"Only death can pay for life, my lord. A great gift requires a great sacrifice.”

1. establishing the concept of the soul

Oh, to be sure, there is much we do not understand. The years pass in their hundreds and their thousands, and what does any man see of life but a few summers, a few winters? We look at mountains and call them eternal, and so they seem… but in the course of time, mountains rise and fall, rivers change their courses, stars fall from the sky, and great cities sink beneath the sea. Even gods die, we think. Everything changes.

The white world turned and fell away. For a moment it was as if he were inside the weirwood, gazing out through carved red eyes as a dying man twitched feebly on the ground and a madwoman danced blind and bloody underneath the moon, weeping red tears and ripping at her clothes. Then both were gone and he was rising, melting, his spirit borne on some cold wind. He was in the snow and in the clouds, he was a sparrow, a squirrel, an oak. A horned owl flew silently between his trees, hunting a hare; Varamyr was inside the owl, inside the hare, inside the trees. Deep below the frozen ground, earthworms burrowed blindly in the dark, and he was them as well. I am the wood, and everything that’s in it, he thought, exulting.

“Someone else was in the raven,” he told Lord Brynden, once he had returned to his own skin. “Some girl. I felt her.”
“A woman, of those who sing the song of earth,” his teacher said. “Long dead, yet a part of her remains, just as a part of you would remain in Summer if your boy’s flesh were to die upon the morrow. A shadow on the soul. She will not harm you.”
"Do all the birds have singers in them?"
“All,” Lord Brynden said.

"The wolf is part of you from that day on, and you’re part of him. Both of you will change.”
Other beasts were best left alone, the hunter had declared. Cats were vain and cruel, always ready to turn on you. Elk and deer were prey; wear their skins too long, and even the bravest man became a coward. Bears, boars, badgers, weasels … Haggon did not hold with such. “Some skins you never want to wear, boy. You won’t like what you’d become.” Birds were the worst, to hear him tell it. “Men were not meant to leave the earth. Spend too much time in the clouds and you never want to come back down again.
...
"They say you forget," Haggon had told him, a few weeks before his own death.
"When the man's flesh dies, his spirit lives on inside the beast, but every day his memory fades, and the beast becomes a little less a warg, a little more a wolf, until nothing of the man is left and only the beast remains."

2. shadow magic requires souls

Shadows only live when given birth by light, and the king's fires burn so low I dare not draw off any more to make another son. It might well kill him."
Melisandre moved closer.
"With another man, though... a man whose flames still burn hot and high... if you truly wish to serve your king's cause, come to my chamber one night. I could give you pleasure such as you have never known, and with your life-fire I could make..."

A woman was his downfall; a woman glimpsed from atop the Wall, with skin as white as the moon and eyes like blue stars. Fearing nothing, he chased her and caught her and loved her, though her skin was cold as ice, and when he gave his seed to her he gave his soul as well. (Credit to u/DigLost5791 for this reference.)

The look of him was a shock. He seemed ten years older than the man that Davos had left at Storm’s End when he set sail for the Blackwater and the battle that would be their undoing. The king’s close-cropped beard was spiderwebbed with grey hairs, and he had dropped two stone or more of weight. He had never been a fleshy man, but now the bones moved beneath his skin like spears, fighting to cut free. Even his crown seemed too large for his head. His eyes were blue pits lost in deep hollows, and the shape of a skull could be seen beneath his face.

What little flesh he’d carried on his tall, spare frame at Deepwood Motte had melted away during the march. The shape of his skull could be seen under his skin, and his jaw was clenched so hard Asha feared his teeth might shatter.

“I know the cost! Last night, gazing into that hearth, I saw things in the flames as well. I saw a king, a crown of fire on his brows, burning… burning, Davos. His own crown consumed his flesh and turned him into ash. Do you think I need Melisandre to tell me what that means? Or you?” The king moved, so his shadow fell upon King’s Landing.
"…what is the life of one bastard boy against a kingdom?”
“Everything,” said Davos, softly.

3. blood and fire magic

“Give me the boy, Your Grace. It is the surer way. The better way. Give me the boy and I shall wake the stone dragon.”
...
Melisandre bowed her head stiffly, and said, “As my king commands.” Reaching up her left sleeve with her right hand, she flung a handful of powder into the brazier. The coals roared. As pale flames writhed atop them, the red woman retrieved the silver dish and brought it to the king. Davos watched her lift the lid. Beneath were three large black leeches, fat with blood. The boy’s blood, Davos knew. A king’s blood. Stannis stretched forth a hand, and his fingers closed around one of the leeches.
“Say the name,” Melisandre commanded.

“Shadow?" Davos felt his flesh prickling. "A shadow is a thing of darkness."
”You are more ignorant than a child, ser knight. There are no shadows in the dark. Shadows are the servants of light, the children of fire. The brightest flame casts the darkest shadows."

4. dancing shadows

The tent was aglow with the light of braziers within. Through the blood-spattered sandsilk, she glimpsed shadows moving.
Mirri Maz Duur was dancing, and not alone.
...
No, Dany wanted to say, no, not that, you mustn’t, but when she opened her mouth, a long wail of pain escaped, and the sweat broke over her skin. What was wrong with them, couldn’t they see?
Inside the tent the shapes were dancing, circling the brazier and the bloody bath, dark against the sandsilk, and some did not look human. She glimpsed the shadow of a great wolf, and another like a man wreathed in flames.
“The Lamb Woman knows the secrets of the birthing bed,” Irri said. “She said so, I heard her.”
“Yes,” Doreah agreed, “I heard her too.”
No, she shouted, or perhaps she only thought it, for no whisper of sound escaped her lips. She was being carried. Her eyes opened to gaze up at a flat dead sky, black and bleak and starless. Please, no. The sound of Mirri Maz Duur’s voice grew louder, until it filled the world. The shapes! She screamed. The dancers!
Ser Jorah carried her inside the tent.

