Asoiaf - memes and dreams

[ButtonLip]

Shows over, this is the much-belated post-mortem
also plundering the fathoms of the books because the original lore is top level

They really did Euron wrong making him such a cheesy goof ball, in the books he's a seaborne incarnation of satan with valyrian steel armor and blue lips, they make him into some horny euro clubber. He's gonna end up stealing a dragon with that horn he found and delivering it to the whitewalkers or something, D&D reduced him to just fingah in the bum

 

[ButtonLip]

Time off from school gives me plenty of idle hours to wonder what the fuck happened to the city of Yeen, what the hell is going on in Sothoryos, it's some serious Lovecraft shit happening down there

 

[ButtonLip]

The throne of the Greyjoys, carved into the shape of a kraken from an oily black stone, was said to have been found by the First Men when they first came to Old Wyk.

Maesters and other scholars alike have puzzled over the greatest of the enigmas of Sothoryos, the ancient city of Yeen. A ruin older than time, built of oily black stone, in massive blocks so heavy that it would require a dozen elephants to move them...

The Isle of Toads, one of the Basilisk Isles, contains the Toads Stone, a large statue of a toad made of a greasy black stone.

The buildings of Asshai by the Shadow Lands are said to consist of black stone with a greasy, unpleasant feel.

The Bloodstone Emperor rejected the traditional gods of Yi Ti and instead encouraged the worship of a black stone said to have fallen from the sky.

​

 

[Isuckatgaming]

The throne of the Greyjoys, carved into the shape of a kraken from an oily black stone, was said to have been found by the First Men when they first came to Old Wyk.

Maesters and other scholars alike have puzzled over the greatest of the enigmas of Sothoryos, the ancient city of Yeen. A ruin older than time, built of oily black stone, in massive blocks so heavy that it would require a dozen elephants to move them...

The Isle of Toads, one of the Basilisk Isles, contains the Toads Stone, a large statue of a toad made of a greasy black stone.

The buildings of Asshai by the Shadow Lands are said to consist of black stone with a greasy, unpleasant feel.

The Bloodstone Emperor rejected the traditional gods of Yi Ti and instead encouraged the worship of a black stone said to have fallen from the sky.

​

I'll do you one better.

The foundation of the Hightower in Old Town is a fortress made of fused black stone that is the hallmark of Valyrian construction (as it's found in Volantis, in Tyrosh, and on Dragonstone), however the Hightower as a structure predates the Valyrians by several thousand years, hell, the "great square fortress of black stone" even predates the First Men.

Even more enigmatic to scholars and historians is the great square fortress of black stone that dominates that isle. For most of recorded history, this monumental edifice has served as the foundation and lowest level of the Hightower, yet we know for a certainty that it predates the upper levels of the tower by thousands of years.

Who built it? When? Why? Most maesters accept the common wisdom that declares it to be of Valyrian construction, for its massive walls and labyrinthine interiors are all of solid rock, with no hint of joins or mortar, no chisel marks of any kind, a type of construction that is seen elsewhere, most notably in the dragonroads of the Freehold of Valyria, and the Black Walls that protect the heart of Old Volantis. The dragonlords of Valryia, as is well-known, possessed the art of turning stone to liquid with dragonflame, shaping it as they would, then fusing it harder than iron, steel, or granite.

If indeed this first fortress is Valyrian, it suggests that the dragonlords came to Westeros thousands of years before they carved out their outpost on Dragonstone, long before the coming of the Andals, or even the First Men. If so, did they come seeking trade? Were they slavers, mayhaps seeking after giants? Did they seek to learn the magic of the children of the forest, with their greenseers and their weirwoods? Or was there some darker purpose?

Even more weird is the fact that some Maesters have made a connection between the fortress and the Seastone Chair.

More troubling, and more worthy of consideration, are the arguments put forth by those who claim that the first fortress is not Valyrian at all.

