Bloodraven, Night's King and Last Hero v2

[AlaskanSandman]

So this will be a look at the Last Hero, the Night's King, and Azor Ahai. Our introduction to some of these stories to some possible links in the journey of Bloodraven. Starting with some quick point outs on the Kings' of Winter and it's possible deeper meaning.

The long and short of it is Bloodraven's journey as the Last Hero to journey beyond the Wall, and seek out the magic of the Cotf, becoming the Night's King who sacrifices kids through the Black gate, to the bringer of Azor Ahai.

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A Storm of Swords - Bran IV

Jojen gazed up at him with his dark green eyes. "There's nothing here to hurt us, Your Grace."

Bran wasn't so certain. The Nightfort had figured in some of Old Nan's scariest stories. It was here that Night's King had reigned, before his name was wiped from the memory of man.

 The Night’s King, the King of Night

The Long Winter and Long Night are related or at least seem to be in the grand scheme of the Long Night. 

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A Game of Thrones - Tyrion III

This time Tyrion could not hold his tongue. "The fisherfolk of Lannisport often glimpse merlings."

"Denys Mallister writes that the mountain people are moving south, slipping past the Shadow Tower in numbers greater than ever before. They are running, my lord … but running from what?" Lord Mormont moved to the window and stared out into the night. "These are old bones, Lannister, but they have never felt a chill like this. Tell the king what I say, I pray you. Winter is coming, and when the Long Night falls, only the Night's Watch will stand between the realm and the darkness that sweeps from the north. The gods help us all if we are not ready."

 

 

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A Game of Thrones - Bran IV

"That's not my favorite," he said. "My favorites were the scary ones." He heard some sort of commotion outside and turned back to the window. Rickon was running across the yard toward the gatehouse, the wolves following him, but the tower faced the wrong way for Bran to see what was happening. He smashed a fist on his thigh in frustration and felt nothing.

"Oh, my sweet summer child," Old Nan said quietly, "what do you know of fear? Fear is for the winter, my little lord, when the snows fall a hundred feet deep and the ice wind comes howling out of the north. Fear is for the long night, when the sun hides its face for years at a time, and little children are born and live and die all in darkness while the direwolves grow gaunt and hungry, and the white walkers move through the woods."

"You mean the Others," Bran said querulously.

"The Others," Old Nan agreed. "Thousands and thousands of years ago, a winter fell that was cold and hard and endless beyond all memory of man. There came a night that lasted a generation, and kings shivered and died in their castles even as the swineherds in their hovels. Women smothered their children rather than see them starve, and cried, and felt their tears freeze on their cheeks." Her voice and her needles fell silent, and she glanced up at Bran with pale, filmy eyes and asked, "So, child. This is the sort of story you like?"

 

 

And the Kings of the Night, and the Kings of Winter are House Stark?

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A Game of Thrones - Jon IV

"Do you ever find anyone in your dream?" Sam asked.

Jon shook his head. "No one. The castle is always empty." He had never told anyone of the dream, and he did not understand why he was telling Sam now, yet somehow it felt good to talk of it. "Even the ravens are gone from the rookery, and the stables are full of bones. That always scares me. I start to run then, throwing open doors, climbing the tower three steps at a time, screaming for someone, for anyone. And then I find myself in front of the door to the crypts. It's black inside, and I can see the steps spiraling down. Somehow I know I have to go down there, but I don't want to. I'm afraid of what might be waiting for me. The old Kings of Winter are down there, sitting on their thrones with stone wolves at their feet and iron swords across their laps, but it's not them I'm afraid of. I scream that I'm not a Stark, that this isn't my place, but it's no good, I have to go anyway, so I start down, feeling the walls as I descend, with no torch to light the way. It gets darker and darker, until I want to scream." He stopped, frowning, embarrassed. "That's when I always wake." His skin cold and clammy, shivering in the darkness of his cell. Ghost would leap up beside him, his warmth as comforting as daybreak. He would go back to sleep with his face pressed into the direwolf's shaggy white fur. "Do you dream of Horn Hill?" Jon asked.

 

 

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A Storm of Swords - Bran IV

Yes, thought Bran, but it's blocked by stone and ice.

