A Song of the Earth

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 ...

Predictions that follow from the theories outlined here: We will see Children of the Forest belonging to different factions.  It has been noted, even by critics not familiar with the book series, that the Others seem out of place in the narrative because they do not seem to have comprehensible motivations other than "being evil", and because there do not seem to be any factions in their ranks. It seems unlikely that we will see a developed and complex "Other culture" in the final season, judging from the lack of build-up to that; but if the Others are merely tools of one faction of the Children , whose motivation in stemming the tide of humans is entirely comprehensible, that reintroduces the moral complexity we have come to expect of this story. In fact, we have already seen Children of different factions: those that created the Others in Bran's vision were clearly on a different side than those protecting Bloodraven in the Heart of Winter. Dany's drag...