Shadows and Blood Sacrifice

Oh. My bad. 4 reminds me a lot of drunken septons, honeymoon towers, and harps and eggs wrapped up in dragoncloaks betwixt Lyanna's breasts. Sure, it makes sense because its English, but such conjecture isn't exactly supported by the text.


So did Leaf's ancestors hire a shadowbinder to ward their little barrow? Was that Bloodraven?

It seems you are equating all spell-weaving with shadowbinding. And while doing so, including specific types of spells that seem to block, well, shadowbinding. It seems counterintuitive.

LOL not exactly

While I'm glad you are finally appreciating my keen insights, because yeah, you're overdue LOL, I am worried you are relying on them a bit too much in making your point.

While it should interest us that Storm's End is protected by spells that ward it from intrusion, we have no reason to assume the purpose of those spells is to solely block shadowbinding. We know from Jon's experience that the Wall blocks his connection to Ghost once they are separated by it. Is warging now shadowbinding as well?

I'm all for the idea that spellwork has created wards in specific monuments. That's canon. But I'm not ready to associate the working or purpose of those spells with shadowbinding. Instead, I think the wards themselves block magical trespassing of any sort, and thus Mel's shadows are faced with a barrier. Might be the spells were woven into the stones to ward against shadowbinding specifically, but I have my doubts.

During those days the magnars of Storm's End would be dealing with fellow FM and their forces, cotf and their greenseers, and collaborations of the two. Might be they are all in truth practitioners of shadowbinding, but I'm leaning more towards general magical defense.

The feeling's mutual.

:::

Need there be more? We are talking about early and un-unified migrants facing the perils and magics of a new world, trees with 'seeing' faces, and a land inhabited by unfamiliar ancient races. I'd think warding and defense would be a pressing concern, and that they would use any and all resources at their disposal in order to survive the storm.

But, while I might feel that's adequate, I know that isn't a very satisfying answer in terms of the discussion and debate. As you might guess from my warg-blocking thread, I see such monuments as barriers that exist in multiple dimensions. Each work, whether it be the Wall, Winterfell, Storm's End, or Leaf's cave, operate on several levels - or within several realms, if you will.

Physically, they impose their will on the surrounding hills. Politically, they harbor and strengthen authority. Magically, they seem to block magical processes and power. Practically, they are homes and refuge - which in this universe, can be seen as surviving a war with the seasons themselves.

So I see the congregation of early FM migrants and cotf as possible antagonists that would seek to undo one another, and the homes, magics, and defenses of one another. Once one group of FM allied with the cotf, they would have new advantages over their fellows. Real world history teaches us that such minglings of strategy can be very sucessful, and I think the Wall itself is a manifestation of precisely that. Storm's End might be another, or it might be the work of men alone. It's difficult to say. But I think we can gleam from the text that this was a period of time in which many peoples were broken and reforged.

Storm's End, the Wall, Winterfell, and even BR's cave seem to me like fronts upon which people sought to end that process.

To each his own. Given the logistical leaps required in part 4, I am surprised this theory satisfies your curiosity. I think that is really the crux of it for me. We saw no gravitational pull on Stannis' shadow that seemed to draw it northward to the heart of winter. In Stannis' memory of the dreamlike state in which the assassination took place, we hear from him no polar attractions. That, coupled with the dilemma of acquiring mass, eyes, mouths, bones, armor, tangible weaponry, autonomous consciousness, and the capacity for (and fluency in) a shared language are just too problematic for me.

While I agree there are many parallels, they only go so far.

More simply, I would stipulate that Storm's End was warded. And, that warding proved to be an obstacle for Mel's bound shadows.

Mainly the old powers, specifically, and FM alliances with them. It is easier for me to imagine people at Storm's End needing wards against Westerosi threats and forces, than those of Asshai. I'm seeing the wards as allowing the passage of only nonmagical entities, rather than magical ones - hence the disconnect between Jon and Ghost. Although the old powers are "natural" for Westeros, they are still magical. Wards block Magic. Walls block Nonmagic. 

Now you are being silly. Clearly, House Durrandon constructed that immense drum tower because they hated onions. Can you name a single other vegetable that was smuggled through it? Huh? Can ya? Huh huh huh? LOL

From this we can surely assume there were onion peddlers in ancient Westeros, and that the Storm Kings of old required protection from them.