"He seems to like the warmth, Princess," Ser Jorah said. "His eyes follow the sun, though he does not see it. He can walk after a fashion. He will go where you lead him, but no farther. He will eat if you put food in his mouth, drink if you dribble water on his lips."

“The stallion who mounts the world will burn no cities now. His khalasar shall trample no nations into dust."

5. reanimation

“Thoros, how many times have you brought me back now?”
The red priest bowed his head. “It is R’hllor who brings you back, my lord. The Lord of Light. I am only his instrument.”
“How many times?” Lord Beric insisted.
“Six,” Thoros said reluctantly.
“And each time is harder. You have grown reckless, my lord. Is death so very sweet?”
Arya, ASOS

“That first time, his lordship had a hole right through him and blood in his mouth, I knew there was no hope. So when his poor torn chest stopped moving, I gave him the good god's own kiss to send him on his way. I filled my mouth with fire and breathed the flames inside him, down his throat to lungs and heart and soul. The last kiss it is called, and many a time I saw the old priests bestow it on the Lord's servants as they died." (Credit to u/watchersontheweb for providing this quote in the initial thread.)

“Here’s the wizard, skinny squirrel. You’ll get your answers now.”
He pointed toward the fire, where Tom Sevenstrings stood talking to a tall thin man with oddments of old armor buckled on over his ratty pink robes. That can’t be Thoros of Myr. Arya remembered the red priest as fat, with a smooth face and a shiny bald head. This man had a droopy face and a full head of shaggy grey hair.
...
“Thoros of Myr. You used to shave your head.”
“To betoken a humble heart, but in truth my heart was vain. Besides, I lost my razor in the woods.” The priest slapped his belly. “I am less than I was, but more. A year in the wild will melt the flesh off a man. Would that I could find a tailor to take in my skin. I might look young again, and pretty maids would shower me with kisses.”

“The Freys slashed her throat from ear to ear. When we found her by the river she was three days dead. Harwin begged me to give her the kiss of life, but it had been too long. I would not do it, so Lord Beric put his lips to hers instead, and the flame of life passed from him to her. And… she rose. May the Lord of Light protect us. She rose.”

6. cold shadows (wild speculation)

The Others made no sound.
Will saw movement from the corner of his eye. Pale shapes gliding through the wood. He turned his head, glimpsed a white shadow in the darkness. Then it was gone. Branches stirred gently in the wind, scratching at one another with wooden fingers. Will opened his mouth to call down a warning, and the words seemed to freeze in his throat. Perhaps he was wrong. Perhaps it had only been a bird, a reflection on the snow, some trick of the moonlight. What had he seen, after all?
“Will, where are you?” Ser Waymar called up. “Can you see anything?” He was turning in a slow circle, suddenly wary, his sword in hand. He must have felt them, as Will felt them. There was nothing to see. “Answer me! Why is it so cold?” It was cold.
Shivering, Will clung more tightly to his perch. His face pressed hard against the trunk of the sentinel. He could feel the sweet, sticky sap on his cheek. A shadow emerged from the dark of the wood. It stood in front of Royce. Tall, it was, and gaunt and hard as old bones, with flesh pale as milk. Its armor seemed to change color as it moved; here it was white as new-fallen snow, there black as shadow, everywhere dappled with the deep grey-green of the trees. The patterns ran like moonlight on water with every step it took. Will heard the breath go out of Ser Waymar Royce in a long hiss. ...
The Other slid forward on silent feet. In its hand was a longsword like none that Will had ever seen. No human metal had gone into the forging of that blade. It was alive with moonlight, translucent, a shard of crystal so thin that it seemed almost to vanish when seen edge-on. There was a faint blue shimmer to the thing, a ghost-light that played around its edges, and somehow Will knew it was sharper than any razor.

“Tormund,” Jon said, as they watched four old women pull a cartful of children toward the gate, “tell me of our foe. I would know all there is to know of the Others.”
The wildling rubbed his mouth. “Not here,” he mumbled, “not this side o’ your Wall.” The old man glanced uneasily toward the trees in their white mantles. “They’re never far, you know. They won’t come out by day, not when that old sun’s shining, but don’t think that means they went away. Shadows never go away. Might be you don’t see them, but they’re always clinging to your heels.”
...
Tormund turned back.
"You know nothing. You killed a dead man, aye, I heard. Mance killed a hundred. A man can fight the dead, but when their masters come, when the white mists rise up… how do you fight a mist, crow? Shadows with teeth … air so cold it hurts to breathe, like a knife inside your chest … you do not know, you cannot know … can your sword cut cold?"

“The white walkers go lightly on the snow,” the ranger said. “You’ll find no prints to mark their passage.”

7. conclusions

"Only death can pay for life, my lord. A great gift requires a great sacrifice.”

1. establishing the concept of the soul

Oh, to be sure, there is much we do not understand. The years pass in their hundreds and their thousands, and what does any man see of life but a few summers, a few winters? We look at mountains and call them eternal, and so they seem… but in the course of time, mountains rise and fall, rivers change their courses, stars fall from the sky, and great cities sink beneath the sea. Even gods die, we think. Everything changes.

