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Preview of THE WORLD OF ICE AND FIRE


Werthead

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Putting it in its own topic, there is a preview of The World of Ice and Fire consisting of four pages that can be read (NOTE: the original preview has been removed. You can see one of the pages and the marketing copy here).

The first two pages are about the dim and distant back-history of Westeros, focusing on the giants and children of the forest long before the First Men arrived on the continent.
The third is an account of the start of the Faith Militant Uprising.
The fourth is a placeholder, so the fake Latin text can be ignored. From the presence of Tad Nasmith's picture of King's Landing, I'm guessing it's about that city or the Red Keep.

Info that can be discerned:

The Faith Militant Uprising seems to have actually begun upon the crowning of King Maegor, which seems to contradict AFFC, which said the rebellion began when Aenys was crowned and continued all through his reign and that of Maegor as well. It's possible that the rebellion was a small-scale thing under Aenys and became a fully-blown slaughterhouse only when Maegor took the crown. We learn that Maegor rode Balerion in battle (which I think was already guessed, but not confirmed) and that Visenya was still alive when her son Maegor was crowned. Almost as soon as he was crowned, Maegor slaughtered the Warrior's Sons in King's Landing, burning their fortified sept. He also sent an army against a Faithful army under Wat the Hewer. Wat's army was destroyed by the royalist host as it crossed the Mander, with the blood turning the river crossing red for leagues downstream. The spot later became known as Bitterbridge. Later, King Maegor raised an army of 20,000 and defeated a Faithful army of equal size at the Great Fork of the Blackwater (rain prevented the use of the dragons in force).

Overall, a good taster of the book. As an old-school D&D-player, I did find the use of a very similar font, layout and art style (at least in the non-coloured illustrations) to the 3rd Edition D&D books mildly distracting, however.

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This is going to be awesome, can't wait! The only thing I don't like is the size of the book, I was hoping it would be the same size as a regular hardcover, but this appears to be bigger. Not a big deal by any means, just sayin'. Can't wait 'til October!

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(rain prevented the use of the dragons in force).

How much more exciting it would be if English cricket used this, rather than the more factual "rain stopped play"....

Thanks for the summary, prevents me having to strain my eyes to read the images on that website.

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I thought the drawing of the giant should have longer arms and shorter legs to match the description of the giants in the book. Some giants were buried in the barrows of the North, maybe even the Great Barrow near Barrowtown.

Interesting that blood sacrifice to the Old Gods in the North ended only 200 years before Aegon's Landing, maybe Skagosi still practice it.

Septon Barth wrote more than just about dragons, wyrms and wyverns; the titular creatures in his book, but also some things about the CotF.

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Wert,

actually, the way I read the page about the War against the Faith Militant it seems to we that there was some kind of assassination attempt against King Maegor I, and it seemed as if he was dying. Queen Visenya then dismissed 'her son maesters and septons and gave him over to Tyanna's care'. This Tyanna of Pentos apparently healed Maegor, and he appeared on the walls of the Red Keep on the following morning to present himself to a cheering crowd.

This does not sound like a coronation to me. Rather as if the Faith Militant struck first, tried to assassinate Maegor (perhaps through poison?), but he recovered and decided to get rid of them once and for all.

It does not seem to me that the war started at this point. It seems as if it only started to escalate and became a crusade to annihilate the Faith Militant completely. It was also mentioned (either in AFfC or in TSS) that there was a Rebellion of the Lords upon Aegon's death from which eventually developed into the Faith Militant Uprising.

The Warrior's Sons praying on the fortified sept atop Rhaenys Hill may have been there to prepare themselves for a post-Maegor Westeros.

But I'd really like who this Tyanna of Pentos was? A sorceress in Visenya's service? One of Maegor's queens? And who is Alys Harroway, the other woman mentioned on the page?

