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Post by Ser Duncan on Jul 31, 2016 4:16:30 GMT
Psh, Martin already did a story about that called Tuff Voyages. It is exactly what you're describing here on an intergalactic level. No kidding? Guess I should take the time to read some of his other work! lol Ok, so, at least I know I'm on the right path and not pulling ideas out of my duff! Not at all! The first short story is actually called The Plague Star and it emanates pestilence on a regular basis. I won't tell you much more in case you want to read it, but it is rooted in the concept of a planetary body that routinely comes round (like Haley's comet) and kills everyone that is out and exposed to it's light. The main character Haviland Tuf is hired to investigate the star, though he's not aware that this is his mission when he agrees to transport a bunch of experts. Not Martin's best work, but it is very dark and rather more cerebral than most sci-fi of its time. I believe he published it in the 1980s.
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Post by min on Jul 31, 2016 12:05:00 GMT
Random thought here: MMD's warning to Dany that there is a price to pay for the ritural. A price to pay for tempting fate?
The Monkey's Paw:
The short story involves Mr. and Mrs. White and their adult son, Herbert. Sergeant-Major Morris, a friend who served with the British Army in India, introduces them to the monkey's paw, telling of its mysterious powers to grant three wishes and of its journey from an old fakir to his comrade, who used his third wish to wish for death. Morris, having had a bad experience upon using the paw, throws the monkey's paw into the fire but Mr. White retrieves it.
At Herbert's suggestion, Mr. White wishes for £200 to be used as the final payment on his house, even though he believes he has everything he wants. The next day his son Herbert leaves for work at a local factory. Later that day, word comes to the White home that Herbert has been killed in a machinery accident. Although the employer denies responsibility for the incident, the firm makes a goodwill payment to heirs of the deceased. The payment is £200.
Ten days after their son's death and a week after the funeral, Mrs. White, almost mad with grief, asks her husband to use the paw to wish Herbert back to life. Reluctantly, he does so. Shortly afterwards there is a knock at the door. As Mrs. White fumbles at the locks in an attempt to open the door Mr. White, who had to identify his son's mutilated body, and who knows the body has been buried for more than a week, makes his third wish.
The knocking stops. Mrs. White opens the door to find no one is there.
Arya contemplates Old Nan's tales about Grumpkins (Jaqn H'gar) offering three wishes and how she has to be careful about the last wish.
Could the prophecy of three betrayals (Dany) have a kind of Monkey's Paw quality to them?
"The Monkey's Paw" is a supernatural short story by author W. W. Jacobs first published in England in 1902.
In the story, three wishes are granted to the owner of the monkey's paw, but the wishes come with an enormous price for interfering with fate.
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Post by Melifeather on Jul 31, 2016 14:05:37 GMT
As MMD burns on the pyre: She had sensed the truth of it long ago, Dany thought as she took a step closer to the conflagration, but the brazier had not been hot enough. The flames writhed before her like the women who had danced at her wedding, whirling and singing and spinning their yellow and orange and crimson veils, fearsome to behold, yet lovely, so lovely, alive with heat. Dany opened her arms to them, her skin flushed and glowing. This is a wedding, too, she thought. " She heard a crack, the sound of shattering stone. The platform of wood and brush and grass began to shift and collapse in upon itself. Bits of burning wood slid down at her, and Dany was showered with ash and cinders. And something else came crashing down, bouncing and rolling, to land at her feet; a chunk of curved rock, pale and veined with gold, broken and smoking. The roaring filled the world, yet dimly through the firefall Dany heard women shriek and children cry out in wonder. Only death can pay for life. And there came a second crack, loud and sharp as thunder, and the smoke stirred and whirled around her and the pyre shifted, the logs exploding as the fire touched their secret hearts. She heard the screams of frightened horses, and the voices of the Dothraki raised in shouts of fear and terror, and Ser Jorah calling her name and cursing. No, she wanted to shout to him, no, my good knight, do not fear for me. The fire is mine. I