The white world turned and fell away. For a moment it was as if he were inside the weirwood, gazing out through carved red eyes as a dying man twitched feebly on the ground and a madwoman danced blind and bloody underneath the moon, weeping red tears and ripping at her clothes. Then both were gone and he was rising, melting, his spirit borne on some cold wind. He was in the snow and in the clouds, he was a sparrow, a squirrel, an oak. A horned owl flew silently between his trees, hunting a hare; Varamyr was inside the owl, inside the hare, inside the trees. Deep below the frozen ground, earthworms burrowed blindly in the dark, and he was them as well. I am the wood, and everything that’s in it, he thought, exulting.

“Someone else was in the raven,” he told Lord Brynden, once he had returned to his own skin. “Some girl. I felt her.”
“A woman, of those who sing the song of earth,” his teacher said. “Long dead, yet a part of her remains, just as a part of you would remain in Summer if your boy’s flesh were to die upon the morrow. A shadow on the soul. She will not harm you.”
"Do all the birds have singers in them?"
“All,” Lord Brynden said.

"The wolf is part of you from that day on, and you’re part of him. Both of you will change.”
Other beasts were best left alone, the hunter had declared. Cats were vain and cruel, always ready to turn on you. Elk and deer were prey; wear their skins too long, and even the bravest man became a coward. Bears, boars, badgers, weasels … Haggon did not hold with such. “Some skins you never want to wear, boy. You won’t like what you’d become.” Birds were the worst, to hear him tell it. “Men were not meant to leave the earth. Spend too much time in the clouds and you never want to come back down again.
...
"They say you forget," Haggon had told him, a few weeks before his own death.
"When the man's flesh dies, his spirit lives on inside the beast, but every day his memory fades, and the beast becomes a little less a warg, a little more a wolf, until nothing of the man is left and only the beast remains."

2. shadow magic requires souls

Shadows only live when given birth by light, and the king's fires burn so low I dare not draw off any more to make another son. It might well kill him."
Melisandre moved closer.
"With another man, though... a man whose flames still burn hot and high... if you truly wish to serve your king's cause, come to my chamber one night. I could give you pleasure such as you have never known, and with your life-fire I could make..."

A woman was his downfall; a woman glimpsed from atop the Wall, with skin as white as the moon and eyes like blue stars. Fearing nothing, he chased her and caught her and loved her, though her skin was cold as ice, and when he gave his seed to her he gave his soul as well. (Credit to u/DigLost5791 for this reference.)

The look of him was a shock. He seemed ten years older than the man that Davos had left at Storm’s End when he set sail for the Blackwater and the battle that would be their undoing. The king’s close-cropped beard was spiderwebbed with grey hairs, and he had dropped two stone or more of weight. He had never been a fleshy man, but now the bones moved beneath his skin like spears, fighting to cut free. Even his crown seemed too large for his head. His eyes were blue pits lost in deep hollows, and the shape of a skull could be seen beneath his face.

What little flesh he’d carried on his tall, spare frame at Deepwood Motte had melted away during the march. The shape of his skull could be seen under his skin, and his jaw was clenched so hard Asha feared his teeth might shatter.

“I know the cost! Last night, gazing into that hearth, I saw things in the flames as well. I saw a king, a crown of fire on his brows, burning… burning, Davos. His own crown consumed his flesh and turned him into ash. Do you think I need Melisandre to tell me what that means? Or you?” The king moved, so his shadow fell upon King’s Landing.
"…what is the life of one bastard boy against a kingdom?”
“Everything,” said Davos, softly.

3. blood and fire magic

“Give me the boy, Your Grace. It is the surer way. The better way. Give me the boy and I shall wake the stone dragon.”
...
Melisandre bowed her head stiffly, and said, “As my king commands.” Reaching up her left sleeve with her right hand, she flung a handful of powder into the brazier. The coals roared. As pale flames writhed atop them, the red woman retrieved the silver dish and brought it to the king. Davos watched her lift the lid. Beneath were three large black leeches, fat with blood. The boy’s blood, Davos knew. A king’s blood. Stannis stretched forth a hand, and his fingers closed around one of the leeches.
“Say the name,” Melisandre commanded.

“Shadow?" Davos felt his flesh prickling. "A shadow is a thing of darkness."
”You are more ignorant than a child, ser knight. There are no shadows in the dark. Shadows are the servants of light, the children of fire. The brightest flame casts the darkest shadows."

4. dancing shadows

The tent was aglow with the light of braziers within. Through the blood-spattered sandsilk, she glimpsed shadows moving.
Mirri Maz Duur was dancing, and not alone.
...
No, Dany wanted to say, no, not that, you mustn’t, but when she opened her mouth, a long wail of pain escaped, and the sweat broke over her skin. What was wrong with them, couldn’t they see?
Inside the tent the shapes were dancing, circling the brazier and the bloody bath, dark against the sandsilk, and some did not look human. She glimpsed the shadow of a great wolf, and another like a man wreathed in flames.
“The Lamb Woman knows the secrets of the birthing bed,” Irri said. “She said so, I heard her.”
“Yes,” Doreah agreed, “I heard her too.”
No, she shouted, or perhaps she only thought it, for no whisper of sound escaped her lips. She was being carried. Her eyes opened to gaze up at a flat dead sky, black and bleak and starless. Please, no. The sound of Mirri Maz Duur’s voice grew louder, until it filled the world. The shapes! She screamed. The dancers!
Ser Jorah carried her inside the tent.

