Westeros

Westeros is a great continent located in the far west of the known world. It is separated from the continent of Essos by a strip of water known as the Narrow Sea. Most of the action in Game of Thrones takes place in Westeros.

Almost the entire continent, barring only the lands in the furthest north beyond the Wall, is ruled by a single political entity known as the Seven Kingdoms, which holds fealty to the King on the Iron Throne in the city of King's Landing. The terms 'Seven Kingdoms' and 'Westeros' are normally used interchangeably.

Geography
Westeros is bordered to the west by the Sunset Sea, to the south by the Summer Sea and to the east by the Narrow Sea and Shivering Sea. The northern edges of the continent have not been charted, but are believed to extend to the northern polar ice cap. The continent is narrow, about 900 miles wide at its widest point, but long, extending for almost 3,000 miles from the Summer Sea to the Wall that marks the northern border of the Seven Kingdoms. The extent of the wildling lands beyond the Wall are unknown.

The continent's terrain varies immensely. There are significant mountain ranges, such as the Mountains of the Moon in the Vale of Arryn, the Red Mountains of Dorne and the Frostfangs of the North. There are also several extensive river networks, most notably the River Trident and its numerous tributaries, but also the Blackwater Rush, the White Knife, the Mander and the Greenblood.

Climate varies between extremes of heat and cold across the large continent. The North is the only region in which snowfall is common, even in the middle of the years-long "summers". Beyond the Wall the temperature becomes even lower and hostile, forming the taiga woodlands of the Haunted Forest, reaching into the truly polar regions of the "Lands of Always-Winter" in the unmapped farthest north. In the far south the terrain becomes hotter and more arid, and Dorne contains the continent's only deserts. Notable offshore islands include Bear Island, Skagos, the Iron Islands, Tarth, Dragonstone and the Arbor.

The continent is also home to immense woodlands, such as the Haunted Forest beyond the Wall. South of the Wall, within the Seven Kingdoms, there are three major forested regions: the Wolfswood around Winterfell, the Kingswood south of King's Landing (straddling the northern border of the Stormlands), and the Rainwood in the southern half of the Stormlands. Numerous smaller wooded areas dot the continent.

Westeros is separated from the eastern continent of Essos by the Narrow Sea and also by the island chain known as the Stepstones. According to myth, the Stepstones are a remnant of an ancestral land-bridge linking Westeros and Essos together, destroyed in a cataclysm more than ten thousand years ago.

As well as the vast eastern continent of Essos, other lands are known to exist. The Summer Islands lie to the south of Westeros and there is regular trade between the islands and the Seven Kingdoms. A forbidding, mostly-unexplored continent called Sothoryos is also known to exist to the south-east across the Summer Sea, but there is little contact between it and Westeros. Some islands are known to exist in the Sunset Sea to the west of Westeros, but the true extent of this ocean is unknown. To the east of northern Westeros lies the island of Ibben, home to traders and whalers, who occasionally trade with the Seven Kingdoms and the Free Cities of Essos.

Climate and seasons
Westeros's climate shifts from a subarctic wasteland in the furthest north, beyond the Wall, to a desert climate in the furthest south, along the peninsula of Dorne. In the normal course of events, the furthest north still has light snowfalls even in the longest summers whilst Dorne almost never sees snow, even in the most severe winters.

Westeros and Essos both experience seasons of varying length, usually lasting at least a couple of years each. The length of the seasons is completely unpredictable and varies randomly. The maesters of the Citadel keep a close eye on the length of the days in order to try to predict how long the current season will last, but this is an inexact science at best.

At the time the series opens, the world has been experiencing a summer that has lasted for nine years, which is unusually long, and the maesters fear that an equally long winter will follow. Westeros extends much further north than Essos, so is much more adversely affected by long winters, whilst Essos, which extends into equatorial regions, is typically warmer.

In the North, the winters are extremely cruel. Lords set aside non-perishable food items for storage against the next winter, whilst many of the North's most notable strongholds are built in favorable areas, such as Winterfell on hot springs or the Dreadfort of House Bolton on volcanic vents. Some castles, like Winterfell, have elaborate greenhouses which permit the growing of vegetables even in the harshest winters. Despite these precautions, famine and starvation is common during Northern winters, and is one of the reasons the North has a small population despite its vast size.

