V) A Song of Ice and Fire: Social Hierarchy, Institutions and Organisations part 1

In this article I will discuss the numerous institutions that can be found in Westeros. I will not mention or detail the ones in Essos nor will I mention them all. To help you understand how this feudal society works, you also need to have a good representation of the hierarchy and the social classes.

Feudal System

Westeros' feudal system is very similar to medieval Europe and its structure is composed by social classes.

The common people: also called smallfolk, they represent the largest social class but also the bottom of the ladder. They work the lands of a lord ( and sometimes a landed knight ) and dispose of various rights and laws protecting them from life's mistreatment. The men can be raised as levies by their liege lord should he be at war or should his own liege call his banners. Despite a commoner will certainly remain in this social class his whole life, some of them can be knighted for great deed or service. In general, smallfolk are farmers, craftsmen,...etc

The knights: Though being knighted is not always synonym of wealth or power, they posses a social status higher than the common people. Knighthood is a tradition proper to the Andal culture and generally a knight follows the Faith of the Seven. Once a man is knighted, he is granted the title of Ser and depending of his family name, wealth and renown he will be sworn to a lord, hold lands or seek a master his entire life. The traditional way to become a knight is to serve an anointed knight as a page then a squire. Should the squire be worthy of the title “ Ser “ at the minimum of the age of 16 ( legal majority for both men and women in the Seven Kingdoms ), a knight place his sword on the squire's shoulder who will henceforth be asked to keep virtues of knighthood ( defend the weak, be just,...Etc ). A more traditional ceremony also exist, consisting of standing a night before the Warrior in a sept but a man can be knighted any time if he is worthy, on the field of battle for example. A knight can be granted a land and thus rule over it as a lord would but they have less rights concerning justice for example. Landless knights are often sworn to a noble house, serving as a captain of the guard or accompanying his master in battle. Some other knights though are not rich enough and wander through the Seven Kingdoms in hope of temporary finding a master, they are called hedge knights.

They are less knights in the North and in the Iron Islands since they generally do not follow the Faith of the Seven but it does not mean that men are not just as honourable and just as the Southerners. If the tradition wants the knight to be virtuous, oaths can easily be forgotten and some knights are remembered to have shame knighthood and their name.

The Lords: The title of Lord is given to the head of a noble house who rules the familial lands. It is an hereditary title generally given to the oldest son, sometimes the oldest daughter or the next of kin. Lords are sometimes vassals to an other lord ( who can also be a vassal of higher lord ) and can themselves have vassals. Some houses are very powerful and wealthy when some are poorer than a landed knight. Several houses are also known to hold honorary titles making them, if not more powerful, more respected. The Lords Paramount only answer to the King and rule the nine regions of Westeros and some of them were kings before the Aegon Targaryen's conquest. Poor or rich, it is a lord's duty to keep the king's peace and justice over their lands.

The King: The king answers to no one and rule the Seven Kingdoms from the Iron Throne in King's Landing until his death. Despite having all powers, the King needs to keep the support of both the nobles and the smallfolk. A council ( the Small Council ) appointed by the King is charged to help him during his reign, generally high-born councillors but it happened through history that commoners or members of minor houses were raised to the Small Council.

In the next article, we will talk about the Citadell, the Kingsguard, the Sellsword Companies,...Etc

IV) A Song of Ice and Fire: A brief history of religions and cultures of Westeros

Religion is an important element of the world in A Song of Ice and Fire and define the different cultures present in the main continent of Westeros and the eastern Essos. The religions are also a good way to learn and understand the legacy of the cultures and ethnic groups from which the populations are descending from. I will first talk about Westeros and then about Essos which will be a good way to introduce this eastern continent.

