A Certain Man

[LynnS]

On 5/10/2018 at 8:55 PM, LiveFirstDieLater said:

Just another odd detail while on the topic of Myr:

Outside a cold wind was rising. They stayed up late into the morning, drinking Arbor gold and telling one another tales. Taena got quite drunk and Cersei pried the name of her secret lover from her. He was a Myrish sea captain, half a pirate, with black hair to the shoulders and a scar that ran across his facefrom chin to ear. "A hundred times I told him no, and he said yes," the other woman told her, "until finally I was saying yes as well. He was not the sort of man to be denied."

......

Does she dream of Myr? she wondered. Or is it her lover with the scar, the dangerous dark-haired man who would not be refused? She was quite certain Taena was not dreaming of Lord Orton.

And we see the faceless man formally known as Jaqen:

"I do. My time is done." Jaqen passed a hand down his face from forehead to chin, and where it went he changed. His cheeks grew fuller, his eyes closer; his nose hooked, a scar appeared on his right cheek where no scar had been before. And when he shook his head, his long straight hair, half red and half white, dissolved away to reveal a cap of tight black curls.

......

"As you wish." The alchemist pulled his hood down.

He was just a man, and his face was just a face. A young man's face, ordinary, with full cheeks and the shadow of a beard. A scar showed faintly on his right cheek. He had a hooked nose, and a mat of dense black hair that curled tightly around his ears. It was not a face Pate recognized. "I do not know you."

"Nor I you."

 

This find about Jaqen is really great!  How likely is it that he would be a 'certain man' though?  Isn't it more likely that a Faceless Man would kill Varys outright rather than drug him and take his reproductive organs?  I'm not convinced that Marwyn doesn't know that the Alchemist/Pate is a FM.  Especially since Sam notices the smell of something burnt in the brazier when he enters Marwyn's quarters.  The Alchemist is there with him and so perhaps they were using the glass candle to spy on Samwell.  

What of Marwyn's mapping expedition?  And the fact that he makes queer sacrifices in the Little Sailor's Temple.  Varys' Mummer's Troupe travelled on a cog around the Free Cities.  I think it's probable that Marwyn has been to Myr.  

Why do reader's think that Marwyn wouldn't cross some kind of ethical boundary?  Did he know what Qyburn was up to at the Citadel?  Qyburn doesn't seem to hold anything against him. 

A Feast for Crows - Prologue

When Marwyn had returned to Oldtown, after spending eight years in the east mapping distant lands, searching for lost books, and studying with warlocks and shadowbinders, Vinegar Vaellyn had dubbed him "Marwyn the Mage." The name was soon all over Oldtown, to Vaellyn's vast annoyance. "Leave spells and prayers to priests and septons and bend your wits to learning truths a man can trust in," Archmaester Ryam had once counseled Pate, but Ryam's ring and rod and mask were yellow gold, and his maester's chain had no link of Valyrian steel.

 

[LynnS]

21 hours ago, Seams said:

I think this anagram implies that Bloodraven and Bittersteel are battling warlocks of their era:

Morgil Hastwyck = Mighty Warlocks

Ser Morgil is the knight who says Prince Daeron is illegitimate and is then slain in a duel by Prince Aemon the Dragonknight. We never hear elsewhere of House Hastwyck, and the name seems to be pretty obscure to play such an important role in a decisive turning point in history. (I.e., the launch of the Blackfyre rebellions.) These single-purpose, disposable names seem to be a pretty good clue that GRRM is using the name to give us a wordplay hint.

If "Mighty Warlocks" is a hint, I assume it describes the two Great Bastards who are so closely identified with the two sides of the Blackfyre Rebellions. I suppose it could refer to Aegon IV and Aemon.

The warlock who maims Varys might be a literal or symbolic descendant of one of the warlocks from this earlier generation.

Oh, what a great find!  I am more convinced that Varys is a Blackfyre and there was something more powerful about the fire and blood magic of a certain man because of it.    Or it may be that the reproductive organs are powerful as a burnt offering.   The warlocks of Qaarth were also once mighty 'warriors'. 

[Lady Blizzardborn]

My theory has always been that it was a Faceless Man or at least approved by the Faceless Men. They tell Arya she'll have to give up everything that makes her who she is. Reproductive ability might well be involved. If you can't have children you can't worry about any kind of legacy for them and you'll concentrate better on your assassin work. For a lot of people, the ability to pass on their genes/blood would be something they couldn't bring themselves to give up.

And given the fantastic ability the FM have for disguise, it could even have been the Kindly Man himself.

I've long thought Varys is a former FM trainee.

[The Weirwoods Eyes]

Following.