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blankfairy · 2 months

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the fire spread throughout my bones and stayed

Summary: She knows. Larys never told her of his very first dream, but when his feet found the weirwood he found her, too, dark hair braided over her shoulder, cotton dress stained with smudges of grass and dirt. She’d smiled at him, the way an older sibling should, the way ten-year-old Harwin never did to his crippled nine-year-old brother, and offered to pray to the old gods with him.

Her very presence had been prayer enough.

Or, nine-year-old Larys Strong and his fourteen-year-old half-sister, Alys, have more in common than just a father.

Characters: Young Larys Strong, Young Alys Rivers.

Warnings: Internalized ableism, ableism, ableist language.

read on ao3!

The dreams come in the blackest nights, in a flash of fire and smoke and a spreading pain behind his eyes, thrumming in tandem with his tempest of a heartbeat.

A flash of marbled silver, and two dragons dancing above Gods Eye; Harrenhal consumed by flame. Choking ash and blood spilling blood and blood spilling blood —

When Larys wakes, his skin sheened with sweat, a black bird with three beady eyes bears down upon him, crooning to him in the crackling voice of the Stranger. The only breath that can fill his lungs is thick and dark and acrid.

He does not realize the dream has ended until he feels the grass beneath his bare feet, his cane sinking into the mud, and the bleeding eyes of the weirwood boring into him. The summer air is warm, but he shivers anyways, because the Old Gods have only ever looked through him, never at him.

I’m still dreaming, Larys thinks, but the words pass through him like wind through stalks of ghost grass. The pale light of the full moon filters through the weirwood’s amber leaves, rustling in the wind; their shadows dance upon the earth. He falls splay-kneed in front of the tree.

Alys is behind him.

The old gods tell him. In the muffled footfalls in dirt, in the sound of grass brushing at the hem of her dress. She treads carefully in the godswood; Larys can only think of his brute of a big brother crashing through the trees as if the very land was made for him to desecrate.

She slips beneath the gnarled branches of the weirwood and sits beside him, sparing him no peace. “It happened again, didn’t it?”

Larys glances at her. It must be the hour of the wolf, but Alys’ eyes are bright, as if she hasn’t been sleeping at all; she’s only fourteen, tall and lean, but seems so much older and wiser in the dark.

“No,” he answers in a quiet, low voice.. He gnaws at his lip, even though the maester and his father have told him off for it more times than he can count. He feels the tips of his ears fluster fire-hot.

She knows. Larys never told her of his very first dream, but when his feet found the weirwood he found her, too, dark hair braided over her shoulder, cotton dress stained with smudges of grass and dirt. She’d smiled at him, the way an older sibling should, the way ten-year-old Harwin never did to his crippled nine-year-old brother, and offered to pray to the old gods with him.

Her very presence had been prayer enough.

Alys kneads her fingers into the white roots protruding from the ground, tilting her head. She looks more like him than Harwin does, all bone and willow-thin limbs that seem too long for her body. If he didn’t know any better, if his father hadn’t clout him on the ear the first and only time he’d suggested Alys was his full-blooded sister, he could have believed they had the same mother.

“What did you see this time?”

Her voice pulls at the words lodged in his throat, willing them free, when all Larys wants to do is sit in silence and pretend he’s the normal, no-name second son of Lyonel Strong, who has no clubfoot and doesn’t dream of the future’s fires.

“Harrenhal was…” Larys frowns. If his dreams are true, past and future, as Alys once said, what kind of power does he grant them by speaking them aloud? He rolls his lip between his teeth, harder, and the taste of iron spreads across his tongue.

Alys watches, but doesn’t scold; she only smiles, like he imagines their mother would have, and takes his hand. “We’ll strike a deal. I’ll tell you of my last green dream. You tell me yours.”

Through the darkness Larys sees her eyes, the same shade as sage and pine needles, lined with something black. A streak runs down her lips. She’s staring the same way the weirwood does; the same way the three-eyed raven did each time Larys awoke.

Witch, they call her, the same way they call him Clubfoot, but in front of him he only sees his half-sister, not quite his flesh and blood, but more than a stranger. He and Harwin share parents, but with Alys, Larys shares dreams, and shouldn’t that mean more than having the same mother?

“Okay,” he says tentatively, sighing, trying to ease the weight pressing down upon his shoulders. His breath comes heavy and thick. “You first.”

Alys nearly grins, canine teeth poking into the flesh of her lower lip. “A prince.” The words come from her lips quicker than lightning. “Silver-haired, with sapphire eyes. His great dragon danced above the Gods Eye. Her shadow swallowed the Riverlands whole.”

“I saw our home burn,” Larys sputters, not allowing the air between them breath for a single second. “The flames rose so high they touched the clouds. And— And I saw your dragon, too. I think. There were two. One was red, and…”

“Harrenhal hasn’t burned since Aegon’s Conquest,” Alys cuts in sharply. “We see the past too sometimes, you know.”