Westeros

The first inhabitants were the Children of the Forest. This non-human and magical race is now extinct but they are the natives of Westeros. Some 12,000 years before Aegon's Landing, the First Men came from across the Narrow Sea ( the sea that separates Westeros and Essos ). The First Men brought with them steel, bronze and iron weapons and tools and soon started to cut down the trees of Westeros. The Children's way of life was close to nature, they lived in the woods, believed in the trees and this invasion of men quickly became a threat to their existence. It is said that the Children tried to stop the First Men with their magic by flooding the swampy region of the Neck ( among other examples ) but in vain and it finally ended in a war.

The Children of the Forest and the First Men reached terms of coexistence where the Children kept their forests. For thousand of years the two races lived in peace until the War of the Dawn where the Others tried to invade Westeros ( see my previous article ). They fought side by side against these demons and eventually won the war thus the bonds between the Children and the First Men grew stronger. It is during this peaceful coexistence that the Children of the Forest taught their neighbours their faith in the “ Old Gods “, the gods of trees, rivers, mountains and nature.

The Old Gods have no names, no representations. There are not worshipped in churches nor in temples but with a Weirwood. The Weirwoods have blood-red leaves and a white trunk with ( for most of them ) a face carved in it by the Children or the First Men and their descendants. The sap is as red as the leaves and when it weeps from the weirwood's eyes, it looks like the tree bleeds.

The faith of the Old Gods is the predominant religion in the North and most Northerners are direct descendants of the First Men like House Stark who is one of the oldest family of Westeros.

While the Children of the Forest and the First Men lived together in a relative harmony, the natives slowly started to prepare their retreat from the world. The brothers of the Night's Watch reported that they went in the harsh lands of beyond the wall and were given obsidian daggers to help protect the world should a new Others' invasion happen.

6,000 years after the arrival of the First Men in Westeros, a new human invasion threatened the First Men's Kingdoms and the remaining Children of the Forest, the Andals. Following King Hugor of the Hill after a divine apparition, the Andals left Essos and set foot in the Vale. They brought with them the Faith of the Seven and started several centuries of bloodshed against the First Men and the Children. The Andals chopped down most of the weirwoods and slaughtered the Old Gods followers. They eventually conquered Westeros except the North.

The Andals' culture ( language, writing ) spread across all Westeros and is now the main ethnic group in all Westeros ( with the exceptions of the North, the Iron Islands and Dorne ).

During the Andal invasion, the Children of the Forest disappeared and broke all relations with humans, they have not been seen for thousands of years.

The Faith of the Seven has become the principal belief in Westeros. The followers built temples dedicated to the Seven called septry and the clergymen ( and women ) are the septons and septas. An order of Silent Sisters is charged to prepare the dead for their funerals. They are bound to serve the Stranger and have taken a vow of eternal silence and chastity. The warriors of the Faith of the Seven created the tradition of knighthood.

The Seven are in fact of single god but with seven faces, three males, three females and the last who is neither male nor female. The faces are the Father Above ( justice ), the Warrior ( courage, victory in battle ), the Smith ( strength at work ), the Mother Above ( love, fertility, compassion ), the Maiden ( virtue, innocence ), the Crone ( wisdom ) and finally the Stranger who is death and the unknown.

The head of the faith is the High Septon and is elected by the Most Devout ( a council of septons and septas ). Several military companies also exist.

When they invaded Westeros, the First Men also conquered the Iron Islands. These settlers created their own religion, the Drowned God. The Ironmen ( also called Ironborn ) are a harsh and violent people and so is their god. In their belief, the Ironmen live for plunder and piracy and remain close to the sea. When one of them die, it is said that he has been called by He Who Dwells Beneath the Waves ( the Drowned God ) to feast with mermaids in the underwater halls. Though they do not worship him, the Ironmen also believe in the existence of the Storm God, the Drowned God's eternal foe who are at war since forever. The baptism in the Iron Islands is a ritual of drowning and then resurrection leaded by the Drowned Men ( priests ). Since Aegon's Landing, the Ironmen are subjects of the Iron Throne and must live in the King's Justice which mean that they had to give up the “ Old Way “. The Old Way is their tradition of plunder and piracy. They used to captured the women of the green lands to take them as “ Salt wives “ ( concubines ) and the men as slaves. The Old Way is not authorized inside the Iron Throne Kingdom but the Ironmen can keep their traditions elsewhere ( which mean they can raid the lands of Essos for example ).

