The skinchanger

The skinchanger, or warg, is a person gifted with the ability to project their consciousness into the mind of an animal, seeing through its eyes, feeling its sensations, and ultimately controlling its body. This power is not a learned skill but an innate gift, one that is strongest in those with the blood of the First Men. The prologue of A Dance with Dragons introduces Varamyr Sixskins, a powerful skinchanger who has bonded with a snow bear, a shadowcat, and three wolves: One Eye, Stalker, and Sly. His story serves as a dark primer on the nature of this magic, its rules, and its terrible costs.

Nature and Limits of the Gift

The bond between a skinchanger and an animal is not a casual one. As the hunter Haggon taught Varamyr, "Wolves and women wed for life. You take one, that's a marriage. The wolf is part of you from that day on, and you're part of him. Both of you will change." This bond is a profound, permanent alteration of both the human and the beast. The ease of the bond varies by animal. Dogs, living so close to men, are the easiest; slipping into a dog's skin is "like putting on an old boot." Wolves are harder, requiring a true marriage of spirits. Other beasts are best left alone. Cats are vain and cruel, prone to turning on their master. Wearing the skin of prey animals like elk and deer for too long can make even the bravest man a coward. Birds are the most dangerous of all; Haggon warned that spending too much time in the clouds makes a man never want to come back down, leaving him "moony, staring up at the bloody blue." The strength of the gift varies. Varamyr, who could take any beast he wanted, was stronger than any other skinchanger at the gathering Haggon took him to as a boy, including Borroq, who looked like his boar, and Orell, who had an eagle.

The Abominations

Haggon's teachings were built around three central prohibitions, which he called abominations. The first was to eat human flesh while in the skin of a beast. The second was to mate as a wolf with a wolf. The third and worst was to seize the body of another man. Varamyr, in his dying moments, contemplates breaking this final taboo by taking the body of the spearwife Thistle. He rationalizes it, telling himself that Haggon is dead and that no one will ever know. The attempt ends in catastrophic failure. Thistle's spirit fights him with a ferocity that surpasses even his wild beasts, and in the struggle, she bites off her own tongue and claws out her eyes, killing herself to prevent him from taking her. This event demonstrates that the human mind is not a passive vessel like an animal's; it is a fortress that can be defended, and the attempt to breach it is a violation that can destroy both souls.

The Second Life and the Loss of Self

A central tenet of skinchanging is the concept of the "second life." Haggon taught that when a skinchanger's true death comes, his spirit can live on inside the beast he has bonded with. However, this second life comes at a terrible price. As Haggon warned, "When the man's flesh dies, his spirit lives on inside the beast, but every day his memory fades, and the beast becomes a little less a warg, a little more a wolf, until nothing of the man is left and only the beast remains." Varamyr experiences this firsthand. After his failed attempt to take Thistle, his spirit is cast out and finds its way into his oldest wolf, One Eye. His last thought as a man is that his wolves will save him. The narrative then shifts, and he is running with his pack, the world half dark. He remembers Thistle and feels grief for what he has lost and what he has done, but the memory is already fading, subsumed by the wolf's instincts. The skinchanger's ultimate fate is to be consumed by the very animal he sought to master, a dissolution of the self into the wild.

The Skinchanger's Perception and the Old Gods

The skinchanger's gift is deeply connected to the old gods of the forest. Varamyr, as he dies, feels the weirwood's red eyes staring down at him, and he believes the gods are weighing him. The power is not merely a physical or mental trick; it is a form of magic rooted in the ancient, pre-Andal world of the North. This connection is further explored through Bran Stark, who is a powerful skinchanger and greenseer. The ability to slip into the skin of another creature is a fundamental part of the magic of the old gods, a way of seeing the world that is both a gift and a curse. The narrative makes clear that this power is not inherently evil, but its use is fraught with moral peril, and the line between the human and the beast is dangerously thin.