I would like to see a spin of off Game of Thrones set in Eastern Essos (especially YiTy) whicj would be nearly entirely removed from the events in Westeros due to the distance... It might be war where you are but most of the world in entirely at peace (and vice versa) :D would be interesting if we were given a spin of so far East that the place we would be would be as far east from Essos as Iron Islands are from Eastern YiTy and were not told until a ship from East would arive (:D lets say ... Arya?)
A very good and informative video. When you mentioned Quarths 3 walls you didnt mention any real life equivelant, but I think I know what it could be. I suspect that Quarth is Inspired by Constantinople. It served as the gateway between East and West for centuries, withstood countless sieges thanks to its Theodosian Wall wich are 3 walls and a moat able to be filled with water. Also the geographical position of Quarth is very striking to Constantinople situated at the hellespont overlooking Anatolia.
i remember reading somewhere that George RR Martin is actually horrible with practical sizes and how realistic architecture works. Like when he saw the first artist rendering of The Wall for GOT he told them they'd made it look way too high, to which they answered "that's what a 700 foot wall would look like".
@James Burgess medieval nutrition was far better than ours today lol. Hyper-processed, microplastic-infused food is slowly killing us. Unless you're talking about a bodybuilder who actively watches their caloric intake and is super scrupulous about where they get their food, the average human today is eating poison compared to back then. Now, hygiene and general well-being are a different story.
@J Arnett you’re still missing the point. He still got it wrong regardless of whether you can imagine it. He has admitted it was a mistake because he didn’t scale it properly in his mind. What was said was an actual fact. You not wanting to accept that is just odd 🤣👏🏻
made sense the night king is menacing but not that an emotionally impactful villian. I always knew he will be defeated first before Cersei, who we have hated since ep1
The triple layer walls of Qarth must have been inspired by the walls of Constantinople. The city is also quite similar to Constantinople which for a long time was the only surviving city in a once great empire
@NotABot 8436 It's both. The walls of Babylon were named by Antipater of Sidon in around 150 BC, one of the oldest surviving lists of the wonders. Later lists named the lighthouse of Alexandria instead of the walls of Babylon.
Pretty sure they were inspired by the Walls of Babylon, which were part of the original 7 wonders of (our) world. They were replaced in the list by the Lighthouse of Alexandria in the 300s BC when they collapsed. The famous Ishar-Gate of Babylon was decorated with animals, like the outer walls of Qarth.
I would think the jet black city of Asshai would be a wonder as well. Writings say it absorbed any sunlight around, and it's a major port. Would make sense that Longstrider had been there.
@palanare - 😂 I wish it didn't end the way it did and now Peter dinklage is calling all of the fans who disliked the ending just a bunch of jobless people who had nothing better to do on a Sunday......
@COUNTERSPELLgoon they never found bodies but they DID find tons of sarcophaguses in them, that had clear signs of being broken into and things having been stolen out of them, things like, you know, bodies. Mummified humans have been used in traditional (i.e. incorrect) "medicine" for millenia, and still are in parts of the world today, which gives a good reason why these could be stolen, although the main reason is probably that all the gold and jewellery could be sold for a fortune. This idea that the pyramids were never used as tombs is a modern fad from places like Tik Tok and Facebook, but you don't see actual historians ever bringing it up legitimately as a theory, because all the evidence contradicts it. What you're claiming is like saying if you found a tombstone from say England that's 2000 years old, immediately going "well there's no body buried under it anymore, which means tombstones categorically have never been used to mark graves in England at any point in history". Which would be of course ridiculous to claim. Wood and organic tissue rot away, even bones turn to dust, all that's left over is the coffins and the stones.
@FromNothingICome yeah it would make sense that ancient Egyptians would leave open their broken into buildings just like how banks leave the hole that robbers blew open when they stole shit
@winter melon the number of rooms in the forbiden city is 999, because the ancient Chinese believed that 9 is the biggest number. And emperors are the biggest people - thats why they love to have 999 rooms in their house (the Forbidden City is their palace).
And the qarth wall was based on troy. Recently archeologist found the supposed city of troy. And instead of one great wall they found out that it's comprised by 3 main walls and segmented by multiple smaller ones. It is unknown whether Homer's tales about troy was based on the city that was found but it does resemble alot of things what he described.