The Drowned God is a deity disliked outside the Iron Islands but the Old Gods and the Faith of the Seven followers managed to put aside their religious differences and it is no more a source of tension in Westeros. In the North, where the majority of the people believe in the Old Gods, you can find many septs for the Faith of the Seven as well as many cities and castles in the South keep a Weirwood. House Manderly, Lords of White Harbor in the North is a good example of ethnic coexistence. Centuries ago, House Manderly was driven away from their lands in the Reach, they fled North and were welcomed by the Starks who gave them lands but they never abandoned the Faith of the Seven and are still Southerners.

III) A Song of Ice and Fire : The Wall and the Night's Watch

In the last article I talked about The Wall and briefly mentioned what it is but its history and purpose is very important and deserves a dedicated article. Those of you who watch the show may know some of the functions for the Wall such as defense,but it is also home to the Night's Watch... a brotherhood sworn to protect the Seven Kingdoms from the Wildlings population.

History and appearance

Some eight thousands years before the War of the Conquest, Westeros suffered a terrible winter that lasted many years. During this winter, a darkness fell across all Westeros ( and even the East ) for a generation. This period is known as the Long Night. In this darkness the Others came from the far North , a demonic race of humanoids

The native population of Westeros, the Children of the Forest ( who are reputedly extinguished ) allied with the First Men ( humans coming from the east who settled in Westeros, the northerners are their descendants ) and defeated them during the War of the Dawn. This may seem difficult to understand, if you don't it does not really matter. You can still search for more detailed article about the Children of the Forest, the First Men and the Long Night on A Wiki of Ice and Fire.

In order to prevent any other invasion from the Others. Brandon “ the Builder “ Stark ( the supposed founder of House Stark ) decided to raise a Wall between the North and the far North. A 300 miles long and 700 feet high fortification made of ice ( and maybe magic ) with nineteen castles to garrisoned the brothers of the Night's Watch. Some tunnels have been made through the Wall to allow the Night's Watch to patrol beyond the Wall.

If the said purpose of Wall was at the beginning to protect the realms of men from any incursion by the Others, it started to be a protection against the wildling clans that settled outside beyond it. These wildling clans are spread in the harsh lands beyond the Wall and spend most of their time to hate and fight each other. It happened several times through history that the clans would unit under a “ a King Beyond the Wall “ and try in vain to force the defences of the Night's Watch but more often they attempt to raid the North by sneaking through the Wall.

The Night's Watch

The Watch is a brotherhood of men wearing black and sworn to defend the realms of men from the Wall. Once you join the Watch you will wear black for the rest of your life and desertion is punishable by death. In a first place, their principal objective was to prevent Others' attacks but since they never appeared again after the Long Night, they mainly deal with the Wildlings.

The Night's Watch is the oldest military order of Westeros and their survival through 8,000 years of wars and political troubles is due to the fact that they never involved the order in the matters of the realms.

Anyone can join the Night's Watch, from the peasant to the knight or high born, a place will be given in the order.

The “ Black Brothers “ are under the leadership of a Lord Commander ( generally elected by his own men ) who sits in the biggest of the Wall's castles, Castle Black. The other castles are commanded by a Commander who takes his orders from the Lord Commander. Once a man has finished his training, he will be assigned a position in one of the three groups :

• The stewards, led by the First Steward. They are in charged of the good working order and daily needs of the Wall such as tending the horses, cooking, farming, smithery, squiring for the Lord Commander...etc. The administration is oft given to literate stewards.

