#asoiaf lores

[spearsndragons]

HOURGLASS UPDATE: “a plan and a dream” + “a homecoming” OUT NOW

The people of Trader Town treated her like a princess, which in many ways she was. Merchants and customers bowed their heads as she passed, and children looked up at her with wide, adoring eyes.

— a plan and a dream

Sing of the blood that changed the fate of all, The sun’s fierce wrath and the darkness’s thrall. / Sing of the betrayal that turned the skies to dread, And the price paid by the living and the dead. / Sing of dreams where shadows creep, Of darkened whispers in restless sleep. / Sing of vulnerable hearts led astray, The cruel deeds done in his hidden sway. / Sing of souls reborn by fate’s design, For they will bring the end of night.

— a homecoming

MULTIPLE UPDATES IN ONE WEEK??? i know i know it’s a miracle 😭 but i really hope you enjoy these two chapters! esp they feature two of my fave strong girls. they’re the anti-thesis to the typical heroines people love to hype up. because yes, you can still be badass if you decide to do your duty over fighting it, if you wear dresses, if you like pretty things, if you’re “boring,” or if you choose collectivism over individualism. you can choose to be a wife, a mother, a caretaker… all those traditional feminine roles people shit on. you don’t have to be a tomboy or be a “i’m not like other girls!” 👋🏼👋🏼👋🏼

[bloodybellycomb]

I genuinely mean it when I say that life becomes at least 30% more manageable whenever you allow yourself to become obsessed with something that is a little bit silly

[jeyneofpoole]

dany shouldn’t be at the club she should be at the barn that she mucks out as a summer job forming an unbreakable psychospiritual bond with the horse that no one before her could ride (he’s misunderstood) and then they go to City and win Big Show together so he doesn’t have to be put down for his behavioral issues and also he finally jumps the water obstacle (reoccurring metaphor for the struggles they’ve gone through as a team) and she makes enough prize money to buy him forever the final shot is of her bareback riding him into the sunset as a pop song about being free from 2010 plays in the background. if you even care.

[asterrisms]

theon and david with the head of goliath or something 😀

[quiddling]

AEMOND MENTIONED‼️‼️‼️‼️

they dislike each other very muchly

[sunspearesque]

the moment i read this was the moment when i truly understood how this woman was able to tame oberyn's heart... she is the epitome of mother rhoyne... she is my lord and savior

[yandereunsolved]

Hi 👋 I have a few technical questions for the self aware au for HOTD, if you wouldn’t mind me asking.

Does the world just… stop if we pause the tv? If I rewind a scene bc of whatever reason would that give then motion sickness? Back on pausing the show, does the world stop but the character don’t? Like if I paused the tv and started talking to someone about whatever, is Aemond crossing his arms and tapping his shoes while pouting? WOULD MUTING THEM ACTUALLY MAKE THEM MUTE??

Are the dragons jealous if we talk about dragons from other forms of media? I have loyalty to Paarthurnax for best dragon 😅 ooo what If we had a Skyrim tattoo? Imagine comparing lore?

And lastly, how would they react if we had started watching game of thrones? I like to try to rewatch stuff in chronological order if prequels or branching media gets made, I like to see the chain of events you know? Would the self awareness spread to more of that verse bc of that? Can we pull John Snow?

Sorry for the wall of text and rambling, I love LOVE self aware aus and love learning more about them

Let me retrieve my sacred lore scroll.

retrieves it.

For every rule I lay down here—they can be broken under one circumstance: if the character is completely self-aware. None of the characters I have written so far have gotten to that point. Complete self-awareness may drive any of them to insanity.

(1) Does the world stop if we pause the tv?

That version of the world stops. So that canon timeline is still there, but other things are happening off screen. They are subconsciously led back to the plot when the television is unpaused again.

(2) If I rewind a scene because of whatever reason—would that give then motion sickness?

It erases their memory and gives them a sense of deja vu. They prod inside of their mind but it's like a wall has been put up inside of their minds.

If the character is already predisposed to motion borne illnesses then they would get motion sickness.

Example. If Aegon II was incredibly drunk and you rewinded a part he was in it'd make him feel like he was going to throw up. However, he wouldn't actually throw up because he wasn't as drunk/or drunk at all (depending on how much your rewound) at that time.

(3) Would muting them actually make them mute?

