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SER SHADRICH NO. 2: THE SECRET OF SHADY GLEN

August 9, 2020

Who is Ser Shadrich of the Shady Glen and why is he after Sansa Stark?

To discover the answer to this question, we must first eliminate who he most likely is not and that is a hedge knight in the service of Varys, the Spider.

We are first introduced to Ser Shadrich when Brienne encounters him on the road to Duskendale during her quest to fulfill the promises she made to both Jaime and Catelyn to find and protect the daughters of House Stark. At the time, Shadrich is playing the role of a hedge knight in service to merchant.

The merchant looked to his escort. "What say you, ser?"

"Oh, these three are nought to fear." Ser Shadrich was a wiry, fox-faced man with a sharp nose and a shock of orange hair, mounted on a rangy chestnut courser. Though he could not have been more than five foot two, he had a cocksure manner. "The one is old, t'other fat, and the big one is a woman. Let them come."

A Feast for Crows - Brienne I

Shadrich, the Mad Mouse; ©Matt Smith/Fantasy Flight Games; Created for A Game of Thrones collectable card game; Usage here for entertainment purposes only

As she’s done with everyone else that she has encountered while travelling the Riverlands, Brienne immediately asks the merchant and his companions if they have seen “her sister.”

The merchant considered her doubtfully. "My lady, you should be safe at home. Why do you wear such unnatural garb?"

"I am searching for my sister." She dared not mention Sansa's name, with her accused of regicide. "She is a highborn maid and beautiful, with blue eyes and auburn hair. Perhaps you saw her with a portly knight of forty years, or a drunken fool."

A Feast for Crows - Brienne I

Of course, the answer to Brienne’s question is no. However, later in a private conversation with Shadrich, she finds out that while the merchant may not be familiar with Sansa, that is most definitely not the case with Shadrich. She also discovers some unexpected news about his actual mission.

Ser Shadrich laughed. "Oh, I doubt that, but it may be that you and I share a quest. A little lost sister, is it? With blue eyes and auburn hair?" He laughed again. "You are not the only hunter in the woods. I seek for Sansa Stark as well."

Brienne kept her face a mask, to hide her dismay. "Who is this Sansa Stark, and why do you seek her?"

"For love, why else?"

She furrowed her brow. "Love?"

"Aye, love of gold. Unlike your good Ser Creighton, I did fight upon the Blackwater, but on the losing side. My ransom ruined me. You know who Varys is, I trust? The eunuch has offered a plump bag of gold for this girl you've never heard of. I am not a greedy man. If some oversized wench would help me find this naughty child, I would split the Spider's coin with her."

A Feast for Crows - Brienne I

Shadrich is pretty forthcoming with Brienne about the fact that he is hunting Sansa. It’s almost as if he is laughing at her. He’s certainly not worried about her as a competitor. He didn’t even make an attempt to follow her when she sneaks out of the inn during the night—even though it’s a safe bet that he knew when she left.

Secondly, why would Varys need Sansa? Sure, he could marry her to Aegon with the hope of getting the northern lords on the side of Young Griff in the coming fight against the Lannisters. The northerners hate the Lannisters but they are also now primarily back in the North, which is a long distance away from Kings Landing. They are also ostensibly led by House Bolton who are allies of the Lannisters. This makes it a pretty iffy assumption that Varys could get them on Aegon’s side. It would also take too much time.

However, the bigger issue is that for Sansa’s marriage to Aegon to be legitimate, Tyrion would have to die and Varys does not seem interested in the proposition…at least not currently. He had Tyrion in his clutches and let him live. In fact, he aided in Tyrion’s escape to Essos…even sending him to his friend Illyrio. Why not just kill him upfront or even have Illyrio do so? It would have taken no effort on his part to have Tyrion killed if he wanted to wed Sansa to Aegon. He certainly found it easy enough to kill Kevan to further his plans.

Since Varys has shown his hand and his plans to take down the Lannisters, we also know that he’s not hunting Sansa for Cersei. If that was the case, we would have seen Cersei at least thinking about this in one of her POVs. In point of fact, Cersei thinks that Sansa is with Tyrion. Her stupidity and paranoia even have her thinking that they are hiding behind the walls of Highgarden.

Now, if Shadrich had told Brienne that he was hunting Sansa to receive a monetary reward from Cersei or even Qyburn, it would make more sense based on the flow of the story. For all these reasons and probably more that I’ve missed, I think that it’s safe to say that Shadrich is not hunting the daughter of Winterfell for the payment of bag of dragons. And so, if not money, why?

Except for the brief description he gives Brienne of himself, not much is known about the mousy hedge knight George introduced to the story in A Feast for Crows. In fact, pretty much all we can be certain of in regards to the fox face man is that he’s on the hunt for Sansa and he has found her in the Vale.

Yet, he’s such a provocative character that many fandom theories have been put forth about his true identity. My hypothesis doesn’t answer the question of Shadrich’s ultimate identity. That, as you will see is probably quite impossible. However, it just may reveal the “family” of which he is from.

I debated whether to state my theory up front or work towards it. In the end, I decided that because of the mystery surrounding his identity, it made more sense to present my theory and then reason it out. And so, here it is. I put forth the theory that Ser Shadrich of the Shady Glen should actually be considered, Shadrich, the Faceless Man.

Many will say this is tinfoil and that every mysterious person in the story is not a Faceless Man. This is a totally legitimate argument with which I can’t disagree. I will say that George has set up the cult of the Many-Faced God to play a major role in the remaining two books. He also seems to have position them or their representatives close to the Starks for some reason. And as I will show later, he has dropped a few hints that they will be in conflict with the Wolves. I also think that there are textural and symbolic real-world clues that suggest that Shadrich is a Faceless Man. Let’s begin with the real-world clues.

As you will see as we proceed, one of the biggest clues that points to Shadrich being a Faceless Man is the order of chapters after he is first introduced. I will show how in the Sam chapter that immediately follows the one where we first meet Shadrich, the subject of the mad mouse continues. This chapter also includes the topic of Braavos as Jon orders Sam to take Maester Aemon to Oldtown by way of the Secret City. And of course, in Oldtown, Sam just happens to unknowingly run into a Faceless Man. We will also discover two interesting ties to both Shadrich and the Faceless Men in this same Sam chapter.

The chapter following Sam’s is Arya’s first in AFFC and it covers her journey to Braavos and arrival at the House of Black and White. I will discuss how the back to back symmetry of Brienne I, Sam I and Arya I and the clues therein provide strong evidence to support my theory that Shadrich is a Faceless Man.

We will also discuss the prologue of AFFC and how a glaring omission suggests that the accepted belief that Jaqen H’ghar is the Faceless Man who killed and replace Pate might not be correct. The topic of tombs, cemeteries and much more will also rise to the top and so without further ado, let’s get to the heart of my theory.

The core belief of the Christian Church is that there is only one God. However, this deity is believed to have three aspects—God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Of course, “men” just assume that the deity is male but that’s an argument for another day.

A similar religious doctrine can also be found in ASOIAF with the Faith of the Seven. In the case of Faith, they preach that their god has seven aspects. To George’s credit, quite unlike the real-world Christian version, several of the aspects of his fictional creation are feminine in nature.

While I’ve not seen it often discussed, the cult of the Faceless Men has a similar dogma. They acknowledge the existence of other gods but they too believe that there is only one true God. All the other godly deities are seen as different facets of this one true supreme being who they’ve named, the Many-Faced God.

"No one," he answered. "Some say he was a slave himself. Others insist he was a freeholder's son, born of noble stock. Some will even tell you he was an overseer who took pity on his charges. The truth is, no one knows. Whoever he was, he moved amongst the slaves and would hear them at their prayers. Men of a hundred different nations labored in the mines, and each prayed to his own god in his own tongue, yet all were praying for the same thing. It was release they asked for, an end to pain. A small thing, and simple. Yet their gods made no answer, and their suffering went on. Are their gods all deaf? he wondered . . . until a realization came upon him, one night in the red darkness.

