House of the Undying

House of the Undying
Information
Type	Sect headquarters
Location	Qarth
Rulers	Warlocks

"Should you grow weary of Xaro's baubles and trinkets it would be an honor to host you at the House of the Undying."

―Pyat Pree to Daenerys Targaryen

The House of the Undying is a location in Qarth. It is the headquarters of the Warlocks of Qarth. It is a large tower without any visible openings and surrounded by trees which are used to make shade of the evening.

History

Game of Thrones: Season 2

Daenerys, Jorah Mormont and Kovarro reach the House of the Undying. While trying to figure out a way inside, Jorah loses sight of Dany. She enters inside and with a flamed torch begins her search for her dragons. She finds herself in an illusion of the charred remains of the throne room of the Red Keep, covered in ashes; then she finds herself in another illusion in which she emerges from the Wall in a snowy storm and then enters a tent where she meets with Drogo and their son Rhaego. Aware of the illusion, she leaves and finds herself in a room with her chained dragons, and soon Pyat Pree chains Daenerys up as well. The warlock states that he intends to keep her prisoner forever. However, as the dragons are not muzzled, they are able to burn Pree to death at Daenerys's command.

Game of Thrones: Season 8

After the Battle of King's Landing, Daenerys enters the throne room and sees that this reminds her of what she saw in the House of the Undying years ago. The vision showed that Daenerys would indeed win the Iron Throne, but she would never sit on it. Shortly afterwards, she is killed by Jon Snow.

In the books

In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, the House of the Undying is the abode of the Undying Ones, the leaders of the Qartheen warlocks. It is described as a grey, ancient ruin, is long and low, with no towers or windows. It is coiled like a stone serpent through a grove of black-barked trees with inky blue leaves which are used to make Shade of the evening.

Daenerys sees no vision of Drogo and their son. She sees many visions, some of them of the past, others are presumed to be foreshadowing of future events:

• A beautiful, naked woman being ravished by four of the dwarfs who serve the house.
• A little girl (presumably Daenerys herself) runs barefoot toward a big house with a red door - Daenerys's childhood home in Braavos.
• A throne room with dragon skulls on the walls, where an old man in rich robes with dark eyes and long silver-grey hair (presumably her father, the Mad King) sits on a barbed throne and appears to give the order to burn the Red Keep during the Sack of King's Landing, stating: "Let him be king over charred bones and cooked meat. Let him be the king of ashes".
• A room where a silver-haired man, who resembles Viserys but is taller and his eyes are a dark indigo rather than lilac (presumably Rhaegar Targaryen) talks to a woman nursing a baby, names the baby Aegon, enigmatically saying the child "is the prince that was promised, and his is the song of ice and fire", adds "There must be one more, the dragon has three heads", then plays a harp.
• A splendor of wizards who claim to be the Undying of Qarth and offer to teach Daenerys the secret speech of dragonkind. These are just a glamour of the Undying to hide their true visages.
• Viserys screams as the molten gold runs down his cheeks and fills his mouth.
• A tall lord with copper skin and silver-gold hair stands beneath the banner of a fiery stallion, a burning city behind him. This may be a glimpse at what Rhaego's future would have been, had he lived.
• Rubies fly like drops of blood from the chest of a dying prince (presumably Rhaegar Targaryen), and he sinks to his knees in the water and with his last breath murmuring a woman's name.
• A feast of slaughtered corpses holding cups, spoons, and food, with a dead man with a wolf's head sitting on a throne wearing an iron crown. Daenerys and readers were led to assume that this vision was symbolic, but it turned out to be literally true and foreshadowing the Red Wedding: with the Northern leadership slaughtered by their own hosts at a wedding feast, and an actual direwolf's head sewn onto Robb Stark's corpse as a final desecration.
• A red sword glowing like sunset, raised in the hand of a blue-eyed king who casts no shadow (perhaps Stannis Baratheon).
• A cloth dragon sways on poles amidst a cheering crowd.
• From a smoking tower, a great stone beast takes wing, breathing shadow fire.
• Daenerys's silver mare trotting through the grass, to a darkling stream beneath a sea of stars.
• A corpse stands at the prow of a ship, eyes bright in his dead face, grey lips smiling sadly.
• A blue flower grows from a chink in a wall of ice, and fills the air with sweetness (perhaps implying Jon Snow's true parentage).
• Mirri Maz Duur shrieks in the flames, a dragon bursting from her brow.
• A bloody corpse of a naked man, bouncing and being dragged behind a silver horse.
• A white lion runs through grass taller than a man.
• Beneath the Mother of Mountains, a line of naked crones creep from a great lake and kneel shivering before her, their grey heads bowed.
• Ten thousand slaves lift bloodstained hands as Daenerys races by on her silver, crying "Mother, mother!", reaching for her, touching her. This is a foreshadowing of the liberation of the slaves of Yunkai, also seen in the final scene of "Mhysa".

The Undying tell Daenerys obscure prophecies:

• Three fires must you light, one for life and one for death and one to love.
• Three mounts must you ride, one to bed and one to dread and one to love.
• Three treasons will you know, once for blood and once for gold and once for love.

Following the visions, the Undying Ones suddenly attack Daenerys. Drogon saves her by setting the room on fire and attacking the Undying, ripping their rotten flesh apart. Daenerys and Drogon escape from the burning house. Pyat Pree is angry at Daenerys for burning the palace. He draws a knife and charges at her, but is stopped by Drogon, Jhogo and Rakharo.

Although Daenerys has defeated the Undying Ones, soon she learns that as a result of burning the palace, the whole city has grown hostile to her overnight. Pyat Pree gathers the surviving warlocks together to work ill on her. Thus she has to leave Qarth.

Following the destruction of the House of the Undying, Xaro tells Daenerys that unnatural phenomenons occur in the city, for instance: glass candles are burning in the house of Urrathon Night-Walker, that have not burned in a hundred years; Mathos Mallarawan's wife, who once mocked a warlock's drab moth-eaten robe, has gone mad and refuses to wear any clothes, since even fresh-washed silks make her feel as though a thousand insects are crawling on her skin; Blind Sybassion has regained his sight, according to his slaves. It is possible that the destruction of the House has somehow increased the magic in the city, hence the strange phenomenons.

Gallery

An unknown person carrying the dragons to the House of the Undying

External links

• House of the Undying on A Wiki of Ice and Fire