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Necromancy and Khal Drogo


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I reread the last two Daenerys chapters of A Game of Thrones because of someone's insightful post on another thread (Daenerys Targaryen's Power Plays).  The decisions and the events which led to the birth of the dragons are the topic of countless discussions.  And well they should be because it is perhaps the most significant event to have taken place in the story.  I do not claim to have more answers than I did before my reread.  I have more questions.  But I picked up on a few details that I missed during my two readings of that book.  I will list them here for you.

  1. Miscommunication or deception.  Khal Drogo was dying, not dead.  Daenerys asked for a cure.  Mirri Maz Duur says "only death can pay for life."  Mirri wanted to perform necromancy but presented it as treatment to keep Drogo from dying, basically cure him.  It is pointless to perform necromancy on the living.  I want to be clear on this.  Why in hell would Mirri use necromancy as the treatment for a man burning with fever?  Miscommunication?  I don't buy that.  Mirri took advantage of Daenerys's youth and trust.  She deceived Dany in order to murder Drogo.  Mirri was planning to murder Drogo all along.  It was easy.  She can easily let his body slip under the water and deprive him of oxygen, which can cause damage to the brain.  Drogo's is the death worse than death.  His soul is in darkness forever howling.  Mirri wanted to punish Drogo, send him to hell.
  2. Daenerys goes through three cycles of sleep+dream+waking.  Each time, her fears and her doubts are burned away.  The themes of the dreams have fire, tears, water, blood, and always dragons.  Fire and water are necessary for the tempering of weapons.  Daenerys herself goes through a tempering.  She comes through stronger and more sure of herself.  The Dragon has awoken. 
    Quote

    She wept for her child, the promise of a sweet mouth on her breast, but her tears turned to steam as they touched her skin.

    Daenerys is Azor Ahai and the dragons are her weapons.  Lightbringer is not necessarily all weapon though.  Lightbringer brings light and chases away the darkness.  Darkness is not just the absence of light but means evil.  Bringing freedom to slaves and putting a stop to the slave trade is "bringing light and driving away evil."  It also means she will be instrumental in rebuilding the world after the long night has passed.  To bring light to a darkened world.

  3. The ghost of dead kings in faded clothing are not Targaryen monarchs.  I think they are the previous incarnations of Azor Ahai.  Why are they cheering her on?  Because she can do what they failed to do.  End the cycle of the long night for good.  She is the first female of their line and the only one who can bring dragons to battle.  The best they had were swords of pale fire, which pale in comparison to three dragons.
  4. Mirri tried to poison Daenerys. 
    Quote

    The red door was so far ahead of her, and she could feel the icy breath behind, sweeping up on her.  If it caught her she would die a death that was more than death, howling forever alone in the darkness.  She began to run.

    Icy breath means death.  A death worse than death is what Mirri did to Drogo.  Alive yet a prisoner within his own mind.   Something similar to complete paralysis.  Truly a hell.  Daenerys' instinct in her dream told her to fear the darkness.  It's obvious to me that Mirri tried to poison Daenerys.  Daenerys is resistant to many ailments that would fall an ordinary human.  She fought off the poison and recovered. 

  5. Alive, but unable to move, speak, or eat is a different brand of death.  Take careful note that this is basically what the children of the forest do to the green seers.  Attach to the trees where they live in the darkness.  Bloodraven tells Bran that dark is good.  Bran should not be afraid of the dark. 

  6. Mirri is versed in the same parlor tricks as Mellisandre.  Knowledge that could have come from Asshai.  The shadows in the tents and Rhaego's appearance are illusions.  Mirri studied under Marwyn and would have heard of Princess Rhaenyra and the Dance of the Dragons.  She would know the lore of the half-dragon baby born to Rhaenyra and chose to use it for her illusion. Rhaego was most probably normal. 

  7. The hatching of the dragons is the other sign of Azor Ahai reborn.  I am mostly in agreement with the *Son of Man's (Daenerys Targaryens' Power Play) hypothesis for how Daenerys figured out how to hatch her dragons.  She figured it out and put all the data together in the last chapter. 

  8. Daenerys believes Rhaego died because of exposure to Mirri's blood magic.  She believes Ser Jorah took her inside that tent by mistake.  She never mentions it back to Jorah and she never held it against him.  She has a wonderful capacity for understanding and empathy.  I can now fully understand why she was later furious over Jorah's betrayal in Book 3 and banished him. 

*http://asoiaf.westeros.org/index.php?/topic/150228-daenerys-targaryens-power-plays/&page=3

 

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2 hours ago, James Fenimore Cooper XXII said:

I can now fully understand why she was later furious over Jorah's betrayal in Book 3 and banished him. 

True. I think she may have even been too soft on Jorah in my opinion. He started his service to her and her brother as a spy and only turned to her cause after he fell in love with the 13-14 year old Daenerys. He even forces a kiss on her not too long after she lost her husband and child and tries to talk her into marrying him.

I think he's creepy and untrustworthy and that Dany should have let Strong Belwas pop his head off. Or have just let Daario kill him in singles combat, like he offered. 

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There is a problem in your logic:

Your premise is that MMD performed 'necromancy' on Khal Drogo. You base your conclusion on that premise and argue that necromancy can only be performed on the dead, not the living.

However the book does not say that MMD performed necromancy. It speaks of blood magic.

