Long Night Ground Zero…..Marahai

[Bobity.]

I found reference to Marahai searching out volcanos for my dragon habitat theory.

“Marahai, the paradise isle, a verdant crescent attended by twin fire islands, where burning mountains belch plumes of molten stone day and night” - The World of Ice and Fire - The Bones and Beyond: Leng

Thought nothing of it, like everyone else who had read all of WOIAF, until I saw it on a map...and freaked out.  Love Atlas of Ice and Fire blog btw.

The configuration of the volcanic islands of Marahai at the center of the Jade sea resembles a massive, highly active, volcanic caldera.  Eruptions would have caused earthquakes, tsunamis, and magma ejections measured in cubic miles, fueling clouds of ash that would have traveled the globe and blocked the sun.  I believe that its last eruption had triggered a volcanic winter, decimated the Great Empire of the Dawn dragonlords who resided there, and kicked off the Long Night with an epic boom.  

For real world examples, compare the islands of Marahai visually to Santorini and Krakatoa.  The crescent islands surrounding the central volcanos were onces the edges of the pre erupting volcano, this quick video of the mechanics of a collapsing caldera shows how.  

Erupting Krakatoa created 120ft tsunamis, local earthquakes and rained fire and ash, but the islands are no more than 8 miles from end to end.

The Marahai caldera is HUGE!!!

Look at the map again, compare it to the Wall, its close to the same length, and the Wall is 300 miles!!  This caldrea is many times larger than anything we have on Earth, Yellowstone is 45 miles and the world's largest, Lake Toba is 62 miles at its widest.  The Lake Toba eruption ejected 670 cubic miles of dense rock into the atmosphere, blocked the sun and had major impacts on climate, and Marahai is five times larger.

“It has been accepted that the eruption of Toba led to a volcanic winter with a worldwide decrease in temperature between 3 to 5 °C (5.4 to 9.0 °F), and up to 15 °C (27 °F) in higher latitudes.”

I know that GRRM has overstated scale, with misgivings on how he oversized the Wall.  But I would think that if he was placing a massive ticking time bomb in the middle of the Jade Sea he would have been particular with its size on a map.

So what does the local history have to say?

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Golden Empire…It has weathered floods and droughts and sandstorms and quaking of the earth so violent as to swallow entire cities. - The World of Ice and Fire - The Bones and Beyond: Yi Ti

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There are queer ruins in the depths of the island jungle: massive buildings, long fallen and so overblown that rubble remained above the surface….but underground, we are told, endless labyrinths of tunnels lead to vast chambers and carved steps descend hundreds of feet into the earth. - The World of Ice and Fire - The Bones and Beyond: Leng

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Even their ruins put ours to shame, the Longstrider said...and ruins are everywhere in Yi Ti. - The World of Ice and Fire - The Bones and Beyond: Yi Ti

The Jade Sea region has been the site of much historical destruction, and the source would logically be an erupting Marahai.

The eruption would have been accompanied by massive tsunamis, devastating much of the Jade Sea coastal cities of Yi Ti, Leng and Asshai.  Cities with islands between them and Marahai would have been spared the waves, including Qarth sheltered by Great Morag Island.  

Whatever people and structures had been on the volcanic island of Marahai would have been utterly destroyed without a trace.  Whatever survived the initial explosion on the edges of the caldera would have been buried by ejecting lava.  No survivors, no physical evidence of existence.  Based on my thoughts of a dragon's ecological dependence on volcanoes, I believe that the GEOTD dragonlord society stayed close to Marahai, and like the Valyrians in the Doom, were largely wiped out.

What caused the Long Night?  Yi Ti legend tells of the actions of the GEOTD Bloodstone Emperor.  

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In the annals of the Further East, it was the Blood Betrayal, as his usurpation is named, that ushered in the age of darkness called the Long Night. - The World of Ice and Fire - The Bones and Beyond: Yi Ti

Considering the potential strength of blood magic, I believe the acts and events of that story were probably the catalyst of the Long Night, but the smoking gun is Marahai.

[Dorian Martell's son]

1 hour ago, Bobity. said:

Considering the potential strength of blood magic, I believe the acts and events of that story were probably the catalyst of the Long Night, but the smoking gun is Marahai.

Since the world was written up long after the story was started, It is safe to say that the long night was caused by the advancing of the others. The readers will never see any of those lands in a POV, so there is no reason to think that any of those places will have or have had any bearing on the story or the others. The jade sea is analogous to the mediterranean, and like you said, the isle if marahai is reminiscent of santorini, just like how westeros is an amalgam of ireland, england, scotland and wales, and the wall is based on hadrian's wall. The readers have seen the ancient enemy that stirs again, and the readers have seen how they bring the cold. there is no need to speculate beyond the story, especially  because the readers will never see those places   

[Equilibrium]

Nice find, I assume GRRM included such tidbits as an extra layer of symbolism and story arc progression, but I doubt it will be referenced as current plot point. 

It's nice thing for a fans to find, but it will go over head of 99% of readers, so it is interesting but not that important.

In any case good work, finding and explaining.

[The Weirwoods Eyes]

Very good, I like things like this.  

 

[Orphalesion]

21 hours ago, Dorian Martell's son said:

Since the world was written up long after the story was started, It is safe to say that the long night was caused by the advancing of the others. The readers will never see any of those lands in a POV, so there is no reason to think that any of those places will have or have had any bearing on the story or the others. The jade sea is analogous to the mediterranean, and like you said, the isle if marahai is reminiscent of santorini, just like how westeros is an amalgam of ireland, england, scotland and wales, and the wall is based on hadrian's wall. The readers have seen the ancient enemy that stirs again, and the readers have seen how they bring the cold. there is no need to speculate beyond the story, especially  because the readers will never see those places   

^ This.

Plus I really don't see why people are so bent on finding a natural catalyst for the Long Night, the seasons are purely magic and we know that they do affect the length of the days, so I don't see why the magic that caused the long night would require a super volcano, meteor impact or imaginary blackhole moon to work.