Inside Game Of Thrones

Episode 2

The series is set in a universe Pa George calls “The Known World” and consists of three continents: Westeros, Essos and Valyria. Citizens of Westeros don’t call their home by that name, they call it The Seven Kingdoms. It’s those from outside that call it Westeros.
According to Wikipedia, the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros are: The North, the Iron Islands, the Vale, the Westerlands, the Stormlands, the Reach, and Dorne.

Essos also goes by another name: the nine free cities. These cities are: Norvos, home of the Norvosh; Lorath, home of the Lorathi; Qohor, home of the Qohoric; Volantis, home of the Volantene; Braavos, home of the Braavosi; Lys, home of the Lysene; Myr, home of the Myrish; Tyrosh, home of the Tyroshi and Pentos, home of the Pentoshi(which, for some reason I don’t understand, always brings to my mind a medieval Chinese master sitting cross-legged on the floor and stroking his long black beard).

Valyria, the final continent, is home to the original Targayens who were called Valyrians and who held dominion over most of the free cities.

The seven kingdoms are like one very, very big kingdom since it is ruled by one king. Back when the Seven Kingdoms were actually seven kingdoms, it was home to a race called the First Men. That was until the Targayens came across the Narrow Sea— which is to them what the Atlantic Ocean is to us —and conquered it.

You might be wondering, if the First Men were so easy to defeat, why couldn’t the people of theninefree cities come and conquer it instead of people from one ordinary city? The reason is because the Targayens of Valyria had something that no one else had: dragons.

Aegon The Conqueror— a Valyrian —along with his two sisters Rhaenys and Visenya actually flew across the Narrow Sea with their dragons Balerion, Meraxes and Vhagar, bringing the might of fire-breathing beasts on the people of the seven kingdoms. Balerion, more widely known as “the Black Dread” was by far the biggest of the three and, as the name suggests, had coal-black skin.

So, they took over the seven kingdoms, took a place they called Dragonstone as their home in Westeros, and established their lineage to rule as king from a place called King’s Landing, capital of the seven kingdoms.
Too much information? You know I like breaking things down a lot, so let’s see if we can make it simple.

Think of Westeros as Nigeria. The seven kingdoms are the thirty-six states and are headed by Lords, same way each state has a governor who is still under the dominion of the President at the end of the day. The capital of Westeros is King’s Landing and is the seat of the kings, same thing as Abuja. That doesn’t mean the kings actually come from King’s Landing. Just as Buhari is from Katsina State, the real home of the Targayens is Dragonstone.

The only difference is that they don’t elect their kings as we do our presidents. The Targayens are the kings, since their ancestors were the conquerors.

You understand it now, abi? Alright, let’s go on.

All the Great Houses— as each of the seven “kingdoms” as well as lesser Lordships are called —swear fealty to the Iron Throne, an infamous throne made out of the swords of fallen rulers of the seven kingdoms and forged in the breath of Balerion the Black Dread, literal seat of the kings of the seven kingdoms.

Now, about Essos. The reason the cities of that continent are called “Free Cities” is because that is exactly what they are. As I have already mentioned, many of those cities were conquered by the Valyrians, but regained their freedom in the destruction of Valyria that also wiped out all Valyrians.
I’ve already talked about the seven kingdoms. What can I say about the nine free cities? Not that much, actually, but I can say what I know about some of the cities. Braavos is famous for being home to the best assasins in all of the known world: the Faceless Men. Those in Westeros have a saying that if you hire a faceless man to kill someone, then that person is already dead.