@ak87 to keep all of the secret passages as an escape if another rebellion happens. The spider in Robert's rebellion, he was those passages and kept it for himself and his kids/spies to gather information and kill people. Every Monarchies does have some forms of palace secret escape or information gathered rooms?
The Palace of Love in Chroyane (though now the ruined Sorrows) was once considered a marvel of the world. The palace alone is estimated by Tyrion through the fog to be many times the size of the Red Keep and was known throughout the world to be splendorously beautiful. Very possible that it was one of the wonders before its destruction.
Brilliant! As an Amurican, the metric system is too confusing and doesnt make sense. Hodors, hands, and hogsheads are the correct way to measure things
@Thelastmemelord Lol Have you read all the ASOIAF books so far? I’m genuinely curious because to say that “there are way more characters in theses stories with arc then in got” in reference to Tolkien makes me believe you just watched the series and are basing your option off the show.
@Thelastmemelord Lol Bigger? Lord of the rings books including the Hobbit 576,459 words. All game of thrones books ≈ 1,770,000 words. In what fucking way is it bigger?
@Thelastmemelord Lol A story which is supposed to be grounded in realism in a fantasy world has sex? No way dude, it's not like sex is literally a giant part of existance. Shows you are a virgin.
@Incognito Mode I know you live off arguing with people and thrive off the attention and angry you raise out of people by making comments like this however I will still bite. To call Game of Thrones just a offshoot Lord of the Rings is insulting to George R. R. Martin's talent as a writer. Also my comment was poking fun at the idea that someone doesn't realize that he does love his history and borrow heavily from it. You need to relax instead of blindly insulting those who make blanket statements without knowing their true intentions. Grow up you sad little man...
DUH. That’s the obvious statement of the century........His whole premise is an offshoot of Lord of The Rings, that’s painfully obvious, plus heavy influence from The Wars of The Roses. Everything in his books is a conglomeration of his favorite periods in history and fantasy he read. Soooooo, if people don’t know that already, they’ve been living under a rock in the middle of the desert, with their ears plugged and their eyes blindfolded........
Half of the story is “nicked” he just founded something kind of new. It’s always the reason I have a lot of respect for him as a writer, while also really not liking him as a creative person. I do separate the 2. Tolkien kind of wrote a song of ice and fire. 🙌🏻🤣
The Wall is Hardrian's wall. The Titans of Braavos is The colossus of Rhodes. Hightower in Oldtown is Lighthouse of Alexandria. Valyria Freehold roads is the Roman Empire's Roads. The Long Bridge of Volantis is The famous Roman Bridge of Cordoba. Qarth the trippled wall is probably the Constantinople walls. Highgarden is the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Great Pyramid of Giza is Great Pyramid of Ghis.
At first I thought the bridge is inspired by Pont du Gard, but then I realised Pont du Gard has multiple tier and no shops. The roman bridge in Cordoba seems like a match (minus the shops, but the structure of the bridge itself is like a carbon copy). Edit: Imo I think it's great that GRRM was inspired by the real world's -our world's- beautiful, historical buildings. We have a lot of these ancient wonders to cherish.
Lomas Longstider never made it past the Bones mountains, as he lost heart and believed he was at the world’s end. It’s stated in the East of Ib in the World of Ice and Fire. Great video regardless.
It’s probably the Five Forts and the Hightower. Because the Five Forts are basically the Wall of Essos and the Hightower is the tallest structure in Westeros so it’d definitely make sense. If Lomas never visited the Five Forts than the Great Pyramid of Ghis or Meereen would probably take its place on the list.
volantis is like london: a outpost build by the romans, divided by the river into a respected city on the on side and in medieval times the filthy degenerate and outlawish south bank where theatres brothels and pubs were. the bridge is like london bridge, which in the old times was also built up with houses and shops and the only way to cross the Themes.
@Liz Lee the Roman Britons built hadrians wall to keep out the picts and scotts in 122AD the viking age didn't start for another 6 centuries. Also alfred the great lived in the 800s AD. You have your timelines muddled.
Meanwhile I think culturally you could say it's India- spicy food, warm climate, elephants, tigers, originators of chess (cyvasse). Plus, hathay actually comes from the Hindi word for elephant, hathi.
