Monday, December 22, 2014

The Dothraki were created because of the Aiel

Potential Spoilers Below

The Aiel and the Dothraki seem to have most of the same characteristics.  The biggest difference that I see is that the Aiel don't ride horses and prefer to walk or run.  Their origins may not line up in the end but you never know as the Game of Thrones hasn't been completed.

The Aiel (pronounced: eye-EEL) are a race of people who live between the "wetlanders" in the Westlands and the Sharans in the east, in a desert which the Aiel call the Three-fold Land and which everyone else calls the Aiel Waste. They have earned a reputation as skilled warriors; little else is known about them in the wider world. Physically, Aiel can be recognized through their unusual height, characteristic pale eyes and light-colored hair, as well as their distinctive clothing.

Aiel

Modern Aiel are descended from the Da'shain Aiel, servants of the Aes Sedai during the Age of Legends, and sworn never to do violence (a philosophy known as the Way of the Leaf). During the War of Power, they seem to have acquired the name "People of the Dragon". Some time after the Breaking of the World, however, the Da'shain Aiel slowly disintegrated from one people into three: today's Aiel (which means "dedicated" in the Old Tongue), the Tuatha'an (also known as Traveling People or Tinkers), and the Jenn Aiel (literally, True Dedicated).

Aes Sedai
A female Tuatha'an dancing the tiganza

The Aiel call the Waste the "Three-fold Land," referring to the gifts the harsh land gives to the Aiel people. The gifts to the Aiel are: a shaping stone to make them, a testing ground to prove their worth, and a punishment for their sin. Aiel prophecy states that the Aiel will leave the Waste once the Stone of Tear falls.

Location of the Aiel Waste

The Aiel are organized on several different levels. There are twelve Aiel clans, each of which has a clan chief; clans are further divided into septs, and septs subdivide into holdings (which are individual settlements; each clan and sept also has a central hold). Aiel warriors also affiliate themselves with various warrior societies, of which there are twelve: Mountain Dancers, Thunder Walkers, Stone Dogs, Brothers of the Eagle, etc. The only society to accept women is the Far Dareis Mai, the Maidens of the Spear; their members 'marry' their spears and are forbidden to take men into their lives on a permanent basis without forfeiting membership.

Rhuarc, clan chief of the Taardad Aiel
Maidens of the Spear

Wise Ones are the matriarchal leaders of the Aiel.

Three Wise Ones; Amys, Bair and Melaine

Cold Rocks Hold is a settlement belonging to the Taardad Aiel of the Nine Valleys sept. The Taardad Aiel continued to protect the Jenn Aiel until they founded Rhuidean. They are descended from Lewin who was the first of the Jenn Aiel to be cast out for killing. Lian is its Roofmistress.

Rhuidean is a city in the Aiel Waste built by the Jenn Aiel, some time after the Breaking of the World, but before the Trolloc Wars. It was a large unpopulated city, but smaller than Tear and Caemlyn. The buildings are all majestic palaces, with many unfinished. There is a great plaza in the center of the city filled with hundreds of objects of the One Power. Avendesora grows at the very center.

Rhuidean

Avendesora

The Car'a'carn ("Chief of chiefs" in the Old Tongue) is the Aiel term for the one who will lead all Aiel, in accordance with the Prophecy of Rhuidean.

Rand becoming the Car'a'carn

At Alcair Dal, Rand also revealed the secret he learned in the Rhuidean test, the secret that drove two of three Aiel to insanity: that the Aiel had once been the Da'shain Aiel, served the Aes Sedai, and followed the Way of the Leaf. To a culture that lives and dies by its oaths, the news that they were all oathbreakers was devastating, and many Aiel have since succumbed to the resulting "bleakness." Some take on permanent gai'shain white, in hopes of paying off a debt that can never be repaid. More forsake spear and cadin'sor and attempt to live the Way of the Leaf in the wetlander cities--or among the Tinkers, whom Aiel call Lost Ones--as their ancestors would have.[2] Others simply disappear. And some of them run to join the Shaido, hoping for a return to an earlier, simpler time.

Gai'shain

Aiel practice polygyny, a form of polygamy in which a man has multiple wives (though not all Aiel men do), but not polyandry, in which a woman has multiple husbands. Wives of the same husband are referred to as sister-wives and share a close relationship. All parties must be in agreement for a polygynous marriage.

Water Oath: A water oath is an agreement traditionally between members of the Aiel that is sworn over water. It is considered an extremely serious oath and is rarely broken.

Because of the lack of water in the Aiel Waste it is considered precious. When The Aiel left the Waste they were in awe of the lakes and rivers that they encountered.

The Fifth: When a group of Aiel take one of the holds of an enemy clan in the Waste, by custom they carry away one fifth of all it contains, excepting only food.  They basically take the fifth of the valuables within a city that they conquer.



If you have read or watched the Game of Throne and if you read about the Aiel above it should be clear to you where the Dothraki got their origins.

The Dothraki are a race of nomadic horse-mounted warriors in Essos, the continent to the east of Westeros across the Narrow Sea. They inhabit the vast central plains of Essos, known as the Dothraki sea. They are said to be born, fight, and die in the saddle.

