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Arya Stark cat warging


Cragen

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I don't know if it's warging in the typical sense the way Bran wargs. It just seems as she's seeing through them, not actually becoming a part of them like a warg. Even though this does bring up another question. Since Arya's thing with cats seems to be something a little less than warging, is she able to do it because she is a warg or is it a faceless man thing? I always figured it was a warging thing, but the OP made me think of the question.

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I don't remember that anyone can do this. We know that warg and animal have special connection, like Robb and Grey Wind fighting like one, but I never see someone using animal sense and controlling own body. Great is that Arya is able to fight seeing from different perspective.

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I don't think it's anything super special, but Arya might be the strongest warg/sinchanger after Bran. I doubt it is anything related to FM. They might be aware of it, maybe they always knew Arya was a skinchanger and that is why they are interested in her, but that would be it. Their religion seems rather anthropocentric, there is no animal imaginary and their temple is in one of the most urbanised area's in ASOIAf world in one of the societies least connected to wild nature. There is always possibility that GRRM made that as an intentional mislead, but I don't think that is the case. 

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I assumed that since she's only experiencing the cat's senses, and not actively controlling it, that she is able to control her own body at the time. Full on skinchanging would require her to abandon her human body while she was fully invested in the cat's.

I imagine being blind for such a long time might also have an effect: perhaps a skinchanger can only use one set of each sense at a time, but it doesn't matter which body those senses belong to?

However:

The Lyseni took the table nearest to the fire and spoke quietly over cups of black tar rum, keeping their voices low so no one could overhear. But she was no one and she heard most every word. And for a time it seemed that she could see them too, through the slitted yellow eyes of the tomcat purring in her lap. One was old and one was young and one had lost an ear, but all three had the white-blond hair and smooth fair skin of Lys, where the blood of the old Freehold still ran strong.

Upon reading the relavant paragraph, it doesn't actually say that Arya was still in control of her body; the conversation she eavesdropped could easily have been heard by the cat's ears and not her own.

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Arya is not the only 1 to do this.

Varamyr wargs the eagle while remaining conscious and speaking, and he says he rode his bear into battle.  Since the bear hated him he must have been skinchanging it at the time.

We also see BR skinchange multiple birds at the same time, though that is slightly different is suggests to me that there are different levels of skinchanging, and different levels of control.

Lorathi priests cover their eyes to open their 3rd eye, so it seems likely that Arya's blindness helped her along in that.

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12 minutes ago, aryagonnakill#2 said:

Arya is not the only 1 to do this.

Varamyr wargs the eagle while remaining conscious and speaking, and he says he rode his bear into battle.  Since the bear hated him he must have been skinchanging it at the time.

We also see BR skinchange multiple birds at the same time, though that is slightly different is suggests to me that there are different levels of skinchanging, and different levels of control.

Lorathi priests cover their eyes to open their 3rd eye, so it seems likely that Arya's blindness helped her along in that.

To be fair, Bloodraven is connected to the weirwood, and all the power that that confers.

However, you make a very good point about Varamyr: this would seem to indicate that there are higher levels of power that are attained through experience. Perhaps Bran's first chapter in Winds will begin: 'Lord Rivers had taught him how to merge with the mind of beasts while maintaining control of his body...', or something?

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4 minutes ago, Maester of Valyria said:

To be fair, Bloodraven is connected to the weirwood, and all the power that that confers.

However, you make a very good point about Varamyr: this would seem to indicate that there are higher levels of power that are attained through experience. Perhaps Bran's first chapter in Winds will begin: 'Lord Rivers had taught him how to merge with the mind of beasts while maintaining control of his body...', or something?

Wasn't Jojen trying to teach Bran to maintain greater conscious control when warging whilst they were heading North? Something about making a specific mark on trees whilst he was in Summer if I remember correctly.

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1 minute ago, Sept Sev said:

Wasn't Jojen trying to teach Bran to maintain greater conscious control when warging whilst they were heading North? Something about making a specific mark on trees whilst he was in Summer if I remember correctly.

He wanted Bran to control Summer rather than vice versa, I don't think he ever suggested Bran could stay conscious in his own body.  I doubt Jojen had that knowledge.

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2 minutes ago, aryagonnakill#2 said:

He wanted Bran to control Summer rather than vice versa, I don't think he ever suggested Bran could stay conscious in his own body.  I doubt Jojen had that knowledge.

I know, but it seems a necessary first step to be conscious in the animal you are warging before being conscious in both bodies. Although thinking about it, I am not sure Arya ever controls Nymeria consciously, as it is always in her wolf dreams.

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Arya's training has awakened her innate powers as a warg and skinchanger on a par with Bran.  She wargs Nymeria across the Narrow Sea.

In the thread Bran's Growing Powers After his Final POV in ADwD, the participating scholars have developed a strong case with evidences from the text that reveal Bran's manifestations in the wind, the mists and fog, the escalating snowfall, the ravens, the grey stone walls of Winterfell as part of its living magic, and the heart tree itself.

So - Bran seemingly manipulates powerful elemental forces across great distances while remaining cognizant married to the weirwood.

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2 hours ago, aryagonnakill#2 said:

Arya is not the only 1 to do this.