am Daenerys Stormborn, daughter of dragons, bride of dragons, mother of dragons, don’t you see? Don’t you SEE? With a belch of flame and smoke that reached thirty feet into the sky, the pyre collapsed and came down around her. Unafraid, Dany stepped forward into the firestorm, calling to her children. The third crack was as loud and sharp as the breaking of the world." I swear this is a reinvention of the whole sacrificial virgin thing, put on a platform and lowered into the mouth to be consumed by the volcano god. IMO the funeral pyre is the inversion to the three swords the Children "forged" that built the world that Westeros had been living under up until this moment. The three "cracks" are reversing the "swords": the hammer of waters, the heart of the lion (white walkers), and the loss of Nissa Nissa (one of the moons). 1) The chunk of curved rock pale and veined with gold is meant to symbolize the moon, - is it possible that the hammer of waters was caused by a piece of the moon falling? 2) the smoke stirred and whirled around her symbolizes the blowing snow that came with the heart of the lion, 3) and the third crack finally broke the world, or in this instance the wheel of time. - the rest of the moon (Nissa Nissa) came falling down. This is the point where the ouroboros began eating itself inside out and time began rolling in reverse. Daenerys is three things: 1) daughter of dragons - this one seems pretty straightforward if she's Aerys and Rhaella's. 2) bride of dragons - not as clear, other than she was supposed to marry her brother, Viserys. 3) mother of dragons - this one is straightforward as well. It was min that pointed out that Daenerys was the origin; the mother of dragons. She is at the beginning of the new cycle that is the wheel now turning in reverse, and it was the funeral pyre that broke the world and is similar to the phrase "break the wheel" which is a constant theme in the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. I had been thinking it was the series of three blood magic rituals that reversed the wheel, and maybe they were still necessary to pave the way for Daenerys funeral pyre, but from the ashes came the rebirth of the new wheel. She did break the wheel like she states on the mummer's version.
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Post by min on Jul 31, 2016 15:04:02 GMT
Braavos! It's a sea mount, an underwater volcano. That's the other mountain that will blow in the wind. There has to be resolution to Arya's side of the story as well as Jon. The Wall and the Titan of Braavos are two of the wonders made by man. It is located in a lagoon on the northwestern end of Essos, where the narrow sea and the Shivering Sea meet between ice and fire.
Bran's Coma Dream:
He saw his father pleading with the king, his face etched with grief. He saw Sansa crying herself to sleep at night, and he saw Arya watching in silence and holding her secrets hard in her heart. There were shadows all around them. One shadow was as dark as ash, with the terrible face of a hound. Another was armored like the sun, golden and beautiful. Over them both loomed a giant in armor made of stone, but when he opened his visor, there was nothing inside but darkness and thick black blood.
The Giant looming over Jamie and Sandor is the Titan of Braavos or the House of Black and White. I suppose you could say that when Arya passed beneath the Titan; she also passed beneath the shadow of a mountain, albeit an underwater mountain. A horn also blows from the Titan when ships approach the lagoon and it's hollow filled with murder holes where black pitch and tar can come raining down onto enemies passing beneath it (thick black blood).
Oh my goodness; Jamie and Sandor hook up?
So in essence, Bran has seen the most important places in his coma dream: the Wall *ice*; Vaes Dothrak and the Mother of Mountains *fire* and Braavos, the HoB&W.
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Post by min on Jul 31, 2016 15:39:57 GMT
Here are the other places Bran sees in his coma dream:
He lifted his eyes and saw clear across the narrow sea, to the Free Cities and the green Dothraki sea and beyond, to Vaes Dothrak under its mountain, to the fabled lands of the Jade Sea, to Asshai by the Shadow, where dragons stirred beneath the sunrise.
What do you want to bet that Bran is the the intermediary who shows Dany the history of Wall and Asshai? LOL But in a cryptic form followed by a visit from Quaithe all of which must be interpreted by Tyrion. An altered state of mind that requires another ritual involving drugs or mushrooms if Tyrion hasn't lost his red and white variety yet. And a trip to the library.
