History of Westeros

House Manderly: Part 1 – Blood of the Merling

…a thousand years ago… We explore the double backstory of House Manderly, the ancient realm in the south where they came to be, and the ancient realm in the north where they reside and prosper now. Find our second episode on House Manderly here.

Manderly Outline

Manderly Images

  • The Mander
    The Mander (Klaradox)
  • King's Landing
    King’s Landing
  • White Knife
    White Knife
  • Rhoyne
    Rhoyne
  • Asshai
    Asshai
  • Greenblood
    Greenblood
  • Oldtown
    Oldtown
  • Shield Islands
    Shield Islands
  • The Bite
    The Bite
  • Braavos
    Braavos
  • Northeast
    Northeast
  • Manderly Sigil (Eagle of Seagard)
  • Iron Islands
    Iron Islands
  • Merling King
    Merling King (Klaradox)

The Manderlys are no northmen, not down deep. ‘Twas no more than nine hundred years ago when they came north, laden down with all their gold and gods. They’d been great lords on the Mander until they overreached themselves and the green hands slapped them down. The wolf king took their gold, but he gave them land and let them keep their gods. – ADWD, Davos I

House Manderly Remembers

“I know about the promise,” insisted the girl. “Maester Theomore, tell them! A thousand years before the Conquest, a promise was made, and oaths were sworn in the Wolf’s Den before the old gods and the new. When we were sore beset and friendless, hounded from our homes and in peril of our lives, the wolves took us in and nourished us and protected us against our enemies. The city is built upon the land they gave us. In return we swore that we should always be their men. Stark men!” – Davos III, ADWD

https://youtu.be/OAWzfLEzDuI

Why We Love: The Animals of ASOIAF

Let’s talk about animals in ASOIAF! A live roundtable discussion centered around selected favorite animal-related quotes, plus an Ice & Fire Con ’18 chat! Ash is joined by Lady Gwyn (Radio Westeros), Haley (The Manimals & DrinkingGOT), Chloe (Girls Gone Canon, Drunk ASOIAF History) & Tara Lynne (The Geekiary, Ice & Fire Con). Listen to our other ‘Why We Love’ here.

The king was in no mood for more argument. “Enough, Ned, I will hear no more. A direwolf is a savage beast. Sooner or later it would have turned on your girl the same way the other did on my son. Get her a dog, she’ll be happier for it.” – AGOT, Eddard III

Animals in ASOIAF – Cats!

Her son was attended by his kittens. As she watched the cats frolic about his feet, Cersei felt a little better. No harm will ever come to Tommen whilst I still live. She would kill half the lords in Westeros and all the common people, if that was what it took to keep him safe. – AFFC, Cersei VIII

A Good Boy

He always slept better with the great white wolf beside him; there was comfort in the smell of him, and welcome warmth in that shaggy pale fur. – ACOK, Jon VII

https://youtu.be/GjTvk-D5AyA

Blackfyre Rebellions: Part 7 – Bloodraven

The first of THREE Bloodraven episodes and part 7 of our Blackfyre Rebellions series. This one covers the time from his birth until the death of King Daeron II.

Six years ago in King’s Landing, Dunk had seen him with his own two eyes, as he rode a pale horse up the Street of Steel with fifty Raven’s Teeth behind him. That was before King Aerys had ascended to the Iron Throne and made him the Hand, but even so he cut a striking figure, garbed in smoke and scarlet with Dark Sister on his hip. His pallid skin and bone-white hair made him look a living corpse. Across his cheek and chin spread a wine-stain birthmark that was supposed to resemble a red raven, though Dunk only saw an odd-shaped blotch of discolored skin. He stared so hard that Bloodraven felt it. The king’s sorcerer had turned to study him as he went by. He had one eye, and that one red. The other was an empty socket, the gift Bittersteel had given him upon the Redgrass Field. Yet it seemed to Dunk that both eyes had looked right through his skin, down to his very soul. Despite the heat, the memory made him shiver. – The Sworn Sword

Outline

Bloodraven Images

  • @Maryon_B
    @Maryon_B
  • @Maryon_B
    @Maryon_B
  • Abjiklam
    Abjiklam
  • Abjiklam & Eagle of Seagard
    Abjiklam & Eagle of Seagard
  • ProKriK
    ProKriK
  • WinryArts
    WinryArts
  • The Lady Rae
    The Lady Rae
https://youtu.be/1eGA7K3hWZ0

History on Blood and Fire w/ Daniele Bolelli

A special episode! This is a collaboration with Daniele Bolelli of the History on Fire podcast. We chat about a wide variety of real world historical influences on A Game of Thrones/ASOIAF.

“The Wall comes from Hadrian’s Wall, which I saw while visiting Scotland. I stood on Hadrian’s Wall and tried to imagine what it would be like to be a Roman soldier sent here from Italy or Antioch. To stand here, to gaze off into the distance, not knowing what might emerge from the forest. Of course fantasy is the stuff of bright colours and being larger than real life, so my Wall is bigger and considerably longer and more magical. And, of course, what lies beyond it has to be more than just Scots.”

Westeros and the UK (collab with Daniele Bolelli)

Westeros and the UK

Westeros and the UK Overlay

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5pMXb0FkGM

Aziz vs. AGOT Prologue

Originally posted to Patrons/Donors-only over a year ago, now available to all! The actual factual first chapter of the series, the AGOT prologue. Check out Aziz vs. ADWD Epilogue next!

You can also listen to our Valar Rereadis episode, recorded 3 years later!

He had been four years on the Wall. The first time he had been sent beyond, all the old stories had come rushing back, and his bowels had turned to water. He had laughed about it afterward. He was a veteran of a hundred rangings by now, and the endless dark wilderness that the southron called the haunted forest had no more terrors for him.

