Children and families are not at all part of the culture. Children represent beginnings, innocence and light, and that is not Asshai. It makes sense that it would only have visitors, or people like Mel, who can live unusually long lives, which is how it would even have a population. TWOIAF has only a short description at the end, but it really stuck in my mind. The way it was written "there are no children in Asshai", was such a simple line, and It just brings shivers up the spine; so creepy.
This was LmL in his full-bloom buttoned down NorCal fukboi phase, soon after he would begin to mature into the shave-pate, 420GarthIt, foam sword phase we all know and love. Also: Who was digging for dragon bones in Sothoryos? You’d need multiple mercenary companies just for the anti-BrindledBoi perimeter defense.
It is criminal how few subs you have i seen so many channels with not even half as much love ,passion and genuine interesting content as you but with 500k subs so sad and honestly not fair
I wonder why I’ve not heard the theory that Nisa Nisa, the wife whose heart was pierced to give flame to light bringer, was not a human... What if Nisa Nisa was A DRAGON? The relationship between dragon and rider is a very intimate one. Perhaps that is romanticized in myth and folklore but the truth was that it was the heart of a dragon that gave flames to lightbringer.
I've watched this video at least 4 times now, and every time different parts have really caught my attention. This last time, those thoughts really clicked and I came up with the following idea. Azor Ahai and the Long Night came before the rise of Valyria. The Valyrian knowledge of dragons is said to have originated elsewhere. Asshai seems to be the birthplace of dragons. It is also a center of magical study, in large part, due to the fact that magic is naturally stronger there. Clearly, Asshai was once a city of incomparable size and wealth, but something happened that made the area all but unlivable. In fact, the only way to keep people fed is by shipping in all of its food, meaning it can only support a population a fraction of its original size. So, what happened to all of those people. Surely, some died during whatever catastrophe occurred, and more in its aftermath. A population that size, however, isn't just going to sit around and starve to death. Now, initially, the other aspects of the Long Night might have overcome their more worldly fears and kept them behind their walls. Once Azor Ahai dealt with that, however, most of the people of Asshai would have been on the move. Would it not make sense for Azor Ahai, or at least a member of his House to have led them to their new future? Heroes tend to be good at rallying the common folk to their sides. Ideally they'd want to find a land that somewhat resembled what their home was once like. They'd also want a place that wasn't already organized under powerful leadership. Remember, they're refugees. They don't have enough supplies for a protracted invasion. What area best fits their needs at the time? I give you: Valyria. Valyria went from a non-player to the preeminent power on Planetos in a relatively short period of time. They had dragons, and they knew how to control them. They had magic based on blood and fire. They had a prophecy about "the prince that was promised" which is almost in lock step with the prophecy of Azor Ahai reborn. Some very important and wise Targaryens were absolutely convinced that this prince that was promised would come from their bloodline. For cultures such as this, bloodlines are especially important. If a great hero were to be reborn (either figuratively or literally), where better than in their own bloodline. If you're going for literal, then what better vessel than a body that has the same potential abilities that your original body had? If you're going for figurative rebirth, then again, you need the same potential abilities, combined with a personal connection to stories that could give you clues as to how to use those abilities and the drive to attempt it. Even Tolkien described the souls of fallen elves as waiting in the Halls of Mandos to be reborn into their own bloodline. In fact, after the doom of Valyria, Aegon the Conqueror ignored the lands you'd expect him to hold sway over and conquered Westeros...a land the Valyrians had no real interaction with before. Why? There is a story that Aegon was told that the fate of the world depended on him establishing himself in Westeros. Why is that? So that his descendants, or one descendant in particular, would be positioned to play a pivotal role when the next Long Night fell upon the land. If R+L=J is right, apparently they also needed to combine their bloodline with that of preeminent bloodline of the First Men who helped fight back the original Long Night. Anyway, a really long story put shortly: We all know Martin likes to draw from other legends, and this one reminds me of the story of Aeneas. The refugee of Troy whose descendants founded Rome.
+stanklepoot One last note, both powerful societies came to a sudden catastrophic end. Perhaps related to the powerful magics they were both known to experiment with? So, perhaps the refugees of Asshai assumed power in Valyria and led to its sudden rise to prominence, and the refugees of Valyria turned the various kingdoms in Westeros into one large kingdom under their rule.
Mmmmm, maybe George has already hinted at this continuity between civilizations with how the Patrimony of Hyrkoon is partially descended from the Fisher Queens of the inland sea. A sort of passing of the torch (buh dum tish)
Whoa, seriously you guys step up every single episode up a notch. Intro looks really great and I loved the discussion! You are definitely my favourite podcast out there and with each episode you place yourselves even higher than the rest! Awesome work, cheers :)
Just discovered your channel and just wanted to say it is great to listen to. Really detailed and you clearly have a passion for the lore. Will continue to binge these videos :)
Its been a while since iv watched one of Westros Historys videos and i am so mad at myself! but at the same time so stoked i have so much content to drown in :) keep up the great work i absolutely love the intro!
There's definitely a volcanic influence upon Asshai. Its even alluded to in the name (ash). To me, the reason the city is so large is because a Planetos version of R'yleh the Ancient Ones built. I wouldn't be surprised if the meteorite which created the Long Night was the Ancient Ones landing on Planetos.
Trying something with that intro guys? I have to say it looks epic! Michael Clarfeld (I hope I got it right) did a great job! As always, excellent work, though you may have jumped into a den of vipers... you never know where a dragon chase will lead you.
+acrefray haha right? Michael (Klarfeld) made it for us as a gift after we got one of his map posters signed by GRRM and sent back to him in Germany. It was entirely his idea and we had little concept of what to expect! We're super happy to have it be part of the show from now on.
That's a kingly gift! I believe there may only be a few copies of it throughout the whole of Westeros, so please restrain from slicing it into pieces with a sword.
If it's something environmental keeping animals away from Ashai than whatever happened there would have to be BAD. I mean, there are thriving animal populations in Chernobyl.
Melisandre is Lightbringer for Jon Snow (The Red Sword in Jon's dream). She has a fire inside her, an agony, an ecstasy, filling her, searing her, TRANSFORMING HER. Shimmers of heat traced a pattern on her skin (Mel POV). Melisandre is clueless why she is at the Wall, which explains why she is so odd and delusional at times.
When I heard that 9 of 10 buildings in Asshai were empty, I thought of Vaes Dothrak, how it was built for a future event of people coming together there. Another possibility?
