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Runes In Bronze, or Why the Royces Remember


Silas Barbarossa

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Hi all! This is my first post here, and I'm excited about this theory, which is a part of the greater Gods of Terror theory that I have been formulating over the last few weeks. 

And I think I've solved a long-standing mystery in the books, with a little help from George RR Martin himself.

The Gods of Terror theory, in a nutshell, is that Terros is a world located in the literary universe of the Cthulhu Mythos. The Gods of Terror are the ancient gods of Lovecraftian horror, who spawned the civilizations of man.

These gods are at war with each other, and humans are caught in-between, although they have the power to fight against the spawn of the gods. The spawn are the Deep Ones, although in Terros they are called squishers or merlings or selkies, among many names.

The histories of a Song of Ice and Fire, and the magic of Terros, take on new and terrible meanings within the framework of the Cthulhu Mythos.

But also, some of the long-standing mysteries of the stories make so much more sense!

In particular, this theory concerns the mystery surrounding the sigil and bronze armor of House Royce, First Men of the Vale. Their words are: "We Remember".

The armor is thousands of years old (some dispute that), but none dispute that it is covered in ancient runes that are suppose to ward the wearer from harm. Bronze Yohn Royce has the armor in the current story.

**Enter GRRM:**

Quote

 

"You could have twenty good hands," said Tyrion. He did not even look up from his book. "The tentacles would catch you and pull you apart like a wishbone." He turned another page. "You had best start reading, if you ever want to fuck our sweet sister again."

Jaime started reading. It was not at all his favorite pastime, but he saw his little brother's point.

The better part of an hour passed before he looked up. **"Here's something," he said. "Elder signs."** He turned the book around and showed it to Tyrion.

The dwarf scratched at his nose, considering. **"Hmmm. Yes. Protective wards. Those could be useful."**

"I can paint one on my shield," said Jaime.

"On your shield and all over your armor," suggested Tyrion. "But paint can be stripped away too easily.** Have these Elder Signs etched into the metal.**"

"Agreed." Jaime rose and summoned his armorer and set him to work. "Along my sword as well," he told the man. "Both sides."

 


That is an excerpt from a curious post by GRRM on his Not-A-Blog. This post was advertising the Suduvu Cages Matches, a fun series of imagined battles between popular characters that had Jamie matched up with Cthulhu in the second round of the tournament after defeating Hermione in the first round.

While he links to Suduvu's account of the battle, he decided to weigh in with his own take. And in this battle, Jamie and Tyrion do research into the Cthulhu Mythos to understand how to defeat the terrible Cthulhu, one of the Great Old Ones.

While they decide that they couldn't defeat Cthulhu, they do uncover a bit of useful information: the Elder Signs, ancient runes that protect the wearer from the Deep Ones. Jamie enscribes the runes into his armor to protect himself in the climax of the story: 

Quote

 

He was not wrong. When Jaime strode onto the battleground beside the sea, he found more than twenty of them: priests and acolytes with bulging eyes, fish-belly white skin, receding chins, and the odd gill or two. The moment they saw him, they all started chanting, "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn,"and dancing about in a circle, their pale limbs flopping. Their eyes were all on the waves. None of them paid the least bit of attention to Jaime... until he shrugged off his cloak and let it puddle to the ground, revealing the golden armor beneath, covered over head to heel with Elder Signs.

Then they started shrieking. Smiling happily, Jaime donned his helm, and unsheathed his longsword. 

The priests were slow and clumsy, at least on land. None of them were armed, and his blade went through their pale soft flesh like a fishwife's knife through a fresh catch, the Elder Signs along its length brightening with each kill. Green ichor splattered everywhere. Before long the ground was slippery with scales and webbed hands and stinking fish innards. No one was chanting anymore. 

Cthulhu never showed. Jaime hoped it was having a nice dream. Maybe it has a sweet sister too.


 


George ends the post with : "Current Mood: Devious"

Very devious indeed, George. And how very Jamie of you, Jamie.

The Elder Sign
 

          
          \ /_
     \  \ /
      \ /__
      / 

The Elder Sign is a Lovecraft symbol that resembles a rune. When shown to Deep Ones, it wards and protects the bearer from harm. It was often painted on rocks and other objects to ward off these terrible half human/half spawns of Cthulhu and other Great Old Ones.

The original Lovecraftian symbol is here. This version is the tree or branch form.

Other writers have taken up the Cthulhu Mythos/ Yog-Sothoros universe, specifically August Derleth, and the Elder Sign has taken on a new shape, that of a star - usually a five pointed star, but a septagram or seven pointed star has hovered around the Mythos over time. This form of the Elder Sign is know as the Flaming Star.