There is a suggestion that the long seasons are not natural in origin, but may have stemmed from a near-mythical event called the Long Night 8,000 years ago, when it is said that the White Walkers used the cover of a winter that lasted a generation and a night that lasted for years to invade Westeros. They were defeated in the War for the Dawn, thrown back into the furthest north and prevented from returning by the raising of the Wall, but the seasons never recovered. Maesters are highly skeptical of this story, dismissing it as folklore, despite the inarguable presence of the Wall.

History
For a more detailed history of the Seven Kingdoms, see the timeline of Westerosi history.

Twelve thousand years ago, Westeros was inhabited by the dimunitive Children of the Forest, a nonhuman race who lived in peace and harmony with nature, worshipping the Old Gods of the Forest. The First Men, a human ethnic group, invaded Westeros across the Arm of Dorne, armed with weapons of bronze. In a significant military conflict, in which the Children allegedly destroyed the Arm of Dorne with magic (resulting in the Stepstone islands) and flooded the Neck, the two sides fought to a standstill and made a pact of friendship and alliance. The First Men adopted the worship of the old gods at this time.

Four thousand years later, Westeros was invaded by the White Walkers during a winter that lasted for a generation. In the War for the Dawn, they were defeated by an alliance of the First Men and the Children, though only at grievous cost. The Children disappeared from Westeros at this time. Brandon Stark, Bran the Builder, raised the Wall to bar the White Walkers from returning and founded the Night's Watch to guard it. He also built the castle of Winterfell and established House Stark as the ruling house of the Kingdom of the North. Two thousand years later, the Andals invaded Westeros from across the Narrow Sea, landing in the Vale and sweeping across the continent. The Andals conquered the southern half of the continent but failed to seize the North, being thrown back several times at the defensive chokepoint of Moat Cailin. A patchwork of numerous small Andal kingdoms took shape across the south, eventually coalescing into several larger nations.

A thousand years ago, the Rhoynar, the warrior-people of the upper Rhoyne (a river network on Essos), fell into warfare with the mighty Valyrian Freehold. The Valyrians destroyed the Rhoynar cities using dragons. Nymeria, warrior-queen of the Rhoynar, led her people across the Summer Sea in ten thousand ships to land in Dorne. Making alliance with Prince Mors Martell of Sunspear, Nymeria conquered the myriad small kingdoms and lordships of Dorne to establish a powerful, proud and independent kingdom.

Four centuries ago, Valyria was destroyed in a volcanic cataclysm, the Doom. A century later, the scions of House Targaryen, who ruled the Valyrian trading outpost on the island of Dragonstone, invaded Westeros with a small army and three dragons. Aegon the Conqueror accepted the fealty of six kingdoms, whilst several generations later his descendants were able to bring Dorne into the union through peaceful alliance, hence the term 'Seven Kingdoms'. Despite several civil wars and the loss of their dragons to time and conflict, the Targaryens ruled the entire continent (bar the lands beyond the Wall) for over 280 years until the actions of the Mad King, Aerys II, triggered the civil war known as Robert's Rebellion. At the end of this civil war, Aerys II and most of his family were slain and his surviving children fled into exile in the Free Cities. Robert Baratheon took the throne and at the start of the series has ruled for seventeen years.

Regions


The Seven Kingdoms are divided into nine administrative regions, seven of which were former independent kingdoms before the Targaryen Conquest. Each region is ruled by a Great House, who in turn are commanded by the King on the Iron Throne. These regions are:

The North
Ruled by House Stark from the castle of Winterfell. Bastards born in the North take the surname 'Snow'. The principal port and city of the North is White Harbor. The North is the largest of the regions of Westeros but also the most sparsely-populated, due the harshness of the long winters and the huge distances between holdfasts or towns. The North also includes the Wall and the lands administered by the Night's Watch, which are technically independent but are almost always thought of in conjunction with the North.

