Westeros

Variety offers an exclusive piece of news, that English actor James Norton has been cast as Ormund Hightower, the Lord of Oldtown, for the third season of House of the Dragon. He’s not a stranger to period and genre films, as he played one of the leads in the BBC’s 2016 adaptation of War and Peace, and played a rather fun role in the HBO sf-tinged series The Nevers. Still to be seen is his role as Harold Godwinson in the upcoming King and Conqueror, which puts him across from Game of Thrones‘alumnus Nikolaj Coster-Waldau who is playing William the Conqueror.

Last month, we reported on the reveal of Game of Thrones: Kingsroad, an action RPG based on the TV series developed by South Korean publisher Netmarble. They have now released a short gameplay trailer, ahead of an upcoming closed beta test in the US, UK, and parts of the EU from January 16th to January 22nd. Interestingly, the trailer and the beta test both confirm that initial reports that the game was mobile-only, it will also support Windows computers.

For those interested in signing up for the closed beta, you can sign up at the official site for the game. Registration ends on January 12th.

During this year’s Game Awards, where many upcoming and often highly anticipated games announce themselves and reveal launch trailers, among the cinematics for the likes of The Witcher 4 or gameplay trailers for games likeElden Ring: Nightreign or The Outer Worlds 2, Warner Bros. and South Korean developer Netmarble unveiled a brand new trailer for Game of Thrones: Kingsroad, a mobile-only open world action RPG that starts during the fourth season of HBO’s award-winning Game of Thrones. Although it had officially unveiled at South Korea’s G-Star trade exhibition last month, it seemed to make few waves outside of the Asian press, so for many fans this is the first time they’ve heard of it.

See the new trailer, which features appearances by numerous familiar characters like Jon Snow, Varys, and Jaime Lannister:

The previous trailer, and some additional thoughts based on what we’ve seen, below!

Mark the date: July 22, 2025 will see the release of the latest calendar based on the works of George R.R. Martin. This time, award-winning artist Tom Kidd will be providing 12 paintings (plus a 13th, bonus fold-out poster) inspired by the adventures of Dunk and Egg. This is not Kidd’s first foray into George’s work, having provided art for the illustrated limited edition of the novel Dying of the Light.

But speaking of those adventures, there’s one rather interesting detail. From the official blurb:

This would be the first we’ve ever heard of the fact that Ser Duncan the Tall would find himself in Essos in the course of his life. Quite interesting!

Max has put out a new video about upcoming Max and HBO programing, starting with the much-anticipated Dune: Prophecy, and moving on to programming for 2025 such as The Gilded Age, White Lotus, The Last of Us... and of course we get some glimpses of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms:

Comparing it to the previous teaser, all the footage seems to be exactly the same as what we’ve seen before, which is disappointing. But it’s nice to see it featured prominently among some other very anticipated shows.

(Also, speaking of HBO and Max, if you have not gotten around to watching The Penguin, the finale just aired and really capped the limited series off. Tremendous performances from Colin Farrell and Cristin Miloti, in particular.)

James Hibberd (with contributions from Kim Masters) has the scoop, sharing that multiple sources have told him that:

Hibberd’s article places this in context of recent history at HBO, including the facts that Benioff & Weiss had briefly considered a trilogy of films to wrap up the TV show, George R.R. Martin was interested in seeing his universe on the big screen, and the sense that the idea that a property could be only on TV or only in cinemas is increasingly considered outdated in this new era dominated by streaming.

And now the celebration of the 10th anniversary of The World of Ice and Fire comes to its conclusion, with a piece of art that is very different from everything that’s come before it.

I’ve seen confusion about the “canon” nature of the artwork, despite out initial post indicating that this is a wholly unofficial series of commissions, for a wholly unofficial anniversary celebration. That said, of course, we direct the artists to the books, and in the cases of dragons we felt free to give them the colors that George had indicated to us for The Rise of the Dragon, which we couldn’t find a way to share in all cases.

But this piece of art, by the terrific Fran Vegas, is different. The location is one that has been referenced, and glimpsed once in official art (in The World of Ice and Fire in fact): Summerhall. But the scene… well, we admit, that is what some fans call “headcanon”. We just love the idea of the image, and feeling free to see it rendered by a capable of artist, we asked for it.

And that concludes the anniversary, as far as Westeros.org is concerned. Linda and I? We’ll be at dinner right about now, because not only is this the 10th year to the day of the publication of The World of Ice and Fire, it’s also our 10th wedding anniversary.

We thank you all for the well-wishes, and all the support we’ve had over all the years.

Ten years ago today, The World of Ice and Fire was published, introducing fans and readers to a huge bevy of new information regarding the history and the world behind George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire. We’ve been celebrating that event over these past two weeks.

It was a long journey to get it made, working with George R.R. Martin, our editor Anne Groell, the team at Ten Speed Press who helped put it together, and a score or artists. The book hit the New York Times bestseller list on release, and has sold perennially ever since as new readers come along who fall in love with the world GRRM has created.