You (and probably some other readers) seem to equal necromancy and blood magic. But that is just an assumption, not a proven fact. GRRM is completely free in the design of the magic in his books and that he looked up necromancy in a dictionary, then transferred it 1-on-1 to his story and just renamed it is quite unlikely IMO. At the very least it is not a given.

That means we have no idea if your premise that performing MMD's spell on the living was 'pointless'. Thus your argument falls apart.

Aside from that your conclusion that MMD 'wanted to murder Drogo all along' is not supported by the text:

Drogo had an injury which apparently got infected and led to blood poisoning:

MMD first prescribes Drogo some sort of herbal poultice, not a blood magic spell. But Drogo does not apply this poultice according to her prescription and MMD only gets consulted again when Drogo - after not having used the poultice as prescribed - has fallen so sick that he (apparently) can not be saved anymore by conventional medicine.

That he could not be saved anymore at this point might have been a lie by MMD of course (or the poultice might have been poisonous) but if it was then we have no text ev for it. Because Drogo's condition is described by GRRM and that description fits a sepsis pretty well.

For all we know he died of an infection and was not murdered by MMD.

You may still be right that MMD lied to Dany (or at least that is one possible way to interpret MMD's behaviour):

Dany believed what she desperately wanted to believe (that the blood magic would completely heal Drogo) and MMD did not talk her out of that misconception. (Though MMD did warn Dany against trying the whole thing in the first place. But Dany did not want to hear anything about adverse side effects and MMD did not insist.)

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1 hour ago, Amris said:

Your premise is that MMD performed 'necromancy' on Khal Drogo. You base your conclusion on that premise and argue that necromancy can only be performed on the dead, not the living.

However the book does not say that MMD performed necromancy. It speaks of blood magic.

It was necromancy, Mirri even told Daenerys nobody should enter the tent once she started the ritual, the dead would be dancing inside.

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11 hours ago, James Fenimore Cooper XXII said:

I reread the last two Daenerys chapters of A Game of Thrones because of someone's insightful post on another thread (Daenerys Targaryen's Power Plays).  The decisions and the events which led to the birth of the dragons are the topic of countless discussions.  And well they should be because it is perhaps the most significant event to have taken place in the story.  I do not claim to have more answers than I did before my reread.  I have more questions.  But I picked up on a few details that I missed during my two readings of that book.  I will list them here for you.

Miscommunication or deception.  Khal Drogo was dying, not dead.  Daenerys asked for a cure.  Mirri Maz Duur says "only death can pay for life."  Mirri wanted to perform necromancy but presented it as treatment to keep Drogo from dying, basically cure him.  It is pointless to perform necromancy on the living.  I want to be clear on this.  Why in hell would Mirri use necromancy as the treatment for a man burning with fever?  Miscommunication?  I don't buy that.  Mirri took advantage of Daenerys's youth and trust.  She deceived Dany in order to murder Drogo.  Mirri was planning to murder Drogo all along.  It was easy.  She can easily let his body slip under the water and deprive him of oxygen, which can cause damage to the brain.  Drogo's is the death worse than death.  His soul is in darkness forever howling.  Mirri wanted to punish Drogo, send him to hell.

Mirri did not kill Drogo. She prevented his death. She took the life of Rhaego to pay for Drogo’s life, such as it was. She cheated Daenerys by not explaining the sacrifice that Daenerys was making to save Drogo, and by not telling her that Drogo would be near vegetative. 

I have wondered whether Drogo and his unborn son were sacrifices for the Great Shepherd. But I think Rhaego had to be replaced by The Dragon anyway, or else Daenerys would not become the mother of dragons. So, Mirri Maz Duur is a plot device to move Daenerys's arc forward. 

12 hours ago, James Fenimore Cooper XXII said:

Daenerys goes through three cycles of sleep+dream+waking.  Each time, her fears and her doubts are burned away.  The themes of the dreams have fire, tears, water, blood, and always dragons.  Fire and water are necessary for the tempering of weapons.  Daenerys herself goes through a tempering.  She comes through stronger and more sure of herself.  The Dragon has awoken. 

Daenerys is Azor Ahai and the dragons are her weapons.  Lightbringer is not necessarily all weapon though.  Lightbringer brings light and chases away the darkness.  Darkness is not just the absence of light but means evil.  Bringing freedom to slaves and putting a stop to the slave trade is "bringing light and driving away evil."  It also means she will be instrumental in rebuilding the world after the long night has passed.  To bring light to a darkened world.

The ghost of dead kings in faded clothing are not Targaryen monarchs.  I think they are the previous incarnations of Azor Ahai.  Why are they cheering her on?  Because she can do what they failed to do.  End the cycle of the long night for good.  She is the first female of their line and the only one who can bring dragons to battle.  The best they had were swords of pale fire, which pale in comparison to three dragons.

That's a nice analysis. Daenerys has brought the dragons back into the world, and she will be at least partly responsible for bringing light and chasing away the darkness, but I do not think that she will survive the series

12 hours ago, James Fenimore Cooper XXII said:

Mirri tried to poison Daenerys. 

Icy breath means death.  A death worse than death is what Mirri did to Drogo.  Alive yet a prisoner within his own mind.   Something similar to complete paralysis.  Truly a hell.  Daenerys' instinct in her dream told her to fear the darkness.  It's obvious to me that Mirri tried to poison Daenerys.  Daenerys is resistant to many ailments that would fall an ordinary human.  She fought off the poison and recovered. 

