CoTF Super Massive Blood Magic ritual - created Long Night and threw seasons out of Balance

[Tyrosh Lannister]

During the dawn age, the COTF used magic spells so strong that it altered the earth itself.

The Children of the Forest's magic is possibly the strongest magic we've seen in the series so far.

We see this during the breaking of the arm of Dorne. During the hammer of the waters event, to stop the migration of First Men into Westeros, they destroyed the land bridge connecting westeros and essos. Imagine how powerful the magic used for this was. It is said that a thousand human captives plus their own species were sacrificed to the weirwoods. This must have been a massive blood magic ritual.

Allegedly, they used a similar/same blood magic ritual to separate the North from the South, and this created the boggy Neck region. Again, another massive blood magic ritual would have been used. These events depleted their own numbers and human captives as they were sacrificed for the magic to work.

As you can see, both were magical events to alter the environment. And their numbers were dwindling year by year. They could not afford to sacrifice anymore of their own unless absolutely necessary.

That moment came. In a final and desperate attempt to stop the First Men, in what must have been a super massive blood magic ritual with many many human captives and a large portion of remaining COTF, they altered the earths axial tilt bringing in a generation long winter - the long night. This magic not only affected Westeros, but the entire planet. A huge blood magic ritual! This also created the white walkers and the earths axial tilt has been ever since messed up. As a large amount of remaining COTF were sacrificed, they might have been nearly driven to extinction. Tens of thousands of humans froze and starved to death in the long night. The axial tilt being messed up is the cause of the uneven seasons. 

 

 

Quote

Long ago, in a time forgotten, a preternatural event threw the seasons out of balance.

This was the description of the original AGOT over 20 years ago. The seasons were once normal. But something happened to throw them out of balance.

Quote

I have people constantly writing me with science fiction theories about the seasons — "It's a double star system with a black dwarf and that would explain–" It's fantasy, man, it's magic - George

The seasons being out of balance not caused by a binary solar system, or black hole or aliens from space. A (super massive blood) magic event caused the long night.

One could argue their sacrifice ritual brought in a comet that destroyed the second moon, its remains fall into the earth in chunks throwing a lot of smoke and dust into the air and blocking sunlight and suns heat- long night. 

Mayhaps only the COTF can undo this event to make the seasons normal again, but at what price? Another massive blood magic event?

 

[Alden Rothack]

19 minutes ago, Tyrosh Lannister said:

During the dawn age, the COTF used magic spells so strong that it altered the earth itself.

The Children of the Forest's magic is possibly the strongest magic we've seen in the series so far.

We see this during the breaking of the arm of Dorne. During the hammer of the waters event, to stop the migration of First Men into Westeros, they destroyed the land bridge connecting westeros and essos. Imagine how powerful the magic used for this was. It is said that a thousand human captives plus their own species were sacrificed to the weirwoods. This must have been a massive blood magic ritual.

Allegedly, they used a similar/same blood magic ritual to separate the North from the South, and this created the boggy Neck region. Again, another massive blood magic ritual would have been used. These events depleted their own numbers and human captives as they were sacrificed for the magic to work.

As you can see, both were magical events to alter the environment. And their numbers were dwindling year by year. They could not afford to sacrifice anymore of their own unless absolutely necessary.

That moment came. In a final and desperate attempt to stop the First Men, in what must have been a super massive blood magic ritual with many many human captives and a large portion of remaining COTF, they altered the earths axial tilt bringing in a generation long winter - the long night. This magic not only affected Westeros, but the entire planet. A huge blood magic ritual! This also created the white walkers and the earths axial tilt has been ever since messed up. As a large amount of remaining COTF were sacrificed, they might have been nearly driven to extinction. Tens of thousands of humans froze and starved to death in the long night. The axial tilt being messed up is the cause of the uneven seasons. 

 

 

This was the description of the original AGOT over 20 years ago. The seasons were once normal. But something happened to throw them out of balance.

The seasons being out of balance not caused by a binary solar system, or black hole or aliens from space. A (super massive blood) magic event caused the long night.

One could argue their sacrifice ritual brought in a comet that destroyed the second moon, its remains fall into the earth in chunks throwing a lot of smoke and dust into the air and blocking sunlight and suns heat- long night. 

