Weirwoods (Old Gods) making a return south of The Neck?

[Corvo Attano]

The Blackwoods are the only house south of the neck explicitly stated to take the old gods, but there are probably still some Riverlands & vale houses that do, so I dont doubt that there are plenty of wierwoods lurking about

[Ser Leftwich]

Weirwoods south of the Neck.

Isle of Faces.

godswood in Riverrun.

godswood in Storm's End (Burned by Melisandre).

cave/hideout of BWB.

godswood in Harrenhal.

young tree in Whispers.

godswood in Raventree Hall (For a thousand years it has not shown a leaf. Dead?)

Stone Garden in Castlery Rock

Citadel, Isle of Ravens (Half dead?)

There is no reason to think this tree is alive, as we only see the root/throne that Beric sits on.

There are also the stumps in the circle on High Heart and the stump that Jaime has his dream on.

Whispers also seemed to have a bloody history, if the stories can be believed.

Lastly, there might be something to weirwoods needing seclusion or being far away from civilization to thrive in the wild. Heart tree weirwoods being different because of worship by the family living there.

[Minstral]

The Blackwoods are the only house south of the neck explicitly stated to take the old gods, but there are probably still some Riverlands & vale houses that do, so I dont doubt that there are plenty of wierwoods lurking about

I wouldn't be surprised if there were families that worship the Old Gods, but I would be suprised if they openly professed it. Its like putting a giant "I'm different" sign on the back of a House that is bound to cause issue. Part of the reason of the Blackwood-Bracken feud comes from their difference of faith.

[A Man Has Said]

I noticed the weirwood at the Whispers too, and thought it quite significant, so good eye for a n00b, Bellatrix. It is at the very least a portent that the power of the North, the Old Gods and the First Men are all coming back, and perhaps moving south. I mentioned this on another thread a few days ago, so it was nice coming across this topic.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Good point, I think that this is a little bit of a minor inconsistency, early in AGoT Cat's internal monologue makes it sound like the concept of a heart tree is something strange and specifically Northern, in fact the phrase "The heart tree" is even in quotation marks (this is page 20 of the UK paperback edition btw, Cat's first chapter) which seems out of place given the later implications that it's at least traditional for most godswoods (inclusing the one where she was raised) to have one

It's not an inconsistency, you just have to realize that most castles in the South still have a godswood* (there's one at the Red Keep that Sansa visits regularly) and they all have heart trees. The difference is that unlike Winterfell and perhaps some of the lesser castles (of the Mormonts, Umbers, Karstarks and other Stark banners) in the north, southern heart trees are not weirwoods, but other species of trees. This is because the Andals destroyed all the weirwoods south of the neck when they invaded Westeros, except for those on the Isle of Faces. That was SIX THOUSAND YEARS AGO, so it's a really big deal that even one weirwood is growing on Crackclaw Point, if you ask me.

You should really ask yourself if the Andals destroyed the weirwoods merely because they represented a religion that they were trying to wipe out, or because they knew of the special powers the trees had WRT the greenseers and weirnet.

* - There's even a passage in A Feast for Crows that tells us that they tried to create a godswood at the Eyrie, but were unsuccessful due to lack of soil. You'd expect the Vale to be well scoured of weirwoods, by the way, because that's where the Andals first landed and from whence their invasion spread.

[megamutt]

There is no reason to think this tree is alive, as we only see the root/throne that Beric sits on.

yep, my bad.

[Volantene Republican Army]

Maybe its a symbol of the magic returning to the world. With the dragons being born, other magical things have been beefed up, why not the greenseers trees as well?

[Harroway]

Actually, we see more weirwood stumps than weirwood trees. So those trees where cut en masse, but that doesn't mean every single one of them has been cut. For example, Jaime mentions one in Casterly Rock, it must be very old and the Lannisters didn't feel the need to cut it.

Besides even though most of Westeros prays the Seven, the Old Gods are not totally forgotten, since there are still people who swear oathes on the Old Gods and the New. I think there are some places other than the North and Ravetree where people still pray the Old Gods.