10 Weirdest Pieces of Game of Thrones Lore (2025)

A Song of Ice and Fire saga loves to leave jaws on the floor. Rife with incest, oddities, and in-world legends, George R.R. Martin's meticulously crafted, albeit quirky, world of Westeros boasts an abundance of mindboggling moments and strange lore. HBO's adaptations—both Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon— aren't necessarily coy about conjuring some of the source material's kookier moments to life (who doesn't remember the Crabfeeder or Daenerys' horse-heart munching?). Yet Thrones completists know Martin's books and supplemental Westeros writing reveal a much wider, weirder world.

Bizarre bits of lore appear throughout the franchise. A Song of Ice and Fire installments are stuffed with them, but so too are appendices like The World of Ice and Fire and Fire & Blood. For those curious about just how, well, curious Game of Thrones mythology might get, find out how deep the Westeros rabbit hole goes below.

10 Women in Qarth Must Keep One Breast Exposed

Fashion Rules Force Daenerys to Adapt

If there's one thing George R.R. Martin has been lampooned for over the years, it's gratuitousness. Never shying from a sudden sex scene or needless nudity, Martin's tropes even find their way into geopolitical customs. Like in Qarth, where high-society women wear gowns deliberately exposing one breast at all times. Akin to Martin's books, HBO's Game of Thrones developed a polarizing reputation for questionable R-to-X-rated content, so it's no surprise Qarth's breast-based custom made the screen in the adaptation. As readers and Thrones viewers might recall, Daenerys visits the Westeros trading capital and adopts the practice to fit in with local customs.

There's more to Martin's fixation than meets the naked eye. The flesh-forward custom is a classic bit of cultural world-building, a testament to Martin's attention to detail when crafting separate societies—not just shock value. Daenerys adopted the custom, but she did so begrudgingly. Critics might scoff at bare skin, but it wasn't just shock value—it was a plot device to demonstrate the Mother of Dragons' political savvy and adaptability.

9 Mercenaries Ride Zebra-Horse Hybrids Called Zorses

Bloody Mummers Use Exotic Animals as Psychological Warfare

Martin's world-building knows no bounds. Beyond naked nobility, strangeness seeps into the Westeros animal kingdom. As is the genre's tradition, the Game of Thrones author puts otherworldly twists on the familiar to make something fantastical— case in point: zorses. The zebra-horse hybrids are the mercenary vehicle of choice for Vargo Hoat and the Bloody Mummers in the books. Disappointingly, HBO has left these magical mares on the cutting room floor, replaced with regular horses at every opportunity thus far (likely due to CGI budget constraints).

More than just a Martin-made zoological oddity, Zorses are warfare weapons. Their TV snub is also a snub for viewers. When Arya encounters the striped animals at Harrenhal, their alien nature and aggressiveness establish an otherworldly danger without a word of dialogue. Readers understand their Bloody Mummer riders weren't ordinary mercenaries but wealthy and intimidating outsiders who spend serious dough to maintain their mystique, considering the cost of transporting the rare beasts.

8 Patchface Is the Resident Nightmare Jester of Westeros

They Survived 3 Days Underwater, and All They Got Was This Lousy Face

Drowned men tell no tales—except Patchface. The infamous Windproud shipwreck killed everyone else aboard, including Stannis Baratheon's parents, save for one: Patchface, who resurfaced three days after the wreck. Found with skin cold as ice and mind shattered, the face-tattooed jester returned fundamentally changed. Once a capable and friendly local personality, Patchface became offputting and rambling. Always singing prophetic songs using an unnerving nursery rhyme style, Patchface's predictive jingles would prove to portend quite accurately and even hinted at a connection to the Drowned God.

But the weirdest lore comes from Patchface gossip. Martin uses him as a living urban legend, a horror story within his world. Fishermen share scuttlebutt, believing a mermaid taught him underwater breathing in exchange for "his seed." Even Melisandre, a woman who unflinchingly burns sacrifices, admits his uncanny accuracy makes her fear the fool, telling Jon Snow she sees the jester "with skulls about him, and his lips red with blood."

7 Westeros Has Its Own Ratatouille Situation

George R.R. Martin Made Gods Turn a Chef Into a Rat

Long before Pixar brought us a charming rat chef with gourmet aspirations, George R.R. Martin cooked up a rodent-themed story of his own. Ratatouille gave audiences a heartwarming tale about a rat who becomes a cook. Martin flipped the script with a cook who becomes a rat—and deservedly so.

In one of the most confounding pieces of lore, Northern folklore tells the tale of the Rat Cook—a Night's Watch chef who killed the King's son, baked him in a pie, and had the King unwittingly eat them. Strange, yes, but the curse's catalyst takes this to crazy-town. The gods transformed the cook into a rat condemned to eat his own young, not because he murdered a child or forced cannibalism onto royalty (the King even liked the meal so much that, not knowing it was his next of kin, asked for seconds) but specifically for breaking sacred hospitality laws. Justice works in mysterious ways in Westeros.

6 Missandei's Hometown Naath Gets Protection From Deadly Butterflies

Peace Prospers Thanks to Lethal Insects

Naath is a rare Westeros safe-haven known for its peacekeeping. The tropical landmark is Missandei's homeland, populated with palm trees and wildlife, butterflies among them. Yet these winged insects are the perfect distillation of Naath's artifice. The beautiful butterflies carry a horrible disease and are programmed to protect Naath from outsiders.

