14. Magic
- Magic had died away when the Doom fell on Valyria and the Lands of the Long Summer, but it is said that magic is still strong in the east in the lands by the Jade Sea and the Shadow (I: 197)
- Stormsingers (I: 197. SSM: 1)
- Spellsingers, warlocks, and aeromancers are said to still practice in Asshai (I: 197)
- Shadowbinders and bloodmages work terrible sorceries in the black of the night (I: 197)
- Some claim to still know the spells that must be used to rework Valyrian steel (I: 235. III: 359. SSM: 1)
- The dosh khaleen read prophecies in the rising of smoke from the burning of dried grass (I: 411)
- Spellsingers from the east use high ululating voices (I: 490)
- Magicians (likely charlatans?) sell fertility charms in markets (I: 491)
- The barren women of the khalasars are believed to have magic spells used to aid in healing (I: 560)
- The Dothraki have a word, maegi, applied to women who they believe lay with demons and practice the blackest of sorceries, evil and soulless creatures who visit men in the dark of night and take their strength and life (I: 560)
- The Lhazreen religion has the godswife sing songs and use spells most pleasing to their god, the Great Shepherd (I: 560)
- The Jogos Nhai have moonsingers who know birthing magics (I: 561)
- The Dothraki believe in magics involving grass, corn, and horses (I: 561)
- Bloodmages from the Shadow Lands beyond Asshai have dark, hard spells to save a man from death. Some might say death is cleaner than using such a spell (I: 593)
- In bloodmagic, only death may pay for life (I: 594)
- The life-saving spell of the bloodmages leaves the recipient mindless, unable to care for himself or recognize anyone (I: 634)
- Blood is not enough to work bloodmagic; the spells must be known (I: 667)
- A sorceress who cannot be poisoned, claiming that the fires of R'hllor cleanse and protect (II: 21)
- A magical sword whose blade gleams strangely, going from red to yellow to blazing white. The air shimmers around it as if with heat, but the blade has no true heat (II: 350. III: 412, 413, 886)
- A sorceress uses a shadow armed with a shadow-blade that allows it to assassinate someone in armor, cutting through steel as if it were cheesecloth (II: 367)
- A man from the Free Cities makes a dog kills it master, despite that he raised it from birth. This might have been done by some sort of magic (II: 406)
- Enchanted amethysts are supposed to protect a person from poison (II: 420)
- It is believed that a dried corpse, covered with silvered leaves, have great power; especially if the deceased was a great sorcerer (II: 422)
- There are firemages who can conjure ladders from the air that are made of fire and can stand forty feet high. The mage can climb up the ladder, each rung disappearing behind him, leaving nothing but silvery smoke. When he reaches the top, the ladder and he are both gone (II: 426)
- There is a suggestion that magicians should be able to make fire from dragonglass (II: 426)
- There is another suggestion that magic grows stronger now that there are dragons in the world again (II: 426)
- The murderous shadows a sorceress might use seem to be taken from actual people, and may lead their owners to have troubled, nightmare filled dreams which show them what their shadows are doing (II: 449)
- A sorceress might see the future in flames. Multiple possibilities stemming from different choices can be seen in this manner. They are said to be never wrong, but those seeing them may misinterpret what they see (II: 452. V: 58)
- A sorceress might seem to shine with light in the darkness, and be pregnant with a shadow that can do her bidding; such as killing men. (II: 456)
- A description of a sacrifice, in which a young boy's genitals are cut off and thrown into a fire as a sorcerer chants after the boy has been rendered powerless to move by a potion. The flames turn blue and a voice answers in some unknown language. It is possible that this is an outright lie or a pain-and-drug induced hallucination (II: 473)
- A man (possibly a Faceless Man of Braavos) literally changes his face and other features. His long straight hair of red and white turns to a dark cap of curls, his cheeks grow fuller, his nose hooks, a scar appears on his cheek, and a gold tooth appears in his mouth. His manner of speaking changes as well (II: 505)
- There are descriptions of rumored magical events in Qarth, some possibly having to do with warlocks (II: 638)
- Shadows such as one sorceress conjures to do her bidding only live when given birth by light, a man's fires providing the energy. Repeated involvement in the birthing of such shadows makes the fires burn low, and one more such attempt may kill the man (III: 287)
- Sex seems to be involved in the process of creating such shadows, as a sorceress offers a man pleasure such as he has never known, in return for making use of his life-fire (III: 287, 288)