As promised, on this particularly auspicious day, we are sharing not one but two pieces of original art, by artists Linda and I commissioned to give back something to our fellow fans. You’ve had dragons aplenty, and the great tourney at Harrenhal. For this piece, however, we went to the novels, specifically to A Clash of Kings, and to a moment that… well, yes, Game of Thrones didn’t give readers this moment. So we thought we could rectify that, a little.

To help us, we turned to Arantza Sestayo, the Spanish artist behind the 2022 A Song of Ice and Fire Calendar, and who also contributed art to the illustrated A Game of Thrones. We owe particular thanks to our friend, Javi Marcos of Los Siete Reinos, who made the introduction that made this possible.

This is the penultimate day of our celebration of the 10th anniversary of The World of Ice and Fire, and as we said yesterday, we wanted to bring the last pieces of art to where it all started: A Song of Ice and Fire.

So here’s another image, a scene we’ve never seen directly—it’s only been referenced in the novels—brought to life by Ice and Fire veteran René Aigner, who took what we asked for and pushed it up to another level of poignancy.

Eddard Stark delivers Dawn to Ashara Dayne

With this final flurry of art celebrating the 10th anniversary of The World of Ice and Fire, we wanted to bring the material back to A Song of Ice and Fire. René Aigner set the scene with his rendition of the “greatest tourney of them all” at Harrenhal in the year of the false spring, and Joshua Cairós gave us a vignette in the form of the Knight of the Laughing Tree. To cap off this particular theme, we wanted something that captured the excitement of the joust.

GRRM has said “a lot happened at Harrenhal”, a fact hinted in the books, and in the pages of The World of Ice and Fire and its account of the origins of Lord Whent’s great tourney. We’ve heard bits and pieces, and among them we’ve heard the results of some of the jousts… but as far as I know, no artist has really depicted the competitors actually competing. We thought we’d rectify that, and we asked comic creator, artist, and novelist Mark Smylie—whose Artesia comics, and the incredible epic fantasy world therein (which have given birth to an RPG, a second RPG in development, and not one but two novels with at least one more planned), are a favorite of ours—to do just that in one of the more detailed, character-packed pieces of art we’ve asked for. The scene?

We think not only have we never seen any jousts from Harrenhal depicted, but we also think Brandon Stark in the lists has never been shown, either. That has now been rectified!

For this 8th art reveal in celebration of the 10th anniversary of The World of Ice and Fire, we turn once again—and for a last time—to Rudolf Hima. His Grey Ghost and Tyraxes were great additions to the canon of A Song of Ice and Fire dragon art, but we wanted something a bit more narratively-driven for his final contribution. And yes, it relates to House of the Dragon, and maybe to things we’re not likely to see there that were described in The World of Ice and Fire and Fire and Blood.

I hesitate to name it above the fold, for those who do not want spoilers… but after the image we’ll discuss it some!

The dragons return for one more round, during this tenth anniversary celebration for The World of Ice and Fire.

Dragons have always been such a key part of A Song of Ice and Fire, from the time Daenerys Targaryen’s three “children” were born through to the present. The World of Ice and Fire introduced fans to nearly all the dragons of the Dance (with the exception of Syrax, who was given a passing mention), and in the course of that book and The Rise of the Dragon we gave fans a look at a number of them, and more. But one that we never managed to show in its full glory, with its rider on its back, is Dreamfyre. We thought we’d take the opportunity of Ertaç Altınöz‘s involvement in this celebration by asking him to give him just that.

So here is Dreamfyre, with Helaena Targaryen riding her in the skies.

We’re back! The tenth anniversary celebration for The World of Ice and Fire continues. You’ve seen dragons aplenty now—and not the last, too—but another theme Linda and I settled on when we contacted artists may start to become clearer when we reveal this new piece. This one, we’re happy to say, was created for us by the very talented Spanish artist Joshua Cairós, who we we had the pleasure of working with on The Rise of the Dragon.

Our first concept for him was, I admit, overly ambitious—maybe we’ll revisit it some day; perhaps the 20th anniversary? But as we talked about alternatives, another idea presented itself: a depiction of the Knight of the Laughing Tree in armor.

Hot on the heels of yesterday’s image reveal, the celebration of the 10th anniversary since the publication of The World of Ice and Fire continues, and Rudolf Hima did a fantastic job giving fans—and us—another dragon. This time, it’s the young dragon Tyraxes, the dragon of Joffrey Velaryon, who on House of the Dragon is much younger and much smaller at this point in time than he is in the books.

The Dragonpit is, once more, the scene of this image. We think Rudolf did a fantastic job of capturing the magical hue of the dragon’s fire, a feature that George has described but which the TV shows have not made use of so far.

The dragons are back, and so is Ertaç Altınöz, as we continue commemorating the 10th anniversary celebration since the The World of Ice and Fire. Before, he gave us Sunfyre, the golden dragon in his splendor. And now? Morning, the dragon of Rhaena Targaryen ... at least in Fire and Blood, because House of the Dragon seems to have removed the dragon from the show, alas.

And not Morning as fans have tended to see it, a young creature riding on her shoulder, but the dragon now large and strong and able to carry Rhaena on long journeys. When we wondered at a setting, we thought that it’d be appropriate to contrast the dragon—one of the very last living dragons—with the ruins of the Dragonpit, and Ertaç kindly obliged.