The Vale of Arryn
Ruled by House Arryn from the castle known as the Eyrie. Bastards born in the Vale take the surname 'Stone'. The principal port and city of the Vale is Gulltown. The Vale is dominated and mostly covered by the Mountains of the Moon and its offshoot chains. Its borders are prowled by hostile hill tribes.

The Riverlands
Ruled by House Tully from the castle of Riverrun. Bastards born in the Riverlands take the surname 'Rivers'. The principal ports of the Riverlands are Seagard, Saltpans and Maidenpool. Notable towns include Stoney Sept. The Riverlands are dominated by the mighty River Trident and its numerous tributaries, including the Tumblestone. The Riverlands, lying close to the centre of the continent, have been the site for battles and conflicts throughout the history of Westeros. Once an independent kingdom, they were overrun by the ironborn a century before Aegon's invasion and are thus not counted as an eighth kingdom, despite their significant size and population. The Riverlands are, as their name suggests, one of the most fertile and populous regions in Westeros, which is in many ways the only reason they have been consistently able to recover from the frequent wars that cross their borders.

The Westerlands
Ruled by House Lannister from the castle of Casterly Rock. Bastards born in the Westerlands take the surname 'Hill'. The principal city and port of the Westerlands is Lannisport. The Westerlands are noted for their hills and low mountains which are rich in silver and gold, providing House Lannister and their vassals with immense wealth.

The Iron Islands
Ruled by House Greyjoy from the castle of Pyke. Bastards born on the Iron Islands take the surname 'Pyke'. The major islands of the chain are Great Wyk, Little Wyk, Harlaw, Blacktyde, Orkmont, Saltcliffe and Pyke itself. The Iron Islands are rain-lashed and cold, home to a hardy, warrior race known as the ironborn. They live for warfare and reaving, and are the most troublesome and rebellious of the Iron Throne's subjects.

The Crownlands
Ruled directly by the King on the Iron Throne from the city of King's Landing, the largest city in Westeros and the capital of the Seven Kingdoms. Bastards born in the Crownlands take the surname 'Waters'. Other notable townships of the Crownlands include Duskendale and Rosby. The Crownlands stretch along the shores of Blackwater Bay and also across several islands in the Narrow Sea, such as Dragonstone, Driftmark and Claw Isle. The islands are separately administered from Dragonstone.

The Stormlands
Ruled by House Baratheon from the castle of Storm's End. Bastards born in the Stormlands take the surname: 'Storm'. The Stormlands include several offshore islands, most notably Estermont and Tarth. It is ranks moderately among the other regions in terms of population and wealth. The Stormlands are wracked by frequent storms off the Narrow Sea, and experience significant rainfall. The Stormlands are also one of the most densely wooded areas in Westeros, particularly south of the Neck. It contains not only the Rainwood (which covers the southern half of the Stormlands), but also shares much of the Kingswood (spilling across the northern border with the Crownlands). As a result, its climate is in general that of a temperate rainforest.

The Reach
Ruled by House Tyrell from the castle of Highgarden. Bastards born in the Reach take the surname 'Flowers'. The principal city and port of the Reach is Oldtown, the second-largest city of Westeros. The Reach is the second-largest region of Westeros and by far the most fertile and populous, allowing the Tyrells to field vast armies and also results in them being wealthier than any other family bar the Lannisters. The Reach also includes several offshore islands, such as the Shield Islands and the Arbor.

Dorne
Ruled by House Martell from the castle of Sunspear. Bastards born in Dorne take the surname 'Sand'. The prinicpal ports of Dorne are Sunspear itself and the Planky Town at the mouth of the Greenblood. The people of Dorne are isolated from the rest of Westeros by the Sea of Dorne and the Red Mountains, giving them a greater sense of national identity than most of the other peoples of Westeros. Since Robert's Rebellion and the murder of several prominent Dornish nobles during the Sack of King's Landing, the Dornish have pursued a more isolationist path.