Interesting, but isn't that speculative? Or is there specific text that leads you to believe that Mirri wanted Daenerys dead? 

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I believe MMD was an agent for Marwyn.  Marwyn has a glass candle and knows full well that the Others are coming and that dragons are a necessity.  Varys and Illyrio are more than likely puppets of Marwyn and arranged the entire ordeal.  Dany has been lied to by everyone her entire life.  I also believe that Viserys wasn't her real brother.  More than likely he was her uncle.

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5 minutes ago, Ahl of the House Cutler said:

I believe MMD was an agent for Marwyn.  Marwyn has a glass candle and knows full well that the Others are coming and that dragons are a necessity.  Varys and Illyrio are more than likely puppets of Marwyn and arranged the entire ordeal.  Dany has been lied to by everyone her entire life.  I also believe that Viserys wasn't her real brother.  More than likely he was her uncle.

Yes and it is rather odd that MMD greeted Daenerys when the Dothraki were sacking the village, she greeted her in the Common Tongue. How did she know Dany spoke the Common Tongue?

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22 minutes ago, Shadow of Asshai said:

Yes and it is rather odd that MMD greeted Daenerys when the Dothraki were sacking the village, she greeted her in the Common Tongue. How did she know Dany spoke the Common Tongue?

Exactly.  She knew she would be there.

I think the entire situation was a set up.  Battle and all.  

Drogo's infection was probably a poisoning.  Something similar to what Oberyn used against the Mountain.   And MMD had the knowledge from Marwyn that this dumb little Westerosi girl in the middle of nowhere would seek advice from the only "medical professional" around.

Basically Marwyn was out to pull off his own Summerhall and he had the perfect ingredients. Add one blood mage, a khal, three eggs and a Targaryen girl.

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The life of a maege is no fair offering to bring back dragons from extinction.  Drogo, Rhaego, and Viserys were worthy souls of Kings.  MMD only added the spark to the hatching ritual.  Three kings had to die to bring back the dragons.

I don't think Marwyn was involved.  He would have been there sooner instead of slumming in Oldtown if he had known of Dany's power.

 

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1 hour ago, Moiraine Sedai said:

The life of a maege is no fair offering to bring back dragons from extinction.  Drogo, Rhaego, and Viserys were worthy souls of Kings.  MMD only added the spark to the hatching ritual.  Three kings had to die to bring back the dragons.

I don't think Marwyn was involved.  He would have been there sooner instead of slumming in Oldtown if he had known of Dany's power.

 

And he would've been there sooner but his ride was out to sea.  The Cinnamon Wind left Qaarth for Braavos then Braavos to Oldtown.  Marwyn was on his way to board the ship at the end of aFFC.

AND Marwyn will also be traveling with Aemon Targaryen....pickled in rum.  Let's not forget that Marwyn was messing with Aemons head with his glass candle before he passed.  He could also be influencing Dany with it.

 

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Interesting take away.

I made a thread along a similar vein last June where I posited that there was a connection to what MMD did do Drogo and what Qyburn did to The Mountain, and the curious connection of Marwyn between Qyburn and MMD.

You may find it interesting. Or not. :dunno: I'm not nearly as well read on the series as many of the posters on this forum.

 

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29 minutes ago, Grover Bluejoy said:

Interesting take away.

I made a thread along a similar vein last June where I posited that there was a connection to what MMD did do Drogo and what Qyburn did to The Mountain, and the curious connection of Marwyn between Qyburn and MMD.

You may find it interesting. Or not. :dunno: I'm not nearly as well read on the series as many of the posters on this forum.

 

Yup.  I believe that the known sorcerors, or shamans, are using entheogens to somehow control their subjects.  There is just too much evidence throughout the series to dismiss it.  The Warlocks almost got Dany, Euron is pouring SotE down people's throats, and Bloodraven is making Bran gulp some questionable weirwood juice.

How the wights and Beric/Stoneheart function is still a mystery to me.  My guess is it has something to do with the trapped souls in the weirwood net.  Something like a possession or seizure of anothers body.  We know from Varymyr that souls just float around after death until they find a new home.

Patchface is also probably one of those possessed wights, possibly taken over from a soul trapped in a waterlogged undersea weirwood (Drowned God, anyone)

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My view of what could have happened on that day.

PROLOGUE. Drogo's wound.

Drogo's wound got infected, he had sepsis, and he was dying. Either his infection was result of Mirri's treatment. Because if there were bacterias/germs in his wound, and Mirri said to seal the wound with clay, then she intentionally created under that clay, a perfect Petry dish, to culture those bacterias, and make them infect Drogo's blood and his internal organs, and eventually kill him. Or Drogo's wound got infected on its own, without Mirri's assistance.

Though I think that the first option is more likely. Miri was a healer, a medic, so she knew that the wound may get infected. When the wound gets infected, then it starts to rot, and the pus bursts out. But if the wound is sealed, for example covered with a tight bandage, or like in Drogo's case, sealed with clay, then the body can't eject the pus, and get rid of the bacterias. So they stay inside the wound, the rotting spreads, then begins necrosis/gangrene, and the infection gets spread out all over body, and internal organs, thru bloodflow.

Drogo felt that his wound was burning and itching, so he removed the clay seal. By that point, his wound was already rotting. It was burning and itching because of infection. So if he kept following Mirri's instructions, and didn't removed a seal, mere days after getting wounded, then he would have died much sooner, then the time that passed between the day of that battle, and the day when Drogo fell from his horse.

