Arya Stark

Lannister�
Kingslayer
(08-30-02):

Trebla/Arya has been a bad, bad girl. Don't use any moderator powers Arya, that'd be bad. I've been very careful about logging out of public terminals after using them.

Little snippets to keep you non-Con-goers drooling

(1) Arya is brought to the temple of this many faced God where she sees a man in a silver cloak dipping his fingers into a pool of black/crimson "water". Arya retrieves a chalice and brings it to the man. He accepts it, scoops up some "water" and drinks. When he's done, he stumbles to his feet and Arya can see that he's bleeding from the stomach. He staggers to a stone shelf where he climbs atop and dies.

(2) A man comes and asks Arya for her name. She gives him each of her many aliases, but somehow the man knows shes lying each time. Finally, she says "Arry" and the man says something to the effect of "almost." Then angrily she flings her real name at him "Arya of House Stark!" The man asks if she is afraid of death and Arya replies that she is not. The man pulls back his hood to reveal a yellowed skull with a worm crawling out of the eye socket. This skull, in the voice of the man, asks Arya to kiss him. Arya reaches up, kisses him on the nose hole of his skull, plucks the worm from the eye socket and tries to eat it. Suddenly, the illusion fades and a kindly old man is standing in front of her. He says admiringly "No one's ever tried to eat the worm before."

(3) The Colosses structure that guards the mouth of the bay at Braavos is enormous and is also used as a defensive structure. Murder holes, arrow slits can be seen by Arya as she passes between the structures legs. She also sees faces staring down at them as they pass through. Large bonfires are kept ablaze in the eyes of the Colosses. At one point Arya points out that the city of Braavos is not encircled by a wall. The captain of the ship says that the walls of Braavos are her ships, which are painted purple, even the sails.

Lord Manwoody
Durch Mitleid Wissend
(08-30-02):

The chapter begins as the ship is approaching Braavos. She sees lights on the horizon, and thinks that they are burning like a star. There are two banks of oars on each ship. The prow of the ship is carved into the shape of a maiden holding a bowl of fruit.

We find out that Arya first asked the captain to take her home, to Winterfell... but instead he brought her here to Braavos, where she has decided to search for Jaq'en (whose name is actually pronounced 'JOCK-in'). Arya muses that she is always searching for home, but never gets there. There is some talk of friendship, and Arya thinks to herself: "I don't need friends, so long as I have Needle."

Arya has been given gifts by the crewmembers, including a floppy woolen hat, and fingerless gloves. None of the crew calls her Arya; she is instead referred to as 'Salty' as she joined them at the Saltpans.

Once she arrives at Braavos, she comes to a temple of some sort. Someone mentions that all gods are worshipped in Braavos, but the Seven are worshipped only by the Westerosi travellers. Arya says that they are not *her* Seven, those were her mother's gods, who watched her be murdered at the Twins. She hopes to find a weirwood.

Arya thinks about the old saying, that 'when the cold wind blows, the lone wolf dies, but the pack survives.' She thinks this is false, because Arya is herself a lone wolf who still lives, while her brother who led the pack is now dead.

The titan of Braavos is a huge statue which rises out of the waters of the Braavosi port. Arya thinks the statue isn't as big as the statue of Balor the Blessed, but then the ship gets closer and closer, and the statue grows ever larger. The titan's hair is of green-dyed hemp ropes, and his bronze fingers hold a broken sword. She thinks the Titan is so huge that he could step over all of Winterfell."

The statue emits some kind of loud noise as the ship passes. Arya is startled; when the ship pulls away from the statue she sees 'murder holes' from which peer many faces. A sailor teases her for being afraid, but she insists that she was not scared at all.

They approach the city, which is described as having more buildings than any other city Arya has seen (including KL). It is filled with temples and palaces, and the colors of the city are gray and gold and red. The buildings are all made of bronze and marble and stone; she comments that she doesn't see any thatch within the city. She remarks that there are no walls; her companion, Denio (sp?) tells her that "the galleys are our walls; we need no others."

Arya enters the temple of the Moonsingers (?). She knocks on the door but no one answers. She yells at the door, saying: 'Let me in stupid! I crossed the Iron Sea. Valar morghulis!' George then read: "There was no reply, except that the door opened." (heh!) Needle is in her hand, but she doesn't remember ever drawing it.

When she comes in, she remarks that the floor is made of stone and that she can hear water in the distance. There are many old people sleeping on slaps, but she realizes that they are either dead or dying. A man she sees has a dark red splotch at his waist, and has apparently been stabbed.
She sees a pale girl dressed in robes that are black on one side and white on the other. The girl grabs Arya, who tells her that she killed the last person who touched her (?).