“It wasn’t Balerion who burned it, it was…” Larys rubs his fingers together and feels soot between them, mixed with something sticky and wet. The flush spreads to his cheeks “It doesn’t matter. You don’t believe me.”

“I will always believe you, little brother. You saw the past, that’s all.” Alys squeezes his hand. Her smile quivers. He thinks some of the ash rubs off on to her, but when she draws her hands back, the only thing they’re stained with is smudges of dirt. “We must stick together, you and I.”

“I know, sister.” The word is cloyingly sweet on his tongue. Only here, in witness of the gods, are they allowed to share blood and bone and dreams.

“The world will fear us some day, as they did the greenseers of old. You and me and my silver dragon prince.”

Larys nods, but mouth is full of cotton and his eyes heavy. He can only bring himself to look up at the eyes of the weirwood, twisted and scorned, glaring into him. He wipes his hands on his tunic and heaves himself onto his feet without waiting for Alys. Night melts into dawn across the godswood, at the corner of his eye; he wonders if his father would even care if he was found missing from his bed. Alys could go disappear for a moon and no one would bat an eye. He leans on his cane, legs aching and back burning. He tells himself it’s from sitting improperly, but everything has begun hurting more and more as of late.

Alys stands after him, takes his free hand again, and wordlessly they begin the walk through the godswood, back to Harrenhal. Her nails dig into his skin.

If she feels the blood dripping from his palms, or smells the ash clinging to his frame, she says nothing of it.

#house of the dragon #fire and blood #a song of ice and fire #larys strong #alys rivers #harwin strong #house strong #greenseer larys strong #greenseers #greensight #warg larys strong #larys strong & alys rivers #sibling bonding #larys and his goth big sister talk about their feelings or dreams or whatever #james writes

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hollowwhisperings · 10 months

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"Speaker For The Dead": Bran Stark as a Reference to Ender Wiggin.

I read the first two Ender books when FAR too young to handle their themes of, y'know, the intimacy of xenocide when you're a child soldier. Scary stuff for a kid of age with the protagonist.

So colour me Unsurprised upon relearning that the language the aliens of SFTD's aliens to speak with humans... is named "Stark".

Because of course GRRM would find joy in a conveniently horrifying-by-implication Pun.

The Premise of "Speaker For The Dead" (the sequel to "Ender's Game", a Differently Horrifying inspiration for some of my childhood nightmares) is this: human colonists and the local alien species had been more-or-less at peace until a human is Suddenly & Inexplicably Murdered by the aliens who considered him a Friend.

Due to [the Plot of Ender's Game], Humans are wary of Jumping To Conclusions as to this seemingly Senseless Violence and Ender Wiggin (of Ender's Game) stops at the planet to Speak at some Funerals. To properly Speak for the Deceased, Ender investigates the Murders and because of [the plot of Ender's Game] feels certain that there has been a Fatal Translation Error.

Spoilers for SFTD & comparisons to Bran's POV Arc under cut.

He's Right.

The Piqueninos (the aliens) are still learning to communicate with the humans they're sharing a planet with, using a language named "Stark". The deceased men were both held in great esteem by the Piqueninos, one of the primary reasons why [A Xenologist Expert] was sought after: why kill someone who was their Friend?

It turns out that Ritualistically Vivisecting respected males of their society is how the Piqueninons Evolve: they had spent the entire book calling Trees their "Fathers" and they had meant that literally.

The gratuitously violent murders of their human friends were efforts by the Piqueninos to honour these men by making them Fathers, using the same method of Deification on the human men as they would to their own kind.

Cue the Horrific Revelation that, no, Humans Do Not Transistion From Life Phases via being Ritualistically Killed to Become Trees: the Piqueninos efforts to "honour" their Human Friends actually Killed Them. Permanently.

Now let's reevaluate what Bran Stark's been up with the Singers in ASOIAF.

Brynden Rivers has been sending Dreams to kids with Greenseer Potential and directing them North.

Jojen & Bran, inspired by such Dreams, go Beyond The Wall to seek out this "Three-Eyed Crow" who will teach Bran how to "fly".

Bran & Company end up in a magically warded Cave populated by the mythic "Children of the Forest" (Singers) and someone they call "The Last Greenseer", a man who has a weirwood tree growing through him & introduces himself as a Man Formerly Known as Brynden.

contextual clues identify him as "Brynden Rivers": one of three Great Bastards of Aegon IV had with Lady Melissa Blackwood*, Hand & Spymaster to Kings Aerys I & Maekar I, a Disappeared Lord Commander of the Night's Watch.

the Singers confirm the religious beliefs shared with the First Men as being Literal: the trees are gods and the gods are trees. Incidentally, Jojen brings up how Revered Greenseers are by those who worship the Old Gods.

Jojen has Greensight and Bran, as someone who can both Skinchange AND Greendream, qualifies for "Greenseer" status. Except... the Singers Very Consistently call Brynden "the Last Greenseer" even with Bran Stark right there contradicting that There Can Be Only One (the Singers also mention greenseers as existing in Plural, historically, & that those of their Own Species have "died out/[faded?]").