Yes, it would. They would be talking in their world and wouldn't be able to understand how you aren't listening.

If they found out how to work the volume then you'd be screwed. Some may be able to do this unintentionally, while others would have to be more self-aware to unlock the ability.

Dreamers are more likely to be self-aware due to their inante abilities. So Helaena would it without even realizing it.

(4) Are the dragons jealous if we talk about dragons from other forms of media? —Imagine comparing lore.

Yes and no. It depends on the dragon's personality. If you were head over heels for another dragon in another form of media then any one of them would be jealous. If you just enjoy the dragons in that verse then some of them are okay with it.

Example(s). Vhagar would be okay with you liking other dragons as long as you liked her the most. Vermithor goes into a rage anytime you so much as mention another dragon in a positive context.

(5) How would they react if we had started watching game of thrones?

Confused at first. Since hotd is the prequel to got they'd be very puzzled. Then they'd be curious. If it took up all of your time then they'd be angry. There would already be an undercurrent of jealousy, but there's also a superiority complex there.

"We were here before them."

"Without us they wouldn't exist."

Them meaning got characters.

(6) Would the self awareness spread to more of that verse because of that?

When consuming any form of their media it is like a portal is being opened up into their world. That's the crux of what helps them become self aware. There's usually a moment in their lives that spurs that on.

With the hotd characters already being insanely jealous that interference between the two media's would cause the self awareness to spread.

(7) The most important question—Can we pull Jon Snow?

Yes.

The shit that dude has been through? He has plenty of opportunities to become self aware. Having someone there for him, even passively, would cause him to become obsessive. Possibly a bit bitter because you aren't helping him until he realizes that you are physically unable to.

Don't 👏 be 👏 sorry. 👏 I love giving lore.

[syndrossi]

No, but seriously, how lucky was House Targaryen to have Maegor? RIP Aegon and Viserys, obviously, but think about it. Aegon conquered six of the seven kingdoms and "unified" them under his control, but the Faith Militant were the one thing you never want as an absolute monarch: a large, independent military force tied to the "state" religion.

Not only did Maegor (and Visenya, let's not discount her contributions) entirely dismantle that threat, they established their control over the Faith and gave the realm several reminders of just how much it sucks to have even one dragon breathing fire down upon your holdfast.

All of which made Jaehaerys's life so much easier when he came to power. He got to be the "Conciliator", the reasonable Targaryen, the example of "see? absolute monarchs can keep things running smoothly." While leveraging the memory of Maegor's threat to secure the Doctrine of Exceptionalism as a way for the Faith to save face. "Targaryens are just special, everyone else has to follow the old rules."

(There are many other ways in which House Targaryen lucked into having some good reigns after never having ruled at a kingdom level, of course, but that's for another post.)

[effemar]

Danger to her own person was the first thing she had learned to see, back when she was still half a child, a slave girl bound for life to the great red temple. It was still the first thing she looked for whenever she gazed into a fire.

[visenyaism]

Any headcannons/ideas about maegor son of aerion brightflame? It’s never specified when he died, and he could very well have been at Summerhall tragedy

I like to think after living through her insane father tragically choking to death, her older sister killing her older brother and then herself, getting married off to the Targaryen equivalent of the joker from the joker, having a kid he names MAEGOR, and then her husband drinking wildfire and killing himself, they let Daenora Targaryen just take her kid and go back to live with her mom in the Eyrie.

If I get to make something up I’m going to say she becomes sort of a proto-Barbery Dustin where she is holding court by herself in some spindly drafty castle in the Vale with a string of girlfriends doing conspiracy theories. Not about the Maesters though, she blames the madness and ruin visited on every member of her family squarely on Bloodraven. Maegor almost inherits the Eyrie after a spate of Arryn cousins die as they are wont to do, but narrowly misses out. He has strange dreams that his mother will not explain and seems to actively distrust him for having. Pressured into giving up his claim, he joins the Night’s Watch as a teen against the advice of his mother and dies shortly after the disappearance of Lord Commander Rivers. This does not help matters.

