What Is Dead May Never Die Response but Rises Again

This commodity is well-nigh the deity. For the special feature, see: The Drowned God

"Since the Dawn Historic period, the ironborn accept followed the Drowned God, who plucked burn from the sea, and made us to reave and sack, and carve our names in claret and song."

―Yara Greyjoy ^[src]

The Drowned God is the deity worshiped on the Atomic number 26 Islands. Together with the North, where the worship of the Onetime Gods of the Forest remains stiff, the Fe Islands are ane of the few regions of Westeros not abiding by the principal religion of the Seven Kingdoms, the Faith of the Seven.

Depictions of the Drowned God, such as statues, are sometimes made by assembling pieces of driftwood into a vaguely humanoid shape with upraised arms - or past finding a single piece of driftwood which somewhat resembles a humanoid shape.^[1]

A statue of the Drowned God in the Firm of Black and White, made out of driftwood assembled in a vaguely humanoid class.

The Drowned God is believed by the Faceless Men of Braavos to be one of the aspects of the Many-Faced God.^[2]

Beliefs

The belief system of the Drowned God justifies the ironborn practices of piracy and raiding. Followers of the Drowned God believe that He brought fire from the sea, and that He created the ironborn to reave, raid, and pillage. Much of the religion centers effectually maritime skills and martial power. It is not simply praiseworthy to kill enemies in battle, it is considered a pious act.

Statuettes of the Drowned God (the white one with upraised arms) alongside idols from other religions, being sold past a street vendor in King's Landing.

A youth in the Iron Islands is not considered a human being until he has killed his starting time enemy. The religion likewise encourages paying the "iron price" instead of the "gold cost" -- meaning that it is better not to pay or trade for possessions, but to have them by force from the hands of dead enemies.^[3]

To outsiders, the Drowned God religion may seem similar a thinly veiled justification for pillaging and plundering, but the ironborn themselves take their organized religion very seriously, and actually take a adequately well developed cosmology and belief organization surrounding information technology:

• Within this belief system, the Drowned God is locked in an eternal struggle against the Storm God. The Drowned God's halls are located beneath the bounding main, while the Tempest God lives in a castle in the sky with his thunderclouds. The Storm God is constantly trying to ship storms to dash ironborn ships confronting rocks.

• Resurrection figures prominently in the faith, specifically being revived after drowning. The Drowned God himself is said to take drowned in the sea, for the sake of the ironborn, but returned to life "harder and stronger". Drowning is too employed equally a method of sacrificing captured enemies to the Drowned God.

• Due to their belief, the ironborn do not fear drowning in the body of water. "Godly" ironborn - that is, fearless raiders - who drown are believed to be taken to the Drowned God's watery halls, where they volition feast on fish and be tended by mermaids for eternity. Thus, whenever a reaver dies, the ironborn say that the Drowned God is in need of a potent oarsman.

While the Religion of the Seven prohibits same-sexual practice relationships (for both men and women), it is unclear what the mental attitude of the Drowned God religion is regarding male and/or female person homosexuality. Yara Greyjoy is a prominent ship captain who openly engages in sex with both men and women. None of her followers seem to notice this unusual, merely Yara herself is very much an exception to many norms in her civilisation, and it is unclear how typical such beliefs is of the ironborn in full general (meet principal article "Gender and sexuality").

In A Dance of Dragons, Victarion Greyjoy drowns 20 male person prostitutes, regarding them every bit "unnatural creatures", just it is unclear whether he acted out of religious zeal, or due to his personal stance most homosexuality (since prostitution is a typically a paid service, information technology's also possible that the ironborn consider soliciting prostitutes as paying the "gold price", and therefore something to be avoided). At the aforementioned time, withal, Victarion is aware that four of his men have raped a maester they took prisoner in the Shield Islands, and he does not care, making the distinction of specific practices even more difficult.

Practices

Theon almost to be blessed by a Drowned Human being.

The common prayer exchanged by followers of the Drowned God states "What is dead may never dice", with the usual response being an echo of the same line. If one person begins this prayer, others are unremarkably expected to join in. The prayer involves clutching the right hand in a fist over the heart.

Priests of the Drowned God are called Drowned Men. They anoint devotees using bounding main water, which is considered holy water in the religion. Infants are ceremonially "drowned" during a baptism rite by being briefly submerged in sea water, or by a priest pouring sea water over their head. Adults may also exist all-powerful with sea water in this fashion, when receiving a blessing from i of the Drowned Men.^[iii] During the blessing anniversary, the following exchange occurs as the priest pours holy sea water over the adherent's head:

Theon is blessed with sea water.

Drowned Man: "Let [proper name] your servant be born once more from the ocean, equally you were. Bless him with salt, bless him with stone, anoint him with steel."

Response: "What is dead may never die."

Drowned Man: "What is dead may never die, but rises over again, harder and stronger." ^[4]

Another type of drowning anniversary, used to anoint Kings of the Iron Islands, involves the Drowned Man actually drowning someone, holding them under the water until they stop breathing. They are then dragged ashore, where they brainstorm to breathe again. The prayer is extended in this ceremony:

Drowned Man: Allow [name] your servant exist born again from the sea, equally you were. Bless him with salt, anoint him with stone, bless him with steel. Listen to the waves, mind to the God. He is speaking to u.s.a., and he says we shall accept no king only [name]. Let the sea wash your follies and your vanities away. Let the old [name] drown. Allow his lungs fill up with ocean water, let the fish eat the scales off his optics. What is dead may never die, simply rises once again, harder and stronger. What is dead may never die!

