Is there slight chance we visit Asshai in books

[Putin]

I always had huge interest in Asshai . Its mysterious and dark place, were animals can´t survive for long and  people freely practice magic. art .

Now Quaithe did urge Dany to visit Asshai. Do you think is there any chance of that happening in Winds of winter ?

[Ser Leftwich]

38 minutes ago, Putin said:

I always had huge interest in Asshai . Its mysterious and dark place, were animals can´t survive for long and  people freely practice magic. art .

Now Quaithe did urge Dany to visit Asshai. Do you think is there any chance of that happening in Winds of winter ?

In short, no. GRRM has said that there might be some flashbacks from Mel's POV, from when she was there, but we will not have a POV there in the books.

[Putin]

1 hour ago, Ser Leftwich said:

In short, no. GRRM has said that there might be some flashbacks from Mel's POV, from when she was there, but we will not have a POV there in the books.

Never knew about that , there is some hope after all ,so lets pray Mel does  some justice for  Asshai.

[Shi Qiang]

There is a slight chance.  I would like for Daenerys and her allies to travel to Asshai for an interesting adventure.  I enjoy her chapters as well as those of Barristan and Tyrion. 

[Skahaz mo Kandaq]

Mr. Martin has the right to change his mind.  He didn't think he would take us to Asshai but he is entitled to change his mind.  I hope he does change his mind.  Imagine Daenerys Targaryen and her entourage entering the black stone city with her dragons flying overhead.  The city is big enough to provide homes for Mhysa's children.  Some way will have to be found to remove the taint from the environment though. 

The city itself is an interesting subject.  The population must have been quite large.  What could reduce the population like that.  Is there another race at war with the humans?  I would much prefer to have a story on Asshai instead of Westeros. 

[Wolf's Bane]

If it happens, it happens in the next book.  To go west, our hero must first go east with her dragons.  Still, she could go east and still go past Asshai.  

[Rose of Red Lake]

Asshai must look like modern day Delhi (pre-covid). For it to have any corollary to our own problems, Asshai (and Valyria) really should be a human-caused environmental disaster and not a natural one. However since Westeros doesn’t have a fossil fuel economy, an unchecked, irresponsible use of magic might produce the pollution. It would have eerie similarities to our worst polluted cities if we saw it through the eyes of a POV character, but I think GRRM wants to keep these places mysterious. 

[Vaith]

In the present-day, no. But I would definitely love to see it from Melisandre's memories, exploring what their culture is like, and how Melony became Melisandre under the shadowbinders.

[Back in Black-Snow]

11 hours ago, Rose of Red Lake said:

For it to have any corollary to our own problems, Asshai (and Valyria) really should be a human-caused environmental disaster and not a natural one.

I am just curious, and don't mean to cause a disruption to this thread (truly, I don't), but would you mind extrapolating on this? I am somewhat familiar with Delhi (my best friend was born there and spent 8 years there before she came to the United States), but I was just curious as to what you were referring to, specifically regarding the human-caused disaster versus the natural disaster. Please understand, I am not picking an argument, or refuting your statement, but I am genuinely curious as to what you mean here. Thank you.

[kissdbyfire]

According to Martin:

[Will we see Asshai?]

Only in flasback and memory, if at all.

[Back in Black-Snow]

Tried to edit my response, but it was too late.

Edit to add: nevermind. I should have read the remainder of your post before I responded. Forgive me. You mean pollution versus natural disaster. I'm sorry.

[Back in Black-Snow]

4 minutes ago, kissdbyfire said:

According to Martin:

[Will we see Asshai?]

Only in flasback and memory, if at all.

I agree. And this will come from either Bran or Millisandra (sp?). But most likely Milly.

Edit to add: Bran's flashbacks will most likely involve the Starks and/or the Others/White Walkers.

[Rose of Red Lake]

21 hours ago, Travis said:

Tried to edit my response, but it was too late.

Edit to add: nevermind. I should have read the remainder of your post before I responded. Forgive me. You mean pollution versus natural disaster. I'm sorry.

No worries. Yeah, I was just thinking that these passages from the World of Ice and Fire:

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“There are no horses in Asshai, no elephants, no mules, no donkeys, no zorses, no camels, no dogs. Such beasts, when brought there by ship, soon die. The malign influence of the Ash and its polluted waters have been implicated, as it is well understood from Harmon’s On Miasmas that animals are more sensitive to the foulness exuded by such waters, even without drinking them. Septon Barth’s writings speculate more wildly, referring to the higher mysteries with little evidence.” 

So clearly the city is polluted, in both air and water. Harmon seems to be the straw man. Barth might be trying to link the animal deaths to the use of fire magic, which I think is closer to the truth. 

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“And there are no children in Asshai.”

Probably because everyone there is infertile, due to pollution. This is starting to sound like nuclear radiation in our world. 

