The The There's something that's simultaneously unsettling and compelling about people who live in places where it's barely possible

to live. Partly this is because of how we talk about them, the way information flows amongst humans.

Information flows from larger places to smaller places less so than the other way.

For example, millions of people live in or have been to, New York, Tokyo, Beijing,

Kings Landing, Lannisport, Old Town.

There's rumors and falsehoods said about all places.

Every place is subject to rumor, but there's millions of people who have experienced

those places, New York, Beijing, King's Landing firsthand. Millions of people who know the truth,

or at least some form of it. This is way, way less true about the remote places few people

have been to. There's far fewer people who have experienced it,

but a lot of noise about what people think about it. There's rumors and a lot of things that

aren't from firsthand experience. It's just rumor and talk. And when people repeat these rumors,

well, there's rarely a person with first-hand experience to set them straight.

Because there aren't a lot of people to set them straight. People who live in these remote places,

well, they're not common to encounter, are they? And rumors grow, the more people repeat them. The bigger

a population center is, the more almost any

discussable subject will be discussed. There are bigger places or rumor mills, right? And that

tamps up, increases the level of exaggeration, or just straight up mistakes, or even lies. It's a

telephone game, basically. Someone may claim the members of House

Farwind, our subject today, are different, or strange, or both, or they're skin changers.

But the vast majority of people who speak about the Farwinds know little about them. They never been

there, have probably never had a meaningful conversation with someone from there, right?

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