@Frank Spencer your right, that is totally what I meant and "drowned in sewer water?". Long bridge is totally unlike "Ponte Vecchio"in Florence (I mean what do they even have in common?).
King's Landing is London, Braavos is Venice, Volantis is Florence (famous for its bridge), Qarth is Istanbul (also famous for its walls), and Yi Ti is Beijing (famous for its forbidden city).
His gravy might be fine and dandy, but if he pounded up cherry pits to sprinkle on top of his pies, that's just crazy. There's no flavor in cherry pits. It's like wood. It is known.
Yeah you see, most people don't take much time with the gravy. But Hot Pie knows that the gravy must be perfect for the pie to be moist and tasty inside. A bit like clean pussy but with crusts. That being said his pies have very large crusts. Not cool, more beef and gravy please Hot Pie. I knew mine were better.....
Great video! I think the Long Bridge might also be based on the old London Bridge that existed during Medieval and Renaissance times. It was covered in buildings as well. I'm less sure about this one, but I think the walls of Qarth might also have been based on the walls of Constantinople. They famously protected it for nearly a millennium, allowing it to survive as the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, until the Ottomans finally captured it by using some of the very first siege cannons in the 15th Century to penetrate the walls. It not only brought an end to the Byzantine's empire and led to the renaming of Constantinople to Istanbul, but marked the end of Medieval-style warfare, the obsolescence of the kind of wall/castle fortifications seen up to that point, and the need for Europeans to find another route to Asia (leading to the discovery of the New World).
I really love the videos you do based on worldbuilding stuff from the books. I know you've branched out a little to other TV series like Westworld, but I think it would be fantastic if you do the same with other books and book series. There's not enough content like that on X-vid and your style and voice would be perfect for it! Either way, thanks for another great video and happy new year :)
Two of my favourite youtubers, both ASOIAF channels, Alt Shift X and Preston Jacobs, both for completely different reasons, but both excellent content nonetheless, big fan ASX, keep up the good work :)
Sarnath was also the name of a glorious ancient city from HP Lovecraft's "Dream-Land" stories, and featured in the story "The Doom That Came to Sarnath".
This was one of my favorite videos besides the chapter readings! Thanks dude, Real history is awesome but I hate non-fiction. Pillars of the Earth is my only inlet into 'historical fiction'. Good enough for me.
I’m religious. So i believe in heaven (duh). I always said to myself that when i die and go to heaven i want to basically VR (except it is real) style go back to ALL the fictional worlds i wanted to experience. And actually experience them, so this video is actually helping me.
Your videos are always really well made, fascinating, illuminating, informative, and thoughtful. I'm back to watching these and am just really impressed, thank you.
@Joseph Clark Okay, obviously you took a comment made in jest a little too seriously. No. Arya was not worthy to rule. I would argue the same thing for Bran. Either choice, practically speaking, would have been a god-awful choice for Westeros, but of course that's how it worked out in this crap season.
We all owe Arya Stark our SOULS for saving us from that night, that would have lasted CENTURIES, if a certain teenager didn't know how to wield a dragonglass knife like a FUCKING NINJA! Instead of "Brandon the Broken", "Arya, the Ice-Breaker" should have been sat on the throne instead. This is just one of about 7,423 things the show runners got wrong about the final season...
@nd4spd S8 should have been all about the night king and humanities struggles against him. Not villain of the week, killed by a plot armored main character and not about the dragon queen saying fuck it to all her morals she had in the previous 7 seasons. fan fiction at best
Love your videos! Would you consider following this up with one about Lomas Longstrider's seven god-made/natural wonders? As Haldon Halfmaester said, "The gods made seven wonders, and mortal man made nine. Rather impious of mortal man to do the gods two better, but there you are."
You are awesome man, thank you. Your video layouts are incredible, your voice and humor are even more cool! Thank you for the extremely well made and thought out videos and commentary. I’m a huge fan of everything you do, so please keep it up. Thanks again.
i love learning about asoiaf lore and your channel is my favorite place to turn to. thank you so much for the time you put into creating your fantastic videos. i, for one, am beyond thankful for all this game of thrones content. keep up the great work!
