Post by stdaga on Nov 12, 2018 15:45:32 GMT
These (former) people appear to have had their life extended almost indefinitely by the Shade trees. Like the "dead" greenseers, they seem to be trapped in the HOTU, unable to leave but able to "see" much and more. Unlike the greenseers (or maybe just like them???), in their case it seems they obtain at least part of their "life force" by sapping it from unwitting visitors - as they try to do to Dany. So it's really a combination of Shade of the Evening and something not that far off from blood sacrifice that keeps them alive.
Very creepy similarities between these blue shadows and the bones of the seer's caught in the roots of the weirwoods, now that you mention it. What would have happened if Dany had remained? Do you stay indefinitely? Can you eventually get your way out after a year or ten years? As to what is sapping the life force in the HotUD, perhaps it's a combination. One thing is used to numb or distract you, while another is used to sap your life force? Did Euron enter and stay too long, becoming corrupted, by the Shade of the Evening or the evil/maegi-like essence of the place? If so, how did he finally break his way out?
But there is one more component, the exact role of which is unknown, that is involved here. And that is the heart.
A long stone table filled this room. Above it floated a human heart, swollen and blue with corruption, yet still alive. It beat, a deep ponderous throb of sound, and each pulse sent out a wash of indigo light. The figures around the table were no more than blue shadows. As Dany walked to the empty chair at the foot of the table, they did not stir, nor speak, nor turn to face her. There was no sound but the slow, deep beat of the rotting heart.
The heart, like the Undying, is blue, and sends out blue light. So it is clearly being linked directly to the Shade trees: participating somehow in the life-extending properties of these trees, and most likely being required for this.
Honestly, in all this debate on heart tree's or what makes something a heart tree, I never even considered this heart in the visions Dany has in the HotUD. Now, I am not actually sure I think that this heart is real, in the way I don't think that any of Dany's visions are real. Of course, as you mention, Drogon is able to attack the heart, to burn it, which does indicate that it could be real. But Dany is still tripping on her ride on the Shade Train.
But the idea of destroying the heart to give freedom might be the correct message we are to take away from this. It makes me think about Mel burning the heart tree at Storm's End, and wanting Jon to burn the heart tree at Winterfell. Is there a grotesque beating heart attached to each tree that needs to be destroyed? But can you really destroy the tree by burning it, or cutting it down? From what we hear of the weirwoods, it doesn't seem so. Do you have to find the beating heart? Is that what could await Jon in the crypts that frightens him so, the thing that feels like a cold breath to Eddard? What would be interesting to me is to see what might have happened if Drogon burned the tree's outside of the HotUD. If there is a major heart tree in Westeros, that connects all the heart tree's, where is it? High Heart seems an option, just based on it's name, and there is power there. Power for Beric and Thoros, which becomes power for Cat/Stoneheart eventually. But the Isle of Faces also seems an option, but was this place important before the Pact, or just because of it? And Winterfell seems an option, just because that is where our story starts and we are so connected to the idea of Winterfell as a safe port, but perhaps it is not!
I did have to refresh myself a bit on Dany's chapter of the HotUD, and before she even enters, there are interesting things that do seem to apply, such as Drogon hissing as Dany approaches the building and Jhogo saying "this is an evil place, a haunt of ghosts and maegi. See how it drinks the morning sun? Let us go before it drinks us as well[/b]." Which seems to fit, because Dany drinks the Shade and then the palace or the blue heart does seem to drink a bit of her. The fact that Drogon is unsettled of course reminds me of Grey Wind with the Frey's just prior to the Red Wedding and Ghost with the black brother's just prior to Jon's stabbing. Yet if Dany had not gone into the palace, she would not have gained a great deal of knowledge. So is it better for her to enter and manage to escape, or never to have entered at all?
When Dany enters the building, she enters through a door that is a mouth on a wall that is carved to look like a face. Hello, Nightfort imagery?
Also, this back tiled, black roofed building that seems to drink the morning sunlight brings strong imagery of Asshai!