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It will be interesting to read this and see how it compares with Guardians of Order's RPG and the histories contained therein as well as thoe books Green Ronin has put out also for role playing in Westeros. There is a lot of history in those tomes.

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Here's the text box on ravens:

Though considered disreputable in this, our present day, a fragment of Septon Barth’s Unnatural History has proved a source of controversy in the halls of the Citadel. Claiming to have consulted with texts said to be preserved at Castle Black, Septon Barth put forth that the children of the forest could speak with ravens, and could make them repeat their words. According to Barth, this higher mystery was taught to the First Men by the children so that ravens could spread messages at a great distance. It was passed in “degraded” form, down to the masters today, who no longer know how to speak to the birds. It is true that our order understands the speech of ravens, but this means the basic purposes of their cawing and rasping, their signs of fear and anger, and the means by which they display their readiness to mate or their lack of health.

Ravens are among the cleverest of birds, but they are no wiser than infant children, and considerably less capable of true speech, whatever Septon Barth might have believed. A few masters devoted to the link of Valyrian steel, have argued that Barth was correct, but not a one was able to prove his claims regarding speech between men and ravens.

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Here is the whole text on Maegor's war against the faithful:

About her yet as soon as she arrived, Queen Visenya dismissed maesters and septons and gave Maegor over to Tyanna’s care.

The next morning the king awoke rising with the man. When Maegor appeared on the walls of the red keep standing between Alys Harroway and Tyanna of Pentos the crowds cheered wildly, and the city erupted in celebration. But the rebels died away when Maegor mounted Balerion and descended upon Hill of Rhanearys, where seven hundred of the Warrior’s Sons were at their morning prayers in the fortified sept. As dragonfire set the building aflame, archers and spearman waited outside for those who came through the doors. It was said the screams of the burning man could be heard throughout the city, and a pail of smoke lingered over King’s Landing for days. Thus did the cream of the Warrior’s Sons meet their fiery end. Though other chapels remained in Oldtown, Lannisport, Gulltown and Stoney Sept, the order would never again approach its former strength.

King Maegor’s war against the Faith Militant had just begun, however. It would continue for the remainder of his reign. The King’s first act upon resuming the Iron Throne was to command the Poor Fellows swarming towards the city to lay down their weapons, under penalty of proscription and death. When his decree had no effect, His Grace commanded “all leal subjects” to take to the field and disperse the Faith’s ragged hordes by force. In response, the High Septon in Oldtown called upon “true and pious children of the gods” to take up arms in defense of the Faith, and put an end to the reign of “dragons and monsters and abominations”.

Battle was joined first in the Reach at the town of Stonebridge. The nine thousand Poor Fellows under Wat the Hewer found themselves caught between six lordly hosts as they attempted to cross the Mander. With half his man north of the river and half on the south, Wat’s army was cut to pieces. His untrained and undisciplined followers, clad in boiled leather, roughspun, and scraps of rusted steel, and armed largely with woodmen’s axes, sharpened sticks, and farm implements, proved utterly unable to stand against the charge of armored knights on heavy horses. So grievous was the slaughter that the Mander ran red for twenty leagues, and theafter the town and castle where the battle had fought became known as Bitterbridge. Wat himself was taken alive, though not before slaying half a dozen knights, amongst them Lord Meadows of Grany (?) Vale, commander of the king’s host. The giant was delivered to King’s Landing in chains.

By then Ser Harys Hill reached the Great Fork of the Blackwater with an even larger host, close on thirteen thousand Poor Fellows, their ranks stiffened by the addition of two hundred mounted Warrior’s Sons from Stoney Sept, and the household knights and feudal levies of a dozen rebel lords from the westerlands and riverlands. Lord Rupert Fahwell(?), famed as the Fighting Fool, led the ranks of the pious who had answered the High Septon’s call, with him rode Ser Lyonel Lorch, Ser Alyn Taerick(?), Lord Tristifer Wayn, Lord Jon Lychester and many other puissant knights. The army of the Faithful numbered twenty thousand men.

