SA Girl Gamers: Game of Thrones Infographics and Maps

The infographics in this post are based mainly on the HBO series ‘Game of Thrones’ but go a long way in keeping track of everything while reading the ‘A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin’ books - or so I found.

Continue reading to view the infographics that make it all make sense…

Let’s differentiate first before we get to the good stuff...

Game of Thrones (TV series)

Game of Thrones is an American medieval fantasy television series created for the U.S. channel HBO by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss. It is an adaptation ofA Song of Ice and Fire, George R. R. Martin's series of fantasy novels.

The series, set in the fictional continents of Westeros and Essos at the end of a decade-long summer, interweaves several plot lines. The first follows the members of several noble houses in a civil war for the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms; the second covers the rising threat of the impending winter and the mythical creatures of the North; the third chronicles the attempts of the exiled last scion of the realm's deposed dynasty to reclaim the throne. Through its morally ambiguous characters, the series explores issues of social hierarchy, religion, civil war, sexuality, crime and punishment.

The series roughly follows the multiple storylines of the A Song of Ice and Fire series, and George R. R. Martin said that the show's pilot script was very faithful to his work. Set in the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, Game of Thrones chronicles the violent dynastic struggles among the kingdom's noble families for control of the Iron Throne; as the series opens, additional threats from the snow and ice covered region north of Westeros and from the eastern continent, Essos, across a narrow sea are simultaneously beginning to rise.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_of_Thrones_(TV_series)

A Song of Ice and Fire(Novel Series by George R. R. Martin)

A Song of Ice and Fire is a series of epic fantasy novels written by American novelist and screenwriter George R. R. Martin.

The story of A Song of Ice and Fire takes place in a fictional world where seasons may last for years. Centuries before the events of the first novel, the Seven Kingdoms on the continent Westeros were united under several generations of the Targaryen dynasty, who wielded the power of fire-breathing dragons until their apparent extinction. The last Targaryen king was killed in a rebellion of feudal lords led by a young Robert Baratheon some fourteen years before the events of the first novel. The books' present follows various viewpoint characters spread across divergent lands as winter is approaching.

The main story chronicles a many-sided power struggle for the Iron Throne of Westeros after King Robert's death in the first book, A Game of Thrones. Robert's sonJoffrey immediately claims the Iron Throne with the support of his mother's powerful family, the immensely wealthy House Lannister. When Lord Eddard Stark, King Robert's "Hand" (chief advisor), is executed after finding out Joffrey and his siblings were in fact not sired by Robert, Robert's brothers Stannis and Renly individually lay claim on the throne. Meanwhile, several regions of Westeros seek to return to self-rule: Eddard Stark's eldest son Robb is proclaimed King in the North, while Balon Greyjoy re-establishes an independent Kingdom in his region, the Iron Islands. This so-called War of the Five Kings is in full progress by the middle of the second book,A Clash of Kings, with more people gradually joining the struggle for power.

The second story takes place on the northern border of Westeros, where an enormous, eight-thousand years old wall of ice defends Westeros from the Others, creatures believed to be mythical at the start of the series. The Wall's sentinels, the Sworn Brotherhood of the Night's Watch, are spending most of their time dealing with the human wildlings living beyond the Wall when the first Others appear in A Game of Thrones. The Night's Watch story is told primarily through the eyes of Jon Snow, alleged bastard son of Eddard Stark, as he rises through the ranks of the Watch and learns the true nature of the threat from the north. With the third volume, A Storm of Swords, this story becomes entangled with the civil war to the south when Stannis moves to the Wall to protect the realm from the threat of invasion and simultaneously win the favor of the northern strongholds. In the fifth book, A Dance with Dragons, Joffrey's younger brother Tommen holds the Iron Throne, with his mother and later his uncle serving as his regents as the first snowflakes reach their regal domicile at King's Landing.

The third story is set on a huge eastern continent named Essos and follows the adventures of Daenerys Targaryen, the last known scion of House Targaryen. Her story is isolated from the others until more POV characters join her in A Dance with Dragons. Living in exile on Essos, Daenerys's adventures show her growing ability as she rises from a pauper sold into a dynastic marriage to a barbarian warlord, to a powerful and canny ruler. Her rise is aided by the birth of three dragons from fossilized dragon eggs given to her as wedding gifts. With a three-headed dragon as her family's coat of arms, these creatures are of symbolic value to her before they grow big enough to be of tactical use for her goal of reclaiming the Iron Throne.

Novels in this series:

1. A Game of Thrones
2. A Clash of Kings
3. A Storm of Swords
4. A Feast for Crows
5. A Dance with Dragons
6. The Winds of Winter (Forthcoming)
7. A Dream of Spring (Forthcoming)

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Song_of_Ice_and_Fire