As the sun began to set the shadows of the towers lengthened and the wind blew harder, sending gusts of dry dead leaves rattling through the yards. The gathering gloom put Bran in mind of another of Old Nan's stories, the tale of Night's King. He had been the thirteenth man to lead the Night's Watch, she said; a warrior who knew no fear. "And that was the fault in him," she would add, "for all men must know fear." A woman was his downfall; a woman glimpsed from atop the Wall, with skin as white as the moon and eyes like blue stars. Fearing nothing, he chased her and caught her and loved her, though her skin was cold as ice, and when he gave his seed to her he gave his soul as well.

He brought her back to the Nightfort and proclaimed her a queen and himself her king, and with strange sorceries he bound his Sworn Brothers to his will. For thirteen years they had ruled, Night's King and his corpse queen, till finally the Stark of Winterfell and Joramun of the wildlings had joined to free the Watch from bondage. After his fall, when it was found he had been sacrificing to the Others, all records of Night's King had been destroyed, his very name forbidden.

"Some say he was a Bolton," Old Nan would always end. "Some say a Magnar out of Skagos, some say Umber, Flint, or Norrey. Some would have you think he was a Woodfoot, from them who ruled Bear Island before the ironmen came. He never was. He was a Stark, the brother of the man who brought him down." She always pinched Bran on the nose then, he would never forget it. "He was a Stark of Winterfell, and who can say? Mayhaps his name was Brandon. Mayhaps he slept in this very bed in this very room."

 

The Starks of Winterfell, ruling from the Wolf’swood? The Kings of Winter and the Night's King?

 

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The World of Ice and Fire - The North: The Kings of Winter

Even this did not give Winterfell dominion over all the North. Many other petty kings remained, ruling over realms great and small, and it would require thousands of years and many more wars before the last of them was conquered. Yet one by one, the Starks subdued them all, and during these struggles, many proud houses and ancient lines were extinguished forever.

Amongst the houses reduced from royals to vassals we can count the Flints of Breakstone Hill, the Slates of Blackpool, the Umbers of Last Hearth, the Lockes of Oldcastle, the Glovers of Deepwood Motte, the Fishers of the Stony Shore, the Ryders of the Rills...and mayhaps even the Blackwoods of Raventree, whose own family traditions insist they once ruled most of the wolfswood before being driven from their lands by the Kings of Winter (certain runic records support this claim, if Maester Barneby's translations can be trusted).

 

The Night’s King was a Stark? Or a Blackwood?

 

Another tale from old Nan before we move forward with our look at Bloodraven

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A Game of Thrones - Bran IV

Her voice had dropped very low, almost to a whisper, and Bran found himself leaning forward to listen.

"Now these were the days before the Andals came, and long before the women fled across the narrow sea from the cities of the Rhoyne, and the hundred kingdoms of those times were the kingdoms of the First Men, who had taken these lands from the children of the forest. Yet here and there in the fastness of the woods the children still lived in their wooden cities and hollow hills, and the faces in the trees kept watch. So as cold and death filled the earth, the last hero determined to seek out the children, in the hopes that their ancient magics could win back what the armies of men had lost. He set out into the dead lands with a sword, a horse, a dog, and a dozen companions. For years he searched, until he despaired of ever finding the children of the forest in their secret cities. One by one his friends died, and his horse, and finally even his dog, and his sword froze so hard the blade snapped when he tried to use it. And the Others smelled the hot blood in him, and came silent on his trail, stalking him with packs of pale white spiders big as hounds—"

 

We're all pretty familiar with it. So let's move forward and ill call back to these as they matter.

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So now let’s take a look at the most famous Blackwood of them all, Bryden Rivers, Lord Bloodraven.

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When Maester Aemon sailed for the Wall in 233 ᴀᴄ, he was escorted by King Aegon V's friend, Ser Duncan the Tall of the Kingsguard, and accompanied by an honor guard of recruits for the Night's Watch. These were two hundred men and prisoners, among them Brynden Rivers. Many of the men were archers from Brynden's Raven's Teeth .^[10][4] According to a semi-canon source, Brynden took Dark Sister with him when he went to the Wall.^[18]

Brynden was elected as Lord Commander of the Night's Watch in 239 ᴀᴄ.^[4][10] However, he disappeared while ranging beyond the Wall in 252 ᴀᴄ.^[4]

 

 

So Bloodraven served from 252- 239Ac

 

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Night's King. He had been the thirteenth man to lead the Night's Watch, For thirteen years they had ruled,

252-239= 13 years.

