Game of Thrones predictions: The Great Other, the Lord of Light and dragonglass… (Theory)

In game of thrones and a song of ice and fire, two divine figures have been playing as the driving force behind the end game. One of them being the most popular god in the series, (for the viewers at least) the Lord of Light, who represents the living. Other being the least discussed god in the series, the Great Other, who directly represents the white walkers. But what is the mystery behind them? Let’s find out….

R'hllor vs. The Great Other (picture credit)

 The Lord of Light and dragonglass.

The mysterious god of flame and shadow had been the most curious god in the entire series. He has also shown the most miracles. Making shadow babies, killing kings for Melisandre, reviving Beric Dondarrion 6 times, and reviving yet another person, Jon snow, halting winter so that Stannis and his army could march to Winterfell and more. And mostly all of it stems down to one thing – blood magic.

Blood magic has been previously used by the witch who Dany freed in first season to semi-revive Khal Drogo. And we have also seen Melisandre use blood magic several times. So, it can be concluded that the Lord of Light favors blood. 

Another thing that his power does is giving people visions. Melisandre saw many visions in the fire through the power of the Lord of Light. She even showed them to Stannis. But it wasn’t just limited to her. Hound saw the vision in the flames that turned out to be true. Varys heard a voice in the flames when a sacrifice quite similar to a blood sacrifice was done in his childhood. The high priest Kinvara knew about the voice that Varys heard so it’s safe to assume she saw something too.

So, clearly Lord of Light loves playing the role of a crystal ball that shows future and whatnot.

Apparently, fire lit in his name isn’t the only thing that does this.

Enters dragonglass.

Or more specifically glass candles.

Now what exactly is a glass candle? Despite its name, it is basically a twisted spherical piece of dragonglass. Twisted as in like the pointy end of a screw. It’s called a candle because it glows or burns. Yes, you heard that right, dragonglass that glows. If you are getting some Lightbringer vibes here, you are not the only one.

These glass candles emit bright light that does strange things to colors. White becomes as bright as fresh fallen snow, yellow shines like gold, reds turns to flame, and shadows become so black that they look like holes in the world. Quite fascinating.

What is even more interesting about these glass candles is that these pieces of dragonglass that look like they have fire inside them are actually capable of showing visions to people when they are glowing. Exactly like how Melisandre sees visions in flames. Not only this, they have the power to go beyond that. however these candle haven’t burnt or glowed in recent memory (recent here means before the events of game of thrones start) but it is claimed that  when the glass candles burned the sorcerers could see across mountains, seas and deserts, give men visions and dreams and communicate with one another half a world apart. 

These candles which supposedly originated from Essos were sent to Westeros as well. 4 of them to be exact. A green one and 3 black ones. All of them were sent to the citadel.  However, just like the other glass candles, they didn’t burn.

But the glass candles are burning…

This is the phrase used by Quaithe in the book when she appears to Dany at her terrace in the form of a vision. It is a good guess that Quaithe uses a glass candle to see future and visit Dany in her visions.

Xaro Xhoan Daxos, the guy who tricked Daenerys in Quarth, reports that glass candles are burning in the house of Urrathon Night-Walker(whoever he is), which hasn’t been burned in hundreds of years.

It was again reported that a glass candle is burning in the study of a man named Marwyn, which later Samwell also sees. So, it is clear that these glass candles have begun burning once again. Is it because of the birth of dragons and the supposed return of magic in the world? Or the return of white walkers? Maybe something else?

An interesting conversation takes place between Samwell and the above mentioned Marwyn. After telling Sam that the glass candles can show people visions and be used to communicate with one another miles and worlds apart, Marwyn asks Sam whether he thinks these candles are useful. Sam replies, “there would be no more use for the ravens” to which Marwyn gives his cryptic comment, “only after battles”

Before I go on, it is to be noted that Marwyn is a very educated Maester who has travelled across the world and met and learned from wizards and witches and all. His knowledge in these matters can be taken as supreme.

“Only after battles” why did he say that? He possibly meant that the candles can be used in such a way only once a battle has taken place. The use here being referred to as using the candles like phones for video calling. So, to use multiple glass candles for high magic, we supposedly need to fight a battle first? Why? Because battle results in lots and lots of blood. This suggests that glass candles require blood sacrifice before you can use them for great magic.

Now we have established that dragonglass candles can be used like how Melisandre’s flames work, for visions. They also require blood sacrifices if you want to achieve something big.

Safe bet? The power of Lord of Light is at play. His power is in those glass candles which would explain how dragonglass could kill the white walkers, cold children of the Great Other.

But wait… there’s more.

 The Great Other… and dragonglass.

