Difference between revisions of "Warlocks"

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Revision as of 15:53, 4 July 2012

Warlocks are the magic practitioners of the city of Qarth. The Warlocks center of power in the House of the Undying, house to the Undying Ones. [1]

Appearance

The Warlocks of Qarth are known to dress in long, beaded robes. They have white, pale skins and pale blue lips, from drinking shade-of-the-evening many times, in pursuit of ever-greater knowledge. The Undying Ones flesh is ripe violet blue, there nails are so blue they are nearly black and even the whites of their eyes are blue.[2]

About

Though legend speaks of the mighty power of the warlocks, they have done little in the past century. Similarly to the Alchemists' Guild of the Seven Kingdoms, the warlocks' power and prestige have waned over the years. Their mighty House of the Undying is long since a grey stone ruin, neither repaired nor expanded upon, often referred to as the 'Palace of Dust'.

Xaro Xhoan Daxos tells Daenerys Targaryen that there is a saying in Qarth concerning the warlocks:

A warlock's house is built of bones and lies.[1]

The telling of this saying prompts Daenerys to ask Xaro Xhoan Daxos then why do men lower their voices when they speak of the warlocks of Qarth, adding that all across the east, their power and wisdom are revered. Xaro replies:

Once they were mighty … but now they are as ludicrous as those feeble old soldiers who boast of their prowess long after strength and skill have left them. They read their crumbling scrolls, drink their shade of the evening, until their lips turn blue, and hint of dread powers, but they are hollow husks compared to those who went before. Pyat Pree’s gifts will turn to dust in your hands I warn you.

Even so, the Warlocks are feared and respected throughout the East and many enter the 'Palace of Dust', none leave again.

Later on during her stay in Qarth, after having been refused by the Pureborn, when Daenerys decides to heed Pyat Pree, Xaro Xhoan Daxos warns her:

Pyat Pree has blue lips, and it is truly said that blue lips speak only lies…Warlocks are bitter creatures who eat dust and drink of shadows. They will give you naught. They have naught to give.[3]

After Daenerys Targaryen’s visit to the House of the Undying and the death of the Undying Ones Xaro Xhoan Daxos tells Dany that Pyat Pree is gathering the surviving warlocks together to work ill on her. She laughs at this news and asks him was it not him who told her warlocks were no more than old soldiers vainly boasting of forgotten deeds and lost powers? Xaro looks troubled and replies:

And so it was, then. But now? I am less certain. It is said that the glass candles are burning in the house of Urrathon Night-Walker, that have not burned in a hundred years. Ghost grass now grows in the Garden of Gehane, phantom tortoises have been seen carrying messages between windowless houses on Warlock’s Way, and all the rats in the city are chewing off their tails. The wife of Mathos Mallarawan, who once mocked a warlock’s drab moth-eaten robe, has gone mad and will wear no clothes at all. Even fresh-washed silks make her feel as though a thousand insects were crawling on her skin. And Blind Sybassion the Eater of Eyes can see again, or so his slaves do swear. A man must wonder … These are strange times in Qarth.

Events Involving Warlocks

In an effort to cure Samwell Tarly of his timidity his father Lord Randyll Tarly once brought two warlocks from Qarth with white skin and blue lips to his castle at Horn Hill. The warlocks slaughtered a bull aurochs and made Sam bathe in the hot blood, but it did not make him brave as they’d promised. Randyll Tarly had the warlocks scourged.

Euron Greyjoy comes across four warlocks when he captures a certain galleas out of Qarth. On board was a cask of shade of the evening along with some cloves and nutmeg and forty bolts of green silk. The four warlocks tell him a curious tale (he does not elaborate on the tale). One presumed to threaten him so he had him killed and fed him to the other three.[4]

Daenerys Targaryen meets and runs afoul of the Warlocks when she visits Qarth. Much later, she learns that Pyat Pree and other three warlocks have sailed for Pentos hoping to meet her again.[5]

Archmaester Marwyn studied with warlocks.

Known Warlocks

References and Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 A Clash of Kings, Chapter 27, Daenerys II.
  2. A Clash of Kings, Chapter 48, Daenerys IV.
  3. A Clash of Kings, Chapter 40, Daenerys III.
  4. A Feast for Crows, Chapter 29, The Reaver.
  5. A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 16, Daenerys III, page 211.