[fenrins]

im gonna be a hater tonight but idc! its a lomg one but i rlly wanted to rant 😔😔

im just gonna go right in and say it: some house of the dragon characters are unoriginal and lazy, and it pisses me tf off. im sick and tired of seeing the same oc regurgitated in this fandom bc istg half of these hotd ocs are literally just daenerys targaryen thrown back in time under a different name.

i usually dont care abt fanfic because its fanfic. nothing i can do, its probably some child having fun, but like i said im just TIRED of looking through hotd fanfics and seeing daenerys pop up as a faceclaim, and then going on to see that half (or all) of dany’s entire character is put into an oc with little to no actual originality if this makes sense.

before i get into this, what the fuck happened to the originality in original character? like genuinely? this is mainly abt one oc i legit just saw like an hour ago off of tiktok bc but still this applies to the daenerys knockoffs i (regularly) see and cry abt like my grown ass should not care but i do!!!!

starting off, the oc’s name is daenera. cool! fine! she’s not a daughter of rhaenyra which is a slay, but is a daughter of alicent and viserys which eh, good enough. we go on to find out that for some reason vizzy t and ali hate her, and at age 16 they decide to ship her off to pentos so she can marry a dothraki warlord. im not even joking. aside from that, she’s in pentos for a year, and comes back with an army of 550k and three dragons. okay hello daenerys! anyways she apparently fights for rhaenyra, but also bangs aemond, daemon, and cregan in the two year timeframe that the dance takes place in.

no one is gonna read this but my ass is mad and idgaf! i need to complain!! but anyways, i am sick and tired of the ocs that are just cheap copies of daenerys because at what point is this an original character? if youre using a faceclaim of daenerys for your character and essentially adding her entire plotline onto your oc, is it even an oc anymore? like i get being inspired to base a character off of her because dany is literally the blueprint, but copy and pasting her entire character and then going off and ignoring grrm’s established lore (yes, its a fanfic, but ive seen too many oc’s claim both cannibal AND vermithor at the same time and i am TIRED) is just lazy and boring.

i wish people did more with their hotd ocs honestly. like theres hundreds of houses and shit and actual ORIGINAL ideas one could use instead of just taking dany’s whole character and just making it their own. i dont even want to start an argument with this but i NEED to see more original characters. like im writing my own two on wattpad rn (one’s a dragonseed whos like schizophrenic idk and the other’s a mormont who slays the day away) but even then i just need more than aemond x his sister or niece or smth idk yk??

im just reiterating points ive made but man its just ughhhh

[spearsndragons]

HOURGLASS UPDATE: “a fork in the road,” is out NOW!

“Who are you?”

“That’s quite a complicated question. Sometimes, I myself don’t know. History has given me many names, yet it has forgotten the one I hold most dear.”

THE LORES ARE HERE! i had SO much fun combining all these myths and legends. i hated how the show did not even explore any of them! it barely touched on the story of the long night. IT MAKES ME SOOOO MAD so i shall bring justice to them!!! literally, these stories are what made asoiaf the amazing fantasy world that it is.

i really need to be better at updating this story since i have all the chapters from the previous version lmao

also, anna taylor joy as ningxia… amazing. i love my mind. i love her and i love ningxia’s character. i hope you’ll love her too!

next chapter will have the major change/divergence from the first version of hourglass!

[athzhowakar]

Queen of Hidden Evils (Chapter II)

✒️ Maegor × Toxic OC wife

✒️ Summary: Lord Rosby has accepted King Maegor's marriage proposal for his widowed sister. The Rosbys arrive at the Red Keep for the wedding. Rhaena sees Maegor's new wife and feels that she needs a taste of her uncle's new wife too. (Wedding & bedding ceremony)

✒️ Trigger warning: Mature content

✒️ Previous part: Chapter I

Red Keep:

The sound of carriages and horses approached the gates of the Red Keep. The carriages finally arrived and the travellers stepped out. The herald announced, “Lord Jon Rosby and Lady Elinor Rosby, the Lord and the Lady of Rosby. Lord Rosby's sister, Lady Lucinda Rosby and his niece, Lady Prunella Stokeworth.”

The guests saw a young silver haired lady standing there to welcome them. She was dressed in a purple silk gown. The lavish dress and the ornaments made it easier for them to recognise her.

Rhaena did not really want to welcome them but Maegor insisted that she should. So as it was planned, Rhaena stood there along with her ladies-in-waiting and watched the newly arrived guests with the eyes of a hawk.

Rhaena did not know how to feel about Lucinda. Her uncle had married several women besides herself. She found Ceryse to be rather stubborn and Alys was an adulteress who tried to betray none other than Maegor himself. Tyanna was an evil sorceress and Jeyne seemed rather uninteresting. Elinor seemed to be full of hatred while lacking courage to kill Maegor herself.

