Nymeria: Part 2 – Ten Thousand Ships
GRRM’s version of the Odyssey is here! We’ve got Brindled Men, wyverns, killer diseases, ancient cities, corsairs, dark gods. Plus characters like Daenerys, Missandei and her brothers, Victarion, Barristan Selmy and his new knights. See our previous episode in our Nymeria series here. Special thanks to Michal Schick of Vassals of Kingsgrave podcast and Hypable for the voices.
UPDATE: HBO is now developing a Nymeria series with the working title Ten Thousand Ships. Hopefully it makes it to series. In the interim, check out Ash’s Nymeria spinoff pitch from 2017.
Legend tells us that Nymeria took ten thousand ships to sea, searching for a new home for her people beyond the long reach of Valyria and its dragonlords. Beldecar argues that this number was vastly inflated, perhaps as much as tenfold. Other chroniclers offer other numbers, but in truth no true count was ever made. We can safely say there were a great many ships. Most were river craft, skiffs and poleboats, trading galleys, fishing boats, pleasure barges, even rafts, their decks and holds crammed full of women and children and old men. Only one in ten was remotely seaworthy, Beldecar insists.
Nymeria’s voyage was long and terrible. More than a hundred ships foundered and sank in the first storm her fleet encountered. As many or more turned back in fear, and were taken by slavers out of Volantis. Others fell behind or drifted away, never to be seen again. The remainder of the fleet limped across the Summer Sea to the Basilisk Isles… – The World of Ice and Fire
Ten Thousand Ships Images
Book Discussion: World of Ice and Fire Overview
In this episode, we give our first impressions of The World of Ice and Fire. We discuss all of the immediate revelations. The latter half of the episode contains discoveries more related to the ‘current events’ of the series.
Special attention is paid to the Kingdom of Sarnor, other ancient cultures, and the mysterious oily black stone that keeps popping up. There is, of course, a lot of discussion on House Targaryen. We also talk at length about the sections on Dorne. The mystery of Asshai’s children is also debated. Who is Hyrkoon the Hero? What’s the deal with Bonetown? Join us on a journey through the world of ice and fire. It is also a journey back to 2014 now!
On the Isle of Toads can be found an ancient idol. A greasy black stone crudely carved into the semblance of a gigantic toad of malignant aspect, some forty feet high. The people of this isle are believed by some to be descended from those who carved the Toad Stone, for there is an unpleasant fishlike aspect to their faces, and many have webbed hands and feet. If so, they are the sole surviving remnant of this forgotten race.
Such questions abound even to this day. Before the Doom of Valyria, maesters and archmaesters oft traveled to the Freehold in search of answers, but none were ever found. Septon Barth’s claim that the Valyrians came to Westeros because their priests prophesied that the Doom of Man would come out of the land beyond the narrow sea can safely be dismissed as nonsense, as can many of Barth’s queerer beliefs and suppositions.
NOOOOO, SALLOSH!
For scholars and students of history, the fall of Sallosh by the Silver Shore was especially tragic. For when that City of Scholars burned, its great library was not spared, and most of the history of the Tall Men and the peoples who had gone before them were lost for all time.