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“Most arrive laden with foodstuffs and wine, for beyond the walls of Asshai little grows save ghost grass, whose glassy, glowing stalks are inedible. If not for the food brought in from across the sea, the Asshai’i would have starved.”

Clearly a place suffering from ecocide. Inability to grow food was the worst case scenario for places that survived atomic bomb testing or Agent Orange.

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“The waters of the Ash glisten black beneath the noonday sun and glimmer with a pale green phosphorescence by night, and such fish as swim in the river are blind and twisted, so deformed and hideous to look upon that only fools and shadowbinders will eat of their flesh.”

The waters are poisoned and the fish have genetic deformities - but caused by natural or unnatural events? I dont see why GRRM would choose the former when he's so concerned with man-made destruction of the environment and nuclear holocaust. 

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“Beyond the walls of Asshai, food is scarce, but gold and gems are common … though some will say that the gold of the Shadow Lands is as unhealthy in its own way as the fruits that grow there.”

So even the minerals are contaminated - although in this story they might say "cursed." This is likely the source that poisoned Joffrey, because the plant (or the stones) that make the Strangler, appear to come from Asshai:

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The Asshai'i have a name for the plant from which its made, and the alchemists of Lys a name for the crystal, but to the maesters it is known as the strangler - ASOIAF wiki

 

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“On its way from the Mountains of the Morn to the sea, the Ash runs howling through a narrow cleft in the mountains, between towering cliffs so steep and close that the river is perpetually in shadow, save for a few moments at midday when the sun is at its zenith. In the caves that pockmark the cliffs, demons and dragons and worse make their lairs. The farther from the city one goes, the more hideous and twisted these creatures become … ”

Dragons appear to be part of the unnatural flora and fauna. The phrase "hideous and twisted," suggests genetic deformities due to magic - which also occurs around Mantarys if Tyrion's account is true: 

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...He had a passion for grotesques; his slaves included a boy with the legs and hooves of a goat, a bearded woman, a two-headed monster from Mantarys, and a hermaphrodite who warmed his bed at night. ”

and speculating about Dany making passage to Westeros overland to Mantarys:

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“Mantarys with its sinister repute. A city of monsters, they say, but if she marches overland, where else is she to turn for food and water?"

So Dany might not go to Asshai, but she could go to Mantarys where we would see similar blights on the land and people. Mantarys sided with Yunkai and sent her a cedar chest of her envoy's heads, so I can see how she would want to punish them. Since Dany is blind to history everywhere she goes, she probably won't realize that the deformities and pollution were caused by the same magic she relies on. If she burns these towns using fire magic it's only continuing the cycle of blight and pollution that Valyria inflicted on the land. Credit to trinuviel's excellent essays for introducing this idea. 

[FictionIsntReal]

On 2/28/2020 at 5:05 PM, Skahaz mo Kandaq said:

Mr. Martin has the right to change his mind.  He didn't think he would take us to Asshai but he is entitled to change his mind.

The story had already sprawled more than he thought, and he's trying to bring the characters back together. He doesn't have time to go to Asshai and still accomplish that.

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Some way will have to be found to remove the taint from the environment though.

How? We have no indication that could even be feasible.

On 4/13/2020 at 12:23 AM, Rose of Red Lake said:

Clearly a place suffering from ecocide. Inability to grow food was the worst case scenario for places that survived atomic bomb testing or Agent Orange.

I think that plants and people both came back Hiroshima in the same year it was nuked.

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The waters are poisoned and the fish have genetic deformities - but caused by natural or unnatural events? I dont see why GRRM would choose the former when he's so concerned with man-made destruction of the environment and nuclear holocaust.

There are lots of strange aspects of Planetos. They've got a weird seasonal thing which may be linked to magic, but seems to be all humans can ever recall, and the revival of the Others in what seems to be another Long Night doesn't have a cause traceable to human action yet.

[Rose of Red Lake]

1 hour ago, FictionIsntReal said:

I think that plants and people both came back Hiroshima in the same year it was nuked.

I doubt GRRM is going with the best-case scenario for nuclear winter, which is similar to what Asshai seems to be experiencing. 

1 hour ago, FictionIsntReal said:

There are lots of strange aspects of Planetos. They've got a weird seasonal thing which may be linked to magic, but seems to be all humans can ever recall, and the revival of the Others in what seems to be another Long Night doesn't have a cause traceable to human action yet.

Obviously. I offered a theory. 

[FictionIsntReal]

21 hours ago, Rose of Red Lake said:

I doubt GRRM is going with the best-case scenario for nuclear winter, which is similar to what Asshai seems to be experiencing.

"Nuclear winter" isn't localized to one city.

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Obviously. I offered a theory.

What was your theory of the Long Night or weird seasons?

[TheBlackDragonWillReturn]

I believe there is I think that there is a chance that Dany will listen to Quaithe's prophecy which is

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To go north, you must journey south, to reach the west you must go east. To go forward you must go back and to touch the light you must pass beneath the shadow.

Which most people myself included think is Asshai-by-the-shadow.