However, Lucinda was not like any of them. Rhaena wondered how she must have felt when she became the cause of her husband's death and why she remained unmarried for so many years.

Rhaena saw Lucinda walking towards her. She had worn a black gown and a grey headdress which was studded with rubies. It was an odd combination of colours but nevertheless, it looked good on her. Lady Lucinda, a woman of eight and twenty years of age, was way older than Rhaena and Elinor, the only surviving wives of Maegor. There was no hint of child-like innocence on her round face. However, she was extremely beautiful in a way that no one else was. “Where was she hiding all these years?” Rhaena wondered.

Soon enough, Rhaena and Lucinda were standing face-to-face. Lucinda greeted Rhaena with a curtsy and a smile on her face.

“Your admirers don't do justice to your beauty, My Lady,” Rhaena said.

Lucinda laughed and said, “You flatter me, Your Grace. My beauty will go begging in front of your youthful face and beauty.”

Rhaena instructed one of the servants to show the guests, their chambers. She then walked to Maegor's chamber and found him wiping the sweat off his body.

Maegor looked at her and smirked. “I was sparring in the training yard. If I had known that my wife was looking for me, I would have returned earlier,” he said.

Rhaena sighed and replied, “I came here to tell you that the Rosbys have arrived. And Uncle, I saw her.”

“Whom?” Maegor asked.

“Lucinda Rosby,” Rhaena replied.

Maegor placed a necklace on her neck and kissed her ears saying, “Do not fuck her before I do.”

Rhaena snapped at him, “What makes you think that I am going to do that?”

In response, Maegor said no word and kissed Rhaena on her lips.

The wedding took place a week later. It was attended by all the Lords and Ladies of the Seven Kingdoms.

The ceremony took place in the Grand Sept atop Visenya's Hill. When it was time for the ceremony, Lucinda and Maegor stood in front of each other. Lord Rosby removed his sister's cloak and Maegor placed a cloak of his own house colours her shoulders. They took their vows and the septon declared them man and wife.

The wedding feast however, took place in the Red Keep. It was a grand feast with meat of seven kinds, fishes of five kinds and wine of eight kinds. Lucinda sat quietly at the high table beside Maegor and ate only lamb meat. Maegor noticed that his wife did not even drink a single sip of wine. He was curious but still, he did not exchange any word with her during the feast.

Rhaena seemed to be more excited about this wedding than Maegor himself. Maegor knew the reason even if others didn't. As the feast ended, she announced, “My Lords and Ladies, now it is time for the bedding ceremony.”

Everyone started shouting, “Bed them! Bed them! Bed them!”

Rhaena announced, “My Lords, you may escort Queen Lucinda to the King's chamber. My Ladies can help the King. His Grace is more than willing to go if beautiful ladies call him.”

Maegor did not know whether he was supposed to feel embarrassed or angry at Rhaena's words.

The Lords were afraid of touching Lucinda. Who knows what might incur the wrath of Maegor the Cruel? So they just accompanied her as she walked towards Maegor's chamber.

The Ladies weren't interested in disrobing Maegor either. However, Rhaena seemed unnaturally enthusiastic about that. She joked about Ser Bennard Stokeworth, Lucinda's dead husband and his paramour's death as she pinched Maegor and took off his clothing one by one.

Finally, Maegor entered his chamber in only his pants and found his fully dressed wife standing in front of him.

“The Lords weren't interested in disrobing you, it seems,” Maegor remarked.

“Mayhaps it is because, the last man who saw me naked died,” Lucinda replied with a straight face.

Maegor was slightly disturbed by that. With an awkward smile, he said, “And the women who see me naked stay alive all the time. That might have encouraged the ladies to disrobe me.”

With a scary smile on her face, which widened as she approached Maegor, Lucinda asked, “Did it really?”

“Mayhaps,” Maegor replied.

He held his wife's waist and pulled her closer. Lucinda made him sit at the edge of the bed. Then she sat on his lap. Maegor pulled her face closer by holding her chin and kissed her lips. The reciprocal was fierce and Lucinda managed to bite his lower lips and draw blood.

Lucinda's left hand glided on Maegor's bare back. Her right hand was playing with the hair on his chest.

“You seem to like my chest hair a lot,” Maegor said.

