Skip to main content

a song of ice and fire - Is wildfire magical or chemical?


I came to think of it from interesting discussion at one of my answers regarding wildfire.


My understanding was that Wildfire is not magical because nothing suggests that it was. Granted that Order of Pyromancers keeps calling the manufacturing process a "spell" but they call everything a spell and hint at their own magical prowess as noted by Tyrion. The guild of Alchemists is not named so without a reason. If wildfire were magical, then that art should have been lost with death of the last dragon in Aegon III's reign as magic went begun to go out of the world then apparently. Some quotes from ACOK:




The substance was the pyromancers’ own term for wildfire. They called each other wisdom as well, which Tyrion found almost as annoying as their custom of hinting at the vast secret stores of knowledge that they wanted him to think they possessed. Once theirs had been a powerful guild, but in recent centuries the maesters of the Citadel had supplanted the alchemists almost everywhere. Now only a few of the older order remained, and they no longer even pretended to transmute metals...



Again from ACOK about "spell" on apparently fire-sensing ceilings:



By spell Tyrion imagined Hallyne meant clever trick. He thought he would like to inspect one of these false-ceilinged cells to see how it worked, but this was not the time. Perhaps when the war was won.



But counter argument is strong as well. Reforging Valyrian steel swords was still in practice after death of dragons which is also supposedly carried out with spells. Also existence of dragons seems to have improved quality of all fire-related "magic" spells. Admittedly it makes no sense that dragons should act as a catalyst in production of wildfire if it was not magic.


So the question is, Is wildfire really magical? Or the spells are simple chemical manufacturing processes for which dragons might play a role of catalyst?


Or can we say that while the procedure required to manufacture wildfire might involve magic but the end product remains chemical?


It might be opinion-based at this point since we do not know it for a fact right now but I'd like to see arguments based on canon sources which can help in determining the nature of wildfire.




Answer



Assumption: If wildfire were magical, then that art should have been lost with death of the last dragon in Aegon III's reign as magic went out of the world then apparently.


I disagree with this assumption. Magic in ASOIAF may have varying forms. White walkers were white walking way before dragons were hatched. Faceless men probably have their own form of magic. Children of the forest had their magic. Three eyed raven was watching over Bran long before the dragons. Warging was common beyond the wall. Albeit weak, warlocks of the Qarth had some magic of theirs as well, or they claim they have some magic.


The magic that disappeared or declined seem to be related to fire. Alchemists guild and Valyrian steel forgers suffered from this decline. Art of dragonglass candle burning was also lost.


So the question is, Is wildfire really magical?


My answer is yes, it is magical. Your only evidence against it is Tyrion's skepticism. Tyrion is a smart man, hence he is always skeptic. He was also skeptic of white walkers and giants, but we already know that his skepticism was pointless.


Hallyne the pyromancer and Tyrion had a talk about this.



Tyrion was growing impatient. Ser Jacelyn Bywater was likely here by now and Ironhand misliked waiting. "Yes, you have secret spells, how splendid, what of them" "They, hmmm, seem to be working better than they were." Hallyne smiled weakly. "You don't suppose there are any dragons about, do you?"




So, producing wildfire requires spells and art of wildfire did not die away with the dragons. Wildfire was, in fact the true power of Targaryens.


Or can we say that while the procedure required to manufacture wildfire might involve magic but the end product remains chemical?


I think this part of your question is impossible to answer. We know magic is involved. Is it possible to produce wildfire without magic? The word "spell" points to it. I claim a substance is magical if magic is involved in the production. However, in order to fully answer this question, we need to define chemistry, alchemy and magic in ASOIAF world. I hardly think we can precisely define them, so this part of question is more opinion-based.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Did the gatekeeper and the keymaster get intimate in Ghostbusters?

According to TVTropes ( usual warning, don't follow the link or you'll waste half your life in a twisty maze of content ): In Ghostbusters, it's strongly implied that Dana Barret, while possessed by Zuul the Gatekeeper, had sex with Louis Tully, who was possessed by Vinz Clortho the Keymaster (key, gate, get it?), in order to free Big Bad Gozer. In fact, a deleted scene from the movie has Venkman explicitly asking Dana if she and Louis "did it". I turned the quote into a spoiler since it contains really poor-taste joke, but the gist of it is that it's implied that as part of freeing Gozer , the two characters possessed by the Keymaster and the Gatekeeper had sex. Is there any canon confirmation or denial of this theory (canon meaning something from creators' interviews, DVD commentary, script, delete scenes etc...)? Answer The Richard Mueller novelisation and both versions of the script strongly suggest that they didn't have sex (or at the very l...

Why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize Missy right away?

So after it was established that Missy is actually both the Master, and the "woman in the shop" who gave Clara the TARDIS number... ...why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize her right away? I remember the Tenth Doctor in The Sound of Drums stating that Timelords had a way of recognizing other Timelords no matter if they had regenerated. And Clara should have recognized her as well... I'm hoping for a better explanation than "Moffat screwed up", and that I actually missed something after two watchthroughs of the episode. Answer There seems to be a lot of in-canon uncertainty as to the extent to which Time Lords can recognise one another which far pre-dates Moffat's tenure. From the Time Lords page on Wikipedia : Whether or not Time Lords can recognise each other across regenerations is not made entirely clear: In The War Games, the War Chief recognises the Second Doctor despite his regeneration and it is implied that the Doctor knows him when they fir...

story identification - Animation: floating island, flying pests

At least 20 years ago I watched a short animated film which stuck in my mind. The whole thing was wordless, possibly European, and I'm pretty sure I didn't imagine it... It featured a flying island which was inhabited by some creatures who (in my memory) reminded me of the Moomins. The island was frequently bothered by large winged animals who swooped around, although I don't think they did any actual damage. At the end one of the moomin creatures suddenly gets a weird feeling, feels forced to climb to the top of the island and then plunges down a shaft right through the centre - only to emerge at the bottom as one of the flyers. Answer Skywhales from 1983. The story begins with a man warning the tribe of approaching skywhales. The drummers then warn everybody of the hunt as everyone get prepared to set "sail". Except one man is found in his home sleeping as the noise wake him up. He then gets ready and is about to take his weapon as he hesitates then decides ...

warhammer40k - What evidence supposedly supports Tau as related to the Necrontyr?

I've heard of rumours saying that the Tau from Warhammer 40K are in fact the Necrontyr. Is there anything that supports this statement, in WH40K canon? I just found this, on 1d4 chan 1 : Helping Necrons? Or are they Necrontyr descendants? An often overlooked issue is that Tau have no warp signatures, just like Necrons, hate Warpspawns and Warp in general, just like Necrons, have the exact same skull shape,stature and short lives, and the overwhelming need for Technology and beam weapons, JUST LIKE NECRONS. GW may have planned a race that simply prepares a pacified, multiracial galaxy for Necrons to feast upon, supported by Ethereals that have a C'tan phase blade. Then there is a reference of "dark seed in east" by the Deceiver, so the tricky C'tan might give Tzeentch the finger in the JUST AS PLANNED competition. Or maybe GW just has so little creativity that they simply made a new civ conforming to an Old One's standards without knowing it. Is this the connec...