"All gods have their instruments, men and women who serve them and help to work their will on earth. The slaves were not crying out to a hundred different gods, as it seemed, but to one god with a hundred different faces . . . and he was that god's instrument. That very night he chose the most wretched of the slaves, the one who had prayed most earnestly for release, and freed him from his bondage. The first gift had been given."

Arya drew back from him. "He killed the slave?" That did not sound right. "He should have killed the masters!"

"He would bring the gift to them as well . . . but that is a tale for another day, one best shared with no one." He cocked his head. "And who are you, child?"

A Feast for Crows - Arya II

Assuming that he even knows the answer, the kindly man does not reveal the true identity of the first Faceless Man to Arya. While I think he knows, it’s always possible that he doesn’t. It’s also quite possible that this is a secret to which George will never reveal the truth.

In the kindly man’s story about the founding of his sect, he says that the first Faceless Man would later bring the gift to the masters of Valyria but he doesn’t provide much detail…simply telling Arya that it’s a story for another day. George has also not yet revealed the answer to that side of the tale. Nonetheless, many in the fandom have speculated that the FM killed the Valyrian mages who controlled the fourteen flames, which led to the eruptions of all the volcanoes and resulted in the Doom of Valyria.

The first Faceless Man took on the role of the angel who saved the slaves and the followers of the one god from the pits. In naming the mad mouse Shadrich, as he is wont to do, George may have combined a real-world biblical myth with the ones in his story. The myth in question is that of of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego whose legend of being cast into a fiery furnace on the orders of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, appears in the biblical book of Daniel.

I propose that when George references Shadrich, he wants the reader to think of the biblical Shadrach, his two friends and the angel who saved them from the fiery furnace. If George is indeed playing off the myth of the biblical Shadrach, one has to then look to the legends in ASOIAF to see where something similar in subject may have occurred and the most obvious choice seems to be the tale of founding of the Faceless Men.

I discussed Shadrich previously in my essay, On the Hunt for the Bloodstone Emperor, including the likelihood that George was associating his name with the biblical Shadrach. However, because at the time I did not associate him with possibly being a Faceless Man, I missed how the tale of the biblical Shadrach symbolically ties into the myth of the founding of the religion of the Many-Faced God in Old Valyria and its Faceless Men priests. This next excerpt is pretty long as it’s needed to show the similarities.

"What kind of tale?" she asked, wary.

"The tale of our beginnings. If you would be one of us, you had best know who we are and how we came to be. Men may whisper of the Faceless Men of Braavos, but we are older than the Secret City. Before the Titan rose, before the Unmasking of Uthero, before the Founding, we were. We have flowered in Braavos amongst these northern fogs, but we first took root in Valyria, amongst the wretched slaves who toiled in the deep mines beneath the Fourteen Flames that lit the Freehold's nights of old. Most mines are dank and chilly places, cut from cold dead stone, but the Fourteen Flames were living mountains with veins of molten rock and hearts of fire. So the mines of old Valyria were always hot, and they grew hotter as the shafts were driven deeper, ever deeper. The slaves toiled in an oven. The rocks around them were too hot to touch. The air stank of brimstone and would sear their lungs as they breathed it. The soles of their feet would burn and blister, even through the thickest sandals. Sometimes, when they broke through a wall in search of gold, they would find steam instead, or boiling water, or molten rock. Certain shafts were cut so low that the slaves could not stand upright, but had to crawl or bend. And there were wyrms in that red darkness too."

“Earthworms?” she asked, frowning.

“Firewyrms. Some say they are akin to dragons, for wyrms breathe fire too. Instead of soaring through the sky, they bore through stone and soil. If the old tales can be believed, there were wyrms amongst the Fourteen Flames even before the dragons came. The young ones are no larger than that skinny arm of yours, but they can grow to monstrous size and have no love for men.”

“Did they kill the slaves?”

“Burnt and blackened corpses were oft found in shafts where the rocks were cracked or full of holes. Yet still the mines drove deeper. Slaves perished by the score, but their masters did not care. Red gold and yellow gold and silver were reckoned to be more precious than the lives of slaves, for slaves were cheap in the old Freehold. During war, the Valyrians took them by the thousands. In times of peace they bred them, though only the worst were sent down to die in the red darkness.”

A Feast for Crows - Arya II

Now of course, the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and the angel of the Lord is not quite the same in ASOIAF. That’s not how Martin writes. He instead takes existing myths and reinterprets them. While you recognize the underlying legend, the tale as told by George is different in nature.

In the biblical legend, King Nebuchadnezzar had a golden idol built and ordered his people to bow down and worship before it. The Valyrian dragon lords also worshiped gold. In their case, it was because of the monetary value of the gold and other precious metals found in the mines under the 14Flames. Thousands upon thousands of slaves died in the fiery mines while digging for these metals—either from the lava and poisonous gas or the firewyrms who lived in the caves.

The angel of the Christian god protected Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego from the flames of Nebuchadnezzar’ furnace, which led to the King allowing them to go free. Things were just the opposite in George’s fictional world—at least initially. The prayers of slaves of Old Valyria who did not die in the fiery pits were answered by the angel of death of the Many-Faced God who turned out to be the first Faceless Man. Their freedom initially only came in death.

If George wants us to think of Old Valyria, where so many slaves were killed in the fiery furnace of the mines when he references Shadrich, might he also want us to think of the first Faceless Man at the same time? I say the answer is yes.

Let’s now briefly talk about the location of which Shadrich hails, the Shady Glen.

"The merchant called you Shadrich."

"Ser Shadrich of the Shady Glen. Some call me the Mad Mouse." He turned his shield to show her his sigil, a large white mouse with fierce red eyes, on bendy brown and blue. "The brown is for the lands I've roamed, the blue for the rivers that I've crossed. The mouse is me."

"And are you mad?"

"Oh, quite. Your common mouse will run from blood and battle. The mad mouse seeks them out."

A Feast for Crows - Brienne I

A glen is a narrow secluded mountainous valley generally with a river running through it. And vale is of course another name for valley. For this reason, when I discussed Shadrich in my Bloodstone Emperor essay series, where I named him as one of the three contenders to that modern title, I symbolically associated glen with vales/valley and more specifically in regards to Mad Mouse, the Vale of Shadows, the river valley that located up from Asshai.

I now think that I may have been wrong in my interpretation. I still think that Shadrich is a possible contender for that ancient title. However, where I was symbolically associating him with the yellow contender, I now think that he’s the orange as his hair implies.

Previously, I did consider him a possibility for the Westerosi version of the orange contender but I was stuck on the meaning of glen. With it being a synonym of vale and valley, there seemed only one possible interpretation. Now I think that I’ve come up with another that makes more sense and it’s because of the different meanings of shady.

The Long Night was an event that impacted the entire known world and while the central events took place in Westeros, legends about the cause can be found in various cultures across Planetos. Nonetheless, the central events took place in Westeros.

As I‘ve discussed in practically every essay I’ve written, George uses comparative mythology throughout his tale. He also uses the legends of the past to inform upon the current story just as modern characters provide clues to ancient mysteries. And he’s used the World Book to drop clues to many of these great mysteries.

When he tells us in the World Book that the Bloodstone Emperor usurped the rule of his sister queen, the Amethyst Empress you can assume that there is a central Westerosi equivalent. And when he describes the landscape of Asshai and hints at some event that blighted the land in the area, you know that something quite similar will likely happen in the Vale, whose descriptions mirrors that region.

Thus, when he tells us in TWOIAF that there are currently three men contending for the imperial throne in YiTi, we should look for a similar threesome in the Westerosi story. In my Bloodstone Emperor essay from a few years ago, I proposed that the three Westerosi contenders were Euron Greyjoy, Petyr Baelish and Ser Shadrich of the Shady Glen.

