ASSHAI-BY-THE-SHADOW - GoT Mondays

Hey, #GoT Mondays?! After last week's post, I got interested with where these prophecies in Game of Thrones came from. Which led me down a rabbit hole of sorts that brought me from the Citadel in Oldtown (where most prophecies are found written in books of the huge library there) all the way to Essos to a city called Asshai-by-the-Shadow.

Everyone familiar with the Game of Thrones series knows that the country where most of the main story lines take place is called Westeros. It extends from the North from the Lands of Always Winter and extends to the tip of Dorne. It is the home of the 7 Kingdoms - The North (Winterfell/Starks), the Riverlands (Riverrun/Tullys), the Stormlands (Storm's End/Baratheons), the Vale (The Eyrie/Arryns), the Iron Islands (Pyke/Greyjoys), the Westerlands (Casterly Rock/Lannisters), the Reach (Highgarden/Tyrells), and Dorne (Sunspear/Martells). Westeros is just one continent though.

The planet does not have an official name and is only referred to as The Known World and consists of Westeros with the Sunset Kingdoms, Essos, and Sothyros.

If you travel East from Westeros, across the Narrow Sea you will find Essos. This is where you can find cities like Braavos, where Arya has been, further East is Meereen, where Dany is. Today, I am going to talk about a place even further East than Meereen called Asshai by the Shadow.

Sounds mysterious right? Well that is exactly what it is. Yep, a huge mystery. And that's it for me I am outta here!

Just kidding. I know what you're thinking though, "what is Asshai? and how do you pronounce it?"

Ashheye is how it's pronounced and it's like the Orient of the world of ice and fire. Located at the southern tip of a peninsula, beneath the Shadowlands. First of all the Shadowlands is a creepy-ass place where there are monsters and demons and all kinds of things that live in the dark. That's why it's called Asshai by the Shadow. Asshai isn't some bright and cheery place that's like a beacon to get through the dark lands. No no, it's ALWAYS gloomy and overcast, all day & night everyday. The buildings are made of this oily and greasy stone that drinks the light rather than reflect it. There are no plants except for inedible ghost grass, and no animals live there. In fact, the animals that are brought there, die not long after arriving. Some say it's because the River Ash is so polluted that animals that are even near it are poisoned.

It's also very scarcely populated, said to have as many people as a market place. There is trade and the city does have a port, but the only things shipped in are fresh food, water, and the occasional animal. Which is in turn traded for treasures of the city; jewels, gold, potions. The gold and jewels is said to be cursed, causing the carrier to go mad with desire of wanting more and more.

But the thing about Asshai that I really want to talk about is who lives there and what the city is closely associated with. Magic. Sorcery actually. There are sorcerers aplenty in Asshai. That's because this is the one place in the whole world that these people are able to study their arts as deep as they want without interference. In the book The World of Ice & Fire the citizens of Asshai are all magic users or slaves and are specifically listed in this order: "Warlocks, wizards, alchemists, moonsingers, Red Priests, black alchemists, necromancers, aeromancers, pyromancers, blood mages, torturers, inquisitors, godwives, night-walkers, shapechangers, (and) worshippers of the Black Goat and the Pale Child and the Lion of Night..." What the hell?! What is a moonsinger? Or a NIGHT-WALKER?! OR WORHSIPPERS OF THE BLACK GOAT AND THE PALE CHILD AND THE LION OF NIGHT!!!!!! This place sounds absolutley terrifying.

The scariest of all of these are Shadowbinders, who use shadows to do their bidding. Sound familiar? A little bit? Yeah, we saw it in season 2 or in book 2: A Clash of Kings, when Melisandre the Red Woman gives birth to a Shadow Creature that kills Renly Baratheon (in the books, she does this twice. To Renly and Ser Cortnay Penrose).

Melisandre was a slave that was sold to a shadowbinder of Asshai, who trained her. She would grow to become a follower of R'hllor and a Red Priestess.

Of all the characters we've met in A Song of Ice and Fire, Melisandre has used magic most often and her origins tie directly to where magic seems to come from. We've only gotten a glimpse of Melisandre's power though, including most famously her glamouring ability. Remember the reveal that she's actually an old woman? Crazyballs. While training as a Red Priest in Asshai, Melisandre came across the prophecy of Azor Ahai, which would lead her to Storm's End and her belief that Stannis Baratheon was Azor Ahai reborn. Oh how wrong she was...

Another Shadowbinder that we've met is Qaithe (pronounced Quayth). If you don't remember her, she is the masked woman that Daenarys meets in season 2 when she makes it through the Red Waste to the city of Qarth; and then again in season 5 when Dany gets a visit from Qaithe just before she goes on a vision quest. Qaithe fits the description of a Shadowbinder a lot more than Melisandre does, but only because Melisandre is more of Red Priest than just a straight up Shadowbinder. She was trained as a Shadowbinder, but was called to follow R'hllor. Qaithe wears a red laqured mask that always makes me think I see "liquored mask" when I read it and also red licorice like twizzlers on her face.

One last thing to mention. It is said that no man travels upriver from Asshai into the Shadowlands, only Shadowbinders. There is a city there though. The city of Stygai. Inside the city contains the Heart of Darkness. No one knows exactly what that is, and even Shadowbinders won't go there. I think it's where all magic comes from.

Asshai is no joke and I hope we get a look at the place in either the show or the books. Though George R.R. Martin has stated that we will only see Asshai though flashbacks if at all.  But since we are nearing the end of the show's run (confirmed that season 8 is the final season) and it's rumored that HBO is interested in doing a Game of Thrones spinoff show or shows. We could see Asshai show up in someone else's story. Maybe Melisandre's origins gets a spinoff story, or more likely, we could get Euron Greyjoy's travels beyond the Sunset Kingdoms. In the books, he claims to have travelled to Asshai and beyond, so that would be a great way to expand the world we've only seen a small piece of.

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