“I have never seen anyone with silver chest hair before,” Lucinda replied.

Maegor slowly untied the laces of his wife's gown. Once he was done, he was met with the sight of her milky white teats with pink nipples. Lucinda bit her lips as he began to play with her nipples.

Seeing that, Maegor squeezed her teats which made her gasp. He did that again and she bit his ear and then kissed it. She tried to stand up but Maegor pulled her back to his lap.

“Not so soon, my little berry,” Maegor said.

He started sucking her nipples and Lucinda could not stop herself from moaning. He then placed her on the bed and pulled off her gown completely. She was then fully naked in front of him. He touched the stretch marks on her belly and licked her navel.

Her cunt was properly shaved. However, Maegor could see some tiny sprouts of hair from which he could deduce that her cunt hair was black just like the hair on her head. He pinched the clitoris which made Lucinda scream.

“Your Grace! It hurts!” she screamed.

“Pleasure comes after pain, my little berry. Have patience,” he replied, laughing.

He teased it as she kept wriggling and after sometime, she shot her fluids right at him. Lucinda took heavy breaths. Maegor then left her clitoris which was sore by this point. He then proceeded to put one finger inside her cunt. It slid inside very easily. That one finger was followed by two more. Lucinda grabbed the bedsheet and her nails bore holes into it as Maegor moved his fingers in and out of her cunt. She reached her peak once again. She felt Maegor taking out the three fingers that were inside. She had thought that it was over but just then, Maegor inserted his entire hand into her cunt. She screamed so loudly that it almost burst Maegor's eardrums. But he did not care. He continued to do what he was doing. Soon enough, his wife reached her peak once again and shot a load of fluid right at him.

By this time, Maegor's bed looked so wet that a man would assume that someone had urinated on it.

Maegor took off his pants and let out his cock which looked like a snake which was ready to bite. His cock was painfully hard. He thrust it inside Lucinda's cunt and kept moving it in and out. He lifted her legs and put them on his shoulders for better access. Within no time, his wife reached her peak. Maegor tightened his grip on her thighs and quickened his pace. Lucinda had no control of her throat anymore. Her sounds of pleasure were echoing in the corridors. She screamed as she peaked again.

Maegor loosened his grip a little and taking advantage of that, she tried to pull down her legs from his shoulders. But Maegor tightened his grip, not letting her move. He kept thrusting her as deeper as he reached his own peak of pleasure and spilled his seeds into her womb. Lucinda stayed still so that his seeds may take root.

..

..

..

..

To be continued

[localgoblinlad]

helaena targaryen: my beloved

[branwyn-the-half-witch]

Comparative Mythologies of the Long Night: Part Two – Azor Ahai and The Red Sword

In part one, we looked at the origin story of the Long Night, and the ways in which it is reflected in the main series. Now, we shall move on to discuss the heroes who seemingly saved the world.

The most notable of these heroes, with whom you are likely aware, is the one most commonly known as Azor Ahai; emerging from Asshai, this is the hand that wields the flaming sword Lightbringer. They are also known as Hyrkoon the Hero, Yin Tar, Neferion, and Eldric Shadowchaser.

As a brief aside, it is interesting to note that all of these names can be related to specific places in Essos; the Patrimony of Hyrkoon is an ancient nation, Yin is a city in Yi Ti that has often been its capital, ‘Nefer’ is the last city in the distant kingdom of N’ghai, ‘the Shadow’, or the ‘Shadow Lands’ are a region in the furthest east, with AssHAI in the southwest, serving as something of a gateway to them – and it is the Shadow, as we will later learn, from whence the dragons may have first originated; tamed by an ancient, unnamed people.

Whether this solid anchoring of these heroic aliases in various places means anything more than a suggestion that the hero – or heroes – may have come from there, or were perhaps claimed by those peoples, I will leave you to ponder. For now, we shall turn to Azor Ahai’s legend.

Of Azor Ahai (AA), we have the most available information of all of the legends we shall discuss. He is also the only one explicitly prophesied to return again, and the manner in which AA shall return and be heralded is very clearly laid out for us from multiple sources.

AA is described as a leader, wielding a burning sword that radiates heat and light. He gave ‘courage to […] men and [led] the virtuous into battle’, returning ‘light and love’ to the world. So we should account for these aspects, as well as the finer points of the prophecy.

