#they're in a part of westeros surrounded by places with selkie and merling legends

[lemonhemlock]

I need hot house hightower hc and lore 🫠

I have a few in my House Hightower tag!

They're definitely one of the coolest houses in Westeros. They have historically dabbled in alchemy and necromancy. They have a Valyrian steel sword called Vigilance (ofc they do). There's a possible maester conspiracy going on. Lord Leyton is obviously doing sorcery up in the High Tower and sending his sons on various errands. There are known to be glass candles in Oldtown. Tower of Sauron symbolism? Future Panopticon if Euron gets his hands on it? In any case, Leyton is clearly a man with a plan.

"The Hightower must be doing something." "To be sure. Lord Leyton's locked atop his tower with the Mad Maid, consulting books of spells. Might be he'll raise an army from the deeps. Or not. Baelor's building galleys, Gunthor has charge of the harbor, Garth is training new recruits, and Humfrey's gone to Lys to hire sellsails. If he can winkle a proper fleet out of his whore of a sister,* we can start paying back the ironmen with some of their own coin. Till then, the best we can do is guard the sound and wait for the bitch queen in King's Landing to let Lord Paxter off his leash." The bitterness of the captain's final words shocked Sam as much as the things he said. If King's Landing loses Oldtown and the Arbor, the whole realm will fall to pieces, he thought as he watched the Huntress and her sisters moving off.

They're preparing for a massive Lovecraftian showdown against Euron. We're all going to be rooting for the Hightowers come TWOW! I am begging the fandom to stop sleeping on this house. They're right at the junction where magic, science and religion intertwine - all expressions of man's quest towards transcendence!

*that's Lynesse Hightower, Jorah Mormont's wife, the person indirectly responsible for Dany's entire arc.

[lemonhemlock]

Bestie expand your thoughts more on this!

https://at.tumblr.com/lemonhemlock/do-you-think-greyjoy-will-succeed-in-taking/nrryawkbqc7q

I'll start by saying that I haven't read The Forsaken. Not because of spoilers, because I already heard some things that happen in the chapter, but I wanted my first experience reading it to be within TWOW (look how that's going so far).

So what I'm about to say is mostly vibes and guesswork. But Euron is a genuinely terrifying character and one of the properly, old-school evil ones in ASOIAF. Like, there is no moral ambiguity here. The man wants to turn himself into a god and will stop at nothing for it. Euron says a lot of crazy ass things like how he visited both Asshai and Valyria and, though it's tempting to label it as bullshit, he does seem to have collected very rare artifacts like his Valyrian steel armour (??) So I would be inclined to believe him.

In any case, Euron has figured out something, some recipe to a transformative ritual. He has imprisoned priests from different religions onboard his ship and he intentionally impregnated Falia Flowers so as to use their unborn child in this upcoming blood ceremony (king's blood is known to be powerful, as Melisandre tells us, and Euron has been elected king by the kingsmoot).

Euron has had weird dreams/visions since he was a child and there are theories saying those images were sent to him by Bloodraven, who might have wanted him to be a Bran-like figure, but dropped his arse because he was way too deranged. There are also parallels between him and the Bloodstone Emperor, who is known to have caused the Long Night. One worrisome thing is that the Horn of Winter is also in Oldtown, having been brought by Sam, so it's very important that Euron NOT get his hands on it. But then again - why did George bring the Horn all the way down to Oldtown if not for this very purpose?

It's interesting that both the Hightowers and the Greyjoys are associated with Lovecraftian imagery. For the Greyjoys it is more obvious with the krakens, the tentacles and the Drowned God, but Oldtown is in a part of Westeros surrounded by places with selkie and merling legends, like the Shield Islands (north-wise), the Mermaid's Palace (Island of the Arbor). Both the base of the Hight Tower and the Seastone Chair AND the buildings in Asshai seem to be made from similar material (??) - fused black stone.

I have no idea what's about to happen - a believable theory would have been that Euron would raise the Deep Ones out of the sea, but I think George shot that one down (dunno whether he was lying or not). Another would be that Euron is going to blow the Horn of Winter and bring down the Wall. I've seen people link him to becoming the next Night's King, but I'm not really sure he is connected to the Others in a meaningful way like that. His symbolism seems to be more kraken/sea related.

The problem with Euron is that, while he is not the Final Boss in any way, he is a very dangerous distraction and could pose a fuckton of problems. Oldtown falling would be catastrophic for the fate of Westeros. This is why this fandom needs to cut it with the bullshit and start stanning Lord Leyton and Malora ASAP, since they're the last defense against the coming of the storm. Sam is also in Oldtown and I doubt George is going to kill him, so that gives me a little bit of hope that maybe Euron will be defeated.

There is also the fact that Leyton & Malora have been preparing for this for 10 years now. They must have something up their sleeve. Oldtown should be, by rights, a source of great magical power, with the High Tower, the Citadel and the Starry Sept there - so magic + science + religion combined for one last face-off against the dark. It's pretty romantic. It's pretty valiant.

Perhaps there was a reason why George placed the dragons Tessarion and Morning in Oldtown, after all. Maybe their remains or eggs will come in handy in the fight against Euron.