Sphinxes and Blood Magic?

[AlaskanSandman]

 

So watching this video from Westeros History and at 45 min and 15 sec in and Aziz mentions that @Ran mentions information alluding to Valyrian Sphinxes being made with blood magic. 

I have yet to see this information released yet or talked about. Was curious peoples thoughts into this.

Assuming it's a real thing that will pop up, why would the Valyrians be making sphinxes with Blood Magic? To what end? What do the sphinxes do? Could this be how the Sea Stone Chair was created? 

Let me know your thoughts and wild speculations

[Lollygag]

The first time - and only the first time - that Ned, Sansa and Tyrion enter the council chamber, the sphinxes are mentioned prominently. I'm sure this is important though I can't guess why. Maybe because a council is a single unit made of many odd pieces? Westeros is also like a sphinx in that it's a single entity made of seven different odd and mismatched pieces. The chamber sphinxes perhaps are meant to represent Westeros?

AGOT Eddard IV

And so Ned had come striding into the council chambers, bone-tired and dressed in borrowed clothing, to find four members of the small council waiting for him.

The chamber was richly furnished. Myrish carpets covered the floor instead of rushes, and in one corner a hundred fabulous beasts cavorted in bright paints on a carved screen from the Summer Isles. The walls were hung with tapestries from Norvos and Qohor and Lys, and a pair of Valyrian sphinxes flanked the door, eyes of polished garnet smoldering in black marble faces.

 

AGOT Sansa IV

They found Queen Cersei in the council chambers, seated at the head of a long table littered with papers, candles, and blocks of sealing wax. The room was as splendid as any that Sansa had ever seen. She stared in awe at the carved wooden screen and the twin sphinxes that sat beside the door.

 

ACOK Tyrion I

"I can see where Joffrey learned his courtesies." Tyrion paused to admire the pair of Valyrian sphinxes that guarded the door, affecting an air of casual confidence. Cersei could smell weakness the way a dog smells fear.

…

"I'll tell you when I know. Schemes are like fruit, they require a certain ripening. Right now, I have a mind to ride through the streets and take the measure of this city." Tyrion rested his hand on the head of the sphinx beside the door. "One parting request. Kindly make certain no harm comes to Sansa Stark. It would not do to lose both the daughters."

 

[Lady Barbrey]

1 hour ago, AlaskanSandman said:

 

So watching this video from Westeros History and at 45 min and 15 sec in and Aziz mentions that @Ran mentions information alluding to Valyrian Sphinxes being made with blood magic. 

I have yet to see this information released yet or talked about. Was curious peoples thoughts into this.

Assuming it's a real thing that will pop up, why would the Valyrians be making sphinxes with Blood Magic? To what end? What do the sphinxes do? Could this be how the Sea Stone Chair was created? 

Let me know your thoughts and wild speculations

Never heard it or read it, though after WoIaF came out, I participated in a number of threads where we wondered about Bloodstone Emperor or the CotF or people using blood magic to make hybrids. Experimenting.  Thanks for the link, I'll watch it myself.

[AlaskanSandman]

1 minute ago, Lady Barbrey said:

Never heard it or read it, though after WoIaF came out, I participated in a number of threads where we wondered about Bloodstone Emperor or the CotF or people using blood magic to make hybrids. Experimenting.  Thanks for the link, I'll watch it myself.

Yea i had never heard anything before my self and since they cite Elio i figured i would tag him in case he had anything for or against he wanted to offer. 

[AlaskanSandman]

31 minutes ago, Lollygag said:

The first time - and only the first time - that Ned, Sansa and Tyrion enter the council chamber, the sphinxes are mentioned prominently. I'm sure this is important though I can't guess why. Maybe because a council is a single unit made of many odd pieces? Westeros is also like a sphinx in that it's a single entity made of seven different odd and mismatched pieces. The chamber sphinxes perhaps are meant to represent Westeros?

AGOT Eddard IV

 

And so Ned had come striding into the council chambers, bone-tired and dressed in borrowed clothing, to find four members of the small council waiting for him.

 

The chamber was richly furnished. Myrish carpets covered the floor instead of rushes, and in one corner a hundred fabulous beasts cavorted in bright paints on a carved screen from the Summer Isles. The walls were hung with tapestries from Norvos and Qohor and Lys, and a pair of Valyrian sphinxes flanked the door, eyes of polished garnet smoldering in black marble faces.

 

 

 

AGOT Sansa IV

 

They found Queen Cersei in the council chambers, seated at the head of a long table littered with papers, candles, and blocks of sealing wax. The room was as splendid as any that Sansa had ever seen. She stared in awe at the carved wooden screen and the twin sphinxes that sat beside the door.

 

 

 

ACOK Tyrion I

 

"I can see where Joffrey learned his courtesies." Tyrion paused to admire the pair of Valyrian sphinxes that guarded the door, affecting an air of casual confidence. Cersei could smell weakness the way a dog smells fear.

