Westeros

Just a little over half a day left on CMON‘s crowd fundraising campaign for their next ASoIaF-based game, A Song of Ice and Fire: Tactics. Made to the same scale as their miniatures games (with thanks to Dark Sword Miniatures, who hold the license for all miniatures), this tactics-based game has already very much cleared its fundraising goal, with over 5500 backers raising $1.6 million (and counting). There’s some pretty impressive miniatures on display, in particular an enormous Drogon miniature that is a crowndfunding exclusive.

Here’s a trailer for the game from CMON:

Below, you’ll find the press release for the game with additional information!

Thanks to publishing news site Edelweiss, we’ve learned the full list of featured locations in the upcoming A Song of Ice and Fire 2025 Calendar, which we previously reported on back in December when the cover art, featuring Starfall, was revealed. All the illustrations are by artist Eddie Mendoza, whose work has previously graced The Rise of the Dragon.

Here’s the list of all 13 featured locations, continuing the tradition of twelve images for the months and a bonus two-page spread:

• Moat Cailin
• Dragonstone
• the Inn at the Crossroads
• the Nightfort
• the Bridge of Skulls

Last week, George posted an update to Not a Blog recounting a trip he took to the UK in late October and early November, in which he refers to meetings with his UK publishers concerning both A Song of Ice and Fire and Wild Cards, and then added some details regarding the play currently called The Iron Throne (it’s a working title):

The play was first announced way back in March of 2021. Dominic and Duncan would be Dominic Macmillan, the play’s director, and Duncan Cooke, the playwright.

And then George wrote a bit about his days working with Ryan Condal and the writers of House of the Dragon....

George R.R. Martin and House of the Dragon showrunner Ryan Condal on the set of the TV show, in what may be the godswood of Harrenhal.

Towards the end of November, a very interesting post on /r/asoiaf Reddit from a moderator and superfan known as zionius_, revealing three pages that appear to be hand-written notes from George R.R. Martin sketching out plans for A Feast for Crows circa 2003-2004. George’s handwriting is not, perhaps, the easiest, so go to the original post for the transcription from zionius_ and members of the subreddit’s mod team, which does a good job of distilling what they found.

Though some questioned whether these were legitimate, we can say with 100% certainty that they are—George’s hand is unmistakable, and in any case the notes came from be shared by way of Arnold Cha, a serious ASoIaF collector who indicated that he got them from an unimpeachable source in the Santa Fe writing/arts scene. With Arnold’s permission, we’re including the images here, but again, go to the subreddit thread for the transcript!

Out on X, fans waiting for any drip of news regarding House of the Dragon or any other Game of Thrones successor got their wish today ... maybe. This casting call began to make the rounds of fandom, fromthe official account of British casting director Lucy Bevan:

It’s an open casting for an HBO show, presumably filming or about the UK, and they’re looking for just two characters right now which suggests they’re leads: a young boy of 9-10 with green or blue eyes, pale skin, and a “neutral English accent”, and then a “soldier” who is at least 6’4” tall with a “humble disposition” who is also “perceptive and thoughtful” and of any ethnicity. This seems suspiciously like what HBO would call for when casting for the roles of Egg and Ser Duncan the Tall, respectively, for the straight-to-series A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight!

Over a week ago, we collaborated with the Folio Society on a contest to win one of their gorgeously illustrated, high-quality bound and slipcased copies of A Dance with Dragons to celebrate the 12th anniversary since the premiere of Game of Thrones. That contest ended recently, with over five hundred entries! Congratulations to Jordan from Iowa for winning the competition! For those who did not win this time, the Folio Society has promised to send something special to your e-mail quite soon!

A new year is on us, and with that is news of the next calendar in the long-running A Song of Ice and Fire series. This time, the artist will be none other than Justin Sweet, an award-winning artist whose contributions have been as varied as concept art for blockbuster films like The Chronicles of Narnia, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and Avengers: End Game to illustrations for books like… well, like The World of Ice and Fire, where his two-page splash of Robert and Rhaegar on the Trident (as well as his depictions of Arya, Jon, and Dany) were some of the very first pieces commissioned for the book.

