Vampires and werewolves

I posted an answer to a question on Quora yesterday that I want to post here. The question was "If a vampire bites a werewolf would it be a vampire, a werewolf vampire or still a werewolf?" And I shall post the link to it at the bottom of this entry. Here is my comment (different pictures used here, some paragraphs made and slight edits:

A vampire is undead. It should be affected by a werewolf bite. If a werewolf was bitten by a vampire, the werewolf would probably die. If an ordinary wolf or a dog were bitten by a vampire, they would become savage monsters. Werewolves and vampires crossing over is Hollywood. In actuality, werewolves are not as you think, but neither are vampires. I’ll spare you the boring historic answers. I’ll jump straight to the original meanings in Europe. 

A werewolf originally was a warrior who dressed in a wolf’s pelt and wolf’s head, entered battle and took on this berserker (Ulfhednar) mode, or blood rage. Vikings included Berserkers and Ulfhendar. So feared were they, these animals (mainly wolves and bears) turning into men with weapons. It’s also to do with the fact these selected warriors of Berserkers and Ulfehdnar had lycanthropy and were shamanic therianthropes. 

Vampires started out as ghost stories of the dead returning to feed on the blood of the living. They have tales from various sources but linked with parasitic entities. Some true vanpires they say are people who suffer rare skin conditions and blood disorders. Vampires and werewolves both reached their horrific reputations thanks to history itself, mass murderers, ruthless blood suckers, infamous warlords, the Plague and rabid animals. Then you’ve got the early gothic horror literatures (dark fairytales like Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” and “Red Riding Hood” by the Brothers Grimm).
Werewolf fiction
Vampire fiction

We’ve been on a diet of films and TV for generations now. Amongst that is full of horror stories, films, dramas and series on werewolves and vampires. Music also, art too. People love to be scared. So when a vampire bites a werewolf, is it a diseased undead person biting a warrior shapeshifter with rabies? Or is it an undead person who loves drinking blood for survival? Is the werewolf someone controlled by the moon into becoming a wolf? or is it someone who is just mad?

by

Rayne Belladonna

Link to the original question thread

Ghost Grass

The most toxic plant towards other plants is Ghost Grass. Grown as a native plant in Asshai, by The Shadowlands, it's a luminous grass that appears to glow during moonlight. It's a very light colour "pale as milkglass" and pale as a ghost! This grass is extremely tall and so creepy that its widely believed that Ghost Grass will kill off the world's native plants. It could destroy all trees, flowers, herbs, crops and vegetables. Its foretold that the world will end by the spread of Ghost Grass. According to maps, Ghost Grass is often found at the bases of mountains of The Shadowlands. It grows all along Asshai and the Saffron Strait and touching the northern reaches of Yi Ti. Ghost Grass is an invasive plant that contaminates other plants. People working in mines of those mountains where Ghost Grass grows, tell tales about it. The miners breathe in ash and risk their lives for gems. The Ghost Grass is luminous in the dark, said to be filled with spirits. Is it a foreshadowing of the Long Night? of the coming Winter and its snows of death?

Asshai reminds me of the forbidden Exclusion Zone of Chernobyl in our own earth world. I'll mention a little more about this in a moment. In the Shadowlands are cities made of oily black stone, dark perpetual mists, tall Ghost Grass, constant artificial nights caused by dark clouds, ancient volcanoes, underground and hidden lava flows in fortresses, Ash River joins with the Jade Sea, palaces, castles, a small population and apparantly no animals or children in sight. One building in ten is lit at night. Gemstones, gold, amber, silk and dragonglass is exported from Asshai at the trading routes and ports along the region. A massive vast mountain range called Bone Mountains act as a wall between Essos, Asshai and Vaes Dothrak. The Dothraki are wary of people from Asshai and call them "spawn of shadows".