This is very clearly not the case, as Asshai is an actual city that is MASSIVE, to the point it could contain Oldtown, King’s Landing, Qarth, and Volantis. It is very obviously a post-collapse remnant of an ancient civilization, most likely the Empire of the Dawn
An interesting thought came to mind. With the dothraki and other armies pillaging cities throughout Essos. The appearance of an empty and unadorned city of Asshai, might well be a powerful glamour spell to dissuade any attack. Think about it, there's never been a war with or pillaging of Asshai yet it is the oldest city.
ghost grass that covers the whole peninsula that Asshai sits on, I think that’s what spooks the Dothraki off. And if they did ever show up, we know that they’ll take gold in return for not pillaging cities. Though, the rulers of those cities pay off the Dothraki, who would play that role in Asshai?
The Dothraki would never go to Asshai as they have a deep hatred and fear of anything magical or mystical. Plus it's mentioned (I forget which book) but the Dothraki don't trust grass nor water that their horses can't eat or drink. So again they wouldn't go there. They live on their horses. If their horses can't eat or drink they'll lose them all (animals don't live long in Asshai). With the Dothraki, most of their strength comes from the fact that their insanely good horsemen. That's not to say that they aren't great warriors but you get what I mean lol. Asshai has natural defenses. Or as you mentioned, "natural" defenses if it's a powerful glamour. Which honestly would be such a cool take on it.
This is such an oafish concept. Asshai is well behind the Dothraki range. Look at a map ffs. Asshai is also in an insanely defensible location and ghost grass grows there and Dothraki hate Basically if you took the smallest effort to actually understand this world, you would realize your hypothesis is nonsensical. It is simply a city that was from a civilization that collapsed. It isn’t that complicated to understand You weirdos that try to connect every thing like “maybe the Dothraki built the Wall” are so absurd.
Jamie also has a dream that he is fighting a war along with Breann and he was wielding a red flaming sword and she was wielding a blue flaming sword. Not saying he is Azhor Ahai but saying the dreams are not a good place to look the Azhor Ahai.
I think you overstate the viciousness of the red priests. Even the Old Gods received blood sacrifice, which seems to be more a necessary requirement of initiating magic in the world GRRM has created, rather than the sign of true evil. Plus Melisandre appears to be a very poor representative of them as a whole.
Melisandre is not just a red priest, she is also a Shadowbinder which is a much more sinister branch of the faith. Comparing Thoros or Myr to Melisandre is like comparing a regular Catholic priest to an Inquisitor searching for heretics to burn at the stake.
This was an amazing elaboration, loved every bit of it!!! Is there any chance that you'll make a podcast about all the other infamous places such as Yi Ti, Sothoryos and Ulthos? I would really appreciate it. Lots of love and very nice intro!
+Ried HSN Yes, to some degree. We are building up to an episode about the Great Empire of the Dawn, and we'll also be covering inexplicable / anachronistic building structures in Westeros in particular. We will discuss greasy black stone as well. Not really any Ulthos - we don't have any info on Ulthos - but we will talk about Yeen a bit.
+The Snow In Winterfell The Asshai vid pushed its way in front of GEotD as a lead in, but we're going to try to get it out ASAP. Our non-show material releases will slow a bit, but we'll keep them coming even during TV season.
+The Snow In Winterfell Keep up the pressure on Aziz! :) I've been waiting for months too, lol! But hey, if the worst thing that happens is that we keep making (hopefully) interesting episodes that lead up to it... you know, not that bad. The GEotD will be next though, for sure. Originally, that script had a large section about Asshai and Aziz was like "hey, we haven't done Asshai yet, we can't just mention it in passing," and the more we thought about it, the more it made sense. At least, once Yolkboy weighed in in favor of doing an Asshai-centric episode, there was no talking Aziz out of it, ha ha. Of course I kid; it's been a blast to be on History of Westeros.
I can't help but think that Asshai is for the Land of Shadow what The Wall is for the Land of Always Winter, some sort of container/ barrier. Both are mystical, both are scarcely populated and both are on extreme environments. Also, in both there's the necessity of crossing them in order to obtain arcane knowledge (greenseers cross the Wall and shadowbinders cross Asshai).
It's interesting when Melisandre bleds, the blood is black and smoking. When Daenerys pulls the spear out of Drogon his blood is black and smoking. Both Quaithe and Daenerys note "for dragons are fire made flesh" Dragons appeared when magic comes back to this world and I believe so did Melisandre. You noted from Mel's POV "the fire was inside her, an agony, an ecstasy, searing her, transforming her. She is not a real living being, but a glamour of an old priestess that lived thousands of years ago. She appears at Dragonstone out of nowhere. Her only purpose was to get to the Wall with the fire made flesh from the Lord of Light. Stannis was just a way to do this. Dany and her dragons are not part of her journey. Benerro and Moqorro are real living priest and believe Dany is Azor Ahai, but never see Melisandre (?) in the flames. The LoL doesn't show her. If Mel traveled from Asshai, she would have past Quarth Slavers Bay Volantis etc, but Quaithe waited for Dany in Quarth for months. Why wouldn't Melisandre done the same, if she is looking for Azor Ahai? The Wall is one of the hinges of the world and magic is very strong there...Whitewalkers (Great Others), wights, wargs, greenseers and so on. Mel is a magical being of fire made flesh.
but if she's already a being of fire, disguised as a human, why is the fire inside her "transforming her"? I belive she is still human (at least partially) and in the process of becoming a being of fire made flesh.
@@moonchild4648 I think you’ve got a point. She’s pretty far gone but there is some humanity left, we know she at least started more or less fully human.
Wow what an opener!!! You guys are always welcome to use a picture of my Weirwood, or any other sculpture that I may happen to make,sometime in the future if need be!
Its been so long since this stream that LmL created his own analysis youtube channel in that time. When I first saw this 4 years ago I never would have thought Winds would be MIA in 2021 lol. Personally, im feeling 2024 now. If we don't get Winds by then we never will.
Kudos for being the first people I've ever heard address any magic on Planetos other than blood and shadow magic. I think elemental magic plays a larger role in the big picture of Planetos than most people give it credit.
the idea of something being so dark "it was almost back" actually appears quite a lot in the asoiaf universe. Aside from what is mentioned here, it is also mentioned in the Dunk & Egg stories that Egg's eyes are such a dark shade of purple that they are almost black and similarly very early on Bran mentions that Jon's eyes are so dark gray they are almost black.
Look at the map of the *known* world of Planetos, factor in GRRM's assertion that the planet is slightly larger than Earth, factor in the scale of the map of the known world (given the measurement of the wall at approx. 300 miles) and between the Shadow beyond Ashaii and Westerns (basically HALF the planet) you have the Land of Always Winter (perhaps the planet's revolutions are askew and you have a 'dark side' to the planet a la the Earth's moon, but more unstable, resulting in days, years and seasons...)?
Been watching these and reading theorys for probably a year or two now, Asoiaf is truly remarkable for how expansive it is in fictional content, Looking excited to the empire of the dawn Luci ;)
R'hllor, similar to Cthulu (R'lyeh). There's a whole lot of references to the Deep Ones and my guess is that they were the ones that built Asshai. They were around before the first men arrived in Westeros and may still be there.