- It's said that R'hllor gives his priests the ability to see through falsehoods so that they may battle the servants of the Other (III: 288)
- By looking into the flames, a sorceress can divine danger to herself (III: 289)
- Shadowbinders may be able to project themselves to speak to others from a great distance (III: 310)
- A man resurrected by R'hllor cuts himself to allow his blood run down the blade of his sword, and the blood suddenly catches fire (III: 388)
- King's blood is said to have power, and sacrifice of a king's blood can be used to work great magic (III: 412, 415)
- A sorceress can shows visions of distant or future events to others by having them look into fires (III: 414)
- A red priest is somehow able to restore life to a man, not once but many times. There is a price, however, for the resurrected man loses more and more of his dearest memories each time. The priest credits R'hllor, giving the rite known as the last kiss (III: 443, 444)
- Some red priests are trained to see things in fires, such as the past, the future, or things present but far away. It takes many years of training to see the shapes beyond the flames, and more years still to learn to tell the shapes of what will be from what may be or what was. Even then it comes hard (III: 489, 490, 706, 707)
- The red priests learn various spells, but their effectiveness is unknown (II: 490)
- The flames sorcerers and red priests see visions in never lie, but sometimes they are read wrongly (III: 498)
- It is often said that the old wizards of Valyria did not cut and chisel stone, but worked it with fire and magic as one might work clay (III: 603)
- Prophecy by fire seems to work best when the visions have to do with danger to the seer (III: 707, 712)
- A sorceress sets an eagle in flight aflame (III: 840, 841)
- A priest of the Many-Faced God is able to create an illusion to make his face look like a yellowed skull with a few scraps of skin clinging to its cheek and a worm wriggling in its empty eye socket. When touched, however, it melts away like a shadow (IV: 97-98)
- It is alleged that magic might be used to thicken manticore venom, making it take longer to kill without making it less debilitating (IV: 110)
- A maegi can taste a person's blood to tell their future (IV: 179)
- A huge, twisted black horn taller than a man, bound with red gold and dark steel, incised with Valyrian glyphs that seem to glow when the horn is sounded. Those who sound it are burned, mouths blistered while wisps of smoke rise from it. It's claimed the such horns could command dragons (IV: 277, 279)
- Years of education and sacrifice are required to learn how to make a proper glamor, such as the Faceless Men do (IV: 325)
- It's said maegi can read a person's fortunes after tasting a drop of their blood (IV: 511, 540)
- Bloodmagic is said to be the darkest of all magics, and possibly the most powerful (IV: 544)
- All Valyrian magic was rooted in blood and fire. They could set dragonglass candles to burning with strange, unpleasantly-bright light. With the obsidian candles, they could see across vast distances, look into a man's mind, and speak with one another though they were half the world apart (IV: 682)
- Gorghan of Old Ghis once compared prophecy to a treacherous woman, so sweet when pleasuring a man with her mouth, until she bites down on his member (IV: 682-683)
- A dubious claim suggesting that the magic of looking into the flames allows one to speak with ancient dead kings and unborn children, and to see time to the very end of days (V: 58)
- It is claimed that the flames never lie, but that priests being mortal may mistake "this must come" for "this may come" (V: 58)
- Great lore raised the Wall, and great spells are locked beneath its ice (V: 59)
- Valyrian steel must be made, as it cannot be found as a raw material (SSM: 1)
Last revised February 02, 2016
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14.1. Magic in Westeros
- Daeron Targaryen, son of Prince Maekar, had dreams that came true (THK: 513)
- There are hedge wizards who claim to be able to foretell how the seasons will come (II: 189)
- A three-eyed crow might be a magical representation of a person skilled in magic of some sort (II: 320-321)
- A magician may find it easiest to contact a person with magical potential when they are near death (II: 320)
- The "third eye" is a metaphor for the ability to use magic in some way. When it is "open" a person can see beyond the normal: whether a person's heart is good or bad, the acorn an ancient tree grew from and the stump it will one day become, or gaze south to the Summer Sea and north beyond the Wall (II: 321)
- The third eye might be closed, but in sleep it may sometimes flutter open, as it does to allow a warg to have wolf dreams (II: 383)
