Author: stevenattewell

“The French men-at-arms then hit the English men-at-arms, and had some success, but this is when the English archers counter-charged and absolutely massacred the French men-at-arms.” How do archers counter-charge, they might have some side weapon but they’d be lightly armored and up against enemies in plate?

You jump someone from a direction they’re not expecting, while they’re busy fighting somone else, you knock them down into the mud, step on their chest or back, and then put one of these

through the eyeslits of their helm, or up under their armpits or their groin where there was likely to be only chainmail, or into the join between two plates, over and over again:

image

This is a kind of stiletto that was called a misericorde, and while the name is meant to signify a merciful killing stroke, they were carried by common soldiers to, in the words of Ambrose Bierce, “remind an unhorsed knight that he was mortal.” 

Were the Myrish crossbowmen that Lord Bracken hired for Daemon Blackfyre specifically intended to combat the Raven’s Teeth, or for some other purpose? And what is Osgrey’s mention of Quickfinger’s failed attempt to steal dragon eggs, among other critical “ifs”, about?

I think they were generally supposed to be skilled archers, so they’d probably come up against the Raven’s Teeth, but also soften up infantry formations, etc. 

What does it mean “there are no children in Asshai”?

There are as many answers as you have imagination: they’re all undead, they’re all infertile due to magical radiation, they sacrifice all their children to Moloch, they eat babies, a monster comes and steals them all, etc. 

Ultimately, it comes down to that Asshai is a Thin Place more than almost anywhere else in the world:

…beyond the walls of Asshai little grows save ghost grass, whose glassy, glowing stalks are inedible. If not for the food brought in from across the sea, the Asshai’i would have starved.

The ships bring casks of freshwater too. The waters of the Ash glisten black beneath the noonday sun and glimmer with a pale green phosphorescence by night, and such fish as swim in the river are blind and twisted, so deformed and hideous to look upon that only fools and shadowbinders will eat of their flesh.

Every land beneath the sun has need of fruits and grains and vegetables, so one might ask why any mariner would sail to the ends of the earth when he might more easily sell his cargo to markets closer to home. The answer is gold. 

Beyond the walls of Asshai, food is scarce, but gold and gems are common…though some will say that the gold of the Shadow Lands is as unhealthy in its own way as the fruits that grow there…

The dark city by the Shadow is a city steeped in sorcery. Warlocks, wizards, alchemists, moonsingers, red priests, black alchemists, necromancers, aeromancers, pyromancers, bloodmages, torturers, inquisitors, poisoners, godswives, night-walkers, shapechangers, worshippers of the Black Goat and the Pale Child and the Lion of Night, all find welcome in Asshai-by-the-Shadow, where nothing is forbidden. Here they are free to practice their spells without restraint or censure, conduct their obscene rites, and fornicate with demons if that is their desire.”

This is a place where “nothing is forbidden everything is permitted.”

Isn’t it odd that Melissandre, being of Asshai, is portrayed as white? (Or in the books the only peculiarity is she has red eyes, but otherwise her ethnicity is not described which kinda implies white by default) Geographically, Asshai seems a sort of equivalent to RL India. How could people originating from Asshai A) be white and B) not have a distinctive language (I don’t buy Valyrian that far East, the books say Valyrian is already breaking down by Slaver’s bay)

This is a common misconception. Melisandre is “of” Asshai but she was not born in Asshai, because “there are no children in Asshai.” Rather, Melisandre was sold into slavery in Asshai:

“The red priestess shuddered. Blood trickled down her thigh, black and smoking. The fire was inside her, an agony, an ecstasy, filling her, searing her, transforming her. Shimmers of heat traced patterns on her skin, insistent as a lover’s hand. Strange voices called to her from days long past. “Melony,” she heard a woman cry. A man’s voice called, “Lot Seven.” She was weeping, and her tears were flame. And still she drank it in…

Dawn. Another day is given us, R’hllor be praised. The terrors of the night recede. Melisandre had spent the night in her chair by the fire, as she often did. With Stannis gone, her bed saw little use. She had no time for sleep, with the weight of the world upon her shoulders. And she feared to dream. Sleep is a little death, dreams the whisperings of the Other, who would drag us all into his eternal night. She would sooner sit bathed in the ruddy glow of her red lord’s blessed flames, her cheeks flushed by the wash of heat as if by a lover’s kisses. Some nights she drowsed, but never for more than an hour. One day, Melisandre prayed, she would not sleep at all. One day she would be free of dreams. Melony, she thought. Lot Seven.”

Moreover, we have no idea what ethnicity the Asshai are, since “those who walk the streets of Asshai are masked and veiled.” So I think people are being far too conventional by assuming that any real world ethnicity applies to the Asshai, or humanity for that matter.

Finally, why white should be assumed as the default for Melisandre, I don’t know – she was a slave in Essos, so she could be from as far west as Lys to as far east as Qarth, I suppose. We know she has pale skin, but that’s it. And she speaks with a distinctively Eastern accent, so there’s that. 

Sooo why do you and @poorquentyn think Benjen left that horn because honestly from a timeline perspective it just never added up. If anything I side more with @Bryndenbfish and go with coldhands. The two biggest flags is the way Ghost was acting prior on the fist and why would Benjen not meetup with the NW and how could he have known there was going to even be a great ranging on the fist of the first men if he was already out there trying to stay ahead of The Others.

