Glossary of the known world

The seat Aegon the Conqueror had forged from the surrendered swords of his enemies, softened by Balerion's fire. It stands in the throne room of the Red Keep, and since the Conquest the name means two things at once: the furniture and the power sitting on it. It is deliberately uncomfortable, and the court repeats it as a warning: a king should never sit easy.

In the atlas: Aegon I Targaryen · King's Landing · Balerion

The name of the united realm of Westeros, and a count that has never added up. Aegon conquered six of the seven kingdoms he found; Dorne’s lasting union came by marriage more than a century and a half later, with Daeron II wedded to the princess Myriah, and by then the name had stuck. The king’s style lists them differently —Andals, Rhoynar and First Men— which is the courteous way of not counting.

In the atlas: Aegon I Targaryen · Dorne

The first office of the realm after the king: the Hand speaks in his name, presides over the small council and may sit the throne when his lord is away. The post is given and taken back on the same day, and the history of the Seven Kingdoms is full of Hands who lasted less than their own ceremony. The court saying puts it plainly: what the king dreams, the Hand builds.

In the atlas: Tywin Lannister · Otto Hightower · King's Landing

Whoever governs in the name of a king who is under age, ill or absent. The regency of Aegon III passed through several hands, and one of its regents, Ser Corwyn Corbray, was shot dead by a crossbowman at Runestone while settling the succession of the Vale. That is the norm: a regent truly rules and inherits nothing, so the post attracts those in a hurry. The realm distinguishes carefully between ruling and reigning, and the distinction rarely helps.

In the atlas: Aegon III Targaryen

The handful of offices through which the realm is actually governed: the Hand, the Grand Maester, the masters of coin, ships, laws and whisperers, and the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard. It meets in the Red Keep and settles taxes, harvests, wars and weddings. Its members are the crown’s appointees, which is why every new king empties the table.

In the atlas: King's Landing · Tywin Lannister

The maester of the small council, chosen by the Conclave of the Citadel and sent to serve at court. He tends the king's health, keeps the ravens and writes down what the realm will remember. Being chosen by the Citadel and kept by the crown makes the post a bridge between two powers that do not always want the same thing.

In the atlas: Oldtown · King's Landing

The Stark title before the Conquest, when the North was a kingdom and not a region. Torrhen Stark laid it down when he bent the knee to Aegon —he has been the king who knelt ever since— and the northern crown comes back whenever the south stops being of use: the Kings of Winter, Robb Stark, and in 305 Sansa Stark, when the North separates by agreement rather than by battle.

In the atlas: House Stark of Winterfell · Winterfell · The North

The military command of one of the realm’s four marches: North, West, East and South. It usually goes with the lordship of the region —Warden of the North and Lord of Winterfell are the same man— but they are two different things, and the crown can split them, which is exactly what it does when it wants to punish a house without dispossessing it.

In the atlas: House Stark of Winterfell · House Lannister of Casterly Rock

Dorne keeps the style of prince where every other region has lords, and that is not a matter of protocol: it joined the realm by marriage rather than conquest, and so bargained to keep its own laws, its inheritance by eldest child regardless of sex, and its style. The title is the written proof of that bargain.

In the atlas: House Nymeros Martell of Sunspear · Dorne · Sunspear

The assembly of lords summoned when a succession is unclear and nobody wants to settle it with dragons. Jaehaerys I called the one of 101 at Harrenhal, his son Baelon already dead, and it named Viserys heir over Rhaenys; the one in 305 chose Bran Stark king of the Six Kingdoms and let the seventh go. Its rulings set precedent, and precedent becomes the argument of the next war.

In the atlas: Great Council of 101 · Great Council of 305 · Jaehaerys I Targaryen · Harrenhal

The title of the heir to the Iron Throne, taken from the island the Targaryens launched the Conquest from. Naming someone Prince of Dragonstone is a public declaration of the succession, which is why the title has started more than one war: Viserys I gave it to his daughter Rhaenyra, and half the realm chose not to notice.

In the atlas: Dragonstone · Rhaenyra Targaryen

The officer who keeps the crown’s accounts: customs, tolls, rents and, above all, debts. In a realm financed by foreign banks the post is less showy than the Hand’s and considerably harder to replace. An empty treasury has settled more successions than any tourney.

In the atlas: King's Landing

The officer in charge of the royal fleet. The post usually goes to a house that already owns ships —the Velaryons of Driftmark held the realm’s sea for generations— because a navy cannot be improvised by appointment. Whoever holds it controls the blockade of a bay, and with it half a war.