Much has been said about who AA reborn might be, with many candidates proposed. I will not be spilling that ink here; it’s Daenerys. Born on Dragonstone, a smoking isle in the great salt sea, she arose when darkness gathered and, beneath a bleeding star, awoke dragons from stone.

I would also point out that even Jon Snow, upon hearing of the Prophecy in the context of Mel’s candidate Stannis, zeroes on the importance of Stannis not being born on Dragonstone. One can almost hear the author himself tapping his fingers impatiently, no?

If you favour another candidate, a more abstract interpretation of the prophecy, feel free to do your own research and present it elsewhere; I am interested primarily in exploring the myths, not arguing. However, I do hope you will let me expand on my case and consider it fairly.

Dany becomes a leader, bringing hope and courage to mankind and returning light and love to those lost in the darkness. Moreover, she inspires them to fight for themselves, for their lives and loves; leading them into battle, but not doing their fighting for them.

I would also briefly highlight this echo of command from Quaithe, in light of one of AA’s names being ‘Shadowchaser’ – and that Quaithe wishes Dany to go to Asshai, from whence the myths of AA were born and the prophecy was written.

Going back here may mean in a temporal sense, revisiting the origins of AA and learning who he was, what he did, and most notably for Daenerys, why it was needed. She is, as present, unaware of the encroaching darkness that threatens the world, on any level except subconsciously through her dreams. A revelation is needed.

To add to this, we have the ‘Prince that was Promised’ title; these are used interchangeably with AA by Mel and by Maester Aemon and seem to often refer to the same person; in light of GRRM’s addition of Aegon’s dream to the canon, my interpretation is that they do refer to the same person, but by accident. Though we do not yet have it in GRRM’s words, Aegon saw the return of the Long Night and a Targaryen fighting against it. This is tPtwP, Aegon’s name for this leader who happens to also be the one who woke the dragons from stone to fight the cold.

And it is Aegon’s dream that dream-driven Targaryens have stumbled across in their scrolls – what Rhaegar to become a warrior and thence to confer the promise he initially saw in himself upon his newborn son. The Red Priests who herald Dany speak only of AA; Mel may have discovered tPtwP on Dragonstone itself. All other sources for the Promised Prince title seem to be either Targaryen or Targaryen adjacent – such as Barristan, who himself speaks of Jenny of Oldstones’ witch friend, presumably close to certain Targaryens.

But what of Lightbringer? Daenerys is not trained in arms, so how can she wield a sword? Recall that AA reborn is marked by waking dragons from stone and wielding Lightbringer. There is no separate mention of forging/reforging a sword. Perhaps there is more to the tale than that?

So let us examine Lightbringer and its forging; AA makes three attempts to forge the blade, quenching it in water, lion’s blood and, in his successful forging, the living heart of his wife, Nissa Nissa. The blade is described, by the Jade Compendium, as making its own fiery heat.

The blade never being cold, but being warm as Nissa Nissa was warm, is very alike to the description of dragons being ‘fire made flesh’; and the description of Lightbringer in action resembles nothing so much as the affect of Drogon’s flames. Lightbringer, Red Sword of Heroes, is not a blade; it is the dragons awoken from stone. But what of the three forgings? The exact arrangement of the forgings is sometimes debated, but the one I favour is this arrangement: the first forging in ‘water’.

The second in the ‘heart of a lion’; note that this moment is so important it appears again in the dreams that guide Dany’s steps to her eventual success.

And the third, successful forging – in the ‘sacred flames’ of a funeral pyre, fed by the blood of heart’s beloved. Note the proximity of the water/lion/heart imagery on each occasion, and that the conversations following the first scenes are about dragons, and then about war.

In the chapter prior to the pyre, Dany has dreams haunted by a pursuing cold, and by ghosts urging her on, with very familiar gemstone eyes; this links Dany and the dragons explicitly to the Great Empire of the Dawn and thus to the Long Night that followed the Blood Betrayal.

These dreams also link the dragons to sacrifice, just as Lightbringer is linked to Nissa Nissa’s sacrifice. Dany’s dreams show us the lives lost in her journey to that point (though Drogo is not yet entirely lost to her); those she has lost will lend their names to the dragons.

Blood sacrifice is a deeply potent power, both within ASOIAF and without. Many characters tell us of the potency of shed blood; of kin, king, and of holy men. Within many cultures in our own world, blood sacrifice was a holy act, to ward off catastrophe, as payment – and penance.