Today Yin is once more the capital of Yi Ti. There the seventeenth azure emperor Bu Gai sits in splendor in a palace larger than all King’s Landing. Yet far to the east, well beyond the borders of the Golden Empire proper, past the legendary Mountains of the Morn, in the city Carcosa on the Hidden Sea, dwells in exile a sorcerer lord who claims to be the sixty-ninth yellow emperor, from a dynasty fallen for a thousand years. And more recently, a general named Pol Qo, Hammer of the Jogos Nhai, has given himself imperial honors, naming himself the first of the orange emperors, with the rude, sprawling garrison city called Trader Town as his capital. Which of these three emperors will prevail is a question best left for the historians of the years to come.

TWOIAF - The Bones and Beyond: Yi Ti

Keep in mind that these three personages fighting over the imperial throne in Yi Ti may not exist in-world. The mentions may just be George’s way of cluing the reader in on the fact that we should be on the lookout for three contenders in the Westerosi storyline. One of the three Eastern candidates just happens to be a warrior who has given himself the title of “orange emperor.” Why that name? Could it be because the Westerosi contender has orange hair? However, before we discuss Shadrich’s orange hair, let’s discuss his shady moniker and why this term maybe provide a great clue about his identity.

It suddenly hit me as I was re-reading AFFC, Brienne I recently that Shady Glen sounded a lot like the name of a funeral home or better yet, one for a cemetery. It seemed such a logical idea that I decided to google the name to see what turned up, and not surprisingly, there are numerous cemeteries in different states across the country with the name Shady Glen. In fact, there is even a Nancy Drew mystery—No. 85 to be specific titled, “The Secret of Shady Glen” that is centered around the search for a “fortune in gold” that is buried at, “you guessed it, the cemetery from which the book gets its name.

A cemetery! That George! As I’ve said many times, he can be such a tricksy bird. LOL!

For those of you not familiar with Nancy Drew, she’s a character from a popular series of mystery books targeting pre-teens and young adults. She first appeared in print in 1930 as a female companion to the Hardy Boys. While Nancy Drew titles are still published today, their heyday was from the 1940s to early 60s. This of course covered the period when George was a kid and as he is such a voracious reader, I would not be shocked to find out that he read a few Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew mysteries in his day.

All total over 530 books have been published under various series names since the first story appeared in 1930. Nancy Drew No. 85 was published in 1988 as part of the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories series. Obviously 1988 is well past George’s childhood but it is not out of the realm of possibility that he is familiar with the story. However, even if he is not, it does not matter. It still seems quite likely that George is playing with the idea of funeral homes and cemeteries in the assigning of Shadrich’s Shady Glen moniker.

Once I realized that George might possibly be using the Shady Glen term as a resting place for the dead, I started to consider which location in the story made the most sense. There are several to choose from including the crypts and lichyard at Winterfell; and the Barrowlands in the North. However, none of the choices made sense until I had my “duh” moment and realized that the House of Black and White can also be considered a “shady glen.” It can be considered a Shady Glen cemetery because it is also a tomb both symbolically and literally.

House of Black and White ©Sebastian Kowoll/Deviant Art; use for entertainment purposes only

After all, it’s where the weary go to “rest”…sometimes even drinking from the black pool and then going into an alcove to breathe their last. The House of Black and White provides them with a way to hasten their exit from life. The job of Arya and other acolytes is to collect the bodies each morning, and clean and prepare them for their final rest as is the case with undertakers and funeral home attendees.

She had other tasks besides helping Umma. She swept the temple floors; she served and poured at meals; she sorted piles of dead men's clothing, emptied their purses, and counted out stacks of queer coins. Every morning she walked beside the kindly man as he made his circuit of the temple to find the dead. Silent as a shadow, she would tell herself, remembering Syrio. She carried a lantern with thick iron shutters. At each alcove, she would open the shutter a crack, to look for corpses.

The dead were never hard to find. They came to the House of Black and White, prayed for an hour or a day or a year, drank sweet dark water from the pool, and stretched out on a stone bed behind one god or another. They closed their eyes, and slept, and never woke. "The gift of the Many-Faced God takes myriad forms," the kindly man told her, "but here it is always gentle." When they found a body he would say a prayer and make certain life had fled, and Arya would fetch the serving men, whose task it was to carry the dead down to the vaults. There acolytes would strip and wash the bodies. The dead men's clothes and coins and valuables went into a bin for sorting. Their cold flesh would be taken to the lower sanctum where only the priests could go; what happened in there Arya was not allowed to know. Once, as she was eating her supper, a terrible suspicion seized hold of her, and she put down her knife and stared suspiciously at a slice of pale white meat. The kindly man saw the horror on her face. "It is pork, child," he told her, "only pork."

A Feast for Crows - Arya II

When you think about it, the process described above sounds very much like the events that take place at a funeral home or cemetery. The House of Black and White is the shady glen where the dead are prepared and sent to their final place of rest. However, are they truly allowed to rest or do their shades or shadows become knights in the priestly army of the Many-Faced God.

The Faceless Men don’t wear their own faces. They wear those of the dead. As this is the case, might they not be symbolically considered shades of the people whose faces they wear? The person whose face he or she wears does not exist in body but in all other ways such as memories and feelings, they do subsist. They are simply shadowing of their former selves. The kindly man’s words to Arya when she gets her first face hints at this possibility.

"Bring me the face," said the kindly man. The waif made no answer, but she could hear her slippers whispering over the stone floor. To the girl he said, "Drink this," and pressed a cup into her hand. She drank it down at once. It was very tart, like biting into a lemon. A thousand years ago, she had known a girl who loved lemon cakes. No, that was not me, that was only Arya.

"Mummers change their faces with artifice," the kindly man was saying, "and sorcerers use glamors, weaving light and shadow and desire to make illusions that trick the eye. These arts you shall learn, but what we do here goes deeper. Wise men can see through artifice, and glamors dissolve before sharp eyes, but the face you are about to don will be as true and solid as that face you were born with. Keep your eyes closed." She felt his fingers brushing back her hair. "Stay still. This will feel queer. You may be dizzy, but you must not move."

Then came a tug and a soft rustling as the new face was pulled down over the old. The leather scraped across her brow, dry and stiff, but as her blood soaked into it, it softened and turned supple. Her cheeks grew warm, flushed. She could feel her heart fluttering beneath her breast, and for one long moment she could not catch her breath. Hands closed around her throat, hard as stone, choking her. Her own hands shot up to claw at the arms of her attacker, but there was no one there. A terrible sense of fear filled her, and she heard a noise, a hideous crunching noise, accompanied by blinding pain. A face floated in front of her, fat, bearded, brutal, his mouth twisted with rage. She heard the priest say, "Breathe, child. Breathe out the fear. Shake off the shadows. He is dead. She is dead. Her pain is gone. Breathe." The girl took a deep shuddering breath, and realized it was true. No one was choking her, no one was hitting her. Even so, her hand was shaking as she raised it to her face. Flakes of dried blood crumbled at the touch of her fingertips, black in the lantern light. She felt her cheeks, touched her eyes, traced the line of her jaw. "My face is still the same."

A Dance with Dragons - The Ugly Little Girl

In a literary sense, shadow has the same meaning as shade. If Shadrich is a Faceless Man as I’ve proposed, in addition to the HOB&W being like a Shady Glen cemetery, might this be also what his “shady” moniker is suggesting. As he’s wearing the face of a dead person, might he not be considered their shade or shadow.

Bloodraven tells Bran something similar in regards to skinchanging. The remnant or shade of the skin changer remains in the ravens. We also see the concept explored with Varamyr and Orell’s eagle in how the latter’s hate of Jon remained in his bird even after his death.

"Someone else was in the raven," he told Lord Brynden, once he had returned to his own skin.

"Some girl. I felt her."

"A woman, of those who sing the song of earth," his teacher said. "Long dead, yet a part of her remains, just as a part of you would remain in Summer if your boy's flesh were to die upon the morrow. A shadow on the soul. She will not harm you."