- Storm's End is ancient, its stones woven with spells so that no magic can pass. The spells are forgotten, but still In place (II: 455)
- There is an example of two wargs speaking in dreams to each other, despite being removed by hundreds of leagues. It's possible that this happens only because one of them appears to be even more than a warg (yet both of them have the "three eyes") (II: 560)
- An strange old dwarf woman exhibits prophetic dreams (III: 249, 250, 491)
- A magic horn reputedly able to summon krakens from the deep (III: 408, 603)
- There are women said to be woods witches among the wildlings, and sometimes their sons and daughters are said to have gifts for foretelling the weather (III: 466)
- The old gods are said to still linger at High Heart, keeping a red priest from looking into his flames and seeing visions (III: 492)
- A cloud of ravens descends upon a group of wights, seemingly commanded by a man (III: 536. V: 61-62)
- There is a hidden gate as old as the Wall at the Nightfort, called the Black Gate, which only a man of the Night's Watch who has said his vows can open. It is set deep in a wall of the well at the center of the kitchens and is made of white weirwood with a face on it. A glow seems to come from the wood, like milk and moonlight, but very faintly. The face is old and pale, wrinkled and shrunken, its mouth and eyes closed and its cheeks sunken, its brow withered, and its chin sagging. (III: 635, 638)
- The Wall is more than just ice and stone. There are old spells woven into it, strong enough to keep creatures of a magical nature from passing it (III: 636)
- When someone approaches the Black Gate, the eyes open. They are white and blind, and then door asks, "Who are you?" A man of the Night Watch must repeat a part of his vows. The door will open then, saying, "Then pass", and its lips will open wider and wider still until nothing remained but a great gaping mouth in a ring of wrinkles (III: 638)
- Water on the upper lip of the gate is strangely warm and salty as a tear (III: 638)
- The Horn of Winter is huge and black, eight feet along its curve and so wide at the mouth that a man's arm could fit to the elbow. It is banded with old dark gold, more brown than yellow, and graven with runes (III: 836)
- The Horned Lord once said that sorcery is a sword without a hilt. There is no safe way to grasp it (III: 836)
- Its said woods witches are harmless, knowing no magic but perhaps having knowledge of little herb-craft and some midwifery (IV: 544)
- A man who does not eat, sleep, breath, or drink, but who is afraid of fire. He reveals he is dead, brought to life by magic. His inability to cross the Wall is due to the magic in the Wall itself preventing it (V: 63, 69-70)
Last revised February 09, 2016
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14.1.1. The Greensight
- The crannogmen say a person has the greensight if they dream prophetic dreams which always come true (moss-green eyes may come with it) (II: 320)
- A person with the greensight sometimes dreams as other people, but the green dreams are different (II: 320)
- A green dream takes the form of metaphor; for instance, a winged creature bound with grey stone chains to the earth might represent a person who has that creature as an emblem who is chained by preconceptions from achieving his full potential (II: 320)
- A person with the greensight can sense when a person is a warg (II: 320)
- A person with the greensight might dream of his own death (II: 322)
- Some of the children of the forest reputedly had the greensight. Their wise men were called greenseers (II: 323)
- Maesters believe that the greensight was not magic, simply another kind of knowledge. They believe that their wisdom had something to do with the faces in the trees (II: 323)
- The First Men believed that the greenseers of the children of the forest could see through the eyes of the carved weirwoods, which is why they cut down the trees when they warred upon them (II: 323)
- Supposedly, the greenseers had power over the beasts of the wood, the birds in the trees, and even fish (II: 323)
- The maesters say that no living man has the greensight (II: 325)
- Having the greensight is not enough to be a greenseer. The greenseers were wargs as well, and could see through the eyes of the weirwoods and see the truth that lies beneath the world (III: 107)
Last revised February 28, 2007
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14.1.2. Wargs and Skinchangers
- When a warg dreams of his wolf, he shares its body and can be felt by someone with the greensight (II: 321)
- Even when waking, a warg can be in his wolf (II: 321)
- When a warg becomes angry or afraid, the wolf can sense it (II: 322)
- When in a warg dream, a person remembers the actions of his wolf as his own as well (II: 322)
- Part of a warg is his wolf, and vice versa (II: 322)
- There is an apparent belief that silver weapons are needed to kill wargs (II: 339)
