Four types of wight

[Targaryeninkingslanding]

It's generally accepted that there is fire god (R'hllor) and an ice god (the Other) in the world of Asoiaf. They are in conflict and both have the power to resurrect the dead as wights. These two form a dichotomy in direct conflict due to their nature as opposites. They are plainly incompatible and so they war. (a simplification but yeah basically)

Now on the Iron Islands they worship a different god than these two. He is the Drowned god and his domain is water. Moqorro calls this god a servant of the Other, but what if its not that's simple. Maybe it's just that this god is not so particularly animositicly poised to the others and so is not a understood on or recognized threat by red priests

Followers like the Damphair are drowned and "reborn." And so these drowned men are water wights.

Then it also makes sense for this god to have its own opposite and for that god to have its own wights. Well in the world of Asoaif, their may be this opposite and we've seen it plenty. Those afflicted with greyscale more or less calcify into creatures of stone, and while it is considered a death sentence, little is said about death by grayscale in the books, only that it is shunned and causes madness in those afflicted. Just like becoming an ice wight, contact with an "inflected" seems to be a prerequisite to turning. 

Like fire wights, water wights keep their identity but are changed, the ceremony of rival requiring mouth to mouth. like Ice wights, earth wights lose their humanity and spread through touch.

Evidence that may point to such possible dichotomy could be the unsullied washing themselves in salt water after tending to those sick of the bloody flux. While not greyscale, it is evidence of the salt sea being opposed to the organic and diseased earth.

 

[Aline de Gavrillac]

Beliefs create Gods.  Many beliefs result in many gods.  One of the natural resources on the planet is magic. Some living things on this planet can access magic.  The miracles happen because people with the ability either consciously or subconsciously tap into the magic.  Resurrection is one of these miracles and only powerful beings have the power to bring back the dead.  It's rather clumsy because the resurrected are never fully recovered and it is only temporary.  Wights may come back physically but their memories slowly fade.  The iron born baptism by water doesn't count as a resurrection in my opinion. 

 

[Mister Smikes]

16 hours ago, Targaryeninkingslanding said:

It's generally accepted that there is fire god (R'hllor) and an ice god (the Other) in the world of Asoiaf. They are in conflict and both have the power to resurrect the dead as wights. These two form a dichotomy in direct conflict due to their nature as opposites. They are plainly incompatible and so they war. (a simplification but yeah basically)

Questionable.  It may be that the Rh'llor and the Great Other are 2 different aspects of a many-faced demon god of death whose goal is the destruction of humanity, and whose plan involves, in part, pitting humans against each other.

In at least one mythical apocalyptic scenario, that of Ragnarok, ice demons and fire demons (and many other kinds of demons) are on the same team.

But more to the point, I agree that "ice wights" and "fire wights" are different kinds of animated corpses ("wight" having become a synonym for "animated corpse" by association with Tolkien's use of the phrase "barrow wight" 60+ years ago.

16 hours ago, Targaryeninkingslanding said:

Followers like the Damphair are drowned and "reborn." And so these drowned men are water wights.

Disagree.  Damphair, and other drowned men, are merely men who have faced death, and been revived from a near death experience.  He was never truly dead in modern medical terms.

Also, IIRC, GRRM made statements in an SSM suggesting that people like Stoneheart who come back from death don't get POVs any more, and this is somehow connected to her being a wight.   Damphair gets his own POV, so he can hardly be a wight in the same sense as Stoneheart or Un-Beric.

The situation with Patchface is a bit more ambiguous.  It is possible that he is truly dead, and therefore a sort of drowned wight or storm wight.  I'd say the jury is out on Patchface.  But I would think that if he never ate, drank, pissed or shit, people would have noticed by now.  

16 hours ago, Targaryeninkingslanding said:

Those afflicted with greyscale more or less calcify into creatures of stone, and while it is considered a death sentence, little is said about death by grayscale in the books, only that it is shunned and causes madness in those afflicted. Just like becoming an ice wight, contact with an "inflected" seems to be a prerequisite to turning. 

Stone men are not wights, but people dying of a disease.

But I wonder if certain creatures, such as dragons, that are apparently "turned to stone" by advanced greyscale, are truly dead, and if they may be revived by blood magic.   If they are revived, have they come back from death, or merely from suspended animation.

You left out "Franken-wights" -- the sort of creature created by Qyburn, who combines mad science with (apparently) blood magic.  But maybe we don't know enough about them to be sure they are much different from other Red Wights.

