“The lord of Light wants his enemies burned. The Drowned God wants them drowned. Why are all the gods such vicious c**ts,” Tyrion Lannister asked Lord Varys who didn’t seem to understand either. Religion was a very important part of life in Westeros although most of the gods in Game of Thrones seemed to have weird demands. The Faith of The Seven, which was the dominant religion in all the Seven Kingdoms, was rather modern and didn’t demand any complicated practices until the High Sparrow created a cult out of it. The Old Gods, the Many-Face God and the Drowned God are some of the deities in the show that had the most interesting characteristics.

The Many-Faced God

The Many-Faced God is the dominant deity in the city of Braavos where the priests believed that he was the only god and that all the other deities were simply his many faces. However, his priestess including Jaqen H`ghar was not so keen on making the worship of this deity a popular affair. They mostly worship in secrecy and many of them work as assassins.

The ability of the priests to change their faces and take on the personality of a dead person makes them the deadliest assassins ever known. Arya Stark was told that she had to give up her name to become a Faceless Man but she got the power while still retaining her name and even killing the Waif. The worship of the Many-Faced God was very complicated but one of the most interesting religions in Game of Thrones.

The Lord Of Light

The Song of Ice and Fire can also be called the battle between The Lord of Light and The Great Other. The lord of light is believed to have created the sun and the stars and he is associated with fire, light, life and blood. The Great Other on the other hand is associated with ice, death and darkness which is why Melisandre and the other believers of the Lord of Light believed he created the White Walkers.

That was hard to understand because the White Walkers were created by the children of the forest who were not really deities themselves. Either way, the worship of the Lord of Light varied depending on the priest or priestess. Some like Melisandre used magic and enjoyed burning people alive while others like Thoros didn’t do any of that. The believers of the Lord of Light insisted on monotheism thought and to them, all the other religions were false.

The Drowned God

“What is dead may never die,” was one of the most common sayings in Game of Thrones identified as the words of House Greyjoy and the Iron born. The Iron Born believe that the Drowned God lives at the bottom of the sea and that he protects them against the waves which are brought by his nemesis the Storm God.
To be a true believer, an Iron Born has to be drowned by the priests of the Drowned God. If the person doesn’t wake up after being removed from the water, then they are not fit to be Iron Born. They also believe that all Iron Born that die at sea go to live with their God at the bottom of the sea. However, the power of the Drowned God reduces as an Iron Born goes further away from the sea.

The Old Gods

The Old Gods were worshipped by the Children of the Forest long before the First Men came to Westeros. When the First Men came, they incorporated the Old Gods in their belief system which is why the people in the North including the Starks believe in the Old Gods. People swearing oaths in the North swear by both the Old Gods and the New because the North also acknowledges the Faith of The Seven which was accepted as the Faith of the realm.

The Old Gods don’t have temples and priests. They are also called the Faceless Gods. The gods manifest themselves in nature through the rivers, trees and sometimes in people such as the Green seers. Their most popular form is the faces carved into Weirwood trees which are the most common connections to the faith. Both the First Men and the Andals tried to destroy the religion when they came to Westeros but both gave up on the quest at one point and chose to accommodate it instead.

The Black Goat Of Qohor

Qohor is one of the 9 free cities North of Volantis famously known as the city of sorcerers. The city was created by the followers of the Black Goat who left Old Valarya to set up a city where they could worship the Black Goat in peace. The Black Goat is a bloodthirsty god though, which is why he is so unpopular.

To protect Qohor, the Black Goat has to be given a blood sacrifice every day. On common days, animal sacrifices can be made but on holidays, the goat receives the blood of condemned criminals as a sacrifice. The nobles of Qohor also line up to give their children as a sacrifice to the goat in times of crisis. “So, does the Goat protect Qohor? No one knows, but the city still stands, doesn’t it?” Jaqen said.

The Lion Of Night

This is one of the gods found in the Hall of Black and White believed to be another face of the Many-Faced God by the Faceless Men. However, in Yi Ti, the Lion of Night is worshipped as an independent god. The Lion of Night allegedly fathered the God on Earth whose descendants had the authority to rule the mythical Great Empire of The Dawn. The priests of Yin say that the Lion is the one who brought the Long Night to the world after a human usurped the throne to the Great Empire of Dawn from his descendants. The Lion of Night is also seen as the god of death which is why the faceless men associate him with the Many-Faced God.

The Weeping Woman

Jaqen H`ghar called her the weeping lady and her statue was also in the Hall of Black and White. Unlike the other deities in the Hall who were worshipped as gods of death, the Weeping Lady of Lys is more of a weeping mother. She is depicted as a woman crying into a bowl that is so full of her tears that they overflow. She weeps for the living people who are about to die, although there is no talk of her attempting to save them. There was no talk of sacrifice either meaning she is just a gentle mother that cries for the dying.

The Great Stallion

In Westeros, everyone believed that the promised prince or Azor Ahai would come and save the people from the Long Night and probably the Night King. The Dothraki had a similar prophecy, except their champion would be a great Khal blessed by the Great Stallion who would help the Dothraki conquer the world. The Dothraki didn’t reject the existence of other, gods, they just believed that their god, The Great Stallion or The Horse God as others called him was the most powerful. The Horse God gave the Dothraki children, lands and everything else. That is why Daenerys was forced to eat the heart of a stallion when she was pregnant.

The Great Shepherd

This was one of the less known deities in the show. He was the god of the Lhazareen shepherd tribes that were located south of the Dothrak Sea. These innocent people were often victims of Dothraki attacks and the Dothraki believed that their god was weaker than The Great Stallion. However, according to the Lhazareen, the Great Shepherd is a god of love and equality and all men are part of his flock and therefore deserve to be treated fairly. The priestesses of the Great Shepherd would treat any wounded soldier on the battlefield even if he fought for the enemy.

The Stranger

The stranger is just one of the seven attributes of the Faith of The Seven. The whole faith believes in seven attributes namely The Father, The Mother, The Crow, The Smith, The Warrior, The Maiden, and The Stranger all of whom are characters of the same god. The Stanger is rarely prayed to and not much is known about him except the fact that he represents death and the unknown. In the House of Black and White, the Stranger was referred to as just another face of the Many-Faced God. However, Westerosis believe that there is more to the stranger than just death as many look to him as the bringer of peace as well. No one is so sure about the gods though.