Dothraki People
Dothraki Sea

Dothraki warriors are commonly referred to as "horselords" but may also be derisively called "screamers" as well.

The Dothraki are nomadic horse-mounted warriors, who sweep across the vast central plains of Essos in search of plunder. Most of their society is centered around their horses: even their name for themselves in their own language, "Dothraki", literally means "riders". Dothraki boys learn to shoot bows from horseback when they are only four years old.  The Dothraki will abandon a sick or injured leader who can no longer ride a horse.

Essos

The Dothraki love horses whereas the Aiel are uncomfortable on horseback.  

The Aiel live in the Aiel Waste.  In Essos there is a place called the Red Waste which even the Dothraki fear to cross.



The Dothraki are divided into several nameless clans known as khalasars, led by a single leader, the khal . The khalasars roam the Dothraki Sea, always on the move looking for new pasture lands and new targets for plundering. The Dothraki frequently raid neighboring regions, such as Lhazar to the southeast or the Free Cities to the west. The Dothraki live by taking what they need including supplies, valuables, and new captives to serve them as slaves. The Dothraki respect force, and thus only respect those who are able to successfully resist them, while conquered slaves deserve only contempt.  The Dothraki are usually dismissive of infantry (with the notable exception of the elite Unsullied warrior-eunuch legions).

A Dothraki khalasar on the move
Khal Drogo

The Dosh Khaleen are a ruling group within the Dothraki social hierarchy, specifically the crones who preside over the holy city of Vaes Dothrak. The dosh khaleen are comprised of the widows of slain khals, and serve as seers foretelling the future and interpreting omens for the Dothraki. In this capacity they essentially also serve as the leaders of the Dothraki religion. Even powerful khals and fierce male Dothraki warriors fear disobeying the will of the dosh khaleen.

Dosh Khaleen leader

The only Dothraki city is Vaes Dothrak, located to the far north-east of the Dothraki sea. It is ruled by the Dosh khaleen, crones and wise women who were once the wives of now dead khals. All Dothraki commerce (with fellow Dothraki and other Essos peoples) is done in the marketplaces of the city, and all sacred rituals are conducted there. Drawing weapons or shedding blood is forbidden inside Vaes Dothrak, although there are loopholes to the unspoken rule of not killing anyone.


Vaes Dothrak

Why no violence in Vaes Dothrak?  Cold Rocks Hold and Rhuidean were simply combined to form Vaes Dothrak. I think it comes from this excerpt from the Wheel of Time:  Amys tells Mat it is not permitted; Mat tries to convince them otherwise, but the Wise Ones are firm. Rand suddenly speaks up, telling them that he says Mat can come with him. The Wise Ones debate among themselves, discussing that times are changing, and finally they agree that Mat can go. Amys explains the rules to both of them, saying they may not bring food, water, or weapons to Rhuidean. 

The Stallion Who Mounts the World is a prophecy in the Dothraki religion. According to the prophecy, the Stallion is the "khal of khals" who will unite all the Dothraki under his single khalasar and ride to the ends of the earth. The prophecy states that "he will be the khal of khals, and all the people of the world will be his herd."

It is said that the Dothraki "don't believe in money", instead taking what they want through raiding (which includes enslaving defeated peoples). The two resources they actually have on the plains of the Dothraki Sea are miles upon miles of grass, and horses. As people can't eat grass, the main staples of the Dothraki diet are horse meat and fermented mare's milk.

What material wealth or precious objects they do possess have been acquired through raiding surrounding nations such as the Free Cities, Slaver's Bay, or Lhazar; or from raiding other Dothraki hordes to take their plunder secondhand. The Dothraki do not so much function on the barter system, as they use the honor system: they frown upon "trade" but honor the exchange of gifts, such as tribute. Long ago the Free Cities decided that it was often less destructive to just give the Dothraki massive tributes in gold, finished products, and slaves, than to try to fight them off (though a Dothraki horde might still attack if they find the gift insufficient, or if they just haven't had a good fight in a while). The Dothraki will not reciprocate these "gifts" on an immediate quid pro quo trade system. However, they will as a rule keep their word to eventually give a gift which they have promised, though they will do it in their own time.

In practice, however, if a Dothraki horde has a particular need for a resource that it cannot obtain through direct raiding, i.e. new armor and weapons, they will resort to actual "barter" by "gifting" slaves they have captured in return for finished products from the Free Cities or Slaver's Bay.

The Game of Thrones combines several of the characteristics of the characters within the Wheel of Time.  The Maidens of the Spear were the honor guard to the Car'a'carn.  So will the Stallion Who Mounts the World be Daenerys Targaryen or Jon Snow.  They both share characteristics of Azor Ahai but where the show goes could go in so many different directions.



 Comments encouraged.  Love to hear the idea’s of others.  Most believe that since I present my idea’s as “fact like” I’m not open to change my viewpoints which is far from the truth.  I simply look at the information presented and go from there.  If you can shine a light on another way of thinking that opens the door to debate.

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