"He seems to like the warmth, Princess," Ser Jorah said. "His eyes follow the sun, though he does not see it. He can walk after a fashion. He will go where you lead him, but no farther. He will eat if you put food in his mouth, drink if you dribble water on his lips."

“The stallion who mounts the world will burn no cities now. His khalasar shall trample no nations into dust."

5. reanimation

“Thoros, how many times have you brought me back now?”
The red priest bowed his head. “It is R’hllor who brings you back, my lord. The Lord of Light. I am only his instrument.”
“How many times?” Lord Beric insisted.
“Six,” Thoros said reluctantly.
“And each time is harder. You have grown reckless, my lord. Is death so very sweet?”
Arya, ASOS

“That first time, his lordship had a hole right through him and blood in his mouth, I knew there was no hope. So when his poor torn chest stopped moving, I gave him the good god's own kiss to send him on his way. I filled my mouth with fire and breathed the flames inside him, down his throat to lungs and heart and soul. The last kiss it is called, and many a time I saw the old priests bestow it on the Lord's servants as they died." (Credit to u/watchersontheweb for providing this quote in the initial thread.)

“Here’s the wizard, skinny squirrel. You’ll get your answers now.”
He pointed toward the fire, where Tom Sevenstrings stood talking to a tall thin man with oddments of old armor buckled on over his ratty pink robes. That can’t be Thoros of Myr. Arya remembered the red priest as fat, with a smooth face and a shiny bald head. This man had a droopy face and a full head of shaggy grey hair.
...
“Thoros of Myr. You used to shave your head.”
“To betoken a humble heart, but in truth my heart was vain. Besides, I lost my razor in the woods.” The priest slapped his belly. “I am less than I was, but more. A year in the wild will melt the flesh off a man. Would that I could find a tailor to take in my skin. I might look young again, and pretty maids would shower me with kisses.”

“The Freys slashed her throat from ear to ear. When we found her by the river she was three days dead. Harwin begged me to give her the kiss of life, but it had been too long. I would not do it, so Lord Beric put his lips to hers instead, and the flame of life passed from him to her. And… she rose. May the Lord of Light protect us. She rose.”

6. cold shadows (wild speculation)

The Others made no sound.
Will saw movement from the corner of his eye. Pale shapes gliding through the wood. He turned his head, glimpsed a white shadow in the darkness. Then it was gone. Branches stirred gently in the wind, scratching at one another with wooden fingers. Will opened his mouth to call down a warning, and the words seemed to freeze in his throat. Perhaps he was wrong. Perhaps it had only been a bird, a reflection on the snow, some trick of the moonlight. What had he seen, after all?
“Will, where are you?” Ser Waymar called up. “Can you see anything?” He was turning in a slow circle, suddenly wary, his sword in hand. He must have felt them, as Will felt them. There was nothing to see. “Answer me! Why is it so cold?” It was cold.
Shivering, Will clung more tightly to his perch. His face pressed hard against the trunk of the sentinel. He could feel the sweet, sticky sap on his cheek. A shadow emerged from the dark of the wood. It stood in front of Royce. Tall, it was, and gaunt and hard as old bones, with flesh pale as milk. Its armor seemed to change color as it moved; here it was white as new-fallen snow, there black as shadow, everywhere dappled with the deep grey-green of the trees. The patterns ran like moonlight on water with every step it took. Will heard the breath go out of Ser Waymar Royce in a long hiss. ...
The Other slid forward on silent feet. In its hand was a longsword like none that Will had ever seen. No human metal had gone into the forging of that blade. It was alive with moonlight, translucent, a shard of crystal so thin that it seemed almost to vanish when seen edge-on. There was a faint blue shimmer to the thing, a ghost-light that played around its edges, and somehow Will knew it was sharper than any razor.

“Tormund,” Jon said, as they watched four old women pull a cartful of children toward the gate, “tell me of our foe. I would know all there is to know of the Others.”
The wildling rubbed his mouth. “Not here,” he mumbled, “not this side o’ your Wall.” The old man glanced uneasily toward the trees in their white mantles. “They’re never far, you know. They won’t come out by day, not when that old sun’s shining, but don’t think that means they went away. Shadows never go away. Might be you don’t see them, but they’re always clinging to your heels.”
...
Tormund turned back.
"You know nothing. You killed a dead man, aye, I heard. Mance killed a hundred. A man can fight the dead, but when their masters come, when the white mists rise up… how do you fight a mist, crow? Shadows with teeth … air so cold it hurts to breathe, like a knife inside your chest … you do not know, you cannot know … can your sword cut cold?"

“The white walkers go lightly on the snow,” the ranger said. “You’ll find no prints to mark their passage.”

7. conclusions

1. i need some put-downs Mr. Avis to say to Jane during their peace talks
   
2. i need him to argue with some of what Jane's family wants done to end the war
   

• getting soldiers off the battle field
• releasing POWs (SimNation doesn't have any but Afana does)
• getting rid of the misogynist and homophobic laws (not realistic I know but its a story)
• any other thing that could help end the war you might be able to think of

1. SeaWings hunt sharks solo as a part of their coming-of-age rite.
   
2. RainWing names are chosen by the grandmother.
   
3. RainWings value music. All dragonets are taught musical instruments as a necessary part of their curriculum.
   
4. The IceWing kingdom is divided into territories each ruled by a lady. Dragons who have done an exceptional service to the crown may be awarded a territory.
   
