ASOIAF Theories: Asshai, and What Lies at the Heart of the Shadow

Wow this videos are so much better than your rants 😂
Really interesting analysis! Congratulations on the quality!

Wish we could see asshai on the show would be pretty interesting

I love the idea that every Story in the world is somehow connected to H.P. Lovecrafts work

sorshery

ITS A HIERARCHY… A GAME OF THRONES ON MINISCULE AND UP TO COSMIC PROPORTIONS. it is a treatise on life and suffering.

Why do D & D have to be so fucked…

These videos are amazing

I stumbled onto your vids by chance, I'm hooked! Some of the best I've ever watched about GoT. Cheers

I never dared to make a theory, given I never read the books, but the history seems to tie back to Ashain itself. It seems like the origin of magic.
What if Ashai was the place of a conflict. Necromancers' and Pyromancers' guild. Both battling for power. What if they both used their spells to best each other. Wildfire and Necromancy. But their powers weren't enough. The pyromancers created dragons and the dragonpeople.
They bested the necromancers for a time. The necromancers, in shame, retreated inwards to perfect their craft. and founded Stygai. The corpse city, where only necromancers may enter. But as they traveled north, they met the Others, created by the Children of the forest, as the combination of Ice and FIre, frozen fire, dragonglass; the ultimate necromancers. The necromancers invited them in. And as the Others, the necromancers beat the pyromancers. But they didn't realize their war shall not be fought in Ashai, but everywhere else. As day and night battle eachaother, and as summer and Winter battle each other, so shall pyromancers and necromancers.
And forever a war shall rage.

Stygai sounds more like the City at the Mountains of Madness rather than R'Lyeh. Honestly it sounds like GRRM just used a ton of literary references to fill out his world, and the main focus is Westeros and the neighboring lands.

I want R'hollor and the Great other to give powers to Jon Snow.

If the heart is so horrifying that even Shadowbinders fear going in there, whatever IS in there is not something that should EVER be let out.

I think there are more than two lovecraftian-esque entities on planetos. In the heart of shadow is probably an entity with comparisons to the king in yellow or something. The Black goat is like the black goat in lovecraft's work and in in the forests of Lorath or whatever, is that the right place? A cluthulu like entity may exist under the ocean and influence the ironborn and have connections to merlings and the like, i also think theres an entity in the depths of the north, related to the white walkers. Also, think there might be some entity (or maybe not) related to the children of the forest, the weirwood net, the three eyed crow and giants. So while the story is called 'of ice and fire', i don't think its just an ice entity vs a fire entity.

Asshai and Stygai are also up the river ash, which is being poisoned by something upriver that makes the fish deformed and sterilizes the people who live near it. On maps it seems to lie in a valley that makes it look more shallow than it should be, which reminds me of the statues made from oily black stone that appear when the tide recedes on the Iron Islands, meaning that perhaps Asshai and Stygai were originally under water. Carcosa is nearby to the east settled on a lake so there is indeed meant to be a Lovecraftian parallel in this place, not directly perhaps but it's a shout out.

Note also that the Ironborn, (who live adjacent to the sea of the east) worship a Sea God, believing in Krakens and the like. There is definitely a connection between the black stone, the west/east sea, and the Land of Shadow with Lovecraftian themes, so really nice find man, helped me make alot of connections.

I feel like I need to read the last books of GoT to see if Danny will live long enough to see ashi so that we learn more about what lies in ashi!

The curtain of light at the end of the world is obviously the aurora borealis.

It does need saying though. The phrase is "To all intents and purposes." Not "all INTENSIVE purposes".

I am totally knew to this channel, so I am definitely in "instantly-hooked" mode. Yes, you have my attention, pal

A man wishes he knew everything there was to know about game of thrones mystical side.

yeeeeeea this is what we need, less show theories and more expansion on and of the ideas and things not touched on in the books with enough detail.

– Qyburn would probably see Asshai as Disney World.

Asshai sounds like the best place in this world yet all we see is people fucking and drinking in brothels -__-

That was hella spooky

Essos seems way more interesting than Westeros

white walkers are called the "Others" so this Great Other could be the greatest of all the white walkers or a deity of sorts that uses them.

Actually Stygai is more or less a nod towards Stygia, a city in a story written by Robert E. Howard. Robert E. Howard is famous for writing about stories about Conan the Barbarian and he was a friend of H.P. Lovecraft and wrote several stories that became part of the Cthulu mythos.

Anyone know the souce of the image shown at 1:30 – 1:40?

this is an awesome video

Man some you videos are a fucking experience. I don't even care if your right lol.

Have you ever read the book the heart of darkness or watched apocalypse now that was inspired by it? I definitely think the shadow lands is an amalgamation of that book and Lovecraftian lore. Like someone traveling into the heart of darkness finding more and more terrible creatures to face in the heart of darkness the character finds himself becoming insane he ventures towards the heart of darkness and the world around him becomes steadily darker and filled with more madness and suffering.

The Black Goat is a reference to Shub-Niggurath.
The curtain of light is probably an allusions to the Aurora Borealis.

…..Whoah

hiii i really love your vídeos sooo i ask if you can put subtitles or fix them.

Is it bad to upvote these videos as they start based on the quality of the videos that preceded them in the playlist?

wow!

yes! Finally somebody else who believes ASOIAF is essentially a war of gods/religions! I don't think enough people consider the bigger picture and never realize that this is gods squabbling. Love this video, there are so few on asshai and yet it is absolutely fascinating.

Great video, Asshai has to be the part of the ASOIAF world that I'm most interested in.
Nice analysis of Bran's vision too, I recently re-read that part just to check what it was he saw, no doubt that will be important towards the end.

i love how they're sacrificing so many children and animals not there's no one left…

I think that nobody's been to the farthest North, nor to beyond asshai….I feel these places meet and that's where the truth in all of this is

But a lack of light would cause lower temperature, so the shadowlands would be cold right?

awesome !

Finally a video that goes into the origins of the Shadowlands and more details about it as well, instead of just stating, it is covered in darkness and dragons might live there… Really enjoyed watching this!

i love it

Hello, what software do you use for your videos?

Great Other? R'hllor? Fuck 'em. As soon as Daenerys gets to Westeros she's going to find Hot Pie and booty clap on that dick until she dies and accidently Nissa Nissa's his twelve inch banger. That's right, Hot Pie is coming with a flaming ram rod to quite literally fuck up some esoteric diety poop shoot, plant a democratic republic in Westeros, and then snatch Ser Pounce and Gendry on his way to the Summer Islands where they'll kick it with some kush and two score of fine, buxom, chocolate bitties waiting on their every whim. A Dream of Spring…followed by the Endless Summer.