Brynden "The Last Greenseer" takes Bran as his [apprentice]. Part of this Training is going into the Weirwood Tree [Hivemind], a network that transcends Time & Space (because Roots, i guess?) and allows Bran to see all sorts of varyingly traumatising Visions.

Bran's lessons require his sitting on a Weirwood Throne beside Brynden who is, incidentally, a body horror Weirwood Tree-Human hybrid now.

BTW, Bran's "training diet" features an Ominously Described "Paste" fed to him by the Singers. It's made from Weirwood Seeds, apparently.

(hey isn't everyone stuck in this spooky underground cave because leaving it means getting eaten by zombies? whete are they getting these Weirwood Seeds from- oh. Hi there, Brynden the Tree-Man Abomination)

wait, if Bran's a Greenseet now then how come the Singers still call Brynden the "Last" Greenseer? is this, perhaps, an instance of, say... interspecies life phase transitions being Poorly Translated to humans due to Trees Being Gods and Trees Transcending Time & Death?

has Jojen, perhaps, Made An Assumption about "when" that Title of "Greenseer" is gained? He had said that Greenseers were Deified as Weirwood Trees, implying they were entombed upon death...

...but what if Dying is part of the deification process?

(well, for a given value of "dying"... *looks at Brynden The Tree-Abomination Rivers*)

...the Cave Singers are totally going to ritualistically vivisect Bran and make him their new Tree God, aren't they.

(and, from the looks of Brynden, some decades into HIS initiation... this process will Not Be Quick nor "Pretty")

Brynden is probably complicit in the Singers' Scheme to Make Bran A Tree, if only due to Brynden being the "Weirwood" Bran's Paste Training Diet is made from.

Brynden might also want Out from the whole "Unnaturally Alive & Conscious This Whole Time" thing because WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO BE ALIVE AS YOU ARE TURNED INTO A TREE.

let us Not Recall the descriptions of: Brynden's current appearance, the many non-peaceful expressions carved as Faces for Heart Trees, the states of humans "honoured" by the Piqueninos in SFTD, any descriptions of what Becoming A Tree involves...

...and any investigation into what, exactly, a Weirwood's "seeds" may be. I stop at "Horus in Set's Salad" and THAT WAS ENOUGH.

MOVING RIGHT ALONG, when Not Being A Tree Hivemind, Brynden & thus Bran seem to fulfil a role not dissimilar to that of "Speakers For The Dead": they examine historic events as Outside parties. Brynden instructs Bran on evaluating his Visions objectively, without reverance nor judgement. At least, I think he did. Again: preservation of own sanity > exact visuak descriptions of events in ASOIAF.

Interestingly, being an effective Speaker for the Dead requires much of the same skillset as a Competent Kingmaker (or, at least, a King UnMaker).

To Conclude, the Similarities*** between Bran's interactions with the Cave Singers and those of Human Friends & Piqueninos in "Speaker For The Dead" are Multiple &, knowing GRRM, probably Deliberate. Let's just hope Meera and Jojen have gone AWOL because Meera is Plotting Arson, not because they're of Interest to the Cave Singers' reproductive purposes too. Both series do enjoy subjecting female characters to Grim Maternity &/or Horrific Relationship Revelations.

Arson is my Ideal Plotline for Meera, Grand Elk Larceny as a distant second. All those "Last Hero" parallels Bran Stark has going on should be Recognised (by Meera) and AVOIDED (by Meera) WITH FIRE. I'm lowkey convinced Brynden would actually prefer being burned alive to "indefinitely trapped in rotting human flesh as he slowly becomes a Tree (potentially for the purposes of interspecies repropogation)".

Footnotes

*Lady Melissa Blackwoof was likely an aunt or sister of Lady Melantha Blackwood of Winterfell, Bran's great-great grandmother: there is almost certainly at least one other Blackwood in Bran's family tree, likely as one of his 4 unnamed great-grandmothers through Grandpa Hoster Tully & Grandma Minisa Whent.

It's also possible that all the Movement at the end of Brynden's reign as Hand (the Lords going to KL for the Great Council that made Betha** Blackwood Queen of Westeros & Grand Escort from KL to The Wall to send off Maester Aemon & Ser Brynden) was how Lord Beron Stark's Heir, Edwyle, ended up married to a Riverlander like Melantha Blackwood.

**Queen Betha & Lady Melantha were almost certaingly "cousins" of some sort to Brynden through his mother, Melissa Blackwood. The exact degree of relation is unknown but It's There.

The degrees of relation from "Lady Melissa, Paramour of Aegon IV" to "Lady Melantha of Winterfell" connect Brynden (through his Blackwood mother) to EVERY living Stark, courtesy of their one unanimously agreed shared Grandpa (Lord Rickard Stark, of "murdered by Aerys II & Part 3 of 4 Extremely Valid Reasons for Ned's Rebellion").

