The Faceless Men are a religious order originating from Old Valyria, dedicated to serving the Many-Faced God of Death by offering the "gift" of death to those who seek it, and by fulfilling assassination contracts as a sacred duty.
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who actually are the Faceless Men why
were they formed where did they
originally come from and what does that
tell us about what they might actually
want in A Song of Ice and Fire
hi everyone this is Robert welcome to in
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this is the start of a new series of
videos exploring the role of the
Faceless Men In A Song of Ice and Fire
or more accurately it's a revised and
fully updated version of a series of
videos I did on this subject a few years ago
ago
the origin story that we know for the
Faceless Men comes from the kindly man
who is one of the characters Arya meets
at the house of black and white in the
books and who seems to be overseeing her
training he recounts the tale that the
first faceless man was in Old valyria
well before the Doom he heard the
prayers of the slaves in the mines
beneath Valeria heard them crying out to
countless different gods for an end to
their suffering and concluded that
although they all thought that they were
calling out to their own God from
wherever they'd originally come from
actually they were all calling out to
the same God who had many names and many faces
faces
the man then decided that he must be
that God's instrument he was there to
answer their prayers and brought the
gift as he called it to the most
miserable and desperate slave the gift
and freedom of death
he followed this up by giving the same
gift of death to many other slaves who
prayed for it until one day the first
faceless man heard a slave crying out
not for his own death but for the death
of his master offering everything he had
the first faceless man thought that this
would be pleasing to the many faced God
and as the slave had nothing to offer
other than himself created the first
convert to The Faceless Men the master
was killed and now there were two
Faceless Men dedicated to serving the
many-faced god
how long this went on for we do not know
because the next time we hear from The
Faceless Men they have moved base a
couple of thousand miles away apparently
as a fully fledged religious Society of
Assassins when the city of braavos
announced itself to the world which
rather unhelpfully opens up a whole new
series of timeline questions because we
don't know for sure when braavos was
established we know it is not an old
city by associe standards anyway it was
founded by slaves who rebelled against
the Yoke of the valyrians and its very
existence was a secret for over a
century and its location a secret for
three times that or more and at some
point in this secret past perhaps even
at the beginning The Cult of the
many-faced God made its way from valyria
to braavos and the house of black and
white was formed
but whatever the mechanism for The
Faceless Men arriving at braavos whether
they were part of the original Founders
or were later arrivals the city is
undeniably a perfect fit for them being
founded by former slaves like the first
faceless man it is staunchly
anti-slavery the first law of braavos is
that no man woman or child will ever be
a Slave
it is also anti-valerian it's a little
reference side note to aegon's invasion
of Westeros that braavos sent a fleet to
help defend Westeros against the
targaryens albeit to little effect keep
a note of that for what might happen
when Dany invades Westeros and finally
the city has complete freedom of
religion not just tolerating different
faiths but actively allowing any and all
faiths because it was founded by people
the former slaves of any and all faiths
once established the house of black and
white became a temple of sorts where
people could go to die like with the
original gift given to the slave this is
for those seeking release from their
struggles in life Arya helps an old
woman to take a drink from The Poisoned
fountain at the center of the house as
part of her duties
I say it became a temple of sorts
because it really isn't like any other
religious Temple there are no services
or rituals nobody is told what to
believe there are no rules or guidelines
for life or apparently any attempt to
convert people there's just a large room
that is open to all all of which perhaps
explains why this cult has not expanded
why you won't find temples of black and
white elsewhere this Faith does not
actually care whether you believe it is
telling the truth or not there is no proselytizing