"Do all the birds have singers in them?"

A Dance with Dragons - Bran III

There is obviously some type of magic involved in the wearing of faces that has yet to be revealed…assuming that we ever find out the secret. However, it begs the question why was the first Faceless Man given that name? Was he simply called the Faceless Man because it was not known by either the slaves or Valyrian Dragon Lords who was the person committing the murders—or was there more to it?

Did he create the magic behind the faces? Was he perhaps the first to wear another’s face? More importantly, what happened to his face upon his death? Was it taken and preserve and might it still exist today with all the memories and knowledge of its original owner imbued within? And finally, does all of these questions hint at the possibility that he was a sorcerer…perhaps even one of those who manned the 14 Flames?

If the face of the first Faceless Man still exist, is it ever worn by members of the sect? Also, in such an instance, who is the dominant personality, the wearer or the face? There are so many mysteries about the Faceless Men still to be discover.

Arya was able to tap down on the shade/shadow of the previous owner of the ugly girl’s face. However, what happens if the face is that of a powerful sorcerer, which for obvious reasons was quite likely a talent of the original Faceless Man. As you might have gathered, I am proposing that that it’s possible that Ser Shadrich is wearing the face of the original Faceless Man who was possibly a sorcerer or even some type of greenseer…hence albino mouse with red eyes sigil. Crazy tinfoil? Yes, I know! And yet, something tells me that original face is still around.

Now let’s move on to Shadrich’s “shocking orange hair” but before we do so, a brief recap of what I’ve proposed so far about Shadrich seems in order.

Shadrich is most likely not working for Varys but is after Sansa for his own reasons; George quite possibly wants us to think of the biblical story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego when considering the identity of Shadrich, which ties him to the formation of the religion of the Many-Faced God and the Faceless Men in Old Valyria; George is also associating his Shady Glen title with funeral homes, cemeteries and tombs, which are suggestive of the House of Black and White. These clues hint to Shadrich being a Faceless Man…possibly even the original; and finally, his hair color hints to the possibility of him being the Westerosi version of the Jogos Nhai contender for the modern-day version of the Bloodstone Emperor.

George doesn’t just tell us once in TWOIAF that there are three contenders to the imperial throne. He does so on two occasions as if he wants to make sure that we don’t miss this bit of information. The first passage was the one I referenced earlier in the essay. Here is the second.

Those who have visited Yi Ti as it is today tell us that the thousand gods and hundred princes yet remain...but there are three god emperors, each claiming the right to don the gowns of cloth-of-gold, green pearls, and jade that tradition allows to the emperor alone. None wields true power; though millions may worship the azure emperor in Yin and prostrate themselves before him whenever he appears, his imperial writ extends no farther than the walls of his own city. The hundred princes of whom Lomas Longstrider wrote rule their own realms as they please, as do the brigands, priest-kings, sorcerers, warlords, and imperial generals and tax collectors outside their domains.

—TWOIAF – THE BONES AND BEYOND: Yi Ti

If we assume that Shadrich’s hair color symbolically positions him as the Westerosi version of this orange emperor, then what does this tell us about him and how does it tie into him potentially being a Faceless Man from Braavos? Well, curiously enough, the Jogos Nhai are associated with the founding of Braavos.

Braavos was founded by fugitives from a large convoy of slave ships on its way from Valyria to a newly established colony in Sothoryos, who rose in a bloody rebellion, seized control of the ships on which they were being transported, and fled to "the far ends of the earth" to escape their erstwhile masters. Knowing they would be hunted, the slaves turned away from their intended destination and sailed north instead of south, seeking a refuge as far from Valyria and her vengeance as could be found. Braavosi histories claim that a group of slave women from the distant lands of the Jogos Nhai prophesied where they would find shelter: in a distant lagoon behind a wall of pine-clad hills and sea stones, where the frequent fogs would help to hide the refugees from the eyes of dragonriders passing overhead. And so it proved. These women were priestesses, called moonsingers, and to this day the Temple of the Moonsingers is the greatest in Braavos.

The World of Ice and Fire - The Free Cities: Braavos

So, the Jogos Nhai priestesses were instrumental in the founding of Braavos and their temple is the most celebrated in the Secret City. This is certainly an interesting connection between the two. The House of Black and White also has the insignia of a moon on their door—a kind of ying yang motif.

At the top she found a set of carved wooden doors twelve feet high. The left-hand door was made of weirwood pale as bone, the right of gleaming ebony. In their center was a carved moon face; ebony on the weirwood side, weirwood on the ebony. The look of it reminded her somehow of the heart tree in the godswood at Winterfell. The doors are watching me, she thought. She pushed upon both doors at once with the flat of her gloved hands, but neither one would budge. Locked and barred. "Let me in, you stupid," she said. "I crossed the narrow sea." She made a fist and pounded. "Jaqen told me to come. I have the iron coin." She pulled it from her pouch and held it up. "See? Valar morghulis."

A Feast for Crows - Arya I

Let us now look a bit deeper at what Shadrich’s orange hair and mousy moniker tells us about his identity. We will begin with the opening paragraph of the chapter immediately following the Brienne one where we first meet the the man from Shady Glen.

Sam was reading about the Others when he saw the mouse.

His eyes were red and raw. I ought not rub them so much, he always told himself as he rubbed them. The dust made them itch and water, and the dust was everywhere down here. Little puffs of it filled the air every time a page was turned, and it rose in grey clouds whenever he shifted a stack of books to see what might be hiding on the bottom.

A Feast for Crows - Samwell I

In the chapter immediately following the one where we meet the Shadrich of the Shady Glen whose sigil is that of an albino mouse with red eyes, Martin opens with a line about a mouse. Do you think that he’s trying to tell us something? He mentions not just a mouse but the Others and so we can’t help but think that the mouse that Sam sees is white.

Then Martin’s genius goes into overdrive, he writes the next sentence as if Sam is talking about the mouse when he is in fact talking about, he himself having tired red eyes. This should make us think of Shadrich’s sigil with the white mouse and red eyes we read about just a few pages previously. It seems like Martin wants us to pay attention. Perhaps he’s about to drop some clues about the Mad Mouse.

It turns out that the mouse Sam sees is not white after all and doesn’t have red eyes.

The mouse was half as long as his pinky finger, with black eyes and soft grey fur. Sam knew he ought to kill it. Mice might prefer bread and cheese, but they ate paper too. He had found plenty of mouse droppings amongst the shelves and stacks, and some of the leather covers on the books showed signs of being gnawed.

It is such a little thing, though. And hungry. How could he begrudge it a few crumbs? It's eating books, though . . .

A Feast for Crows - Samwell I

There is much symbolism in this Sam chapter that I hope to get back to another time but one bit I want to mention is that the mouse Sam sees, like Shadrich, is positioned as having something to do with the weirwood trees. Shadrich’s comes from his albino mouse with red eyes sigil that reminds one of Bloodraven, the Ghost of Highheart and of course everyone’s favorite direwolf, Ghost.

The weirwood inference from the mouse Sam sees comes from the fact that it’s been eating the books, folios and paper in the library, a place of knowledge. Books and folios also contain knowledge. They can also be considered trees as they are made from tree pulp. The weirwoods are the trees of knowledge in the story and so having Sam note that the mouse has been eating the books and having the scene occur a few pages after we first meet the Mad Mouse maybe meant as a warning. Assuming that my theory about Shadrich being a Faceless Man is correct, this maybe George’s way of implying that he and the Faceless Men are a threat to the weirwoods.

(ETA) As I’m re-reading to catch any typos that I might have missed, it occurs to me that the mouse eating the books might mean just the opposite of what I suggested above. And so I’m editing to add this section.

The mouse is hungry and so the books are food and nourishment to him. As the books and folios symbolize the trees, in eating them, the mouse is figuratively stealing the fire and knowledge of the weirwoods. George is obviously using Sam’s mouse to represent Shadrich and so if this alternate theory is true, and I now think it makes more sense than the the destruction of the weirwoods, then what does imply about the Mad Mouse’s attempt to gain the knowledge of the trees?