5. The IceWing Assembly is composed of the aforementioned territorial rulers. Membership is hereditary. The Assembly runs some of the day-to-day business of the kingdom by reviewing legislature, managing affairs of public interest, and advising the queen. However, they can also check the power of the queen by forming coalition against her and blocking or passing laws.
   
6. An IceWing princess needs to do more than just kill her mother to gain the throne, or she may not keep it for long: she must also make allies and supporters within the Assembly. An unpopular queen may find it difficult to exercise her power with a reticent Assembly.
   
7. NightWings like composing riddles and poems; it is a favored pastime. They would gather in groups and make games out of guessing riddles, constructing verse, and engaging in friendly competition.
   
8. There are few to no trees on the island, a scarcity of animals, and the NightWings don’t trade; thus they have taken to molding clay tablets, carving into them with a stylus, and firing them in a kiln to harden. parchment is as rare and coveted as gold.
   
9. NightWings were known historically for their metallurgy, so advanced that it seemed mystical to other tribes. Legends speak of their immunity to and mastery over fire, their ability to mold metals with their talons, and the magic associated with metalcraft.
   
10. The NightWings invented Damascus steel, which allowed them to forge weapons of exceptional quality. Knowledge of its craft was kept a tribe secret, and the NightWings kept their monopoly on it for thousands of years until Darkstalker forced the NightWings to flee their homeland, and the art was forgotten.
    
11. Why is the royal challenge so prevalent across tribes? Why can only females challenge? How did it begin in the first place?
    
12. The MudWing royal family employs seniority succession, in which the throne is passed to the monarch’s younger sibling and not their children. Both male and female royalty can rule.
    
13. SandWing inheritance is a type of matrilineal system in which a male’s possessions are handed to his sister’s sons.
    
14. What is the currency of the dragon world? Is it based on a gold standard? Does each tribe employ its own currency, is there a universal currency, or is there both an international and local currency for each tribe?
    
15. A NightWing is not given a name at birth; it is earned through their extended family and friends.
    
16. MudWings forge coins with a hole in the center, allowing them to string ropes of coins along their necks.
    
17. The HiveWing takeover of the LeafWings was subtle and gradual: the LeafWing queen remained in power as a puppet and the tribe did not formally integrate with the HiveWings, instead existing as a vassal state. Over time, they lost theirs rights and power.
    
18. Firebreathing tribes consider the ability a divine gift and a powerful kind of magic. It allowed dragonkind to ascend their animal states, purge the scavengers, and become civilized peoples who cook their food, build advanced infrastructure, and produce all kinds of advanced technologies. Firebreathing dragons consider themselves inherently superior to non-firebreathers, blessed with a divine right. Fire is associated with truth, clarity, and expansion of the mind.
    
19. When a LeafWing hatches, he is given a protective necklace made of silver, meant to ward evil spirits. He grows up within a cohort of same-sex dragonets who work and learn together. Adulthood is not marked by age, but by initiation, which can only occur when the right signs are read in the natural world. A dragon 100 years of age would still be considered a dragonet, and unable to choose a mate, if he has not been initiated.
    
20. When a HiveWing hatches, he is presented to the family matriarch, who formally decides whether to accept him into the family.
    
21. Tribeless dragons reject the kingdoms. Lone wolves or pack hunters, they roam the continent in small bands, sometimes coexisting with the tribes, sometimes coming into conflict, and often selling their services as messengers or mercenaries.
    
22. Why are all the tribes so isolated? Why do they not engage in international trade?
    
23. Trade guilds are made up of tribeless dragons who have found a lucrative business in trade. Since the tribes are largely xenophobic and like to avoid each other, these guilds act as an intermediary: they roam the continent, acquiring goods from one tribe and trading them with another. From this great influx of wealth emerged two or three trade empires, geographically insignificant but titans in money-making. They’ve become so powerful that they’re forcing the kingdoms to compete economically in new ways.
    
24. Do dragons have access to banking institutions? Do they take out credit or write checks? Does an international banking service exist?
    
25. How about a postage system? Domestic, international, or both? How would it work?
    
26. SeaWings believe in reincarnation, and that deceased family members will hatch into the same family over and over. When a dragonet hatches, he is examined for any resemblance to a deceased family member, and may be named after said dragon.
    
27. The RainWings’ most lucrative trade is in spices and herbs.
    
28. Do dragons pay taxes?
    
29. Why is there no form of gender or class stratification in any tribe besides HiveWings and SilkWings? If only females can become monarchs, does this matriarchal mindset extend anywhere else in society? Are families matrilineal? Do females have rights or privileges over males?
    
30. On that note, why are there no gender roles either?
    
31. What sorts of jobs exist with a kingdom? How would a carnivorous diet affect livelihood, economy, and society?
    
32. Brittlescale is a condition which may arise due to undernourishment or malnutrition. Signs of the ailment include dull, malformed scales, scales that crack easily, and loose scales.
    
33. Dueling is a common method of defending and proclaiming one’s strength and honor. Just as princesses challenge queens, common dragons will duel to prove their worth.
    
34. How do dragons understand medicine and the body?
    
35. SilkWing traditional garments are made of silk. Silk is one of the most precious and coveted products in the kingdom.
    
36. Spiders feature heavily in SilkWings culture and mythology as craftsmen and weavers.
    
37. SandWing venom is a neurotoxin. It can be drawn from the tail, distilled to increase its potency, applied to weapons, or made into a powder. Alternatively, it can be diluted into a drug used in anxiety medication and to treat insomnia.
    