Lady Catelyn's being a Riverlander, specifically a Tully & a Whent of Harrenhal, make it likely that Brynden's related to HER too.

Jon, of course, has Black Betha as all 4 of his paternal great-great grandmothers AND Lady Melantha as one of his maternal ones (the others being Marna Locke, Arya Flint, & Lorra Royce): Jon's somehow being "5/8ths Blackwood" is how I got distracted by the blood ties of Brynden & Bran in the first place!

#valyrianscrolls #asoiaf theories #brynden rivers #the last greenseer #bran stark theories #cw body horror #cw cannibalism #speaker for the dead #greenseers #arsonist meera #piqueninos #ender wiggin #house blackwood #i kept getting distracted by how contemporary to brynden all these blackwood grandmums are #i would like 1 family tree for catelyn please #i forget whether house blackwood is legit plot relevant or just fans getting progressively more excited by river witches #it all comes back to the riverlands #jojen is fine actually #weirwood paste

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myocsfanfictions · 2 years

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History of Westeros

The Dawn Age

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The Dawn Age is the beginning of the history of Westeros.

We know very little about this time, the only written testimony were given by Andals, Valyrians and Ghiscars. But from where they took the informations we do not know.

The populations that lived Westeros in this period were two.

The Giants

We do not know much about Giants, since no one in the modern Westeros has ever seen them. The last testimonies we have come from Rangers of the Night's Watch, centuries before.

In the first book, A Game of Thrones, Osha tells Bran Stark that she had seen giants and the first living one that we meet is in A Dance With Dragons from Jon Snow point of view

Giants are very strong and very tall (two times taller than Hodor according to Jon) but they are very simple minded. They speak the Old Tongue.

Giants did not have a structure in their "society", they had no queen or king, nor lord or lady, and no leader. They had no buildings, weapons and they didn't know how to harvest.

With the arrival of the First Men and the distruction of the forest, giants slowly disappeared.

The Children of the Forest

The Children of the Forest, known even as the Children, were not humans, they were creatures that lived deep in contact with nature, but we still don't know their origins. They are described to be very small, even when adoults. Their skin was brown painted with lighter stains. It is said that they resambled deers in the colors. They had big ears and big eyes, that could be either green or golden. Sometimes though some Children would be born with deep blood red eyes, which was a sign that the Gods had blessed them to be Greenseers. The children could see in the dark and they could hear very well. And they dressed in leaves and branches. They spoke the True Tongue. Indeed they called themselves 'those who sing the song of the earth' and they could spoke with ravens who became their messagers since they are the only creatures that understand and speak this language as well. According to the Winter Kings and Legends and Lineages of the Starks, when Brandon the Builder was building the Wall he was taken by the children in their secret cities where he learnt the True Tongue. Their society was structured as clans and they lived in crannongs, caves and forest, hidden between leaves and branches in what they called 'The Secret Tree Towns'. Both women and men could hunt and fight and they were called Water Dancers and their weapons were made of Dragonglass.

But what are the abilities of the Children?

The Children of the Forest spoke the True Tongue and it is said that this language, that took inspiration from the sounds of the nature, was able to make whoever listen to it get emotional and cry. Another power of theirs is said to be the ability of speaking with the deads. But the most impostat were the powers mastered by the Greenseers.

In Game of Thrones as usual they had mixed up everything and got everyone confused about what they could do. So let's make order. There are two types of greenseers. The first power is hold by people like Jojen Reed, who posses the Greensight and has the Green Dreams. This dreams can talk about the past and the future and they can talk about the one who has the ability or someone else. They can even see their own death. These are very difficoult dreams to understand, especially the ones that talks about the future. Bran Strak will never have dreams about the future in the entire book. Infact when Ned Stark dies, Bran dream of him in the crypts of Winterfell and he was sad about Jon Snow, but Bran does not remember what happened exactly.

While Jojen is able to see the future, even if it is not clear. In fact, in A Clash of Kings, Jojen sais to Bran that he had seen two children (that in the moment he believed were Bran and Rickon), killed by a man with a shiny red armor. In the books, Winterfell is taken by Theon Greyjoy, but inside the castle there was Ramsey Snow in disguise, that has the idea of killing two children to make believed that they had killed Bran and Rickon and of course, he was the killer himself.

And when Bran meets Bloodeye Raven (known in the series as the Three Eyed Raven) Bran will never have visions of the future but only about the past, because it is said that he has to know the past (THAT IS UNCHANGEBLE).

Bran has another power, that is the second that some Greenseers has. The Skinchanging. The Skinchangers among the Greenseers have the ability to enter in the mind of an animal. The skinchangers able to enter the mind of a wolf or a dog is called a Warg. But there are other Skinchangers that can enter in the mind of birds, ravens, or even cats. And a Skinchanger who does not train to master this power can skinchange only when they sleep. Like Bran at first, or Arya Stark or Jon Snow. So yes probably, the Starks are all skinchangers. And it is said that the strongest skingchanger have to possess the ability to enter inside the mind of any animal, even animals he does not share a bond with.