One of the greatest known cities of the Shadowlands is Stygai. It's other name is "City of Night". The place is full of evil, its said by travellers, and they have said dragons and demons live there. The city is so dark that the sun only shines there for a short brief moment during noon. There are libraries within the dark cities and towns of the Shadowlands, but kept hidden. None dare venture to study these books, for its kept under guard. Asshai is full of dragonlore, faith of R'hllor, necromancers, warlocks, human sacrifices, shapeshifters, werewolves, worshippers of the Lion of Night, Black Goat and The Pale Child. The red priestess, Melissandre, comes from The Shadowlands of Asshai. The dragon eggs given to Daenerys Targaryen as a wedding gift come from the Shadowlands. It's my view that some of the people living in The Shadowlands are from all walks of life, outcasted, or seeking a new and darker path, as well as those who've joined the place and live in veils, covered up and appearing as shadowy beings. Very few children would be there, those who've been raised to learn the secret crafts of the warlocks and mages of sinister belief systems. The few people living there are nocturnal and spend most time sleeping or not even in human form.

The place similar to such a location on our world is Chernobyl and its 30 Kilometre Zone. Contaminated plants and animals have been described as monstrous, glowing in the dark, mutations and kept away from spreading beyond. There are 11 checkpoints, deadzones of the region: Pripyat, Poliske, Vilkhova, Stari Sokoly and more. The pine trees were destroyed by radiation many years ago and what grows there is a blood curdling forest nicknamed "the Red Forest". Wild animals such as wolves, deer, horses, boars, badgers, birds and others have flourished and procreated, but observed by game wardens. Household pets that were left abandoned during the crisis in 1986 have sadly all died out. No domestic animal has survived this disaster. Only wild animals have claimed this territory as theirs now since humans left. Water contaminated by radiation is blocked from entering the rest of the supply using dams. The grasses have been known to cause small fires that create filthy plumes.

Water in Asshai (the Shadowlands) is known to be contaminated. The only fish that live in it are blind and deformed and sometimes eaten by the shadow mages and warlocks. The fruits grown on trees are deadly. Its creepy looking cities were built centuries ago but abandoned by the original populations, for unknown reasons. Those who live there now dabble in the most strangest and darkest practices. I believe that George R. R. Martin's uses psychic channelling with otherworldly spirits. This world Planetos is a mirror of our own world Terra. The dark landscapes of Asshai and the Shadowlands reflects Chernonbyl.

Above, there is a photo that represents a woman from Lys, visiting the Shadowlands and is standing in Ghost Grass.

Ghost Grass
An excellent video of The Shadowlands by Scrivia TV

Mortals becoming Gods and Goddesses

I posted an answer to a question on Quora "How can a mortal become god/goddess in Greek mythology?" It was solely about Greek mythology but I also included non-Greek myth examples. This is what I wrote:

Yes. In real life, mortals became deified. Its similar to cannonising people into sainthood today. Okay a list of deified mortals in Greek myth includes:

Psyche

Hercules

Ariadne

Dioscuri (Helen of Troy’s twin brothers)

Luekeothea

Asklepios

Ganymedes

Palaimon
(Edited: I want to add some more deified mortal women that includea Ino, Bolina, Hilaera, Hemithea and Parthenos. )

Deified Mortals - Thei Greek Mythology

A few ways to becoming an immortal is:

Eating a mermaid, according to Japanese folklore, a young nun ate some ningyo meat and became immortal… she lived for 800 years.

Reverted elixir or haundan is used to help the body’s cells continue and keep working and working until the body never ages. Its cinnabar and Taoists regard it as an element of purifying the body. This method became lost in time when wealthy people in the Tang dynesty ate some and died. The true ways of getting this to harmlessly ingest and cause immortality has been forgotten.

Ingesting extinct plants caused immortality (or to be exact, a very polonged life). Peaches were once thought to give immortality but these fruits have become domesticated and ordinary now. Other fruits to give immortality are golden apples. These are found in a secret unknown orchard guarded by a goddess and a dragon. Ambrosia, a special honey drink or mead with an ingrediant lost in time gives immortality.

