Everything You Need To Know About Greyscale And The Stone Men On ‘Game Of Thrones’

Winter has come. The seventh season of Game of Thrones is off and running and with only seven episodes, HBO doesn’t have time to hold our hands and explain things like where characters are, the history of new locations, or how the actions of one character affect the powder keg that is Westeros’ political climate. Luckily, between all of George R.R. Martin’s novels, and The World of Ice and Fire historical tome, there’s plenty of ways to fill in the blanks and we’re here to help. Obviously spoilers and speculation will abound, so proceed at your own peril.

No one was more surprised to see the return of Ser Jorah Mormont in Game of Thrones than me. I was certain that with a truncated season moving at a fast trot, Jorah’s arc would finish off-screen to an ignominious end. After all, contracting greyscale is a death sentence for all but Shireen Baratheon and what point could there possibly be in wasting precious minutes on Jorah’s slow descent back into moping and, finally, insanity But now that he’s not only returned, but popped up at the Citadel in Oldtown — repository of ancient knowledge — he must still have a part to play. Then the Archmaester mentioned in passing that Jorah has six months tops before his mind rots away, though it will take years for his body to fully succumb to the disease. And it clicked. The Stone Men are the fire wights and those like Beric Dondarrion are the fire version of the Night King’s cognizant White Walkers.

On a narrative level, this makes a lot of sense. If Samwell Tarly manages to stop the spread of greyscale, Jorah would make an excellent candidate for the Shrouded Lord. His devotion to Daenerys is unshakable, making him the ideal candidate to lead an army of the undead against another army of the undead. But who is the Shrouded Lord, you ask Only the mythical leader of the Stone Men. If you’ll recall, on the show the Stone Men haunt the ruins of Old Valyria, where Jorah was himself infected while traveling with Tyrion Lannister. Thanks to last night’s episode, we now also know the Citadel makes it a habit to ship anyone with greyscale directly to Old Valyria where they can do no harm to their fellow Westerosi. At this point in the game, there’s no room for extraneous storylines. Game of Thrones has always cut the fat from George R.R. Martin’s source material, but now HBO is cutting down to the bone to power through. If Jorah is still around, it has to be for a reason. And that reason could very well be leading the only army that has nothing to fear from the White Walkers, all in the name of his queen and love, Daenerys Targaryen.

But who are the Stone Men and their mythical leader, the Shrouded Lord I’ve touched on this before when discussing how Shireen may have contracted greyscale, and now I’m even more convinced this is where the show is headed. (For the sake of this article, I’m speaking of what the novels refer to as “Grey Plague,” which is more virulent than whatever strain causes greyscale to infect infants). The only frustrating thing is that since Game of Thrones focuses so hard on Westeros, there is little known about the legend of the Stone Men. But let’s break down what we have.

Thousands of the years ago, the Valyrian Empire was pushing up the Rhoyne River and colonizing near the great Rhoynish city-states which were wealthy, urbane, and in possession of water mages. In Westeros, the Dornish descend directly from the Rhoynar, hence their gender equality and lack of concern about sexuality. When two great powers meet, war is inevitable. Eventually the Rhoynar succumbed to the Valyrians, but it took 300 dragons to bring them to heel. When Prince Garin of the Chroyane city-state gathered a quarter-million warriors of the various Rhoynish nations, he never expected to see them shattered and routed, but they were. Prince Garin of the Chroyane also never expected to be placed in a gilded cage and hung upon the wall of his city to watch the Valyrians slaughter most of his people and enslave the rest. But these things did happen. According to legend, Prince Garin prayed to the Mother Rhoyne and she called down a curse that infected the Valyrians with the first known instances with greyscale and turned the city of Chroyane into a foul and festering place.

Much like the legend of the Long Night, this is probably based in truth. In the books the Chroyane is a ruined metropolis bigger than King’s Landing that is continuously covered in an unnatural fog. The area of the river that passes through the ancient city is known as the Sorrows and it is one of the few places where magic still functions. In the novels, when Tyrion and his ragtag group travel down the Rhoyne, they become temporarily trapped in the Sorrows like a Mobius strip, passing by the same landmarks over and over again. The city is also infested with Stone Men, most notably on the broken Bridge of Dreams. Within the ruins, lanterns still glow, indicating at least some of the Stone Men still have their wits. On the show, the Rhoynish Empire has been replaced by Old Valyria as a set piece, but the gist remains the same.

Then there is the legend of the Shrouded Lord. Like the Night King of the North, the Shrouded Lord rules over his army of the undead. Like the Night King, no one knows who he is, nor if there has been one Shrouded Lord or many over time, or what his end game is. Like the Night King, the Shrouded Lord may have taken a consort who was beautiful but clearly dead. Some think Prince Garin is the Shrouded Lord, now ruling over the remains of his ancient city-state and biding his time for revenge. Some say the Shrouded Lord spreads greyscale through the “grey kiss.” It can be difficult to parse fact from fiction even in George R.R. Martin’s in-universe history books, but it seem likely there are kernels of truth in these myths.

If the Shrouded Lord can indeed “grant” greyscale through a kiss, it seems likely to be similar to the way the Night King grants White Walker-dom to Craster’s sons. If greyscale truly makes a man go mad, then the victims become the dovetail to the hordes of wights raised by the Night King. As for why the Chroyane is still cursed and home to the Stone Men No one knows. And this is pure conjecture, but if the Children of the Forest hoped turn men into mindless warriors, where would they have gotten that idea Perhaps from stories across the Narrow Sea about how it had been attempted once before by another culture on the brink of extinction at the hands of a superior fighting force

All this brings us back to Ser Jorah, who absorbed the storyline of Jon Connington from the novels. Both Jorah and Connington are loyal to House Targaryen and it seems fitting that should either one manage to stop the spread of greyscale, they could still be accepted by the Stone Men who seemingly can sense one of their own (much like zombies). If Jorah can communicate with them, it seems possible the Stone Men will join the field of battle in the Great War to come. Because otherwise HBO and Game of Thrones might be wasting our time with this storyline.