Until tonight. Something was different tonight. There was an edge to this darkness that made his hackles rise.

All day, Will had felt as though something were watching him, something cold and implacable that loved him not. Gared had felt it too. Will wanted nothing so much as to ride hellbent for the safety of the Wall, but that was not a feeling to share with your commander.

The Other halted. Will saw its eyes; blue, deeper and bluer than any human eyes, a blue that burned like ice. They fixed on the longsword trembling on high, watched the moonlight running cold along the metal.

A shadow emerged from the dark of the wood. It stood in front of Royce. Tall, it was, and gaunt and hard as old bones, with flesh pale as milk. Its armor seemed to change color as it moved; here it was white as new-fallen snow, there black as shadow, everywhere dappled with the deep grey-green of the trees. The patterns ran like moonlight on water with every step it took.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tb90uV9eNvI

The Crypts of Winterfell

Explore the dark and ancient past of House Stark and Winterfell. We discuss the crypts, statues, history, dreams, and Bael the Bard. Plus skinchangers, direwolves, dragons, the fires of the earth and so much more. So let’s descend into the crypts of Winterfell. Spooky~~~

Find the History of Westeros Facebook Group here. You can also join our Discord here.

Crypts Outline

The castle itself is peculiar in that the Starks did not level the ground when laying down the foundations and walls of the castle. Very likely, this reveals that the castle was built in pieces over the years rather than being planned as a single structure. Some scholars suspect that it was once a complex of linked ringforts, though the centuries have eradicated almost all evidence of this. – TWOIAF

By ancient custom an iron longsword had been laid across the lap of each who had been Lord of Winterfell, to keep the vengeful spirits in their crypts. The oldest had long ago rusted away to nothing, leaving only a few red stains where the metal had rested on stone. Ned wondered if that meant those ghosts were free to roam the castle now. He hoped not. The first Lords of Winterfell had been men hard as the land they ruled. – AGOT, Eddard I

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7amecNz4Kek

Blackfish

The past, present, and possible futures of Ser Brynden Tully of Riverrun, Knight of the Gate, called Blackfish.

During one of their louder quarrels, when Catelyn was eight, Lord Hoster had called Brynden “the black goat of the Tully flock.” Laughing, Brynden had pointed out that the sigil of their house was a leaping trout, so he ought to be a black fish rather than a black goat, and from that day forward he had taken it as his personal emblem. – AGOT, Catelyn VI

Blackfish Table of Contents

Even on his deathbed, Catelyn thought sadly. “He has not wed. You know that, Father. Nor will he ever.”

– AGOT, Catelyn XI

Nonetheless, during all those years of Catelyn’s girlhood, it had been Brynden the Blackfish to whom Lord Hoster’s children had run with their tears and their tales, when Father was too busy and Mother too ill. Catelyn, Lysa, Edmure … and yes, even Petyr Baelish, their father’s ward … he had listened to them all patiently, as he listened now, laughing at their triumphs and sympathizing with their childish misfortunes. – AGOT, Catelyn VI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4D8lysm-EI

Brynden Blackfish chuckled. “I am too old a soldier to believe that. Hoster will be chiding me about the Redwyne girl even as we light his funeral pyre, damn his bones.”

– AGOT, Catelyn XI

Game of Thrones: Pre-Season 7 & Con of Thrones LIVE Q&A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6_yUYSDApI

Sean, Aziz & Ashaya chat about Season 7 and Con of Thrones 2017! Listen on your podcast player of choice, otherwise go to the YouTube version. You can also find our full Con of Thrones album at our Facebook page here.

Drogo He Didn’t (Daenerys & The Targaryens!)
The Manimals
You’re Welcome Filks from Ice & Fire Con
Clegane Rap Battle from Ice & Fire Con

Blackfyre Rebellions: Part 6 – The Golden Company


Steven Attewell of Race for the Iron Throne returns. We discuss the 3rd and 4th Blackfyre Rebellions, the Golden Company, and a lot more Bittersteel. Check out our series on the Blackfyres here. Time to find out what is beneath the gold, in this episode on the Golden Company.

Credits

Michael Klarfeld (Klaradox) created our introduction, the Essos map, and the Bittersteel and Golden Company images. Dutchmogul created the cyvasse pieces used in the intro video. Joey Townsend does our intro music, and Jesse Kowal does our outro music. Thank you to them as well!

At first the magisters and archons and merchant princes were pleased to welcome the last Targaryens Blackfyres to their homes and tables, but as the years passed and the Usurper Falseborn continued to sit upon the Iron Throne, doors closed and their lives grew meaner. Years past they had been forced to sell their last few treasures. Now even the coin they had gotten from Mother’s crown had gone. In the alleys and wine sinks of Pentos Tyrosh, they called her brother “the beggar king.” Dany Calla did not want to know what they called her. – AGOT, Daenerys I

Bittersteel gathered exiled lords and knights, and their descendants, to him. He formed the Golden Company in 212 AC, and soon established it as the foremost free company of the Disputed Lands. “Beneath the gold, the bitter steel” became their battle cry, renowned across Essos. – TWOIAF

Ser Aegor Rivers was sixty-nine years of age when he fell, and it is said he died as he had lived, with a sword in his hand and a curse upon his lips. Yet his legacy would live on in the Golden Company and the Blackfyre line he had served and protected. – TWOIAF

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhmRi1U6Eyk

It ended far more quickly than the pretender might have wished, at the Battle of Wendwater Bridge. Afterward, the corpses of the Black Dragon’s slain choked the Wendwater and sent it overflowing its banks. The royalists, in turn, lost fewer than a hundred men. – TWOIAF

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