In Aztec mythology, for instance, it is now generally understood that blood sacrifice, both of slain captives but also one’s own blood on a daily basis, was both a fuel offered up to the gods for their daily labours, and as repayment for the debt owed by the living to the gods for their sacrifices made when creating the fifth sun, and so all human life. The dreams emphasise Dany’s own shed blood from the beginning; in her bloody footsteps, the burning in her womb, and the burning blood from her torn open back, which ultimately grants her wings.

When the time comes, she offers up her own blood by walking unafraid into the sacred flames of the funeral pyre, to bleed with her fallen beloved. Dany alone, among all Targaryens who have attempted to bring back dragons, took the last and most important step of self-sacrifice.

But if we understand blood sacrificed to be offered up, not just for power but for payment of debt, what debt is Dany paying here? Moreover, have we strayed from AA in this talk of blood magic and penance? I would argue not; for just as Dany’s Lightbringer is living dragons, so too do I believe that AA’s red sword was no literal blade, but dragons also.

I would here posit that Azor Ahai, in the coldest, darkest night, sought to bind fire made flesh to humankind. I propose that he tried and failed twice, before binding dragons to the fate of men.

I implore you to consider that Nissa Nissa was a dragon.

This concludes Part Two. Part Three shall answer the question, ‘what in the world did she mean by that last comment?’, by examining sacrifice, necessity, and the long, sad history of House Targaryen’s ritual offerings of innocence as payment.

[hoboblaidd]

Evanuris' Divine Cruelty (highlights)

How does one serve a god? For the poor souls still in thrall to the Evanuris, that question has been answered for them. Service is no longer willingly given: it must be wrested, and it must entertain. The Trials of the Gods.

The Evanuris had two coexisting brands of cruelty in Elvhenan. One is their Mundane Cruelty - by definition, "mundane" here is of this earth rather than spiritual or divine, not trivial or dull. These are cruelties we see in the real world without magic, spirits, etc.

I wanted to highlight one Divine Cruelty for each of the main pantheon from the lore. Some, like Elgar'nan, Andruil, and Ghilan'nain, have too many examples to be recounted in one short post. Mythal is truly ‘the best of them’ in that her crimes are far more contained and, aside from the geas, way less obviously cruel.

This is just from the lore, no headcanons.

Elgar'nan - On Divine Imperatives. "The Helm of the Solar is destroyed. Elgar'nan's favorite torture is over; too many agents have been rescued with their minds burnt out by that memory of an enraged sun." Elgar'nan destroying/usurping minds is a running theme we see in game.

Mythal - the Well of Sorrows. “Vast oceans, containing not water, but memories, drawn from the minds of dreamers." Abelas lays out the Well’s price, but its worst illustration is not a quote but Flemythal using it to bodily control Morrigan/the Inquisitor.

Andruil - I talk about her a lot in relation to Solas, but I want to focus on her people. Here's part of their prayer to her: Andruil's Gift. "Andruil, blood and force, your people pray to you. Grant that your eye may not fall upon us. Spare us the moment we become Your prey...Spare us the moment we become Your sacrifice."

Ghilan'nain - Solas on her modifications to a village's people. "I had to watch as their bodies twisted, as their shrieks turned into the grunting of animals. Their eyes were the worst part. They were still aware. They knew what had been done to them."

Sylaise - Raising the Sonallium. Thousands of elves chant as they channel the raw essence of the Fade into a spherical gift for June by Sylaise, and its architects yell and kill each other. The memory states they were "in friendly debate over the color of the palace's roof trim."

June - remarkably little concrete knowledge. The Tears of June. "Artifact will separate all nearby materials into constituent pieces when unstable. Materials can include people."

Falon'din - Divine Conquest. More a Mundane Cruelty in his crusade of divine conquest: "Falon'din's appetite for adulation was so great, he began wars to amass more worshippers. The blood of those who wouldn't bow low filled lakes as wide as oceans."

Dirthamen - remarkably little concrete knowledge. The following was uttered after Dirthamen disappeared but shows his influence on his worshippers: The Lost Temple of Dirthamen. “The secrets are madness in our ears, but they are ours. The Highest One cannot take them from us. Only Dirthamen, our Keeper, only he and if he does not take the secrets, they are ours forever.”