#asoiaf #a song of ice and fire asks #a song of ice and fire #the dawn age #westeros #giants #children of the forest #bran stark #jojen reed #brynden rivers #bloodeye raven #greenseers

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sebeth · 1 year

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The World Of Ice And Fire: The Children Of The Forest (Revised 11/19/22)

Warning, Spoilers Ahead…

The previous post discussed the giants, Westeros’s super-sized version of Neanderthals. We now move on to the Children of the Forest. Of the two races, the Children have had more of an impact on the series’ storylines.

The Children were small, dark, and beautiful. They wore clothes made of leaves and bark (sounds uncomfortable!). They made tools and weapons out of obsidian (dragonglass)and bows of weirwood. The Children had beautiful songs and speech that consisted of the sounds of nature.

The Children worshipped gods that would become the gods of the First Men – gods of streams, forests, etc.

The Children carved faces into the weirwood trees. The First Men later destroyed weirwood groves as they feared the Children could spy on them via the trees.

Yandel references Mester Yorrick’s Wed to the Sea, Being an Account of the History of White Harbor from Its Earliest Days which mentions the First Men’s practice of blood sacrifice to the old gods, a tradition learned from the Children of the Forest. Blood sacrifices were common as late as 500 years ago.

The Children were led by greenseers. They once inhabited the majority of Westeros. They lived in the woods, crannogs, bogs, marshes, and hollow hills.

The above paragraphs consist of the information Yandel believes to be factual, the following paragraphs are the information Yandel dismisses as myth or exaggerated legends.

Maester Childer’s Winter’s Kings, or the Legends and Lineages of the Starks of Winterfell mentions a ballad that tells of Brandon the Builder seeking the aid of the Children in raising the Wall. He also learned the Children’s language.

Maester Herryk’s History of the Kings-Beyond-The-Wall recalls Gendel and Gorne mediating a dispute between the Children and the giants. This led to the brothers discovering a chain of caverns underneath the Wall.

The greenseers were able to see through the trees, communicate across the realm, and speak the language of ravens. The Maester’s tradition of using ravens to send messages is a result of this “myth”. The greenseers could also see into the past and the future.

The Children’s abilities resulted in the legends of skinchangers and wargs.

Despite Yandel’s dismissal of the Children’s supernatural powers, the readers know the myths are true. Examples include Bran Stark, Bloodraven, and the numerous skinchangers in the series.

The Childen’s motives are unknown. Good, bad, chaotic neutral? Their name, the Children of the Forest, evokes images of friendly, helpful elves but the reality is much harsher. Blood sacrifice, turning Bloodraven into a half-tree, possibly feeding Jojen to Bran, and creating the White Walkers are not the actions of a benevolent race. Or is it a situation of “desperate times call for desperate measures”?

Up next, a third race on the Iron Islands?

#ASOIAF #Game Of Thrones #A Song Of Ice And Fire #Children of the Forest #The World of Ice And Fire #TWOIAF #Greenseers #Wargs #Skinchangers

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catofoldstones · 4 months

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I am too dumb for the asoiaf tumblr fandom and I am too level-headed for the asoiaf reddit fandom, where do I go?

#let’s make a separate site for the semi-casual enjoyers #the discourse here is sometimes so well researched & so well written #that ur jaw is on the floor #people out here writing books on greenseer sansa & jon losing an eye & bran Norse mythology parallels & arya royal diplomat foreshadowing #and I am sitting here w so maybe sansa thinks a lot #it’s giving oh men get on acid & discover empathy while women have had metaphysical realisations at age 12 #people out here doing deferential calculus & I am saying 2*5 = 10 lol #but that’s still better than reddits 1+1 = green tomatoes #man ok #rant over

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determined-wolfworm · 8 months

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I Can See Things That Happened In The Past

#bran stark #three eyed raven #greenseer #house stark #warg #game of thrones #got #asoif/got #asoif fanart #asoiaf #a song of ice and fire #old art

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iceywolf24 · 2 months

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Just looking at this passage

"There are some who call my order the knights of the mind," Luwin replied. "You are a surpassing clever boy when you work at it, Bran. Have you ever thought that you might wear a maester's chain? There is no limit to what you might learn."

"I want to learn magic," Bran told him. "The crow promised that I would fly."

Maester Luwin sighed. "I can teach you history, healing, herblore. I can teach you the speech of ravens, and how to build a castle, and the way a sailor steers his ship by the stars. I can teach you to measure the days and mark the seasons, and at the Citadel in Oldtown they can teach you a thousand things more. But, Bran, no man can teach you magic." - Bran VI AGOT

Greenseers in a way are the Knights of the Old Gods.

Bran has already learnt to speak to ravens just not in the way Luwin intended but still. Same with history and measuring the days, Bran is just learning it in a different way by looking directly into the past.

