Are there fantasy creatures in game of thrones

It might be surprising to some that mermaids are mentioned frequently throughout the series, but before you get too excited thinking that mermaids might be featured in season eight or in one of the next two books, their existence is widely debated and even scoffed at.

Despite that, in legend, they are definitely a thing; people talk of having seen mermaids out in the ocean. Tyrion Lannister , however, who is considered extremely wise by most, dismissing their existence as old tales.

It is said only the White Walkers can create a wight. All wights have icy blue eyes and although they may have been dead for weeks, they have no sign of rot or decay; some sort of magic seems to keep their body going.

They'll keep coming. Wargs are almost like humans, but not quite. In the show, Bran Stark is the only warg we know of. He goes into the mind of a crow to get information, as well as the mind of his own direwolf. In the books, however, Arya seems to be doing the same. It seems like warging runs in the family for Starks. The White Walkers and wights are not the only examples of the undead creatures. In the books, we meet Lady Stoneheart.

The sea monster entered the collective imagination about the thirteenth century and had maybe its greatest rise in popularity with the publication of Jules Verne's 20, Leagues Under the Sea. Here we have the first completely original name from George R. The Children of the Forest, the supposed first inhabitants of Westeros before the coming of man, spend most of their time with Bran Stark as he learns the ways of the Three-Eyed Raven North of the Wall.

But just because they're called something different doesn't mean they have no real history. The Children of the Forest are very similar to fairies, particularly those found in Celtic mythology.

Like the Children of the Forest Celtic Fairies are mythical humanoids who have been forced into hiding by an invader. Sound familiar? In the same vein as the Children of the Forest above, the White Walkers in Game of Thrones don't spring alone from the author's head but enter our imagination with their own twisting path of history.

While their icy outsides are new, their powers reflect those of Necromancers. Necromancers are a bit like wizards, but their particular brand of magic has to do with communicating and, sometimes resurrecting the dead.

The icy complexion and zombie-like tendencies are original, but raising the dead not so much. Whether it's from the fourth Harry Potter book or a historical picture of ancient Egypt, the image of a Sphinx, or a lion's body with a human head and wings, is relatively well known. Like the griffin that appeared on our list earlier, the Sphinx as a creature does not appear in Game of Thrones.

It is however found decorating a number of different doorways in both Westeros and across the Narrow Sea. In the books it is mentioned that they sit outside the council chamber in the Red Keep and the Citadel in Oldtown.

In an original twist, the books also mention a Valyrian Sphinx, which replaces the lion's body with a dragon's. The Manticore is an example of where name and image differ within the Game of Thrones universe and without. Traditionally a Manticore is similar to a sphinx, with a human head, a lion's body, and a scorpion's tail.

Game of Thrones hangs onto the scorpion tail and retires the rest. The manticore fans will have seen is full insect. But an event known as the Doom of Valyria changed all of that. About years before the War of the Five Kings, a volcanic eruption laid waste to the Valyrian empire destroying all the noble families save for the the Targaryens and three of its dragons.

Those three dragons again allowed an empire to dominate all others as Aegon I Targaryen unified the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros before their deaths seemingly signaled their extinction. That all changed when Daenerys Targaryen was given three fossilized dragon eggs as a gift which later miraculously hatched. And if the same pattern emerges, dragons will again be the key to unifying an increasingly volatile Westeros and bringing peace.

The White Walkers are a race of human-like ice creatures with various magical powers including the ability to reanimate corpses to serve as wights, super-human strength, and the power to freeze and shatter the weapons of foes.

Once shrouded in mystery, the history of the White Walkers has become more clear in recent seasons of Game of Thrones. Thousands of years ago, the Children of the Forest created the White Walkers to defend themselves against the First Men but found themselves unable to control their creation, which turned against them before moving south leading to the War for the Dawn — the legendary conflict in which the warriors of Westeros were able to turn back the White Walkers to the north, beyond the newly created wall.

In the present day of Game of Thrones , the White Walkers are still regarded as a legend even as they march toward the south with only few having lived to tell the story.