To the Game of Thrones Fans, a Question:

[fenderlove]

I haven't had a chance to read A Song of Fire and Ice yet. I bought it, and I hope that the end of the semester will finally give me time to read it. I have a question that came to mind today while I was doing a bit of writing... Do the people of Westeros have names for the days of the week? If so, what are they?

It seems like George R. R. Martin has done a very good job of world-building (I watched the clip about the religions of GOT on YouTube and was very impressed-- Thanks, shipperx, for linking it a while back!), and I just started thinking about what it takes to build a world from the ground up. I pondered J. R. R. Tolkien for a while too. How do you even name things? How do the people of that world mark the hours? What do they call the months of the year? Do they even have a twelve month cycle? It's astoundingly complex to even begin to try to do. I think sometimes it's easier, in a way, to base things in a half-normal reality setting, like J. K. Rowling or C. S. Lewis. As I was taking a few moments to write in-between my office hours and class, I began to realize that I wish I could be one of these initial-s'appeler'd fantasy writers. I need better initials first... or, you know, actually write something fit for publication. XD

Comments

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

They definitely have other places and a history that backs up their politics. I vaguely remember the history as being that Westeros was originally populated by "The Children of the Forest" who worshipped the trees. The were invaded by a group of whose country of origin I've forgotten but who are sometimes refered to as "The First Men" that forcing The Children of the Forest to retreat ever northward over several decades. Early settlers/ionvaders adopted the ways of "The Children of the Forest" were also driven North. Some of these early settlers make up "The Northmen" which are The Starks and their vassals. That's why "The North" still have adherents to the old religion, inheireted from "The Children of the Forest." Others from this group were "The Wildlings" who are related but where North of the Wall when it was constructed. Wildlings are human (again, they call themselves 'The Free Folk' who bow to no king), they are just considered to be uncivilized by those of Westeros.

Most of all of this is ancient history that it's mostly legend to the characters in the story. The Wall (300ft high wall of ice) was built in the distant past to wall out "The Wight Walkers", grumpkins, snarks, giants, and mamoths, etc. These are mostly considered scary tales to tell children. But they do still man the wall, though the attitude in 'current' Westeros is that everything but the Wildlings are either dead or myth.

I become comfused between The Vandals and The First Men and whether there's another name that I forget about, but one of these invaders groups comes off in 'Westeros history' as having been quite Roman Empire-like. This ancient Roman(like) empire was destroyed by fire (volcanoes so think Santorini-like/Pompeii-like disasters) in "the great cataclysm" that brought about the dark ages. Under that old empire, Westeros was an outpost. Many of the Free Cities of Essos share this common heritage in the far distant past. But each city-state is somewhat unique. Pentos, for example, seems to be extremely wealthy and vaguely Mediterranean in nature. Braavos comes off a great deal like Venice when it was a Rennaisance city-state. On the other hand places like Qarth (an oasis city in the middle of "The Red Waste" desert) seems far more middle eastern whereas Mereen with its pyramids has an almost an Egyptian flair.

After the downfall of the ancient Roman-like empire, there was a second invading force of Westeros which is basically the origin of the Targaryen family. They were conqerors who had dragons. The Targaryens ruled Westeros for a 1000 years. They know that dragons were once real because they have skeletons of them that they keep on display ala dinosaurs, but the dragons became ever smaller and more rare over generations until they too died out hundred(s?) of years earlier. Targaryens however, remained obsessed with their relation to dragons and the 'mad king' was obsessed with the thought that he could bring them back.

It was the Targaryens that conquered/united the 7 Kingdoms of Westeros (some being more united than others.) It's somewhat difficult to figure out what some of the kingdoms were, especially in the South which seems to have been united longer than the rest. The North was an independent kingdom until relatively recently. The Iron Islands was as well. Of even more tenuous connection is Dorne which seems to function almost independently and is the least 'Westerosi" of them all (to the point that they haven't even been involved in the story to this point in the television series).

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

The Mad King was overthrown a generation earlier by an alliance of House Stark (Kings in the North) and House Baratheon iduring "King Robert's Rebellion". Robert Baratheon became king (although it's implied that Ned Stark could have been but didn't want to be). Robert's rule held the kingdoms united (although the Iron Islands did try to rebell). And all of the Targaryens were killed in the uprising (except a few that you meet over the course of the novels, the most prominent being Princess/Queen/Khaleesi Daenerys Targaryen(icon) who was born and has lived her entire life in exhile "across the narrow sea".

During all time time since 'the ancients' magic has been on the wane. In fact, I'd say that most Westerosi don't believe in the existence of magic and consider things associated with it to be sheer superstition. Which is where the books start. However, the reader realizes from the beginning of the novels that the Wight Walkers are real mosters who appear to have the ability to raise the dead into a zombie-esque army. And one Targaryen is actually successful in bringing dragons back to the world. Whether this is cause or effect, who knows, but magic slowly seems to be on the rise.

And with King Robert's death... absolutely everything begins to come unravelled...