He's less well known than he once was, especially in the US, but I have to wonder if Martin ever read any Mervyn Peake. I thought a lot of the he palace grotesques and power struggles in the Gormenghast series with the war of the Starks and Lannisters, along with many peripheral characters.
The Long Bridge of Volantis may also be based on a Covered Bridge. The one that came to mind was the Covered Bridge in Lovech, Bulgaria as it's in my country, but also because the way it's designed is that it looks like a large, elongated, wooden house and it is one of the few that do actually have shops on the inside (I think there were 3 in total of those in Europe). It also wouldn't be the first time GRRM has referenced something slavic, for example - the warg Orell, the guy who skinchanged into an eagle, his name literally means "eagle" in Bulgarian and likely a few other slavic languages.
I would love to see Yi Ti's great ruins on the show, its those wonderfully made castles and fantastical locations we need after all these big dragons and cgi battles.
Another Wonder made by Man that Lomas could have meant would be the city of Asshai. All the buildings there are described as being on a scale much larger than anywhere in the West and that the city itself is so huge, it always seems void of people. There's also constant trade between Asshai and cities further west, so Lomas could have reached it fairly easy
There's another likely inspiration for the Titan, the Memnon colossus in Egypt. For centuries, early morning sunlight would cause the stones to emit some kind of noise that was famous all across the ancient world (because some blocks had been displaced slightly following an earthquake). I love how reality is rich enough to feed fantasy.
The Sarnath palace could be inspired by Minoses palace in Knossos Crete. It was said to have a thousand rooms and was seen as a superior nation untill the Mycenaeans invaded not unlike the Dothraki with their barbaric ways and destroyed the palace, some historians even used to believe that the palace is what inspired the maze where in greek mythology the minotaur resides.
I would consider Winterfell a candidate for a Wonder of the World, because it never falls, even when up against White Walkers. It’s even believed that the Builder himself built Winterfell on the battlefield of Winter, because that’s where Winter fell, during the time of heroes.
As someone who doesn’t have time to invest in the books and was dreadfully bored by the show, your videos diving into the lore really intrigue me. George R. R. Martin really knows how to write interesting lore, and you do a great job explaining it!
Am about a quarter of the way through the second book. The book lovers had it right about the extra details, all the little battles that the show hints at, are actually explored and better so. The show had its moments but my main thankful point is having faces and voices from the show whilst reading, brings it all a bit more to life.
Hadrian's wall was meant to keep the Picts out, not the Scots. Different cultural groups from slightly different times. Didn't see anyone correcting it, so I did it. Hope you carry on making these for the books after the series are done.
Alt you did a masterful job of pointing out the amazing and novel elements that make TWOIAF so fascinating, it really took me a long time to absorb the mythos of this very complex world and three actual starts and quits to really read the books. But when I did the whole story was comprehensible and I think people will still be discovering and marvelling at the series 50 years from now and long after I'm taking a dirt-nap.
I cannot express how wonderful your videos are. Your voice is very calming and your content very well researched. Can't wait for your s08e03 breakdown video.
I think the Long Bridge of Volantis was inspired by Trajan's Bridge in real life. It was a bridge across the Danube River, built by Emperor Trajan as a means of travel from Rome to Dacia, one of the empire's more obscure provinces. It was the first stone bridge built across the Danube and for centuries remained the largest bridge ever built.
Excellent video as always. GRRM lives in Santa Fe and there's a 95 year old festival there called Zozobra which centers around a huge marionette. It likely served as an inspiration for Titan.
The triple walls are likely inspired by the theodosian walls of Constantinople which also were triple-layered and gave the city an unconquerable reputation
The triple walls of the qarth were likely inspired by the triple walls of the consantinopolis. The consantinopolist was besieged several times and could only be captured by the crusader army and the ottoman
Fun fact that you may had missed is that the 3 walls of Qarth are in comparison to the 3 walls that Constantinople used to defend their city, and it worked really well against the Turks...until the Turks got ahold of canons
I would love to know where I can find out more about the far east and YI TI and the five forts as they seem really interesting parts of the game of thrones world
Can you do a video about the similarities between The Wheel of Time and A Song of Ice and Fire? For example "Lomas Longstrider" reminds me of "Jain Farstrider" a lot. Also GRRM and RJ knew each other well and there are reference to each other in their work.
