Summerhall - What we know so far

[Nozlym]

I've seen a lot of arguements about what happened at Summerhall lately and so I thought I'd try and calm the discussion with my theory on the general points of what transpired.

The Purpose

As far as we know the soul purpose of Summerhall was to hatch dragon eggs. In the world book we learn that Aegon V commissioned journeys to places as far away as Asshai by the Shadow with the hopes of finding texts and knowledge that had not been preserved in Westeros on the subject of dragon breeding lore of Valyria. King Aegons reign was met with a lot on controversy especially with the marriages of his sons. In those times he had a lot of trouble trying to govern his kingdom and so thought that having dragons like his ancestors was the best way he would ever wield sufficient power to make the changes he wished to make in the realm and force the proud and stubborn lords of the Seven Kingdoms to accept his decrees.

The Tragedy

In the Dunk an Egg novella The Sworn Sword, we get a glimpse into the demise of Aegon at Summerhall from a dream that Dunk has.

The spade slipped from Dunk’s hands. “Egg,” he cried, “run! We have to run! ” But the sands were giving way beneath their feet. When the boy tried to scramble from the hole, its crumbling sides gave way and collapsed. Dunk saw the sands wash over Egg, burying him as he opened his mouth to shout. He tried to fight his way to him, but the sands were rising all around him, pulling him down into the grave, filling his mouth, his nose, his eyes . . .

It would seem that Aegon tried to carry out all precautions with the hatching of these dragon eggs because of the danger of Wildfire that was being used by the Pyromancers. He staged it with the same work environment as the Pyromancers, by having the walls and ceiling and floor packed with sand incase anything should get out of hand and the fire needed to be put out immediately. We learn about this in ACOK from a Tyrion chapter.

"...Above each work cell is a room filled entirely with sand. A protective spell has been laid on the floors, hmmm, most powerful. Any fire in the cell below causes the floors to fall away, and the sand smothers the blaze at once."

So it would seem that these traps of sand seemed to not work. Or they did work, but not in time. Sabotaged maybe? Anyway we don't have enough evidence to go on how exactly this happened, but we do know that the safety precautions that were laid out didn't seem to work, or were tampered with not to work. Thus the tragedy that ensued.

The Culprit

This part will be the most difficult for people to see, but to me it fits the best and has a lot of textual evidence.

First off lets ask just a couple of easy questions:

1) Who do we know that caused another tragedy that is known as "The Doom"?

2) Who do we know has beef with Valyrian dragon riders?

Ok ok thats not enough to prove that the Faceless Men were involved, so let me give you some more evidence. The Arya chapter in A Storm of Swords when Arya meets the Ghost of High Heart.

"I see you. I see you, wolf child. Blood child. I thought it was the lord who smelled of death... You are cruel to come to my hill, cruel. I gorged on grief at Summerhall, I need none of yours. Begone from here, dark heart. Begone!"

Now I've see some people say that the GoHH doesn't want Arya around because of all the grief that Arya has gone through or will go through. Or the grief that she will cause when she becomes a Faceless Man. The GoHH has grieved enough and so she doesn't want her here. To me that is bullshit. Think for a second that during this scene there is a war going on called The War of Five Kings, and all the other men around her have killed people, or have experienced great loss during the war, and so have grieved the same if not more then the GoHH or Arya. Why would Arya be singled out because of this, and also why would she recall Summerhall to begin with?

To me the reason why the GoHH doesn't want Arya around is because "she sees her". She sees what she becomes, a Faceless Man. She gorged on grief at Summerhall because the Faceless Men were involved with ensuring the tragedy. Shes cruel to be there because the GoHH wants nothing to do with the Faceless Men because of that. I also like to think that this scene is equivalent to the one in the show when Melisandre meets Arya and speaks of how "she sees" what she becomes with all the different eyes staring back at her.

Take this how you will, but I will lend support to this theory with the next part.

The Player

Now if you do believe that the Faceless Men were involed, you need to ask then who payed them? More importantly why? There is an easy enough answer to that question. Who has tried for the past couple of generations to take out the Targaryens and claim the Seven Kingdoms for themselves? None other then the Blackfyres.