The fused black stone of which it is made suggests Valyria, but the plain, unadorned style of architecture does not, for the dragonlords loved little more than twisting stone into strange, fanciful, and ornate shapes. Within, the narrow, twisting, windowless passages strike many as being tunnels rather than halls; it is very easy to get lost amongst their turnings. Mayhaps this is no more than a defensive measure designed to confound attackers, but it too is singularly un-Valyrian. The labyrinthine nature of its interior architecture has led Archmaester Quillion to suggest that the fortress might have been the work of the mazemakers, a mysterious people who left remnants of their vanished civilization upon Lorath in the Shivering Sea. The notion is intriguing but raises more questions than it answers.

An even more fanciful possibility was put forth a century ago by Maester Theron. Born a bastard on the Iron Islands, Theron noted a certain likeness between the black stone of the ancient fortress and that of the Seastone Chair, the high seat of House Greyjoy of Pyke, whose origins are similarly ancient and mysterious. Theron's rather inchoate manuscript Strange Stone postulates that both fortress and seat might be the work of a queer, misshapen race of half men sired by creatures of the salt seas upon human women. These Deep Ones, as he names them, are the seed from which our legends of merlings have grown, he argues, whilst their terrible fathers are the truth behind the Drowned God of the ironborn.

Of course, this isn't the only place we find this fused black Valyrian stone is weird places that Dragonlords never reached, the Five Forts being the prime example.

Certain scholars from the west have suggested Valyrian involvement in the construction of the Five Forts, for the great walls are single slabs of fused black stone that resemble certain Valyrian citadels in the west...but this seems unlikely, for the Forts predate the Freehold's rise, and there is no record of any dragonlords ever coming so far east.

Thus the Five Forts must remain a mystery. They still stand today, unmarked by time, guarding the marches of the Golden Empire against raiders out of the Grey Waste.

 

[ButtonLip]

I'll do you one better.

The foundation of the Hightower in Old Town is a fortress made of fused black stone that is the hallmark of Valyrian construction (as it's found in Volantis, in Tyrosh, and on Dragonstone), however the Hightower as a structure predates the Valyrians by several thousand years, hell, the "great square fortress of black stone" even predates the First Men.





Even more weird is the fact that some Maesters have made a connection between the fortress and the Seastone Chair.





Of course, this isn't the only place we find this fused black Valyrian stone is weird places that Dragonlords never reached, the Five Forts being the prime example.

Just wish these fish people and muck men and children of the forest would get the fuck out here and explain this shit, but they're all either extinct or in hiding or straight-up myth. Fuck the Long Night, ruined everything.

Bonus meme

 

[Isuckatgaming]

Just wish these fish people and muck men and children of the forest would get the fuck out here and explain this shit, but they're all either extinct or in hiding or straight-up myth. Fuck the Long Night, ruined everything.

Wanna hear something more

It's possible that Moat Cailin is also a structure built by these people. Just take a look at the descriptions here

Just beyond, through the mists, she glimpsed the walls and towers of Moat Cailin … or what remained of them. Immense blocks of black basalt, each as large as a crofter's cottage, lay scattered and tumbled like a child's wooden blocks, half-sunk in the soft boggy soil. Nothing else remained of a curtain wall that had once stood as high as Winterfell's. The wooden keep was gone entirely, rotted away a thousand years past, with not so much as a timber to mark where it had stood. All that was left of the great stronghold of the First Men were three towers … three where there had once been twenty, if the taletellers could be believed.

The air was wet and heavy, and shallow pools of water dotted the ground. Reek picked his way between them carefully, following the remnants of the log-and-plank road that Robb Stark's vanguard had laid down across the soft ground to speed the passage of his host. Where once a mighty curtain wall had stood, only scattered stones remained, blocks of black basalt so large it must once have taken a hundred men to hoist them into place. Some had sunk so deep into the bog that only a corner showed; others lay strewn about like some god's abandoned toys, cracked and crumbling, spotted with lichen. Last night's rain had left the huge stones wet and glistening, and the morning sunlight made them look as if they were coated in some fine black oil.

Beyond stood the towers.

Now, the description of Yeen:

Maesters and other scholars alike have puzzled over the greatest of the engimas of Sothoryos, the ancient city of Yeen. A ruin older than time, built of oily black stone, in massive blocks so heavy that it would require a dozen elephants to move them, Yeen has remained a desolation for many thousands of years, yet the jungle that surrounds it on every side has scarce touched it.

