consequences of dany spilling blood in vaes dothrak ?

[Suzanna Stormborn]

I think the spilled blood has to come from a weapon, that's why what Drogo did was acceptable, because he got creative.

And I also think this rule really only applies to warring men. For instance if a woman were to give birth in Vaes Dothrak and bleed some, that would be ok.

Pregnant Dany hitting her brother with a belt while he was abusing her.......I cannot imagine anyone caring about this at all.

[Damon_Tor]

The law against spilling blood, as well as things like Vaes Dothrak operating as a matriarchy under the Dosh Kaleen, is likely a remnant of the Dothraki culture's common ancestry with the Jogos Nhai culture. In Jogos Nai, men are in charge of war, while women are in charge of virtually all other functions of society. The Dothraki are actually the same way if you think about it, except that they are effectively ALWAYS at war, and so the matriarchy is confined to the single spot where war is prohibited.

[Lost Melnibonean]

I think the spilled blood has to come from a weapon, that's why what Drogo did was acceptable, because he got creative.

And I also think this rule really only applies to warring men. For instance if a woman were to give birth in Vaes Dothrak and bleed some, that would be ok.

Pregnant Dany hitting her brother with a belt while he was abusing her.......I cannot imagine anyone caring about this at all.

That's not what were told. We're told shedding a free man's blood is forbidden. Daenerys shed the blood of a free man.

[Khaella]

Maybe I'm missing something but the fact that she loses her son and husband seems pretty cursed. I know the sons life was given up for the khals but it just seems like a curse. And to say curses don't exist seems false. Robb killed his kin when he beheaded Karstark and died soon after. We all know that the Freys and Boltons are going to get what's coming to them. I know that these things have other factors going into them and people are carrying out the deaths or whatever bad follows but the curses seem real to me. Not to mention her son was deformed. I know the Targs have a history of having deformed monstrous babies that look like dragons. That in itself seems like a curse.

[Ferocious Veldt Roarer]

Maybe I'm missing something but the fact that she loses her son and husband seems pretty cursed. I know the sons life was given up for the khals but it just seems like a curse. And to say curses don't exist seems false. Robb killed his kin when he beheaded Karstark and died soon after. We all know that the Freys and Boltons are going to get what's coming to them. I know that these things have other factors going into them and people are carrying out the deaths or whatever bad follows but the curses seem real to me. Not to mention her son was deformed. I know the Targs have a history of having deformed monstrous babies that look like dragons. That in itself seems like a curse.

 

Only nobody mentions, or hints, that there's any "curse" associated with shedding blood in Vaes Dothrak. Gods, spirits, cosmic forces have nothing to do with it any more than with speed limits on public roads.

[Lady Blizzardborn]

I think the Dothraki make a distinction between shedding blood (usually used as another term for killing) and drawing a little blood accidentally.  If it was an edict against all blood being shed, nosebleed victims and women giving birth wouldn't be allowed in the city either.

 

That's why Drogo's murder of Viserys is such an interesting point. He got by with ignoring the spirit of the law by following the letter of it.  Saved by a technicality.

[Lord Wraith]

That's not what were told. We're told shedding a free man's blood is forbidden. Daenerys shed the blood of a free man.

 

Not only that she shed king's blood.  Makes you wonder if there hasn't been reprecussions...

[Light a wight tonight]

In the case of the Cart King I'm sure that the Dothraki would be more than willing to grant Dany a dispensation. He was held in such low regard that he might not have qualified for the protections granted a "free man". And he was wounded by a gurl, which also might not count 

[falcotron]

I think the Dothraki make a distinction between shedding blood (usually used as another term for killing) and drawing a little blood accidentally.  If it was an edict against all blood being shed, nosebleed victims and women giving birth wouldn't be allowed in the city either.

Not to mention wounded warriors, menstruating women, slightly clumsy people, anyone who shaves, ...

[Ser Danyel Mortimer]

Dany isn't Dothraki and neither was her brother, the Dothraki might care but I doubt their gods do.

[Lord Wraith]

In the case of the Cart King I'm sure that the Dothraki would be more than willing to grant Dany a dispensation. He was held in such low regard that he might not have qualified for the protections granted a "free man". And he was wounded by a gurl, which also might not count 

 

 

Dany isn't Dothraki and neither was her brother, the Dothraki might care but I doubt their gods do.

 

Precisely the Dothraki might give her a pass but their gods less so.

[Ser Danyel Mortimer]

I expect their gods would make her suffer if it pleased them to do so

[falcotron]

I expect their gods would make her suffer if it pleased them to do so

I expect their gods are no more real than any of the other gods worshipped on Planetos,¹ and are just the Dothraki way of explaining both natural and magical phenomena that they don't understand, and therefore they wouldn't do anything.

¹ Except the toad god of northwestern Sothyros. Of course he's real.

[DMC]

I think the Dothraki make a distinction between shedding blood (usually used as another term for killing) and drawing a little blood accidentally.  If it was an edict against all blood being shed, nosebleed victims and women giving birth wouldn't be allowed in the city either.

 

One would hope!  Alternatively, this may suggest the Dosh Khaleen must be post-menopausal.