The world's most peaceful culture only survives because of deadly winged weapons. Naath islanders are non-violent, but nature protects them by violent means. The beautiful butterflies carry a horrible disease and are programmed to protect Naath from outsiders. When foreigners arrive, they instinctively spread a disease—a fever— with symptoms so severe they make flesh melt off the bone of a still-conscious carrier. George R.R. Martin's playful approach to world-building is on full display here, using polar opposite ideologies to underscore his saga's cycle of violence.

5 Fish-Human Hybrids Built Ancient Monuments Still Standing Today

Lovecraftian "Deep Ones" Left Mysterious Black Stone Structures

The Iron Throne might be the most famous piece of furniture in A Song of Ice & Fire, but the Iron Islands host the most curious. There lies The Seastone Chair, a throne George R.R. Martin deploys to deepen (pun intended) his recurring underwater lore. A massive throne carved from "a block of oily black stone" made by "no mortal man" baffled maesters.

From the untraceable origins of the Isle of Toads statues to the Sothoryos ruins, similar inexplicable structures are made from the same material. Maester Theron's controversial Strange Stone writings allude to the structures as being built by creatures known as Deep Ones, cryptids described as a "queer, misshapen race of half-men sired by creatures of the salt seas upon human women" in The World of Ice & Fire. With "Deep Ones," Martin alludes to HP Lovecraft, who had monstrosities by the same name. Like Lovecraft, this eldritch entity ties to a grander, ominous religious path—the Drowned God, previously touched on in Patchface's lore.

4 Blind White Creatures Live Under Dragonstone Castle

Magic Evolves in Volcanic Caves

Dragonstone Castle's extensive tunnel system is storied in and of itself, but its inhabitants are nothing to sneeze over. In its bowels, white lizards and eyeless fish navigate the pitch-black without issue, adapted to the darkness. They might not be as formidable or as synonymous with the nation as their eponymous wyrms, but are still a clear and present danger for Dragonstone dungeon crawlers.

Interestingly enough, these adaptive animals stand out because of their relatively plausible presence. Whereas mysticism runs rampant in Thrones lore—especially the weirder pieces—a gradual bestial evolution is applicable even in the real world. Of course, that's not to strip the standouts of their magic—that may be at play, too. The Valyrian fortress sits within volcanic caves said to be potent with magic, which could have advanced the evolutionary process.

3 Valyria's Destruction Continues 400 Years Later

Magical Disaster Zone Still Melts Sailors and Ships

The Doom of Valyria—a cataclysm responsible for reducing a once great nation to volcanic ruin— only happened once, but it didn't end. Its apocalyptic effects continued four centuries later—ships couldn't sail too close without reports of crew members mysteriously melting; some who tried broaching its borders were stricken with sudden madness; even the sky above was said to burn in a perpetual flame. Only Euron Greyjoy claims to have visited and lived to recount the story.

Persistent supernatural catastrophes that defy natural laws are less common in Thrones lore than one might think. Pain and suffering's perpetual presence in the Smoking Sea speaks to the seismic nature of Valyria's downfall in Westeros mythology. In a world of dragons and ice zombies and political factions in endless warfare, the Doom of Valyria's continuous ravaging of the region makes it, perhaps, the most unending conflict and most terrifying phenomenon in A Song of Ice & Fire canon.

2 Magical Blue Drink Tastes Horrible but Warlocks Love It

Potion Creates Sooth-Saying Sensory Experience

Anyone who rolled their eyes at Luke Skywalker's infamous ingesting of blue milk in The Last Jedi should pay a visit to Qarth. There, they'll find warlocks drinking a blue liquid of their own. Dubbed Shade of the Evening, the beverage has more permanent effects than its moniker suggests—it can turn lips, and even full bodies, permanently blue depending on how much one consumes.

The first sip tasted like ink and spoiled meat, foul, but when she swallowed it seemed to come to life within her. She could feel tendrils spreading through her chest, like fingers of fire coiling around her heart, and on her tongue was a taste like honey and anise and cream, like mother's milk and Drogo's seed, like red meat and hot blood and molten gold. It was all the tastes she had ever known, and none of them … and then the glass was empty.

— A Clash of Kings, Daenarys' thoughts on Shade of the Evening

Made from blue leaves that only grow near the House of the Undying, the substance creates a parasitic relationship with its users. Warlocks use it for magical purposes, with the drink stimulating dreams and visions for soothsaying. Yet despite the supernatural attributes, the drink appears in George R.R. Martin's texts mostly as merely a disgusting delicacy, with only references to its usual applications.

1 George R.R. Martin Makes His Own Lore Disprovable

Rumor and Hearsay Are The Real Rulers of Westeros

The weirdest bit of Thrones lore is the lore itself. Martin's master-stroke is building his world with unreliable narrators. Westeros' history is built on nearly ten centuries of bad record-keeping, with George R.R. Martin boldly contradicting himself in his own canon. Knights gallop through legends set centuries before knighthood existed. The Wall supposedly stood for millennia before the Night's Watch. Maesters claim the Long Night happened exactly 8,000 years ago—a suspiciously round number with zero archaeological evidence to back it up. Major houses somehow maintain male-exclusive lines for thousands of years, defying the birds and the bees.

Martin weaponizes ambiguity and HBO's adaptations followed suit. House of the Dragon delivers wildly different viewing experiences for literary completists. Casual viewers coast through the royal fantasy drama, but book readers recognize how the show confirms, contradicts, or expands upon rumors from Fire & Blood's unreliable narrators, the series toying with discrepancies between what "actually happened" versus how maesters recorded events.

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2011 - 2019-00-00

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