In the atlas: House Velaryon of Driftmark · Driftmark

The officer in charge of the king's justice: edicts, judges and gaols. In a realm where every lord judges within his own lands, the post exists so that the crown's law reaches further than the walls of King's Landing. It rarely reaches as far as it claims.

In the atlas: King's Landing

The king's spymaster, with an appointment and a salary. He keeps a web of informers —little birds, servants, merchants— reaching as far as the Free Cities, and his worth is measured in what he learns before anyone else. It is the only seat on the council whose work, done well, leaves no written trace.

In the atlas: King's Landing

A warrior anointed by the Faith of the Seven who has sworn to defend the weak and keep his vows. Any knight may knight another, so the title does not depend on birth and is the one door of advancement the realm leaves open to a man born without land. There are few in the North: the old gods anoint no one, and there a house’s fighting man needs no septon to become one.

In the atlas: Barristan Selmy · Davos Seaworth

The feast of arms with which a lord marks a wedding, a coronation or simply his own wealth: jousting, mêlée and archery, with prizes in gold that ruin whoever pays them. A tourney gathers half the nobility of the realm into one field, and so it is also where pacts are sealed, betrothals broken and more than one war begun.

In the atlas: Maidenpool Tourney · Harrenhal

Seven knights in white cloaks sworn for life to protect the king. They give up lands, titles and issue, and serve until death or until someone puts them aside, which is what makes every replacement a scandal. The White Book records what each of them did, and a single line can be all the memory a man leaves behind.

In the atlas: Barristan Selmy · Jaime Lannister

The order that garrisons the Wall, sworn for life and entitled to no lands, crown or children. It takes no side in the realm’s wars, and that neutrality is the only thing that has kept it standing for the eight thousand and more years the realm credits it with —the maesters distrust so round a figure—. The atlas pins four of its castles: Castle Black, the Shadow Tower, Eastwatch-by-the-Sea and the Nightfort.

In the atlas: The Wall · Castle Black · Shadow Tower · Eastwatch-by-the-Sea · Nightfort

The boy who serves a knight while learning the trade: he tends the horse, cleans the mail and follows him to war and to the tourney. It is also a form of schooling and of courteous hostage-taking, since a lord who raises another man’s son keeps a living guarantee inside his walls.

In the atlas: Podrick Payne

The head of a sworn order: there is one in the Kingsguard and another in the Night’s Watch, and they have nothing in common. The Kingsguard’s sits on the small council by right of office; the Watch’s is elected by his own brothers, and commands a castle, a wall and no privileges at all.

In the atlas: Jon Snow · Castle Black

The gold cloaks of King's Landing: the force that serves as police, as firefighters and, when it suits, as an army inside the walls. They are not knights and swear no lifelong oath, so their loyalty can be bought, and has been. Whoever commands the Watch decides which gate opens on the night of a siege.

In the atlas: King's Landing

The largest of the free companies of Essos, raised in the Free Cities by the exiled Blackfyres after the Redgrass Field, under the command of Aegor Rivers. For generations it was what kept the claim to the throne alive outside Westeros, and the atlas records it crossing the sea behind another Targaryen pretender and taking Griffin's Roost by night, in a matter of minutes.

In the atlas: House Blackfyre of King's Landing · Aegor Rivers · Redgrass Field · Griffin's Roost

The rippled, feather-light metal with an edge that never dulls, forged in Valyria with spells lost along with the Freehold. It is no longer made: it is inherited, reforged or stolen, and every blade still standing has a known name and a known owner —Ice was House Stark's, and beheadings were done with it—. A Valyrian steel sword is the costliest thing a house can own, and losing one is a humiliation that lasts for centuries.

In the atlas: Valyria · House Stark of Winterfell

The accused’s right to have his guilt decided by arms rather than by judges, on the belief that the gods grant victory to the innocent. He may fight in person or name a champion, which turns the procedure into a question of who can pay whom. The Faith tolerates it, and maesters have been writing against it for centuries.

In the atlas: Trial by combat of Tyrion Lannister · Tyrion Lannister

The military order of the Faith, made up of highborn knights who swore to serve the Seven before any king. With the Poor Fellows it was its armed strength, and the clash with the crown was settled by the sword: in the year 42 they challenged Maegor I to a trial of seven, and the fight ended with every one of their champions dead. Afterwards they went on killing those who had served the king.