Today is the day: The Rise of the Dragon has hit book shelves in many countries! It’s also available as an e-book ... and even as an audio book, read by the wonderful Harry Lloyd (Viserys Targaryen in Game of Thrones) which is a particular honor since we’re huge fans of his. We’ve been amazed by the positive response online, especially at the various art previews, and we have to say we owe a lot to all the artists who worked hard to make this what this is. There’s a lot of promotion going on, but one we particularly enjoyed is this trailer from our terrific UK publisher, Harper Voyager:

In the lead up to today’s release, George R.R. Martin took part in an online event where he spoke with friend and author David Anthony Durham to promote the book as well as House of the Dragon. While the stream has not been publicly released as of yet, read below for some of our realtime tweeting of some choice remarks and information from George… including an update on progress on The Winds of Winter!

A year has passed since the Folio Society released their fourth entry in their illustrated editions of A Song of Ice and Fire, and like clockwork they have now released the fifth volume, A Dance with Dragons!  Like the previous volumes, it comes in a beautiful, slipcased two-volume edition with beautiful artwork by Jonathan Burton. Below, you’ll find the Folio Society’s video for the launch, as well as a few images they’ve sent to us share!

From the Folio Society:

On October 25th, The Rise of the Dragon: An Illustrated History of the Targaryen Dynasty, Volume One hit shelves. Based on Fire and Blood by GRRM, the book provides a more condensed account of the events documented in that work of “fake history” while providing over 180 new, full-color illustrations (some were shared in the recent, all packaged in a similar format to The World of Ice and Fire. As we said when the book was first announced, the book is for a very particular set of audiences—those who were daunted by F&B’s size but are interested in something more concise, those who love the artwork, and those who are collectors and completists. If you or someone you know fits that, however…

Ahead of the release, George is holding a couple of events, including one that will be livestreamed for those who purchase a ticket. See more details below, as well as an opportunity to get copies with a different set of autographs entirely… !

One of the many new pieces of art Rhaenyra and Daemon Targaryen racing their dragons, Syrax and Caraxes, between High Tide and Dragonstone. By Nutchapol Thitinunthakorn

Another episode down, and we’re back with some thoughts, background, commentary on changes, and more in our latest video at the Westeros.org Youtube channel:

The next episode will give us what we believe will be a last time jump this season (and perhaps for all the show from here on out), aging up the children a bit further.

Lord Corlys Velaryon and Princess Rhaenys with their granddaughters Baela and Rhaena. Copyright Ollie Upton/HBO

We’re back to discuss the third episode of House of the Dragon, titled “Second of His Name”. As usual, we discuss some changes from the source material, provide some additional background information for things touched on only lightly in the episode, and finally some dragon facts (quite brief ones, in this case!)

Just two months away from the release of The Rise of the Dragon, a book we’ve co-authored that takes Fire and Blood, boils it down to the essentials, and fills the rest of the pages with over 180 pieces of glorious, all-new artwork from artists both familiar and brand new to fans of A Song of Ice and Fire. Random House has started the wheels rolling promoting the book by releasing this video with George R.R. Martin where he talks about the book and its connection to House of the Dragon:

We occasionally highlight really great, A Song of Ice and Fire-inspired fan works, and we’re happy to bring attention to the asoiafanimated instagram where a team of Italian animators led by professional animator Giovanni Ariutti. We have a very brief tease, but you should check the Instagram for a longer trailer, with music and all, and that in turn is leading to something even more substantial on August 23rd. See the teaser below, and the full details of the team working on the project:

We’ve been in the midst of a vacation over here a Westeros, but George R.R. Martin has been keeping busy! A recent Not a Blog post goes into some length about the state of the highly-anticipated The Winds of Winter, a post which seems to have been prompted after a recent round of interviews (including this excellent interview by the team at Game of Owns). It’s the lengthiest update he’s given on the book in some years, and is well worth reading closely. And while he’s at it, George reveals how the story has been slowly moving further and further away from what he envisioned years earlier, even as late as when he met with the showrunners of Game of Thrones to discuss his plans.