David J. Peterson on creating languages for the White Walkers and the people of Asshai

David J. Peterson has been with Game of Thrones since the beginning. A conlanger (a person who constructs original languages), he’s the guy behind both the Dothraki and Valyrian languages, as well as languages for The 100, The Shannara Chronicles, Thor: The Dark World, Doctor Strange, and Penny Dreadful. He recently appeared on the Game of Owns podcast with hosts Hannah Panek and Zack Luye, where he discussed his craft, some of his work that never appeared on the show, spinoffs, and even some light season 7 teasing!

You can listen to the podcast on fansite Watchers on the Wall, download it here, or listen on iTunes.

One of the most interesting bits comes around the 7:20 mark, when Peterson discusses some of the languages he developed that didn’t appear on the show. In addition to Valyrian and Dothraki, Peterson also created a language for the White Walkers (called Skroth) and one for the people of Asshai (called Asshai’i). He developed them for season 1, but they weren’t used. In relation to Skroth, Peterson said, “Basically, they just say, ‘Try to wow me.’ And then when my stuff doesn’t make it into the show, I figure, ‘Well, I failed.'”

Peterson based Skroth on the sounds the White Walkers make in the books, but eventually, the producers decided to just insert the sound of cracking ice whenever White Walkers communicated. Peterson hasn’t heard anything about it since. As for Asshai’i, “I created stuff for it…but it just kinda gets buried…There’s nothing I can tie to the original recording I made.” The closest the show came was the scene where Mirri Maz Duur is singing in Khal Drogo’s tent, after his wound has become infected.

So those languages didn’t turn up on Game of Thrones, but what about the five prequel shows HBO is developing? “If I were to work on any of these prequel things that are going on, my guess is that if there would be any language bits that haven’t already been created that would be called for, they would probably be created and new.” Oh, okay.

Around 14:28, the group discusses what’s coming in season 7, which Peterson says has “a significant amount of dialogue” in his invented languages. Still, don’t expect any new languages, or for Peterson to expand the Dothraki or Valyrian vocabularies in huge ways. At this point, with the bases already established, he’s just “adding more nuance, adding new corners to the grammar.”

Even better, Peterson went episode by episode and talked about how much invented language dialogue features in season 7:

• Episode 1: Nothing
• Episode 2: “Good amount”
• Episode 3: “Good amount”
• Episode 4: “Not much”
• Episode 5: “Not much”
• Episode 6: “Not much”
• Episode 7: “Some stuff”

Take from that what you will.

Some other fun bits from the podcast:

• 12:30: Peterson talks about things that had to be cut for the show. For the record, he’s in favor of the decision to chop Lady Stoneheart. “It doesn’t make any sense…I wanna see where on Earth George R.R. Martin is going with this.”
• 32:26: If Peterson had his way, he’d develop many more languages for the show. “I’ve always wanted to do a Volantene language. That would be really cool…I always wanted to do a Ghiscari language, but of course there would never be a reason to do that. It’s deader than High Valyrian within the context of the fiction world.” But he admits that, with spinoffs coming, “it might be cool to see the history of conflagration between the Valyrian Freehold and the Ghiscari Empire.”
• The group has a very entertaining chat about what kind of spinoffs HBO might be developing. “I think mostly what we’re gonna see is more Westeros than anything else, which for me is a bummer, because I think some of the things you see hinted at from Essos and from elsewhere are, if anything, more interesting,” Peterson says around 33:45. He’s particularly into the wars between Valyria and the Ghiscari Empire and the arrival of the First Men in Westeros.
• One thing Peterson isn’t interested in: Dorne. “Nothing about that storyline has ever interested me, either in the show or in the books.” He’s more of an Iron Islands man.
• Naturally, the best spinoff discussions are the most out-there. Around 36:30, Peterson expresses his wish for a show set during a period of relative peace after Daenerys has become queen of the Seven Kingdoms. She commissions a group of explorers to visit far-flung continents like Sothyros and Ulthos to discover what they can. So basically it’s Star Trek, but in the World of Ice and Fire.
• 50:00: How great would a Cheers-like show set at the Inn at the Crossroads be? Answer: very great.

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