In the atlas: Maegor I Targaryen

The green substance made by the alchemists' guild of King's Landing, which burns on anything, water included. It is kept in clay jars that age badly, so a forgotten cache under the city is a bomb with an unknown date. The alchemists say their brewing went better while dragons lived, and offer no explanation.

In the atlas: King's Landing

The band that rose in the Riverlands during the War of the Five Kings and kept fighting afterwards, with no lord and no banner. It fights for none of the kings: it claims to fight for the smallfolk of the rivers, who are the ones every side burns alike.

In the atlas: War of the Five Kings · Riverlands

The Andal form of trial by combat: seven champions on each side, in honour of the seven gods. It is rare and expensive —thirteen men must be found who will die for someone else’s quarrel— and so it is hardly ever called; when it happens, it is remembered for generations.

In the atlas: Trial of Seven at Ashford

The condition of a child born outside marriage, who inherits nothing unless the king legitimises him. The law treats bastardy as a stain and custom treats it worse: treachery is assumed in a bastard the way eye colour is. A king can wipe it away with a signature, and that signature has started wars lasting generations.

In the atlas: Jon Snow · House Blackfyre of King's Landing

A house that swears loyalty to another and owes it men when it calls its banners. Allegiance is the whole structure of the realm: the Karstarks answer to the Starks, the Starks to the Throne, and whoever breaks one rung breaks the chain. In this atlas allegiance is a catalogue field, which is why it can be walked house by house.

In the atlas: House Stark of Winterfell · House Tully of Riverrun

A house’s coat of arms, described in heraldic terms: a field, charges and tinctures. It is not a drawing but a formula —“A running grey direwolf, on an ice-white field”— that any painter may render his own way. The atlas keeps the written blazon of 352 of its 480 houses, and takes from it the colour it paints the map’s domains with.

In the atlas: House Stark of Winterfell · House Lannister of Casterly Rock

The man who governs a castle while its lord is away: he administers it, dispenses minor justice and answers for the garrison. It is not a hereditary title and gives no claim to the seat, and that difference matters enormously when the lord takes years to come back from a war.

In the atlas: Winterfell

The rite in which the guests carry the newlyweds to bed amid jokes and torn clothes. It is an Andal custom and a legal act at once: the witnesses certify that the marriage was consummated, and an unconsummated marriage can be undone. The couple may refuse, and refusing has its own price in gossip.

In the atlas: Red Wedding

The lady the winner of a joust crowns with a garland from horseback. It is a courtesy and, depending on whom he crowns, a public declaration nobody can pretend not to have seen: half the scandals of the court begin with flowers laid in the wrong lap.

In the atlas: Maidenpool Tourney · Rhaenyra Targaryen

The custom of raising another house’s child in one’s own castle, to learn arms and letters away from his mother. It weaves loyalties between families and, when the crown imposes it, provides a hostage who is called a ward. Both things are true at once, and everyone knows it.

In the atlas: Winterfell

The motto a house carries beneath its arms and quotes the way one quotes a law. Hardly any of them is a boast: “Winter is Coming” is a warning, “Ours is the Fury” a threat and “Hear Me Roar!” a promise to collect. All three are copied from the catalogue, which keeps the words of the 68 houses that have them, in both languages.

In the atlas: House Stark of Winterfell · House Baratheon of Storm's End · House Lannister of Casterly Rock

Each region gives its acknowledged bastards a surname of its own, taken from the landscape: Snow in the North, Rivers in the Riverlands, Stone in the Vale, Hill in the West, Flowers in the Reach, Storm in the Stormlands, Sand in Dorne, Pyke in the Iron Islands and Waters in the Crownlands. The surname acknowledges the child and marks him at the same time, which is precisely the point. The atlas catalogue holds 42 people carrying one of them, close to half of those Rivers.

In the atlas: Jon Snow · Dorne

The scholar trained at the Citadel who serves a house as physician, tutor, steward and keeper of ravens. He gives up land, title and family when he forges his chain, and that renunciation is what is supposed to guarantee his loyalty to the castle rather than to his own blood. A maester usually knows more about a house than the house does.

In the atlas: Oldtown

The ordained of the Faith: a septon officiates, marries, anoints knights and gives the last rites; a septa teaches the daughters of a house their letters, needlework and doctrine. Many great castles keep both on the payroll, which makes the Faith part of the nobility’s household staff and its uncomfortable conscience at once.