Mayhaps only the COTF can undo this event to make the seasons normal again, but at what price? Another massive blood magic event?

 

Sacrifacing Kingslanding might do it

[Tyrosh Lannister]

4 minutes ago, Alden Rothack said:

Sacrifacing Kingslanding might do it

Maybe sacrificing them to the remaining weiwood trees might work - will need a COTF who has the knowledge and skill to ensure this ritual works?

[Alden Rothack]

3 minutes ago, Tyrosh Lannister said:

Maybe sacrificing them to the remaining weiwood trees might work - will need a COTF who has the knowledge and skill to ensure this ritual works?

yeah it would

[Phylum of Alexandria]

I definitely think Weirwood blood magic is responsible for the Long Night as well as the Hammer of the Waters. Stories peppered throughout TWOIAF (most notably the Thousand Islands) suggest that such major destruction has happened several other times around the globe and across time. Also, the positioning of prominent Weirwood sites in hollow hills and on small islands suggests to me that at least some Weirwood "pods" landed from above. My conjecture is that they have a pod launching mechanism for their reproduction, which can also be utilized as a weapon.

This might be why GRRM uses the imagery of female trebuchets launching bodies as well as boulders: the Three Whores, and the Six Sisters. And in the instance of the Three Whores, it was three female giants launching boulders and "antler men"--which tends to tie in with Garth and Green Men symbolism.

Garth himself was said to plant the Three Singers, three ancient Weirwoods that look like one gigantic tree. To me, all of this suggests the notion that their are distinct magical Weir-bloodlines that people confuse as one.

I think the Others are mobile guardians for some Weir-creature in the Heart of Winter, just as the Green Men are walkers for the Weirwoods we see in the story. Exactly which bloodline would have been responsible for the Long Night cataclysm is not entirely clear, but my guess would be Team Other (though people like Crowfood's Daughter and LmL think it's Team Dragon).

I do think an upset axial tilt may be part of why Planetos has uneven seasons. But I wonder: would such an upset lead to unpredictable season lengths? Does this mean the tilt is continually changing?

[Craving Peaches]

There's no direct evidence for this, but I think Asshai could possibly be where the 'Heart of Summer' once was, but it was destroyed/rendered ineffective, leaving only the Heart of Winter, and this imbalance leads to an imbalance in the seasons. So destroying/nullifying the Heart of Winter would restore the seasons to normal, at the cost of getting rid of all magic or something like that.

CotF blood magic ritual is also a possibility, but they would have to have an immense sacrifice, not just in volume but in terms of personal value to them, in order to make it work. Maybe they killed half their own people or something like that.

[TheBlackSwan]

You already quote Martin saying it's not a  sci-fi explanation but a fantasy one. You might say it's a magical blood sacrifice that originally fucked'up the seasons but in the end you still justify the irregular seasons with a sci-fi explanation: the axial tilt of the planet. 

Quote

GRRM: It’s not terribly different in the way I do it. I know how people like Gordy Dickson and Hal Clement in his day would go about creating worlds by figuring out what type of star it was and how far the planet was from the sun and what its axial tilt was, its rate of rotation, its chemical composition. Then they would work things out from that. But I don’t have that kind of background
[...]
They develop lengthy theories: perhaps it’s a multiple-star system, and what the axial tilt is, but I have to say, “Nice try, guys, but you’re thinking in the wrong direction.” This is a fantasy series. I am going to explain it all eventually, but it’s going to be a fantasy explanation.
http://web.archive.org/web/20070620204941/http:/www.darkfantasy.org/weirdtales/2007/05/george-rr-martin-on-magic-vs-science.html

It does not work with astronomy reports either, the seasons should be regular.

It's the Song of Ice and Fire. Out of the four seasons only winter and summer are affected.
Magic must be part of nature. Magic and the seasons are interconnected, ice magic must affect winter and fire magic, summer.