She finds a priest, and asks him where she is. He tells her it is "a place of peace." The god worshipped there has "as many faces as there are stars in the sky." He asks her what her name is; she tells him 'Salty.' She remarks that although his face is covered by the robes, she can feel him smiling. He asks again, and then she tells him 'Squab.' He asks again. She tells him 'Nan,' and then follows up by telling him that others call her 'Weasel.' The next time he asks, she tells him 'Arry.' He smiles again and says, "Closer, but now the truth."

(may be paraphrased) "'Arya,' she whispered the first time. The second time, she threw it at him."

The hooded priset asks her if she fears death. She denies this. She then sees that beneath the hood is a yellow skull with no face. A white worm hangs from his eye socket. The ghastly face instructs her to kiss him. She wonders if he is just trying to scare her. So she kisses him, reaches up and plucks the worm from his eye and tries to eat it, but it disappears. The priest smiles and tells her that no one has ever tried to eat his worm before She sees that the priest's face is that of the kindliest man she's ever seen.

Ser Ronald
Landed Knight
(09-04-02):

The chapter opens up with Arya and the ship-captain�s son Denyo standing on the prow of the Titan�s Daughter on their way to Braavos. Arya looks across the water to see the light from some sort of beacon. Denyo comments that it is the star of home. This makes Arya think of her home, Winterfel. She reflects on the deaths of her family and remembers all those who have tried to take her home and failed i.e. Yoren, BwB, Sandor.

She then contemplates that the only thing she needs in her life is her sword. She then thinks of how oddly the crew treats her. Half of them shun her and the other half shower her with gifts, a silver fork, gloves, woolen hat and a few other things. These sailors keep telling her their names and make her memorize them. The sailors call her Salty since she came aboard at the Saltpans.

Arya looks back at the light in the sky and sees that it has become two lights. Denyo tells her that the lights are eyes, the eyes of the Titan. Arya remembers that Old Nan had told her that the Titan of Braavos ate the flesh of little high-born girls. Arya dismisses all that Nan and Maester Luwin taught her, they are dead and she doesn�t want to think of them anymore. Its also impotant to note that at this point Arya believes that Sansa is most likely dead as well, she truly believes that she is alone in the world.

Arya asks if the Titan is the god of the Braavosi, Denyo replies that all gods are honored in the City and that there is a Sept on the island. Arya comments to herself that the seven were her mother�s gods and that they are not her gods. She wonders if she will find a godswood in the City. At this point she remembers her father and his words that a lone wolf dies but that pack survives. She thinks that he got it wrong since she, the lone wolf, lives but that the pack has been killed and skinned.

Denyo remarks that the temple to the Moonsingers is the greatest temple on the island, apparently long ago the Moonsinger priests led the Braavosi here to escape the wrath of Valyria. There is also a large temple to the Father of Waters and another large one for the Many Faced God. Denyo gets rather quiet when he mentions the Many Faced God. Arya thins to herself that if the Many-Faced God will answer her prayers (here she recites her list of people needing killing) then he will be her god.

Ok, now we get a look at the Titan. He is a giant of a statue, made from the same rock as the cliffs that surround the lagoon. Basically the gap between the legs of the Titan are the only way in the lagoon, cliffs surround everything else. The Titan is clothed in Bronze, a bronze skirt (kilt or toga perhaps?), bronze breastplate, bronze head and half-helm (I thought it odd him having a bronze head, but its there in black and white on my page) Actually, the more I look at it looks as if the entire statue is either bronze or bronze plated except for the legs which are hewn from the stone pillars. Green rope is used to make the Titan look as if he had hair. One hand rests on a cliff ridge, and the other holds a broken sword high in the air. Arya makes a comment that he could walk over the walls of Winterfel.

The Titan has arrow slits in his legs and murder holes under his skirt, it appears to be a formidable defensive structure. Beyond the Titan a lagoon opens up. Immediately beyond the entrance to the lagoon is the Arsenal, a large stone fort full of scorpians, catapults and other nasty weapons. Denyo boasts to Arya that it can produce a War Galley a day. Many galleys can be seen tied up to quays around the Arsenal.

Beyond the Arsenal the lagoon stretches on to the City of Braavos itself. The City is actually many small islands connected by bridges. There are no walls protecting the City, Denyo mentions that the Galleys of Braavos are the wooden walls of the City (this passage reminds me of the Athenian navy during the battle of Marathon).

Here Arya is taken off the boat by another son of the captain named Yorko. Arya thinks of how she would like to stay on the ship�how she liked sailing, but she knows that the captain will not allow her to stay even though he has been kind to her.

Yorko mans a small boat and begins to take arya over to the Many-Faced God temple. Arya sees more of the City and remarks on the large number if massive structures in Braavos compared to Kingslanding where there were only three. Arya notices that everything is made of stone and that there are no trees on the island, she thinks the City looks very grey. (There is a lot of description of Braavos here, and GRRM does a much better job then I ever could of describing the City, so I�ll let you read his words and see Braavos through his eyes.)

