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Where's Dany Now? (post-season 3)

The eastern continent in Game of Thrones is massive, so it's easy to lose track of where Daenerys Targaryen is currently ripping apart her enemies. Let's do a rundown of where she started, where she's been, and where she's going:

START - In season 1 we're introduced to Dany living with her brother Viserys in Pentos. Pentos is one of the free cities of the eastern continent, powerful merchant city-states on the continent's western coast (immediately across the sea from Westeros).

Season 1 - For nearly all of season 1 Dany is in a place called the Dothraki Sea, a massive prairie/steppe area that makes up the interior of the eastern continent. It is almost entirely tall-grass, with very few settlements. The region is controlled by Dothraki khalasars, giant, horsebound nomadic tribes that frequently war on each other and raid small settlements. At its heart is the one sacred Dothraki city, Vaes Dothrak (that's where Dany ate the horse's heart).

Season 2 - At the beginning of season 2 Dany has been driven out of the Dothraki Sea, betrayed by her late-husband's blood brothers after his death. At first she leads her small khalasar southeast, into a vast desert known as the Red Waste. Many of her tribesmen die before she finds an abandoned city on the far-side of the desert. Dany and her people inhabit this unnamed city in order to recover from their excursion into the desert, and she ultimately sends outriders in all directions to look for signs of life. One of her men comes back reporting a massive city to the southeast, Qarth (pronounced "Carth").

Qarth is to the extreme southeast of everywhere Dany had been thus far. It's built on a natural promontory that separates the western seas from the east, and as such it has grown into a very wealthy city-state controlled by merchants. Various entities in Qarth try to control Dany, but ultimately she escapes, taking several ships to...

Season 3 - Well, to nowhere in particular. Dany wanted out, and left without a destination in mind. After several weeks at sea she's counseled to head west, to a place just south of the Dothraki Sea called Slaver's Bay. Slaver's Bay is controlled by 3 city-states, each of which grooms slaves for different professions and then sells them across the world. Dany first lands in Astapor, the southern-most city, and conquers it. This is where Dany acquires the first addition to her army, the Unsullied.

Appalled by the casual cruelty of Slaver's Bay, Dany resolves to march north and conquer the other two cities, ending their slaving practices. Along the way her khalasar swells with freed slaves, and she contracts with the sellsword Daario Naharis to add his mercenary company to her army.

At the end of season 3 Dany successfully conquers the second slaver city, Yunkai. She's currently on the march to the third and final slaver city, Mereen.

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Why was Theon Greyjoy staying with the Starks?

Theon is the heir to the Iron Islands, a nobleman with roughly the same status as Robb or Jaime Lannister, so why was he staying with a different noble family? It's extremely rare for a house to let its inheriting son live somewhere else, that's considered politically dangerous, so why was Theon Ned Stark's ward?

Simple, he was a hostage. 

Theon’s family controls the Iron Islands, a tiny spattering of islands off the western coast of Westeros, but this wasn’t always so. The Iron Islanders were once devastating conquerors, using their mastery of sailing and brutal war tactics to take over the entire Riverlands.

At the height of their power the Iron Islands were the wealthiest and strongest of the Seven Kingdoms. Their king at the time, a man called Black Harren, built an enormous castle in the Riverlands to demonstrate his power. It was called Harrenhal.

Then the Targaryens arrived. Riding dragons. And Black Harren was the first to fall.

Because of their temerity in challenging the Targaryens the Iron Islands lost the entire Riverlands region, and ever since have been confined to a tiny group of rocks in the Sunset Sea. This devastated the Iron Islands’ economy, they were a raiding culture, with more vikings than farmers. And ever since, the Iron Islands have been one of the poorest, least politically-powerful regions in Westeros.

Naturally, this chafed a bit. It especially chafes Theon’s dad, Ballon, who desperately wants to restore the glory of his region (and by extension his house). That’s why he launched his invasion of the North.

What you might not know is that this isn’t Ballon’s first attempted invasion.

Roughly 10 years before the start of Game of Thrones Ballon tried to take over Westeros again. The kingdom was still recovering from its rebellion against the Targaryens, with an untested King Robert at the helm and many kingdoms still scarred & bloodied from the previous war. When Ballon struck he struck hard, seizing parts of the North, West and Reach.

Greyjoy’s Rebellion was eventually squashed by Ned and Robert, but unfortunately Ballon didn’t die in action. This meant that Robert had to negotiate a peace with Ballon, because as a new king Robert had neither the military strength nor the political power to unseat the Greyjoys from the Iron Islands. Still, the Greyjoys were forced to surrender, and in order to ensure that they abided by the terms of surrender, Ballon Greyjoy’s last remaining son was taken as a hostage of House Stark.

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Why Is Jon's Last Name "Snow"?