 

…

 

"I'll tell you when I know. Schemes are like fruit, they require a certain ripening. Right now, I have a mind to ride through the streets and take the measure of this city." Tyrion rested his hand on the head of the sphinx beside the door. "One parting request. Kindly make certain no harm comes to Sansa Stark. It would not do to lose both the daughters."

 

 

 

That's interesting. I wondered my self about them acting as some tool like how glass candles are used for seeing afar and communicating. We know the Qhoric supposedly sacrifice children in blood magic to forge Valyrian steel replicants. 
There is also GRRM's other works in which items like this tend to make people go crazy. Though i dont see why Valyrian's would be making things like that. All and all im completely stumped and totally open to any and all wild speculations ahaha

 

[Free Northman Reborn]

Dragons were made in this way. Hybrid wyvern-firewyrms.

[AlaskanSandman]

13 hours ago, Free Northman Reborn said:

Dragons were made in this way. Hybrid wyvern-firewyrms.

I did consider this, but i couldn't draw a reason for why do it to the statues. I always thought the statues were just throw backs to greenseerers. 

[Ralphis Baratheon]

Maybe one of the Valyrian gods was a sphinx. 

[Lady Barbrey]

29 minutes ago, Ralphis Baratheon said:

Maybe one of the Valyrian gods was a sphinx. 

That would make sense.  I also - tin foil - wondered about the monstrous dragon babies like Rhaego and whether any survived lol.  

[Lady Barbrey]

1 hour ago, AlaskanSandman said:

I did consider this, but i couldn't draw a reason for why do it to the statues. I always thought the statues were just throw backs to greenseerers. 

I didn't think they would do anything to statues - are you saying some kind of blood magic hybrid with a statue, or am I misinterpreting?

I do think sphinxes in Westeros might be symbolic of skinchangers though.  In Damphair's dream, doesn't he say he sees dragons, krakens, and sphinxes bowing down before Euron?  I took that to mean 'hybrid' races - dragon-riders, sea-hybrids (we've hints something is in the ocean) and skinchangers, but he could just mean Houses of course, Targs Greyjoys and some house associated with sphinxes, possibly Old town with their great sphinxes.

[Ralphis Baratheon]

10 minutes ago, Lady Barbrey said:

 I also - tin foil - wondered about the monstrous dragon babies like Rhaego and whether any survived lol.  

YES! While I don't personally believe the "Rhaego is still alive and will mount the world" theories, I do believe that if he somehow survived then he will have to be a half-man half-dragon hybrid. He will be the lizard king. His dragon half allowing him to age fast enough for him to have an impact on the story, Very tin foil, but I feel if Rhaego is alive he must be this way.

[AlaskanSandman]

4 minutes ago, Lady Barbrey said:

I didn't think they would do anything to statues - are you saying some kind of blood magic hybrid with a statue, or am I misinterpreting?

I do think sphinxes in Westeros might be symbolic of skinchangers though.  In Damphair's dream, doesn't he say he sees dragons, krakens, and sphinxes bowing down before Euron?  I took that to mean 'hybrid' races - dragon-riders, sea-hybrids (we've hints something is in the ocean) and skinchangers, but he could just mean Houses of course, Targs Greyjoys and some house associated with sphinxes, possibly Old town with their great sphinxes.

Um, im not actually going either way with it haha im open to any interpretation. Whether Elio and them mean literal sphinxes that are alive, or the statues. Valyrians though i thought should be sphinxes of a sort. The Sphinx, the Harpy, the Greenseerers all likely the same thing maybe, but like i said, more leaving it open to see others thoughts. I get impaled enough on here lol

[Lady Barbrey]

9 minutes ago, Ralphis Baratheon said:

YES! While I don't personally believe the "Rhaego is still alive and will mount the world" theories, I do believe that if he somehow survived then he will have to be a half-man half-dragon hybrid. He will be the lizard king. His dragon half allowing him to age fast enough for him to have an impact on the story, Very tin foil, but I feel if Rhaego is alive he must be this way.

Oh interesting, I never read any Rhaego is alive theories, though if he were he'd be like baby who mounts the World, and that'd be more ludicrous than terrifying, so he'd have to age fast as you suggest. But I do wonder if dragon-human sphinxes might have been a thing in Valyria, very rare because unlikely to survive birth (like Tyrion! Didn't he have a tail or something? Lol). Likely the human dragon sphinxes are just representative of the Targs, though, and nothing more sinister.

[Lady Barbrey]

23 minutes ago, AlaskanSandman said:

Um, im not actually going either way with it haha im open to any interpretation. Whether Elio and them mean literal sphinxes that are alive, or the statues. Valyrians though i thought should be sphinxes of a sort. The Sphinx, the Harpy, the Greenseerers all likely the same thing maybe, but like i said, more leaving it open to see others thoughts. I get impaled enough on here lol

Oh hey, that's okay. Valyrian swords are a thing so why not Valyrian statues? I just was thinking live hybrids.

[AlaskanSandman]

1 hour ago, Lady Barbrey said:

Oh hey, that's okay. Valyrian swords are a thing so why not Valyrian statues? I just was thinking live hybrids.