38. Do dragons modify their bodies? Do they wear piercings, tattoos, or body paint?
    
39. How have dragons evolved over 2000 years? What biological, social, cultural, religious, political, economic, and technological advancements or regressions have taken place?
    

1. Vow of Silence is a Velka miracle that has a slight modification to it in DS3. It drops a tear.
2. In Japanese, Velka is called Belka, as in bells of awakening. Bells are also known as chimes.
3. Gargoyles protect the bell tower in DS1 which is a Velka bell tower. The Morne armor is in the image of a gargoyle and Morne is related to Caitha.
4. Crows are known for morning their dead. Velka is associated with crows and Caitha morns tears for the recently deceased.
5. In DS1 stat screen, you can see two types of halos, one white and one black showing the duplicity of the halo.
6. Wrath of the Gods has an opposite that behaves just like it when activated. That miracle is Velka's Karmic Justice.
7. Wrath of the Gods produces resonance and is one of four miracles that only do this. The other three are Bountiful Sunlight, Soothing Sunlight and Great Heal.
8. Bountiful Sunlight and Soothing Sunlight can only be used when in the Princess Guard covenant tying them to Gwynevere. However, contrary to what most people think they're not originally hers. They are heirlooms from her mother Fina like how Gwyn's Sunlight Blade is Faraam's heirloom. That also means the Divine Blessing was originally Fina's.
9. Resonance is something of importance to a particular race. The giant race (DS2 Giant's Kinship). Gwynevere takes on her mother's size and Nito is Fina's father. Thanks to Channel Yoshimitsu for pointing out in the Japanese text about Lloyd being uncle to Gwyn through his wife's side of the family. That was a major piece of the puzzle missing in the English text.
10. The Divine Blessing mentions Gwynevere being the goddess of harvest. Scythes and sickles are farming tools for cutting wheat. Wheat symbology is all over Anor Londo. Lautrec the Embraced wields sickles, he has equipped Tear Stone rings and has a New Londo Sealer with him outside the bed chamber of Gwynevere which was originally Gwyn's and Fina's.
11. Lautrec's sickles are in the shape of the Dark Moon and the New Londo sealers all have Dark Moon crescent symbols on their attire and their masks are corvian, just like the one Yuria of Londor wears in DS3.
12. Leonard is found outside Anor Londo's bed chamber using a Dark Moon crescent weapon, calls Rosaria 'blessed' Rosaria (I'm sure you know where I'm going with this).
13. Rosaria's soul can be transposed into Bountiful Sunlight.
14. Faraam and Filianore have the same initial as Fina, and both of them have black hair, just like the black Haired Velka. Faraam (Nameless King) is old, so his hair is mostly grey, but you can see strands of his original black hair.
15. Caitha takes over some of the items in DS2 with the Engraved Ring stating "There are countless vestiges of long-lost gods in the ruins of Drangleic. Or perhaps they are the very same gods as ours, only known by different names". This is directly telling the player that the old gods do go under different names otherwise this wouldn't be said.
16. Fina is known as fateful and Lautrec who is trying to meet up with her is called Lautrec the Embraced. In DS2, two NPC's indirectly mention Fina. Agdayne says: "Death is equitable, accepting. We will all one day be welcomed by 'her' embrace" with the other, Shanalotte saying this "I was created by those who would cozen (trick) fate herself".
17. You can see a skeleton faced Fina/Velka/Caitha in DS2 on a bass relief in the Undead Crypt entrance. This depicts her as a giant over pygmies.
18. The Dead Ring can be picked up in the Undead Crypt. It can create a veneer of life over a dead body. Fina, being Nito's daughter would find something like that useful while she was in Anor Londo. It presents Fina as deceptive and we all know that the Way of White is a deceptive religion.
19. Fina is known to embrace her men. Prince Lothric embraces Prince Lorian like Lautrec's armor does.
20. Vow of Silence, a Velka miracle is literally practiced on Way of White Followers. Anastacia, Nico and Horace have all had their tongues cut out.
21. Rosaria had her tongue cut out by her 'First Born' and is waiting for his return. No wonder his name was removed from the annals of history.

1. DS2. Onifex the corvian is surrounded by puppets.
2. Nito's domain has a pool of water producing baby skeletons that drop humanity when killed.

