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Are there "jurisdictions" dividing AWOIAF Magic?


Br16

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I feel that the sorcery of AWOIAF could be roughly divided into Water/Disease/Poison (Rhoynar); Fire and Blood (Red Priest/Valyrian/Dragons) ; Ice (Night King) and Forest Magic (Children of Forest, wood witches, Three eyed Raven and Wargs.)

Could it be that there is some natural barrier or border that prevents practitioners of one form of magic from exercising continued overriding control of another form of magic? 

When Garin cursed the Valyrian host with Greyscale, the Dragonlords and Dragons seem to not have been infected while the regular soldiers were. If the elite were indeed infected, it would have been important enough to be recorded. So just like how Valyrians cannot control the water, perhaps Garin's curse could not seep into the fire made flesh of the dragons or enter the special blood of the Dragonlords. Moreover, so many animals have been warged, but never a case of dragons. 

So perhaps different types of magic could only fight head on, but never "infiltrate, control or subvert"?

 

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4 hours ago, Br16 said:

For example, the Children of the Forest (Green Magic) created the Night King (Ice Magic) but promptly lost control.

...

I ask this question because it is the only theory I could think of on why the Night King project turned into such a fiasco  for the CotF.

There's no reason to believe the Children of the Forest had anything to do with the Night's King.

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2 hours ago, Br16 said:

oops, I mixed up with the show. I've edited the OP.

And the ice magic practice is done by the Others. The Night's King was not an Other. He was a man.

People can use different types of magic. The shadowbabies are not a typical "fire thing", but something clearly discovered, developed and taught in Asshai (shadowmagic). Glamoring is something the FM can do as well, though obviously their face magic is not a fire magic.

But as a magic "dominating" another - while each magical being of character has his strengths he has his weaknesses. Scorpions can kill dragons. Obsidian can kill an Other. Others can douse flame and fires with their extreme cold.

I don't think that's because there's a barrier, but because the magical source is a general one, and the same in strength no matter what form it gets in a spell or being. Think of energy - that can have many shapes and forms. But you can't increase the total amount of energy in the universe. You can only alter its shape: matter, movement, warmth, resisting attraction (potential energy), light, ...

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This is one of those topics that always makes my head spin with the way GRRM likes to work it... but in a good way.

I agree with the other posters here and my interpretation is that there are no "gods" even though some one may be worshipped by others as a god/dess. The god concept is a human invention and is a faith based religion that scribes power as a way of conquer.

As far as magic goes, I do think there could be just one source, and it is up to the individual in how they chose to use it. In the end it all go to the same place. Songs and spells are 'magic', and histories and prayers are faith based.

  • A Dance with Dragons - Bran III

    "Some books. I like the fighting stories. My sister Sansa likes the kissing stories, but those are stupid."

    "A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies," said Jojen. "The man who never reads lives only one. The singers of the forest had no books. No ink, no parchment, no written language. Instead they had the trees, and the weirwoods above all. When they died, they went into the wood, into leaf and limb and root, and the trees remembered. All their songs and spells, their histories and prayers, everything they knew about this world. Maesters will tell you that the weirwoods are sacred to the old gods. The singers believe they are the old gods. When singers die they become part of that godhood."

I do think we see two extremes, but again, that is because of how people are choosing to use these gifts/talents, as we can see within each 'side' there is always an example that acts as the other- an icy person that has fire actions as a general example. Both 'sides' consume, but one consumes for personal gain, where the other consumes knowledge to give back to others. Similar mechanics, but the intent and outcome are different.

  • A Storm of Swords - Arya IV

    "Well," said Arya, "not the way I do it."

    "No? I have always found it so. The gods give each of us our little gifts and talents, and it is meant for us to use them, my aunt always says. Any act can be a prayer, if done as well as we are able. Isn't that a lovely thought? Remember that the next time you do your needlework. Do you work at it every day?"

The great neutralizer, the peak of enlightenment, is the greenseeing-water element... in so, so many ways.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Do we know that no Valyrians were infected with greyscale? Could be propaganda. Could be all the Valyrians who got it were immediately killed and burned to prevent the disease from spreading. Hey, another good reason for Valyrians to use cremation!

Poison is not magic. Some of the poisons in-universe appear to have magical qualities but that could just be because they are poisons invented for a fantasy series, not because there is anything about them that is actually meant to be magical. 

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On 7/3/2019 at 6:44 AM, Free Northman Reborn said:

There are different manifestations of magic, but they are all powered by life force - blood sacrifice.

Exactly.  Question is, whom are the sacrifices being made to?  My thinking is that the Old Gods and demons like the Black Goat are one in the same.  I for one believe that Varys was being candidly truthful with Tyrion when describing the demonic aspects of his castration. 

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Tribes of the Frozen Shore have been said to worship gods of ice and snow. It's also possible that many Wildling tribes don't the Gods of the Weirwood trees. If that's true, the implication might be that the Old Gods are not the greenseers in the weirwood.net, but something else. The Old Gods might very well be an explanation for the magical force every magic user in the story accesses.

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