westeros

Westeros is a 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. The continent is home to two sovereign states: the Kingdom of the North, which regained independence following the civil war in 305 AC, and the Six Kingdoms, which covers the southern half of the continent, holds fealty to the King of the Andals and the First Men, who ancestrally sat on the Iron Throne in the city of King's Landing before its destruction. The terms "Seven Kingdoms" and "Westeros" were normally used interchangeably before the northern secession. People or things from Westeros are referred to as "Westerosi".

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 shares similar geography and geometry to the real-life isle of Great Britain, and is narrow, about 900 miles wide at its widest point, but long, extending for almost 2,000 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.

Ironically, despite retaining the moniker of "Seven Kingdoms", now Six, there are actually nine distinct regions in Westeros controlled by the Iron Throne - the Riverlands and Crownlands were never their own kingdoms. Each region, except the Crownlands, is ruled by a Great House, who in turn are commanded by the King on the Iron Throne in the capital. Additionally, the vast and largely uninhabited tenth region of the continent lies beyond the Wall.

The regions shown in the series are:

Twelve thousand years ago, Westeros was inhabited by the diminutive 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 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.

Two thousand years after the Pact, 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, known as 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 the North with himself as the first King in the North. Two thousand years later, the Andals invaded Westeros from across the Narrow Sea, landing in the Vale of Arryn 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 the continent Essos), fell into warfare with the mighty Valyrian Freehold. The Valyrians destroyed the Rhoynar cities using dragons. Nymeria, warrior-princess of the Rhoynar, led her people across the Summer Sea in ten thousand ships to land in Dorne. Making an alliance with King Mors Martell of Sunspear, Nymeria conquered the myriad small kingdoms and lordships of Dorne to establish a powerful, proud and independent principality (though a kingdom in all but name).

Four centuries ago, Valyria was destroyed in a volcanic cataclysm named the Doom. A century later, the scions of House Targaryen, the last Valyrian noble family and the last with dragons, who ruled the Valyrian trading outpost on the island of Dragonstone, invaded Westeros with a small army and three dragons. Aegon Targaryen accepted the fealty of six kingdoms and forged the Iron Throne, while several generations later his descendants were able to bring Dorne into the union through a peaceful alliance, hence the term "Seven Kingdoms".

For centuries the Seven Kingdoms have been shaped by war and rebellion. However, through civil wars and the loss of their dragons to time and conflict, the Targaryens ruled for over 280 years with relative peace and stability until the actions of the “Mad King,” Aerys II Targaryen, who triggered the civil war known as Robert's Rebellion. At the end of this civil war, Aerys and most of his family were slain and his surviving children, Viserys and Daenerys Targaryen, fled into exile to the Free Cities. Robert Baratheon took the throne and at the start of the series had ruled for seventeen years.

For a more detailed history of Westeros, visit here.