• The builders are under the charge of the First Builder. Their task is to make sure the Wall stays as much as much possible in a good states. They can be masons, carpenters,..Etc.

• The rangers are led by the First Ranger. Despite all the brothers are trained to fight and patrol the Wall, the rangers are the main fighting force. They are trained to survive and scout in the most hostile environments beyond the wall. Their missions can last for months.

As I said, all men can be given a place in the Night's Watch and it use to be a honourable vocation “ to take the black “. Many commoners travelled North to join the Watch in order to have a roof and a meal everyday as well as nobles who will never rule their family's lands or landless knights.

Once the manpower of the order was near ten thousands but after Aegon's War of the Conquest, the number of Black Brothers decreased dramatically. During the events depicted in the books, hardly a thousand men stands to protect the Kingdom of the Iron Throne. When once people considered the Night's Watch as a honourable order, the recruits are more often coming from the lord's dungeons and thus many Black brothers are rapists, murderers or thieves sentenced to the Wall.

By the time of the books, the manpower of the Watch is so low that they abandoned most of their fortresses and only three of them are garrisoned ( Castle Black, East-Watch-by-the-Sea, and the Shadown Tower ).

The Night's Watch is brotherhood and the men are sworn for life. Any brother caught after desertion is beheaded or hanged.

If knights and high-born are generally already trained by the time they join the Wall, commoners are trained to the art of fighting. Once the Master-at-arms considered a class of recruits to be trained, they are assigned to one of the three groups and they are asked to pronounce an oath before their gods. Once a brother has pronounced his vow, if he was willing and not sentenced to take the Black, he can't go back. He is sworn for life. The oath of the Night's Watch is as follow :

Night gathers, and now my watch begins. It shall not end until my death. I shall take no wife, hold no lands, father no children. I shall wear no crowns and win no glory. I shall live and die at my post. I am the sword in the darkness. I am the watcher on the walls. I am the fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers, the shield that guards the realms of men. I pledge my life and honour to the Night's Watch, for this night and all nights to come.

” And now his watch is ended “ are the traditional words the brothers pronounced when one of their companion dies.

II) A Song of Ice and Fire : Westeros and its regions.

If a good part of the main plot in A Song of Ice and Fire takes place in the eastern continent of Essos, the story is mostly in Westeros. I will explain several elements concerning Westeros, its people, its locations,...etc

What makes the world of Westeros different than ours ?

In many fantasy stories, magic has a predominant place in the characters' plots or the chain of events. This is not the case here, if magic once really existed it no longer does, some of the population are persuaded that it never did, only in tales.

Some of these tales mentions supernatural creatures such as giants, mammoths, direwolves and especially white walkers. I will discuss the last two of them later.

Dragons, were the companions of the Targaryen royal family for many generations but the last of them, whose name is unknown, seem to have died around 150AL ( about 150 years before the first book of the series ).

One of the particularity of this world is the cycle of the seasons. If we do speak of spring, summer, autumn and winter, the four seasons do have the same durations as in our time span. Summers can last several years and winters decades. The first books are settled near the end of a long summer and the beginning of autumn. The people commonly say that a long summer is a presage for a hard winter that can be deadly as Old Nan, a character describes in one of her stories:

“ [...]Fear is for the winter, my little lord, when the snows fall a hundred feet
deep and the ice wind comes howling out of the north. Fear is for the long
night, when the sun hides its face for years at a time, and little children
are born and live and die all in darkness while the direwolves grow gaunt and
hungry [ … ]"

  The Population and their regions :

The people of Westeros may be call Westerosi by the rest of the world we can still distinguish several ethnics groups among them, spread depending the regions that were old kingdoms before the Conquest. Some of these groups are not really different from their neighbours but History created tensions amongst some of them.