Hmmmmmmmmmm :thinking:

 

[ButtonLip]

Wanna hear something more

It's possible that Moat Cailin is also a structure built by these people. Just take a look at the descriptions here





Now, the description of Yeen:



Hmmmmmmmmmm :thinking:

When you realize all of these mysteries are expressly written to remain mysteries and no explicit answer to the many questions they provoke will ever be forthcoming

 

[cns - he/him/his]

Completely off-topic but when I was reading one of the books (can't remember which) I was doing so in school and got to one of the sex scenes and my gym teacher came up to me and chatted about the TV show and the books and shit. Pretty cool guy.

 

[Isuckatgaming]

When you realize all of these mysteries are expressly written to remain mysteries and no explicit answer to the many questions they provoke will ever be forthcoming

There are honestly so many mysteries regarding the lore/backstory that I think we're definitely gonna get some answered (mostly those that seem to be most important to the plot)

And also, there's a lot of plot related mysteries that we're definitely gonna get answered

 

[ButtonLip]

You've spent decades forging fragile alliances between warring tribes, creating a united front powerful enough to breach defenses that have stood for centuries. Your scouts have just relayed the news: your enemy has suffered too many losses. They're on the brink of collapse, and the Northern authorities are too preoccupied to come to their aid. You issue your final ultimatum: open the gates and let your people through, or you will sound the Horn of Winter and bring the Wall crashing down.

After generations of misery and strife, there is finally a chance for a better life.







Southern King and his Fire-Worshipping Priestess:

 

[Isuckatgaming]

You've spent decades forging fragile alliances between warring tribes, creating a united front powerful enough to breach defenses that have stood for centuries. Your scouts have just relayed the news: your enemy has suffered too many losses. They're on the brink of collapse, and the Northern authorities are too preoccupied to come to their aid. You issue your final ultimatum: open the gates and let your people through, or you will sound the Horn of Winter and bring the Wall crashing down.

After generations of misery and strife, there is finally a chance for a better life.







Southern King and his Fire-Worshipping Priestess:

Surprisingly, Stannis smiled at that. “You’re bold enough to be a Stark. Yes, I should have come sooner. If not for my Hand, I might not have come at all. Lord Seaworth is a man of humble birth, but he reminded me of my duty, when all I could think of was my rights. I had the cart before the horse, Davos said. I was trying to win the throne to save the kingdom, when I should have been trying to save the kingdom to win the throne.” Stannis pointed north. "There is where I'll find the enemy I was born to fight."

MANNISMANNISMANNISMANNISMANNISMANNIS

 

[Isuckatgaming]

Cool video, dude makes a 3D model of Winterfell mainly based on descriptions from the books but also using real life principles in castle design to fill out the gaps and it is very cool to see the sheer epic scale of the castles in this series visualized

 

[cns - he/him/his]

I really love how the last season of the TV show tanked so bad that people have literally stopped talking about it, it killed the fandom around it

 

[Isuckatgaming]

I really love how the last season of the TV show tanked so bad that people have literally stopped talking about it, it killed the fandom around it

Never have I seen the cultural significance of something drop so suddenly

 

[cns - he/him/his]

Never have I seen the cultural significance of something drop so suddenly

Something so bad that people go so upset that they just forgot about something that was probably the biggest thing on TV for quite a bit

 

[ButtonLip]

Cool video, dude makes a 3D model of Winterfell mainly based on descriptions from the books but also using real life principles in castle design to fill out the gaps and it is very cool to see the sheer epic scale of the castles in this series visualized

0/10, doesn't have a moon door

 

[ButtonLip]

Light of the Seven sounds pretty sick on just piano

 

[Isuckatgaming]

Light of the Seven sounds pretty sick on just piano

God bless Ramin Djawadi honestly

 

[Isuckatgaming]

Robb: Calls upon all his bannermen to save his family from the clutches of the Lannisters

Howland Reed, too busy smoking Crannogman swamp weed:

 

[ButtonLip]

Robb: Calls upon all his bannermen to save his family from the clutches of the Lannisters

Howland Reed, too busy smoking Crannogman swamp weed:

I like to believe that this whole time the Reeds have just been trying to find their own castle after it floated away