A Unifying Theory of Magic In ASoIaF

[The Winter Maid]

There is only one type of magic - Blood Magic.

All magic is powered by the life force of living things. Some use directly sacrificed life force, and some use stored up life force, such as by the weirwood network, which absorbs the life force of all natural creatures that die in the North.

Fire Magic uses the life force of living creatures that were burned to death.

The Others use the life force of living creatures that were frozen to death.

Thus, all magic has one unifying factor - life force that is sacrificed to power magical spells.

I think there's slightly more to "fire" than that.

For starters, I'm not entirely sure how it would 'store' the magic: "fire consumes", as Aemon and Beric say. Also, Valyrian magic was "rooted in blood AND fire", which implies they are two separate entities, to my mind. As far as I'm aware, blood isn't necessary to foretell the future, in any of the magical systems (for want of a better word).

Actually, the more I think on it, the more "rooted" seems like an odd choice of word: it reeks of Nature.

Would Nature, Fire and Blood cover all of the experiences of magic we see?

[Parizad]

GRRM has said somewhere that the winter/summer cycle of ASoIaF is magic related. I think it is this grand source of magic that shows itself in different forms, most of which can be related to winter(death) or to summer(life) hence a song of ice and fire. The Valyrians I think got too close to this source or tampered with the balance of it so brought the doom about. The CoTF found another way to get in contact to this source of magic, so did the red priests and the Faceless men and the Others along with all other people who practice some sort of magic. They usually do this through some sort of medium like blood or fire or death/life. Creatures like Dragons, Wights, wierwood trees, etc are the embodiment of that magic in various forms.

[NorthernXY]

No one has brought to point that the 7 has shown no magic. Is it a fake religion?

In on the "all magic is blood magic".

This seems the least likely, or rather, the least wanted to be CotF. There is the theory of "Jojen paste" but it could as just be a sacrifice of blood to a tree. There have been 2 references of sacrifice involving the Heart trees. First being of a Stark King hanging the end trails of pirates in a Heart tree, can't remember where. The second being from Bran seeing into the past of a white haired woman with a bronze scythe with a man on his knees in front of the tree. Both sound like a type of blood sacrifice to the Old Gods. Perhaps blood makes them produce seeds, so Jojen was used as compost.

Self sacrifice/unhealthyness might also play into their magic, more so with greenseers and greendreams. Jojen, Bran and Brynden Rivers all had a type of tragedy happen to them. Jojen was really sick as child, when he got better he had greendreams, Bran fell into a coma and woke-up a greenseer, Bloodraven was born an albino, not really a great hand. Becoming more magical requires giving-up your dreams and becoming a tree.

Of all the magics, it may be the most neutral and is the only one not native to humans.

[Crowfood's Daughter]

There are six types of magic, five of which have been used by humans on-screen:

1.Earth:

• Patroned by the Old Gods. Magical race associated with it are the Children of the Forest
• Likely passed onto humans through intermarriage with the CotF.
• Prophetic dreams or greendreams are one example of this magic.
• Warging is another.
• Patron animal: the direwolf
• Connecting network: the weirwood

2.Fire:

• ​Patron God: Rh'ilor. No magical race associated with it has been mentioned thus far.
• Prophetic dreams or Dragon dreams are one example. Glamour by rubies are another.
• There have been hints that skin-changing with dragons is another-Dany's increased depression after her dragons are chained and Drogon's appearing after she snaps at the fighting pits for instance.
• Patron animal: dragons
• Connecting network: fire.

3. Air

• Seems to exist only in myths thus far and in legends of the Ironborn.
• The above is an interesting point when one notes that the Iron Isles are on the other side of the continent from Storm's End, where the Storm God is said to have been defeated.
• It has been suggested to me that the patron animal is possibly the Griffin.

4.Water:

• Patron God: The Drowned God
• Patron animal: the Krawken
• Connecting network: the sea-Aeron listens for the voice of the Drowned God in the waves.
• Patchface's prophecies are another form this magic can take.

5.Ice:

• Associated with the Others, Not yet seen in humans-possibly because the two races have never mingled?

6.Dark/Blood Magic:

• Does not appear to have a patron God or animal but needs to be combined with one of the other four.
• Requires a sacrifice-wiling or not-from another human.
• Examples: birth of the dragons, Varys' castration.

I think these coincide with the 5 classical elements of air, fire, water, earth, and aether. Aristotle added a fifth element aether as the quintessence, reasoning that whereas fire, earth, air, and water were earthly and corruptible, since no changes had been perceived in the heavenly regions, the stars cannot be made out of any of the four elements but must be made of a different, unchangeable, heavenly substance. Heavenly substance="Black magic".

[Raving Stark the Mad]

Bran can see the past,present and future through the weirwood, just as Mel does through her flames-communication is another matter.

I got the impression that Mel could only see the future, maybe the present, in the flames.

I got the impression that Bran could only see the present and the past.

