Throughout the seven kingdoms of Westeros, ravens are the main birds used to deliver messages between castles, cities, and towns. Ravens have long served as messengers in the world of Game of Thrones due to their intelligence, trainability, and speed.
In the opening paragraphs, here are quick answers to some key questions about messenger birds in Game of Thrones:
– The main messenger bird is the raven, especially the larger and more intelligent breeds.
– Ravens are trained to fly between specific castles and citadels by the maesters of the Citadel.
– White ravens are used to announce the changing of the seasons.
– Ravens are better than doves and pigeons due to their strength, smarts, and trainability.
– Warg skinchangers like Bran can enter the minds of ravens.
Ravens as Primary Messenger Birds
In the world of Game of Thrones, ravens have long served as the primary messenger birds used to communicate urgent news and announcements across far distances. This reflects actual medieval history in Europe, where ravens were one of the fastest ways to send written communication before modern forms of long-distance communication had been invented.
Ravens have several natural advantages that make them well-suited as messenger birds in the context of Game of Thrones:
- Ravens are very intelligent birds with good memories, able to be trained to reliably fly between two specific castles, citadels, or towns.
- They have strong wings and can fly long distances fairly rapidly without tiring.
- Ravens are larger birds that can carry small parchment messages tied to their legs.
- They are dominant birds that can fend off hawks, seagulls, and other predators, ensuring the raven reaches its destination safely.
In Game of Thrones, the ravens employed as messengers are specifically bred and trained for this purpose. The Citadel in Oldtown maintains a rookery with thousands of ravens. The maesters are responsible for breeding the largest and smartest ravens, and training them to fly between the major castles and cities of the realm on command.
The advantage of ravens over other messenger birds like pigeons or doves is their strength, intelligence, and trainability. Carrier pigeons have largely disappeared from Westeros and are not used as formal messengers. Small doves would lack the strength to carry messages long distance or fight off predators. Seagulls would have the strength but lack the discipline and intelligence to be properly trained as messengers between specific sites.
White Ravens for Announcing the Changing of Seasons
While black ravens are the standard for messenger birds in Westeros, white ravens have a special purpose. When the Citadel determines that the seasons are changing based on their astronomical observations, they send out white ravens from Oldtown to spread the news across Westeros.
The white ravens announce the official changing of the seasons – either from summer to winter, or vice versa. This is crucial information, since the long seasons impact agriculture, travel, and warfare throughout the realms. The white ravens announce the changing of the season simultaneously across Westeros, to avoid any confusion about when the new season has officially begun.
Warging into Ravens
While most ravens are simply trained as messengers, their intelligence makes ravens useful for skinchangers who can enter the minds of animals (warging).
Bran Stark discovers he has the rare ability to warg into the minds of animals, including ravens. This allows him a type of vision to remotely see distant events through the eyes of his warged raven.
For example, Bran is able to scout ahead remotely by warging into a raven as it flies ahead. He can use the raven’s keen sight to gather useful intelligence about enemy positions, troop movements, or terrain.
This magical use of ravens through warging is separate from the standard use of ravens to physically carry written messages. But it demonstrates their intelligence and usefulness to Westerosi society beyond just being messenger birds.
Ravens in the Night’s Watch
The Night’s Watch makes extensive use of messenger ravens to communicate between Castle Black and other manned castles along the Wall. Ravens provide the fastest means of sending word about Wildling attacks or White Walker sightings.
Some key facts about the use of ravens by the Night’s Watch:
- There is a large rookery at Castle Black with many ravens bred and trained to fly among the major castles of the Wall.
- Maester Aemon was previously in charge of the rookery and training the birds.
- Ravens are crucial for rapidly communicating news about Wildling movements north of the Wall.
- During Mance Rayder’s wildling attack, many messenger ravens are shot down to prevent the Night’s Watch coordinating a defense.
- Ravens allow the few Night’s Watch members to communicate over the hundreds of miles of the Wall.
Pigeons and doves lack the speed, strength, and training to play an important messenger role on the Wall. Only ravens have proved up to the harsh conditions and long distances required by the Night’s Watch.
Notable Ravens of the Night’s Watch
A few ravens belonging to the Night’s Watch stand out for their roles in the story:
- Maester Aemon’s Raven: Blind Maester Aemon had his own personal raven to communicate and deliver orders from Castle Black rookery.
- Jeor Mormont’s Raven: Lord Commander Jeor Mormont kept a constant raven companion perched on his shoulder which learned to talk by mimicking human speech.
- Snow Ravens: All-white ravens sometimes used by the Night’s Watch to blend in against the snow when scouting Wildling positions.
Messenger Ravens in Major Houses
Noble houses across the Seven Kingdoms rely on ravens for fast communication between their major castles, fortresses, and army camps.
Some examples of messenger ravens used by the major houses:
| House | Castles Using Ravens |
|---|---|
| Stark | Winterfell, Dreadfort, Deepwood Motte, Karhold, Last Hearth |
| Lannister | Casterly Rock, Lannisport |
| Tyrell | Highgarden, Brightwater Keep, Horn Hill |
| Martell | Sunspear, The Water Gardens |
| Tully | Riverrun, Seagard, Raventree Hall |
| Baratheon | Storm’s End, Dragonstone |
| Targaryen | Dragonstone, Summerhall |
| Greyjoy | Pyke |
During wartimes, ravens allow lords to rapidly communicate with their bannermen and allies across a region to coordinate strategy and troop movements. In peacetime, ravens send urgent news, announcements, orders, and other messages.
