History and Legends of Game of Thrones: The Red God


It’s Game of Thrones time!

Forgive my excitement but I’m something of a fan.










and attempting to convert kings.

They also appear to wield some pretty potent magic












and engaging in political intrigue by converting kings and nobles.














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Valar Morghulis…see you next season.

History and Legends of Game of Thrones: The White Walkers


So since we talked about the dragons and how they’re representations of man’s ability to find more efficient ways of killing his fellow man I thought today we would dedicate our second to last post of the season to the other extreme: the White Walkers.


The White Walkers are a primal force of nature and right now they represent the greatest threat to ever confront the human race, a threat that humanity is woefully under equipped to handle at the moment, especially with the death of Jon Snow.


Deadly, extremely capable, and above all…patient the White Walkers are not only extremely capable warriors but able to raise an army of the dead which gives them a huge advantage.  While the humans grow weaker the Walkers can only grow stronger.


Winter is coming, and if nothing is done to halt the Walker’s advance winter will stay for a very long time.

In today’s day and age we are somewhat obsessed with the weather.  Whether you believe it or not there aren’t that many people out there who aren’t aware of global warming.  But despite the endless debates and inaction going on today we do know that climate change is a thing that has happened.  We know this because the Little Ice Age was a thing and it had a huge impact on world history…mostly for the worse.

The Little Ice Age was a period in history of intense global cooling, which is a thing.  Starting just before 1300 the Earth experienced a dramatic drop in temperatures (I should note here that a “dramatic drop” in environmental science is only a couple of degrees) resulting in longer winters and shorter growing seasons.


The human race had been experiencing a period of remarkable growth during the time period Europeans call the High Middle Ages and while there was still quite a bit of violence and death in Europe, things were starting to calm down which led to increased economic and cultural growth under the rule of the Catholic Church.

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All of that would change with the Little Ice Age and the beginning of the 14th century.  Cooler temperatures led to shorter growing seasons and more frequent rain storms.  Shorter growing seasons meant less food to feed a large population and the results were devastating.  The world changed practically over night as humans devolved into violence and desperation, fighting over land and resources that could not support everyone.


But all that pales in comparison to what came after the famine and warfare: a horrifying pestilence known as the Black Death.

The Black Death.  London was such a filty place at the time of the plague that nothing could be done to stop the disease.  The death cart seen in the background of the picture was in constant use.  Original artwork for illustration on p19 of Look and Learn issue no 763 (28 August 1976).

The Black Death was one of the most singular and deadly events to ever take place in human history.  We’ve all heard the stories about how the plague was brought to Europe from the East on trading ships and the combination of filthy streets and towns coupled with a lack of understanding of how disease worked allowed the plague to wipe out almost a third of Europe’s population.


To a population that feared dropping dead in a heartbeat and watching as friends and family died all around them it must have seemed like the end of the world.  This led to some very fatalistic world views and gave birth to an artistic genre known as the Danse Macabre, the idea that death walks with everyone from the lowliest peasant to the most powerful lord.  You can see examples of the artwork everywhere, normal people going about their lives always accompanied by an emaciated waling skeleton that looks for all the world like some of the White Walkers and zombies from Game of Thrones.





It was the cold that brought plague and death to Medieval Europe, a long winter that lasted for decades and destroyed most of Europe…just like what the White Walkers threaten to do to Westeros if nobody stops them.

History and Legends of Game of Thrones: The Dragons


So the season finale just happened and that means this is going to be the last week of Game of Thrones blog posts for the site.  I know there has been a lot of creepy, upsetting, and disturbing stuff on the show lately but there are plenty of people who can talk and discuss that kind of thing better than I can so instead we’re going to start our final week by talking about the dragons.

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In keeping with the traditions of the show and the direction it seems to be heading (I was both impressed and terrified by Arya’s sadistic streak) the dragons are the very personifications of violence and power.  As the ancient weapon of the Targaryens the dragons are the Game of Thrones super weapon, an advantage that allowed Denarys and her ancestors to conquer half the known world with a comparatively smaller army.


The dragons don’t represent any particular person or place in history.  Instead they represent an idea and theme that rears its head from time to time throughout history.  In my opinion the dragons represent technology and how each technological leap brings about newer and more terrifying methods of destruction and violence.  Now this may sound like a very modern theme and it is, an all powerful beast capable of melting steel and killing thousands of people at a time sounds suspiciously like a modern nuclear weapon but the notion that new inventions can change the face of warfare for the worse goes back hundreds of years.

Many people have a notion that Medieval warfare was a noble endeavor filled with knights in shining armor, noble kings, and honorable combat.  It seems so noble because we the Middle Ages gave us the notion of chivalry: the knights code of conduct while engaging in battle and how to live and act in everyday life.