[Mourning Star]

18 hours ago, Targaryeninkingslanding said:

It's generally accepted that there is fire god (R'hllor) and an ice god (the Other) in the world of Asoiaf. They are in conflict and both have the power to resurrect the dead as wights. These two form a dichotomy in direct conflict due to their nature as opposites. They are plainly incompatible and so they war. (a simplification but yeah basically)

I really think you are missing the mark entirely here.

This is the "Song of Ice and Fire", they are not incompatible.

Quote

"Up and down," Meera would sigh sometimes as they walked, "then down and up. Then up and down again. I hate these stupid mountains of yours, Prince Bran."
"Yesterday you said you loved them."
"Oh, I do. My lord father told me about mountains, but I never saw one till now. I love them more than I can say."
Bran made a face at her. "But you just said you hated them."
"Why can't it be both?" Meera reached up to pinch his nose.
"Because they're different," he insisted. "Like night and day, or ice and fire."
"If ice can burn," said Jojen in his solemn voice, "then love and hate can mate. Mountain or marsh, it makes no matter. The land is one."

A Storm of Swords - Bran II

In my opinion this is one of the most important quotes in the series:

Quote

"What is it you would have me see?"
"The way the world is made. The truth is all around you, plain to behold. The night is dark and full of terrors, the day bright and beautiful and full of hope. One is black, the other white. There is ice and there is fire. Hate and love. Bitter and sweet. Male and female. Pain and pleasure. Winter and summer. Evil and good." She took a step toward him. "Death and life. Everywhere, opposites. Everywhere, the war."
"The war?" asked Davos.
"The war," she affirmed. "There are two, Onion Knight. Not seven, not one, not a hundred or a thousand. Two! Do you think I crossed half the world to put yet another vain king on yet another empty throne? The war has been waged since time began, and before it is done, all men must choose where they will stand. On one side is R'hllor, the Lord of Light, the Heart of Fire, the God of Flame and Shadow. Against him stands the Great Other whose name may not be spoken, the Lord of Darkness, the Soul of Ice, the God of Night and Terror. Ours is not a choice between Baratheon and Lannister, between Greyjoy and Stark. It is death we choose, or life. Darkness, or light." She clasped the bars of his cell with her slender white hands. The great ruby at her throat seemed to pulse with its own radiance. "So tell me, Ser Davos Seaworth, and tell me truly—does your heart burn with the shining light of R'hllor? Or is it black and cold and full of worms?" She reached through the bars and laid three fingers upon his breast, as if to feel the truth of him through flesh and wool and leather.
"My heart," Davos said slowly, "is full of doubts."

A Storm of Swords - Davos III

Clearly Melisandre is espousing the belief you claim is generally accepted... but take a second and think about what she is saying. Does it really ring true to you? Do you think this story really backs up this sort of dualistic worldview?

Is the world really black and white? Are male and female really opposites one can equate to evil and good?

In my opinion the answer is an obvious and resounding no. Things are more complicated than that and the "right" path is usually a balance. Even more troubling are the evils committed by those who hold such certain dogmatic perspectives.

Be like Davos, have doubt.

[Fool Stands On Giant’s Toe]

9 hours ago, Mourning Star said:

does your heart burn with the shining light of R'hllor? Or is it black and cold and full of worms?"

Temperature and worms.

 

[Lady Dacey]

17 hours ago, Aline de Gavrillac said:

Beliefs create Gods.  Many beliefs result in many gods.  One of the natural resources on the planet is magic. Some living things on this planet can access magic.  The miracles happen because people with the ability either consciously or subconsciously tap into the magic. 

Beautifully (and synthetically) put. And isn't that true about our world also? 

[Fool Stands On Giant’s Toe]

On 3/31/2021 at 6:37 PM, Targaryeninkingslanding said:

ers like the Damphair are drowned and "reborn." And so these drowned men are water wights.

A baptism maybe? The cleansing of the body to be reborn anew? Free of worms, leeches, ants, and parasites?

[Janosz]

I'm newbie and I came here randomly ten minutes ago, but I can't resist to reply.

I find very interesting the point of Targarieninkingslanding here. He just suggested to consider fire and ice in this saga, not only or not simply opposite dualism of Tao or first mazdeism or Heraclitus philosophy, but part of a tetrarchy of spiritual power, like the four elements or (better to me) feng shui. Interesting point.

[Rose of Red Lake]

Yeah, I think Patchface could be a water wight and maybe the warlocks can produce air wights because Pyrat Pree gives dany a jar of something that lets her see "spirits of the air" - presumably something like the spirits she saw in the HOTU.