Lets answer the question then to how the Blackfyres were able to meet the steep price for the services of the Faceless Men. We know that Euron Greyjoy payed with a dragon egg to hire the services of the Faceless Men to kill his king brother Balon. Ok so how did the Blackfyres get dragon eggs? In a Sworn Sword we also learn of character named Quickfinger, who during the first Blackfyre rebellion stole away with dragon eggs. We learned that he was caught eventually but was never stated that they retrieved all the eggs. We never hear of that so there is the possibility that the Blackfyres did come away with some of the eggs. This could also be from the same bunch of eggs that Illyrio gave Daenerys her eggs in A Game of Thrones if you consider that Young Griff is a Blackfyre.

The final nail in the coffin to give credence to the above theory, is that after the tragedy at Summerhall, we immediately get another, you guessed it, Blackfyre rebellion led by Maelys the Monstrous. Coincidence? I think not.

Now there is obviously a lot more to the story of Summerhall, which is why we have't learnt about it all yet. What else is there, time will tell. But for right now I think it plain to see that the root cause of it were the Blackfyres trying once again to seize the iron throne.

Many of you will disagree, but I thought I'd share to what seems the most obvious with the pieces that we are given with. Please feel free to discuss.

Credit to Ser Cold Fingers with his thread for starting this tummbleweed http://asoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/topic/121382-tragedy-at-summerhall-my-opinion/

[ChillyPolly]

As Far as we know the soul purpose of Summerhall was to hatch dragon eggs.

Typo? Or hidden truth? Perhaps they transferred their souls to the dragons they hatched.

[Grayce Hornwood]

I can't say that you've convinced me that the Tragedy at Summerhall was anything more than that: a tragic accident. But I must give you kudos on a very well-thought out theory; it's definitely given me something to think on. Well done.

[BalerionTheCat]

I agree the GoHH was afraid of Arya, because she saw Arya will cause many deaths, as a true or renegade Faceless (Wo)Men.

The Faceless Men are certainly involved. I don't think they are just payed by Euron to perform a few jobs. I would believe they work with him and are trying to prevent the PTWP (Arya preferred not-a-brother). This way, Jaqen H'ghar could have been trying to go to the Wall to kill Jon. Chilly! All this seems very unlikely, but at least it has some coherence.

To have the Faceless Men involved as early as Summerhall? That would be logical, but IMHO very very far fetched.

What I like is that it would give Arya some interesting purpose in the story. Her friendship with Jaqen H'ghar could help him change side at the decisive moment. Or she will have to kill him. Which would be sad because I like the guy.

[Black Dragons]

I believe it was murder the Lords and Maesters did not want Ageon with dragons they were behind it burning of Summerhill I have no proof of this.

[rayarts]

I like this theory, it would be interesting if it played out this way

[The Dames do Moan]

[*]Surely FM don't cost that much if regular Braavosi are constantly hiring them for their services? See GRRM talking about their price: http://www.westeros.org/Citadel/SSM/Entry/The_Cost_of_Faceless_Men

Certainly regular Bravoosi are not constantly hiring FM. He just says that the price to hire a FM varies. We have heard of large sums of money for FM, we have heard of people needing to give up there children to hire one and even their lives.

I don't think it's an organization where u can just stroll in and give them a dub to take out your wife. Based on some of the text, IMO I don't think your going to be able to hire one on multiple occasions.

[Daendrew]

You made a typo in the OP that is the most correct thing ever said about Summerhall. You called it "the soul purpose."

I have been sitting on a megatheory that is very long and taking me forever. You inspired me to just break it into peices and post it in parts.

Summerhall was not an accident, it was not a murder... It was a sacrifice. A sacrifice for their souls. The greatest sacrifice of all... To wake the ungreatest of them all.

It woke the gods.

[Eddy of the Godswood]

You made a typo in the OP that is the most correct thing ever said about Summerhall. You called it "the soul purpose."

I have been sitting on a megatheory that is very long and taking me forever. You inspired me to just break it into peices and post it in parts.

Summerhall was not an accident, it was not a murder... It was a sacrifice. A sacrifice for their souls. The greatest sacrifice of all... To wake the ungreatest of them all.

It woke the gods.

That was a really suspenseful reveal, bravo. Want me to add your theory to my Summerhall thread?

[Daendrew]

That was a really suspenseful reveal, bravo. Want me to add your theory to my Summerhall thread?

Sure but that's not my theory. That's just the tease for it. My theory is 50 pages long :)

I need time I don't have to widdle it down. I make extraordinary claims and I have at least an extraordinary amount of evidence. Whether it is compelling is up to the reader.

This post truly made me depressed. Worse than Red Wedding.