Does this mean Bran will learn all of these things just in a different way than his Maester intended.

Like use weirwoods at different castles to learn how they were built so he can repair and build new castles/cities.

The singers and trees teach him about some forgotten herbs and healing spells perhaps.

#asoiaf #bran stark #asoiaf speculation #Greenseer #asoiaf magic #Bran speculation #maester luwin

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patrocles · 1 year

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sara snow. daughter of a lord, sister of another. a bastard she-wolf. a keeper of the old faith.

#a song of ice and fire #asoiafedit #asoiafgif #sara snow #valyrianscrolls #yall im just making stuff up #the important thing to know is that ragga ragnars is 6'2 so sara is ALSO 6'2 #and in my vision she is cregans elder sister because the idea of cregan being someones baby brother is cute to ME #ive been listening to a lot of heilung so i have this whole vision about sara being like an arbiter of the faith #hippy-dippy ritual priestess type #GREENSEER MAYHAPS????#i love the idea of a bastard woman of winterfell who exists in a very specific social status #than what we know of bastardy in the south #theres so many unknown variables and so much potential to do something interesting #we have so many princesses and ladies but what about the low social class girlies #im asking the real questions

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green-ajah-aes-sedai · 1 year

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Lord Brynden Rivers

"Lord Bloodraven"

#brynden rivers #lord bloodraven #bloodraven #brynden the white worm #brynden the last greenseer #brynden the three eyed crow #lord commander brynden rivers #hand of the king #lord commander of the nights watch #house blackwood #house targaryen #great bastards #asoiaf edits #asoiaf moodboard #got edits #got moodboard #hotd edits #hotd moodboard #my edits

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the-king-andthe-lionheart · 1 year

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I find this highly interesting:

She hunkered down in the dark against a damp stone wall and listened for the pursuit, but the only sound was the beating of her own heart and a distant drip of water. Quiet as a shadow, she told herself. She wondered where she was. When they had first come to King's Landing, she used to have bad dreams about getting lost in the castle. Father said the Red Keep was smaller than Winterfell, but in her dreams it had been immense, an endless stone maze with walls that seemed to shift and change behind her. She would find herself wandering down gloomy halls past faded tapestries, descending endless circular stairs, darting through courtyards or over bridges, her shouts echoing unanswered. In some of the rooms the red stone walls would seem to drip blood, and nowhere could she find a window. Sometimes she would hear her father's voice, but always from a long way off, and no matter how hard she ran after it, it would grow fainter and fainter, until it faded to nothing and Arya was alone in the dark. - Arya III AGOT

Evenfall found them still trudging toward the Green Fork and Lord Frey's twin castles. I am almost there, Arya thought. She knew she ought to be excited, but her belly was all knotted up tight. Maybe that was just the fever she'd been fighting, but maybe not. Last night she'd had a bad dream, a terrible dream. She couldn't remember what she'd dreamed of now, but the feeling had lingered all day. If anything, it had only gotten stronger. Fear cuts deeper than swords. She had to be strong now, the way her father told her. There was nothing between her and her mother but a castle gate, a river, and an army . . . but it was Robb's army, so there was no real danger there. Was there? - Arya X ASOS

This could definitely be just a tactic of foreshadowing, but I do find it interesting how it’s Arya we see who seems to be having stressful dreams full of foreboding and symbolism right before the deaths of Ned and Catelyn and Robb. Makes me wonder if Arya’s blood is even more magical (via the Warg King’s daughters) than we think.

#especially if we consider that Arya could be legitimately hearing the dead #I mean you don't just jump from hearing a thought #that's highly suspect #and CotF are said to have the ability to speak to the dead #I think Arya may have a touch of greensight #and these could be weak green dreams #but even if they are it's still nowhere near as powerful as Jojen or Bran #I do think there could be more to discover here #especially considered how much association Arya has with the CotF #when it comes to symbolism #but also she met a greenseer #who most probably is half CotF #and considering all this and how much Bran and Arya parallel each other #especially in their current arcs #I just can't dismiss this #arya stark #canonarya #asoiaf

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asoiafreadthru · 2 months

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A Game of Thrones, Bran III

Finally he looked north.

He saw the Wall shining like blue crystal.

And his bastard brother Jon sleeping alone in a cold bed, his skin growing pale and hard as the memory of all warmth fled from him.

#a game of thrones #bran iii #a song of ice and fire #asoiaf #bran stark #the wall #jon snow #the north #north #house stark #cold #ice #greenseers #greenseeing #greensight #green dreams #castle black #night's watch

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nightswatchdisbandmentera · 10 months

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Just thinking about Summer being a representation of Bran, the Fisher King. Summer taking several wounds over the course of the story, notably one to the leg just as Bran did. Summer who goes beyond the ice wall to lands of snow (closer to lands of winter) and becomes emaciated…summer getting thinner and being wounded as winter nears/gets stronger. It’s almost like the changing of the seasons. We see that summer journeys to the lands of snow, biding his time before he returns - just as Bran will surely return. The return of Bran meaning the return of the summer. Have to wonder if we’ll see Summer (the direwolf) start to get bigger as spring is ushered in. Winter = death, but Spring = rebirth/growth. And after spring comes summer, when the summer king reigns.