Gathered: What is dead may never die! ^[five]

Unlike the Faith of the Vii or the worship of the Lord of Light, the Drowned God religion appears to be rather sexist: ironborn men are expected to raid, plunder, kill, and control ships, but information technology is frowned upon for ironborn women to do any of these things. While the Religion of the Vii and the Lord of Light have priestesses, and the One-time Gods of the Forest just have no clergy at all, the Drowned God's priesthood is all-male.

Subsequently his drowning, Euron is claimed King of the Iron Islands.

Information technology is thus considered quite unusual that Yara Greyjoy, equally a young woman, has risen to command her own ship and led men on raids. Further, it is a attestation to her popularity with the ironborn men she commands that they would willingly follow her, as she would have had to piece of work even harder and be a very capable commander to earn the respect of such men. Despite being a very devout and pious follower of the Drowned God, fifty-fifty Balon Greyjoy himself is proud of and accepts Yara's activities, which are decidedly unorthodox for a woman in his culture.

In the Iron Islands, information technology is mutual to execute criminals by laying them on their back on the beach at low tide, with their arms and legs chained to four stakes, so they tin see their death slowly creeping toward them a few inches at a time as the tide comes in - an offering to the Drowned God.^[6]

Every bit with other major religions in Westeros, the Drowned God religion has several basic social rules against incest, kinslaying, and bastardy. It besides upholds the laws of hospitality, which concur sacred the proficient beliefs of a guest and host towards each other.

In the books

Author George R.R. Martin has said that the ironborn are loosely inspired by Vikings, and thus the Drowned God faith bears similarities to Norse myths. For case, "Godly" ironborn who die are at sea are said to banquet in the Drowned God's halls under the ocean, which is analogous to the Viking belief that great warriors will banquet in Valhalla when they die in boxing. In Norse mythology, those who drown are said to exist taken to the bed of Rán. A stark contrast with Viking belief is that while the ironborn consider the Storm God the ultimate evil, the Vikings considered the storm god, Thor, the champion of mankind (Thor was dually a fertility god/warrior god and well-nigh Norsemen were farmers). Like in Norse mythology, sacred hospitality is as well practiced.

Season v of the Tv series introduced idols of the Drowned God, specially for use in the House of Black and White in Braavos. The World of Ice & Fire sourcebook (2014) actually states that the Drowned God has no idols fabricated in his likeness - obviously the bounding main itself is all that the ironborn venerate. Still, several millennia ago, Rex Harmund Ii Hoare married a woman of House Lannister and converted to the Organized religion of the Seven, or rather his own bizarre interpretation of it. In this interpretation, Harmund believed that at that place were really viii gods, the Seven and the Drowned God, and he is said to have decreed that "a statue of the Drowned God should exist raised at the door of every sept" in the Iron Islands. Therefore, it seems that there are at least some informal depictions of the Drowned God - but since there are no "temples" to go on them in (the ironborn simply worship at the waves wherever the land meets the body of water), they are not "religious icons" used equally specific objects of veneration, non in the manner the Organized religion of the Seven uses religious icons. At any rate, Harmund's bizarre edicts were a major corrigendum because they offended both the Drowned Men and the septons who had moved to the islands, so he had to rescind his order. His son Harmund Three was later overthrown in a rebellion led by the Drowned Men (specifically one known every bit "the Shrike"), in which every sept in the Fe Islands was likewise burned downwardly.

Co-ordinate to several comments in blog posts by George R.R. Martin, the Faith of the Seven never had much purchase on the Iron Islands compared to the Drowned God religion, but when information technology did, it was most often amid the thralls of the isles - because the Organized religion of the Seven preaches against all forms of slavery (fifty-fifty though thralldom is not exactly the same thing every bit total slavery). This even farther encouraged the ironborn'south leaders to try to remove the Faith from the isles, because it indirectly (or perhaps straight at times) encouraged thrall revolts. In the current generation, Blacktyde may exist the only isle with a sizable pocket of followers of the 7, as Lord Baelor Blacktyde was sent to the Reach in his youth every bit a ward, and when he came dorsum he had converted to the Seven

Run across as well

• Drowned God on A Wiki of Ice and Fire

References

1. ↑ "The House of Black and White"
2. ↑ "Loftier Sparrow"
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1} HBO viewers guide, flavour 2 appendix, Gods Sometime and New entry
4. ↑ "What Is Dead May Never Dice"
5. ↑ "The Door"
6. ↑ "The Pointy End"

v• d •eastward Religions of the known world
Westeros:	Old Gods of the Forest · Organized religion of the Seven · Drowned God
Major religions in Essos:	R'hllor, the Lord of Light · Black Goat of Qohor · Disguised Priests of Norvos · Great Stallion · Great Shepherd · Ghiscari religion · Moonsingers · Panthera leo of Night & Maiden-Made-of-Low-cal
Other cults in Essos:	Many-Faced God · Valyrian organized religion · Weeping Lady · Bakkalon · Hooded Wayfarer · Moon-Pale Maiden · Merling King
Sothoryos:	Summer Islands organized religion

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Source: https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/Drowned_God#:~:text=Response%3A%20%22What%20is%20dead%20may,water%20until%20they%20stop%20breathing.

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