• The Dornishmen are the population settled in Dorne which was the last region to be united under the Iron Throne, 150 years after the Conquest. They are described as an olive-skinned people for most of them and differs in every way from the rest of the Westerosi by their origin and culture. Dornishmen are a harsh people, hot tempered and many say it reflects in their traditional food, more spicy than in the other regions. If they are generally mistrusted, there is particular tensions between the Dornish and the Dornish Marches ( border lands ). House Martell is the ruling family of Dorne.

• The Reachmen are settled in the Reach. This is the most fertile region of Westeros thus the most populated. The villages and cities are bigger than elsewhere and served by two roads helping trade and movement. The Reach is said to be the ancestral home of knighthood and tournaments. For centuries before the Conquest, the kings of House Gardener held the region and they often violently quarrelled against the Dornishmen. Since the Conquest, the Tyrells are the Lords Paramount of the Reach.

• The Stormlanders of the Stormlands are a people of ancient martial tradition. The lands are poor and mountainous. The coasts and their weather gave the name to the region. Storm's End, the capital castle placed on a rocky shore was made to resist the terrible storms that often strike. Before being united with the other regions by the War of the Conquest, the Stormlanders of House Durrendon were engaged in endless wars with Dorne and the Reach. Their current rulers are the Baratheons.

• The Crownlanders are the people from the Crownlands, a region directly controlled by the royal family from the capital of King's Landing. Mostly constituted of flat lands, the Crownlands are the heart of the Iron Throne Kingdom. The King resides at King's Landing ( the largest city ) in the Castle of the Red Keep. Trade, economy, politics, every state matters pass through King's Landing. Before the Aegon's Conquest, the Crownlands were never united under a King but an occupied region by the Storm Kings or their enemies.

• The Westerlands, ancient kingdom of the Rock is mountainous and hilly. Its gold and silver resources allowed the Westermen to create a huge number of mines generating an incredible wealth for the Lannisters who rule the Westerlands and were ancient kings of the Rock before they bent the knee to the Targaryens.

• The Ironborn ( or Ironmen ) are the fierce and despised population of the Iron Islands.With the exception of mineral resources, their isles are poor and mostly unfertile and so they turned to be raiders and looters. It is from their long-ships that they used to terrorize the coasts of the “ green lands “ and colonize the Riverlands. Harren “ the Black “ Hoare was the last Iron King who, in his gigantic castle of Harrenhall, was burned alive with his sons during the Conquest. With the end of House Hoare, the new King Aegon Targaryen offered the Ironmen to elect their own Lord Paramount, the house Greyjoy.

• The Riverlanders, formerly under the Ironborn yoke, joined house Tully and rose against house Hoares during the Conquest. Aegon later gave the Lordship of the Riverlands to house Tully. This fertile region is cut by forks and rivers and often was ruined by wars over its domination or by armies in need to cross the lands of the riverlords to join a war.

• The Vale of Arryn is the ancient kingdom of the Mountain and Vale. This is a landscape of hard mountains which forms an incredible natural fortification for the Valemen. The Arryns are the rulers of the Vale and directly descends from the old Kings of the Mountains and Vale. Their castle, the Eyrie was built on the top of the Mountain of the Moon and so far remains impregnable. If the Valemen are naturally protected against exterior aggression, their lands are infested by Mountain Tribes and their villages pillaged. 

• The Northmen are a proud people, living in the largest of all the regions. Vast and wild, the North is since immemorial times under the leadership of House Stark. During the war of the Conquest, Torrhen Stark choose to forfeit his kingship to Aegon Targaryen and his dragons so spare the lives of the Northern warriors. He then was according the Lordship of the North but forever remained as the King who Knelt ( it is not always a pejorative term ).
• To travel from the Riverlands to the North you need to cross the Neck, a region of bogs and swamps inhabited by the Crannogmen. The Crannogmen were once Marsh Kings but became annexed by the King of the North. They are a shy people and rarely leave their castles hidden in the “ crannogs “. They are said to be little men, excellent fishermen and frog catchers and they fight using poisoned spears and nets.