Re: your discussion about whether the red religion is good or bad - I think talking about who is 'good' and 'bad' is going down a dead-end rabbit hole. Martin doesn't believe in 'good' or 'bad' (see the quote below) and he sees his own characters as complex and morally ambiguous (like humans generally are). "The whole concept of the Dark Lord, and good guys fighting bad guys, good versus evil, while brilliantly handled in Tolkien, in the hands of any Tolkien successors, it has become a kind of a cartoon. We don't need any more Dark Lords, we don't need any more "Here are the good guys, they're in white, there are the bad guys, they're in black. And also, they're really ugly, the bad guys." War is central to a lot of fantasy, going back to Tolkien and beyond, but in most modern fantasy, it's very much the good guys fighting the bad guys. The Dark Lord is about to take over the Earth unless the guys in white cloaks stop him. I don't don't to think things are that simple - I think my generation was disabused of that notion by Vietnam - and the wars in my books are more morally complex."
Came from the podcast just to have a look at that intro. Didn't expect it to be that great! The only bad thing about it is that it's too sick for UA-cam's compression to handle ;)
+Penny Lane Hm, odd, will have to test it at a later point; the fire was what looked pixelated for me as well, and it was fine on Aziz's laptop, so at least it doesn't seem to actually be in that quality.
Westeros History I think Chromium doesn't have patented codecs like H.264 so maybe that's the difference between Firefox and Chromium as completely open source browsers and Google Chrome. There might not be much that you can do about it, other than uploading an upscaled 4K version.
I think George originally planned for Dany to to do Asshai. But than the world got larger, and he realized how far he had made it, so he created Qarth to take Asshai's place on her story.
Phenomenal! Thank you all so much. I have to say this info an Asshai is swaying me to think that this entire story is more science-fiction rather then fantasy and that the reminents of this lost city might be evidence of nuclear warfare.....maybe.
+Peace Baby I think what is going on is that Martin is making magical equivalents to some sci fi concepts. I really don't think it's secret sci fi, but since martin has written so much of it, it's understandable that some parallels exist. I think about the Long Night moon disaster as a kind of magical nuclear winter, just as dragon safe kinda like nuclear bombs (Martin's analogy). Just my opinion. I think he's pretty much dismissed the idea that's its sci fi in an SSM, but I'm not positive.
Is this a new intro or have I just never noticed it before? Way cool!! :) Glad to hear an in depth discussion about Asshai, it's so scarcely talked about. Are you guys planning on doing a Beric episode? P.S. Don't know if this means anything but "Yin" means "dark" in Chinese. Might be another loan word GRRM used.
+Irene S Ah jees you know I knew that, but it hadn't occurred to me that one of the names for Azor Ahai is "Yin Tar." Tar is black, yin is black. Duh. And I'm the one with a big giant theory about how Azor Ahai was really a villain and a black magician called the Bloodstone Emperor. That's a great little correlation, thanks!
I've always wondered whether or not the entirety of the 'to go north' prophecy was meant for Dany specifically. My personal theory is that the prophecy was meant for Azor Ahai, Azor Ahai being both Dany AND Jon. Of course, Quaith thinks that Dany is AA, and so gives her the prophecy in full. But certain parts can be more representative of Jon's assumed journeys and arc. To go North you must go South seems like a good candidate for Jon. He needs to go South (not super far, but South nonetheless) to retake control of the North / rally support from the Northern houses, in order to go North to fight the White Walkers. 'To see the light' part could reference his death and resurrection, as well. The 'to go west' and 'to go forward' parts are pretty indicative of Dany's overall arc, and are well explained and reasoned. There's no reason that Quaithe can't, like Melisandre, believe certain things about AA and then try to help those people out, even though they are mistaken. Maybe the North/South Light/Shadow bits are not meant for Dany. Perhaps Quaithe was not trying to specifically help Dany, but to seek out answers and help for Azor Ahai. Being unaware of Jon, she dumps more prophecy onto Dany than actually applies to her.
What if the people who first built with the "oily black stone" were immune it its effects? Given the extent magic has been demonstrated to work within the world, could the Men, Children, and The Others have a common ancestor that was immune to the negative effects of blood-magic and the stone? Could the original inhabitants have magically altered their biology to cope with living in that place? This would make it very easy to defend from anyone who didn't have the tolerance to the side effects.
@14:11 - pretty funny Roy Dotrice/Illyrio impression there (And I'm loving the readings in general) @19:00 - Asshai is heavily linked to Dany, yes, but also Melisandre no? (with your pun fetish I'm surprised you haven't gotten to Aziz Ahai and Asshaiya) @1:33:00 - I like your idea that what happened to Valyria happened to Asshai in the more distant past, and that Valyria is gradually becoming more inhabitable again - this could explain how Euron was able to explore Valyria, find his hell horn, and survive - maybe Valyria is just now (as of our current book timeline) becoming inhabitable again. (this is a really fantastic episode, by the way - many thanks)
+Kevin Moore I think we meant as far as main characters. Mel is kind of an ancillary character, though I find her very interesting and obviously important.
Perhaps Stygai was the origin of Fire, blood and shadow magic. They destroyed themselves and the survivors fled downstream and settled in Asshai. Asshai then destroyed themselves and the knowledge they had was eventually inherited by the Valyrians. Asshai eventually became a place of research and learning about these forms of magic because of the artifacts from old Assahi that survived its downfall. The Valyrians destroyed themselves and the Targaryens survivors conquered Westeros. Until the time Aerys II Targaryen when he tried to destroy Kings Landing with wildfire.
Awesome intro, great work there. By far one of the most informative compilations I've seen at all, and the best single resource on Asshai. Suggestion: there is a LOT of information to follow. A listener is really engaged to process what you talk about. It's very distracting to cut away from. LmL just to see Aziz do a scripted laugh or chuckle. In the least offensive or harsh way possible, it becomes annoying and makes Aziz come off as disingenuous and ends up distracting the viewer. We know when something is supposed to be a joke and can deal with hearing the laugh in the background while not cutting away from LmL. It's odd that there are no cuts away from Aziz while LmL is speaking but it happens frequently the other way around. Again, great job compiling the info and great delivery, just maybe dial back that distraction to the viewer who is already trying to hold the weight of what's being presented.
