Westeros

We’ve updated our gallery with scans of the various scrolls Linda and I received yesterday.

Now, a comment from C.C. Chapman—a stakeholder in Campfire who used to work with them—noted that knowing how these things works, there may be hidden details or secrets inside of the package. Suffice it to say, we’ve looked over everything as closely as we could—no secret compartments, no mysterious inscriptions, and so on—but there are a few little details that spring to mind as possible clues in case future parts of the Maester’s Path present puzzles or other mysteries. For example, why is there no House Arryn moon-and-falcon sigil in the Vale, while there’s a Greyjoy kraken? Why is there no Riverrun, despite the Tully fish? Why does the Eyrie get marked out, but not Pyke? These could have no real rhyme or reason at all to them beyond clarity and space, of course… but maybe this is a hint we’ll be learning more about the Vale, the riverlands, and the Iron Islands in future installments?

Of course, it seems like we won’t actually see Riverrun in the first season, and the Iron Islands is only briefly mentioned, and that’s largely because of Theon Greyjoy, so it’d be odd to focus part of the experience on regions that don’t figure heavily in the first season’s story. But the Eyrie… that one does figure, so we’re going to keep an eye out for it.

The other thing that leapt out at us are the colors and symbols associated with each place. The Dothraki sea has orange blocks of color,  The Inn at the Crossroads has purple, King’s Landing has green, Pentos is red, and Winterfell is blue. You can also see the descriptions and the symbols associated with each scent as well. These may be nothing more than a pleasant visual detail, to give the scrolls a bit of extra visual impact, but… but… Something makes us think that if there are any secrets to be found in the Maester’s Path, these symbols are going to be keys to unlocking them. In the Citadel, the archmaester’s test the knowledge of novices in their respective areas of expertise, and the novice who shows enough knowledge can earn one of the links in his maester’s chain. Will these symbols (and the colors associated with them, perhaps) become part of a puzzle?

We’ve no idea.  But just in case, we’ve collected the symbols. If there is a puzzle in the end, we suspect it’ll be at The Maester’s Path, a mysterious website set up by HBO that promises, “Winter is coming”. We suspect there’ll be more information in coming weeks, just as more parts of the maester’s path are going to be unveiled.