Weirwood

A weirwood is a rare and ancient species of tree sacred to the worshippers of the Old Gods of the Forest in Westeros. With bone-white bark, blood-red leaves, and faces carved into their trunks that weep red sap, the weirwoods are the heart of the oldest faith on the continent and are bound up with magic and the deep history of the world.

Description

Weirwoods have smooth chalk-white wood and a canopy of dark red, five-pointed leaves. Many bear faces carved long ago by the children of the forest, with sad, watchful eyes that seem to weep red sap. These carved trees are called heart trees, and they stand at the center of the godswoods kept by the old houses. Weirwoods grow with extraordinary slowness and almost never rot, and the Andals cut down most of them in the south during their conquest.

Religious Significance

The weirwood is the holy tree of the old gods. Worshippers pray before the heart trees, swear oaths in their sight, and grant guest right beneath their branches. The Starks of Winterfell keep an ancient godswood with a weirwood at its center, one of the few surviving south of the Wall.

Magic and the Greenseers

The weirwoods are deeply tied to magic. The children of the forest and rare humans called greenseers are said to perceive the world through the trees, and the carved faces are believed to let the old gods, or those joined to the trees, look out upon those who pass. Beyond the Wall, the legendary three-eyed crow dwells among weirwood roots, and the trees figure centrally in Bran Stark's journey to learn the green arts.