I’ve theorized for years that Sansa is an unknowing greenseer and so I have to wonder, what happens if a Faceless Man acquires the face of a greenseer. We’ve already discussed how through their magic, the faces they wear retain the memories and knowledge of the original person. The face may even retain the abilities of its original host. Imagine the knowledge and power the Faceless Men would gain if they acquired the face of a greenseer. Might this be why they have targeted Sansa? I say the answer is yes. (End Edit)

Things get even more interesting a couple of paragraphs later when Sam considers killing the mouse with “The Annals of the Black Centaur,” one of the hefty tomes he’s been reading. Sam finds this particular book pretty boring but there are three points of interest I would like to note for the purpose of this essay.

After hours in the chair Sam's back was stiff as a board, and his legs were half-asleep. He knew he was not quick enough to catch the mouse, but it might be he could squash it. By his elbow rested a massive leather-bound copy of Annals of the Black Centaur, Septon Jorquen's exhaustively detailed account of the nine years that Orbert Caswell had served as Lord Commander of the Night's Watch. There was a page for each day of his term, every one of which seemed to begin, "Lord Orbert rose at dawn and moved his bowels," except for the last, which said, "Lord Orbert was found to have died during the night."

No mouse is a match for Septon Jorquen. Very slowly, Sam took hold of the book with his left hand. It was thick and heavy, and when he tried to lift it one-handed, it slipped from his plump fingers and thumped back down. The mouse was gone in half a heartbeat, skittery-quick. Sam was relieved. Squishing the poor little thing would have given him nightmares. "You shouldn't eat the books, though," he said aloud. Maybe he should bring more cheese the next time he came down here.

A Feast for Crows - Samwell I

The mouse skitters away before Sam can use the book to kill it. However, if the Mad Mouse is a Faceless Man as I’ve proposed, the fact that Sam the Slayer considers killing the mouse may hint at him taking down one of the assassins in the future. He also may find the knowledge to do so from a book at the Citadel. Faceless Men, including Arya are compared to mice on several occasions in the text and one is conveniently ensconced at the Citadel with Sam.

Arya whirled and ran, swift as a deer, her feet flying over the cobbles all the way to the bathhouse. She found Jaqen soaking in a tub, steam rising around him as a serving girl sluiced hot water over his head. His long hair, red on one side and white on the other, fell down across his shoulders, wet and heavy.

She crept up quiet as a shadow, but he opened his eyes all the same. "She steals in on little mice feet, but a man hears," he said. How could he hear me? she wondered, and it seemed as if he heard that as well. "The scuff of leather on stone sings loud as warhorns to a man with open ears. Clever girls go barefoot."

A Clash of Kings - Arya VIII

Jagen H’ghar by FiannaFail0/Deviant Art - Creative Commons license

There is one other important comparison of Faceless Men to mice that I will discuss a little later as it includes one of George’s many wordplays that can be found throughout the text and tips to Shadrich orange hair.

The second point of interest is that the book Sam considers using to kill the mouse is a history tome about of the 9-year term of a previous Lord Commander of the Nights Watch, which was written by a priest of the Faith of the Seven. And the name of this Septon is quite interesting. His name is compelling because it is Jorquen and sounds an awful lot like that of the Faceless Man Jaqen H’ghar.

Jaqen is a unique name and the only character with it so far in the books is Arya’s Faceless Man friend. The name has also only appeared in Arya chapters. And so, when you see Martin give another character, even one that’s long dead such a similar sounding name, it seems quite likely that he wants you to think of Jaqen.

So why does he want the reader to think of Jaqen and also why reference the name in the chapter immediately after he introduces Ser Shadrich of the Shady Glen, the Mad Mouse whose name and sigil hints at some type of connection to weirwoods, fiery pits, and the Faceless Men. Why does this ancient Septon have such a similar sounding name as a priest of the Faceless Men sect? Perhaps it’s because George wants us to associate that specific Faceless Men with Shadrich, the Mad Mouse.

If Septon Jorquen’s name points to Shadrich being Jaqen H’ghar then it makes sense that the book slipped from Sam’s hand before he could use it to kill the mouse. Sam succeeding in his attempt would be symbolically like Jaqen the Faceless Man killing himself and that wouldn’t happen. Or wouldn’t it?

When Arya names Jaqen as her third death, he all but begs her to unsay his name. And even though she was only owed three deaths and he doesn’t want to help her free the Northmen as it will result in more than the allotted three, he does anyway.

After the Northmen are freed, Jaqen still insists that Arya has to unsay his name.

“The Lorathi must have seen it on her face. “A goat has no loyalty. Soon a wolf banner is raised here, I think. But first a man would hear a certain name unsaid.”

“I take back the name.” Arya chewed her lip. “Do I still have a third death?”

“A girl is greedy.” Jaqen touched one of the dead guards and showed her his bloody fingers. “Here is three and there is four and eight more lie dead below. The debt is paid.”

“The debt is paid,” Arya agreed reluctantly. She felt a little sad. Now she was just a mouse again.

“A god has his due. And now a man must die.” A strange smile touched the lips of Jaqen H’ghar.

“Die?” she said, confused. What did he mean? “But I unsaid the name. You don’t need to die now.”

“I do. My time is done.” Jaqen passed a hand down his face from forehead to chin, and where it went he changed. His cheeks grew fuller, his eyes closer; his nose hooked, a scar appeared on his right cheek where no scar had been before. And when he shook his head, his long straight hair, half red[…]”

A Clash of Kings - Arya IX

We will revisit Jaqen’s change of face a bit later but for now, is it possible that the reason for his insistence on Arya taking his name back is because Faceless Men cannot revoke or change the term of a contract once accepted? Did he have to kill himself if Arya didn’t change her mind? I think the answer is yes and Sam might discover this knowledge at the Citadel and that’s how he will be able to kill Pate the Faceless Man.

The third point I want to highlight from the above passage where Sam considers killing the mouse comes from the subject of Septon Jorquen’s history of the reign of Lord Commander Orbert Caswell. The Yellow Centaur is the sigil of House Caswell of Bitterbridge in the Reach. They are sworn to House Tyrell and have shown up a few times in the text most frequently in ACOK. It was at Bitterbridge that Renly was encamped when Catelyn Stark went to meet with him to broach a truce between him and his brother Stannis.

Previous generations of Caswells supported the blacks during the Dance of the Dragons. The current Lord of the House is Lorent Caswell. As would be expected, he followed his liege lord’s example and supported Renly over Stannis. When Renly was killed and the Tyrells changed their allegiance to the Lannisters, he again followed. However, unlike his ancestors, he is not the most courageous of fellows as when Renly is killed, he initially locks himself inside Bitterbridge.

Lorent Caswell is famous for one other thing in the books.

"My father made a longsword for me to mark my sixteenth nameday," said Duck, "but Lorent liked the look of it so much he took it for himself, and my bloody father never dared to tell him no. When I complained, Lorent told me to my face that my hand was made to hold a hammer, not a sword. So I went and got a hammer and beat him with it, till both his arms and half his ribs were broken. After that I had to leave the Reach, quick as it were. I made it across the water to the Golden Company. I did some smithing for a few years as a 'prentice, then Ser Harry Strickland took me on as squire. When Griff sent word downriver that he needed someone to help train his son to arms, Harry sent him me."

A Dance with Dragons - Tyrion III

What is so special about this story Duck tells Tyrion and what does it have to do with Shadrich? Well it just so happens that Duck is also described as having a “shock of orange hair.” And so, this seems to be another instance of George wanting the reader to think of Shadrich when we read the Sam passage.

Tyrion flicked the last drops off and tucked himself away. "Pissing is the least of my talents. You ought to see me shit." He turned to Magister Illyrio. "Are these two known to you, magister? They look like outlaws. Should I find my axe?"