Thanks for the feedback, it helps. We can lock the screen on a person rather than having it move based on sounds. However, we have never scripted a laugh and can't imagine ever doing so. Those are real laughs, that's just how I am. :)
This was a wonderful show! I am a new fan of yours. I have not read the books but I am interested in additional knowledge about The World of Ice and Fire. I just wanted to shine a little light, on the population in Asshai. I don't know if you've ever read the manga or watched the anime Fullmetal Alchemist before but, I think there is some similarities, in a portion of the story of speculation about the Asshai. !!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!! When the truth in Fullmetal Alchemist is revealed, to the main characters, about transmutation (the resurrection of a human) and the Philosopher's Stone, They find out that it requires human Souls. It also creates artificial humans called homunculi. These protagonist go on to find a lost underground city, that was still in pristine condition. It once held thousands upon thousands of people, but was abandoned. Turns out the people who used to live there were sacrificed, by the antagonists of this story and through alchemy, the city was buried. Perhaps this is why Asshai is the way it is. Through old magic the inhabitants were sacrificed to the shadows or maybe the fire god. Or maybe the people of the unknown east have something to do with their demise.
BTW, sometimes I will fall asleep listening to your podcast. Then, I would go back and replay them. I'm always surprised by how much I hear of you all, in my sleep. I recall quite a bit of info!!! It's kinda shocking!!! LOL
may i make a suggestion to you guys? first of all i want to say that i ADORRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE everything you are and everything you do. you guys are awesome and my absolute favourite ASOIAF resource - you blow my mind with the levels of thought and details everytime. i was just going to suggest that now that you lay out "parts" for topics within a topic, it may also be helpful to timestamp them? because of the amount of detail you guys go into your videos are quite long - which don't get me wrong, i'm a huge lover of that. the more intelligent in depth assessment the better! - but it would be handy whenever i go back through your videos looking for something to refresh myself on if i could see roughly where it might begin, rather than sifting through a whole 2 hours again, you know? just a very minor suggestion! love you guys! xx
thanks, again love your time and effort in the making of your videos. have you touched on Bran's visions? ive seen Dannys investigated. Thannk you guys for your videos. I have been a visitor for a while.
Great podcast!! I can not wait for TWOW to know more about this land and all its misticism. Also i want to know more about the other lands south Asshai and even East of Asshai. Hopefully George RR Martin will tell us more about those unknown lands, it would be so cool if the culture of those lands were inspired by japanese culture.
+André Vila Franca I definitely think a lot of the Yi Ti / Great Empire of the Dawn stuff is influenced by Japanese myth and culture. For example, the Maiden Made of Light = Ameratsu (from wikipedia): "Amaterasu (天照?), Amaterasu-ōmikami (天照大神／天照大御神／天照皇大神?) or Ōhirume-no-muchi-no-kami (大日孁貴神?) is a part of the Japanese myth cycle and also a major deity of the Shinto religion. She is seen as the goddess of the sun, but also of the universe. The name Amaterasu derived from Amateru meaning "shining in heaven." The meaning of her whole name, Amaterasu-ōmikami, is "the great august kami (god) who shines in the heaven".[N 1] According to the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki in Japanese mythology, the Emperors of Japan are considered to be direct descendants of Amaterasu."
Maybe, that's a possibility. Now imagine if the Ulthos continent had warriors inspired by samurai and ninja. I'd love to see what George comes up with for that part of the unknown world (if he actually is going to create something for it).
From ASOIAF i really don't know which character George RR Martin created with this reference in mind, but i know for a fact that Akira Toriyama (creator of Dragon Ball) got inspired to create the main character Son Goku thanks to this mythological being. It's cool! xD
I never thought of Tyrion, but good to know! I don't think he's son of The Mad King though, but it's not out of the question. I prefer Tyrion to be the son of Tywin to fully portray the anguish of Tywin in knowing his own blood, his own family is his demise, it's so hironic. I just wish he had lived to feel the shame caused by Cersei too. xD
you really have good topics! many of them are obscure, and what I would consider to be advanced ASoIaF topics, the sorta stuff that pops into a book readers mind after all the more popular topics are played out... I look forward to spending some time checking out ur channel☺
On the brochure to Asshai reads: "Hey, at least we are not Stygai."
+Lincoln Noronha nice one ;)
"I went to Stygai and all I got was this lacquered mask"
It reads " Masks, gems and sorcery"
Is that the one with the glowy green water and Chernobyl fishies?
@@keittykit yuup
Asshai always creeped me out, but even more when "there are no children in Asshai", was stated in TWOIAF. So glad you did this one!
+koft2009 Agreed. Asshai seems to be a place you go to...you don't grow up there.
+koft2009 I like asshai, especially the 'no children' thing, no loud rebellious teens - Old Man
maybe is radiation from the rock that keep adults from having children.
Children and families are not at all part of the culture. Children represent beginnings, innocence and light, and that is not Asshai. It makes sense that it would only have visitors, or people like Mel, who can live unusually long lives, which is how it would even have a population.
TWOIAF has only a short description at the end, but it really stuck in my mind. The way it was written "there are no children in Asshai", was such a simple line, and It just brings shivers up the spine; so creepy.
I wonder if the reason that there are no children in Asshai is because babies are sacrificed in blood magic rituals.
Skip to 6:16 if you don't want the "making of" section of this video.
Mike U thanks
This was LmL in his full-bloom buttoned down NorCal fukboi phase, soon after he would begin to mature into the shave-pate, 420GarthIt, foam sword phase we all know and love.
Also: Who was digging for dragon bones in Sothoryos? You’d need multiple mercenary companies just for the anti-BrindledBoi perimeter defense.
Yes, this is definitely the most informative and in-depth videos on Asshai.
Your channel has the nicest most knowledgable people on George's world. Keep up the awesome videos. Thanks
Ok, a random thought off something said in passing; Jorha being safe in Asshai from Varys. Yes he would. There are no children/little birds in Asshai.
hey that's a cool thought!
Varys specialises in children, but he's quite willing to make use of adult spies such as the assassin he sent after Daenerys in AGoT
That’s so smart
"Foreshadow-lands-ing, something like that? hmhm 😏"
*Disappointed silence intensifies*
It is criminal how few subs you have i seen so many channels with not even half as much love ,passion and genuine interesting content as you but with 500k subs so sad and honestly not fair
I wonder why I’ve not heard the theory that Nisa Nisa, the wife whose heart was pierced to give flame to light bringer, was not a human...
What if Nisa Nisa was A DRAGON?
The relationship between dragon and rider is a very intimate one. Perhaps that is romanticized in myth and folklore but the truth was that it was the heart of a dragon that gave flames to lightbringer.
I've watched this video at least 4 times now, and every time different parts have really caught my attention. This last time, those thoughts really clicked and I came up with the following idea. Azor Ahai and the Long Night came before the rise of Valyria. The Valyrian knowledge of dragons is said to have originated elsewhere. Asshai seems to be the birthplace of dragons. It is also a center of magical study, in large part, due to the fact that magic is naturally stronger there. Clearly, Asshai was once a city of incomparable size and wealth, but something happened that made the area all but unlivable. In fact, the only way to keep people fed is by shipping in all of its food, meaning it can only support a population a fraction of its original size.
