Westeros

This month marks the tenth anniversary of the publication of The World of Ice and Fire. When it hit shelves in the US, UK, and elsewhere, it debuted on multiple bestseller lists. It had been 8 long years in the making—more, if you count when George first mentioned the possibility to me over dinner in 2004—and, on arrival, launched thousands of new conversations in the fandom, and has contributed to a dizzying amount of podcasts, vlogs, cosplay and other fan works.

It also, pretty directly, gave birth to Fire and Blood, as something like 80% of the material in that book was originally written by George for The World of Ice and Fire. And so there is a direct line, from George asking me if he thought Linda and I would like to help him on a world book, to House of the Dragon today. And, for that matter, to a number of the HBO projects that are or have been under development: the Ten Thousand ships, the Nine Voyages of Corlys Velaryon, an animated show about the Golden Empire of Yi Ti, Aegon’s Conquest, and who knows what else that hasn’t yet been revealed. Even a play, The Iron Throne (formerly known as Harrenhal), is likely to pull from the Year of the False Spring material George created for the book which gave fans never-before-revealed insights into how and why Lord Whent’s great tourney came to be. They all sprang from George’s pen for the book, and our role in many of these pieces was to help organize and excerpt and compress it down to fit within the bounds of a book that was originally contracted to be 50,000 words long (and ultimately weighed it at more than 180,000.)

Linda and I have been, and will always be, grateful for the opportunity to work with George in providing an expansion of the knowledge fans had about the world he’d created, and all the opportunities it’s given us. We’ve been invited to hold talks in more libraries across Sweden than we can count, have visited wonderful countries like Spain, Northern Ireland and Ireland, the Netherlands, and more to make appearances or sign books or take part in convention programming, attended an art exhibition in Berlin dedicated to works inspired by the book, we filmed numerous segments for Sky’s Thronecast in the UK, we’ve attended premieres, and much, much more. Along the way we’ve made many new acquaintances and friends, and that’s made this all the more gratifying to us.

It has been quite a ride, one we could never have imagined 25 years ago when we were just fans who wanted to run a little game based on these books we loved, and who started a small website to collect information about the books to share with fans the world over.

(This month also, not coincidentally, marks our 10th wedding anniversary—we decided it was an auspicious time to finally tie the knot, after spending 15 years together in Sweden.)

So, thankful to all the fans who have enjoyed the book, who have enjoyed all the art it contains and has inspired, Linda and I took it upon ourselves—entirely on our own initiative; this is not some secret marketing ploy or an attempt to hint at anything other than our love of George’s world and the fandom that shares that love!— to approach a number of professional artists to add just a few more illustrations for fans to enjoy. These works range from things that could well have been included in the original The World of Ice and Fire, or in The Rise of the Dragon, and are guided mostly by things we wanted to see done by these artists in particular.

Today, and over the weekend, we’re going to tease the twelve pieces of art we commissioned, posting them at about 7PM Swedish time each day… and over the following weekdays, leading up to the precise anniversary of October 28th, we’ll be releasing a new piece of art at 7PM our time as well. To get us started, you’ll see the first four teasers below. These teasers are randomly selected, and do not reflect the order we’ve planned for the final pieces.

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As to the artists involved, we think it’s high time to reveal them. They are listed in alphabetical order:

 
• Ertaç Altınöz - A digital painter and concept artist from Izmir, Turkey, Ertaç specializes in fantasy and science fiction art. He has been an amazing fan and, now, friend of ours, ever since he contributed a number of key pieces to The Rise of the Dragon. He’s amazingly prolific, and has made some of the most amazing pieces of fan posters for House of the Dragon that we’ve ever seen. His work on this project is equally spectacular.  
 
• René Aigner - A freelance digital illustrator and concept artist from Germany, René is known for his science fiction and fantasy landscapes. His work has been featured in exhibitions like Unseen Westeros. He first came to our attention, I think, with his contributions to The World of Ice and Fire, which led to our wanting him on board The Rise of the Dragon. We’re grateful he had time and willingness to work on this project with us.  
 
• Joshua Cairós - A Spanish illustrator and concept artist who has worked for Disney, Netflix, and Legendary Entertainment. He was one of a number of artists we specifically asked to work with on The Rise of the Dragon, and are pleased to be working with him again.  
 
• Rudolf Hima - An illustrator and paleoartist from Indonesia, Rudolf specializes in creature and paleoart illustrations. His work ranges from scientific representations of prehistoric creatures to conceptual art in various fantasy genres. He is the one artist who has not contributed work to any official GRRM projects, a fact we hope to rectify … but for now, we think fans are going to love his contribution to this anniversary celebration.  
 
• Arantza Sestayo - A Spanish painter and illustrator, Arantza is known for her work in fantasy art and children’s illustrations. Influenced by the Pre-Raphaelite and Art Nouveau movements, she has contributed to the A Game of Thrones 20th Anniversary Edition and was the featured artist on the 2022 A Song of Ice and Fire Calendar.  
 
• Mark Smylie - An American writer, illustrator, and creator, Mark is best known for his Artesia comic book series. His work has appeared in various role-playing games, including Dungeons & Dragons, Vampire: The Masquerade, and Legend of the Five Rings. He founded Archaia Studios Press and has published novels like The Barrow. We’ve been fans of his work for 25 years, more or less, since Artesia was published, with its incredible art and world-building. We were lucky to get him on board The Rise of the Dragon, and his contribution to the project is pretty spectacular, if we may say so.  
 
• Fran Vegas - A Spanish illustrator and art director, Fran is known for his work on The Rise of the Dragon by George R. R. Martin and his collaborations with authors like Joe Abercrombie and Scott Lynch. He specializes in fantasy illustration and has contributed to special editions of fantasy novels as well as illustrated book covers. Fran was another artist we specifically asked for when it came time to get TRotD illustrated, thanks to fan art he’d made. He’s out done himself with what he has illustrated this time around.