Bottom line: The Undying stayed alive for presumably a very long time by drinking from the Shade trees and somehow stealing others' life force and storing it in the blue heart. The blue heart that is blue like the shade trees that feed it. The only trees in our story that are directly linked to a heart, and not in a subtle way either. If there is such a thing as an Original Heart Tree, it would almost have to be the blue/black shade trees, not the weirwoods.
Do you think that the blue leaved black barked tree's once were weirwoods that have become corrupted? Something that was once a source of good that became a source of evil? And if so, if Bran can tap into the weirwoods, can he tap into the knowledge of the tree's that give us Shade?
Another thought occurred to me that when we see Drogon destroy this corrupted blue heart, is it an indicator that the purpose of the dragons isn't for conquest and power but to destroy a thing that holds many in bondage? If so, then I don't think Dany get's that. By the end of Dance, she seems to be ready to set Good Queen Daenerys behind and to embrace her role as Daenerys the Conqueror!
I am not sure about these warlocks of Qarth, but I have always found it very interesting that Sam Tarly had a experience in his life with some of these warlocks, and they bathed him in blood. Why? Are warlock's for hire on a cash basis? And how does Randyll Tarly afford such a thing, or even embrace or allow it. It's always seemed not to fit the character of Randyll "no nonsense and no fun" Tarly that we are introduced to in the story. Dany and the warlocks, Sam and the warlocks. We also have Euron who has interactions with warlocks, but that is as having them as his captives These certain people with connections to the warlocks seem important, some how.
Just to veer into crazy train territory for a minute, your above quotes on the HotUD and the blue heart are interesting. Especially two specific lines.
The figures around the table were no more than blue shadows. As Dany
walked to the empty chair at the foot of the table, they did not stir, nor speak, nor turn to face her.
walked to the empty chair at the foot of the table, they did not stir, nor speak, nor turn to face her.
Through the indigo murk, she could make out the wizened features of the Undying One to her right, an old old man, wrinkled and hairless. His flesh was a ripe violet-blue, his lips and nails bluer still, so dark they were almost black. Even the whites of his eyes were blue. They stared unseeing at the ancient woman on the opposite side of the table, whose gown of pale silk had rotted on her body. One withered breast was left bare in the Qartheen manner, to show a pointed blue nipple hard as leather.
A long stone table filled this room. Above it floated a human heart, swollen and blue with corruption, yet still alive. It beat, a deep ponderous throb of sound, and each pulse sent out a wash of indigo light. The figures around the table were no more than blue shadows. As Dany walked to the empty chair at the foot of the table, they did not stir, nor speak, nor turn to face her. There was no sound but the slow, deep beat of the rotting heart.
I know there is some debate on what color indigo is. Is it purple or blue. Personally, in nature, I see it more as blue, but that might be because historically indigo is used for blue dyes, so in my head I lean toward blue, a deep, deep blue. In our more modern computer age, indigo seems more purple than blue, but that is just color spectrum's on a screen and not necessarily found in nature. Either way, the above passages link to both indigo and blue-violet, which fit the idea that I have of Rhaegar's eye color. So, while reading these quotes, I started to wonder if Rhaegar could have had some connection either to the HotUD or to warlocks or even sipping on some Shade of the Evening. Could some of Rhaegar's time missing have had something to do with the HotUD? It's hard to imagine he could have gone off to Qarth, so perhaps a warlock with Shade came to him?
Granted, not all indigo in this story is related to the warlocks and their palace and beverage of choice, nor is it all related to Rhaegar. House Mallister has an indigo color scheme (I do think House Mallister might be very important, with their indigo sigil and silver eagle). The Indigo Star is a trading galley from Qarth that plays into Dany's Meereen story, and the poison that that Cressen tries to kill Mel with and takes his own life is stored in an indigo vial. I am not so certain that things that are indigo are to be trusted in this story, or might at least be tied to dark things. Rhaegar, I am looking at you!