Source
r/asoiaf•
OllyforLordCommander

(Spoilers All) So how do ravens work exactly?

ALL

I get the basic concept. You tie a note to a raven and it flies off and delivers it to the intended destination.

Are they like homing pigeons that can only return to a single destination and they're constantly being shipped around? Is there some way that maesters control where they go? Do they deliver a message and then stay there or do they return, or are they shipped around?

Marked for any spoilers because maybe twoiaf and I think bloodraven might discuss it at some point.

Posted Jun 5, 2015, 7:37 AM UTC

05
PixarLamp_Dragonfire can't melt stone walls•

"A maester's raven flies to one place, and one place only. Is that correct?" The maester mopped sweat from his brow with his sleeve. "N-not entirely, Your Grace. Most, yes. Some few can be taught to fly between two castles. Such birds are greatly prized. And once in a very great while, we find a raven who can learn the names of three or four or five castles, and fly to each upon command. Birds as clever as that come along only once in a hundred years."

Stannis talks with Maester Tybald (Theon I, TWOW)

Claiming to have consulted with texts said to be preserved at Castle Black, Septon Barth put forth that the children of the forest could speak with ravens and could make them repeat their words. According to Barth, this higher mystery was taught to the First Men by the children so that ravens could spread messages at a great distance. It was passed, in degraded form, down to the maesters today, who no longer know how to speak to the birds.

The Dawn Ages (TWOIAF)

They're the only references to how Ravens work, at least from what I can recall. The latter implies that Ravens can (or could) understand human speech and they were merely told where to go. Now it seems they act more as an advanced carrier pigeon, so I can only assume the training is the same.

10
JiMMYBlackFrye•

Maester conspiracy get hyped!

1
Sinkust•

Each raven goes to a single place, I guess when they've delivered the message they will fly back with a reply.

2
germstark•

I think there's a system of delivering ravens by ground. For example, Winterfell's maester trains a bunch of ravens to recognize the Winterfell rookery as their home, and periodically ships ravens to various other maesters. When the maester at, say, Castle Black wants to write to Winterfell, they select the "Winterfell" raven, tie a message to its leg, and let it loose. The raven returns home, where its daddy maester receives the message and cares for the raven until it ships out again.

Ravens that can fly between two locations are so valuable (see the passage u/PixarLamp_ quoted) because you don't have to pay for ground shipping and can have more back-and-forth conversation.

2
gcatlinAre there bears in this cave?•

I disagree.

Most ravens go to a single place, meaning that once it had delivered its message, it would have to be transported back to its point of origin in order to be able to deliver another message.

The ones that could fly between two castles were greatly prized. These birds would not require transport back, but could carry a reply back to the originating castle.

This seems to make more sense to me.

1