PART 1. Blood magic ritual.

The point of ritual was to kill Drogo's stallion, and to use his released lifeforce, to cure with it Drogo - life bought with death.

Either Mirri knew from the very beginning of it, that Drogo can't be completely cured. She knew that the infection has spread too far, and that his internal organs, and his brain, are already too damaged, and no amount of magic will make him as he was before. She couldn't revoke the damage, that was already inflicted to his body by infection. But she could remove the infection from his body, and make him keep living. Though she was aware that the brain damage will cause him to become catatonic.

Or second option, she was going to cure him completely, but because of Dany's prematurely going into labor, Mirri and her accomplices changed their original plan. Why to save the Khal, if they already can get their hands on the Stallion? Thus Mirri stopped Drogo's curing, and left him only partially healed.

Or Drogo's healing was stopped by Jorah's interruption, in the middle of ritual. So Drogo's state is Jorah's fault.

In either of those options, Mirri didn't acted alone. She had accomplices. You'll ask - what accomplices? -> Rodrik Stark the Wandering Wolf, Red Priest of R'hllor (either High Priest Bennerro, or priest Moqorro), maester Marwyn, and Quaithe. Mirri has met all of them, while she was in her youth studing healing arts in Asshai. They were her teachers, and thus to cure Drogo, she summoned them to take part in her magic ritual. And their apparitions came there, unseen by other people, because they were using glass candles. 

PART 2. Birth of Rhaego.

In first part of Dany's chapter 9 of AGOT, she was giving birth to Rhaego. It wasn't just her fevered dream. Nearly everything what she saw and experienced, during that dream, was actually happening with her, but not the way she saw it.  

During that sequence of scenes, starting from "Wings shadowed her fever dreams." and ending with "After that, for a long time, there was only the pain, the fire within her, and the whisperings of stars.", Dany's consciousness was switching between her own body, that was giving birth to her baby, and the baby's body, that was in the process of being born. And the one who was helping Dany to deliver her baby was Quaithe/Shiera Seastar. Same as Dany, Shiera is also a dragonblood. Furthermore the two of them also share same ancestors. Dany's ancestors, Targaryen Kings that she saw in that vision, are also Quaithe's ancestors. That's why in Dany's dream they were crying to her as one, because it really was just ONE PERSON. One person that combines in her all those Targaryen Kings.

I found in books five clues that connect together Quaithe and Shiera Seastar.

13 hours ago, James Fenimore Cooper XXII said:

Why are they cheering her on?

They are not cheering her on.

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“Faster,” they cried, “faster, faster.” She raced, her feet melting the stone wherever they touched. Faster! the ghosts cried as one, and she screamed and threw herself forward.

Shiera Seastar, that combines in herself bloodline of those ghosts (dead Targaryen Kings), and thus she is "all of them in one", was urging Dany - "Push, push". Because Dany was in the final stage of labour, her cervix dilated enough for the baby's head to go thru, thus they/she urged her to push. In that dream Dany was experiencing both - what her own body felt, and what her baby felt (she's sort of warged into Rhaego, or maybe just felt what he felt, because of dragonblood bond between them, or because Quaithe created between them a temporal connection to help the baby to be born).

This is evidence that Quaithe was helping Dany to deliver her baby:

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Wings shadowed her fever dreams.

Wings because Quaithe/Shiera Seastar is a dragonblood. And shadows because she is shadowbinder.

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stars smiled down on them, stars in a daylight sky. “Home,” she whispered as he entered her and filled her with his seed, but suddenly the stars were gone, and across the blue sky swept the great wings, and the world took flame.

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After that, for a long time, there was only the pain, the fire within her, and the whisperings of stars.

Those stars are Quaithe. This is Dany's vision from her last chapter in ADWD:

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She dreamed. All her cares fell away from her, and all her pains as well, and she seemed to float upward into the sky. She was flying once again, spinning, laughing, dancing, as the stars wheeled around her and whispered secrets in her ear. “To go north, you must journey south. To reach the west, you must go east. To go forward, you must go back. To touch the light you must pass beneath the shadow.”

“Quaithe?” Dany called. “Where are you, Quaithe?”

Then she saw. Her mask is made of starlight. “Remember who you are, Daenerys,” the stars whispered in a woman’s voice. “The dragons know. Do you?”

This scene from ADWD, and what whispering stars said to Dany, is a proof that in both scenes, those stars actually was Quaithe.

This parts of a dream is what Rhaego experienced:

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She was walking down a long hall beneath high stone arches. She could not look behind her, must not look behind her. There was a door ahead of her, tiny with distance, but even from afar, she saw that it was painted red. She walked faster, and her bare feet left bloody footprints on the stone.

Long hall and arches thru which he was going, were the inside of Dany's body. The vision was symbolic, and actually that was Dany's pelvic bones, uterus, cervix, birth canal passing thru which the baby was getting born.

Based on events from previous chapter, it seems that Dany had an internal bleeding, and was going to miscarry. The difference between miscarriage on latest stages of pregnancy, and natural labour, is that in the case of miscarriage, the mother has an internal bleeding, and the child will die prior being born. Because of bleeding, normal connection between fetus and uterus is disrupted, and the baby doesn't get nutriens and oxigen thru umbilical cord. So in this case, when doctors stop the bleeding, if the pregnancy progressed enough for the baby to be viable, then they stimulate the labour to begin. Seems that this is exactly what happened with Dany.