So, what happened to all of those people. Surely, some died during whatever catastrophe occurred, and more in its aftermath. A population that size, however, isn't just going to sit around and starve to death. Now, initially, the other aspects of the Long Night might have overcome their more worldly fears and kept them behind their walls. Once Azor Ahai dealt with that, however, most of the people of Asshai would have been on the move. Would it not make sense for Azor Ahai, or at least a member of his House to have led them to their new future? Heroes tend to be good at rallying the common folk to their sides. Ideally they'd want to find a land that somewhat resembled what their home was once like. They'd also want a place that wasn't already organized under powerful leadership. Remember, they're refugees. They don't have enough supplies for a protracted invasion. What area best fits their needs at the time?
I give you: Valyria. Valyria went from a non-player to the preeminent power on Planetos in a relatively short period of time. They had dragons, and they knew how to control them. They had magic based on blood and fire. They had a prophecy about "the prince that was promised" which is almost in lock step with the prophecy of Azor Ahai reborn. Some very important and wise Targaryens were absolutely convinced that this prince that was promised would come from their bloodline. For cultures such as this, bloodlines are especially important. If a great hero were to be reborn (either figuratively or literally), where better than in their own bloodline. If you're going for literal, then what better vessel than a body that has the same potential abilities that your original body had? If you're going for figurative rebirth, then again, you need the same potential abilities, combined with a personal connection to stories that could give you clues as to how to use those abilities and the drive to attempt it. Even Tolkien described the souls of fallen elves as waiting in the Halls of Mandos to be reborn into their own bloodline. In fact, after the doom of Valyria, Aegon the Conqueror ignored the lands you'd expect him to hold sway over and conquered Westeros...a land the Valyrians had no real interaction with before. Why? There is a story that Aegon was told that the fate of the world depended on him establishing himself in Westeros. Why is that? So that his descendants, or one descendant in particular, would be positioned to play a pivotal role when the next Long Night fell upon the land. If R+L=J is right, apparently they also needed to combine their bloodline with that of preeminent bloodline of the First Men who helped fight back the original Long Night.
Anyway, a really long story put shortly: We all know Martin likes to draw from other legends, and this one reminds me of the story of Aeneas. The refugee of Troy whose descendants founded Rome.
+stanklepoot One last note, both powerful societies came to a sudden catastrophic end. Perhaps related to the powerful magics they were both known to experiment with? So, perhaps the refugees of Asshai assumed power in Valyria and led to its sudden rise to prominence, and the refugees of Valyria turned the various kingdoms in Westeros into one large kingdom under their rule.
Mmmmm, maybe George has already hinted at this continuity between civilizations with how the Patrimony of Hyrkoon is partially descended from the Fisher Queens of the inland sea. A sort of passing of the torch (buh dum tish)
This could also explain the incest,wanting to keep bloodlines pure so azzur ahai can be reborn
Whoa, seriously you guys step up every single episode up a notch. Intro looks really great and I loved the discussion! You are definitely my favourite podcast out there and with each episode you place yourselves even higher than the rest! Awesome work, cheers :)
+Loremaster Thanks so much, we'll keep them coming, and keep improving as best as we can.
Just discovered your channel and just wanted to say it is great to listen to. Really detailed and you clearly have a passion for the lore. Will continue to binge these videos :)
**Walks into Stygai.**
“Get out of here, Stalker.”
Its been a while since iv watched one of Westros Historys videos and i am so mad at myself! but at the same time so stoked i have so much content to drown in :) keep up the great work i absolutely love the intro!
Nice graphics guys. Super glad you guys got yourself something nice.
There's definitely a volcanic influence upon Asshai. Its even alluded to in the name (ash).
To me, the reason the city is so large is because a Planetos version of R'yleh the Ancient Ones built.
I wouldn't be surprised if the meteorite which created the Long Night was the Ancient Ones landing on Planetos.
Ramon Suarez it's not ash, it's assh
@OverlyOpinionated he sais its alluded to in the name ash, but it isnt becuase there isnt ash in asshai. Ass-hai. Maybe if there was 1 s
Trying something with that intro guys? I have to say it looks epic! Michael Clarfeld (I hope I got it right) did a great job!
As always, excellent work, though you may have jumped into a den of vipers... you never know where a dragon chase will lead you.
+acrefray haha right? Michael (Klarfeld) made it for us as a gift after we got one of his map posters signed by GRRM and sent back to him in Germany. It was entirely his idea and we had little concept of what to expect! We're super happy to have it be part of the show from now on.
That's a kingly gift! I believe there may only be a few copies of it throughout the whole of Westeros, so please restrain from slicing it into pieces with a sword.
+acrefray Damn! That intro is awesome!!!
Now that's a intro.! Right on man.. Nice work!!!
If it's something environmental keeping animals away from Ashai than whatever happened there would have to be BAD. I mean, there are thriving animal populations in Chernobyl.
I was glad to stumble upon such a through explanation of everything we know about asshai. Bad Chemistry is a fantastic description, good work!
I didn't even start watching the video yet. You earned a sub with the awesome intro. If you did it yourself I bow before you're greatness.
wonderful intro and as usual your videos & content set the bar very high. Please keep them coming.
+Christy Crowe thanks, we'll keep them coming!
Melisandre is Lightbringer for Jon Snow (The Red Sword in Jon's dream). She has a fire inside her, an agony, an ecstasy, filling her, searing her, TRANSFORMING HER. Shimmers of heat traced a pattern on her skin (Mel POV). Melisandre is clueless why she is at the Wall, which explains why she is so odd and delusional at times.
When I heard that 9 of 10 buildings in Asshai were empty, I thought of Vaes Dothrak, how it was built for a future event of people coming together there. Another possibility?
It is said thecity was full to bursting in ancient times. It seems some catastrophie happened and people left or died
This is very clearly not the case, as Asshai is an actual city that is MASSIVE, to the point it could contain Oldtown, King’s Landing, Qarth, and Volantis.
It is very obviously a post-collapse remnant of an ancient civilization, most likely the Empire of the Dawn
loveeee the new Intro
I love seeing this whole thing grow over the years.
Ashai is a weird way to spell Detroit.
W
@@grarglejobber4263 haha true
You, sir, are a complete morron.
@@victormeunier9075 no u
Fucking racist.
An interesting thought came to mind. With the dothraki and other armies pillaging cities throughout Essos. The appearance of an empty and unadorned city of Asshai, might well be a powerful glamour spell to dissuade any attack. Think about it, there's never been a war with or pillaging of Asshai yet it is the oldest city.
ghost grass that covers the whole peninsula that Asshai sits on, I think that’s what spooks the Dothraki off. And if they did ever show up, we know that they’ll take gold in return for not pillaging cities. Though, the rulers of those cities pay off the Dothraki, who would play that role in Asshai?
The Dothraki would never go to Asshai as they have a deep hatred and fear of anything magical or mystical.