One thing caught my attention the Warren. The Warren is a temple dedicated to the small gods whom the world has forgotten. It seemed interesting and since GRRM spends a paragraph describing and naming the building I am led to believe that it will have significance later.

Arya reaches the temple of the Many Faced God, Yorko goes away. Arya tries to open the door but can�t. She yells at it, and brandishes her coin. The door opens. The door is half ebony and half weirwood. In the center of the door is a carved moon, half ebony half weirwood, but on reverse side. She feels that the doors are watching her.

Inside the temple she hears water, she finds a pool with a man moaning crouched next to it. He appears to be trying to get some water so Arya picks up a cup of water and hands it to him. Its then that she notices that he is bleeding from the stomach. The man stumbles off to an alcove and lies down. Arya notices that there are other alcoves with people lying in them. She realizes that they are dead.

While she is looking at the dying man she is approached by a young girl and a cowled man. Ok, I�m going to stop here. This is the end of the chapter except for some very witty dialogue between Arya and the man. I don�t want to ruin it for you all since there are some funny lines�nothing significant plot wise is learnt from this page of dialogue so don�t feel left out.

Nimcha
Freerider
(09-04-02):

Beyond the Arsenal the lagoon stretches on to the City of Braavos itself. The City is actually many small islands connected by bridges. There are no walls protecting the City, Denyo mentions that the Galleys of Braavos are the wooden walls of the City (this passage reminds me of the Athenian navy during the battle of Marathon).

What was it, the Oracle said that the wooden walls would protect the city from the Persians...?

Interesting. I wonder if Braavos is analogous to Athens in any other way? It sure sounds like an interesting place, especially how much grander it seems to Arya than King's Landing, which (along with Oldtown, iirc) is the main port of Westeros. (I guess this makes sense, since Westeros is like midieval England in a lot of ways, and the cities of the East were certainly greater in those days than those of the West.) Maybe the "many-faced god" is something like the Greek parthenon rolled up into a single god?

Tangent: what other real-world historical situations does GRRM seem to use for his world? We don't know much about the Free Cities yet, but it wouldn't surprise me if he's decided to take a great city of the past as an analogy for each of his cities; I think that would be kind of cool. The Dothraki are like the Mongols, Valyria the Romans. What's the real-world analogy for the cities of Slaver's Bay? The old ports of North Africa, maybe? From the little we know of Yi Ti, it might be analogous to imperial China. What real-world culture was like Qarth? Rich, commercial, a little decadent; like Rome without the Empire. Corinth, maybe? Byzantium?

Zollo
Commoner
(09-06-02):

"One thing caught my attention the Warren. The Warren is a temple dedicated to the small gods whom the world has forgotten. It seemed interesting and since GRRM spends a paragraph describing and naming the building I am led to believe that it will have significance later."

Very interesting indeed! Apparently those small gods were worshipped somewhere in the past, but became forgotten. If each god is an important element in the total collection of gods, could it have been that "forgetting" (no longer believing in or worshipping of) those small gods destabilized the divine world??? Resulting in destabilizing the real world its seasons??

Terra Prime
Garth Greenhand
(09-06-02):

The seasons have been fluctuating between Winter and Summer for eons in Westeros. Remember the Night King? Or the Battle at the Dawn? Those are thousand of years ago. I see no evidence to suggest that the change in seasons is a recent event brought about by forgetting some minor gods.

Also, we still have no solid evidence that all these gods in Westeros are for real. That there are people in Westeros who believe they're real is obvious. But objectively, we've only seen the Old Gods (dire wolves for the Starks) and R'hllor (bringing back people to life). Perhaps you can say the Seven, as well, for Sandor's victory over Donadarrion and Bronn over the Vale lord, but apparently they abandoned Tyrion later in Gregor vs Oberyn. The Horse Lord of the Dothrakis, the Shepherd of Mirri Mas Duur's people, and the Harpies of the Old Ghis all seem to be dormant.

Ran
King o' the Board
(09-06-02):

I was thinking that perhaps the Warren was a sort-of nod to Fritz Leiber and his Fafhrd & the Grey Mouser stories.

In Lankhmar, there's a difference between the gods _in_ Lankhmar and the gods _of_ Lankhmar. The former populate a street that goes from the lowliest of the gates all the way up to the highest and richest part of the city. New gods show up often, and some gain followers and interest so that they shuffle their way up to about mid-way up the street before, almost inevitably, they decline as some new religions become the fad.

There's a lot of very lowly gods in Lankhmar, gods with once-illustrious followings.

So, maybe it's a nod. I don't know. I do like the sound of Braavos. Very interesting. I wonder if we'll stumble across duelling societies, or see the Sea Lord.