A warlock drinking shade of the evening
- "It turns their lips blue, and their minds soft. They actually believe their parlor tricks are magic."
- ―Xaro Xhoan Daxos
Shade of the evening[1] is a beverage commonly drunk by the warlocks of Qarth. It is the cause for their blue lips. The Warlocks believe that drinking large quantities of shade of the evening grants them magical powers.
The beverage is brewed from the leaves of the trees that surround the House of the Undying.
History[]
Game of Thrones: Season 2[]
Pyat Pree
Daenerys is at a reception at the home of Xaro Xhoan Daxos, when the Warlock Pyat Pree shows up and does a trick where he appears to be replicated, then he invites her to visit the House of the Undying. After he leaves, Xaro comes over and apologizes. As a member of the Thirteen, Pree got an honorary invitation. When asked about the House of the Undying, he tells Daenerys that it is where the warlocks gather to drink shade of the evening, which turns their lips blue and their minds soft. He then dismisses their magic as parlor tricks.[2]
Game of Thrones: Season 3[]
The Warlock assassin in Astapor, with blue-stained lips
Daenerys' ship travels west from Qarth and arrives at the city of Astapor in Slaver's Bay. Soon after she arrives, a Warlock sent from Qarth who is disguised as a small child attempts to assassinate Daenerys with a poisonous Manticore, but the attempt is foiled by Ser Barristan Selmy. The "child" Warlock hisses at them from the distance, revealing that its lips are stained blue by shade of the evening.[3]
In the books[]
In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, shade of the evening is also known as the Wine of Warlocks. It is a thick dark blue beverage made from the inky blue leaves of the black-barked trees that grow outside the House of the Undying. It is drunk by those who enter the House of the Undying, so that they may "hear and see the truths" that will be laid before them. It does not turn lips blue with just one dose, this only occurs if it consumed regularly. It smells like rotten flesh, has an oily and thick texture similar to honey, and tastes like all the tastes a person has ever tasted, and some that a person hasn't.
It is unclear whether drinking shade of the evening, on its own, grants magical abilities, given that the Warlocks were drinking it in the century and a half since the dragons died out but their powers still diminished. As the warlock Pyat Pree explained, the warlocks believe that there is a link between dragons and the presence of magic in the world, and thus the rebirth of dragons has caused their magical powers to return. Thus like other forms of magic, whatever effects may be granted by shade of the evening depend on the existence of live dragons in the world.
Euron Greyjoy picked up the habit of drinking shade of the evening during his long voyages in the east, after raiding around Qarth. While Aeron is held captive in Euron's ship, he is forced to drink it; as a result, he has numerous nightmarish visions.
References[]
- ↑ Game of Thrones: Season 2, Episode 5: "The Ghost of Harrenhal" (2012).
- ↑ "The Ghost of Harrenhal"
- ↑ "Valar Dohaeris"