It make me think of the Seven-Pointed Star symbol that Andal warriors would carve into their chests before battle - another ancient Elder Sign, perhaps?

So, to recap:

  •   The Elder Sign was a powerful ward against the Deep Ones according to Lovecraft.
  •  The sigil of House Royce is a bronze shield with iron studs in it, surrounded by ancient runes.
  •  George calls out the Elder Signs (multiple) as wards against the Deep Ones in his short story.
  •  In the story, Tyrion and Jamie discuss the best way to wear the Elder Signs, and decide on etching it into Jamie's armor.
  •   All of the other Lovecraft references that populate Terros make it clear that this world is in the Cthulhu Mythos universe.
  •   My own Gods of Terror Theory, that states that the world was populated with Deep Ones at the Dawn Age.
  •   Hints that the Seven-Pointed Star might represent another ancient Elder Sign.

House Royce Remembers. That's why their sigil has Runes etched in Bronze.

They remember wars against the Deep Ones in the Dawn Age, and they are ready for their return. With their sigil carved with Elder Signs, and their bronze armor with more of the ancient runes, they are ready for the next war against the Deep Ones.

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Silas -

great first post!

This is all very interesting to me and seems to make quite a bit of sense. I can't claim to have much knowledge or understanding of the Cthulu myths myself, but now you have me curious. Off to check out your Gods of Terror theory now!

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1 hour ago, Arya_Stupid! said:

Silas -

great first post!

This is all very interesting to me and seems to make quite a bit of sense. I can't claim to have much knowledge or understanding of the Cthulu myths myself, but now you have me curious. Off to check out your Gods of Terror theory now!

Thanks, @Arya_Stupid! It's a growing theory, and I have at least a dozen more part of it planned, but there is some fun stuff in there already. I hope,you enjoy it!

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Interesting. GRRM gives more than a few nods to Lovecraft, Like the city of Carcosa and the legends of the deep ones. Liek his writing in his blog though, they are exercises in his own fandom. I would be willing to bet money that we will never see any of the deep ones, or squishers and the reader will never see Carsosa. There are hints, like the fused black stone, and the Oily black stone, but they aren't part of the overall story, just nods to a favorite writer. Now, the runic bronze armor, that is something entirely different. The reader has seen magic work in the novels. Storm's end, the Wall and the CTOF cave are all  warded. Wights cannot pass into the cave or underneath the wall and mel had to poop out her shadow baby inside the walls of Storm's End to get it to her victim.  Bronze was used by the first men beforethe Andals came. The Royces are a house descended from the first men. The people who fought in Long night would have used Bronze armor and Bronze or Iron weapons. Now, what if the magic runes are the same magic that the CTOF used and taught to the last hero in his fight to defeat the others? Could the Bronze armor be a possession of the last hero?  

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54 minutes ago, MinotaurWarrior said:

Out of all the theories which assume the GEotD actually happened, this one is by far my favorite.

Wow, thanks @Minotaur

I did find this amazing thread here recently, that you might enjoy, that touches on the GEotD in the Cthulhu Mythos, though I have some different ideas about the particulars. It's a really fun read, either way.

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13 minutes ago, Dorian Martell said:

Interesting. GRRM gives more than a few nods to Lovecraft, Like hte city of Carcosa and the legends of hte deep ones. Liek his writing in his blog though, they are exercises in his own fandom. I would be willing to bet money that we will never see any of the deep ones, or squishers and the reader will never see Carsosa. There are hints, like hte fused black stone, and the Oily black stone, but they aren't part of the overall story, just nods to a favorite writer. Now, the runic bronze armor, that is something entirely different. The reader has seen magic work in the novels. Storm's end, the Wall and the CTOF cave are all  warded. Wights cannot pass into the cave or underneath the wall and mel had to poop out her shadow baby inside the walls of Storm's End to get it to her victim.  Bronze was used by the first men beforethe Andals came. The Royces are a house descended from the first men. The people who fought in Long night would have used Bronze armor and Bronze or Iron weapons. Now, what if the magic runes are the same magic that the CTOF used and taught to the last hero in his fight to defeat the others? Could the Bronze armor be a possession of the last hero?  

The theory that the runic armor was related to the fight against the Others is a long held one, and has one piece of strong evidence for it: the ancient runes, which are said to be of the First Men. Otherwise, the geography of the armor isn't right- the Vale not being near the North, and there is no connection made in any of the literature between the armor and its runes and the war in the North.