Plus it's mentioned (I forget which book) but the Dothraki don't trust grass nor water that their horses can't eat or drink. So again they wouldn't go there.
They live on their horses. If their horses can't eat or drink they'll lose them all (animals don't live long in Asshai). With the Dothraki, most of their strength comes from the fact that their insanely good horsemen. That's not to say that they aren't great warriors but you get what I mean lol.
Asshai has natural defenses. Or as you mentioned, "natural" defenses if it's a powerful glamour. Which honestly would be such a cool take on it.
This is such an oafish concept. Asshai is well behind the Dothraki range. Look at a map ffs. Asshai is also in an insanely defensible location and ghost grass grows there and Dothraki hate
Basically if you took the smallest effort to actually understand this world, you would realize your hypothesis is nonsensical.
It is simply a city that was from a civilization that collapsed. It isn’t that complicated to understand
You weirdos that try to connect every thing like “maybe the Dothraki built the Wall” are so absurd.
The intro is so cool!!!! Love it!!!
Jamie also has a dream that he is fighting a war along with Breann and he was wielding a red flaming sword and she was wielding a blue flaming sword. Not saying he is Azhor Ahai but saying the dreams are not a good place to look the Azhor Ahai.
Daaamn Aziz, my favorite podcast back it again with the enlightenment of westeros and the lands beyond! Awesome episode as usual guys.
I think you overstate the viciousness of the red priests. Even the Old Gods received blood sacrifice, which seems to be more a necessary requirement of initiating magic in the world GRRM has created, rather than the sign of true evil. Plus Melisandre appears to be a very poor representative of them as a whole.
Melisandre is not just a red priest, she is also a Shadowbinder which is a much more sinister branch of the faith. Comparing Thoros or Myr to Melisandre is like comparing a regular Catholic priest to an Inquisitor searching for heretics to burn at the stake.
As Ser Davos said, “if your god requires you to kill children, then your god is evil.”
This was an amazing elaboration, loved every bit of it!!! Is there any chance that you'll make a podcast about all the other infamous places such as Yi Ti, Sothoryos and Ulthos? I would really appreciate it. Lots of love and very nice intro!
+Ried HSN Yes, to some degree. We are building up to an episode about the Great Empire of the Dawn, and we'll also be covering inexplicable / anachronistic building structures in Westeros in particular. We will discuss greasy black stone as well. Not really any Ulthos - we don't have any info on Ulthos - but we will talk about Yeen a bit.
I'm really looking forward to the next one. I've been waiting for months for your GEotD theory/video.
+The Snow In Winterfell The Asshai vid pushed its way in front of GEotD as a lead in, but we're going to try to get it out ASAP. Our non-show material releases will slow a bit, but we'll keep them coming even during TV season.
+The Snow In Winterfell Keep up the pressure on Aziz! :) I've been waiting for months too, lol! But hey, if the worst thing that happens is that we keep making (hopefully) interesting episodes that lead up to it... you know, not that bad.
The GEotD will be next though, for sure. Originally, that script had a large section about Asshai and Aziz was like "hey, we haven't done Asshai yet, we can't just mention it in passing," and the more we thought about it, the more it made sense. At least, once Yolkboy weighed in in favor of doing an Asshai-centric episode, there was no talking Aziz out of it, ha ha. Of course I kid; it's been a blast to be on History of Westeros.
Greaaaat intro! Way to go guys!
history of westeros getting better everyday. Great intro
I can't help but think that Asshai is for the Land of Shadow what The Wall is for the Land of Always Winter, some sort of container/ barrier. Both are mystical, both are scarcely populated and both are on extreme environments. Also, in both there's the necessity of crossing them in order to obtain arcane knowledge (greenseers cross the Wall and shadowbinders cross Asshai).
It's interesting when Melisandre bleds, the blood is black and smoking. When Daenerys pulls the spear out of Drogon his blood is black and smoking. Both Quaithe and Daenerys note "for dragons are fire made flesh" Dragons appeared when magic comes back to this world and I believe so did Melisandre. You noted from Mel's POV "the fire was inside her, an agony, an ecstasy, searing her, transforming her. She is not a real living being, but a glamour of an old priestess that lived thousands of years ago. She appears at Dragonstone out of nowhere. Her only purpose was to get to the Wall with the fire made flesh from the Lord of Light. Stannis was just a way to do this. Dany and her dragons are not part of her journey. Benerro and Moqorro are real living priest and believe Dany is Azor Ahai, but never see Melisandre (?) in the flames. The LoL doesn't show her. If Mel traveled from Asshai, she would have past Quarth Slavers Bay Volantis etc, but Quaithe waited for Dany in Quarth for months. Why wouldn't Melisandre done the same, if she is looking for Azor Ahai? The Wall is one of the hinges of the world and magic is very strong there...Whitewalkers (Great Others), wights, wargs, greenseers and so on. Mel is a magical being of fire made flesh.
but if she's already a being of fire, disguised as a human, why is the fire inside her "transforming her"? I belive she is still human (at least partially) and in the process of becoming a being of fire made flesh.
@@moonchild4648 I think you’ve got a point. She’s pretty far gone but there is some humanity left, we know she at least started more or less fully human.
excited to listen to this, what an awesome intro to start things off
The new intro is really well done!
Wow what an opener!!! You guys are always welcome to use a picture of my Weirwood, or any other sculpture that I may happen to make,sometime in the future if need be!
Great intro guys. Very cool
Its been so long since this stream that LmL created his own analysis youtube channel in that time. When I first saw this 4 years ago I never would have thought Winds would be MIA in 2021 lol. Personally, im feeling 2024 now. If we don't get Winds by then we never will.
Only a few weeks left in 2024…
Kudos for being the first people I've ever heard address any magic on Planetos other than blood and shadow magic. I think elemental magic plays a larger role in the big picture of Planetos than most people give it credit.
+raven firestone37 thanks, we love touching on the various magics around the world, even though they are difficult to figure out. Cool name, btw!
It's all just teke. It's like dividing music into genres. Essentially it's all teke.
+crnisuton evidence? and no, I won't accept anything that amounts to 'because I said so'. (or Preston Jacobs, either. yes, I watch his stuff, too)
awesome opening. great vid as always.
Love the new intro!!! It's great!!
I love this episode. I hope your will do more videos together. Great format.
Excelent!
Do Sothoryos please!
In short, its the Africa of Planetos.
Actually I'd say it's the south america, we know less about south america than we do about africa.
It´s the Isle of the Professor Moreau. ;)
You need more like this. And I'm sure there's still so much more for you guys to get into.
Intro A+
Great intro, Great topic, Great episode, Great work!!!!
the idea of something being so dark "it was almost back" actually appears quite a lot in the asoiaf universe. Aside from what is mentioned here, it is also mentioned in the Dunk & Egg stories that Egg's eyes are such a dark shade of purple that they are almost black and similarly very early on Bran mentions that Jon's eyes are so dark gray they are almost black.
