The Eyes of the Rider who flew on the Winds of Winter

[Dark Syster]

I've always thought that water and ice magics were essentially the same, when you consider the four basic traditional magical elements: earth, wind, water and fire.  Ice and water are nothing more than different states of the same element.  In the books, particularly the world book, it is strongly hinted that the so called Deep Ones and the Others are very similar in both their aggression toward terrestrial 'warm' life and their appearance.  Take for example the black tailed mermaids with bright blue eyes.  While the Deep Ones and the Others may not be aligned per say, they definitely seem to be cut from the same mold.

There are also the children who are apparently the earth element beings.  These guys' main claim to fame is the Hammer of the Waters, where they flood various regions of Planetos.  I posit that they're not actually doing anything with water or water magic, but BREAKING the Earth to allow water to flow in, a la the Broken Arm.

Then for fire magic we have Dragons, Rhollor, the Red Priests and their Kiss of Life.  Not much explaining is needed there.

Finally, there IS a mention of air magic in the books.  In the World Book's section on Asshai, when listing the dark powers that practice freely there, GRRM specifically included "aeromancers".  

Granted, this elemental magic idea of mine is still not even half baked, but I think that I may be on to something.  Unfortunately though, I don't have much free time to devote to such intellectual pursuits (much to my chagrin).  As a matter of fact, in that vein, I have to be up for work in about five hours.  Catch you all later!

I don't think that your elemental magic theory is off at all. It's applying the Classical Elements to Fantasy Power/Magic. Tolkein did it, too. The four most powerful of the Vala represented the Elements. Melkor - Fire, Manwë - Air, Ulmo - Water,  Aulë - Earth. This was all backstory that we never would have had for The Hobbit and LotR had Christopher never saw that it was published. It's possible that Martin has incorporated these Classical Elements into Planetos' mythos, but that we won't see it explained in aSoIaF.

On one level, I am convinced that the blue eyed rider of the ice dragon in the constellation was intended as reference to Adara, the blue eyed rider of the ice dragon in Martin's short story The Ice Dragon. While definitely not canon, that story was definitely a vehicle where Martin was experimenting with his idea of magical creatures made of ice, and the description of the ice dragon itself and the ice lizards that Adara plays with on her father's farm match the physical description of the Others very closely. The description of how the cold that killed her mother during childbirth got into and transformed Adara prefigures the transformation of Craster's boys generally and likely the Night's Queen. I don't know if that means we will see ice dragons.

I also think that the constellation is more of a reference to his previous work, but I like the world building that is going on in here and this is still a work in progress, so maybe these cool ideas that awesome people have come up with in this thread will be incorporated some day if they aren't already.

Even before that, in another short story way before AGOT, he had the north pole constellation called the "Ice Wagon" which has a blue star. The ice wagon carries the sea tot he afterlife in that story. 

The Others are going to transport their troops using Ice Wagons. Calling it now lol.

[LmL]

I don't think that your elemental magic theory is off at all. It's applying the Classical Elements to Fantasy Power/Magic. Tolkein did it, too. The four most powerful of the Vala represented the Elements. Melkor - Fire, Manwë - Air, Ulmo - Water,  Aulë - Earth. This was all backstory that we never would have had for The Hobbit and LotR had Christopher never saw that it was published. It's possible that Martin has incorporated these Classical Elements into Planetos' mythos, but that we won't see it explained in aSoIaF.

I also think that the constellation is more of a reference to his previous work, but I like the world building that is going on in here and this is still a work in progress, so maybe these cool ideas that awesome people have come up with in this thread will be incorporated some day if they aren't already.

The Others are going to transport their troops using Ice Wagons. Calling it now lol.

Yes, what a hilarious misunderstanding this was! They're just very cold pilgrims, in ice wagons. See, this is what happens with eight thousand years of playing telephone with folklore. Ice wagons become Ice Dragons, and simple cold pilgrims - let's call them "Minnesotans" - become horrible ice demons. It's just xenophobic propaganda. 

I mean heck, Ser Puddles was probably just asking Sam and Grenn for some help fixing the axel on his ice wagon. Unfortunately that was lost in translation, and they thought his axel was a sword. All the parts on their ice wagons are made of milkglass and crystal, so it's a really easy mistake to make, quote honestly. All Sam and Grenn hears was the sound of ice cracking, but that was just Ser Puddles trying to pantomime what happened to his ice wagon - the axel went "crackle crackle crackle" and then everyone waved their hands around "like this" and then "oh no, not the dragonglass, anything but that, all I wanted was help with my ice wa---TTTSSSSSSSSS"