story wise, you could also say that the titan of Bravos is similar to the statue of Holger Danske, here in Denmark. because, it is said that when the danes are in dire need, Holger Danske will rise and help them :) probably a little long out, but I found it interesting they had this in common :)
Here’s my little theory about the five forts: so it’s said in the lore that that the valyrians were taught to tame dragons by a culture so ancient they had no name that hailed from the shadow lands the same place where dragons are said to have first originated from and going by the description of the material the forts are made out of it seems to be a more simplistic version of dragonstone the same material the valyrians used in the construction of the dragon roads and the wall of volantis and they were known to adopt technology from other cultures and improve them like the real life Roman Empire, so I think the people that taught the valyrians how to tame dragons were the ancestors of the yi tish people making them the first people to ever tame dragons and used them to build the five forts and at some point the yi tish dragons all died out possibly during the long night. That’s my theory
Those layered walls may be a reference to Plato's concentric Atlantis, but I find that it is more likely a reference to the great Eastern fortresses of old like Hatra or my favorite, Ekbatana.
The long bridge is also based on bridge in Florence in Italy where the whole bridge is covered in shops and other things it is called Ponte Vecchio Edit: thanks for likes and if you enjoy the game of thrones as i do you may genuinely enjoy this game, Conqueror's Blade I have some gameplay on my chanel if you like it you can join our discord or whatever even subscribe :D .
Looks more like old London bridge upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/48/Claude_de_Jongh__-View_of_London_Bridge-__Google_Art_Project_bridge.jpg/800px-_View_of_London_Bridge_-_Google_Art_Project_bridge.jpg
The part about Norvos reminds me a lot of old Finnic religion (Finland, Estonians, and large chunks of Russia by non-Slavic inhabitants). Much of it was taboo to speak about, and the bear was seen as a "holy" animal. In fact it was so holy and respected that the Finnish word for bear ("karhu") is/was a synonym to a synonym of the real word for bear. You were not allowed to utter the real word for "bear" out of respect. So the synonym became the word for bear over time. I think it's possible that GRRM has also borrowed some elements of real culture and changed it here. I love it.
What about Dubrovnik as Quarth? Not only do they still keep the fortification of the city but they were independent from any empire for hundreds of years surrounded by powerfull epires like Constantinopla and Venice but they did it thanks to their fortification and their prowess as merchants. Much like the Quarteen!
This is the 100th Alt Shift X video! We recently hit 100M views, and are approaching 1M subscribers - thanks for watching 🙂
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Lol
I would like to see a spin of off Game of Thrones set in Eastern Essos (especially YiTy) whicj would be nearly entirely removed from the events in Westeros due to the distance...
It might be war where you are but most of the world in entirely at peace (and vice versa)
:D would be interesting if we were given a spin of so far East that the place we would be would be as far east from Essos as Iron Islands are from Eastern YiTy and were not told until a ship from East would arive (:D lets say ... Arya?)
Bears and bearded Priests ... Do I spell Russian Influence?
A very good and informative video. When you mentioned Quarths 3 walls you didnt mention any real life equivelant, but I think I know what it could be.
I suspect that Quarth is Inspired by Constantinople. It served as the gateway between East and West for centuries, withstood countless sieges thanks to its Theodosian Wall wich are 3 walls and a moat able to be filled with water. Also the geographical position of Quarth is very striking to Constantinople situated at the hellespont overlooking Anatolia.
i remember reading somewhere that George RR Martin is actually horrible with practical sizes and how realistic architecture works. Like when he saw the first artist rendering of The Wall for GOT he told them they'd made it look way too high, to which they answered "that's what a 700 foot wall would look like".
@James Burgess medieval nutrition was far better than ours today lol. Hyper-processed, microplastic-infused food is slowly killing us. Unless you're talking about a bodybuilder who actively watches their caloric intake and is super scrupulous about where they get their food, the average human today is eating poison compared to back then.
Now, hygiene and general well-being are a different story.
@J Arnett you’re still missing the point. He still got it wrong regardless of whether you can imagine it. He has admitted it was a mistake because he didn’t scale it properly in his mind. What was said was an actual fact. You not wanting to accept that is just odd 🤣👏🏻
@Screeching Creature How much is 1mm in Imperial?
