34 replies to this topic

[dark sister]

Crows Eye, on 17 February 2012 - 02:06 AM, said:

I want to remind people that the world of a song of ice and fire is not earth and may not be restricted to the physics, climate, and traites of earth. We try to relate this world to earth, but on earth the seasons are layed out, magic, dragons and others do not exist and people can not change bodys with wolves here. it is then possible that there is not south pole etc...

Word.

Also:
I thought that GRRM said that the long seasons were a phenomenon specific to Westeros -- possibly hinting that the Others have something to do with it.  Their power waxes and wanes, finally building up to a terribly long winter in which they have lots of time to kick asses, take names, and drink lots of blood.

[Turkey Jack]

Forgetting about the others if the long night is take literally nothing will grow and everyone will die due to lack of daylight hours

[Stannis Iron Baratheon]

dark sister, on 27 February 2012 - 07:14 AM, said:

I thought that GRRM said that the long seasons were a phenomenon specific to Westeros -- possibly hinting that the Others have something to do with it.  Their power waxes and wanes, finally building up to a terribly long winter in which they have lots of time to kick asses, take names, and drink lots of blood.

No cause there is a land in essos named the lands of alays summer and it is said the winter freezes the canals of bravos.

[dark sister]

Crows Eye, on 28 February 2012 - 01:31 AM, said:

No cause there is a land in essos named the lands of alays summer and it is said the winter freezes the canals of bravos.

Do some research.

[boojam]

Since the title of the 7th novel is A Dream of Spring does that mean speculation is moot or that Spring is a dream and everything went down the tube?

[Ser Lepus]

boojam, on 07 March 2012 - 08:27 AM, said:

Since the title of the 7th novel is A Dream of Spring does that mean speculation is moot or that Spring is a dream and everything went down the tube?

More like they defeat the Others at the beginning of the winter, but they still have to survive a few years of snow and famine before spring...

[The Bastard of Bolton]

^
That is also the way I see it.
Life must come to a crawl after a few months of a Westerosi winter, wars and work come to a halt and all that matters is survival not lordships...  



I bet the wildlings and mountain clans would pillage a struggling Westeros quite well, especially one that exhausted itself with war.
How badly affected does Dorne get?  Wouldn't people be migrating there?  Might be when the Martells would come to power as they'd have more strength?

[Free Northman]

dark sister, on 27 February 2012 - 07:14 AM, said:

Word.

Also:
I thought that GRRM said that the long seasons were a phenomenon specific to Westeros -- possibly hinting that the Others have something to do with it.  Their power waxes and wanes, finally building up to a terribly long winter in which they have lots of time to kick asses, take names, and drink lots of blood.

Incorrect.

Martin has NOT said that the Long Winter is a phenomenon specific to Westeros.

He said that the Winter and the Others affect Westeros first and most severely because none of the other continents are located as far North. But that it impacts Essos as well is undeniable, as evidenced by the changing climate in Braavos as witnessed by Arya.

Edited by Free Northman, 08 March 2012 - 06:13 AM.

[Red Raven]

Quote

The result is that for Essos, the Long Night was just an extraordinarily long winter in the very distant past

I think the Long Night may have been where the Dothraki legend of the Ghost Grass came from.  It was extraordinarily cold, the grass stiffened and died off and to the people of the time it might seem like a malevolent form of grass spreading and choking off the world.

It's getting colder now and the Dothraki sea is starting to dry up.

[Free Northman]

Red Raven, on 23 March 2012 - 02:16 AM, said:

I think the Long Night may have been where the Dothraki legend of the Ghost Grass came from.  It was extraordinarily cold, the grass stiffened and died off and to the people of the time it might seem like a malevolent form of grass spreading and choking off the world.

It's getting colder now and the Dothraki sea is starting to dry up.

The Dothraki didn't exist 8000 years ago, or even 1000 years ago. They emerged as a culture only around 600 years ago, I believe. Before that they were probably small bands of wandering nomadic herdsmen, I would guess.

[Ser Lepus]

Free Northman, on 23 March 2012 - 08:37 AM, said:

The Dothraki didn't exist 8000 years ago, or even 1000 years ago. They emerged as a culture only around 600 years ago, I believe. Before that they were probably small bands of wandering nomadic herdsmen, I would guess.

It has been said somewhere that the dothraki only started raiding after the Doom of Valyria (before that they wouldn´t dare anger the valyrians), 400 years ago. Before that they maybe attacked the countries east the dothraki sea, like Bayasabhad, Shamyriana, and Kayakayanaya and such.

[stormborns]

I'm starting to think that in realtion the Long Night, nothing is going to be Westeros' special problem anymore.  The East is going to come together I think, because its basically apoplyptic, as far as I understand - so it's not like Westeros are the only ones that might end up being buggered (is that a word that is allowed on here?  my apologies if it isn't) up.  And another question, is the Long Night and exclusive Winter thing?  Or something completely set apart?

[The Imp With A Pimp Limp]

I think WInter and The Long Night come hand in hand because Winter is when the realms of men are at their weakest and the so far called agents  (White walkers) of the Other who cannot be named are strongest during winter, this according to Melisandre.
It is also worth noting that in Dany's last chapter in ADWD she thinks about how the Dothraki grasslands that used to be rich and green when Khal Drogo was still alive started to dry up and even there the effects of fall were felt.

[DeflectorDish]

I have not done research on this topic, but the idea here probably relates to a lot of the questions about the other cultures of this world. As has happened in each culture on our own planet, each group of people from around the globe develops their own creation myths to explain seasons and land formation and all of that. I can see from previous posts that there are allusions to the Long Night, or rather, to devastation, in many of the cultures outside of Westeros, so logically we can assume the idea is not limited to one land, but rather is explained differently on each. However, I agree with an earlier post about the world not being Earth and therefore not necessary bound to one fate.

[darrylzero]

In general, I'd like to believe that the extremes of winter and summer are equally dangerous, depending on where you are.  This was touched on a lot in the hinges of the world thread.  One would assume, then, that in Asshai it's the long summer that brings nasty otherworldly creatures of shadow.

However, this is a great point:

Old Man Aegon, on 25 January 2012 - 04:36 AM, said:

When Davos sent Edric to essos Mel said something like "Id doesnt matter where he is, for when the long night falls he will be just as dead." Kinda states that the night will reach the entire world

Prior to Dance, I would have been willing to assume that Mel was just being manipulative.  Now, I don't really think so.  She is manipulative, of course, and I'm not sure the forces she and Moqorro represent are any more benign than the Others, but she at least seems like a true believer.  That means I trust she at least is genuinely worried about the long winter in Essos, which is a pretty good indication that it could happen.

I can't quite reconcile my instincts here.  Hopefully, GRRM will manage much better than I can.  He's certainly capable of doing so, but I'm a little worried that we just won't ever really learn that much about Asshai.

Edited by darrylzero, 19 April 2012 - 02:14 PM.