Grand Maester’s Messenger Ravens in King’s Landing
The Grand Maester stationed in King’s Landing oversees the rookery in the Red Keep which houses thousands of ravens.
These messenger ravens have several important purposes:
- Carrying official announcements from the king throughout the Seven Kingdoms
- Communicating between King’s Landing and major holdfasts
- Spreading word of royal weddings, deaths, births, and other news
- Coordinating between the Red Keep and the Citadel
- Transporting messages for the Small Council members
The Grand Maester ensures the Red Keep’s ravens are the fastest and best trained in Westeros. Speed is essential when communicating royal pronouncements and urgent news across the realm. Carrier pigeons cannot match the raven’s superiority in speed and training.
Training and Care of Messenger Ravens
It takes great skill, patience, and effort to properly train a raven for messenger duties. Maesters apprentice for years under a master of ravens to learn the intricate work.
Some key steps in training a messenger raven:
- Acquire hatchlings bred specifically for strength, health, and wits.
- House ravens in coops and allow them to imprint on their home castle or citadel.
- Gradually take fledglings further and further distances to fly home.
- Reward ravens with food on return to encourage delivery duty.
- Use hoods to cover ravens’ eyes while attaching messages for privacy.
- Maintain raven pens clean and safe from rats, weasels, and other predators.
Proper care and falcony are also crucial for maintaining a castle’s ravens in peak condition. Daily feeding, inspection for injuries, and cleaning of coops is important.
During wartimes, raven coops may be primary targets for enemies attempting to disrupt communication. Defending the ravens becomes a top priority.
Ravenry Buildings
Ravens reside in specially designed strongholds called ravenries or rookeries. These house dozens or hundreds of ravens in cages and large coops.
Features of ravenry buildings:
- Built of stone for security, temperature control, and pest prevention.
- Accessible only to maesters to prevent tampering with messages.
- Durable iron bars, doors, and locks to keep ravens safely contained.
- Coops, roosts, and nests for ravens to live comfortably.
- Roomy enough for ravens to spread wings and exercise.
- Designed for efficient cleaning of bird droppings.
The large ravenry of the Citadel in Oldtown houses thousands of messenger ravens bred from all regions of Westeros and Essos. This diversity helps ensure ravens are suited for flying in all climates and terrains across the known world.
Limitations of Messenger Ravens
While invaluable for rapid communication, messenger ravens have some limitations:
- Ravens cannot fly across seas or oceans, limiting their range to the continents of Westeros and Essos.
- Storms and harsh weather can delay or kill ravens in flight.
- Ravens require rest between long flights, slowing communication over vast distances.
- Ravenries need large stores of grain to feed the ravens.
- Intercepting ravens in flight allows enemies to read or alter messages.
- Death or loss of trained ravens cannot be easily replaced.
For these reasons, messenger ravens complement but have not replaced ships and manual couriers as other means of communication. Maesters also employ spells, occultscrolls, and other magic to attempt to communicate across distances when possible.
Attempts to Replace Ravens
There have been isolated attempts to replace messenger ravens over the centuries in Westeros, with limited success:
- Carrier Pigeons: Good for short distances but lack the speed and strength of ravens for long flights.
- Relay towers: Networks of signal towers can transmit messages via torches and flags but are expensive to build and man.
- Maesters’ Spells: Using occult magic, maesters can communicate via glass candles over great distance, but this ability is rare.
- Red Priests: Through visions in flames, Red Priests have limited capacity to send divine messages across continents.
None have proven able to reliably match ravens for speed and reliability across the vast distances of the known world. The maesters continue breeding ever faster and stronger ravens to quicken communication throughout the Seven Kingdoms.
Ravens in Ancient Legend
In ancient folklore, ravens played mythical roles as messengers:
- Some legends say the first wargs were children of the forest who wore cloaks of raven feathers.
- In Dothraki myth, a raven warned the grass sea would swallow the original Dothraki homeland.
- Ravens were sacred to the storm gods of old, including Thoros of Myr.
- Northern tales speak of Brandon the Builder being guided by ravens when raising Winterfell.
- Old Nan claimed giants rode mammoths herded by hundreds of trained ravens.
These legends highlight how ravens have been prized as scouts, messengers, and harbingers of truth since ancient times in Westeros and Essos. Their intelligence and usefulness made them natural figures of myth and legend across many cultures.
Conclusion
Ravens have served as the primary long-distance messengers for centuries in Westeros and beyond. Their unique advantages in terms of strength, speed, intelligence, and trainability make them far superior to doves, pigeons, and other birds as couriers.
The maesters have perfected the breeding, training, and care of messenger ravens over generations. Ravens allow rapid communication between castles, citadels, armies, and towns that would otherwise be impossible across the vast distances of the known world.
Though limited by weather and geography, ravens remain an invaluable and unique part of the society and culture of Game of Thrones. They are synonymous with the delivery of important news and royal pronouncements across far-flung empires and kingdoms.
