World of A Song of Ice and Fire


The fictional world in which the A Song of Ice and Fire novels by George R. R. Martin take place is divided into several continents, known collectively as The Known World.
Most of the story takes place on the continent of Westeros and in a large political entity known as the [|Seven Kingdoms]. Those kingdoms are spread across nine regions: [|the North], [|the Iron Islands], [|the Riverlands], [|the Vale], [|the Westerlands], [|the Stormlands], [|the Reach], [|the Crownlands], and Dorne. A [|massive wall] of ice and old magic separates the Seven Kingdoms from the largely unmapped area to the north. The vast continent of Essos is located east of Westeros, across the Narrow Sea. The closest foreign nations to Westeros are the [|Free Cities], a collection of nine independent city-states along the western edge of Essos. The lands along the southern coastline of Essos are called the Lands of the [|Summer Sea] and include Slaver's Bay and the ruins of Valyria. The latter is the former home of the ancestors of House Targaryen. To the south of Essos are the continents of [|Sothoryos] and [|Ulthos], which in the narrative are largely unexplored.
The planet experiences erratic seasons of unpredictable duration that can last for many years. At the beginning of A Song of Ice and Fire, Westeros has enjoyed a decade-long summer, and many fear that an even longer and harsher winter will follow.
George R. R. Martin set the Ice and Fire story in an alternative world to Earth, a "secondary world". Martin has also suggested that the world may be larger than the real world planet Earth. The Ice and Fire narrative is set in a post-magic world where people no longer believe in supernatural things such as the Others. Although the characters understand the natural aspects of their world, they do not know or understand its magical elements. Religion, though, has a significant role in the lives of people, and the characters practice many different religions.

Maps

A Game of Thrones, the first installment of the A Song of Ice and Fire series, has two maps of Westeros. Each new book has added one or two maps so that, as of A Dance with Dragons, seven maps of the fictional world are available in the books. Martin said in 2003 that complete world maps were not made available so that readers may better identify with people of the real Middle Ages who were uneducated about distant places. He also did not "subscribe to the theory put forth in The Tough Guide To Fantasyland... that eventually the characters must visit every place shown on The Map." He conceded, however, that readers may be able to piece together a world map by the end of the series. He was intentionally vague about the size of the Ice and Fire world, omitting a scale on the maps to discourage prediction of travel lengths based on measured distances. A new map artist was used in A Dance with Dragons so that the maps are available in two versions by James Sinclair and Jeffrey L. Ward, depending on the book. The old maps were redone to match the style of the new ones.
A set of foldout maps was published on October 30, 2012, as The Lands of Ice and Fire. The illustrator and cartographer Jonathan Roberts drew the maps, based on drafts by Martin. The twelve maps in the set are entitled "The Known World", "The West", "Central Essos", "The East", "Westeros", "Beyond The Wall", "The Free Cities", "Slaver's Bay", "The Dothraki Sea", "King's Landing", "Braavos", and "Journeys". The latter tracks the paths taken by the novels' characters.

