Difference between revisions of "Strangler"

From A Wiki of Ice and Fire
Jump to: navigation, search
(Effects)
Line 7: Line 7:
  
 
==Effects==
 
==Effects==
Dissolved in [[wine]], the strangler makes the muscle of the victim's throat clench tighter than a fist, shutting down the windpipe. It is said that the victim's face turns as purple as the poison crystals.{{Ref|aCoK|0}}
+
Dissolved in [[wine]], the strangler makes the muscle of the victim's throat clench tighter than a fist, shutting down the windpipe. It is said that the victim's face turns as purple as the poison crystals. The effects can be mistaken for choking on a small piece of food.{{Ref|aCoK|0}}
  
 
==Recent Events==
 
==Recent Events==

Revision as of 10:55, 22 May 2020

Sansa Stark examining the silver hairnet after Joffrey's poisoning - art by Natascha Röösli. © Fantasy Flight Games
Black Amethysts © Fantasy Flight Games

The strangler is a rare poison that looks like dark purple crystals, and makes the victim unable to breathe.[1][2] The process of making the poison is known to the alchemists of Lys, the Faceless Men of Braavos, and the maesters of the Citadel. The maesters do not discuss the subject beyond the confines of their order. The Asshai'i have one name for the plant from which the poison is made, and the alchemists of Lys have another name for the crystals, but the maesters call the poison the strangler.[1]

Preparation

The process to make the strangler is slow and difficult, the necessaries costly and hard to acquire. The poison is made from plants that are only found on islands in the Jade Sea. The leaves of the plant are picked and aged, then soaked in a wash of limes, sugar water, and rare spices from the Summer Islands. The leaves are then discarded, but the liquid is kept and thickened with ash and allowed to crystallize. The crystals are dark purple, no larger than seeds, and shine like jewels.[1]

Effects

Dissolved in wine, the strangler makes the muscle of the victim's throat clench tighter than a fist, shutting down the windpipe. It is said that the victim's face turns as purple as the poison crystals. The effects can be mistaken for choking on a small piece of food.[1]

Recent Events

A Clash of Kings

Maester Cressen attempts to assassinate Melisandre using the strangler, but she survives after drinking almost the whole poisoned cup of wine. When Cressen drinks the remaining half a swallow from the same cup, he dies.[1]

The fool Ser Dontos Hollard provides Sansa Stark with a silver hairnet, decorated with what he claims to be black amethysts from Asshai. He claims it is magic that will give her justice, vengeance, and take her home.[3]

A Storm of Swords

Sansa Stark wears the silver hairnet to the royal wedding of King Joffrey Baratheon and Margaery Tyrell, per Dontos Hollard's orders.[4][5] During the wedding, Lady Olenna Redwyne secretly takes one of the crystals from the hairnet and uses it to poison the wine in King Joffrey's goblet. Joffrey appears to choke on a piece of his wedding pie, and dies, unable to breathe.[5] Sansa, fleeing the Red Keep in the chaos of the assassination, discovers that one of the amethysts in her hairnet is missing, and later learns that Dontos was given the hairnet by Lord Petyr Baelish. Petyr tells Sansa that he and Lady Olenna conspired to murder Joffrey and frame Tyrion Lannister.[6]

At Tyrion's trial for kingslaying, Grand Maester Pycelle tells the court that Joffrey was killed by the strangler, and that Tyrion stole it and other poisons from his chambers.[2]

Quotes

Such a small thing to hold the power of life and death.[1]

—thoughts of Maester Cressen

They said a victim's face turned as purple as the little crystal seed from which his death was grown, but so too did a man choking on a morsel of food.[1]

—thoughts of Maester Cressen

I dreamt of a maid at a feast with purple serpents in her hair, venom dripping from their fangs.[7]

References