Religion is an important
element of the world in A Song of Ice and Fire and define the
different cultures present in the main continent of Westeros and the
eastern Essos. The religions are also a good way to learn and
understand the legacy of the cultures and ethnic groups from which
the populations are descending from. I will first talk about Westeros
and then about Essos which will be a good way to introduce this
eastern continent.
Westeros
The first inhabitants were
the Children of the Forest. This non-human and magical race is now
extinct but they are the natives of Westeros. Some 12,000 years
before Aegon's Landing, the First Men came from across the Narrow Sea
( the sea that separates Westeros and Essos ). The First Men brought
with them steel, bronze and iron weapons and tools and soon started
to cut down the trees of Westeros. The Children's way of life was
close to nature, they lived in the woods, believed in the trees and
this invasion of men quickly became a threat to their existence. It
is said that the Children tried to stop the First Men with their
magic by flooding the swampy region of the Neck ( among other
examples ) but in vain and it finally ended in a war.
The Children of the Forest
and the First Men reached terms of coexistence where the Children
kept their forests. For thousand of years the two races lived in
peace until the War of the Dawn where the Others tried to invade
Westeros ( see my previous article ). They fought side by side
against these demons and eventually won the war thus the bonds
between the Children and the First Men grew stronger. It is during
this peaceful coexistence that the Children of the Forest taught
their neighbours their faith in the “ Old Gods “, the gods of
trees, rivers, mountains and nature.
The Old Gods have no names,
no representations. There are not worshipped in churches nor in
temples but with a Weirwood. The Weirwoods have blood-red leaves and
a white trunk with ( for most of them ) a face carved in it by the
Children or the First Men and their descendants. The sap is as red as
the leaves and when it weeps from the weirwood's eyes, it looks like
the tree bleeds.
The faith of the Old Gods is
the predominant religion in the North and most Northerners are direct
descendants of the First Men like House Stark who is one of the
oldest family of Westeros.
While the Children of the
Forest and the First Men lived together in a relative harmony, the
natives slowly started to prepare their retreat from the world. The
brothers of the Night's Watch reported that they went in the harsh
lands of beyond the wall and were given obsidian daggers to help
protect the world should a new Others' invasion happen.
6,000 years after the
arrival of the First Men in Westeros, a new human invasion threatened
the First Men's Kingdoms and the remaining Children of the Forest,
the Andals. Following King Hugor of the Hill after a divine
apparition, the Andals left Essos and set foot in the Vale. They
brought with them the Faith of the Seven and started several
centuries of bloodshed against the First Men and the Children. The
Andals chopped down most of the weirwoods and slaughtered the Old
Gods followers. They eventually conquered Westeros except the North.
The Andals' culture (
language, writing ) spread across all Westeros and is now the main
ethnic group in all Westeros ( with the exceptions of the North, the
Iron Islands and Dorne ).
During the Andal invasion,
the Children of the Forest disappeared and broke all relations with
humans, they have not been seen for thousands of years.
The Faith of the Seven has
become the principal belief in Westeros. The followers built temples
dedicated to the Seven called septry and the clergymen ( and women )
are the septons and septas. An order of Silent Sisters is charged to
prepare the dead for their funerals. They are bound to serve the
Stranger and have taken a vow of eternal silence and chastity. The
warriors of the Faith of the Seven created the tradition of
knighthood.
The Seven are in fact of
single god but with seven faces, three males, three females and the
last who is neither male nor female. The faces are the Father Above (
justice ), the Warrior ( courage, victory in battle ), the Smith (
strength at work ), the Mother Above ( love, fertility, compassion ),
the Maiden ( virtue, innocence ), the Crone ( wisdom ) and finally
the Stranger who is death and the unknown.
The head of the faith is the
High Septon and is elected by the Most Devout ( a council of septons
and septas ). Several military companies also exist.
When they invaded Westeros,
the First Men also conquered the Iron Islands. These settlers created
their own religion, the Drowned God. The Ironmen ( also called
Ironborn ) are a harsh and violent people and so is their god. In
their belief, the Ironmen live for plunder and piracy and remain
close to the sea. When one of them die, it is said that he has been
called by He Who Dwells Beneath the Waves ( the Drowned God ) to
feast with mermaids in the underwater halls. Though they do not
worship him, the Ironmen also believe in the existence of the Storm
God, the Drowned God's eternal foe who are at war since forever. The
baptism in the Iron Islands is a ritual of drowning and then
resurrection leaded by the Drowned Men ( priests ). Since Aegon's
Landing, the Ironmen are subjects of the Iron Throne and must live in
the King's Justice which mean that they had to give up the “ Old
Way “. The Old Way is their tradition of plunder and piracy. They
used to captured the women of the green lands to take them as “
Salt wives “ ( concubines ) and the men as slaves. The Old Way is
not authorized inside the Iron Throne Kingdom but the Ironmen can
keep their traditions elsewhere ( which mean they can raid the lands
of Essos for example ).
The Drowned God is a deity
disliked outside the Iron Islands but the Old Gods and the Faith of
the Seven followers managed to put aside their religious differences
and it is no more a source of tension in Westeros. In the North,
where the majority of the people believe in the Old Gods, you can
find many septs for the Faith of the Seven as well as many cities and
castles in the South keep a Weirwood. House Manderly, Lords of
White Harbor in the North is a good example of ethnic coexistence.
Centuries ago, House Manderly was driven away from their lands in the
Reach, they fled North and were welcomed by the Starks who gave them
lands but they never abandoned the Faith of the Seven and are still
Southerners.
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