Westeros

The story takes place primarily on an elongated continent called Westeros, which is roughly the size of South America. The continent is home to the Seven Kingdoms, located to the south side of [|the Wall], a massive man-made ice wall 700 feet in height and spanning east–west for 300 miles from coast to coast. The Seven Kingdoms are further divided into the so-called "North" and "South" by a swamp-rich isthmus called the Neck. The land north of the Wall still makes up a large chunk of Westeros, but remains largely unmapped and unexplored, especially the ice field region north and west of a massive mountain range called the Frostfangs, which marks the farthest geographic limit of human settlements. The northern extent of the continent is therefore unknown, although thought to be continuous with a polar ice cap north of the Shivering Sea known as the White Waste.
At the novel's beginning, the majority of Westeros is united under the rule of a single king, whose seat is the "Iron Throne" in the city of [|King's Landing]. The king has a large number of minor direct vassals in area known as the [|Crownlands], surrounding King's Landing; while each of the other regions is functionally controlled by a different major noble house, who all wield significant power in their own lands, while owing fealty to the Iron Throne. Martin here drew inspiration from medieval European history, in particular the Hundred Years' War, the Crusades, the Albigensian Crusade, and the Wars of the Roses.
The first inhabitants of the continent were the Children of the Forest, a nature-worshipping Stone Age anthropoid species who carved the faces of their gods in weirwood trees. Some time later, Bronze Age human settlers, known as the First Men, migrated from Essos via a land bridge at the southeastern end of the continent and gradually spread to the entire continent. The First Men's attempts to chop down forests and cultivate the land led to a millennia-long war with the Children of the Forest, that eventually was settled by an agreement known as "The Pact". This was the beginning of the Age of Heroes, during which the First Men adopted the religion of the Children of the Forest. Those gods later became known in Westeros as the Old Gods.
Eight thousand years before the events of the novels, an enigmatic arctic humanoid species called the Others emerged from the Land of Always Winter, the northernmost part of Westeros, during the decades-long winter known as "The Long Night". The Children of the Forest and the First Men allied to repel the Others, and then built the Wall barring passage from the far north. The region north of the Wall was since collectively known as the land "Beyond the Wall", and settled by tribal descendants of the First Men known as the Wildlings or Free Folk.
Sometime later, the Iron Age humans from Essos called the Andals invaded Westeros, bringing along the Faith of the Seven. One by one, kingdoms of the First Men south of the Neck fell to the Andals, and only the [|North] remained unconquered. The Children of the Forest were slaughtered and disappeared from Andal lands. Over time, seven relatively stable feudal kingdoms were forged across Westeros, although their territories fluctuated over the next few thousand years through constant warfare, and no kingdom remained dominant for long:
  • The [|Kingdom of the North], ruled by House Stark of Winterfell
  • The Kingdom of the Isles and the [|Rivers], ruled by House Hoare of Harrenhal
  • The [|Kingdom of Mountain and Vale], ruled by House Arryn of the Eyrie
  • The [|Kingdom of the Rock], ruled by House Lannister of Casterly Rock
  • The [|Storm Kingdom], ruled by House Durrandon of Storm's End
  • The [|Kingdom of the Reach], ruled by House Gardener of Highgarden
  • The [|Principality of Dorne], ruled by House Martell of Sunspear.
Three hundred years before the novels begin, the Targaryen dragonlord Aegon the Conqueror and his two sister-wives Visenya and Rhaenys, whose ancestors migrated from Valyria to [|Dragonstone] a century prior, invaded the Westerosi mainland and landed his army at the mouth of the Blackwater Rush. The three assembled a temporary bastion called "Aegonfort", which later grew into the massive capital city known as King's Landing. Aided by their three formidable fire-breathing dragons, the Targaryen armies subdued six of the Seven Kingdoms through conquest or treaty, wiping out three of the seven ruling houses that refused to bend their knees, replacing house Durrandon with house Baratheon, house Gardener with house Tyrell, and house Hoare with houses Tully and Greyjoy. Only the defiant Dorne remained independent for almost another two hundred years through asymmetric guerrilla resistance, until it was finally absorbed under the Iron Throne through a marriage-alliance by King Daeron II in 187 AC. The Targaryens built the Iron Throne, forged from the swords of their defeated enemies by dragonfire. They also annexed the land regions of the riverlands and stormlands around the Blackwater Bay as the Crownlands. House Targaryen remained the ruling house of the Seven Kingdoms for almost three centuries until they were overthrown by a rebellion led by Robert Baratheon in 283 AC, who then became the first king of the Seven Kingdoms not of House Targaryen.
Martin took the name Westeros from the Scottish region Wester Ross.
The southern half of Westeros is based on an inverted map of Ireland.

The North

The North consists of the northern half of the Seven Kingdoms and is ruled by House Stark from their castle at Winterfell. The North is sparsely populated, but nearly as big as the other six southern kingdoms combined. Martin compared the North to Scotland. The climate is cold overall, with hard winters and mild snows common regardless of the season. Beyond the wall in the far north, the climate is polar with heavy snow while further south, it is milder with more rain. The region's northern border is the Gift, a stretch of land 50 leagues wide given to the possession of the Night's Watch. However, due to Wildling raids it is filled with abandoned towns and farms.
An isthmus called The Neck separates the North from the South. It is dominated by swamplands and is home to short, marsh-dwelling crannogmen ruled by House Reed of Greywater Watch, loyal bannermen of House Stark. The Neck's difficult wetland terrain is infested by predatory lizard-lions, restricting the only dryland passage to a causeway commanded by the almost impenetrable stronghold of Moat Cailin, which protected the North from land invasion from the south for thousands of years. The city of White Harbor, located at the mouth of the White Knife river, is a thriving port and the fifth largest settlement in the Seven Kingdoms.
Illegitimate children born of a noble parent and acknowledged by said parent in the North are given the surname Snow.