Sadly, the idea of chivalry couldn’t be farther from the reality of Medieval warfare.  Actual fighting was brutal, violent, and awful in ways that would make even Ramsey Bolton shutter (although out of all the characters in the show he probably had the right mindset for it) and nowhere was it more apparent with the start and evolution of the Hundred Years War.

The Hundred Years war was a series of long and complicated wars between the kingdoms of England and France over who ruled what and who owed allegiance to whom.  There have been countless books, plays, and movies about the conflict but one of the most interesting things was the role technology played in the war.

The war started out with the traditional concepts of chivalry and honorable combat intact, it was a dynastic dispute and thus would be fought honorably between two noble houses.  However, as the war went on things changed and technology began to play an important role in the fighting.

Much like their Norman ancestors utilizing the mounted knight the English were the first to unveil and utilize their super weapon: the longbow.


It may not look like much but this six foot piece of yew wood would revolutionize warfare.  Now an army made up of peasants and lowborn could go toe to toe with armored knights and win, and win they did.  Granted, utilizing the longbow took strength and skill which required extensive training from an early age (ever wonder why Robin Hood was so good with a bow and English?) but the English were able to utilize the bow to great extent.


However, that would pale in comparison to what came next.  With England winning battle after battle and the French nation on the brink of defeat they were saved by a young and possibly schizophrenic prophet girl named Joan of Arc.


After Joan helped light a fire under their buts the French were able to get their act together and begin to take back what they had lost.  Under the leadership of King Charles VII and Philip Duke of Burgundy the French restructured and remodeled their armies to defeat the English.  This saw the rise of a weapon more terrifying than the longbow and one that would change the face of warfare forever: gunpowder.


Now while gunpowder had been in use for a long time, the Hundred Years War was the first time gunpowder weapons were used on a European battle field to great effect.  Like Denarys’ dragons they spat fire and death at their enemies and were able to completely destroy them, one of first (and definitely not the last) times a leap forward in technology helped man kill his fellow man more efficiently.

History and Legends of Game of Thrones: Sellswords.






or professional knights.














History and Legends of Game of Thrones: The Free Cities continued

On Monday we talked about how the Free Cities of Essos.






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Qohor and Norvos:


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Tyrosh, Lys, Myr, Pentos, and Lorath



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6 slave writing














History and Legends of Game of Thrones: The Unsullied


Today we are talking about another incredibly capable and deadly organization in the Game of Thrones universe, one that has had a definite impact on the events in the world and commands the fear and respect of men and women across the world: the Unsullied.

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The Unsullied are warrior slaves from the now ruined city of Astapoor and are trained in the traditions of the Ghiscari Empire.  At the age of five, and sometimes younger, a slave boy is chosen to become an Unsullied warrior and is castrated (according to sources everything goes, it’s not a pleasant picture).  At that point they are constantly trained from dusk to dawn to use three types of spear, a shield, and a short sword until they have mastered all of them.  The training is incredibly brutal and only about a quarter of all recruits survive and it culminates in a final test where they must kill their own mothers in order to become full Unsullied warriors.

While the training regimen is brutal it is incredibly effective.  The combination of no testicles and harsh training means that each soldier will not act on the violent and often uncontrollable impulses that many commanders have to worry about when dealing with their soldiers.  An Unsullied soldier will not rape, plunder, break formation, or lose himself to a battle frenzy and will always follow the orders of his commander, a habit that everyone’s favorite Khaleesi has taken advantage of.


We’ve briefly touch upon how the Unsullied were also used to halt the advance of the Dothraki hundreds of years before the books started and the stories of their exploits have only furthered their reputation as one of the deadliest and most competent fighting forces in the entire Game of Thrones universe.


The idea of taking young boy slaves and turning them into a disciplined fighting force is an old one and an idea that came into its own during the 9th century during the reign of the Abbasid Caliphate which controlled most of what we know of today as the Middle East.


In order to help guard, patrol, and expand their empire the Abbasid rulers created entire armies of slaves that they would recruit from various regions, usually ethnic Turks from Central Asia, and move them around and sell them to regional governors in different parts of the empire.  These were the feared Mamluk soldiers and they were just as effective and as brutal as the Unsullied.


A Mamluk was taken from his home around the age of 13 and trained to be a soldier loyal only to his master.  As a rule they were kept separate from the general population, were not allowed to have children, and could not inherit or pass on any property or land they might come to possess.  The idea worked for a while, soldiers who are not fighting for plunder, glory, or homeland tend to be more loyal to their commanders and more loyal to each other, and the Mamluk slave armies played a vital role in fighting off the European Crusaders and Mongol invaders.  However, it turns out that depending on an entire class of slave soldiers who aren’t being paid is a bad idea and eventually the slaves realized they could call the shots.  The ensuing rebellions and dynasties that were established are a topic for another day but it is important to recognize that the need for a unified disciplined fighting force resulted in large numbers of slave boys to be captured and raised as soldiers in a similar manner to the famed and deadly Unsullied of Game of Thrones.