There is not much known about the Great Other and we have only heard about him from red priest of R’hllor aka the Lord of Light. It is said by the red priests that there are only two gods, who are eternally at war since the beginning of time, the Lord of Light- R’hllor and the Lord of Darkness- the Great Other, the soul of ice and god of night and terror. According to Melisandre, he is the god of death and the dead are his soldiers.

Once in a vision, Melisandre sees a corpse white wooden face with a thousand red eyes and a boy with a wolf’s head beside him. She believed that they are the champions of the Great Other. This vision most likely referred to the three eyed raven aka Bloodraven and Bran. It is interesting how Melisandre thinks of them as the champions of darkness as there is an excerpt from the books where the three eyed raven suggest something similar to Bran.

There he sat, listening to the hoarse whispers of his teacher. 'Never fear the darkness, Bran.' The lord's words were accompanied by a faint rustling of wood and leaf, a slight twisting of his head. "The strongest trees are rooted in the dark places of the earth. Darkness will be your cloak, your shield, your mother's milk. Darkness will make you strong.

Here, the three eyed raven tells Bran that darkness is his ally. Most curious.

Also, we know that Bran and the Bloodraven’s powers come from the Weirwood trees. Weirwood trees represent the old gods in the series and unlike many other gods, have proved that their power is real via Bran, the three eyed raven, and the children of the forest.

Another thing to note is how the first white walker or the Night King was created. The children of the forest performed some kind of ritual where they used dragonglass and the power of the old gods through a Weirwood tree to create the Night King.

Thus, it could be concluded that the white walkers are the cold children of the old gods.

Or

The Great Other is the old god.

Enters dragonglass.

The aim of the children of the forest was to get help from their god to help them protect themselves and the nature against the first men. The result was Night King. We know they chose the Weirwood tree for this because they wanted the divine help of the old gods. But why the dragonglass? 

Because dragonglass acted as some sort of catalyst. If you think carefully regarding the vision Bran had about the children of the forest creating the Night King, you will remember that a man was tied to the Weirwood tree. Then, one of the children named Leaf pressed a dragonglass dagger through the tied man’s heart as deep as it would go. Looking at the size of the dagger and the man, I couldn’t help but think that the dagger’s tip possibly went past the man’s back and into the tree. Following this, the man became the night king. I think what happened here is that the power of the Great Other entered the man through the dragonglass.

But we already established that glass candles made of dragonglass can store the power of the Lord of Light.

What does this mean? And if dragonglass created the Night King, why can it be used to kill the white walkers?

Because dragonglass is a magical stone that can absorb magic or divine power of the gods.

During the creation of the Night King, the dragonglass dagger absorbed the powers of the Great Other through the Weirwood tree and transferred it to the tied man. The terrible power of the Lord of Darkness took over the man, turning him into the very essence of the Great Other. I mean, think about it. The Night King is the very soul of ice, he brings the night, terror and winter with him and in the first episode of season 7, we see him bringing a dark storm with him as well. He checks all the things that represent the Great Other.

This is also why the Night King didn’t simply become a puppet soldier of the children. He went on to do the will of the Great Other. Bringing back nature, winter and death.


As for why dragonglass can kill the wights and the white walkers in one shot, it is exactly because of the fact dragonglass can absorb magic. When it comes in contact with a wight or white walker, the magic that is inside them gets absorbed. The undead becomes dead again and the white walkers burst into nothingness.

But, what about Valyrian steel? It also kills white walkers, right? True, and there is possibly a very good explanation for that. And it lies in the process of forging a Valyrian steel sword that no one knows. I can make 2 guesses.

1. 1)    The most common theory regarding the creation of Valyrian steel. That it’s made using dragonglass it its core. After all, dragonglass is supposed to be as sharp as Valyrian steel.

1. 2)    Valyrian steel is made using blood magic. It is rumored that Valyrian steel has been forged by using dragon fire and blood magic which ties in with the motto of House Targaryen “fire and blood”. Some people also believe that Valyrian steel needs to be fed with blood to hold the magic.

1. 3)    Actually, there is a chance both of them are true.

One last note before wrapping this up: Azor Ahai is said to have forged his legendary sword Lightbringer by plunging it in the heart of his beloved Nissa Nissa. It is said that doing so, trapped Nissa Nissa’s soul to the sword, causing it to burst into flames. If Azor Ahai used dragonglass to forge the sword, it would explain how it could have trapped Nissa Nissa’s soul. Hmm… maybe someone would have to drive a dragonglass sword into Dany’s heart to harness the fire in her and forge a new Lightbringer? Doubtful.

That’s all for now, but stay tuned as we are going to analyze the implications of this in our future blogs. Share your thoughts on this in the comments and help us provide better content. 



Original work by - Revealing Identity