Wounds in the World
Before the Doom came to Valyria, it came to Asshai.
We learn about Asshai early on. In A Game of Thrones, the dragon eggs gifted to Daenerys are said to be from the Shadow Lands beyond Asshai. We learn that Maester Marwyn was there once. Jorah wants to take Dany there. Bran, in a vision, sees dragons stirring there. Stannis is said to have brought a shadowbinder, Melisandre, from there.
Asshai clearly has a central place in the mythology of the series. For the most part, it could be written off as "a random faraway place associated with magic"; but there may well be more to it.
Asshai is repeatedly associated with fire and dragons. Melisandre of Asshai serves the Red God; there may be living dragons there (according to Bran's vision in A Game of Thrones and to the sailor's tales in the prologue to A Feast for Crows); and in Qarth, Daenerys receives a gift of dragonglass from Asshai. The World of Ice and Fire tells us that king Aegon V sent men to Asshai in search of dragon lore before the tragedy at Summerhall.
These days Asshai, sitting beside the river Ash, is mostly an empty shell; it is a city without children, on poisoned ground surrounded by poisoned waters, in which only one in ten buildings is inhabited. It is still used as a trading port, however, and people looking for magic or forbidden knowledge go there because magic is strong there. (Remember that Melisandre thinks that the only place where her magic is stronger than at Asshai is the Wall; and that the presence of dragons is repeatedly said to make magic stronger, as in the House of the Undying.) If we think of magic as a natural resource, Asshai seems to be the only place to safely get it before the reawakening of the dragons.
If Valyria is still a smoking ruin more than four centuries after the Doom, the destruction of Asshai must have happened a lot earlier. This hints at a cycle that may be repeating: dragons and magic are concentrated in one place; a culture based on both rises up to great heights; then a catastrophe strikes them down. This happened in Asshai; it happened in Valyria; and if not for the efforts of the Maesters (and the Children of the Forest?) it might have happened again in Westeros.
In fact, the entire meta-plot of A Song of Ice and Fire can be interpreted as an attempt by one faction of the Children to prevent Westeros from becoming the next Valyria, as Valyria became the next Asshai. In reaction to Aegon V's nearly-successful attempt at hatching dragons Valyrian-style at Summerhall, they called down the Others to bring humanity to heel (and possibly eradicate it) with another Long Night, destroying the equilibrium wrought by those Children whose goal is a peaceful coexistence with humans. Before that, some of the Children of Westeros were already meddling in human affairs by working with the Maesters to poison the last Targaryen dragons, and by controlling the seasons to make sure human society never developed beyond its feudal stasis; but now at least some of them are bent on driving the humans out for real. Bad enough that they drove the Children ever northward and into the ground and the air; but if their actions lead to Westeros turning into a smoking ruin, they need to go.
If you've been wondering about Quaithe's insistence that Daenerys "pass beneath the Shadow" before going to Westeros (and disappointed that, at least in the TV show, she did not), this may be the reason: Daenerys needs to see just what becomes of lands in which a dragon culture thrives, to know realize that she will ultimately have to give up on her dragons. She needs to see the wounds in the world, so she will not hurt it again.
We learn about Asshai early on. In A Game of Thrones, the dragon eggs gifted to Daenerys are said to be from the Shadow Lands beyond Asshai. We learn that Maester Marwyn was there once. Jorah wants to take Dany there. Bran, in a vision, sees dragons stirring there. Stannis is said to have brought a shadowbinder, Melisandre, from there.
Asshai clearly has a central place in the mythology of the series. For the most part, it could be written off as "a random faraway place associated with magic"; but there may well be more to it.
Asshai is repeatedly associated with fire and dragons. Melisandre of Asshai serves the Red God; there may be living dragons there (according to Bran's vision in A Game of Thrones and to the sailor's tales in the prologue to A Feast for Crows); and in Qarth, Daenerys receives a gift of dragonglass from Asshai. The World of Ice and Fire tells us that king Aegon V sent men to Asshai in search of dragon lore before the tragedy at Summerhall.
These days Asshai, sitting beside the river Ash, is mostly an empty shell; it is a city without children, on poisoned ground surrounded by poisoned waters, in which only one in ten buildings is inhabited. It is still used as a trading port, however, and people looking for magic or forbidden knowledge go there because magic is strong there. (Remember that Melisandre thinks that the only place where her magic is stronger than at Asshai is the Wall; and that the presence of dragons is repeatedly said to make magic stronger, as in the House of the Undying.) If we think of magic as a natural resource, Asshai seems to be the only place to safely get it before the reawakening of the dragons.
If Valyria is still a smoking ruin more than four centuries after the Doom, the destruction of Asshai must have happened a lot earlier. This hints at a cycle that may be repeating: dragons and magic are concentrated in one place; a culture based on both rises up to great heights; then a catastrophe strikes them down. This happened in Asshai; it happened in Valyria; and if not for the efforts of the Maesters (and the Children of the Forest?) it might have happened again in Westeros.
In fact, the entire meta-plot of A Song of Ice and Fire can be interpreted as an attempt by one faction of the Children to prevent Westeros from becoming the next Valyria, as Valyria became the next Asshai. In reaction to Aegon V's nearly-successful attempt at hatching dragons Valyrian-style at Summerhall, they called down the Others to bring humanity to heel (and possibly eradicate it) with another Long Night, destroying the equilibrium wrought by those Children whose goal is a peaceful coexistence with humans. Before that, some of the Children of Westeros were already meddling in human affairs by working with the Maesters to poison the last Targaryen dragons, and by controlling the seasons to make sure human society never developed beyond its feudal stasis; but now at least some of them are bent on driving the humans out for real. Bad enough that they drove the Children ever northward and into the ground and the air; but if their actions lead to Westeros turning into a smoking ruin, they need to go.
If you've been wondering about Quaithe's insistence that Daenerys "pass beneath the Shadow" before going to Westeros (and disappointed that, at least in the TV show, she did not), this may be the reason: Daenerys needs to see just what becomes of lands in which a dragon culture thrives, to know realize that she will ultimately have to give up on her dragons. She needs to see the wounds in the world, so she will not hurt it again.
Comments
Post a Comment