King Maegor’s army was of like size, however, and His Grace had almost twice as much armored horse, as well as a large contingent of longbowmen, and the king himself riding Balerion. Even so, the battle proved a savage struggle. The Fighting Fool slew two knights of the Kingsguard before he himself was cut down by the Lord of Maidenpool. Big Jon Hogg, fighting for the king, was blinded by a sword slash early in the battle, yet rallied his men and led a charge that broke through the lines of the Faithful and put the Poor Fellows to flight. A rainstorm dampened Balerion’s fires but could not quench tem entirely,

EDIT(a few corrections made by me and Fire Eater)

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It will be interesting to read this and see how it compares with Guardians of Order's RPG and the histories contained therein as well as thoe books Green Ronin has put out also for role playing in Westeros. There is a lot of history in those tomes.

There was very little 'new' material in the GoO book. What there was fell into the 'approved but liable to change' category (Ran's army numbers, which GRRM seemed to say, "Yes, but only until I decide otherwise", most notably). The only new info was about the War of the Ninepenny Kings and I believe one or two small bits of info. To my knowledge, Green Ronin have only reused this information and have never been given any new semi-canon info by GRRM at all. In fact, GRRM has already retconned some of the GoO book info in ADWD and the TWoIaF sample material, such as renaming the 'Bleeding Years' to the 'Century of Blood' (though arguably both terms could apply).

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Did I read it wrong or is Wat the Hewer a giant?

He was called a giant yes, but not as a literal giant, but to describe his size.

ETA:

Thus did the cream of the Warrior’s Sons meet their fiery end. Though other chapels remained in Oldtown, Lannisport, Gulltown and Stoney Sept, the order would never again approach its former strength.

The nine thousand Poor Fellows under Wat the Hewer found themselves caught between six lordly hosts as they attempted to cross the Mander.

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actually, the way I read the page about the War against the Faith Militant it seems to we that there was some kind of assassination attempt against King Maegor I, and it seemed as if he was dying. Queen Visenya then dismissed 'her son maesters and septons and gave him over to Tyanna's care'. This Tyanna of Pentos apparently healed Maegor, and he appeared on the walls of the Red Keep on the following morning to present himself to a cheering crowd.

This does not sound like a coronation to me. Rather as if the Faith Militant struck first, tried to assassinate Maegor (perhaps through poison?), but he recovered and decided to get rid of them once and for all.

I read it the same way. Maegor definitely appears to have been injured in some way, either in some previous battle or by an attempted assassination, and he attacked the Warrior's Sons because he blamed the Faith Militant for that injury.

The Warrior's Sons praying on the fortified sept atop Rhaenys Hill may have been there to prepare themselves for a post-Maegor Westeros.

Interesting that the Warrior's Sons' fortified sept was on the Hill of Rhaenys, not the Hill of Visenya. The latter didn't yet hold the Great Sept, obviously, but the former definitely already held the Dragonpit, so that's kind of a weird place for a group who opposed the dragonriding Targ King to hole up. (Assuming that's not just a typo, of course.) Unless the sept pre-dated the Dragonpit? But since there wasn't really a settlement there pre-Aegon, there was no reason for the Warrior's Sons to build a stronghold there, which could mean that the sept and the Dragonpit were built concurrently, perhaps in the reign of Aegon the Conqueror (as a symbol of the unity between the Faith and the Targs?).

But I'd really like who this Tyanna of Pentos was? A sorceress in Visenya's service? One of Maegor's queens? And who is Alys Harroway, the other woman mentioned on the page?

Maegor had multiple wives, some of them concurrently, so I wondered if both women were his wives. (At the very least, Alys Harroway might have been his wife, even if Tyanna of Pentos was just a healer.) But if so, why wasn't either of them referred to as "Queen" here? It would be weird for Visenya to be addressed as Queen in a passage where Maegor's own wife/wives were not.

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