#asoiaf #summer the direwolf #bran stark #valyrianscrolls #summer being called prince of the green by bran like #it’s giving oak king and holly king #it’s part of why I believe bran’s main role in the story is to set the seasons back to balance #the cyclical nature of time - the passage of time - being mirrored in his wolf’s body #not to mention the wacky time travel stuff going on with bran’s greenseer abilities #re the oak king and holly king:#my guess is that Jon and Bran are representing this cycle in asoiaf #Jon is the older brother - the oak king - who rules for half the year until midsummer #he’s strongest during the winter #then bran is the younger brother who comes into his throne during midsummer and will rule for the next half year #the two brothers battle every six month - essentially representing the changing of seasons and passage of time #I mention Jon because he’s got the whole corn king/spring/fertility deity thing going on #it fits in with the theory that Jon will rule in the winter and step down for bran #I tend to have similar but different thoughts #I believe bran as the rep of summer will rule down in the trident - harrenhal basically - as the green king #Jon will be in the lands of winter as an old man winter type figure - so that’s how he’s the winter king #the two brothers keeping the seasons in balance #I’ll write about this in detail one day…

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hollowwhisperings · 10 months

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Jojen is Fine, Actually: "Weirwood Paste" is Weirwood Paste.

CW: humanitarian diets, body horror, general blasphemy, mention of grooming (in the context of creepy tree wizards).

Okay so my being a HUGE Jojen (& House Reed in general) fan gives me an Obvious Bias against the idea of Jojen Dying Offscreen.

My being a huge literary nerd & lore geek, however, informs my Metaphor Senses that Jojen is Fine*, Actually.

The "Weirwood Paste" is Weirwood Paste: made of weirwood seeds, locally sourced. Said "Local Weirwood Tree" being. Y'know. Brynden Rivers.

It's Brynden Paste.

(*Fine: chronically ill, majorly depressed, freezing cold, surrounded by creepy tree people, stuck in a zombie wasteland, if he ever goes home he Dies, repeatedly dreaming of his own death... but, at least, Not Dead nor Being Eaten by the Prince of his Dreams? He's "Fine".)

First and foremost: storytelling conventions, even in a series as "deliberately unconventional" as ASOIAF, tend to tell audiences that NO ONE is genuinely "dead" until you see a body. And personally check its pulse. And test for rigor mortis. And maybe stab them in a lethal place, jusr to be Sure. And then burn the body, scatter its ashes, send couriers off in different directions to hide what remains in Remote Places never to be known of by the other couriers. Maybe Silence the couriers if they come back.

Er, you get the picture.

Most subscribers to "Jojenpaste" are in it for the lolz or assume The Worst due to Jojen's non-presence in the latest Bran chapters (aaand Jojen's being Very Permanently Dead in That Dragon Show). It's also an "easy" assumption that Since GRRM Is GRRM, any & all opportunities for Humanitarianism will be fully utilized.

Except... the weirwood paste is ALREADY "made of people" just because it's Weirwood (specifically, weirwood seeds) and the series has consistently described weirwood trees as "[human]".

Weirwood have "bone white" bark; they have Faces carved into them; they "Watch" and "Listen" and "Witness": this is consistent across POV characters, even before Jojen casually brings up "oh they're what Greenseers Become" or any meetings with a Literal Tree Man.

Weirwoods are described in human terms, doing human things, and at least 1 major character has been directly equivicated with Weirwoods for Plot Purposes: Ghost the Direwolf (and wolves, of course, are consistently used to mean "someone of House Stark" and the Starklings especially).

Then there is The Creepy Tree Man in the room: Brynden Rivers, called "Three-Eyed Raven" by Bran and Jojen (for that was how their Dreams interpreted him) or "The Last Greenseer" by the Singers (...despite BRAN very pointedly Being There To Prove Otherwise).

Brynden is also, as mentioned, a Tree Now.

A Weirwood Tree.

Y'know. Like the ones whose seeds make the Paste Bran's been eating.

So, unless the Singers have been sneaking about in Others' Territory to collect seeds from a different weirwood tree... that Paste is made of BRYNDEN.

Bran being fed "Brynden Paste' while Brynden Indoctrinates Teaches Bran to be a Tree Wizard makes far more sense, logistically & thematically, than Jojen getting shanked offscreen to belatedly be revealed to be "part of Bran all along".

