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What is or what's in Ulthos


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From what we can see of it on the map, it seems to be covered in forest. That's basically all we know. It is interesting how it's very close to Asshai. All we can do is theorize about this mysterious place really. It's probably nothing and just serves as a place to broaden Planetos, but I'm very intrigued by this place as well. Could there be more CotF here? Or some other magical creatures? More dragons, maybe? I don't think we'll ever know to be honest. As far as we know nobody has ever traveled here nor will they, most likely.

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It seems to be an Australia analog. The sealord had a pouched predator (either a wolf or a tiger) from Ulthos.

So my guess is giant, carnivorous kangaroos and actual drop bears.

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  • 2 weeks later...

It's covered in a dark forest.....possibly covered in Ghost Trees.

A magical meteor storm had affected Asshai and turned it into what it is today, since Ulthos is located close to Asshai I'm sure it was affected as well.

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I thnk it's like India more than Australia or America, specifically in Alexander's time where they thought India was the end of the world, but obviously was not. Though YiTi and Asshai are seeming Asia analogs and are both west of it so..yeah

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It is known. GRRM seems to have enjoyed using it as a red herring for readers. For all the Citadel maesters know, this is the Terra Australis of the World of Ice and Fire.

Then again, presuming that all of the maps in the books are from the Citadel in-universe, it's not unimaginable that an Essosi map, if ever shown, would show a far better conception of both Sothoryos and Ulthos.

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The Sea Snake traveled as far east as Yi Ti and Leng, past Qarth. It boggles me to think that he wouldn't have any notion of what's past the Saffron Straits or what lies south of the Jade Sea. Navigators and learned folk from Qarth must have maps that we don't have access to, showing at the very least more of Sothoryos and Ulthos. If maesters in Oldtown know that Ulos exists, then educated people in the east must have some clue what's east of the Shadow Lands.

I'd love to read about a maester who spends time in Qarth or in Yin learning more about the east and the south, parsing fact from rumor. Or even in the Port of Ibben befriending a local and getting invited into the city proper.

Alternatively, a direct story about Corlys' voyages would give us some really solid information.

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On 15/05/2016 at 6:33 PM, TheEld said:

It could just be part of Sothoryos for all we know if viewed from space.

Negatory. GRRM has confirmed that Ulthos is a very large island or small island-continent, depending on how you count it, so it's completely separate from Sothoryos.

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I find it strange that people seem to think that this might represent some kind of Australia of the Ice and Fire world (meaning the most distant continent possible from Westeros). There is more of the Planet beyond Ulthos than has been shown on the map so far. There are no doubt vast lands beyond it that we have no clue about.

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I mentioned Terra Australis, but that's not quite the same as Australia. In our universe, Terra Australis was a hypothetical continent at the south pole with all of the fantastical qualities assigned to any mythical land; Australia itself was named in honour of that myth, as it was believed that Australia was the southernmost continent when it was discovered (since Antarctica was unknown at that point).

What we know of Ulthos is roughly equivalent to that semi-mythical idea of the alien continent. Just as we see unreliable narrators in the novels, so too may we find unreliable cartographers, with the fictional equivalent of mapping California as an island or making China bigger than Eastern Europe, Africa and the rest of Asia combined. While GRRM has confirmed beyond doubt that Ulthos actually exists as large island or small continent, any information we have and/or are given in subsequent novels should be taken with a giant's pinch of salt.

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