[Lady Blizzardborn]

That's not what were told. We're told shedding a free man's blood is forbidden. Daenerys shed the blood of a free man.

But would this apply to man who does not ride and is thus not a man?

 

That incident with Viserys being forced to walk was on their way to Vaes Dothrak.  It's possible no one considered him a man at this point, free or otherwise.

[Fire Eater]

But would this apply to man who does not ride and is thus not a man?

 

That incident with Viserys being forced to walk was on their way to Vaes Dothrak.  It's possible no one considered him a man at this point, free or otherwise.

I doubt that as that same rule likely applies to women and children. Dany spilled his blood regardless, and no one was inside the tent besides her and Viserys to see what happened. She spilled his

[LordStoneheart]

Maybe I'm missing something but the fact that she loses her son and husband seems pretty cursed. I know the sons life was given up for the khals but it just seems like a curse. And to say curses don't exist seems false. Robb killed his kin when he beheaded Karstark and died soon after. We all know that the Freys and Boltons are going to get what's coming to them. I know that these things have other factors going into them and people are carrying out the deaths or whatever bad follows but the curses seem real to me. Not to mention her son was deformed. I know the Targs have a history of having deformed monstrous babies that look like dragons. That in itself seems like a curse.

Killing Karstark did not make Robb a kinslayer. GRRM confirmed that Karstark was grasping at straws when he claimed that.

[KimberBenton]

I guess this is more of a law so that it is possible for the Dothraki to meet in one place if they ever want to talk without the threat of death. I don't think Dothraki write stuff down however and the true meaning got lost. I think, Visarys got it right though. Spilling no blood means that you don't kill someone, but because the wording is more poetic than clear, the Dothraki found a way around it by killing without spilling blood. Technically though I think that Khal Drogo is the one who spilled the blood for killing Viserys, even if there was no blood to be seen. So, if there was a curse it would hit him, not Dany.

[Ferocious Veldt Roarer]

I guess this is more of a law so that it is possible for the Dothraki to meet in one place if they ever want to talk without the threat of death. I don't think Dothraki write stuff down however and the true meaning got lost. I think, Visarys got it right though. Spilling no blood means that you don't kill someone, but because the wording is more poetic than clear, the Dothraki found a way around it by killing without spilling blood. Technically though I think that Khal Drogo is the one who spilled the blood for killing Viserys, even if there was no blood to be seen. So, if there was a curse it would hit him, not Dany.

 

There's actually method to this strict literal interpretation of "spilling blood". It severely limits available methods of killing, and kind of ensures that any killing done in Vaes Dothrak would be on retail level. You can't have a full-out battle between two Dothraki clans just with silk scarves and pots of melted gold. The rule doesn't absolutely protect life, that much was clear even before Viserys' golden crown. But it does preserve peace.

[falcotron]

There's actually method to this strict literal interpretation of "spilling blood". It severely limits available methods of killing, and kind of ensures that any killing done in Vaes Dothrak would be on retail level. You can't have a full-out battle between two Dothraki clans just with silk scarves and pots of melted gold. The rule doesn't absolutely protect life, that much was clear even before Viserys' golden crown. But it does preserve peace.

This is probably a comment on D&D and other RPGs, where clerics are restricted to blunt weapons as a way to get around a "no spill blood" rule. If you actually think about the rule, it's very silly.¹ Why would all gods, even a god of battle, torture, blades, or even blood, have the same "priests must not spill blood" rule? Why would they all apply it so literally? How did all priests learn to hit people in the head with sticks hard enough to knock them out or even kill them, without spilling any blood?

I'm sure GRRM has had this discussion at some point. In fact, although I can't find the quote, I think he even mentioned it at one point when talking about his arguments with the network execs over Beauty and the Beast. (Something like, "They said, 'Oh, we definitely want him to be a beast, of course we understand that's the whole point of his character, but can you do it without anyone dying or any permanent injuries or any blood?', and I thought, now the A-Team makes sense, they're all D&D clerics.")

So, it's not surprising that he'd create some people whose gods had a similar, and similarly-literal, prohibition. But, since his book isn't supposed to be silly, he changed Drogo's loophole so it's not so stupid.

¹ The rule ultimately goes back to Odo of Kent. The legend is that as a bishop he'd sworn to spill no blood, but as an earl he'd sworn to fight for his liege William the Conqueror, and he fulfilled both oaths by holding a club. The Bayeux Tapestry (which he commissioned) actually shows him playing general to rally the troops from behind and never actually fighting with the club, so even he probably didn't think it was a very good dodge. But, nevertheless, it entered the legends (although most people misremembered it as going back to Turpin from the Song of Roland instead of to Odo). It eventually became a common thing for priests in Victorian historical fiction, where it made its way to 1960s fantasy novels and movies. When the first priest character in Gary Gygax's original campaign was created, Gygax suggested that he should use a mace based on those stories; he did a bit of research (which, for you young whippersnappers who don't remember a time before Wikipedia, was a lot more work in the 1970s...) and found the Turpin legend, and decided that was good enough historical justification. So when original D&D was written, clerics had a weapon restriction to blunt weapons. And almost every fantasy RPG since has copied from D&D without thinking.