Roose Trollton. Posted December 16, 2018 Share Posted December 16, 2018 Just an interesting thought I had the other day. Westeros - to us, book readers, and to the most of the characters, like from Maester Yandels point of view - seems kinda "normal" and "boring", just an average Western European medical country, while the far East seems full of mysteries, magic and unexplained wonders. Have you ever thought that to the Asshai or to the people of Yi Ti, Westeros might sound equally alien and mythical? "Seven kingdoms ruled by one king, where kings ride dragons, with wolves as large as horses and trees that cry blood, with walls of ice as large as mountains and men that can control animals." It's all a matter of perspective and how you put it I guess Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bowen Marsh Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 The Masters look upon the Andals and the First Men as unwashed savages. Uncouth barbarians. I don't think they see Westeros as a land of exotics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Universal Sword Donor Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 On 12/16/2018 at 8:08 AM, Roose Trollton. said: Just an interesting thought I had the other day. Westeros - to us, book readers, and to the most of the characters, like from Maester Yandels point of view - seems kinda "normal" and "boring", just an average Western European medical country, while the far East seems full of mysteries, magic and unexplained wonders. Have you ever thought that to the Asshai or to the people of Yi Ti, Westeros might sound equally alien and mythical? "Seven kingdoms ruled by one king, where kings ride dragons, with wolves as large as horses and trees that cry blood, with walls of ice as large as mountains and men that can control animals." It's all a matter of perspective and how you put it I guess Well yeah. In Asshai / Yi Ti, people are asking if Casterly Rock is made entirely out of gold. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Euron III Greyjoy Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 For all we know there is a whole civilization on people in Ulthos who think House Stark are a clan of shapechanging giants, and House Arryn live in a castle that floats on a cloud. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shmedricko Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 3 hours ago, Universal Sword Donor said: Well yeah. In Asshai / Yi Ti, people are asking if Casterly Rock is made entirely out of gold. Yep, here is the quote: The great wealth of the westerlands, of course, stems primarily from their gold and silver mines. The veins of ore run wide and deep, and there are mines, even now, that have been delved for a thousand years and more and are yet to be emptied. Lomas Longstrider reports that, even in far Asshai-by-the-Shadow, there were merchants who asked him if it was true that the "Lion Lord" lived in a palace of solid gold and that crofters collected a wealth of gold simply by plowing their fields. The gold of the west has traveled far, and the maesters know there are no mines in all the world as rich as those of Casterly Rock. (TWOIAF - The Westerlands) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moiraine Sedai Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 Sure. The land in the west where men wore iron suits and the ruling class rode dragons. The author simply created a medieval kind of world. He wants his readers immersed in that time period. So how much did the people of the Far East knew of the French during the dark ages? Only a little. Fertile imagination filled in the rest. Cities of gold, fountains of youth, demons. sirens, the yeti. Things of that sort. The distant places stoked the imaginations of ancient people. Martin is doing the same thing to us. He gave us Leng, Yi Ti to the east and Westeros to the west. Along with them came information that are unreliable. We're in the same boat as the ancients in the real world. Do lions really shit gold? Are there really Ghost Grass in Asshai? Many of the answers are unimportant but they serve to make planetos a more realistic medieval world full of ignorance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoWesteros Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 In typical GRRM fashion, I think if the story was primarily set in the east the mythos and seemingly magical legends surrounding Westeros would be just as Yi Ti are depicted to us. Westeros lore enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eli Cross Posted January 10, 2019 Share Posted January 10, 2019 World building. Fascination of the unknown. Superstitious nature. Lack of science. Obscure prophecies. Sounds exotic to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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