Most people rarely see these very final stages, however: only some of the Stone Men who have been quarantined off in ruins such as Valyria for many years have time to deteriorate to such a feral state. When it spreads to the brain, the deterioration can result in violent insanity. In the very final stages of the disease, often years after the skin is completely covered, it starts attacking the body's internal organs, hardening them as it did the outer flesh. An infected person can survive like this for years, living in misery as one of the Stone Men. Long before that, in the mid-to-late stages of the disease, the infection will spread to cover all of the victim's skin from head to toe, leaving them in agony. Greyscale kills slowly, often taking many years to progress to a terminal state. The discoloration comes in later stages: Shireen was cured in early stages before the disease could spread beyond her left cheek, before it could become discolored. In later stages the hardened flesh becomes mottled grey and black as it dies, resulting in the flesh appearing to have the texture of cracked grey stone, or like grey reptile scales - hence the name 'grey scale'. The pattern made by the hardened and splitting skin is similar to cracks made in thin ice, and in later and more severe stages look somewhat like patterns of scales. Greyscale makes the surface of the skin harden and calcify, but in the early stages it is still fairly thin and brittle, so the body's movement makes the hardened tissue split into a network of cracks. Stone Men are often exiled from society to live in ruined cities in Essos, such as Old Valyria. People afflicted by the disease are often called ' Stone Men', due to how it makes their skin hard and dead. Jorah Mormont was the only other known survivor of Greyscale, and unlike Shireen made a full recovery. Princess Shireen Baratheon caught greyscale as an infant and survived, but the ordeal left half of her face disfigured by the disease. Those that manage to survive a bout with the illness will be immune from ever contracting it again, but the flesh damaged by the ravages of the disease will never heal, and they will be scarred for life. Greyscale, also known as ' Prince Garin's curse', is a dreaded and usually fatal disease that can leave flesh stiff and dead, and the skin cracked and flaking, and stone-like to the touch. You'd have better luck dancing away the plague.' ― Tyrion Lannister Ĭloseup of the greyscale scars that mark the left side of Shireen's face. ' Stone Men? Good luck stopping the spread of Greyscale with prayer.

Black and white 1 game quit