Melissandra and glass candles

[House Cambodia]

I just followed a lead from Preston Jacob's latest re-read video to the original reddit posts by gsteff where he uncovered the early drafts of the Prologue of AFFC. GRRM originally had the explicit notion that burning glass candles granted immortality, albeit with periodic refreshments of blood. Let's say for now that GRRM omitted that detail from the final version because it gave too much of the game away.

Melissandra instructs her menials to always keep her fire burning - it can burn low, but never go out. I'm just wondering, does she have a sliver of obsidian glass from a candle in her brasier [BRASIER!]? Is her insistence of chucking some blood on it now and again not in fact to bring luck to certain events, but to keep her looking young and ... alive?

[Aebram]

The story gives us a strong hint ("years beyond count," I think, were the actual words) that Melisandre is much older than she appears. So Yes, it does seem possible that keeping the fire burning is what keeps that spell going; that would explain why it's so important to her. But there's no indication that she, or for that matter, any of the red priests, use glass candles. From what we've seen, they work directly with fire in various forms.

[House Cambodia]

Just so. However ....

In the early drafts you can see GRRM struggling to get the right angle on glass candles. At first, every maester is given one, and they have a symbolic function that is essentially no different to a maester's chains, so he scrapped that.

Then he went to the other extreme and had them bestow immortality, but with every maester having one, that wasn't viable. In the final, published prologue, you get the impression that GRRM was keeping it mysterious because he still hadn't figured out exactly what they are for, but that was almost 20 years ago, so he should have figured it out by now.

Now here's the rub: Let's assume for now that GRRM has glass candles connected to bestowing immortality - he made them super-rare to make that feasible. AFAIK they are the ONLY source of immortality/eternal youth in the universe without becoming an Undead being. That, for me, connects Melissandra to a glass candle (or fragment of one)

[Darth Sidious]

On 3/19/2024 at 12:47 AM, House Cambodia said:

I just followed a lead from Preston Jacob's latest re-read video to the original reddit posts by gsteff where he uncovered the early drafts of the Prologue of AFFC. GRRM originally had the explicit notion that burning glass candles granted immortality, albeit with periodic refreshments of blood. Let's say for now that GRRM omitted that detail from the final version because it gave too much of the game away.

Melissandra instructs her menials to always keep her fire burning - it can burn low, but never go out. I'm just wondering, does she have a sliver of obsidian glass from a candle in her brasier [BRASIER!]? Is her insistence of chucking some blood on it now and again not in fact to bring luck to certain events, but to keep her looking young and ... alive?

She has taken long trips to get to where she is. She can’t keep a fire burning 24-7 all of that time. A better reasoning for keeping a fire lit is her fear of the dark. She is afraid of the terrors that come with the darkness. While Bloodraven is telling Bran to embrace the Dark. Bran even likes the Dark now. You can see these two are going to have a duel in the future. The priestess of light Melissandre versus dark lord Bran.

[Evolett]

21 hours ago, House Cambodia said:

Now here's the rub: Let's assume for now that GRRM has glass candles connected to bestowing immortality - he made them super-rare to make that feasible. AFAIK they are the ONLY source of immortality/eternal youth in the universe without becoming an Undead being. That, for me, connects Melissandra to a glass candle (or fragment of one)

One problem with this assumption is that until recently, the glass candles had not burned in hundreds of years, suggesting they were inactive. Clearly they were inactive as far as using them to see distant events is concerned. Regarding their proposed function as a source of eternal youth, would they then not have to be active / alight for their magic to enfold? 

We first learn of the existence of glass candles from Xaro, in Dany's Qarth chapter:

Quote

It is said that the glass candles are burning in the house of Urrathon Night-Walker, that have not burned in a hundred years. Ghost grass grows in the Garden of Gehane, phantom tortoises have been seen carrying messages between the windowless houses on Warlock’s Way, and all the rats in the city are chewing off their tails.

 

He talks about glass candles in relation to other very unusual occurences and the latter are also noted by Quaith who elaborates on the fire mage who conjoured up the fierly ladder:

Quote

“Half a year gone, that man could scarcely wake fire from dragonglass. He had some small skill with powders and wildfire, sufficient to entrance a crowd while his cutpurses did their work. He could walk across hot coals and make burning roses bloom in the air, but he could no more aspire to climb the fiery ladder than a common fisherman could hope to catch a kraken in his nets.”

....

“And now his powers grow, Khaleesi. And you are the cause of it.”

 

So it seems Dany's waking of dragons brought magic back into the world, and with it, unusual phenomena such as the burning of glass candles. Point is, if Mel's longgevity is tied to a glass candle, it would have to be one that has been alight and thus active for centuries.

That said, I don't entierly discount the idea that dragonglass itself may have life prolonging or preserving properties, but not necessarily to effect a continual youthful appearance. It is the bathing in a virgin's blood that's connected to maintaining a youthful appearance - something Daenerys as well as Alys Rivers and Danelle Lothson were rumoured to engage in.

[Aebram]

1 hour ago, Evolett said:

So it seems Dany's waking of dragons brought magic back into the world, and with it, unusual phenomena such as the burning of glass candles.

I think Quaithe is mistaken about this. The hatching of the dragons was itself a magical act. Dany couldn't have done it unless some magical force or energy was already present. Also, there are other magical phenomena, such as the increasing activity of the Others and the Starks' discovery of the direwolves, that happened much earlier in the story.

However, Quaithe"s actual words are, "you are the cause of it." Not the dragons, but Daenerys herself. That seems more likely to me. I wrote about this in exquisite excruciating some detail in an earlier post:

[House Cambodia]

All good points, people. Cheers!

[Universal Sword Donor]

16 hours ago, Darth Sidious said:

She has taken long trips to get to where she is. She can’t keep a fire burning 24-7 all of that time. A better reasoning for keeping a fire lit is her fear of the dark. She is afraid of the terrors that come with the darkness. While Bloodraven is telling Bran to embrace the Dark. Bran even likes the Dark now. You can see these two are going to have a duel in the future. The priestess of light Melissandre versus dark lord Bran.

She also sees Bloodraven / Bran in her visions and asks if they are creatures of the Great Other

A wooden face, corpse white. Was this the enemy? A thousand red eyes floated in the rising flames. He sees me. Beside him, a boy with a wolf's face threw back his head and howled.