Original source at Quora here

Toxic mother and grandmothers

Just like the poisoned apples in fairytales, there are toxic family members in some peoples lives. My own mother and two grandmothers have never been accepting of myself since childhood. I was raised by relatives but trying to establish love with my own mother was difficult. I would say that she rejected me and didn't want me back. Such a similar thing happened with my two grandmothers, who would never accept me as part of their family. Why? Not sure.
As an adult and a mother myself, I could never understand how she could be so cold towards her own child. One of the possibilities for her being like this is because I remind her of my dad, who she hated later on. My parents remained together long after I was fostered as a baby, and they both seperated. The seperation costed money and the lives of several cats who found themselves homeless. Both grandmothers were rivals but each one of them resented me. One disliked me because I was different. The other wasn't warm because I was born out of wedlock and she didn't like my dad. Both sides of the family have been like strangers, influenced by these women, mother and two grandmothers. All three of them have sought to isolate me from family and they don't even want to see me again or see my child. I've come to terms with this awful fact, baffled as I am, and confused.
Mother and both my grandmothers have been so loving towards other children in the family, just not to me. I searched for any clues about this because I won't speak to them again. Grandmothers, even though they're elderly, will always not love me. Mother, in her 60's and always very beautiful has a heart of poison. When I last spoke to her, she told me to just die.
I go to folklore and psychology to learn what motivate these matriarchs to turn away one of their own children. There are fairytales and folk stories of evil stepmothers who try and kill their magical children. The Narcissistic Mother who are cold and hateful towards their daughters.

Read:

Hated Child
Daughters of Narcissist Mothers

Riverlands

There is much to be said about the map of Westeros. Here, I've cut a piece showing a part of the Riverlands with my own drawings of icons featuring Lyanna, Rhaegar and the three knights.

The Riverlands is a strange place. It's like our own world's Burmuda Triangle. Except, however, that the Riverlands are on land and not out at sea. The area plays a central part to the whole history of Westeros. I won't bring it too far back in time but will go back to the Tourney at Harrenhal and bring it to when Arya Stark was reunited with Nymeria.

The Riverlands is where the mysterious Isle of Faces exists. The Riverlands is where the Starks befriended a crannogman called Howland Reed. The place where the feast for the tourney happened, where Lyanna was seen crying while listening to prince Rhaegar playing his harp. It was where the Knight of the Laughing Tree came from, and vanished to. It's the same place where Lyanna Stark disappeared. It's the place where prince Rhaegar died. Its where Catelyn Stark arrested Tyrion Lannister and decided not to go home. It's where the direwolf Nymeria vanished to after being sent away. It's where Hot Pie lives and works now. Its where Arya found Nymeria.

The place is by the crossroads. Myths and legends about crossroads say that these are portals to the supernatural. At the Riverlands is an old woman called Ghost of High Heart.    

Gloom Girls Project: Medusa

This is a project about demonic ladies, iron maidens and evil queens. It's the opposite to my "Golden Girl Project" series that I made years ago on this blog. Golden Girls is all about ladies of light. The Gloom Girls Project is about ladies of darkness. Obsidiously evil and dangerous by nature, they're cold blooded as they're so vicious, tainted and cruel. Each post will focus on one such lady of gloom. Medusa

This once beautiful priestess did the bad thing and seduced a god in Athena’s temple. So enraged and offended was Goddess Athena that she struck down Medusa. Turning Medusa into a monster with slithering snakes for hair and a serpentine or (some versions) crocodilian body.

Despite her cruel features she had the ability to kill. She was a weapon. Armed with snakes, venom and powerful eyes that can turn anyone to stone if looking at her. She also used weapons from dead warriors. Everyone feared her. She was the most dangerous woman in the world.

Perseus the demigod hero chopped off her head while she was sleeping. Medusa’s blood was so poisonous that wherever it dripped, snakes appeared. Perseus rescues princess Andromeda using Medusa’s head as a weapon, by turning giants (titans) and monsters into stone.

Finally Perseus gives Goddess Athena the head of Medusa.She casts it onto Her blazing gold shield and carries it with Her. Even in death, Medusa is still bad.

(copied and pasted from Medusa on Quora, written originally by me, Rayne Belladonna).    

The Portal of Golden Girls Project.