Population
The population of Westeros extends into many millions, though a precise count has never been attempted. The major cities of the continent have populations in the hundreds of thousands, and each of the Great Houses can field a reasonably-well-equipped army in the tens of thousands. Due to its desert cimate, Dorne has the smallest overall population. Due to their extremely small size, the Iron Islands are also among the least populated. The North has one of the smallest overall populations, and is the most sparsely-populated region, with huge regions of deserted wilderness extending between the major towns and holdfasts. Meanwhile, the prosperous and fertile Reach is the most heavily-populated, followed closely by the Riverlands.

Westeros is overwhelmingly populated by humans, to the point that non-human sentient races are considered mythical. However, it is known that the engimatic White Walkers have returned to the far north of Westeros.

There are several notable human ethnic groups currently extant in Westeros:

First Men
The First Men were the original human inhabitants of Westeros, who crossed the Arm of Dorne and fought with the Children of the Forest before making peace with them. Thousands of years later, the Andals invaded Westeros and displaced or conquered the First Men everywhere south of the Neck. As a result, the First Men are still the predominant ethnic group in the North, though six thousand years of intermarriage with Andal lords has blurred this somewhat.

Wildlings
The people who live beyond the Wall are called wildlings and not held to be subject to the Iron Throne. They are descendend from those First Men who lived north of the Wall when it was constructed. The wildlings are not a homogeneous single group, but consist of numerous different tribes, townsfolk, farmers, fisherfolk and warriors, occasionally united under a King-beyond-the-Wall but who mostly spend more time fighting one another than the forces of the Seven Kingdoms.

Andals
The majority of the population of Westeros are descended from the Andals who invaded the continent some six thousand years ago. The Andals consider themselves more civilized and cultured than the other peoples of Westeros.

Ironborn
The ironborn are a grouping resulting in the intermarriages between the First Men inhabitants of the Iron Islands and the Andals who invaded them. Rejecting the worship of both the old gods and the Seven, they developed their own faith based around the Drowned God and their own culture which favours martial prowess and reaving over farming and trading.

Rhoynar
The people of Dorne are descended from the Rhoynar, the hardy warrior-folk of the eastern continent who settled in Dorne after being driven out of their homeland by the Valyrians, and then intermarried with the local Andals and First Men. The blood of the Rhoynar is thus intermingled in the Dornishmen; Rhoynar ethnicity is most strongly represented in those who live near the coasts and rivers, and weakest in Dornishmen who live in the interior mountains. They tend to be olive-skinned with dark curly hair. They have a reputation for being hot-heated and sexually liberal. Unlike the other Seven Kingdoms, they practice equal primogeniture.

Children of the Forest
The Children of the Forest are a legendary group who ruled Westeros for untold millennia before the arrival of the First Men. According to myth, they were dimunitive, long-lived and few in number, but were protected by the powerful magic of the greenseers and the martial prowess of their elite warriors, the wood dancers. They helped the First Men defeat the White Walkers and raise the Wall, but disappeared from Westeros shortly after this time. The maesters of the Citadel today claim that the Children were myths and never truly existed.

White Walkers
The White Walkers are, according to legend, a race of ice-based creatures hailing from the extreme north. Eight thousand years ago, they invaded Westeros and brought cold, terror and death to both the First Men and the Children before they were defeated in the War for the Dawn. According to some, they were not destroyed, only defeated and have spent millennia since this time asleep. Again, these claims are met with extreme skepticism today.

Giants
According to the wildlings, giants still exist north of the Wall and have some contact with the wildling communities. Since no member of the Night's Watch has ever seen one, this claim is considered unreliable at best.

Settlements
Westeros is home to several distinct types of settlement:

Cities
Cities are extremely rare in Westeros, which has mostly rural-based populations. The five major cities of the continent are, in descending order of population:


 * King's Landing: the capital of the Seven Kingdoms with a population of half a million. The largest city of Westeros, founded by Aegon the Conqueror on the site where he first set foot on the continent.
 * Oldtown: the oldest major city on the continent, located in the Reach. Ruled by House Hightower for the Tyrells. Almost as large and populous as the capital.
 * Lannisport: the largest city on Westeros' west coast, approximately half the size of King's Landing. Ruled by House Lannister of Lannisport.
 * Gulltown: the main city and port of the Vale, with a population in the tens of thousands. Ruled by House Grafton.
 * White Harbor: the main city and port of the North, with a population in the tens of thousands. Ruled by House Manderly.