In the atlas: Oldtown

The collar a maester forges link by link, one for each discipline he masters: iron for warcraft, silver for healing, yellow gold for sums, Valyrian steel for the higher mysteries. The chain can be read at a glance, so a maester wears his record around his neck and cannot inflate it.

In the atlas: Oldtown

The school of the maesters, in Oldtown: the largest library in Westeros and the only place in the known world where learning is organised and examined. From it come the maesters, the Grand Maester and much of the chronicle this atlas cites, with the bias that implies.

In the atlas: Oldtown

The majority religion of Westeros, brought by the Andals: one god with seven faces —Father, Mother, Maiden, Crone, Smith, Warrior and Stranger— one for each part of a life. Its head is the High Septon, and its oldest house stands in Oldtown: the Starry Sept, paid for with Hightower money. The North never fully took it, and in Dorne it lives alongside Rhoynish custom.

In the atlas: Oldtown · Dorne · The North

The temple of the Faith: seven walls, seven altars and an image for each face of the god. They range from the size of a castle chapel to the size of a cathedral, and the greatest of them all, in the capital, was raised to be seen from the far bank of the river.

In the atlas: King's Landing · Stoney Sept

The white tree with red leaves and sap like blood, in which the First Men carved faces so their gods could watch. The godswoods of the North keep theirs, and Winterfell's is the one that comes up most often in this atlas's prose: the Night's Watch takes its vows before a weirwood, and it is through Winterfell's that Bran Stark sees.

In the atlas: Winterfell

The Lord of Light, god of a religion from Essos that teaches a world split in two: light against darkness, with nothing in between. Its priests read omens in the flames and practise sacrifice by fire, and its arrival in Westeros coincides with the wars at the end of the third century.

In the atlas: Melisandre · Dragonstone

The religion of the First Men, learned from the children of the forest: nameless gods with no temples and no books, prayed to before a weirwood with a carved face. It has no clergy, and so no doctrine and no army, and it survived north of the Neck precisely because there was nothing in it to conquer.

In the atlas: Winterfell · The North

The western continent of the known world, from the Sunset Sea to the Narrow Sea and from the Lands of Always Winter to Dorne. The Seven Kingdoms hold its southern half; the rest is what lies beyond the Wall. In this atlas’s catalogue Westeros is not an entity with an entry but the frame almost every pinned place falls inside.

In the atlas: The Wall · Dorne · The North

The peoples living north of the Wall, who call themselves free because they kneel to no lord. South of the Wall they are called wildlings, and the two words name the same people from incompatible points of view: this atlas uses the one they use for themselves when speaking of them.

In the atlas: The Wall

The two sides of the Dance of the Dragons: the blacks for Rhaenyra, the greens for Aegon II, led by the dowager queen Alicent and her father Otto Hightower from King’s Landing. The split predates the war —by 127 they were already fighting over who would be Grand Maester— and it went on to break the realm from 129 to 131. On this atlas’s map those three years are painted by side and not by holder: by holder, every house would be a different colour and the war would vanish from the drawing.

In the atlas: Dance of the Dragons · Rhaenyra Targaryen · Aegon II Targaryen

The nine city-states of western Essos, almost all founded by Valyria and all independent since the Doom. They trade, they lend and they hire sellswords, and their quarrels have decided wars in Westeros without a single Westerosi setting foot there.

In the atlas: Valyria

Everything north of the wall of ice: the Haunted Forest, the Lands of Always Winter, the Milkwater. It is not empty land —the free folk live there, and the giants, and whatever is supposed to be further north— but lordless land, which is why the realm’s maps draw it almost blank.

In the atlas: The Wall

Those who are neither lords nor knights: farmers, craftsmen, fishermen, servants. They are the overwhelming majority of the realm’s people and hardly any of them appear in the chronicles by name, because the chronicles are written by castle maesters. When they are named it is usually to count how many died.

In the atlas: King's Landing

The alliance of three Free Cities —Myr, Lys and Tyrosh— that joined to clear the Stepstones of pirates and then kept the passage. Controlling those islets means controlling the toll between two seas, which is what turns an archipelago of rocks into a matter of international politics.

In the atlas: Stepstones

Someone who has ridden a dragon and lived. The bond is one to one and lasts the rider’s life: a dragon that has borne a rider seldom takes another while the first lives. Nearly all of them have been of Valyrian blood, and the Dance proved that nearly is not the same as all.

In the atlas: House Targaryen of King's Landing · Vhagar · Dance of the Dragons