TheDailyPlanetos Posted October 13, 2016 Share Posted October 13, 2016 Hello fellow GRRM fans, I'm Mike. This is my first time submitting a thread here but have a YouTube channel I started recently to review the book and show. After reading ADWD I became very curious about greyscale and what it's potential role would be in the series (book and show). It wasn't until recently that I took weekend to research exactly what our friends in ASOIAF suffering from this affliction, could possibly do to cure this seemingly death sentence. I started by tracking the disease to it's real world inspiration...leprosy, which led me to look at the treatments for it. I noticed that the chemical composition of Dapson contained an element that is mentioned a few times over in the book. I immediately drew a link to the only curable instance that is known to both book and show, that instance being Shireen Baratheon's. We all know the story of Stannis bringing in maesters and healers to treat his daughter. We don't know what stopped the spread of greyscale, but perhaps there is a scientific explaination. Sulfur is part of the chemical make up of Dapson, sulfur would have been abundant on Dragonstone and so would Magnesium Sulfate (Epsom Salt) which is used to treat infections like staff and is in general, an inhibitor of aerobic bacteria. After reading Hamfast44's post about the Ironborn ritualistic drowning potentially being a primitive form of inoculation, it really made me think that there might be something to this. Sulfur is also likely an ingredient in dragon glass aka obsidian. Now (real world) obsidian as a volcanic substance does not contain sulfur, however, dragon's fire is almost always noted, in ASOIAF, as having a sulfuric smell. That last part has nothing to do with greyscale, but perhaps the third most abundant element in the human body is a key opposing ingredient to winning the war for the dawn? I go into a bit more detail if you care to check out the video, cheers! https://youtu.be/GwjYiwKBrTQ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cephalophore Posted October 14, 2016 Share Posted October 14, 2016 Very interesting post! And the video too. I kind of doubt that GRRM has been thinking about sulphur/Dapson. But this all works as a pretty solid fan-theory in my opinion. It's amazing what some fans can come up with! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grufolo Posted October 19, 2016 Share Posted October 19, 2016 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composition_of_the_human_body Sulfur is not third, but a bit more down the line Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cridefea Posted October 19, 2016 Share Posted October 19, 2016 I really like your idea, it's very interesting! Hope GRRM/D&D are reading us Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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