The Citadel

The Archive of 'A Song of Ice and Fire' Lore

Concordance

2.6.1. Wildfire
  • Wildfire is considered a treacherous substance (II: 47)
  • The alchemists place wildfire in small jars of pottery, the clay roughened and pebbled to improve grip (II: 225)
  • Wildfire is a murky green in color, and oozes slowly when thickened by cold (II: 225)
  • Water cannot quench wildfire (II: 226)
  • Once wildfire takes fire, the substance will burn until it is no more. It will sleep into cloth, wood, leather, and even steel so that they take fire as well (II: 226)
  • A thin coating of wildfire on a sword can burn for an hour, although the blade will be ruined by it (II: 226)
  • Wildfire will also seep into the clay jars it is generally held in, but it takes time (II: 226)
  • The more volatile jars of wildfire are sealed in wax and placed in rooms pumped full of water (II: 226)
  • Extremely volatile jars of wildfire (such as would have been made fifteen or more years ago) are dealt with carefully. They are moved from place to place only by night, in carts filled with sand to lessen any jostling at all (II: 226)
  • Old wildfire is 'fickle.' Any flame, any spark can set them off. Too much heat - such as that caused by being exposed to sunlight for even a short time - could lead to blazing as well. Once the fire begins, the heat makes the wildfire explode violently which can lead to a vast chain reaction (II: 226-227)
  • Making wildfire is a lengthy and dangerous process (II: 227)
  • Certain steps in making wildfire work better and more efficiently now. A pyromancer speculates that this could have something to do with dragons, as an old Wisdom said to him once that the spells for making wildfire were not as effectual as they once were because dragons had gone from the world (II: 523)
  • A massive explosion caused by a thousand jars of wildfire makes a tower of green flame fifty feet high (II: 610)
  • Wildfire will burn even when floating on water (II: 610)
  • Wildfire can burn so hot that flesh melts almost like tallow (II: 614)
  • Wildfire will burn on a sword blade, but it will ruin the steel (III: 254)
  • The pyromancers say that only three things burn hotter than wildfire: dragonflame, the fires beneath the earth, and the summer sun (IV: 183)