a question of gods

[krackensbane]

which is the right religion?

The faith of the Seven is the closest to being right. I think there are seven gods (or 'types' of gods) but that these aren't deities the way we understand them. Instead they are actual embodiments of a given element with a type of life of their own. These gods set the balance on Planteos but are constantly at war with each other.

The seven could be fire, ice, water, storm (or wind/air), Earth, stone and death. each is actually a living embodiment of that element which can reproduce and is thought of as a god.

Ice has the others which appear to have interbred with house Stark. Water has the Squishers or drowned god, and the half breeds called the Deep Ones which are probably Merlings.  They appear to have interbred with house Greyjoy.  Earth has the Weirwood trees and the Children Of The Forest who have maybe interbred with house Reed.

The less known (so far) elements are:  Fire which appears to have bred the Valyrians (Targaryans) and has fire dragons. Stone, which through the contagion Greyscale clearly creates the Stone Men.  Storm is very vague but there is the legend that  Baratheons interbred with a daughter of both storm and sea.  Death,  the faceless men used to serve death but now seem to serve the highest bidder.

For example, the Drowned God of the Iron Born is the element water. The 'gods' or embodiments of this element are the Squishers. Legends say that the Squishers breed with human women creating the Deep Ones (which are probably Merlings).The Grey King of the Iron Islands slew the sea dragon Nagga and wed a mermaid. He became king of the western isles and all the sea beyond. The drowned men claim the ironborn are closer kin to fish and Merlings than other humans. house Greyjoy has the element of water in its blood- also known as kings blood.

When elements travel too far from their source of bad things happen. Robb was doomed to lose the war because he traveled too far south. Harren The Black died because he was too far from the sea.

when the balance is upset certain elements become weaker/stronger. Ice and the others may have awoken after the doom seriously weakened fire and nearly wiped out the Valyians.  Blood magic appears to be a universal that all the elements enjoy, so perhaps the magical part is the element within it? linked to the idea of kings blood. and similarly the theme of resurrection. Dany (fire) dies in the pyre and is reborn, Tyrion dies in the river with the stone men and is reborn, Jon (ice) dies at the wall and will be reborn. All the Ironborn are drowned and revived.

This idea is more of a vague notion currently and such a neat and tidy conclusion isnt GRRM style, so what does everyone think? 

[Ser Leftwich]

There are no gods, there is only magic, which the people of Planetos do not fully understand/comprehend.

[Raisin' Bran]

4 minutes ago, Ser Leftwich said:

There are no gods, there is only magic, which the people of Planetos do not fully understand/comprehend.

I think that the OP is saying that "gods" and "magic" are one in the same. 

Or at least I think I understand what the OP is trying to say.  Basically, that certain groups (Starks, Valyrians/Targs, Ironborn, Baratheons, etc) control specific elements to a limited extent. Those elements make up the seven faces of the god of the Andals.

I think there is something to this idea, but it will require some more thought to flesh out. Rather than earth, perhaps there is a different element like lightning/electricity/power.

[Maxxine]

I'm not sure what you mean by "right." Do you mean which belief is closet to what is actually going on? Regardless of what you mean by "right" I like the idea about the rest of the post. idk if it has anything to do with gods necessarily, but it seems that certain people have special powers or at least special gifts or at least in legend they used to. Starks with the direwolves, first men & greenseeing/skin changing,  Targs & dragons, legend of Arryns & falcons. I think these attributes mean something & may have some impact on the story outside of the abilities themselves.

[krackensbane]

sorry for the ambiguity, i dont mean that the faith of the seven is the correct one but rather their idea of there being many apects of a whole could be correct. and thier are no 'gods' there are beings which have elemental powers who all exert thier influence on planteos. these beings have interbred with groups of humans giving them special traits (like the starks cold tolerance) and that those traits are the real 'kings blood' which is why it has power. i have picked seven because that seems to be a theme, but maybe theres a hidden 8th (making the eight), a power source or something that connects them all aside from blood magic.

[Black Crow]

1999 interview: 

http://web.archive.org/web/20001005212114/eventhorizon.com/sfzine/chats/transcripts/031899.html

 

There are several competing religions in this series now. Should we be wondering if some are more true than others? In a world with magic, is religion just magic with an extra layer of mythos?

Well, the readers are certainly free to wonder about the validity of these religions, the truth of these religions, and the teachings of these religions. I'm a little leery of the word "true" — whether any of these religions are more true than others. I mean, look at the analogue of our real world. We have many religions too. Are some of them more true than others? I don't think any gods are likely to be showing up in Westeros, any more than they already do. We're not going to have one appearing, deus ex machina, to affect the outcomes of things, no matter how hard anyone prays. So the relation between the religions and the various magics that some people have here is something that the reader can try to puzzle out.

 

Oh, and he did mention that he put lots of legends into the books such as Bran the Builder. Bran the builder is supposed to have built the Wall, Winterfell, and Storms End. GRRM mentioned that he has become a legend so that people will look at a structure and say "wow, it must have been built by Bran the Builder" when it actually was not. This is GRRM's attempt on creating a world with myths and legends so if at some point you see, "They say it was built by Bran the Builder or Lann the Clever" realize that its part of the mythos.