Varamyr wargs the eagle while remaining conscious and speaking, and he says he rode his bear into battle.  Since the bear hated him he must have been skinchanging it at the time.

We also see BR skinchange multiple birds at the same time, though that is slightly different is suggests to me that there are different levels of skinchanging, and different levels of control.

Lorathi priests cover their eyes to open their 3rd eye, so it seems likely that Arya's blindness helped her along in that.

Thank you for bringing up Varamyr. I guess I arrived at the party a little too late. To add to that, I wanted to explore his bear a little more.

The bear, as you stated, hated him, and in fact "raged each time he wore her skin or climbed upon her back." I do not imagine there was a basket or special saddle made for Varamyr when he rode the bear like Bran had when he rode his horse Dancer in AGoT or in the basket on Hodor's back. Perhaps there was no saddle at all.

Riding horses requires skill and a fair amount of body control. I imagine a bear, which is far wider and less accommodating than a horse, would require even more body control. For that, Varamyr required that he keep mental control of the bear and physical control of himself while riding. This would suggest a divided conscience.

Add in the fact that when Mel incinerated Orell's eagle with Varamyr sharing the eagle's skin, he completely lost control of his other animals. The shadowcat ran off almost immediately, the bear killed 4 men and died from a spear. The bear may have killed Varamyr too, had he been within reach. The 3 wolves stayed because of the loyalty the canines had. Loyalty that neither the bear, nor the shadowcat possessed. This suggests that Varamyr kept the animals under nearly constant control to prevent them from harming him or deserting. Yet Varamyr could remain present in his own body and converse with others and even fight when required, though he probably would have his animals do most of the fighting for him, as he is a relatively small man.

Putting this all together, Arya can see through the eyes of the cat without complete skinchanging because that is the nature of wargs and skinchangers. Given some time to be properly trained, she could probably get the cat to obey her while still in control of herself.

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11 minutes ago, Raisin' Bran said:

Thank you for bringing up Varamyr. I guess I arrived at the party a little too late. To add to that, I wanted to explore his bear a little more.

The bear, as you stated, hated him, and in fact "raged each time he wore her skin or climbed upon her back." I do not imagine there was a basket or special saddle made for Varamyr when he rode the bear like Bran had when he rode his horse Dancer in AGoT or in the basket on Hodor's back. Perhaps there was no saddle at all.

Riding horses requires skill and a fair amount of body control. I imagine a bear, which is far wider and less accommodating than a horse, would require even more body control. For that, Varamyr required that he keep mental control of the bear and physical control of himself while riding. This would suggest a divided conscience.

Add in the fact that when Mel incinerated Orell's eagle with Varamyr sharing the eagle's skin, he completely lost control of his other animals. The shadowcat ran off almost immediately, the bear killed 4 men and died from a spear. The bear may have killed Varamyr too, had he been within reach. The 3 wolves stayed because of the loyalty the canines had. Loyalty that neither the bear, nor the shadowcat possessed. This suggests that Varamyr kept the animals under nearly constant control to prevent them from harming him or deserting. Yet Varamyr could remain present in his own body and converse with others and even fight when required, though he probably would have his animals do most of the fighting for him, as he is a relatively small man.

Putting this all together, Arya can see through the eyes of the cat without complete skinchanging because that is the nature of wargs and skinchangers. Given some time to be properly trained, she could probably get the cat to obey her while still in control of herself.

I agree.  Through either training or practice Arya's skills will become greater so she can do this.  I have a pet theory and it seems unlikely, that Arya will use Belarion to kill Tommen.  She could just dip its paw in some poison and scratch him.  If she did it, it could be a huge shout out to Rhaenys with a simple sentence of "She sensed another presence in the cat"

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11 minutes ago, aryagonnakill#2 said:

I agree.  Through either training or practice Arya's skills will become greater so she can do this.  I have a pet theory and it seems unlikely, that Arya will use Belarion to kill Tommen.  She could just dip its paw in some poison and scratch him.  If she did it, it could be a huge shout out to Rhaenys with a simple sentence of "She sensed another presence in the cat"

Is that about how Weese died, warged dog?

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1 minute ago, Raisin' Bran said:

Is that about how Chiswyck died, warged dog?

Well, I believe the dog in that instance was given Basilisk blood.  The waif tells Arya any warm blooded animal will go completely crazy and kill it's own mother.  I took that as GRRM telling us what happened.  Also, since the kindly man doesn't know how Arya knew it was him, it seems to me he doesn't know of warging.

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5 minutes ago, aryagonnakill#2 said:

Well, I believe the dog in that instance was given Basilisk blood.  The waif tells Arya any warm blooded animal will go completely crazy and kill it's own mother.  I took that as GRRM telling us what happened.  Also, since the kindly man doesn't know how Arya knew it was him, it seems to me he doesn't know of warging.

That makes sense. I had not put that together before.

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My question has always been, does the Kindly Man know that she is doing this? It was right after she outed him for being the one who was beating her that she was led to the inner sanctum and given a face. If the KM thinks Arya is simply learning her lessons and she is ready to move up, what will he do if he finds out she is actually seeing through the cat's eyes? And if Arya is being given these powers when she is not fully "no one", what sort of assassin will she become?

Either way, this is bound to end badly, unless the FM knows exactly what she is up to.

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