Grand old introduction. Definitely, a youtube channel to aspire to. I'll be there someday.
+Lars Teeney Yes, keep at it!
+Westeros History (AA Podcast) 👍I also think the maps are REALLY cool! Map making is so interesting!
Look at the map of the *known* world of Planetos, factor in GRRM's assertion that the planet is slightly larger than Earth, factor in the scale of the map of the known world (given the measurement of the wall at approx. 300 miles) and between the Shadow beyond Ashaii and Westerns (basically HALF the planet) you have the Land of Always Winter (perhaps the planet's revolutions are askew and you have a 'dark side' to the planet a la the Earth's moon, but more unstable, resulting in days, years and seasons...)?
That was so great! Thank you!
Been watching these and reading theorys for probably a year or two now, Asoiaf is truly remarkable for how expansive it is in fictional content, Looking excited to the empire of the dawn Luci ;)
R'hllor, similar to Cthulu (R'lyeh). There's a whole lot of references to the Deep Ones and my guess is that they were the ones that built Asshai. They were around before the first men arrived in Westeros and may still be there.
Re: your discussion about whether the red religion is good or bad - I think talking about who is 'good' and 'bad' is going down a dead-end rabbit hole. Martin doesn't believe in 'good' or 'bad' (see the quote below) and he sees his own characters as complex and morally ambiguous (like humans generally are). "The whole concept of the Dark Lord, and good guys fighting bad guys, good versus evil, while brilliantly handled in Tolkien, in the hands of any Tolkien successors, it has become a kind of a cartoon. We don't need any more Dark Lords, we don't need any more "Here are the good guys, they're in white, there are the bad guys, they're in black. And also, they're really ugly, the bad guys." War is central to a lot of fantasy, going back to Tolkien and beyond, but in most modern fantasy, it's very much the good guys fighting the bad guys. The Dark Lord is about to take over the Earth unless the guys in white cloaks stop him. I don't don't to think things are that simple - I think my generation was disabused of that notion by Vietnam - and the wars in my books are more morally complex."
2 hr good content video about asshai yes please
Came from the podcast just to have a look at that intro. Didn't expect it to be that great! The only bad thing about it is that it's too sick for UA-cam's compression to handle ;)
+Penny Lane Weirdly, it is pixelated for me on Firefox, but when Aziz played it in Chrome, it looked fine. What browser are you using?
Westeros History Chromium and I didn't use Flash. It's only the fire that looked massacred, the whole map part looked fine.
+Penny Lane Hm, odd, will have to test it at a later point; the fire was what looked pixelated for me as well, and it was fine on Aziz's laptop, so at least it doesn't seem to actually be in that quality.
Westeros History I think Chromium doesn't have patented codecs like H.264 so maybe that's the difference between Firefox and Chromium as completely open source browsers and Google Chrome.
There might not be much that you can do about it, other than uploading an upscaled 4K version.
I think George originally planned for Dany to to do Asshai. But than the world got larger, and he realized how far he had made it, so he created Qarth to take Asshai's place on her story.
Dominic Nozzarella didn't GRRM say she wouldn't?
Dominic Nozzarella 49:08 welp guess he did say that after all
Awesome new intro!
damn, I love lml's essays
+Miguel Forster thanks brother Miguel ;)
I love that new intro!
Phenomenal! Thank you all so much. I have to say this info an Asshai is swaying me to think that this entire story is more science-fiction rather then fantasy and that the reminents of this lost city might be evidence of nuclear warfare.....maybe.
+Peace Baby I think what is going on is that Martin is making magical equivalents to some sci fi concepts. I really don't think it's secret sci fi, but since martin has written so much of it, it's understandable that some parallels exist. I think about the Long Night moon disaster as a kind of magical nuclear winter, just as dragon safe kinda like nuclear bombs (Martin's analogy). Just my opinion. I think he's pretty much dismissed the idea that's its sci fi in an SSM, but I'm not positive.
Pumped for this!
Sick new intro!
Thanks for all
Nice intro! Here's a sub
Great show!
Fascinating discussion, thanks! Love the intro too!
Beware of Dragon Eclipses! ;)
+Archmaester Drew yeah you know what happens right after the dragon eclipse... storm of swords time
+lucifer means light bringer
Could the old valerians be descended from survivors of the Doom avishai and the shadowlands?
Yes! Absolutely. We're going to get into that in our next joint episode.
when will that be?... I am really looking forward to the next of this series!
May the lord of light bless you for that intro
+Stannis The Mannis Baratheon is that threat? ;)
+Lucifer means Lightbringer Maybe
+Lucifer means Lightbringer Hey, you just posted on Reddit!
Indeed I did! May it be a fire most pleasing to R'hllor.
Is this a new intro or have I just never noticed it before? Way cool!! :)
Glad to hear an in depth discussion about Asshai, it's so scarcely talked about. Are you guys planning on doing a Beric episode?
P.S. Don't know if this means anything but "Yin" means "dark" in Chinese. Might be another loan word GRRM used.
+Irene S Ah jees you know I knew that, but it hadn't occurred to me that one of the names for Azor Ahai is "Yin Tar." Tar is black, yin is black. Duh. And I'm the one with a big giant theory about how Azor Ahai was really a villain and a black magician called the Bloodstone Emperor. That's a great little correlation, thanks!
love the intro!
I've always wondered whether or not the entirety of the 'to go north' prophecy was meant for Dany specifically. My personal theory is that the prophecy was meant for Azor Ahai, Azor Ahai being both Dany AND Jon.
Of course, Quaith thinks that Dany is AA, and so gives her the prophecy in full. But certain parts can be more representative of Jon's assumed journeys and arc. To go North you must go South seems like a good candidate for Jon. He needs to go South (not super far, but South nonetheless) to retake control of the North / rally support from the Northern houses, in order to go North to fight the White Walkers. 'To see the light' part could reference his death and resurrection, as well.
The 'to go west' and 'to go forward' parts are pretty indicative of Dany's overall arc, and are well explained and reasoned.
There's no reason that Quaithe can't, like Melisandre, believe certain things about AA and then try to help those people out, even though they are mistaken. Maybe the North/South Light/Shadow bits are not meant for Dany. Perhaps Quaithe was not trying to specifically help Dany, but to seek out answers and help for Azor Ahai. Being unaware of Jon, she dumps more prophecy onto Dany than actually applies to her.
Loving the new intro!
xoxo
niko
You guys are great thank you!!
Such an amazing intro!
What if the people who first built with the "oily black stone" were immune it its effects? Given the extent magic has been demonstrated to work within the world, could the Men, Children, and The Others have a common ancestor that was immune to the negative effects of blood-magic and the stone? Could the original inhabitants have magically altered their biology to cope with living in that place? This would make it very easy to defend from anyone who didn't have the tolerance to the side effects.
