In their third and final foray into the lands beyond the Sunset Kingdom, the Vassals scale the daunting Bone Mountains to explore the fabled kingdoms of Eastern Essos.
Join Duncan (Valkyrist), Greg (claudiusthefool), Augustine (linecom1), Michael (Khal Wadege), and lurker extraordinaire Amber (Amberrocks) as they ponder zorse morphology, colour-coded emperors, spiteful gods, necromancy diets, and how to get those stubborn grease stains out of your black stone monolith.
With the help of Maester Yandel, they also speculate (wildly) on the future events of the novels, and the various real-world historical allusions scattered throughout the compendium.
Warning: Contains spoilers for all published books in George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire
11:00 – The Bone Mountains
31:42 – The Plains of the Jogos Nhai
46:38 – Yi Ti
1:20:46 – Leng
1:28:41 – Asshai and Beyond!
1:52:46 – Lomas Longstrider’s Wonders
1:57:45 – Martin and Orientalism
2:07:56 – Aftershow
This podcast is part of series of in-depth discussions covering all of the various sections of The World of Ice and Fire (by George R. R. Martin, Elio Garcia & Linda Antonsson). Stay tuned to VOK for lots more installments!
Credits:
Edited by Valkyrist
Music owned by MGM
[MP3] Download or play this episode directly
[Archive] View this episode’s page on Archive.org
[Forum] Episode Thread
[iTunes] Subscribe to us on iTunes
[Stitcher] Subscribe to us on Stitcher
[RSS] Podcast Feed
Links:
VoK 175: The World of Ice and Fire – The Free Cities
VoK 186: The World of Ice and Fire – Sothoryos & Central Essos
The World of Ice and Fire (Amazon page)
The Lands of Ice and Fire (hi-res map)
Vassals of Kingsgrave 
During the Yi To section, someone claimed that there wasn’t a long history of conflict between China and the nomadic step tribes to the north prior to Ghengis Khan and the Mongol Empire. I feel I should point out that this is false. There is in fact a very long history of conflict between China and various nomadic confederations going back thousands of years before Ghenghis Kahn, including the Xiongnu, Xianbei, Göktürk Rouran empires. The work on the Great Wall of China began in the 220 BCE in response to incursions by the Xiongnu, 14 centuries before the founding of the Mongol Empire in 1206 CE.
The fused stone for the Five Forts – I’m on board with the idea that it was built by the Great Empire of the Dawn. While Yi Ti interited the GEotD’s institutions and outward trappings, the Valyrians were the ones who inherited the GEotD’s platinum hair, jeweled/amethyst eyes, and dragon-taming (I believe the World Book says the GEotD taught the early Valyrians how to ride dragons). During Dany’s postpartum hallucinations she has a vision of presumabely ancestors who had jeweled eyes, pale hair, and carried pale swords, it seems they were her ancient ancestors from the GEotD.
There appears to be evidence that the GEotD had visited Westeros as there are hints of dragons being in Westeros before the Targaryens or Valyrians came to power, the Hightower has the same fused (not oily) black stone of the Five Forts, and the Daynes themselves, with their platinum hair and purple eyes, may be remnants of people from the GEotD who settled there and married First Men. So while the Daynes are not Valyrians, the Daynes and the Valyrians appear to have common ancestors.
The Hightower sits on Battle Isle, yet no one knows how it got that name. Perhaps the GEotD dragonlords had fought a battle there against another people, such as those who left the oily black stones, or maybe Battle Isle was the site of one of the early battles of the Long Night.