- Wargs are also called demons, shapechangers, and beastlings (II: 383)
- Beastlings and shapechangers are always evil in common stories (II: 383)
- The third eye might be closed, but in sleep it may sometimes flutter open, as it does to allow a warg to have wolf dreams (II: 383)
- There is an example of two wargs speaking in dreams to each other, despite being removed by hundreds of leagues. It's possible that this happens only because one of them appears to be even more than a warg (yet both of them have the "three eyes") (II: 560)
- Skinchanger is a general term, and all wargs are skinchangers. However, a warg is a skinchanger who is bound to a wolf and not some other creature (II: 561, 697. SSM: 1, 2)
- After a bonders death, a bond-animal is still unnatural and can seek revenge for its loss (II: 697)
- A warg in the wolf dream can exact some measure of control over what his bond-animal does (II: 700)
- The sleep during a wolf dream is unnatural, and can last for days as the warg begins to become more and more used to sharing a wolf's thoughts (II: 701)
- A warg can reach out and actually have double vision; what he sees and what his wolf sees as well (II: 702)
- Some wargs seem able to sense members of their animal's family by some magical sense, perhaps related to the "third eye" or the unusual nature of the animal and its kindred (III: 101)
- Wargs must be trained to be able to control their animal and themselves when they are in its skin. It is very easy to give in to it's instincts and impulses (III: 103)
- A warg cannot live on what his beast consumes (III: 104)
- A warg can bend a beast to his will, or the beast bend the warg's will to his (III: 107)
- All greenseers were wargs as well, and the greatest of them could wear the skins of any beast that flies, swims, or crawls (III: 107)
- A skinchanger can have many beasts to him, and of different sorts. One man is bonded with a huge snow bear, three wolves, a shadowcat, and an eagle once controlled by another skinchanger who was killed (III: 171, 835)
- Wargs seem to have some inner sense which lets them locate their beasts, at least to some degree (III: 295)
- Skinchangers may be able to change into the skins of other people, although perhaps only if they are somehow mentally damaged (III: 459, 633)
- Once an animal has been joined to a man, any skinchanger can slip inside and ride him. The joining works both ways, however, for a dead skinchanger's animal carries a part of him and the new master of the beast will find the dead man's voice whispering to him (III: 835)
- If a skinchangers beast is killed while he is actively within it, he can go mad (III: 840)
- Among the ironborn, it's said that there are skinchangers among the Farwynds, able to take the form of sea lions, walruses, and even spotted whales (IV: 271)
- A skinchanger can slip into the skin of his beast from leagues away (V: 4)
- Some skinchangers have strict rules about what they are or aren't allowed to do. Examples include not eating human flesh, mating animals together, and seizing the body of another person (V: 4)
- Skinchangers can lead a "second life" after their body dies, a sweeter and simpler one in which their spirit and mind inhabits the body of their animal. Their memories slowly fade day by day, until eventually the skinchanger is gone (V: 4, 7, 10, 12)
- The loss of a beast a skinchanger controls is painful as they experience the deaths (IV: 7)
- A child who reveals himself to be a skinchanger is often taken away and given over to the care of others like him (IV: 8)
- Some skinchangers are stronger than others (IV: 8)
- Dogs are the easiest beasts to bond with, because they live so close to men. Wolves are harder, as they're never truly tamed. Some wargs claim no other animals should be bonded: cats are vain and cruel, elk and deer are prey and are likely to make a skinchanger grow as cowardly, while bears, boars, badgers, and weasels simply should not be of any interest. Birds are especially dangerous, some hold, because taking hawks, owls, ravens, and the like means you'll be able to fly among the clouds and so will find life in your own form a pale shadow of what it once was. Not all skinchaners agree, however (V: 10)
- Skinchangers occasionally gather together. The wargs are the most common (V: 10)
- A skinchanger with a goat (V: 10)
- The free folk both honor skinchangers and fear them, while it's said among them that beyond the Wall the kneelers hunt them down and kill them (V: 11)
- Skinchangers can always sense one another (V: 12)
- A person can resist the invasion of their mind by a skinchanger, but it can be a horrifying and ugly struggle (V: 14)
- As a powerful skinchanger dies, his ability expands to encompass all animals in his vicinity (V: 14)
Last revised March 15, 2013
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