1. Vow of Silence is a Velka miracle that has a slight modification to it in DS3. It drops a tear.
2. In Japanese, Velka is called Belka, as in bells of awakening. Bells are also known as chimes.
3. Gargoyles protect the bell tower in DS1 which is a Velka bell tower. The Morne armor is in the image of a gargoyle and Morne is related to Caitha.
4. Crows are known for morning their dead. Velka is associated with crows and Caitha morns tears for the recently deceased.
5. In DS1 stat screen, you can see two types of halos, one white and one black showing the duplicity of the halo.
6. Wrath of the Gods has an opposite that behaves just like it when activated. That miracle is Velka's Karmic Justice.
7. Wrath of the Gods produces resonance and is one of four miracles that only do this. The other three are Bountiful Sunlight, Soothing Sunlight and Great Heal.
8. Bountiful Sunlight and Soothing Sunlight can only be used when in the Princess Guard covenant tying them to Gwynevere. However, contrary to what most people think they're not originally hers. They are heirlooms from her mother Fina like how Gwyn's Sunlight Blade is Faraam's heirloom. That also means the Divine Blessing was originally Fina's.
9. Resonance is something of importance to a particular race. The giant race (DS2 Giant's Kinship). Gwynevere takes on her mother's size and Nito is Fina's father. Thanks to Channel Yoshimitsu for pointing out in the Japanese text about Lloyd being uncle to Gwyn through his wife's side of the family. That was a major piece of the puzzle missing in the English text.
10. The Divine Blessing mentions Gwynevere being the goddess of harvest. Scythes and sickles are farming tools for cutting wheat. Wheat symbology is all over Anor Londo. Lautrec the Embraced wields sickles, he has equipped Tear Stone rings and has a New Londo Sealer with him outside the bed chamber of Gwynevere which was originally Gwyn's and Fina's.
11. Lautrec's sickles are in the shape of the Dark Moon and the New Londo sealers all have Dark Moon crescent symbols on their attire and their masks are corvian, just like the one Yuria of Londor wears in DS3.
12. Leonard is found outside Anor Londo's bed chamber using a Dark Moon crescent weapon, calls Rosaria 'blessed' Rosaria (I'm sure you know where I'm going with this).
13. Rosaria's soul can be transposed into Bountiful Sunlight.
14. Faraam and Filianore have the same initial as Fina, and both of them have black hair, just like the black Haired Velka. Faraam (Nameless King) is old, so his hair is mostly grey, but you can see strands of his original black hair.
15. Caitha takes over some of the items in DS2 with the Engraved Ring stating "There are countless vestiges of long-lost gods in the ruins of Drangleic. Or perhaps they are the very same gods as ours, only known by different names". This is directly telling the player that the old gods do go under different names otherwise this wouldn't be said.
16. Fina is known as fateful and Lautrec who is trying to meet up with her is called Lautrec the Embraced. In DS2, two NPC's indirectly mention Fina. Agdayne says: "Death is equitable, accepting. We will all one day be welcomed by 'her' embrace" with the other, Shanalotte saying this "I was created by those who would cozen (trick) fate herself".
17. You can see a skeleton faced Fina/Velka/Caitha in DS2 on a bass relief in the Undead Crypt entrance. This depicts her as a giant over pygmies.
18. The Dead Ring can be picked up in the Undead Crypt. It can create a veneer of life over a dead body. Fina, being Nito's daughter would find something like that useful while she was in Anor Londo. It presents Fina as deceptive and we all know that the Way of White is a deceptive religion.
19. Fina is known to embrace her men. Prince Lothric embraces Prince Lorian like Lautrec's armor does.
20. Vow of Silence, a Velka miracle is literally practiced on Way of White Followers. Anastacia, Nico and Horace have all had their tongues cut out.
21. Rosaria had her tongue cut out by her 'First Born' and is waiting for his return. No wonder his name was removed from the annals of history.

1. DS2. Onifex the corvian is surrounded by puppets.
2. Nito's domain has a pool of water producing baby skeletons that drop humanity when killed.

1. Vow of Silence is a Velka miracle that has a slight modification to it in DS3. It drops a tear.
2. In Japanese, Velka is called Belka, as in bells of awakening. Bells are also known as chimes.
3. Gargoyles protect the bell tower in DS1 which is a Velka bell tower. The Morne armor is in the image of a gargoyle and Morne is related to Caitha.
4. Crows are known for morning their dead. Velka is associated with crows and Caitha morns tears for the recently deceased.
5. In DS1 stat screen, you can see two types of halos, one white and one black showing the duplicity of the halo.
6. Wrath of the Gods has an opposite that behaves just like it when activated. That miracle is Velka's Karmic Justice.
7. Wrath of the Gods produces resonance and is one of four miracles that only do this. The other three are Bountiful Sunlight, Soothing Sunlight and Great Heal.
8. Bountiful Sunlight and Soothing Sunlight can only be used when in the Princess Guard covenant tying them to Gwynevere. However, contrary to what most people think they're not originally hers. They are heirlooms from her mother Fina like how Gwyn's Sunlight Blade is Faraam's heirloom. That also means the Divine Blessing was originally Fina's.
9. Resonance is something of importance to a particular race. The giant race (DS2 Giant's Kinship). Gwynevere takes on her mother's size and Nito is Fina's father. Thanks to Channel Yoshimitsu for pointing out in the Japanese text about Lloyd being uncle to Gwyn through his wife's side of the family. That was a major piece of the puzzle missing in the English text.
10. The Divine Blessing mentions Gwynevere being the goddess of harvest. Scythes and sickles are farming tools for cutting wheat. Wheat symbology is all over Anor Londo. Lautrec the Embraced wields sickles, he has equipped Tear Stone rings and has a New Londo Sealer with him outside the bed chamber of Gwynevere which was originally Gwyn's and Fina's.
11. Lautrec's sickles are in the shape of the Dark Moon and the New Londo sealers all have Dark Moon crescent symbols on their attire and their masks are corvian, just like the one Yuria of Londor wears in DS3.
12. Leonard is found outside Anor Londo's bed chamber using a Dark Moon crescent weapon, calls Rosaria 'blessed' Rosaria (I'm sure you know where I'm going with this).
13. Rosaria's soul can be transposed into Bountiful Sunlight.
14. Faraam and Filianore have the same initial as Fina, and both of them have black hair, just like the black Haired Velka. Faraam (Nameless King) is old, so his hair is mostly grey, but you can see strands of his original black hair.
15. Caitha takes over some of the items in DS2 with the Engraved Ring stating "There are countless vestiges of long-lost gods in the ruins of Drangleic. Or perhaps they are the very same gods as ours, only known by different names". This is directly telling the player that the old gods do go under different names otherwise this wouldn't be said.
16. Fina is known as fateful and Lautrec who is trying to meet up with her is called Lautrec the Embraced. In DS2, two NPC's indirectly mention Fina. Agdayne says: "Death is equitable, accepting. We will all one day be welcomed by 'her' embrace" with the other, Shanalotte saying this "I was created by those who would cozen (trick) fate herself".
17. You can see a skeleton faced Fina/Velka/Caitha in DS2 on a bass relief in the Undead Crypt entrance. This depicts her as a giant over pygmies.
18. The Dead Ring can be picked up in the Undead Crypt. It can create a veneer of life over a dead body. Fina, being Nito's daughter would find something like that useful while she was in Anor Londo. It presents Fina as deceptive and we all know that the Way of White is a deceptive religion.
19. Fina is known to embrace her men. Prince Lothric embraces Prince Lorian like Lautrec's armor does.
20. Vow of Silence, a Velka miracle is literally practiced on Way of White Followers. Anastacia, Nico and Horace have all had their tongues cut out.
21. Rosaria had her tongue cut out by her 'First Born' and is waiting for his return. No wonder his name was removed from the annals of history.