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Post by Some Pig No Doubt on Jul 31, 2016 16:00:00 GMT
Random synaptic firings. Spinning off the idea that Dany = bride of the vulcan god. Volcano = dragon in the figurative sense: a huge beast made of fire, a mouth that roars and pours flame, huge dark wings that cast shadow over the earth, all that live and breathe run in terror. A dormant volcano is a sleeping dragon - it sits and quietly smolders, throwing off heat but not causing any destruction. However, when the dragon WAKES, all hell literally breaks loose. You do not want to wake the dragon! Inserting the magic element, the volcano is the mother of dragons...this is where they were born, literally. They grew deep inside their "mother" until she gave birth - she split open, cracked like an egg from the heat, and a thousand thousand dragons poured forth. Dany = the vulcan god's wife, or IS she the vulcan god itself? - born of fire, marries fire, births fire. Daughter of death, bride of fire, mother of dragons. She bathed in the Womb of the World (caldera lake) beneath the Mother of Mountains (extinct volcano)** and began to grow her dragon inside of her. The dragon consumes her son Rhaego in the womb so that Rhaego is born dead and deformed - parasitic relationship as the dragon 'invades' her? When she steps into the fire, the dragon is born. **ETA for clarity: I think that the Mother of Mountains is the remaining one of two twin volcanoes in Vaes Dothrak. Two moons, two eggs, two breasts. One erupted and became the caldera lake, the other is still there. min 's or Melifeather 's idea that Summerhall, TOJ, and MMD tent are all connected - YES! However, first two rituals to rebirth the god/dragon didn't work. What ingredients were missing that made them fail? Did it only work with Dany because she is female, capable of birthing dragons? Dragons are genderless/interchangeable, but nonetheless a female has to lay eggs. Volcanoes can have long, long periods of dormancy, but they still erupt in 'cycles' - the dragon wakes, bathes the world in cleansing fire, returns to sleep as the world rebuilds/renews itself and begins the cycle anew. The ouroboros. If Dany = vulcan/dragon god/wife, and this transformation/rebirth was brought about by a figurative or near death, do we have other versions of reborn gods walking around right now? Euron = Storm God, Tyrion = Shrouded Lord (drowned in the Sorrows, now a Typhoid Mary of greyscale?) Who is the Drowned God? What is Bran? He 'died' from his fall but woke again as a greenseer - is he a god, e.g. The King of Winter, or merely a human external hard drive that the trees will download their memory into for later retrieval when everything above ground is destroyed? Or both? Bloodraven can't do the upload, he's too much tree and not enough human?
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Post by Melifeather on Jul 31, 2016 16:07:15 GMT
Braavos! It's a sea mount, an underwater volcano. That's the other mountain that will blow in the wind. There has to be resolution to Arya's side of the story as well as Jon. The Wall and the Titan of Braavos are two of the wonders made by man. It is located in a lagoon on the northwestern end of Essos, where the narrow sea and the Shivering Sea meet between ice and fire. Bran's Coma Dream: He saw his father pleading with the king, his face etched with grief. He saw Sansa crying herself to sleep at night, and he saw Arya watching in silence and holding her secrets hard in her heart. There were shadows all around them. One shadow was as dark as ash, with the terrible face of a hound. Another was armored like the sun, golden and beautiful. Over them both loomed a giant in armor made of stone, but when he opened his visor, there was nothing inside but darkness and thick black blood.
The Giant looming over Jamie and Sandor is the Titan of Braavos or the House of Black and White. I suppose you could say that when Arya passed beneath the Titan; she also passed beneath the shadow of a mountain, albeit an underwater mountain. A horn also blows from the Titan when ships approach the lagoon and it's hollow filled with murder holes where black pitch and tar can come raining down onto enemies passing beneath it (thick black blood). Oh my goodness; Jamie and Sandor hook up? So in essence, Bran has seen the most important places in his coma dream: the Wall *ice*; Vaes Dothrak and the Mother of Mountains *fire* and Braavos, the HoB&W. Bran's vision is multi-layered and I don't think there's one straight answer. The giant can be Illyn Payne, Gregor Clegane, Littlefinger, the Titan of Braavos, and even the Wall. The one I like the best is Littlefinger, because I think he's responsible for pulling the invisible, unseen strings that lead to the fall of House Stark. But that's not to say that Littlefinger isn't a Faceless Man. He could very well be, and a masterful one at that. So if his assignment was the fall of House Stark, who paid to have it done? Like her or hate her, Lady Dyanna pointed out that by removing the last Stark from Winterfell may have been the ward that was keeping the killing cold back behind the Wall. Now that there is no Stark, winter seems to be emanating out of the castle. If there are tunnels underground leading from the Wall to Winterfell's crypts, then the expelling of the killing cold is traveling through the tunnels and exiting where the ward has been removed. This removal of the ward seems like something someone on the side of fire would desire, but whom?