First they checked the baby's condition, and stopped the bleeding, probably with fire/hot metal, or something else that was hot:

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Wind stirred the grasses, and they rippled like water. Drogo held her in strong arms, and his hand stroked her sex and opened her and woke that sweet wetness that was his alone, and the stars smiled down on them, stars in a daylight sky. “Home,” she whispered as he entered her and filled her with his seed, but suddenly the stars were gone, and across the blue sky swept the great wings, and the world took flame.

Then whoever stopped the bleeding, went away. Or temporarely disapeared and then returned again. This person wasn't really there, he/she was using glass candle. It wasn't Jorah, who she really saw, it was someone else. Maybe Quaithe, or maybe maester Marwyn.

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Ser Jorah’s face was drawn and sorrowful. “Rhaegar was the last dragon,” he told her. He warmed translucent hands over a glowing brazier where stone eggs smouldered red as coals. One moment he was there and the next he was fading, his flesh colorless, less substantial than the wind. “The last dragon,” he whispered, thin as a wisp, and was gone.

This was what the baby felt after that:

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She felt the dark behind her, and the red door seemed farther away than ever.

The red door signifies beginning of life. It has double meaning - symbolic door into life, and physical "door" thru which babies are born into world.  

They realised that the baby is still in danger, and still can die. Thus they decided to stimulate the labour:

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Viserys stood before her, screaming. “The dragon does not beg, slut. You do not command the dragon. I am the dragon, and I will be crowned.” The molten gold trickled down his face like wax, burning deep channels in his flesh. “I am the dragon and I will be crowned!” he shrieked, and his fingers snapped like snakes, biting at her nipples, pinching, twisting, even as his eyes burst and ran like jelly down seared and blackened cheeks.

Nipple stimulation is one of ways to naturally induce labour. This releases oxytocin, a hormone that helps contractions to start, and to progress the labour. There's lots of information about it in the web, just google it.

When connection between the baby and the womb got disrupted, probably instead of normal air, placenta got filled only with carbone dioxide. Or because of Dany's trauma, placenta got detached from uterus, and thus blood in it started coagulating. Placenta is connected to the baby's body thru umbrical cord, so whatever was wrong with it, it was going to "poison" the baby, either with carbone dioxide, or with blood decay products.

If to look from the baby's perspective, that the way out of uterus is ahead (down), then the placenta is located behind (on upper side of uterus).

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The red door was so far ahead of her, and she could feel the icy breath behind, sweeping up on her. If it caught her she would die a death that was more than death, howling forever alone in the darkness. She began to run.

And the death that is more than death, is a death of unborn. Unborn baby never lived. Thus this death is worse, than the death of someone who did lived, and only after that died.

This was what Dany was feeling:

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She could feel the heat inside her, a terrible burning in her womb. Her son was tall and proud, with Drogo’s copper skin and her own silver-gold hair, violet eyes shaped like almonds. And he smiled for her and began to lift his hand toward hers, but when he opened his mouth the fire poured out. She saw his heart burning through his chest, and in an instant he was gone, consumed like a moth by a candle, turned to ash. She wept for her child, the promise of a sweet mouth on her breast, but her tears turned to steam as they touched her skin.

When the labour started, and the baby was going to be born, Dany at that momet, when her baby's fate got decided, that he will be born, and that he will live, she had a prophetic vision about Rhaego's future. That he will be a Red Priest (fire pouring from his mouth is a kiss of life) and the Prince that was promised (burning heart).

And then they/she (the midwife / Quiathe/Shiera Seastar) said to her to push:

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Ghosts lined the hallway, dressed in the faded raiment of kings. In their hands were swords of pale fire. They had hair of silver and hair of gold and hair of platinum white, and their eyes were opal and amethyst, tourmaline and jade. “Faster,” they cried, “faster, faster.” She raced, her feet melting the stone wherever they touched. “Faster!” the ghosts cried as one,

This is Rhaego's POV:

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and she screamed and threw herself forward.

This is Dany's POV:

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A great knife of pain ripped down her back, and she felt her skin tear open and smelled the stench of burning blood and saw the shadow of wings.

Seems that Dany had what is called back labor.

https://www.mamanatural.com/back-labor/

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Back labor feels like intense lower back pain during contractions and sometimes in between. Many women explain back labor pain as contractions that peak right away instead of easing in and out. “Horrid,” “terrible,” “intense pain,” and “never want to do that again” are some of the ways women explain the way it feels. I felt like my back was breaking with each contraction.

Next Rhaego's POV:

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And Daenerys Targaryen flew.

“…wake the dragon…”

The door loomed before her, the red door, so close, so close, the hall was a blur around her, the cold receding behind. And now the stone was gone and she flew across the Dothraki sea, high and higher, the green rippling beneath, and all that lived and breathed fled in terror from the shadow of her wings. She could smell home, she could see it, there, just beyond that door, green fields and great stone houses and arms to keep her warm, there. She threw open the door.

“…the dragon…”

And saw her brother Rhaegar, mounted on a stallion as black as his armor. Fire glimmered red through the narrow eye slit of his helm. “The last dragon,” Ser Jorah’s voice whispered faintly. “The last, the last.” Dany lifted his polished black visor. The face within was her own.

In this case flying is a metaphor for living. He was born - he flew.

And then he saw his mother's face.

