Magic & Otherworldly Creatures

[Zephyr Fate]

Information like Melisandre's shadowmagic, The Others, dragons, green dreams and other mystical elements of the entire series should deserve their own section, I think. It'd be really interesting to read up on how every magical element has it's own plot tie in the present, future, and past of Westeros.

[Paul H]

Blood Magic and Fire Magic...I would like to see a manticore...

[Zephyr Fate]

Exactly, it would be a great section as it would provide much knowledge on some of the lesser-known elements of the series.

[Werthead]

Err, I don't think so. Martin has said he won't reveal how magic works as he prefers to keep magic mysterious and unknowable, rather than "Shadow Birth is a Level 6 Conjuration spell."

Perhaps magic could be filtered into the book via an extract from some account of magic in Valyria, highly questionable and lacking hard detail, but I wouldn't be expecting anything more than that.

[Ran]

Yeah, something like what Wert says. Perhaps we can go into a little more detail regarding distinguishing traits of, say, moonsingers and aeromancers, but having really detailed information about what they do, how they do it, and so on is almost certainly not in the cards.

[Jaime Martell]

a picture of a manticore would make my day. We hear such odd descriptions that a concrete vision would be very helpful

[cybroleach]

a picture of a manticore would make my day. We hear such odd descriptions that a concrete vision would be very helpful

Espically since i want to see a Lorch banner pic.

[Ran]

I've already got Jaime Sims working on George on getting a description of the Lorch manticore -- it might be "realistic" (for the setting) or it may be the traditional heraldic manticore (basically a lion with a scorpion's tail).

There may well be info about the strange beasts of the eastern lands, though, certainly.

[cybroleach]

I've already got Jaime Sims working on George on getting a description of the Lorch manticore -- it might be "realistic" (for the setting) or it may be the traditional heraldic manticore (basically a lion with a scorpion's tail).

There may well be info about the strange beasts of the eastern lands, though, certainly.

This just came to me last night, but maybe you could add something about how Wyrvens (?) differ from Dragons is ASOIAF and if they are more commonly known about. Also if Dragons have capacity for reason or if their just beastial.

[Maid Sansa]

This just came to me last night, but maybe you could add something about how Wyrvens (?) differ from Dragons is ASOIAF and if they are more commonly known about. Also if Dragons have capacity for reason or if their just beastial.

That would probably constitute spoilers. But might some more info on the Targaryen dragons from the past be forthcoming? How they lived, how they died, maybe even some Maesters' writing on them...? And pictures?

[Ran]

I suspect ADwD will fill us in on wyverns, if GRRM still plans to use them. And there's firewyrms, of course ...

I'd love to learn the exact circumstances of Balerion's death in Jaehaerys's reign, so if information of that sort about that or any other dragon is available, we'll try to use it.

[Klegane the Kinhater]

Didnt Balerion die of natural causes at the age of like 200 something? Or am I imagining that I read that?

[Ran]

As Barristan said, the Targaryen dragons were bred for war, and in war they died. He cites Balerion's death as an example. We don't know the details, though.

[Lann_Boys'Girl]

What's a wyvern again?

[Lyanna Stark-Targaryen]

Knowing too much about the Magic would be a little dissapointing somehow. I do want to know more about the Children of the Forest and that whole deal though.

[Ran]

Lann,

Wyverns are a little like dragons in appearance, but they have legs. And are probably generally a lot smaller.

We'll be learning a bit about them soon, I think.

[BrainFireBob]

I don't want to know about magic per se, but I do want to know about magic "traditions."

Why is a shadowbinder different from a Warlock? Is it all bloodmagic? GRRM seems to be using colors, some- the Warlocks favor blue, Melisandre (the shadow-binder) red, the children had "green dreams" with their red and white weirwoods- what makes all these things different?

I don't care how the magic WORKS, but how do the magic USERS fit into things? Esp., how do/did they interrelate to the Maesters- and their potential anti-magic conspiracy, yet obvious knowledge of magic.

[SpottedPate]

Is there any mention of Griffins actually existing in the ASOIF universe or are they just mythical. They are used in crests like manticores are and manticores are real creatures there, but i cant recall any encounters or plausable accounts of griffins. How curious...

[Lann_Boys'Girl]

Thanks Ran! I actually played Final Fantasy 7 with my boyfriend and wyverns came up, they just looked like birds and could destroy, like, a certain type of fighter. Whatever. They sound like McCaffrey's fire-lizards, lol. I'm excited to see how (if) GRRM works them into the plot

[Lord Varys]

As Barristan said, the Targaryen dragons were bred for war, and in war they died. He cites Balerion's death as an example. We don't know the details, though.

Well, the realm should not have suffered many wars under Jaehaeys's I. But it's possible that Balerion died during the wars with the Faith Militant shortly after Jaehaerys I. took over.

But to kill Balerion one should assume that you should have needed an army, and I don't believe the Faith Militant had still an army after six years Maegor the Cruel. I thought that there were still rebellions and stuff under Jaehaerys I., but the Targaryens sat safe on the Iron Throne.

If we get more stuff from GRRM in ADwD about the maesters killing dragons it would be possible to speculate about how they have done that. Poisoning should appear as natural death - and if no Targaryen dragon except the two females under Aegon III. rule died with no violence involved, the thing gets complicated.

Maybe one should think about poisons which made dragons weak in war, causing flight inabilities (which should have killed the riders, too), harmed their ability to breed, and made them less effective against the weapons men used against them?

But on the whole dragon issue:

We need some stuff about the greatest dragons of Old Valyria. And if just to understand which dragon heads are still lying under the Red Keep. Maybe it's possible to ask GRRM about the history of all the dragons heads the Tagaryens had in their throne room? So we would get some stuff about the great three dragons, and the smaller ones till the Dance of Dragons. And it would be interesting how and why get all the pre-conquest heads into the hands of the Targaryens? Were all of them family dragons?

On the magic thing:

It would be interesting to know how many magical traditions there are in Martinwold. We know there are the Asshai'i, the Qartheen, maybe the servants of R'hllor, of course the Valyrians, the Lamb Men, but is there anything in Yi Ti, on the Summer Isles, in Ibben, or some place else? It would be interesting to get something about different magic traditions, say, if it's common to unite Asshai'i traditions with the cult of the Lord of the Light, as Melisandre does? And show some difference between science as the Citadel teaches it, and 'true magic'. Does Dany's dragon thing have similarities to the common magical rituals of the Valyrians? What about the Guild of the Alchemists? Do they use valyrian knowledge?