"Your axe?" exclaimed the larger of the riders, a brawny man with a shaggy beard and a shock of orange hair. "Did you hear that, Haldon? The little man wants to fight with us!"

A Dance with Dragons - Tyrion III

Remember that AFFC and ADWD were at one point supposed to be one book and the events in the two are occurring concurrently. This means that all of these sudden references to people with shocking orange hair would have occurred in the same book.

There is also a third member of the “shock of orange hair” club that I want to mention and that is Orton Meryweather, who was made Hand of the King by Cersei. Funnily enough, while Lord Merryweather is a background character in ASOS, it is not till AFFC, that we get a description of him.

"We do, Your Grace." Orton Merryweather was not a comely man, with his big lumpish nose and shock of unruly reddish-orange hair, but he was never less than courteous. "We have Dornish red and Arbor gold, and a fine sweet hippocras from Highgarden."

A Feast for Crows - Cersei IV

So, we have three men described as having “a shock of orange hair” who suddenly appear in AFFC/ADWD. Duck aka Rolly Duckfield is a Kingsguard in the service of Aegon (Faegon) Targaryen. A former member of the Golden Company, he was recommended to Jon Connington by Harry Strickland to be Aegon’s teacher in skill at arms. He was later knighted by Aegon and became the first member of his Kingsguard.

Jon Connington does not trust Duck and thinks he has too much influence over Aegon. It’s even possible that influence is of a sexual nature. Whether it is or not, knowing Duck’s background and how he can rise in anger against his Lord, Jon Con is probably right to be wary.

Cersei remembers Littlefinger telling her that Orton Merryweather was an idiot. However, that doesn’t seem to be the case. His wife Taena is certainly not and as she’s been manipulating Cersei from jump, I find it hard to believe that her husband is unaware of what is going on and is not in on the maneuvering Cersei game. This suggest that like Duck and Shadrich, he is also not to be trusted.

If Shadrich is indeed a Faceless Man as I’ve speculated, then is the same true of the other two members of the “shock of orange hair” club? All three have certainly spent a major amount of time in the East. Are the three connected? While it’s certainly is an interesting thought to consider, no, I’m not saying that and I also don’t think that is the case. What I am saying is that symbolically, George seems to want us to notice a similar characteristic in all three but ultimately, it may only be about one and I believe that one is Shadrich.

What’s the mystery he wants us to solve? Maybe it’s that the men with orange hair are symbolically the fiery threesome, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and in his version of things, they shouldn’t be trusted. It’s also quite possible that he included three men with shocking orange hair because that number plays such an important symbolic role both in real-world myths and the ones in our tale. Or maybe they are all three Faceless Men. At the end of the day, I don’t think that George intends a more direct connection between the three, other than to highlight Shadrich’s role in the tale to come.

You’re probably wondering whether with all of this talk of Jaqen, Shadrich and Faceless Men whether I’m implying that the two are one and the same. To be truthful, as crazy as it sounds, I don’t think that we can rule out that possibility. This idea no doubt seems impossible when strong textural evidence suggests that the Faceless Man who Arya first meets in the Riverlands is currently at the Citadel masquerading as Pate, having killed the original—but is he really?

Here again is Arya’s last sight of Jaqen.

"I do. My time is done." Jaqen passed a hand down his face from forehead to chin, and where it went he changed. His cheeks grew fuller, his eyes closer; his nose hooked, a scar appeared on his right cheek where no scar had been before. And when he shook his head, his long straight hair, half red and half white, dissolved away to reveal a cap of tight black curls.

Arya's mouth hung open. "Who are you?" she whispered, too astonished to be afraid. "How did you do that? Was it hard?"

He grinned, revealing a shiny gold tooth. "No harder than taking a new name, if you know the way."

A Clash of Kings - Arya IX

And here is the Jaqen we meet in Oldtown who hires and the kills Pate. It’s a long excerpt because there is a lot to point out, including one glaring omission that I’ve not heard discussed about Oldtown Jaqen. This is not to say it hasn’t been. I’ve just not seen or heard any reference to it.

“I want my dragon.”

“To be sure.” The coin appeared. The alchemist made it walk across his knuckles, the way he had when Rosey brought the two of them together. In the morning light the dragon glittered as it moved, and gave the alchemist’s fingers a golden glow.

Pate grabbed it from his hand. The gold felt warm against his palm. He brought it to his mouth and bit down on it the way he’d seen men do. If truth be told, he wasn’t sure what gold should taste like, but he did not want to look a fool.

“The key?” the alchemist inquired politely.”

Something made Pate hesitate. "Is it some book you want?" Some of the old Valyrian scrolls down in the locked vaults were said to be the only surviving copies in the world.

"What I want is none of your concern."

"No." It's done, Pate told himself. Go. Run back to the Quill and Tankard, wake Rosey with a kiss, and tell her she belongs to you. Yet still he lingered. "Show me your face."

"As you wish." The alchemist pulled his hood down.

He was just a man, and his face was just a face. A young man's face, ordinary, with full cheeks and the shadow of a beard. A scar showed faintly on his right cheek. He had a hooked nose, and a mat of dense black hair that curled tightly around his ears. It was not a face Pate recognized. "I do not know you."

"Nor I you."

"Who are you?"

"A stranger. No one. Truly."

"Oh." Pate had run out of words. He drew out the key and put it in the stranger's hand, feeling light-headed, almost giddy. Rosey, he reminded himself. "We're done, then."

“He was halfway down the alley when the cobblestones began to move beneath his feet. The stones are slick and wet, he thought, but that was not it. He could feel his heart hammering in his chest. “What’s happening?” he said. His legs had turned to water. “I don’t understand.”

“And never will,” a voice said sadly.”

A Feast for Crows - Prologue

I included this long excerpt because I wanted to draw attention to two points. First, I want to mention one very noticeable difference between Arya’s description of Jaqen’s new face and that of the man Pate sees. When Jaqen changes his face in front of Arya, she makes no mention of noticing the beginnings of a beard. However, she notices that the new Jaqen has a shiny gold tooth. If Oldtown Jaqen had a gold tooth as well, I don’t see how Pate could have missed it.

I’m sure that this omission has been pointed out by others in the past. However, as it’s such an accepted fandom theory that Oldtown Jaqen and Arya’s are one and the same, it seems to me that there has never been a true analysis of why there are two such glaring differences between the two men. For myself, I don’t think that enough attention has been paid to how George deliberately writes the scene to draw attention to the gold tooth omission. Why did he do that?

The scene is set in the early morning light and so the gold tooth would be hard to miss. Pate would have noted it if only because his mind was fixated on gold as in him getting the promised dragon from the alchemist for stealing the key. Being desperate for gold, he would at least have wondered about “Jaqen” tooth. And yet, no such mention of a gold tooth is included in his description of the alchemist.

George even includes a descriptive passage wherein the alchemist rolled the golden dragon across his fingers and it glittered as it was touched by the morning light. Assuming he is Jaqen, his gold tooth would have glitter in the same manner.

Interestingly enough, while “Jaqen’s” face doesn’t have a gold tooth, Pate’s does. As if to emphasize the point that we shouldn’t be so quick to believe that the alchemist and the Faceless Man Arya met are one and the same, George draws attention to “Jaqen’s” missing gold tooth by giving one to Pate instead. How is this done? He has Pate bite down on the golden dragon.

As so much of the alchemist description matches the face Jaqen was wearing when last seen by Arya, everyone simply assumes that it has to be him and he simply discarded the tooth. No one has stop to wonder, why he would do so? If the gold tooth did not fit with his alchemist persona, why not just choose a more suitable face.

The glaring omission of the gold tooth leaves open the possibility that the alchemist is not Jaqen. We are obviously meant to see him as a Faceless Man and I don’t dispute that he is one. However, how did the difference in faces occur?