And then later, while Dany was recuperating after giving birth, Quaithe was with her:

Quote

After that, for a long time, there was only the pain, the fire within her, and the whisperings of stars.

PART 3. What was after.

Some time after Quaithe left, to Drogo's tent came Ko Pono, and took the baby away. He left Drogo's camp, taking with him the Stallion that will mount the world. And ten thousands of Dothraki followed with them.

Jorah, Mirri, and all three of Dany's handmainds knew what happened with her baby. But they were unable to stop Pono from taking him. Thus they agreed to lie to Dany, when she will wake up, that her baby died.

So kidnapping of Rhaego by Dothraki, is first out of three treasons predicted by the Undying. For blood. The meaning of it was not Mirri getting revenge on Khal Drogo, for what Dothraki did to her people, it was about Dothraki taking away Rhaego, son of their Khal, blood of their blood, to protect him from his mother, whom they thought was an evil maegi, that doomed their Khal with forbidden blood magic.

The End.

 

How about this scenario?

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22 minutes ago, Megorova said:

My view of what could have happened on that day.

PROLOGUE. Drogo's wound.

Drogo's wound got infected, he had sepsis, and he was dying. Either his infection was result of Mirri's treatment. Because if there were bacterias/germs in his wound, and Mirri said to seal the wound with clay, then she intentionally created under that clay, a perfect Petry dish, to culture those bacterias, and make them infect Drogo's blood and his internal organs, and eventually kill him. Or Drogo's wound got infected on its own, without Mirri's assistance.

Though I think that the first option is more likely. Miri was a healer, a medic, so she knew that the wound may get infected. When the wound gets infected, then it starts to rot, and the pus bursts out. But if the wound is sealed, for example covered with a tight bandage, or like in Drogo's case, sealed with clay, then the body can't eject the pus, and get rid of the bacterias. So they stay inside the wound, the rotting spreads, then begins necrosis/gangrene, and the infection gets spread out all over body, and internal organs, thru bloodflow.

Drogo felt that his wound was burning and itching, so he removed the clay seal. By that point, his wound was already rotting. It was burning and itching because of infection. So if he kept following Mirri's instructions, and didn't removed a seal, mere days after getting wounded, then he would have died much sooner, then the time that passed between the day of that battle, and the day when Drogo fell from his horse.

PART 1. Blood magic ritual.

The point of ritual was to kill Drogo's stallion, and to use his released lifeforce, to cure with it Drogo - life bought with death.

Either Mirri knew from the very beginning of it, that Drogo can't be completely cured. She knew that the infection has spread too far, and that his internal organs, and his brain, are already too damaged, and no amount of magic will make him as he was before. She couldn't revoke the damage, that was already inflicted to his body by infection. But she could remove the infection from his body, and make him keep living. Though she was aware that the brain damage will cause him to become catatonic.

Or second option, she was going to cure him completely, but because of Dany's prematurely going into labor, Mirri and her accomplices changed their original plan. Why to save the Khal, if they already can get their hands on the Stallion? Thus Mirri stopped Drogo's curing, and left him only partially healed.

Or Drogo's healing was stopped by Jorah's interruption, in the middle of ritual. So Drogo's state is Jorah's fault.

In either of those options, Mirri didn't acted alone. She had accomplices. You'll ask - what accomplices? -> Rodrik Stark the Wandering Wolf, Red Priest of R'hllor (either High Priest Bennerro, or priest Moqorro), maester Marwyn, and Quaithe. Mirri has met all of them, while she was in her youth studing healing arts in Asshai. They were her teachers, and thus to cure Drogo, she summoned them to take part in her magic ritual. And their apparitions came there, unseen by other people, because they were using glass candles. 

PART 2. Birth of Rhaego.

In first part of Dany's chapter 9 of AGOT, she was giving birth to Rhaego. It wasn't just her fevered dream. Nearly everything what she saw and experienced, during that dream, was actually happening with her, but not the way she saw it.  

During that sequence of scenes, starting from "Wings shadowed her fever dreams." and ending with "After that, for a long time, there was only the pain, the fire within her, and the whisperings of stars.", Dany's consciousness was switching between her own body, that was giving birth to her baby, and the baby's body, that was in the process of being born. And the one who was helping Dany to deliver her baby was Quaithe/Shiera Seastar. Same as Dany, Shiera is also a dragonblood. Furthermore the two of them also share same ancestors. Dany's ancestors, Targaryen Kings that she saw in that vision, are also Quaithe's ancestors. That's why in Dany's dream they were crying to her as one, because it really was just ONE PERSON. One person that combines in her all those Targaryen Kings.

I found in books five clues that connect together Quaithe and Shiera Seastar.

They are not cheering her on.

Shiera Seastar, that combines in herself bloodline of those ghosts (dead Targaryen Kings), and thus she is "all of them in one", was urging Dany - "Push, push". Because Dany was in the final stage of labour, her cervix dilated enough for the baby's head to go thru, thus they/she urged her to push. In that dream Dany was experiencing both - what her own body felt, and what her baby felt (she's sort of warged into Rhaego, or maybe just felt what he felt, because of dragonblood bond between them, or because Quaithe created between them a temporal connection to help the baby to be born).

This is evidence that Quaithe was helping Dany to deliver her baby:

Wings because Quaithe/Shiera Seastar is a dragonblood. And shadows because she is shadowbinder.

Those stars are Quaithe. This is Dany's vision from her last chapter in ADWD:

This scene from ADWD, and what whispering stars said to Dany, is a proof that in both scenes, those stars actually was Quaithe.