The likes of Duskendale, Saltpans, Barrowton and Stoney Sept, with populations of a few thousand each, are considered to be towns rather than cities.

Castles
Castles are held by the noble houses of Westeros and range in size from the vast, city-sized edifices of Harrenhal or Winterfell to small towerhouses or fortified farmsteads run by landed knights. The size of a castle and in what state of repair it is kept reflects the wealth and power of its ruling family.

The most notable castles of Westeros include Harrenhal, Storm's End, the Eyrie, Pyke, Riverrun, Winterfell, Casterly Rock, Highgarden, Sunspear, the Twins and the Red Keep of King's Landing.

Religions
The people of Westeros follow several different faiths, of which by far the most dominant is the Faith of the Seven:

The Old Gods of the Forest
The old nature gods worshipped by the Children of the Forest, still worshipped by the wildlings, the people of the North and a few isolated people in the south of Westeros. The old gods are numerous and nameless. Prayers and offerings are made to the old gods in front of heart trees, great weirwood trees with faces carved into the bark. A tenent of the faith is that the old gods only have power where the heart tree faces can see, and since the destruction of most of the heart trees in the south they have no power there.

The Faith of the Seven
The Faith of the Seven was brought to Westeros by the Andals. The Faith contends there is one god consisting of seven separate aspects: the Mother, the Father, the Warrior, the Smith, the Maiden, the Crone and the Stranger (death). People worship the Seven in seven-sided churches called septs and are led in worship by priests and priestesses known as 'septons' and 'septa'. The faith is led by the High Septon of the Great Sept of Baelor in King's Landing and a ruling council known as the Most Devout. The Faith is traditionally intolerant of other religions but has mellowed due to the forced coexistence with the worshippers of the old gods.

The Drowned God
The ironborn worship a harsh deity known as the Drowned God, a deity which favours and allegedly rewards those who undertake reaving, war and plunder in his name. The most fanatical worshippers of the Drowned God are 'drowned' in salt water and, if worthy, are then revived by the Drowned God's priests.

R'hllor
R'hllor, the Lord of Light, is a god popular in Essos who is little-known in Westeros. According to the red priests, R'hllor is the guardian of humanity against darkness and the cold. He is a merciless god who often demands harsh sacrifices of his followers, but also rewards his true followers with power and life.

Animals
Westeros is home to several notable animal species:

Aurochs
A large, bovine animal. Used as a beast of burden and domesticated livestock, noted for their extreme size. When Dragons were extant in Westeros, the larger ones were known to hunt aurochs.

Dragons
Winged reptiles of tremendous age and ferocity, capable of breathing fire. Originated in the east and enslaved by the Valyrians, who used them to forge their empire. Most dragons were destroyed in the Doom four centuries ago, leaving the few possessed by House Targaryen as the only surviving dragons in the world, which they used in their invasion of Westeros. The last Targaryen dragons died over 150 years ago. The skulls of more than a dozen dragons are kept in the Red Keep.

Direwolves
A larger cousin of regular wolves, only found north of the Wall. In the south, they are considered near-mythical. Occasional sightings of direwolves have been reported by the Night's Watch, but at the time the series starts there have been no confirmed sightings south of the Wall for centuries.

Krakens
Massive cephalopods that stalk the world's oceans. So rare that they are largely held to be mythical, though sailors occasionally report seeing them. Taken as the sigil of House Greyjoy.

Shadowcats
A large feline predator, found throughout Westeros but most notably in mountainous terrain.

In the books
Westeros in the books is depicted much as in the TV series, though it is possible that the book version of the continent is slightly larger, as in the TV series it only takes a large party a month to get from Winterfell to King's Landing. In the book version, this would only be possible for a fast, single rider with frequent changes of mount.

In the novels the term 'Seven Kingdoms' is a much looser and more informal term. However, in the TV series it seems to be more codified and important, with emphasis given on the fact that the Riverlands are not considered part of the count.