Quote

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.
A Storm of Swords - Davos III

The magical people who are close to nature, those who sing the song of earth, the Singers, made a powerful ice magic spell to avoid extinction, the song of Ice: the Others.
The Others are interconnected to winter. The song of Ice caused the Long Night, a long winter and to bring back the day, the Singers made a new song, the song of Fire: the Dragonlords.
Alabastur great theory about that:

« The things that are going north of the wall and Daenerys Targaryen on the other continent with her dragons are, of course, the ice and fire of the title. »
https://youtu.be/GaPZGDlm2F4?t=293

The Others represent the Ice, they live in the Land of Always Winter, they use ice and blood magic, have blades of ice whereas the Dragonlords represent the Fire, they live in the Land of Longs Summers, use fire and blood magic, have blades of fire (VS/DS/Lightbringer).
It also fits with Robert Frost's poem, Fire & Ice, an inspiration for the title.
The Others threatens the world with a winter that would never end whereas the Dragonlords with a never ending summer.

[Phylum of Alexandria]

22 minutes ago, TheBlackSwan said:

You already quote Martin saying it's not a  sci-fi explanation but a fantasy one.

He did say that, but not everyone has the same definition of a "sci-fi" versus "fantasy" explanation. He has described previous stories like Bitterblooms and In the House of the Worm as fantasy, but they took place in his Thousand World universe, some time in the future. They featured some advanced technology that had since gone to ruin, which the characters either ignored, or regarded as magic.

I'm not saying that ASOIAF is a secret sci-fi story. In fact, I wrote a whole topic where I lean against the idea:

But I bet it will be more sci-fi feeling than a lot of fantasy readers will expect. A crucial difference for GRRM is that fantasy retains a sense of mystery. So while the story's characters will likely remain ignorant about the mechanics of magic, he may make such information available to sharp readers by the story's end.

 

[Phylum of Alexandria]

1 hour ago, TheBlackSwan said:

You already quote Martin saying it's not a  sci-fi explanation but a fantasy one.

This seems like a relevant clip, with GRRM talking about his sci-fi "Rationalist" tendencies, even for his supernatural stuff:

 

[Tyrosh Lannister]

7 hours ago, Craving Peaches said:

There's no direct evidence for this, but I think Asshai could possibly be where the 'Heart of Summer' once was, but it was destroyed/rendered ineffective, leaving only the Heart of Winter, and this imbalance leads to an imbalance in the seasons. So destroying/nullifying the Heart of Winter would restore the seasons to normal, at the cost of getting rid of all magic or something like that.

CotF blood magic ritual is also a possibility, but they would have to have an immense sacrifice, not just in volume but in terms of personal value to them, in order to make it work. Maybe they killed half their own people or something like that.

Possible , the moon meteors falling would have corrupted and destroyed shadowlands, Stygai, creating a toxic atmosphere making asshais fused black stone oily. Stygai may have once been the heart of summer 

I agree that the COTF would have to sacrifice many of their loved ones or people they care about. This kind of sacrifice would make the magical outcome stronger 

[Craving Peaches]

8 minutes ago, Tyrosh Lannister said:

Possible , the moon meteors falling would have corrupted and destroyed shadowlands, Stygai, creating a toxic atmosphere making asshais fused black stone oily. Stygai may have once been the heart of summer 

Was there not two moons? Another possibility is that the fire/summer moon was destroyed (releasing the dragons), leaving only the winter/ice moon, so again an imbalance.

[Tyrosh Lannister]

15 minutes ago, Craving Peaches said:

Was there not two moons? Another possibility is that the fire/summer moon was destroyed (releasing the dragons), leaving only the winter/ice moon, so again an imbalance.

Yes there were two moons. As I mentioned above and my post , the first moon was destroyed and it's moon meteors fell on earth blanketing the atmosphere in smoke blocking sunlight and heat 

[Craving Peaches]

23 minutes ago, Tyrosh Lannister said:

Yes there were two moons. As I mentioned above and my post , the first moon was destroyed and it's moon meteors fell on earth blanketing the atmosphere in smoke blocking sunlight and heat 

If destroying the first moon released dragons, what would destroying the second moon release?

[Tyrosh Lannister]

14 minutes ago, Craving Peaches said:

If destroying the first moon released dragons, what would destroying the second moon release?

Released meteors not dragons. And the second moon won't be destroyed. The red comet that could have destroyed it is gone