ummester Posted October 30, 2014 Share Posted October 30, 2014 Hi guys,Any new information on Asshai? What do you know already? It's shadowy - very shadowy. The days are dark and the streets deserted at night. Animals can't live there, they all die. It has very few inhabitants and no children. The people there don't eat much. Many of them wear masks. Only the shadowbinders go upriver, where it's rumored demons, dragons and more hideous things hide in the caves. Even the shadowbinders are afraid to go all the way to Stygia. Oh, the origins of the Azor Ahai legend probably came from Asshai, during the Long Night, before the age of Valyria, when Ghis was still forming. And, impossibly ancient texts claim that dragons first came from the shadow and were tamed by a people so ancient that they have no name. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MotherMerciless Posted October 30, 2014 Share Posted October 30, 2014 What do you know already? It's shadowy - very shadowy. The days are dark and the streets deserted at night. Animals can't live there, they all die. It has very few inhabitants and no children. The people there don't eat much. Many of them wear masks. Only the shadowbinders go upriver, where it's rumored demons, dragons and more hideous things hide in the caves. Even the shadowbinders are afraid to go all the way to Stygia. Oh, the origins of the Azor Ahai legend probably came from Asshai, during the Long Night, before the age of Valyria, when Ghis was still forming. And, impossibly ancient texts claim that dragons first came from the shadow and were tamed by a people so ancient that they have no name.<3 Many thanks :-) Most of this was new to me! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mithras Posted October 30, 2014 Share Posted October 30, 2014 Asshai is way creepier than anyone could have imagined. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ummester Posted October 30, 2014 Share Posted October 30, 2014 <3 Many thanks :-)Most of this was new to me! NWs - Asshai interests me also I'm getting the vibe that Mel is going to look pretty scary under her glamour - though this is pure speculation. But I can't shake the feeling whenever I read her in the books or watch her in the show now. There is a line in the text of TWoIaF that says the lacquered masks of shadowbinders hide their faces from gods and men. Also, nothing is forbidden there and people are free to fornicate with demons if that is their desire. yes, AntZ - Asshai is a pretty creepy place. There is a lot of Lovecraftian and pulp Horror/Swords and Sorcery stuff going on in the Shadowlands :D Anyone still doubt we haven't seen the worst and darkest of this series yet? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon's Queen Consort Posted October 30, 2014 Share Posted October 30, 2014 What do you know already? It's shadowy - very shadowy. The days are dark and the streets deserted at night. Animals can't live there, they all die. It has very few inhabitants and no children. The people there don't eat much. Many of them wear masks. Only the shadowbinders go upriver, where it's rumored demons, dragons and more hideous things hide in the caves. Even the shadowbinders are afraid to go all the way to Stygia. Oh, the origins of the Azor Ahai legend probably came from Asshai, during the Long Night, before the age of Valyria, when Ghis was still forming. And, impossibly ancient texts claim that dragons first came from the shadow and were tamed by a people so ancient that they have no name. WOW! So Bran maybe was right when he saw the Dragons at Asshai and that is why R'hllor cannot see Dany's dragons. Because they will have no impact at the battle, because of their limited power and Asshai's dragons will. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaircat Meow Posted October 30, 2014 Share Posted October 30, 2014 How useless was king Aerys? Did he only become incompetent after Duskendale or was he always a bad ruler? Did Tywin really rule the seven kingdoms for him? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lady Blizzardborn Posted October 30, 2014 Share Posted October 30, 2014 Visenya supposedly said that it's a good thing that the Lannister king met the Targs in the field, because the Rock probably would have held up to dragon fire if the Lannisters had just holed themselves up inside. Have to think that'll matter at some point. <snip Said it before and I'll say it again. GRRM deftly and subtly set up the way to take the rock through Tyrion's job history and the infiltration of Meereen. Tyrion will lead Dany's forces into Casterly Rock through the sewers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ummester Posted October 30, 2014 Share Posted October 30, 2014 WOW! So Bran maybe was right when he saw the Dragons at Asshai and that is why R'hllor cannot see Dany's dragons. Because they will have no impact at the battle, because of their limited power and Asshai's dragons will. I always took that as Bran seeing the birthplace of dragons - but it is possible there are living dragons (albeit hideously deformed ones) in the caves outside of Asshai. I have no idea what R'hllor can or cannot see :D I think Mel is both a shadowbinder and a red priestess, so she is a little more complicated than a pure follower of R'hllor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KyleLitke Posted October 30, 2014 Share Posted October 30, 2014 No confirmation of dragon eggs in Winterfell, the Maester's comments lead me to believe they could be there, though. He dismisses the notion much the same as he does other things supernatural which we know exist. I actually read it the other way. Mushroom (a notoriously unreliable source, especially for events he wasn't present for) is the one who made the dragon egg claim, but Gyldayn shoots it down saying Vermax was a male. I also read the last line (about misunderstanding a metaphor) to be directed at us in regards to Bran and the dragon that people take literally instead of metaphorically. I could be totally wrong about that, but that's how I read it; as GRRM shooting the theory down via Maester. When he dismisses a notion that we know is true, it tends to be a Septon Barth notion rather than a Mushroom one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChildOfTheForest Posted October 30, 2014 Share Posted October 30, 2014 Hey can someone please share the art of Asshai as presented in the book?Im getting the book in Sunday (delivery to my country takes a while :-(...)I have seen many artworks that were published on the web, after the launch of the book, but i cant find the Asshai one and i want to see it so bad! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faydra Posted October 30, 2014 Share Posted October 30, 2014 How useless was king Aerys? Did he only become incompetent after Duskendale or was he always a bad ruler? Did Tywin really rule the seven kingdoms for him? Aerys was portrayed as charismatic rather than wise. He had plenty of flamboyant ideas (extending the kingdoms beyond the wall, installing irrigation systems in Dorne) but got bored of them in short time. After finishing the read I realised that what truly marked him first wasn't Duskendale, but his stillborn and dead children. At first his partnership with Tywin went normally and Aerys listened to his advice. Later they started arguing on who's side they should support, which people they should appoint etc. Tywin lowered the taxes for the merchants, Aerys raised them. Pycelle's accounts of Aerys' reign tell that Tywin, whose efforts were greatly aided by who else but Pycelle, did much for Westeros but was little loved. It still may be argued that this is subjective since it's written by a maester of uncertain loyalties, but to answer your question, the fact that Tywin ruled the kingdoms is considered canon, or the closest we'll ever get to the truth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faydra Posted October 30, 2014 Share Posted October 30, 2014 Hey can someone please share the art of Asshai as presented in the book?Im getting the book in Sunday (delivery to my country takes a while :-(...)I have seen many artworks that were published on the web, after the launch of the book, but i cant find the Asshai one and i want to see it so bad! I don't think we're allowed to share artworks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bael's Bastard Posted October 30, 2014 Share Posted October 30, 2014 How useless was king Aerys? Did he only become incompetent after Duskendale or was he always a bad ruler? Did Tywin really rule the seven kingdoms for him? Tywin was a great choice for Hand, though I am not sure whether Aerys chose him because he thought he would be great at the job, or for more personal reasons (such as having grown up together). He seemed to get unrealistically ambitious ideas. When Rickard visited KL in 264, Aerys hatched a plan to build a new Wall a hundred leagues beyond the Wall and claim all the lands in between. In 265 he spoke of building a "white city" entirely of marble on the south bank of the Blackwater Rush to replace KL. In 267 after a dispute over money with the Iron Bank of Braavos, he announced that he would build the largest war fleet in the history of the world to bring the Titan to his knees. In 270 he told the Princess of Dorne that he would make the Dornish deserts bloom by digging a great underground canal beneath the mountains, to bring water down from the rainwood. And, of course, none of these things ever happened. We must always keep in mind that this is being written for his usurper, and that people like Pycelle (a huge Tywin loyalist) are some of the main sources for the information on Aerys's reign. But in general, it seems Tywin really was a good Hand, and Aerys was not a very good king aside from having chosen him, and let him do his thing, at least early on. Aside from his rule, he definitely seems to have already been a real asshole already by the time he became king, and is constantly quoted making harsh statements about this or that. Yes, certain things (like around seventeen years and tons of miscarriages, stillbirths, etc between Rhaegar and Viserys) made him flare up, or get worse, but he really had issues all along. Perhaps one of the most important things Aerys ever did, though he couldn't have known it then, was giving the post of master-at-arms to Willem Darry, who later saved the pregnant Queen Rhaella and Viserys, and raised Viserys and Daenerys for a number of years in exile. Tywin had intended to install his brother Tygett at master-at-arms. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaircat Meow Posted October 30, 2014 Share Posted October 30, 2014 Thanks people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AzureOwl Posted October 30, 2014 Share Posted October 30, 2014 Do we find out the ultimate fate of Shiera Seastar?Is there any information about the Kingdom of Sarnor and its relationship with the Valyrian Freehold?Any info about the moonsingers and their beliefs? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-Daddy Posted October 30, 2014 Share Posted October 30, 2014 I would love some more early Baratheon stuff.I know that Orys' had a son Davos, and a grandson who was Robar. Does anyone know if Robar was Davos' son? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elessar Posted October 30, 2014 Share Posted October 30, 2014 "R'hollor can't see Dany's dragons." Did you forget this vision from her POV? "Visions danced before her, gold and scarlet, flickering, forming and melting and dissolving into one another, shapes strange and terrifying and seductive. She saw the eyeless faces again, staring out at her from sockets weeping blood. Then the towers by the sea, crumbling as the dark tide came sweeping over them, rising from the depths. Shadows in the shapes of skulls, skulls that turned to mist, bodies locked together in lust, writhing and rolling and clawing. Through curtains of fire great winged shadows wheeled against a hard blue sky." Or this from Moqorro "Dragons old and young, true and false, bright and dark...." I've always interpreted this as them seeing the dragons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jarl the climber Posted October 30, 2014 Share Posted October 30, 2014 I always took that as Bran seeing the birthplace of dragons - but it is possible there are living dragons (albeit hideously deformed ones) in the caves outside of Asshai. I have no idea what R'hllor can or cannot see :D I think Mel is both a shadowbinder and a red priestess, so she is a little more complicated than a pure follower of R'hllor. Another curiousity about Mel is that she is the only woman priest that we see, all the others seem to be male. Does a shadowbinder have to be female? It does seem that way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon's Queen Consort Posted October 30, 2014 Share Posted October 30, 2014 snip No one said that those were Dany's dragons. There could be dragons in Asshai. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MotherMerciless Posted October 30, 2014 Share Posted October 30, 2014 NWs - Asshai interests me also I'm getting the vibe that Mel is going to look pretty scary under her glamour - though this is pure speculation. But I can't shake the feeling whenever I read her in the books or watch her in the show now. There is a line in the text of TWoIaF that says the lacquered masks of shadowbinders hide their faces from gods and men. Also, nothing is forbidden there and people are free to fornicate with demons if that is their desire. yes, AntZ - Asshai is a pretty creepy place. There is a lot of Lovecraftian and pulp Horror/Swords and Sorcery stuff going on in the Shadowlands :D Anyone still doubt we haven't seen the worst and darkest of this series yet?This and I am also very curious as to why the hell Varys mentions Asshai so much, and why we see Dany being told to go to Asshai so often. Don't ask me to quote, I only realised this from reading posts on these forums that pointed this out to me. I am very curious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.