wiwerse

thats a possibility I entertained for the children of Asshai, yes, but IIRC the animals just get sick and dies

indeed it must, however even then it makes a certain amount of sense, I heard somewhere of an estimate of population, placing the free cities, in the million, individually, but don't quote me on that. however, as for the depopulation of Asshai, there are several major factors, There are no children in Asshai, whether they are forbidden and extensive preconception measures are taken, children die like livestock, are forbidden to come to Asshai, and for some reason people are infertile in Asshai, We have the ghostgrass which allows nothing else to grow, we have the unexplained deaths of all livestock and animals, bar humans and malformed fish which only shadowbinders and fools eat, we have the fact that it seems a rather unwelcoming atmosphere in which few people would voluntarily move, and that it seems weird to call it By the shadow. whether that means that it's actually under shadow, or merely metaphorically. as for the extensive empty housing, it might be that each new resident must build their own residence, that the buildings go in inheritance, but most don't have heirs, of course it might be that once the population was much higher and then got lowered, over time or abruptly. Of course, Asshai might have something to do with the five forts, whether friendly, neutrally or hostile. Asshai has interested me since I first heard about it,

Just a few insights from me. towns and cities are built for differing purposes, learning, housing, fabrication, farming, etc. etc. i propose that asshai was built, as a city/town for magic, and lost arts, as a haven to the condemned, similar to how braavos was a haven for the escaped slaves. the discussion on dawn and other swords are interesting and remind me of an lder thread, of how ice became dawn, https://asoiaf.westeros.org/index.php?/topic/131027-how-ice-became-dawn/#comments the discussion on paralells are also interesting, but as the world is curved, all lines meet sooner or later, at two different points in fact, even if they may seem as parallels, this is also shown in quotes such as "Nothing burns like the cold", from AGOT prologue