Please, mon friends, indulge me in some light Song of Ice and Fire speculation, vis-à-vis Winds of Winter spoilers. Let’s talk about the Isle of Faces and the Gods Eye. It is one of the central points of Westeros, where the Crownlands meet the Riverlands. It is home to a sacred, ancient island that was once and may still be home to the children of the forest. And we have never seen it. Will we?
Will The Isle of Faces Appear In Winds Of Winter?
The Isle of Faces is one of the more mysterious places in Westeros, probably the most mysterious place in the entire South. It’s an island at the center of the Gods Eye, the large lake on which Harrenhal rests, on the northern shore. At the center of the lake is the Isle of Faces. On the Isle of Faces, the First Men signed a Pact with the Children of the Forest 10,000 years ago, ending centuries or millennia of war. The Pact gave the First Men the open spaces, and left the children of the forest the… well, the forest. And the pact protected the weirwood trees of Westeros. The island itself was full of weirwoods, and each one was carved with a face to commemorate the pact. Thus the name Isle of Faces.
That was 10,000 years ago, and nobody living except Bran Stark and his pals has seen a child of the forest in thousands of years. But the Green Men, a holy order charged with protecting the island, may still exist, and certainly the weirwoods do. What secrets do they still hold?
Bran Stark has become a greenseer, or is on his way to becoming one. That means he can see through the eyes of weirwood trees, even ones in the distant past. Will we see more from his perspective in Winds of Winter? Will we see the true meaning of the Pact?
The island is sacred in Westeros, even if most people have forgotten it. Because of that, it seems like the perfect place to convene a war against the profane. If it comes time for opposing forces to unite, to join together to fight against the Others once again, what better place than where the Pact was sworn? The island seems too holy, too significant, to remain forever in the background. I suspect it shall appear one of these days, even if only in Bran’s memories.