As I say in my essay on Jon IV, I think Benjen cached that horn on the Fist because he was being pursued or had to go into hiding. 

To explain your timeline questions: Benjen knew that someone would probably be sent out after him as indeed he had been after Wymar Royce, and the Fist is a natural point for the NW to gravitate to Beyond-the-Wall (hence its use as a rendezvous point for the Shadow Tower and Castle Black during the Great Ranging). 

But to my eyes, the timeline problems are bigger if it’s not Benjen because then he disappears, does nothing, and then suddenly reappears in TWOW. 

Obvs Cat got a raw deal from Walder Frey in AGOT, esp since he should have been at Riverrun anyway, but after his crowning it would have made sense for Robb to choose a Riverlands bride to cement his kingdom. With this aim in mind, how good a bride is a Frey?

goodqueenaly:

Honestly, while I understand the sentiment of wanting a union of Stark and riverlord to symbolize the union of the two kingdoms, I think that it’s just that, a nice sentiment without a real sense of necessity. After all, Robb is already in himself the union of North and Riverlands, as son of Eddard Stark and grandson of Hoster Tully; any child of his is going to carry the blood of both Great Houses. Moreover, there’s really no one Riverlands House that Robb “should” have been courting; the greatest Houses there are not dramatically stronger than House Frey (please correct me if I’m wrong, @racefortheironthrone)​,​ and no matter where he turns, 4,000 swords are not exactly going to revolutionize his independence campaign. What Robb really needed was someone who could bring a game-changing force to the table, a Margaery Tyrell or Arianne Martell; such a bride would not have been of the North or Trident, but in the choice between symbolic niceties or the continued independence of his realm, Robb would have been wiser to choose the latter. (Too, and relatedly, I think Robb has a little more leeway in his choice if his bride were someone who was already inclined to hate and oppose the Lannister regime; part of what made Jeyne Westerling such an unacceptable choice politically was not only her House’s relative poverty, but her father’s role as bannerman and soldier of the Lannisters.)

Again, I think it needs to be understood that Catelyn sold Robb’s hand cheaply, especially when Walder already wanted Edmure as a son-in-law. It’s a point I’ve talked about before, but it bears repeating. Well and good for Edmure, the Lord of Riverrun (he was not, strictly speaking, lord at the time of the negotiation, but you understand my meaning), to marry a daughter of one of his more important vassals – his own father did the same, and generations of Tullys before him doubtless did as well. As for King Robb, his marriage, incredibly important as it is, should directly further the survival of his dual kingdom. A Frey really doesn’t do that, nor any other riverlord House.

It’s iffy as to how powerful the Freys are within the Riverlands. I think the problem is that GRRM decided to give them 4,000 swords and then decided to give the Riverlands 20,000 swords and then didn’t realize that this would make the Freys an absolutely dominant orce in the land. 

Now I’ve made some estimates to try to figure out the Riverlands, but it’s a bit like trying to build a brick foundation on a cloud. 

But yes, agreed that House Frey’s 4,000 men were not the be all and end all of a rebellion that involved several tens of thousands of soldiers. 

How many links does a student of the Citadel need to obtain in order to be officially recognized as a Maester? Some like the Valyrian Steel link seem to be optional but I can’t imagine the Citadel providing a Lord with a Maester who doesn’t have, say, a gold or silver link.

Technically, as many as are needed to go around their neck, so some maesters have more links than others:

He fingered the collar of his order; a heavy chain worn tight around the neck beneath his robe, each link forged from a different metal…

His maester’s collar was no simple metal choker such as Luwin wore, but two dozen heavy chains wound together into a ponderous metal necklace that covered him from throat to breast. The links were forged of every metal known to man…

The old man touched the maester’s chain that hung loosely around his thin, fleshless neck…

Maester Colemon stood beside him, his chain of many metals hanging loose about his long, skinny neck…

Marwyn wore a chain of many metals around his bull’s neck. Save for that, he looked more like a dockside thug than a maester…

As to which are essential, I would say that black iron would be essential, since without that you’re not connected to the ravenry network and that’s a main reason why lords have maesters. Probably silver is also essential, because there aren’t really alternatives for trained medical care. 

But the others…yellow gold is perhaps not always necessary if one has a skilled steward (and indeed, I’ve never been quite clear on the division of labor between Maester Luwin and Steward Vayon Poole), iron is perhaps useful but it always seemed to me that military training came more from masters-at-arms and a lordling’s father, bronze or Valyrian steel seem definitely optional. 

“Renly didn’t throw in his lot behind the Tyrells, the Tyrells threw in their lot behind him, as we see when they support his bid to become king.” Well yes, but the original plan was Renly doing a lot of the work to make the Tyrells the de facto lords of the realm, with himself as their useful hand.

I wouldn’t quite go that far. Renly’s plan was for himself and the Tyrells (because Loras’ swords and Margaery’s virtue are also included) to work to make the Tyrells and Renly the de facto lords of the realm. At the end of the day, he’s still a prince in the direct line of succession, the Lord of Storm’s End, the Master of Laws, and has the inside track to becoming Hand of the King.