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Post by Melifeather on Jul 31, 2016 16:16:46 GMT
min 's idea that Summerhall, TOJ, and MMD tent are all connected Was this min's idea or mine? Not that it matters. It seems like she and I have been feeding off each other's ideas lately. Volcanoes can have long, long periods of dormancy, but they still erupt in 'cycles' - the dragon wakes, bathes the world in cleansing fire, returns to sleep as the world rebuilds/renews itself and begins the cycle anew. The ouroboros. I have been working for several days on a Wheel of Time/Ouroboros essay for BC's Centennial series and in it I suggested that the three blood magic rituals of Summerhal, Tower of Joy, and Mirri's Tent made it possible for Drogo's funeral pyre to work like a magic spell that broke the wheel. This mirrors what Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time book talks about, and it even references "the dragon reborn" that "breaks the wheel", the end result is a rebuilding of the world.
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Post by Some Pig No Doubt on Jul 31, 2016 16:19:21 GMT
Was this min's idea or mine? I thought it was hers but if it is yours, I apologize...I can't keep up with who says what these days. Either way, I'm on board!
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Post by min on Jul 31, 2016 16:22:06 GMT
No, not my idea.
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Post by Melifeather on Jul 31, 2016 16:22:28 GMT
Was this min's idea or mine? I thought it was hers but if it is yours, I apologize...I can't keep up with who says what these days. Either way, I'm on board! No worries. I shouldn't have even brought it up, because really it's all of our ideas. When you have a group like we do here, you cannot truly take ownership of an idea when it's birthed off someone else's.
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Post by Melifeather on Jul 31, 2016 16:26:02 GMT
No, not my idea. If it's yours, then it's my turn to apologize. But like I said above, we've been feeding off each other's ideas lately that it really isn't one person's any longer. Without your ideas I wouldn't come up with my new ideas, and visa versa. For example, I have been working on the inverted wheel of time for the last six months, but you took that concept and came up with the truly genius idea about how the Wall was created by consuming the killing cold...but then I came up with the expelling part. See what I mean?
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Post by Some Pig No Doubt on Jul 31, 2016 16:31:09 GMT
So in essence, Bran has seen the most important places in his coma dream: the Wall *ice*; Vaes Dothrak and the Mother of Mountains *fire* and Braavos, the HoB&W. He lifted his eyes and saw clear across the narrow sea, to the Free Cities and the green Dothraki sea and beyond, to Vaes Dothrak under its mountain, to the fabled lands of the Jade Sea, to Asshai by the Shadow, where dragons stirred beneath the sunrise.All what I would consider "hot spots"....prime locations within the ring. Or egg, really, since it's more ovoid.
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Post by Melifeather on Jul 31, 2016 17:08:46 GMT
I think the Wall's breathing and exhaling was like a giant billows to the volcanoes in Valyria and Hardhome.
If you haven't been following the discussion between min and I about the Wall, then I'll try to condense it into a nutshell. min suggested the Wall consumed the killing cold, and it's great height is due to thousands and thousands of years of drawing the cold unto itself. The drawing of the cold unto itself is the inhale. When it inhales the cold, the warm air of the south is drawn up in it's wake, but it also draws cold air from the north. Once there is an abundance of cold air from the north it forces the warm air back south again. Thus the Wall breathes, and this breathing is like a giant bellows feeding the fires of volcanoes.
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Post by min on Jul 31, 2016 19:02:01 GMT
No, not my idea. If it's yours, then it's my turn to apologize. But like I said above, we've been feeding off each other's ideas lately that it really isn't one person's any longer. Without your ideas I wouldn't come up with my new ideas, and visa versa. For example, I have been working on the inverted wheel of time for the last six months, but you took that concept and came up with the truly genius idea about how the Wall was created by consuming the killing cold...but then I came up with the expelling part. See what I mean? It's your original concept. This is a think tank where ideas are developed. No apologies required - ever! I myself, share ideas freely and I don't have any sense of ownership of anything that I post. It's the synergistic approach that I hold for myself. Everybody here has a particular talent that adds to development of ideas and enriching the mind. That's the payoff for me. And the people of course.
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