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House of Black & White


tokyochojin

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It has been a while since I have read the later books but with the TV show fresh in my mind I wondered why the location of the House of Black and White is not more of a secret to the locals of Braavos? It seems like any group (maybe a rival) could do some serious damage to their stock of faces, as well as any staff present, and while they do not obviously open the doors to anyone it does seems they could easily be infiltrated. Just wondered why it their location is not more of a secret?


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It has been a while since I have read the later books but with the TV show fresh in my mind I wondered why the location of the House of Black and White is not more of a secret to the locals of Braavos? It seems like any group (maybe a rival) could do some serious damage to their stock of faces, as well as any staff present, and while they do not obviously open the doors to anyone it does seems they could easily be infiltrated. Just wondered why it their location is not more of a secret?

There is a group of people more dangerous than all the dragons ever in the world. You want to "Assault these people in their equivalent Mecca"? I don't even think they'd kill you they'd let you have children and proceed to visit a series of unfortunate events upon you and everyone you know and love.

Quicker ways to commit suicide than attacking the militant arm of the Iron Bank.

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These are some theories I have found in the forum, and some I came up with myself:



1) Only trainees live in the House of Black and White.


2) The face masks FM wear come from people seeking the Gift, and people need to go inside to drink the poison water. A hidden place wouldn't allow this to happen.


3) The exposure is a sign of skillness. Not only they don't need to hide, but they would escape the attack, find out who orchestrated it and soon enough, the Many Faced God would have new lives to take.


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These are some theories I have found in the forum, and some I came up with myself:

1) Only trainees live in the House of Black and White.

2) The face masks FM wear come from people seeking the Gift, and people need to go inside to drink the poison water. A hidden place wouldn't allow this to happen.

3) The exposure is a sign of skillness. Not only they don't need to hide, but they would escape the attack, find out who orchestrated it and soon enough, the Many Faced God would have new lives to take.

Interesting. So the House is essentially a suicide house for those approaching death?

Are we thinking you can only be granted access to FM training by invite only? - side note

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Interesting. So the House is essentially a suicide house for those approaching death?

Are we thinking you can only be granted access to FM training by invite only? - side note

This is how I understood it. If I remember correctly in AFFC, People would go to the House of Black and White to drink from the poisoned well, where they would die. Its kind of like a church for suicidal people.

To my knowledge, training is by invite-only (hence the coin), as they wouldn't just accept *anyone* into their ranks without getting chosen specifically by another member.

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"why is it not more of a secret to the locals in Braavos?" => Because if we piece things together, my take is that Braavos owes its very existance to the faceless men (slave uprising/flight, and the first faceless man giving the gift to the masters). In practice it seems every Braavosi is a servant (Valar dohaeris) of "death"= Syrio Forel, ANY Braavosi ship master. So there's no "rival" faction. Actualy there have never been any person that spoke against the faceless assassin= because of their "neutrality" I suppose.


So, they are the main religion of Braavos. They are protector/protected by the people there. And there aren't, to my knowledge, any "opposition" to their order: Why would they hide ?


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It has been a while since I have read the later books but with the TV show fresh in my mind I wondered why the location of the House of Black and White is not more of a secret to the locals of Braavos?

It seems like any group (maybe a rival) could do some serious damage to their stock of faces, as well as any staff present, and while they do not obviously open the doors to anyone it does seems they could easily be infiltrated.

Just wondered why it their location is not more of a secret?

The House of Black and White is not a secret because the locals and travelers in Braavos are given the opportunity to worship where they want. In modern words, multicultural.

Using AFFC, chapter 6, when Arya is being transported from the ship to shore her guide points out and describes the many worship places along the way.

When Arya was seeking passage she had two things. The coin and the words. The captain agreed to take her because of those two things. While onboard the ship, the mates avoided her and when they did communicate with her they made sure she heard their names. Later the reader learns why the captain and mates do that.

Twofold, on the outside the HoBaW allows people to come and receive the gift of death; it also allows people to engage in contracts to “off” someone for the proper price. It appeared to be common knowledge among the ship captain and the mates.

If I had the skill set that the people in the HoBaW had I would not be worried about nuttin’. The show presents a different version of the books. That is why there is a book forum a show forum. To ask the question referencing the show vs book will lead to a different conclusion.

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