This parts of a dream is what Rhaego experienced:

Long hall and arches thru which he was going, were the inside of Dany's body. The vision was symbolic, and actually that was Dany's pelvic bones, uterus, cervix, birth canal passing thru which the baby was getting born.

Based on events from previous chapter, it seems that Dany had an internal bleeding, and was going to miscarry. The difference between miscarriage on latest stages of pregnancy, and natural labour, is that in the case of miscarriage, the mother has an internal bleeding, and the child will die prior being born. Because of bleeding, normal connection between fetus and uterus is disrupted, and the baby doesn't get nutriens and oxigen thru umbilical cord. So in this case, when doctors stop the bleeding, if the pregnancy progressed enough for the baby to be viable, then they stimulate the labour to begin. Seems that this is exactly what happened with Dany.

First they checked the baby's condition, and stopped the bleeding, probably with fire/hot metal, or something else that was hot:

Then whoever stopped the bleeding, went away. Or temporarely disapeared and then returned again. This person wasn't really there, he/she was using glass candle. It wasn't Jorah, who she really saw, it was someone else. Maybe Quaithe, or maybe maester Marwyn.

This was what the baby felt after that:

The red door signifies beginning of life. It has double meaning - symbolic door into life, and physical "door" thru which babies are born into world.  

They realised that the baby is still in danger, and still can die. Thus they decided to stimulate the labour:

Nipple stimulation is one of ways to naturally induce labour. This releases oxytocin, a hormone that helps contractions to start, and to progress the labour. There's lots of information about it in the web, just google it.

When connection between the baby and the womb got disrupted, probably instead of normal air, placenta got filled only with carbone dioxide. Or because of Dany's trauma, placenta got detached from uterus, and thus blood in it started coagulating. Placenta is connected to the baby's body thru umbrical cord, so whatever was wrong with it, it was going to "poison" the baby, either with carbone dioxide, or with blood decay products.

If to look from the baby's perspective, that the way out of uterus is ahead (down), then the placenta is located behind (on upper side of uterus).

And the death that is more than death, is a death of unborn. Unborn baby never lived. Thus this death is worse, than the death of someone who did lived, and only after that died.

This was what Dany was feeling:

When the labour started, and the baby was going to be born, Dany at that momet, when her baby's fate got decided, that he will be born, and that he will live, she had a prophetic vision about Rhaego's future. That he will be a Red Priest (fire pouring from his mouth is a kiss of life) and the Prince that was promised (burning heart).

And then they/she (the midwife / Quiathe/Shiera Seastar) said to her to push:

This is Rhaego's POV:

This is Dany's POV:

Seems that Dany had what is called back labor.

https://www.mamanatural.com/back-labor/

Next Rhaego's POV:

In this case flying is a metaphor for living. He was born - he flew.

And then he saw his mother's face.

And then later, while Dany was recuperating after giving birth, Quaithe was with her:

PART 3. What was after.

Some time after Quaithe left, to Drogo's tent came Ko Pono, and took the baby away. He left Drogo's camp, taking with him the Stallion that will mount the world. And ten thousands of Dothraki followed with them.

Jorah, Mirri, and all three of Dany's handmainds knew what happened with her baby. But they were unable to stop Pono from taking him. Thus they agreed to lie to Dany, when she will wake up, that her baby died.

So kidnapping of Rhaego by Dothraki, is first out of three treasons predicted by the Undying. For blood. The meaning of it was not Mirri getting revenge on Khal Drogo, for what Dothraki did to her people, it was about Dothraki taking away Rhaego, son of their Khal, blood of their blood, to protect him from his mother, whom they thought was an evil maegi, that doomed their Khal with forbidden blood magic.

The End.

 

How about this scenario?

I kind of love it actually. 

This actually leaves the door open Dany to reunite with him.

And it also makes me wonder about Quaithe and some of her messages to Dany...

"Remember who you are, Daenerys, ... The dragons know. Do you?"

This mysterious sentence could be reinterpreted if you drop Daenerys and add Rheago.  Rheago, if taken by a Dothraki hoard, would have NO CLUE who he really is.  They would never tell him about his crazy ass mother.

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1 hour ago, Ahl of the House Cutler said:

"Remember who you are, Daenerys, ... The dragons know. Do you?"

This mysterious sentence could be reinterpreted if you drop Daenerys and add Rheago.  Rheago, if taken by a Dothraki hoard, would have NO CLUE who he really is.  They would never tell him about his crazy ass mother.

Though if he's really alive, then they will reunite soon.

Dany's last chapter in ADWD:

Quote

As the western sky turned the color of a blood bruise, she heard the sound of approaching horses. Dany rose, wiped her hands on her ragged undertunic, and went to stand beside her dragon.

That was how Khal Jhaqo found her, when half a hundred mounted warriors emerged from the drifting smoke.