[Lord Tony of House Stark]

@ NorthernXY

i had not really given it any thought tip just now, but with all the other religions being able to demonstrate the power of their gods through some form of magic why have people stayed with the 7? they never show any sign or magic, but it is something like christianity that is taken on faith (hence the name). with all of these tangible signs what keeps people there? if it is just tradition, i can kind of understand but mayhaps there is something about the Faith that is unknown to us. also, what do we know about the Andals and their country of origin? has this been mentioned? i know the Andals wanted to distance themselves from magic when they were on Westeros, but why did they come here? were they fleeing a different form of magic we have not seen (GRRM likes the number 7) or simply colonizing?

As for the first post, Air magic animal could be a falcon. there are legends of the Arryns riding a giant falcon somewhere. just a possibility but i like this explanation.

for the change in season being magic related, does this rule out weird theories about planetos being oddly shaped or on a moving axis causing the odd seasonal fluctuations? i have the theories that say shit like planets is egg shaped and will hatch into a fire dragon and fight the ice dragon in the sky forever. that sits gotta go

[asimetrikal]

@ NorthernXY

i had not really given it any thought tip just now, but with all the other religions being able to demonstrate the power of their gods through some form of magic why have people stayed with the 7? they never show any sign or magic, but it is something like christianity that is taken on faith (hence the name). with all of these tangible signs what keeps people there? if it is just tradition, i can kind of understand but mayhaps there is something about the Faith that is unknown to us. also, what do we know about the Andals and their country of origin? has this been mentioned? i know the Andals wanted to distance themselves from magic when they were on Westeros, but why did they come here? were they fleeing a different form of magic we have not seen (GRRM likes the number 7) or simply colonizing?

As for the first post, Air magic animal could be a falcon. there are legends of the Arryns riding a giant falcon somewhere. just a possibility but i like this explanation.

for the change in season being magic related, does this rule out weird theories about planetos being oddly shaped or on a moving axis causing the odd seasonal fluctuations? i have the theories that say shit like planets is egg shaped and will hatch into a fire dragon and fight the ice dragon in the sky forever. that sits gotta go

the andals' urheimat was the ax on the northern coast of essos. they learned how to make iron from the rhoynar, who had not yet been enslaved by the valyrians or fled from the possibility. don't forget the rhoynar were the first culture, it seems, to even develop iron-working. the ax is a hilly, rocky peninsula of relatively constricted size, not unlike many parts of the vale in westeros (where the andals landed to begin their invasion), which probably led to the development of a tribal, insular culture constituted of pockets closely related by blood and custom and language. we can't say for sure if this patchwork culture took on martial tendencies, but we do know this kind of environment isn't suitable to large-scale, intense agriculture. it was, most likely, the need for food or the lebensraum to produce it that acted as the catalyst for the andals migrating out of the ax. they may have already been warlike, or they may have acquired their martial prowess from the same place they got knowledge of their iron-working: the rhoynar, a culture (historically and to the present day) which exhibits many markers of belligerence and aggression. it is also possible the andals learned agriculture from the rhoynar, but that's only a supposition.

what we do know is that by the time the andals reached andalos, roughly the area between braavos and pentos and stretching to the noyne, the andals possessed iron weapons and a culture that understood and encouraged violence enough that they were able to settle the land after conquering it from 'hairy men' related to the ibbenese. at this time, the andals were NOT worshippers of the seven. we have no information regarding their religion at this point. rather, some time after this conquest, hugor of the hill was given a crown made of seven stars by the father, and this is the beginning of the faith. after this point, armed with iron weapons, a fierce warrior culture, destriers!, confidence borne of past success and a fervent religious belief the andals began their invasion. bear in mind that the andal invasion was not a singular event but rather a process unfolding over centuries and involving generations of their people. also, the andals had interactions with the westerosi long before the invasion, they commonly raided along the narrow sea and this in fact was the reason for the creation of the wolf's den where white harbor now stands, as a protective fortress to prevent their sailing up the white knife.

one last bit to answer your question about what the andals were running from: if we take the (controversial) view that the andal invasion began 2000 years ago, we must consider the possibility that they were being pressured on the eastern front of their lands by the same force that was beginning then to harass and conquer the rhoynar: that is, the valyrian freehold. nymeria sailed to dorne a thousand years ago, and rhoynar had been fighting valyrian hosts and dragonlords for hundreds of years before that. there is a valyrian road that runs through andalos today, which shows us the valyrians knew of and were interested in the area. additionally, the location of braavos might be a subtle bit of evidence for the possibility that increasing conflict with the valyrians at least partially drove their invasion of westeros: the andals are good warriors and hardy people. the ancestors of the braavosi, when fleeing the valyrian slavers, may have wished to use the andals as a buffer between the valyrians and their infant city.

in short: the andals invaded westeros probably from a combination of their own expansionist impulses and also because yes they were most likely running from the 'dragon magic' of the valyrians.

as for what magic the faith has, it seems things seen in groups of seven portend some military or political change, at least in the histories. in addition the belief in the seven has led to more conquest than almost any other religion, and if we interpret magic in the anthropological sense, a system of rituals that effect change in the physical world, then the faith of the seven is very magically powerful.