@14:11 - pretty funny Roy Dotrice/Illyrio impression there
(And I'm loving the readings in general)
@19:00 - Asshai is heavily linked to Dany, yes, but also Melisandre no?
(with your pun fetish I'm surprised you haven't gotten to Aziz Ahai and Asshaiya)
@1:33:00 - I like your idea that what happened to Valyria happened to Asshai in the more distant past, and that Valyria is gradually becoming more inhabitable again - this could explain how Euron was able to explore Valyria, find his hell horn, and survive - maybe Valyria is just now (as of our current book timeline) becoming inhabitable again.
(this is a really fantastic episode, by the way - many thanks)
+Kevin Moore I think we meant as far as main characters. Mel is kind of an ancillary character, though I find her very interesting and obviously important.
Perhaps Stygai was the origin of Fire, blood and shadow magic. They destroyed themselves and the survivors fled downstream and settled in Asshai. Asshai then destroyed themselves and the knowledge they had was eventually inherited by the Valyrians.
Asshai eventually became a place of research and learning about these forms of magic because of the artifacts from old Assahi that survived its downfall.
The Valyrians destroyed themselves and the Targaryens survivors conquered Westeros. Until the time Aerys II Targaryen when he tried to destroy Kings Landing with wildfire.
oh shiz! i love the new intro!
What an INTRO!
Awesome intro, great work there. By far one of the most informative compilations I've seen at all, and the best single resource on Asshai.
Suggestion: there is a LOT of information to follow. A listener is really engaged to process what you talk about. It's very distracting to cut away from. LmL just to see Aziz do a scripted laugh or chuckle. In the least offensive or harsh way possible, it becomes annoying and makes Aziz come off as disingenuous and ends up distracting the viewer. We know when something is supposed to be a joke and can deal with hearing the laugh in the background while not cutting away from LmL. It's odd that there are no cuts away from Aziz while LmL is speaking but it happens frequently the other way around.
Again, great job compiling the info and great delivery, just maybe dial back that distraction to the viewer who is already trying to hold the weight of what's being presented.
Thanks for the feedback, it helps. We can lock the screen on a person rather than having it move based on sounds. However, we have never scripted a laugh and can't imagine ever doing so. Those are real laughs, that's just how I am. :)
Yeah, I'm just really funny, there's no helping it. :)
Lovely intro, nice videos!
Where do the babies go? It’s crazy
This was a wonderful show! I am a new fan of yours. I have not read the books but I am interested in additional knowledge about The World of Ice and Fire.
I just wanted to shine a little light, on the population in Asshai. I don't know if you've ever read the manga or watched the anime Fullmetal Alchemist before but, I think there is some similarities, in a portion of the story of speculation about the Asshai.
!!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!! When the truth in Fullmetal Alchemist is revealed, to the main characters, about transmutation (the resurrection of a human) and the Philosopher's Stone, They find out that it requires human Souls. It also creates artificial humans called homunculi. These protagonist go on to find a lost underground city, that was still in pristine condition. It once held thousands upon thousands of people, but was abandoned. Turns out the people who used to live there were sacrificed, by the antagonists of this story and through alchemy, the city was buried.
Perhaps this is why Asshai is the way it is. Through old magic the inhabitants were sacrificed to the shadows or maybe the fire god. Or maybe the people of the unknown east have something to do with their demise.
BTW, sometimes I will fall asleep listening to your podcast. Then, I would go back and replay them. I'm always surprised by how much I hear of you all, in my sleep. I recall quite a bit of info!!! It's kinda shocking!!! LOL
excellent show - great intro 'Aziz Ahai'
may i make a suggestion to you guys? first of all i want to say that i ADORRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE everything you are and everything you do. you guys are awesome and my absolute favourite ASOIAF resource - you blow my mind with the levels of thought and details everytime. i was just going to suggest that now that you lay out "parts" for topics within a topic, it may also be helpful to timestamp them? because of the amount of detail you guys go into your videos are quite long - which don't get me wrong, i'm a huge lover of that. the more intelligent in depth assessment the better! - but it would be handy whenever i go back through your videos looking for something to refresh myself on if i could see roughly where it might begin, rather than sifting through a whole 2 hours again, you know? just a very minor suggestion! love you guys! xx
love the intro
thanks, again love your time and effort in the making of your videos. have you touched on Bran's visions? ive seen Dannys investigated. Thannk you guys for your videos. I have been a visitor for a while.
yeah i made my own 3d printed Cyvasse set. now just need to make the game board.
Thanks for Shining some light on Asshai for us haha
nice intro guys!
Dope intro guys.
When I hear the description of Asshai, it kinda feels like theyre talking about London
BLEW
MY
MIND
Great podcast!! I can not wait for TWOW to know more about this land and all its misticism. Also i want to know more about the other lands south Asshai and even East of Asshai. Hopefully George RR Martin will tell us more about those unknown lands, it would be so cool if the culture of those lands were inspired by japanese culture.
+André Vila Franca I definitely think a lot of the Yi Ti / Great Empire of the Dawn stuff is influenced by Japanese myth and culture. For example, the Maiden Made of Light = Ameratsu (from wikipedia):
"Amaterasu (天照?), Amaterasu-ōmikami (天照大神／天照大御神／天照皇大神?) or Ōhirume-no-muchi-no-kami (大日孁貴神?) is a part of the Japanese myth cycle and also a major deity of the Shinto religion. She is seen as the goddess of the sun, but also of the universe. The name Amaterasu derived from Amateru meaning "shining in heaven." The meaning of her whole name, Amaterasu-ōmikami, is "the great august kami (god) who shines in the heaven".[N 1] According to the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki in Japanese mythology, the Emperors of Japan are considered to be direct descendants of Amaterasu."
Maybe, that's a possibility. Now imagine if the Ulthos continent had warriors inspired by samurai and ninja. I'd love to see what George comes up with for that part of the unknown world (if he actually is going to create something for it).
Another interesting eastern mythology reference is Sun Wukong. Read this and tell me who you think this is:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Wukong
From ASOIAF i really don't know which character George RR Martin created with this reference in mind, but i know for a fact that Akira Toriyama (creator of Dragon Ball) got inspired to create the main character Son Goku thanks to this mythological being. It's cool! xD
I never thought of Tyrion, but good to know! I don't think he's son of The Mad King though, but it's not out of the question.
I prefer Tyrion to be the son of Tywin to fully portray the anguish of Tywin in knowing his own blood, his own family is his demise, it's so hironic. I just wish he had lived to feel the shame caused by Cersei too. xD
you really have good topics! many of them are obscure, and what I would consider to be advanced ASoIaF topics, the sorta stuff that pops into a book readers mind after all the more popular topics are played out... I look forward to spending some time checking out ur channel☺