You know Jon Snow, he's Ned Stark's illegitimate child by an unknown woman. Did you ever wonder why his last name is Snow? It's not because that was his mom's last name.

In Westeros there are two kinds of bastard children, commoners' bastards (who nobody really cares about) and noblemen's bastards. Most of the time noblemen ignore their bastards, maybe give the mom some money to keep the kid from starving. However, every so often, for a variety of reasons, a nobleman might choose to "acknowledge" their bastard.

When a bastard is acknowledged they're allowed to join their father's house, and gain semi-noble status. Why not full noble status? This is because there's a lot of superstition surrounding bastards in Westeros. People think they're naturally disloyal, untrustworthy, and sometimes just evil. The superstition is so deep-seated and enduring that even now the laws of Westeros are structured to limit bastards' rights.

Because of these laws a nobleman's bastard is legally barred from using either parent's family name, inheriting their land, and inheriting a title unless absolutely no other legitimate heirs exist.

This is problematic. Nobles' bastards technically aren't commoners, are nobility, and therefore are entitled to have a surname. So everybody came up with a compromise: noble bastards have to use a set of generic, region-based last names to identify themselves.

For example, if you're a nobleman's bastard in the North you have to refer to yourself as "XXX Snow", the surname lets people know you have elevated status, but also reminds everyone that you're a bastard.

Here are the bastard surnames for each region of Westeros:

The Wall: Rayder

The North: Snow

The Riverlands: Rivers

The Iron Islands: Pyke

The West: Hill

The Vale: Stone

The Reach: Flowers

King's Landing & Dragonstone: Waters

The Stormlands: Storm

Dorne: Sand

Eh? Did some neat stuff just click? Like maybe why a wildling king would have a last name? Or why Ramsay has the same last name as Jon?

As for sigils, the compromise was a bit more convoluted. A bastard can use his father's sigil, but has to make significant alterations to it to show he's a bastard. If Jon Snow wanted to use a coat of arms he wouldn't be allowed to use the Stark sigil: a grey direwolf running on a field of white. Instead he'd have to reverse the colors and make it a white direwolf running on a field of grey. He'd also have to add a big, red Ghostbusters stripe through the entire image (in case the color thing was too subtle).

There's exactly one situation in which a bastard can become a part of his father's house, and it involves a king. In Westeros one of the king's many powers is the ability to "wipe the stain of bastardry" from a person. Basically, if the king says so, you're legally not a bastard anymore. This happens very rarely, and when it does happen the ex-bastard usually doesn't join his dad's house (where they'd still be last to inherit). Instead they use their newfound real-noble status to create a house of their own.

Of course, across the Narrow Sea all these rules go out the window. The bastard surnames only apply in Westeros.

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Want Another Reason To Hate The Freys?

At this point you know exactly who Walder Frey is, and probably hate him quite a bit. Did you know there's a whole other reason to hate not just Walder, but the entire Frey family?

Remember when Robb first arrived at The Twins, and Walder Frey gave him some chunks of bread and salt? That wasn't just some weird medieval appetizer, that was Walder Frey engaging in a very old and sacred custom, giving Robb what is known as "guest right".

In the GoT universe guest right is a sacred promise. Once a person eats your bread & salt they are your guest, meaning you cannot harm him and he cannot harm you for the duration of his visit. This is actually modelled after a real-world tradition of the same name.

Breaking guest right supposedly means your family will be be cursed, but more practically speaking it means you've made your entire family into social pariahs. No other noble house will ever trust your family again, and you'll have a hard time finding allies for any endeavor.

So there you have it. Not only did Walder Frey kill a bunch of cool people, he did so in the worst way possible.

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What's The Deal With The Direwolves?

In the Game of Thrones universe direwolves are a monstrously-huge breed of wolf only found in the extreme north. A full-grown direwolf is easily the size of a bull.

(Dire wolves were actually a real prehistoric creature, but they're a lot different from the kind you see on Game of Thrones. Look them up sometime!)

Each Stark child received a direwolf at the very beginning of the series. This was a strange bit of providence, because each Stark child is also a warg (allbeit with different levels of power).

The Stark direwolves are:

Grey Wind (Robb)

Lady (Sansa)

Nymeria (Arya)

Summer (Bran)

Shaggydog (Rickon)

Ghost (Jon)

The Starks have a strange, symbiotic relationship with their wolves. Each Stark & their wolf are almost one being in two bodies, they're so closely tied together. Because of this each direwolf tends to reflect the nature and feelings of its owner. For example:

Ghost is an albino direwolf, a trait that separates him from the rest of his pack. This echos Jon's bastard-status, and the social/class separation he has from the rest of his family.

Summer seems unremarkable at first, but as the story progresses it becomes apparent that Summer is an exceptionally intelligent direwolf. This echos Bran's growing importance within the story, with Summer's intelligence being analogous to Bran's magical ability.