Maybe the original Jaqen went home to Braavos and left the face, which was then taken and used by another member of the sect…minus the gold tooth. There was certainly sufficient time for the back and forth travel. Or, maybe the two Faceless Men met up somewhere in Westeros and changed faces.

These are possible scenarios but they don’t seem likely because as we saw with the scars on the mask of the ugly girl, which Arya wore, the face is the face. The gold tooth is part of the face and so should be there.

And what about the beginnings of the beard? The beard is part of the actual skin of the face. This means that as with the face of the ugly girl, the person whose face is being used by the Jaqen/Pate creature, had the beginnings of a beard when he died. And if Oldtown Jaqen is indeed Arya’s Jaqen, then she should have also seen the beard on his face as well.

I guess it’s also possible that in this instance, Jaqen is using mummers’ tricks or sorcery. The kindly man did tell Arya that these two skill sets were part of the tricks of their trade that she would have to learn.

"Mummers change their faces with artifice," the kindly man was saying, "and sorcerers use glamors, weaving light and shadow and desire to make illusions that trick the eye. These arts you shall learn, but what we do here goes deeper. Wise men can see through artifice, and glamors dissolve before sharp eyes, but the face you are about to don will be as true and solid as that face you were born with. Keep your eyes closed." She felt his fingers brushing back her hair. "Stay still. This will feel queer. You may be dizzy, but you must not move."

A Dance with Dragons - The Ugly Little Girl

All of these scenarios I’ve outline above are certainly possible but again, as George went to such lengths to call attention to the missing gold tooth, it seems to me that the omission is important and that the Faceless Man who kills Pate might not be Arya’s Jaqen. I’ve thought about it and for this to be true, only one thing makes sense. The face of Oldtown Jaqen is “a twin to the first.” As he does so often, George is hiding the truth in plain sight.

The first twin had a gold tooth…possibly even to differentiate between he and his brother when they were alive so that they could be told apart. The second twin did not.

Twins play an important role in the story. It’s a theme that comes up over and over. And so, why wouldn’t George bring it out again? Twins is the only possible explanation for the missing gold tooth. And of course, I also think that Pate can’t be Jaqen because the latter is Shadrich and he is currently in the Vale looking to kidnap Sansa Stark.

The second aspect of the long excerpt I wanted to highlight is the emphasis George puts on the the stones being slick and wet by italicizing the phrase. Why is he drawing attention to this phrase? Might he be suggesting that stones, as in stone dragons, aka, Alayne Stone and Jon Snow will trip up the Faceless Men in the future. Slick also means skillful. Might these “stone dragons” that Shadrich encounter be a lot trickier than he expects and might he end up tripping over them.

In the Alayne preview chapter from TWOW, we even get a scene where Shadrich and Alayne literally almost trip over each other.

Just thinking about it was enough to make her head spin. Alayne turned abruptly from the yard...and bumped into a short, sharp-faced man with a brush of orange hair who had come up behind her. His hand shot out and caught her arm before she could fall. "My lady. My pardons if I took you unawares."

"The fault was mine. I did not see you standing there."

"We mice are quiet creatures." Ser Shadrich was so short that he might have been taken for a squire, but his face belonged to a much older man. She saw long leagues in the wrinkles at the corner of his mouth, old battles in the scar beneath his ear, and a hardness behind the eyes that no boy would ever have. This was a man grown. Even Randa overtopped him, though.

"Will you be seeking wings?" the Royce girl said."A mouse with wings would be a silly sight."

"Perhaps you will try the melee instead?" Alayne suggested. The melee was an afterthought, a sop for all the brothers, uncles, fathers, and friends who had accompanied the competitors to the Gates of the Moon to see them win their silver wings, but there would be prizes for the champions, and a chance to win ransoms.

"A good melee is all a hedge knight can hope for, unless he stumbles on a bag of dragons. And that's not likely, is it?"

"I suppose not. But now you must excuse us, ser, we need to find my lord father. "

The Winds of Winter - Alayne I

Alayne Stone and Company by poly-m/Deviant Art; use for entertainment purposes only

Speaking of the quietness of mice, I mentioned earlier in the essay that the Faceless Men are often compared to the little creatures. We get another contrasting scene from an Arya chapter in ADWD as well as a hint at Shadrich’s possible connection to the Faceless. Check out this wordplay on George’s part.

Someone had entered the room behind her, moving on soft padded slippers quiet as a mouse. Her nostrils flared. The kindly man. Men had a different smell than women, and there was a hint of orange in the air as well. The priest was fond of chewing orange rinds to sweeten his breath, whenever he could get them.

A Dance with Dragons - The Blind Girl

The “kindly man” moves as quiet as a mouse. Oh, and there is a hint of orange in the “air.” Yes, Arya is thinking about the fruit. However, George uses wordplay throughout the books and so I suspect that he also wants us to read that as a hint orange in the “hair?” I don’t mean that the kindly man is Shadrich but simply that the line reads as George hinting that there are Faceless Men out there with orange hair.

Again, speaking of the kindly man, are we sure that the one Arya first meets is the same one that she deals with throughout. On the TV show, they made it seem as if the kindly man and Jaqen was one and the same. That’s not necessarily the case in the books but there is evidence that Arya might be dealing with different ones. Arya herself is never quite sure that if it is always the one, she first meets when she arrives in Braavos.

The passage above that references the smell of oranges is one clue that suggests she might be dealing with different ones. And one has to acknowledge that it could be a hint that the kindly man is Jaqen as the face he was wearing when Arya first meets him has orange hair.

When she is blinded, Arya’s other senses kick in. She was already concentrating on improving them because it was part of her training. Also, as she’s a warg, who skinchanges a direwolf and cats on a regular basis, her sense of smell is probably more developed than any of her other ones.

Nonetheless, not soon after the breakfast where she smells the orange on the kindly man’s breath, she is attacked by someone she thinks is the him. This time she gets no smell of oranges. Based on the description of events, the time between breakfast and the attack by the “kindly man” cannot be much more than an hour. Someone with Arya’s sense of smell should still be able to smell the orange on his breath and yet the thought never occurs to her, suggesting that there was no hint of the fruit for her to smell.

"No one." The voice was deep, harsh, cold.

And moving. She stepped to one side, grabbed for her stick, snapped it up to protect her face. Wood clacked against wood. The force of the blow almost knocked the stick from her hand. She held on, slashed back … and found only empty air where he should have been. "Not there," the voice said. "Are you blind?"

She did not answer. Talking would only muddle any sounds he might be making. He would be moving, she knew. Left or right? She jumped left, swung right, hit nothing. A stinging cut from behind her caught her in the back of the legs. "Are you deaf?" She spun, the stick in her left hand, whirling, missing. From the left she heard the sound of laughter. She slashed right.

A Dance with Dragons - The Blind Girl

Yes, she was busy defending herself from his attack but she was also concentrating on using her senses to aid in said defense so why no smell of oranges. This raises the possibility that there are different kindly men but Arya thinks it’s all the same person.

Later, she thinks that she’s confirmed her belief that it was the kindly man who’s been attacking when she views him through the eyes of the cat, she’s been skinchanging.

“It is good to know. This is two. Is there a third?”

“Yes. I know that you’re the one who has been hitting me.” Her stick flashed out, and cracked against his fingers, sending his own stick clattering to the floor.

The priest winced and snatched his hand back. “And how could a blind girl know that?”

I saw you. “I gave you three. I don’t need to give you four.” Maybe on the morrow she would tell him about the cat that had followed her home last night from Pynto’s, the cat that was hiding in the rafters, looking down on them. Or maybe not. If he could have secrets, so could she.”

A Dance with Dragons - The Blind Girl

If the cat continues to hang around and I expect that he will, I will be curious if Arya begins to sense that the kindly man does not always smell the same underneath and possibly even see that he is not. There are other instances where Arya is confused and it is not quite clear who or how many Faceless Men are around. However, this essay is already way too long and so I won’t add any more excerpts.