 

Who may just be the 995^th L.C. (Qorqyle is the 996th and unknown if there is one between them.)    9+9-5=13 

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the last hero determined to seek out the children, in the hopes that their ancient magics could win back what the armies of men had lost. He set out into the dead lands with a sword, a horse, a dog, and a dozen companions.

 

Bloodraven, who set out with Darksister and his Raven's Teeth.

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The World of Ice and Fire - The Targaryen Kings: Aegon V

This he did. Ser Brynden Rivers set sail for the Wall late in the year of 233 AC. (No one intercepted his ship). Two hundred men went with him, many of them archers from Bloodraven's personal guard, the Raven's Teeth. The king's brother, Maester Aemon, was also amongst them.

 

 

Who had a love for a woman that was his weakness as she never would commit to him and enjoyed toying with him.

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The World of Ice and Fire - The Targaryen Kings: Aerys I

Bloodraven proved to be a capable Hand, but also a master of whisperers who rivaled Lady Misery, and there were those who thought he and his half sister and paramour, Shiera Seastar, used sorcery to ferret out secrets. 

 

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A woman was his downfall; a woman glimpsed from atop the Wall, with skin as white as the moon and eyes like blue stars. Fearing nothing, he chased her and caught her and loved her, though her skin was cold as ice, and when he gave his seed to her he gave his soul as well.He proclaimed her a queen and himself her king, and with strange sorceries he bound his Sworn Brothers to his will.

 

Who had been sacrificing children to the CotF??? Well, it looks like it.

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After his fall, when it was found he had been sacrificing to the Others, all records of Night's King had been destroyed, his very name forbidden

 

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A Storm of Swords - Bran IV

The well grew darker and colder with every turn. When Bran finally lifted his head around to look back up the shaft, the top of the well was no bigger than a half-moon. "Hodor," Hodor whispered, "Hodorhodorhodorhodorhodorhodor," the well whispered back. The water sounds were close, but when Bran peered down he saw only blackness.

A turn or two later Sam stopped suddenly. He was a quarter of the way around the well from Bran and Hodor and six feet farther down, yet Bran could barely see him. He could see the door, though. The Black Gate, Sam had called it, but it wasn't black at all.

It was white weirwood, and there was a face on it.

They were white too, and blind. "Who are you?" the door asked, and the well whispered, "Who-who-who-who-who-who-who."

"I am the sword in the darkness," Samwell Tarly said. "I am the watcher on the walls. I am the fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers. I am the shield that guards the realms of men."

"Then pass," the door said. Its lips opened, wide and wider and wider still, until nothing at all remained but a great gaping mouth in a ring of wrinkles. Sam stepped aside and waved Jojen through ahead of him. Summer followed, sniffing as he went, and then it was Bran's turn. Hodor ducked, but not low enough. The door's upper lip brushed softly against the top of Bran's head, and a drop of water fell on him and ran slowly down his nose. It was strangely warm, and salty as a tear.

 

 

Then, after telling us of the Night’s King, and passing through the sacrificial door, Bran meets him.

 

ADWD

1 Tyrion I

2 Daenerys I

3 John I

4 Bran I

5 Tyrion II

6 The Merchant’s man

7 John II

8 Tyrion III

9 Davos I

10 John III

11 Daenerys II

12 Reek I

13 Bran II                                           on the 13th chapter of Adwd

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A Dance with Dragons - Bran II

"Are you the three-eyed crow?" Bran heard himself say. A three-eyed crow should have three eyes. He has only one, and that one red. Bran could feel the eye staring at him, shining like a pool of blood in the torchlight. Where his other eye should have been, a thin white root grew from an empty socket, down his cheek, and into his neck.