Jhaqo left after Pono,

Quote

“The Dothraki follow only the strong,” Ser Jorah said. “I am sorry, my princess. There was no way to hold them. Ko Pono left first, naming himself Khal Pono, and many followed him. Jhaqo was not long to do the same. The rest slipped away night by night, in large bands and small. There are a dozen new khalasars on the Dothraki sea, where once there was only Drogo’s.”

thus if Pono did kidnapped the baby, and convinced/inspired 1/4 of Drogo's khalasar to follow him, then Jhaqo knows all about it. I don't think that Khal Pono took the baby with him, to wherever he is fighting now. Most likely he has brought the Stallion back to Vaes Dothrak. And seems that Dany and Drogon was flying from Meereen in that direction. So could be that Dany met Khal Jhaqo not far from Vaes Dothrak. Thus she will be brought there. Maybe they won't even recognize her. Because two years passed, they thought that she will die from childbirth, or that she will die later in a Dothraki Sea or Red Waste, furthermore now her hair is burned. Maybe they won't realise that it is her. And thus they will bring her to Vaes Dothrak, to ask dosh khaleen what to do with her, and could be that on the way there, they will tell her that they are serving to the Stallion that will mount the world. So she will know that her child is alive, even before she will see him.

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The Dothraki do not follow a leader because of who their father was.  They only follow the strong.  So Rhaego has no future until he proves himself the strongest.  Then and only then can Rhaego become a khal in his own right.  So there is no reason for the other khals to take him away.  They're not looking for a new khal.  They're looking to become khals themselves.  They're not looking for one khal to unite them.  That doesn't serve their own interest.  They each want their own khalasar.

Instead of looking for magic to explain what happened to Drogo it is better to look at what is practical.  Like the OP said, there was no need to use trickery to suffocate Drogo.  Yes, Mirri Maz Duur could not directly strangle Drogo in front of everybody but she can pretend to take him through a ritual and bar anyone else from coming in so she can hold his head under water long enough to kill his brain.  Although my own belief is she did something to him that caused paralysis rather than brain damage.  Mirri Maz Duur was vengeful and bitter.  Giving Drogo a clean ending is not enough.  She wanted to make him helpless and basically almost complete paralysis.  Just like the warlock who gave Varys the drug which paralyzed him but did nothing to dull the pain.  Drogo can feel but he's powerless.  His mind is imprisoned in a useless body.  MMD was a hateful old woman and it is in character for her to bring on years of suffering to Drogo.  

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20 hours ago, Agent Orange said:

The Dothraki do not follow a leader because of who their father was.  They only follow the strong.  So Rhaego has no future until he proves himself the strongest.  Then and only then can Rhaego become a khal in his own right.  So there is no reason for the other khals to take him away.  They're not looking for a new khal.  They're looking to become khals themselves.  They're not looking for one khal to unite them.  That doesn't serve their own interest.  They each want their own khalasar.

All Dothraki listen to dosh khaleen. If they say that signs are favourable for war, then there will be war. If they will say all Dothraki to shave bare, then they will shave bare. ^_^

And they said that The Stallion will unite all Dothraki into one khalasar. Rhaego is not just a son of Khal, he is Khal of Khals. Like Jesus Christ was King of Kings.

At least some Dothraki will follow after whoever will have Rhaego, even though some won't. That's why about 10 thousands went with Pono, while many others went with Jhaqo. Because some of them wanted to stay with the Stallion, while others may have thought, that even if the prophecy is real, it doesn't mean that they all must unite now, and not later, when Rhaego will grow up. The prophecy about the Stallion appeared long ago, thus people were waiting for his birth, maybe for many generations, or even thousands of years. So they will follow Rhaego, and who was his father is totally irrelevant, what matters is that their religion says that he is their leader.

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5 hours ago, Megorova said:

All Dothraki listen to dosh khaleen. If they say that signs are favourable for war, then there will be war. If they will say all Dothraki to shave bare, then they will shave bare. ^_^

And they said that The Stallion will unite all Dothraki into one khalasar. Rhaego is not just a son of Khal, he is Khal of Khals. Like Jesus Christ was King of Kings.

At least some Dothraki will follow after whoever will have Rhaego, even though some won't. That's why about 10 thousands went with Pono, while many others went with Jhaqo. Because some of them wanted to stay with the Stallion, while others may have thought, that even if the prophecy is real, it doesn't mean that they all must unite now, and not later, when Rhaego will grow up. The prophecy about the Stallion appeared long ago, thus people were waiting for his birth, maybe for many generations, or even thousands of years. So they will follow Rhaego, and who was his father is totally irrelevant, what matters is that their religion says that he is their leader.

Only he proves himself the strongest.  It's been oft-repeated, the Dothraki only follow the strong.  I would imagine in their eyes the prophecy got off-track. 

The prophecy actually refers to Daenerys herself, who will make the entire world her khalasar.   The DK misinterpreted the signs.  

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The whole thing was a sham.  The witch set it all up so she can punish Drogo and murder little Rhaego.  Living comatose is worse than death.  The witch felt death was too good for Drogo and she planned to make him suffer.  Rhaego's was a quick death.

On 2/8/2018 at 10:51 PM, James Fenimore Cooper XXII said:

The ghost of dead kings in faded clothing are not Targaryen monarchs.  I think they are the previous incarnations of Azor Ahai.  Why are they cheering her on?  Because she can do what they failed to do.  End the cycle of the long night for good.  She is the first female of their line and the only one who can bring dragons to battle.  The best they had were swords of pale fire, which pale in comparison to three dragons.

Agreed.  People forget that the Targaryens only became kings three centuries ago.  A mere moment in the scheme of things.  Old Valyria did not have kings. 

This vision lends credence to my belief that what Dany saw in the House of the Undying came from herself.  She has the ability to see the past and the future.  The warlocks did not.  They were using illusions and hallucinogens but that is the extent of their powers. 

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