For one thing, Meera would gladly set the Cave & everyone in it on fire if anyone so much as looks at her baby brother suspiciously. For another, Brynden is Right There for the eating & is filled with all sorts of Prophecy Juice: he's a Blackwood, he's a Targaryen, he's a Royal Bastard, he was an Infamous Spymaster with "A thousand eyes and one", he's done weird sacrifice BS before, he's a Greenseer (Jojen "only" has Greensight), he's a Living God (as per Singer & First Men Lore), the Cave Cult is trying to turn Bran INTO him...

There is a lot more "logic" to Bran's Magic Lessons featuring his knowingly (subconsciously, at least) eating Brynden than his secretly eating his friend. Human sacrifice tends to require Knowledge of the cost being paid & being Willing to do it anyway: Bran might be too tripped up on Paste to consciously connect the "Weirwood Paste" he eats with "that Human Weirwood Tree i'm sitting next to" but the Singers explicitly tell Bran the Paste is made from Weirwood Seeds. Bran "knows".

Godeating (metaphoric & literal) is a trope that is most commonly found in JRPGs, nowadays, but it has Precedent throughout western mythology: the Titan Kronus ate each of his children as they were born, Zeus alone escaping, in an effort to Dodge Prophecy; Zeus inherited Said Prophecy and, being his Father's Son, ate his first wife. The details of the Titanomachy (the War against the Titans by their reasonably upset kids) are Lost but Zeus, at least, gained all his Wife's Wisdom (& her pregnancy too) after eating her: Athena may or may not have Taken It Back upon breaking out from her Eaten Mother & Dear Old Dad.

Consuming something in order to "become" what is eaten is Fairly Common, if not with that specific phrasing: vampires seldom explain their reproduction as "eat me to become me", whilst the adorable Nintendo character Kirby & his method of Powering Up via Playing Vacuum, is Rephrased out of Sheer Self-Preservation (no one, not even I, likes to admit that The Cute Pink Blob is an Eldritch Abomination). Many JRPGs & works in eastern media use similar themes of "monster eats monster" and "let's eat god" for the purposes of High Stakes Action. Japan & East Asia has a lot less "baggage" when it comes to utilizing themes from Abrahamic verse, meaning that western works using themes of [consuming the divine] and [apotheosis] use Vampire Methodology. Such is the case in the Dragon Age series & its Order of Grey Wardens (who are, From A Certain POV, dragon god vampires).

Within the ASOIAF series itself, Dany's eating a horse heart (raw) has Humanitarian Themes in service of Prophecy and [Divinity]: the horse heart to the Dothraki, a society of horselords, could be what weirwood seeds are to First Men (especially given Jojen's whole "btw, the trees are gods are former greenseers").

Brynden & the Cave's Singers (whom I dearly hope are some long-exiled Cult & not reflective of Singers as a whole) are not particularly subtle in their Intentions for Bran: he is to be their New "Last" Greenseer. Bran is to Become Brynden or Brynden is to Become Bran: either and possibly both are plausible, though how compliant with the Singers' goals Brynden may be has yet to be revealed.

(the Brynden of F&B and D&E strikes me as someone who would gladly bodysnatch some poor kid for his own Agenda: the Singers seem unlikely to support fire-breathing foreigners, not without a Contingency Plan; somewhat likely to want Bran for the purposes of installing a Tree Hivemind Police State; and maybe, possibly... "just" wanting a Second God for their Cult in Bran, who probably Smells Better).

SUMMARY

Weirwoods are Personified in almost every appearance. Weirwood Trees are considered Gods. Jojen (& some Singers) have stated that the Next Evolutionary Phase of a Greenseer is "Weirwood Tree". Brynden "the Last Greenseer" is part of a Weirwood Tree.

Brynden & the Singers are Turning Bran Into A Weirwood Tree.

Bran's current diet is Tree Paste. His magic teacher, Brynden, is Part-Tree. The Nearest Tree to make Paste from is Brynden. The Paste is made of Brynden.

(Let's NOT think too hard on which parts of Brynden: I've only gotten this far in this Meta by using "Hunanitarian" as a pun.)

Eating Gods to Become A God is an existing Trope. Brynden is a God, by Singer & First Men definitions. Bran is being Groomed to Become Brynden, a God. To Become Brynden, Bran must Eat Brynden.

TL;DR

The Weirwood Paste is Weirwood Paste and Brynden is the Weirwood: the Paste is not "Jojen", it's BRYNDEN.

Jojen is Not Paste: Jojen is Alive but Not Well & Very Depressed.

#bran stark meta #valyrianscrolls #jojen reed #brynden rivers #the last greenseer #asoiaf theories #cw cannibalism #methodology of apotheosis #suspiciously remote tree people cultists are suspicious #i think i forgot to add back my theory that meera is overdue for some arson and jaywalking #the title is the last greenseer not three-eyed crow #three-eyed crow is just his default avatar in the minds of telepathic children #jojen doesnt go around calling bran winged wolf and expecting others to know what that means in his dreams #jojen goes around calling bran his prince #because bran could become the literal man of his dreams #i imagine jojen was disappointed to discover his prophetic dreams were emphasis prophetic

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