jacobs line of thought).


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As I mention on my theory (shameless self-promotion, I know), I believe that Asshai is the where the civilization that creates the oily stones originated from. However, I don't think that the current population there is native. Asshai seems more like a place you now go to study for some years and then you leave.


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Asshai doesn't seem to be ruins, it's just a huge city with a tiny population. But yes, for sure it's the centre for magic studies (like Hogwarts XD)



Well, I think they need the dragons to restore their formal glory, but I'm sure the black stones are something bad, like I told before and someone agreed with me, radiation maybe is present in those rocks and I think they can well be meteorites, as the black stone in Yi Ti (The Church of the Starry Wisdom's faith) fell from the skies. Yeen is totally labelled as a place of evil, so evil that even the jungle don't come closer. The Five Forts are older than Yi Ti and they have something demon like because of their sizes, the Seastone Chair of the Ironborn are also older than the First Men when they came to Westeros and the ones who did that vanished. The stones has something to do with all the bad stuff I guess, maybe black magic, I wonder if there were some of this in Valyria.


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The Asshai'i claim that a city has stood there since the beginning of time and will be there until the end of time. As one travels up the Ash they reach the Shadow, which is filled with demons and dragons, and at its heart lies Stygai, the City of the Dead, where even the shadow binders fear to venture.

I believe there is something going on with the city that we don't know or ever will know about. The fucking shadow binders won't even go into Stygai.

They also claim to have brought the first dragon eggs to the Valyrians at the Fourteen Flames and taught them how to control them.

I don't believe this is a lie. The Asshai are mysterious but I think they are telling the truth.

The Targaryens' say they are descendent from dragons and that is why they have a strikingly different appearance and an innate connection to dragons.

Plausible but I stick by the Asshai on this one.

It's possible the magical 'climate' has something to do with the city's current state. Maybe the reason there are no children are because the place isn't a regular society. People only travel there and no children can be born there.

It could be unless someone has a flashback or POV of Asshai in the books we won't know more. But I know the picture in the book is cool to look at.

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TWoIaF tells us Asshai has a small population, but it is big, the size of King's Landing, Qarth and Volantis, and they could still fit Oldtown.

So, I thought that a city like that would probably have a huge population, population of millions of people. But we are told the population is the size of a busy market town.

Is the population of Asshai diminishing? Also, they say about the absence of children in Asshai, maybe there are some, but they are just a few and the people are becoming barren with the time. Would it be possible? Also few vegetables and fruits grow there and they are awful, gold and gems are keeping the population still alive as they buy food and water.

How does the size of Asshai compare with the size of the city of Vaes Dothrak? And how does the population compare?

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