Shaggydog is nearly feral and uncontrollable by everyone but Rickon & Summer. This reflects Rickon's relative immaturity and insecurity, and his relationship with his one remaining relative, Bran.

The Stark girls' situations are interesting as well:

When Lady was killed Sansa essentially lost a large part of herself, and became emotionally-detached. This accounts for a lot of Sansa's bad ideas throughout the series. Until she finishes healing herself she's essentially morally adrift.

Nymeria isn't dead, but Arya had to separate from her direwolf in order to save both their lives. This separation has forced both girl & direwolf to face a lot of hardships, and become much tougher & more dangerous individuals. Arya & Nymeria are still influencing eachother, allbeit unknowingly and at a distance.

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What’s A Warg?

Wargs are people with a very rare magical gift. They seem to be exclusively from the north, and their gift seems strongest among descendants of the First Men.

Warg magic has become kind of a fairytale south of the wall, but to the wildlings its a very real gift. In short, wargs have the ability to possess an animal’s body and control the animal. While doing so their normal body falls into a coma, only awakening when the warg “returns” to it.

This bonding has a profound effect on both the warg and the animal, making the two forever bound together. The nature of this relationship, whether it’s equitable and nurturing or harsh and domineering, tends to depend on the warg. Some wargs treat their animals as equals, others as pets, and still others as slaves.

There are varying degrees of wargs, ranging from extremely weak to incredibly strong. Most wargs will only bond with one animal, but very strong wargs can possess a great number of animals.

We know at least two wargs in the series, right? That eagle guy and Bran. But hold on a second... there are five more Stark kids besides Bran, and each one of them also has a deep emotional bond with a supposedly untamable direwolf. Hm...

Daenerys is not a warg, by the way. You’d think she would be, but you really need First Men blood to be a warg. Dany's pure Valyrian.

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What Did The Lannisters Have To Do With The Red Wedding?

At the end of the last episode you heard Roose Bolton saying, “The Lannisters send their regards.” Wondering how the Lannisters were involved in this particular nastiness? It’s actually really subtle, but you’ve been seeing it happen all season.

Tywin Lannister, Roose Bolton, and Walder Frey have been in contact for a while. Tywin made contact with the others when he started to hear rumors of dissent among the Stark ranks, and when the Freys parted with the Starks. All of those letters you’ve watched Tywin write this season? They were to Roose & Walder, setting up the Red Wedding.

Walder’s motivation is easy to see. He felt betrayed by Robb, and with Robb’s war effort flagging House Stark was starting to seem like a bad bet. By siding with the Lannisters Walder was able to increase his personal power & prestige quite a bit. For his betrayal Walder is set to become the lord of the Riverlands.

Roose is a little harder to explain. Basically Roose was never truly loyal to House Stark, owing to an old feud between their families. Being an incredibly calculating and opportunistic man, Roose jumped ship as soon as it looked like things were going south for Robb. For his betrayal Roose is set to become the lord of the North.

So there you go. Tywin orchestrated the death of Robb, using Roose and Walder as his agents. For their efforts Roose & Walder gain incredible wealth and power, of the kind only a King can grant.

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What's The Deal With The Red God?

The Red God, AKA The Lord of Light, AKA R'hllor, is an ancient religion from the east. In fact, on the eastern continent, Essos, it is far and away the largest & most powerful religion.

Worshippers essentially worship light... and fire, heat, the sun, daytime, etc. Essentially anything associated with light is seen as a blessing from the Red God. Their devil is a figure known as the Great Other, who represents darkness, cold, ice, etc.

The religion is also obsessed with a messianic figure called Azor Ahai. Supposedly, 12,000 years ago, Azor Ahai was a champion who sacrificed his lover to create an invincible weapon, and helped end an endless winter.

Some of this is starting to sound spookily familiar, isn't it? Those familiarities are why a red priestess has suddenly taken a great interest in Westeros.

What the hell, while we're here let's do some quick synopsis of the two red priests currently in Westeros:

Thoros of Myr: Thoros is seen as a disgrace to his priesthood. He's basically a big, drunken idiot who can barely say the prayers. Because of this he was sent to Westeros around 10-15 years ago, the idea being that he'd become drinking buddies with Westeros' new drunk idiot king, Robert. Thoros has been a figure in Robert's court ever since, and fought in nearly every tourney to ever occur in King's Landing.

Melisandre of Asshai: Melisandre is a fully-trained priestess and shadowbinder of the red god. Shadowbinding is a type of magic practiced in her native city, Asshai, and has to do with controlling shadows. Remember the shadow baby?

The upsetting thing about Melisandre is we don't know her station within the church. She's clearly a very powerful sorcerer, but nobody knows if she's high-ranked, low-ranked, or possibly even not ranked and representing a fanatical splinter sect.