 

However, the Lovecraftian nods are not just limited to Carcosa, although that is included in the Terros World Map.

The squishers of AFFC are Deep Ones in action and description.

Maester Theron in AWOIAF postulates about Deep Ones directly.

In fact, Lovecraftian Deep Ones are all over the story, and the gods of at least some the Free Cities, and of the Far Easg are Great Old Ones, the fathers of the Deep Ones: 

The Black Goat of Qohor is Shub-Niggurath

Leng worships the Old Ones, a major clue

The Drowned God is probably Cthulhu

The God of the Norvoshi is probably Hastur, He Who Shall No Be Named

The Many-Faced God is the Faceless God of Death and Dismay, Nyarlathotep, who was also the 69th Yellow Emperor of the Golden Empire of Yi Ti 

The Fisher Queens of antiquity were probably related to Bokrug, as the Kingdom of Sarnath is related to the story "The Doom that Came to Sarnath".

And my personal theory is that the Great Fathers of the Patrimony of Hyrkoon were Deep Ones

Theres a lot more than just homagé here, is my belief, @Dorian Martell, and I'm having a lot of fun rereading the books through the framework of the Cthulhu Mythos. It's illuminating to say the least. 

That, plus the blog post by GRRM, is why I now believe that the runes are Elder Signs.

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32 minutes ago, Silas Barbarossa said:

The theory that the runic armor was related to the fight against the Others is a long held one, and has one piece of strong evidence for it: the ancient runes, which are said to be of the First Men. Otherwise, the geography of the armor isn't right- the Vale not being near the North, and there is no connection made in any of the literature between the armor and its runes and the war in the North.

 

However, the Lovecraftian nods are not just limited to Carcosa, although that is included in the Terros World Map.

The squishers of AFFC are Deep Ones in action and description.

Maester Theron in AWOIAF postulates about Deep Ones directly.

In fact, Lovecraftian Deep Ones are all over the story, and the gods of at least some the Free Cities, and of the Far Easg are Great Old Ones, the fathers of the Deep Ones: 

The Black Goat of Qohor is Shub-Niggurath

Leng worships the Old Ones, a major clue

The Drowned God is probably Cthulhu

The God of the Norvoshi is probably Hastur, He Who Shall No Be Named

The Many-Faced God is the Faceless God of Death and Dismay, Nyarlathotep, who was also the 69th Yellow Emperor of the Golden Empire of Yi Ti 

The Fisher Queens of antiquity were probably related to Bokrug, as the Kingdom of Sarnath is related to the story "The Doom that Came to Sarnath".

And my personal theory is that the Great Fathers of the Patrimony of Hyrkoon were Deep Ones

Theres a lot more than just homagé here, is my belief, @Dorian Martell, and I'm having a lot of fun rereading the books through the framework of the Cthulhu Mythos. It's illuminating to say the least. 

That, plus the blog post by GRRM, is why I now believe that the runes are Elder Signs.

All of those things you mentioned are nods to lovecraft. they will not factor in the story. the story involves the others and dragons 

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Well this one has strong competition in ASOIAF Thousand Worlds story, and if you are writer placing your magnum opus into extended universe logical pick would be your own extended universe.

There are bunch of references to Lovecraft, it is true, but they could all be homages or tributes, just like call outs to Howard, Moorcock, Tolkien etc. even the Muppets. Granted they are more numerous and sometimes very subtle, but they could be like Genius Bonus for readers who get them, Martin likes to do that in numerous other ways.

Still, nicely put, I've been finding all that stuff again recently when I worked on my theory, but I have been reluctant to put it in such context as you did. I'll be paying it even more attention, because I am still open to the possibility of you theory being true.

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12 hours ago, Equilibrium said:

Well this one has strong competition in ASOIAF Thousand Worlds story, and if you are writer placing your magnum opus into extended universe logical pick would be your own extended universe.

There are bunch of references to Lovecraft, it is true, but they could all be homages or tributes, just like call outs to Howard, Moorcock, Tolkien etc. even the Muppets. Granted they are more numerous and sometimes very subtle, but they could be like Genius Bonus for readers who get them, Martin likes to do that in numerous other ways.

Still, nicely put, I've been finding all that stuff again recently when I worked on my theory, but I have been reluctant to put it in such context as you did. I'll be paying it even more attention, because I am still open to the possibility of you theory being true.