1. DS2. Onifex the corvian is surrounded by puppets.
2. Nito's domain has a pool of water producing baby skeletons that drop humanity when killed.

Serial Information

• Episodes: Season 18, Episodes 25-28
• Airdates: 28th February - 21st March 1981
• Doctor: 4th
• Companions: Adric, Nyssa (Episodes 2-4), Tegan (Janet Fielding)
• Other Notable Characters: The Tremas Master
• Writer: Christopher H. Bidmead
• Director: Peter Grimwade
• Producer: John Nathan-Turner
• Script Editor: Christopher H. Bidmead

Review

Stray Observations

• This was Christopher H. Bidmead's final story as Script Editor, having grown frustrated with a job he felt he wasn't getting enough credit for, and having dealt with a very rough shoot for Warriors' Gate. He would be replaced by, essentially, both Eric Seward and Antony Root who would split script editing duties for Season 19. Root would leave the show after Season 19, while Seward would stick around until Season 23.
• Like Douglas Adams in Season 18, Christopher Bidemad wrote the finale for the season he script edited. Like Adams before him, he didn't particularly want to, but couldn't find a writer to do the story in time.
• WriteScript Editor Chrisopher H. Bidmead was a computer enthusiast (at a time when that was still somewhat rare) and the ideas behind Logopolis drew heavily from his interest in computers.
• Tegan was created after the production team was unable to get Louise Jameson (Leela) or Elizabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane) to return to the show. There were other motivations though. Specifically, the BBC's Head of Serials Graeme MacDonald was trying to get additional funding from the Australian government. This came somewhat close to happening even before Tegan was proposed as character, but the BBC and ABC (Australia's equivalent to the BBC) couldn't come together on filming dates for Doctor Who in Australia for Season 19. Tegan was then created to make the show more appealing to the Australian viewers and ABC. Ultimately the plan failed, and the BBC and ABC were never able to come together on a production deal.
• Jovanka was not supposed to be Tegan's last name, but was rather suggested as an alternate name for the character. However Christopher Bidmead misread a document from JNT identifying her as "Tegan (Jovanka)" to mean that her name was meant to be "Tegan Jovanka" and the name stuck.
• Janet Fielding probably shouldn't have been cast as Tegan Jovanka as she lied to the production team twice. JNT wanted an Australian actor for the part and Fielding was recommended to him as being ideal for the part of, as it was described, "bossy Australian". Fielding's first lie was about her age, claiming to be three years younger than she actually was. Her second lie came about because there was concern that Fielding was too short to play someone who was supposed to be a flight attendant. Fielding told the production team that in Australia height requirements for flight attendants were shorter than in the UK because Australians were shorter. Of course that wasn't true, and I'm kind of shocked that JNT believed her.
• Amusingly, Tom Baker was once asked why he left Doctor Who and replied that he was pushed off…by Anthony Ainley.
• The first episode starts with a policeman making a call on an actual Police Telephone Box, and I think it's pretty funny that it's kind of a twist that we can show one of these things and it's not actually a time machine in disguise.
• After that the Master's TARDIS lands in the exact spot occupied by said police box, disguised, naturally, as a police box.
• The Doctor refers to Earth as his "home away from home".
• The Doctor says he left with the TARDIS before its "chameleon conversion" was completed because there were "other pressing reasons at the time". How wonderfully vague!
• Episode 1 has the Doctor making a serious attempt at fixing the chameleon circuit, pretty much the only time the idea is seriously considered on the show.
• It's much better done here, but I appreciate the parallel where in last story Nyssa's stepmother was fooled by the Master and given a piece of jewelry (a necklace in that case) to ensure her obedience, and in this story the same thing happens to Nyssa (only it's a bracelet).
• In episode 4 the Doctor lays his scarf across a narrow walkway so that it acts as a tripwire for the Master, who dutifully trips on it. His scarf is long enough that, even though he's standing a good 4 feet away from the "tripwire" portion of the scarf, he's still wearing the rest of the thing.
• In episode 4, as he's hanging by an electrical cable, the Doctor sees images of his enemies threatening him. The obvious suspects are all there, the Decayed Master, a Dalek, a Cyberman, the Black Guardian, and a Sontaran but also some less obvious choices. A Zygon from Terror of the Zygons (bear in mind the Zygons wouldn't have their second appearance on the show for over 30 years) and the Captain from The Pirate Planet are certainly unusual choices for this part, although both good villains in their own right.