• On the northern border of the North, a thousand years old gigantic ice Wall separates the Kingdom of the Iron Throne from what lies beyond it. 700 feet high and 300 miles long, the Wall is the hometo thef Night's Watch, a sworn-brotherhood charged to patrol this Wall and protect it from the wildling populations and lands that lives outside the Iron Throne Kingdom. Nobody really knows how the Wall was constructed, some say its size can only be due to magic. I will make a special article about the Wall, the Night's Watch and what lies beyond it soon.

I've uploaded a schematic map of Westeros that can help you to visualize the regions. 

I) A Song of Ice and Fire : Introduction to the world and background

My first article will be about the incredible series A Song of Ice and Fire by Georges R.R. Martin. If you are not familiar with the fantasy books, you may know the HBO show Game of Thrones. For those of you who don't, I will try to introduce you to this world and with luck, you will want to watch the show or read the books after this article. I will not spoil anything happening in A Song of Ice and Fire but write about the background. Should I spoil the actual story, I will indicate the name of the book or the season in question.

Introduction to the background :

A Song of Ice and Fire is a fantasy series divided into seven novels, five have already been published.

The story takes place in an unnamed world with Westeros and Essos as the main continents. Centuries before the events described in the books, Westeros was divided into Seven Kingdoms. From North to South : The North, The Mountain and Vale, Kingdom of the Isles and Riverlands, The Rock, The Storm Lands, The Reach and Dorne (you can search for a map of “ before the Conquest “ on the Internet).These Kingdoms were ruled by different houses which are for some of them, ancestors to the characters depicted in the books. These houses are the Starks of the North, the Arryns of the Vale, the Hoares of the Isles and Riverlands, the Lannisters of the Rock, the Storm Kings of house Durrendon, the Gardeners of the Reach and finally, house Martell of Dorne.

Some three hundred years before the events of the books, Aegon Targaryen whose ancestors fled the region of Valyria ( South of the eastern continent of Essos ) and settled on the island of Dragonstone ( South of the Vale ) will forever change the world . This family of silver-haired and purple-eyed people brought dragons to Westeros. Aegon, helped with his sister-wives Visenya and Rhaenys rode their dragons in what is known as the War of the Conquest. Aegon, now nicknamed the Conqueror unified all the Kingdoms but not Dorne. He allowed the Starks, Arryns and Lannisters to rule their traditional lands as Lords Paramount should they pay homage to him.The Hoare, Gardener and Durrendon Kings perished during the war and were replaced by house Tyrell for the Reach. The Kingdom of the Isles and Riverlands were divided into two regions : the Iron Islands now ruled by the Greyjoys and the Riverlands of house Tully.

The Conqueror gave the Stormlands to his illegitimate half-brother, Orys Baratheon.

With the swords of his fallen foes, King Aegon built an Iron Throne and settled his capital at King's Landing ( see a map of Westeros to visualise the geography ).

The arrival of Aegon Targaryen is used for the calendar of Westeros. For example, Aegon died in 37AL, meaning 37 years after Aegon's Landing. 

Three centuries later, the last dragon is long dead and many troubles will commence in the years to come, inside and outside the Kingdom of the Iron Throne. The young Robert Baratheon started a rebellion against King Aerys Targaryen the Mad ( or the Mad King ) and overthrew him. I will detailed Robert's rebellion in an other article. The first book of A Song of Ice and Fire starts fifteen years after Robert is crowned King of the Seven Kingdoms.

I will explore more of the background in future articles. For more precision, you can check The Wiki of Ice and Fire at http://awoiaf.westeros.org/

The books of A Song of Ice and Fire :

• A Game of Thrones
• A Clash of Kings
• A Storm of Swords
• A Feast for Crows
• A Dance with Dragons
• The Winds of Winter ( coming soon )
• A Dream of Spring ( coming soon )