Like i said, could definitely be that rather than statues

[Ralphis Baratheon]

4 hours ago, Lady Barbrey said:

But I do wonder if dragon-human sphinxes might have been a thing in Valyria, very rare because unlikely to survive birth

Maybe the Valyrians of the Freehold believed they existed at one time, like the Westerosi with giants. I wouldn't be surprised if the Valyrians experimented with dragon/sphinx-human breeding as strange as it sounds. They were very rich and powerful and capable of the cruel act of slavery, so maybe that's something they'd try to master with magics and what not.

Back to Sphinxes in general, Alleras/Sarella Sand is nicknamed the Sphinx. Then there's Maester Aemon awakening from his  fever dreams speaking of glass candles that could not be lit and eggs that would not hatch then saying  the sphinx is the riddle, not the riddler. Not sure if that has already been covered in the video or if it's even helpful to @AlaskanSandman's thread though. Sam's certainly been trying to figure out what that means and even brings it up when he meets Alleras "the Spinx" in Oldtown,

[AlaskanSandman]

5 minutes ago, Ralphis Baratheon said:

Maybe the Valyrians of the Freehold believed they existed at one time, like the Westerosi with giants. I wouldn't be surprised if the Valyrians experimented with dragon/sphinx-human breeding as strange as it sounds. They were very rich and powerful and capable of the cruel act of slavery, so maybe that's something they'd try to master with magics and what not.

Back to Sphinxes in general, Alleras/Sarella Sand is nicknamed the Sphinx. Then there's Maester Aemon awakening from his  fever dreams speaking of glass candles that could not be lit and eggs that would not hatch then saying  the sphinx is the riddle, not the riddler. Not sure if that has already been covered in the video or if it's even helpful to @AlaskanSandman's thread though. Sam's certainly been trying to figure out what that means and even brings it up when he meets Alleras "the Spinx" in Oldtown,

Might be, definitely worth bringing up. I like to let these discussions bloom into where ever they go. People make all sorts of great associations i wouldn't think to make. These subjects specially when speaking of magic and metaphors or such leave much room for discussion. 

We still don't know what type of sphinx Elio is alluding to and Aziz doesn't seem to clarify in the video either. So im very open to all speculations no matter how wild

[Lady Barbrey]

22 minutes ago, Ralphis Baratheon said:

Maybe the Valyrians of the Freehold believed they existed at one time, like the Westerosi with giants. I wouldn't be surprised if the Valyrians experimented with dragon/sphinx-human breeding as strange as it sounds. They were very rich and powerful and capable of the cruel act of slavery, so maybe that's something they'd try to master with magics and what not.

Back to Sphinxes in general, Alleras/Sarella Sand is nicknamed the Sphinx. Then there's Maester Aemon awakening from his  fever dreams speaking of glass candles that could not be lit and eggs that would not hatch then saying  the sphinx is the riddle, not the riddler. Not sure if that has already been covered in the video or if it's even helpful to @AlaskanSandman's thread though. Sam's certainly been trying to figure out what that means and even brings it up when he meets Alleras "the Spinx" in Oldtown,

Yeah the Alleras thing is really pointed and she even speaks some of the same terminology as Aemon from that fever dream, which is really interesting in its own right, as it's like he's channelling her or she him.  She's the first to meet Sam too.  Was she expecting him?  Looking forward to unravelling that - she really is a riddle - but don't see a connection between her and bloodmagic making Valyrian sphinxes.  Not yet anyway!

[Lollygag]

On 10/10/2018 at 3:21 AM, AlaskanSandman said:

That's interesting. I wondered my self about them acting as some tool like how glass candles are used for seeing afar and communicating. We know the Qhoric supposedly sacrifice children in blood magic to forge Valyrian steel replicants. 
There is also GRRM's other works in which items like this tend to make people go crazy. Though i dont see why Valyrian's would be making things like that. All and all im completely stumped and totally open to any and all wild speculations ahaha

I don't get much into the deep history so I don't have an opinion here.

The patchwork nature of the sphinx and the blood magic puts me in mind of Frankenstein's monster. Frankenstein was trying to play God in a fit of ego and we have something similar hinted at with the Valyrians.

ACOK Catelyn IV

The dragon kings had wed brother to sister, but they were the blood of old Valyria where such practices had been common, and like their dragons the Targaryens answered to neither gods nor men.

 

Perhaps some ideas can be found in Frankenstein?

[Bullrout]

On 10/10/2018 at 1:12 AM, AlaskanSandman said:

 

So watching this video from Westeros History and at 45 min and 15 sec in and Aziz mentions that @Ran mentions information alluding to Valyrian Sphinxes being made with blood magic. 

I have yet to see this information released yet or talked about. Was curious peoples thoughts into this.

Assuming it's a real thing that will pop up, why would the Valyrians be making sphinxes with Blood Magic? To what end? What do the sphinxes do? Could this be how the Sea Stone Chair was created? 

Let me know your thoughts and wild speculations

The Valyrians were doing genetic experiments.  George must have read the works of Zecharia Sitchin.  Sitchin believed the Anunaki conducted genetic experiments to create workers on earth.