Thanks, @Equilibrium - I appreciate the willingness to be challenged, even if it's a theory coming from a whole new place.
As far as the Thousand Worlds theory, I think that there is some evidence for it - like Golden Thetas appearing in the show - but I don't see as many tight couplings between the histories in the Thousand Worlds as I do with the Cthulhu Mythos. But I've certainly enjoyed reading the older stories, and I enjoy mining them for clues about GRRM's thought processes.

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I'm skeptical that it's an overt reference to something entirely out-of-universe. While it's cool to slyly reference the inspirational literature for Ice and Fire, this still needs to relate to something within the relevant universe. 

My take is that the Royces, having strong First Men ancestry like the Starks, are traditional foes of the Others. This would explain why a Royce is featured in the prologue: it exemplifies the millennia old conflict between First Men and Others, but without using a Stark. It also explains why the Others are cautious upon engaging Waymar, but mocking as they defeat him. Beyond the possibility of him having a dragonglass sword, the Others recognize him as kin to the people who defeated them thousands of years before, and rightly think he might be as mighty a warrior. When they see that neither his weapon nor his blood justify their initial fear, they mock him for possessing only a shadow of his ancestors' former strength. Apparently they expected more from a Royce.

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21 hours ago, Dorian Martell said:

All of those things you mentioned are nods to lovecraft. they will not factor in the story. the story involves the others and dragons 

Sure, but that doesn't mean it's not true. Does it really matter that Conan the Barbarian was part of the Cthulu Mythos? No, that was a story about a barbarian's wild adventure. But it was. I wouldn't be surprised if GRRM's estate one day reveals that this was all intentional, but, like you said, it wouldn't really factor into the story or my enjoyment thereof.

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1 minute ago, MinotaurWarrior said:

Sure, but that doesn't mean it's not true. Does it really matter that Conan the Barbarian was part of the Cthulu Mythos? No, that was a story about a barbarian's wild adventure. But it was. I wouldn't be surprised if GRRM's estate one day reveals that this was all intentional, but, like you said, it wouldn't really factor into the story or my enjoyment thereof.

Don't get me wrong, I know it is intentional. He loves the mythos. That is why he puts it in, it's just their long term effect on the story is nil. 

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10 hours ago, Silas Barbarossa said:

Thanks, @Equilibrium - I appreciate the willingness to be challenged, even if it's a theory coming from a whole new place.
As far as the Thousand Worlds theory, I think that there is some evidence for it - like Golden Thetas appearing in the show - but I don't see as many tight couplings between the histories in the Thousand Worlds as I do with the Cthulhu Mythos. But I've certainly enjoyed reading the older stories, and I enjoy mining them for clues about GRRM's thought processes.

It all looks good in your OP, but so does a lot of theories, people even did it to show a point, making up random and crazy theory and finding enough textual and meta evidence to make it plausible.

Main thing stopping me from going all in with your theory is that bunch of Lovecraft references are homages, and some are not consisted with mythos, there was priest named Sauron, but he obviously isn't that Sauron, just as Leng in ASOIAF isn't cold arid plateau but a tropical island.

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2 hours ago, Equilibrium said:

It all looks good in your OP, but so does a lot of theories, people even did it to show a point, making up random and crazy theory and finding enough textual and meta evidence to make it plausible.

Main thing stopping me from going all in with your theory is that bunch of Lovecraft references are homages, and some are not consisted with mythos, there was priest named Sauron, but he obviously isn't that Sauron, just as Leng in ASOIAF isn't cold arid plateau but a tropical island.

Sure, and the the Necronomicon in Conan the Barbarian wasn't written by a 'Mad arab' because the stories are set before there were such people as 'arabs'. Still, Howard intended for it to be the same book.

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A quote from the world book:

Even to this day, the Lords of Runestone go into battle clad in the bronze armor of their forebears, etched with runes that are said to ward the armor's wearer from harm. Alas, the number of Royces who have died whilst wearing this runic armor is daunting

There is clearly something wrong with the protection offered by the runes.

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49 minutes ago, Tucu said:

A quote from the world book:

Even to this day, the Lords of Runestone go into battle clad in the bronze armor of their forebears, etched with runes that are said to ward the armor's wearer from harm. Alas, the number of Royces who have died whilst wearing this runic armor is daunting

There is clearly something wrong with the protection offered by the runes.

It protects them from something other than swords, Spears, hammers, and axes. 

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If the runes do protect against the Others, it would make sense that GRRM has put them in the Vale, where they won't encounter each other until some pivotal point in the story.

likewise within the story, a family that once fought the Others might have good reason to take up residence in the highly defensible Vale.

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