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Edited Title - Speculations on Geography


Mystery Knight

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I know this thread has been idle for a while but after reading it, I was wondering something. It possible that Azor Ahai is an Asshai or Valyrian hero who fought an enemy and for this he became a great hero. I can't recall reading anywhere in the books that he fought the others, just a darkness (I believe). Perhaps he fought Shadows which can be viewed as darkness. The prophecy mentions that he will return to fight a darkness, nothing mentions which darkness because perhaps the prophet couldn't see the enemy just that AA would be reborn and sieze the red sword of hero's. This points me also to believe that AA and the Last Hero must be 2 separate people because in Nan's story doesn't she mention that when the Last Hero tried to use his sword it froze and broke? I don't recall seeing an prophecy's concerning the Last Hero being reborn, as other's have posted I believe Bran is a reflection of him and the members of his group are doomed.

As for the hinges, being the heart of winter and the shadow, could they be magically linked and if you travelled through the shadow, is it possible that you would end up in the heart of winter? Perhaps there has been a constant battle between the shadow and the great other in the heart of winter (or in the shadow) and the great other now has the upper hand and is able to attack Westros again. With this theory AA could have attacked the others by going through the shadow and into the heart of winter, this would solve the logistical problem of travelling overland or by sea from Asshai to Westros.

From the SSM he revealed that the shadow and Asshai would be dealt with in flashbacks or not at all. If AA is from Asshai then the shadow and Asshai could be explained in his story being revealed. Here is a crackpot for you all, perhaps he was the first to tame a dragon and it came at his wife's expense, ie I tried water then a lion but I guess the dragon had to eat my wife to listen to me. :dunno:

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I tend to go with Marwyn's word on prophecies in AFFC: They'll turn on you.

I think they're separate prophetic figures, and throughout this series it is constantly hit home that whilst the series is focused on Westeros and who will sit the Iron Throne, there's a lot of things out there separate from it.

Doom of Valyria - bet there was a prophecy there for the Valyrians yonks ago before they went bang. Faceless Men hold what happened to them as a lesson for future Faceless Men.

Vaes Dothrak - full of broken gods and slaves of every nation they ravage.

Rhaego - dead before mounting the world :P

So you don't even need to nominate specific characters that we have a POV from, or quote text to pick up that nothing is as it seems, cultures change and adapt and that each have their own figures of myth waiting to step forward and battle darkness/shadow/white walkers.

For Dany to go to Asshai, surely that just means she'll approach Westeros from the other side? Or she may decide, after a nag attack from Marwyn, she doesn't need to, and will be a rebellious teenage queen, load up her dragons and head west anyway. :P

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  • 2 months later...
And what exactly is the Shadow?

It's an area by Asshai. My guess is that it is some type of depressed landscape, like a natural "bowl" or basin in the land near Asshai, which is almost constantly volcanic, covering the area in question with smoke and heat (hence why it's a favored place for dragons). That would explain why they would call it "passing under the Shadow", and also explain why it might have tall glow-in-the-dark grass.

Magic may or may not be involved in keeping the smoke hanging over the area in question.

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  • 1 year later...

In terms of location, like people said, I have always imagined the Shadow to be very very far away from Westeros, beyond the Jade Sea etc. Now as far as I know there are no Martin approved maps of that region, so yes, the Shadow is very far from Westeros... going east. But what about going west?

Furthermore, I have always imagined that Asshai and the Shadow are somewhere either directly east of Qarth, or south-east. But I think I'm wrong. I think the Shadow is very far north, as north as the Wall, which would make Asshai probably the northern-most port at the Jade Sea. There is one clue that might point to this: when Mance Rayder (sill a night watchman) got lost in the wilderness, the wildling woman who took care of him gave him a cloak of black and red that she had found on a shipwreck on the coast of the Bay of Ice. Now, I know that a ship could drift in an unsuspecting location if a current takes it, but this info seems to be suspicious to me.

Based on the discussion here about how the Others tie in with AA and R'hllor, and the prophecy of Asshai, I think that the Shadow is also north, it is also a territory where the Others lived and still do, but instead of being guarded by a magical wall of ice, it is guarded by the power of fire: red priests and maybe dragons.

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When Mance Rayder (sill a night watchman) got lost in the wilderness, the wildling woman who took care of him gave him a cloak of black and red that she had found on a shipwreck on the coast of the Bay of Ice. Now, I know that a ship could drift in an unsuspecting location if a current takes it, but this info seems to be suspicious to me.

The story doesn't indicate that the ship is from Asshai, just that the red silk is. And we know that there are multiple trade routes that lead from Westeros to Asshai; Vaes Dothrak is one place where traders from Asshai meet with traders from the Free Cities. And while Dany is visiting the market at Vaes Dothrak, she thinks how Asshai is far to the south of the Dothraki sea, as well as far to the east.

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Instead of thinking of the work circling east/west, what if it goes north/south, and if you go far enough south you end up back north?

There could be icebergs or water between the continents forcing people to go the other direction (like russia connects to the US by a few miles, but on a "normal" map, they're very far apart. There isn't much on the NW corner of Westeros, so it could be Ashai is actually pretty close, just not very navigable.

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Instead of thinking of the work circling east/west, what if it goes north/south, and if you go far enough south you end up back north?

Well if the world is circling north/south then the sun should be rising from the north. But we are told that the sun rises from the east, and jokes are made about it rising from the west.

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Well if the world is circling north/south then the sun should be rising from the north. But we are told that the sun rises from the east, and jokes are made about it rising from the west.

If the world were a torus (shaped like a donut), it would still work. The most extreme "north" and "south" would be the parts facing inward, always hidden from the sun and thus incredibly cold.

Of course, torus-worlds create all sorts of physics problems. I think the explanation has to be simpler.

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