There is one other potential clue that Shadrich is a Faceless Man, which I would like to mention before we close and that’s this conversation between the waif and Arya about poisons.

The tears of Lys, men call it. Dissolved in wine or water, it eats at a man's bowels and belly, and kills as a sickness of those parts. Smell." Arya sniffed, and smelled nothing. The waif put the tears to one side and opened a fat stone jar. "This paste is spiced with basilisk blood. It will give cooked flesh a savory smell, but if eaten it produces violent madness, in beasts as well as men. A mouse will attack a lion after a taste of basilisk blood."Arya chewed her lip.

"Would it work on dogs?"

—A Feast for Crows - Cat of the Canals

That Arya! Always keeping her list at the forefront of her thoughts. However, it’s the reference to the potential for madness in a mouse that I find interesting...especially when they are often used to symbolize the Faceless Men.

It also adds another layer to this Sansa dream.

That night Sansa dreamed of the riot again. The mob surged around her, shrieking, a maddened beast with a thousand faces. Everywhere she turned she saw faces twisted into monstrous inhuman masks. She wept and told them she had never done them hurt, yet they dragged her from her horse all the same. "No," she cried, "no, please, don't, don't," but no one paid her any heed.

—A Clash of Kings - Sansa IV

In the past, I’ve associated Sansa’s dream with either the Others or the Mountain Clans of the Vale who are foreshadowed to attack during the Tourney of the Winged Knight. I’ve since changed my mind about the Others, but I still think the Mountain Clans is a strong possibility. However, that fact that Sansa visualize the beast as singular with a thousand faces is very interesting and could be a clue that the maddened beast is a faceless man.

After all, wearing so many different faces that still have remnants of the original personalities could drive a person into madness over time. George has been foreshadowing the Tourney of the Winged Knight since the Hand’s tourney of the first book, and later Tyrion’s trial by combat. Thus, it’s quite possible for him to have always had plans for a faceless man to be part of the proceedings.

It also makes me think of when Arya went blind on the show, and we got the scene of Jaqen’s changing faces.

As we wind down, let’s talk about the hints of a coming conflict between the Wolves and the Faceless Men. I’ve already shown one possible clue with the passage about the stones being slick and wet but there are two others that I want to discuss.

I mentioned earlier in this essay that the Faceless Men seem to take an inordinate amount of interest in House Stark. Jaqen H’ghar enticed Arya to go to Braavos and the House of Black and White where she in turn has become a Faceless Man. And while Tycho Nestoris, the Iron Bank representative is ostensibly in the North to meet with Stannis and offer the support of the Iron Bank in his fight for the throne, he conveniently meets with Jon Snow, another Stark. Another coincidence is that he arrives with three ships and allows Jon to borrow them to use in the rescue the Wildings from Hardhome.

Now, I’m not saying that Tycho Nestoris is a Faceless Man. Although, he is from Braavos (wink, wink). However, he doesn’t have to be one to be associated with the Faceless Men. All Braavosi are in some manner, whether in worship of the Many-Faced God or the games of the powerful.

The Iron Bank, the House of Black and White, the Moonsingers Temple and the Sea Lord are the 4 most powerful entities in Braavos and probably while not always in agreement, it makes sense that they would interact and strategize together in some manner.

The Braavosi also abhor slavery and as I’ve seen pointed out elsewhere, it’s possible that the news Arya discovered and told to the kindly man about the Lyseni stealing Wildings from Hardhome with the plan to sell them into slavery could be why Tycho Nestoris conveniently showed up with three ships that Jon could borrow.

Whatever the reason, I proposed that even if Jon did not go in search of Tycho Nestoris to borrow money for food and the ships to rescue the wildings, Tycho would have found an opportunity to reach out to Jon. And now Jon and the Nights Watch are indebted to the Iron Bank.

Finally, if Shadrich is Jaqen, the Faceless Man, then his plan to kidnap Sansa shows even greater interest in House Stark. Furthermore, if he is “the first” of his sect as I’ve proposed, then why is he specifically after Sansa Stark, whose connection to all things magical was supposedly cut when Lady was killed? Interesting question to ponder. If you’ve read any of my previous essays on Sansa, you know that for years, I’ve been writing about her being an unknowing greenseer. This I believe explains Shadrich’s and the Faceless Men’s interest in her.

This interest the Faceless Men have shown in House Stark may also explain the hints of a future showdown between the two that George dropped in ADWD.

A few snaps and a warning growl, and the female and the tail submitted too. The pack was his.

The prey as well. He went from man to man, sniffing, before settling on the biggest, a faceless thing who clutched black iron in one hand. His other hand was missing, severed at the wrist, the stump bound up in leather. Blood flowed thick and sluggish from the slash across his throat. The wolf lapped at it with his tongue, licked the ragged eyeless ruin of his nose and cheeks, then buried his muzzle in his neck and tore it open, gulping down a gobbet of sweet meat. No flesh had ever tasted half as good.

When he was done with that one, he moved to the next, and devoured the choicest bits of that man too. Ravens watched him from the trees, squatting dark-eyed and silent on the branches as snow drifted down around them. The other wolves made do with his leavings; the old male fed first, then the female, then the tail. They were his now. They were pack.

A Dance with Dragons - Bran I

The faceless thing that One-Eye and the other wolfs kill which Summer later eats after he takes over the pack might be George indicating what will happen to the Faceless Men when they come up against the united Stark pack. The black iron clutched in the hand of the body may also hint at the key Pate stole for the Oldtown Faceless Man. Note also that one of the hands of the faceless thing is missing. In medieval times, it was often the practice to cut off the hands of thieves. Also, the ravens saw the theft of the key by Pate, which suggests that Bran did as well.

If I pick that up, I am a thief, he remembered thinking. The key was old and heavy, made of black iron; supposedly it opened every door at the Citadel. Only the archmaesters had such keys. The others carried theirs upon their person or hid them away in some safe place, but if Walgrave had hidden his, no one would ever have seen it again. Pate snatched up the key and had been halfway to the door before turning back to take the silver too. A thief was a thief, whether he stole a little or a lot. "Pate," one of the white ravens had called after him, "Pate, Pate, Pate."

A Feast for Crows - Prologue

I end with this last excerpt.

Petyr put a finger under her chin. “That Royce glimpsed this pretty face I do not doubt, but it was one face in a thousand. A man fighting in a tourney has more to concern him than some child in the crowd. And at Winterfell, Sansa was a little girl with auburn hair. My daughter is a maiden tall and fair, and her hair is chestnut. Men see what they expect to see, Alayne.” He kissed her nose. “Have Maddy lay a fire in the solar. I shall receive our Lords Declarant there.”

A Feast for Crows - Alayne I

Here George assigns the one in one thousand greenseer ratio to Sansa but isn’t it interesting how he does it. She has a face that one in a thousand. Might a priesthood that likes to steal people’s faces not be interested in such a rarity?

What do you think? Is Shadrich a Faceless Man and might he be Jaqen H’ghar or is Jaqen masquerading as Pate at the Citadel?

If you’re interested, you can read my recent essay comparing Bran and Sansa and all the greenseer evidence that’s common in both their arcs. You can also find some of my earlier essays where I discussed the topic here and here. Some of the earlier ones include a few tinfoil theories that I’ve since changed my mind about. However, the one theory I’m going down with is that Sansa is a greenseer.

Next up will be either part 2 of the Dragon vs the Wolf or the latest chapter in the Florian and Jonquil series as we look at their connection to the COTF. Most likely it will be D vs W, as that essay is a bit further along than F&J.

ETA 8/10/20...Was re-reading to catch any typos that I missed and it occurred to me that there is a second symbolic inference that comes into play with the mouse eating the books and so I added my thoughts on that point.

ETA 12/24/21 to add the ending excerpt about Sansa’s face.

ETA 12/7/23 to add the bit about possible madness in faceless men and what Sansa’s dream about the bread riot could foreshadow.

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