"A … crow?" The pale lord's voice was dry. His lips moved slowly, as if they had forgotten how to form words. "Once, aye. Black of garb and black of blood." The clothes he wore were rotten and faded, spotted with moss and eaten through with worms, but once they had been black. "I have been many things, Bran. Now I am as you see me, and now you will understand why I could not come to you … except in dreams. I have watched you for a long time, watched you with a thousand eyes and one. I saw your birth, and that of your lord father before you. I saw your first step, heard your first word, was part of your first dream. I was watching when you fell. And now you are come to me at last, Brandon Stark, though the hour is late."

 

So there is a recurring theme here possibly, in that Bran is a sacrifice to the CotF to become the next Greenseerer, the Night’s King. Leader of the Others? Just a thought, let me know yours.

 

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A Dance with Dragons - Bran III

There he sat, listening to the hoarse whispers of his teacher. "Never fear the darkness, Bran." The lord's words were accompanied by a faint rustling of wood and leaf, a slight twisting of his head. "The strongest trees are rooted in the dark places of the earth. Darkness will be your cloak, your shield, your mother's milk. Darkness will make you strong."

 

Darkness is their strength, their shield, their mother's milk. It is life to them. The Night's King.

 

Herald of Azor Ahai, and the Bleeding Star

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A Dance with Dragons - Tyrion VI

"Her. Daenerys?"

Haldon nodded. "Benerro has sent forth the word from Volantis. Her coming is the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy. From smoke and salt was she born to make the world a new. She is Azor Ahai returned … and her triumph over darkness will bring a summer that will never end … death itself will bend its knee, and all those who die fighting in her cause shall be reborn …"

 

 

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A Dance with Dragons - Jon X

I have seen it in the flames, read of it in ancient prophecy. When the red star bleeds and the darkness gathers, Azor Ahai shall be born again  amidst smoke and salt to wake dragons out of stone. Dragonstone is the place of smoke and salt."

 

 

 Sheira Sea-Star + Bloodraven = The Bleeding Star

 

Melisandre, daughter of Shiera Sea-Star and Bloodraven? It certainly would be interesting and we have no idea what became of Shiera after Bloodraven was sent to the Wall.

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A Dance with Dragons - Jon XIII

. When the third dagger took him between the shoulder blades, he gave a grunt and fell face-first into the snow. He never felt the fourth knife. Only the cold …

 

And all those who serve in her cause shall be reborn.... how and by who do you think Jon will be resurrected? Jon who dies on his 13th pov chapter of Adwd.

 

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." A woman was his downfall; a woman glimpsed from atop the Wall, with skin as white as the moon and eyes like blue stars. Fearing nothing, he chased her and caught her and loved her, though her skin was cold as ice, and when he gave his seed to her he gave his soul as well.

 

Did Melisandre's mother teach her this skill? 

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A Clash of Kings - Davos II

"Shadow?" Davos felt his flesh prickling. "A shadow is a thing of darkness."

"You are more ignorant than a child, ser knight. There are no shadows in the dark. Shadows are the servants of light, the children of fire. The brightest flame casts the darkest shadows."

-Panting, she squatted and spread her legs. Blood ran down her thighs, black as ink. Her cry might have been agony or ecstasy or both. And Davos saw the crown of the child's head push its way out of her. Two arms wriggled free, grasping, black fingers coiling around Melisandre's straining thighs, pushing, until the whole of the shadow slid out into the world and rose taller than Davos, tall as the tunnel, towering above the boat. He had only an instant to look at it before it was gone, twisting between the bars of the portcullis and racing across the surface of the water, but that instant was long enough.

He knew that shadow. As he knew the man who'd cast it.

 

What is going on in your opinion? What do these clues mean to you if anything? 

Will Bran be sacrificed and never become Greenseerer as Bloodraven is? Will Bran become Greenseerer as Bloodraven is? Are they controlling the Others? Will Jon lead the armies of the dead? 

Daenerys will bring a summer that never ends, the Others will bring a Winter that never ends. Neither sound good for mankind. Can either side survive? Will another pact be made? Is there an end game or will it end with it all starting again? How deeply tied are House Stark and House Blackwood? I hope you enjoyed the comparisons.