@Kratatch bullshit decimals suck. Base 6 or base 12 is better
@Hawk66100 exactly my dude
The wall was built by White Walkers to protect them from Stannis the Mannis.
@Fairhair cmon man, help me put grandpa Emperor to bed, he’s crawling around mumbling about Sanguinius again
nah they built it to protect themselves from lord tywin lannister
@God Emperor of Mankind 3.0someone doesnt get the joke 😂
@AdmiralMeow people keep responding to me
@God Emperor of Mankind 3.0 damn youve been arguing in the comments for a year :/
Yeah the night that never ends... it lasted for an hour and 20 minutes
made sense the night king is menacing but not that an emotionally impactful villian. I always knew he will be defeated first before Cersei, who we have hated since ep1
@Chris Reid yes
@Chris Reid No a season would have helped.
@B Stan Keep talking shit. The episode (and last seasons in general) sucked.
@M K It could've had more episodes and detail but na I enjoyed it. Keep talking shit and saying how bad it was, I love it
The triple layer walls of Qarth must have been inspired by the walls of Constantinople. The city is also quite similar to Constantinople which for a long time was the only surviving city in a once great empire
@NotABot 8436 It's both. The walls of Babylon were named by Antipater of Sidon in around 150 BC, one of the oldest surviving lists of the wonders. Later lists named the lighthouse of Alexandria instead of the walls of Babylon.
@Tuff Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Babylon famous for its hanging gardens, not its walls?
Ah the Theodosian Walls of Constantinople....clever
Pretty sure they were inspired by the Walls of Babylon, which were part of the original 7 wonders of (our) world. They were replaced in the list by the Lighthouse of Alexandria in the 300s BC when they collapsed. The famous Ishar-Gate of Babylon was decorated with animals, like the outer walls of Qarth.
@GS-8 nope
I would think the jet black city of Asshai would be a wonder as well. Writings say it absorbed any sunlight around, and it's a major port. Would make sense that Longstrider had been there.
They painted everything with vanta black lol
Yeah but it's also skeezy as hell.
I'm so happy this channel exists, gives GoT such incredible depth until the last season premieres!
this comment is tragic
@palanare - 😂 I wish it didn't end the way it did and now Peter dinklage is calling all of the fans who disliked the ending just a bunch of jobless people who had nothing better to do on a Sunday......
oh sweet, sweet summer child ...
And after the shows finished haha 😂
@Theodor Berg No.
GRRM : Can I copy the 7 wonders of the world for my books?
World : Sure, but make some changes.
GRRM : *Makes everything 2 times bigger*
GRRM likes history
You mean 50 hodors taller
I demand that all buildings be measured in Hodors from now on.
@akeel brown akeel what the fuck you either did the math wrong or have a gigapenid
2009 chevy silverado
5.3 liter engine
LT trim package
4wd
1.2 Hodor bed legnth
and doors should be 1 standard hodor.
@Scott Mantooth 1848, Hodor is 208 cm tall, 384,400,000 metres to the moon, #Hodorsystem
how many Hodor's is it to the moon?
GRRM: hey, can I copy your homework?
Great pyramid of Giza: sure, just make sure you change it a little bit
*THE GREAT PYRAMID OF GHIS*
@COUNTERSPELLgoon they never found bodies but they DID find tons of sarcophaguses in them, that had clear signs of being broken into and things having been stolen out of them, things like, you know, bodies. Mummified humans have been used in traditional (i.e. incorrect) "medicine" for millenia, and still are in parts of the world today, which gives a good reason why these could be stolen, although the main reason is probably that all the gold and jewellery could be sold for a fortune.
This idea that the pyramids were never used as tombs is a modern fad from places like Tik Tok and Facebook, but you don't see actual historians ever bringing it up legitimately as a theory, because all the evidence contradicts it.
What you're claiming is like saying if you found a tombstone from say England that's 2000 years old, immediately going "well there's no body buried under it anymore, which means tombstones categorically have never been used to mark graves in England at any point in history". Which would be of course ridiculous to claim. Wood and organic tissue rot away, even bones turn to dust, all that's left over is the coffins and the stones.
damn the comment section destroyed T Mac
@Manospondylus the fact that I'm still getting replies 3 years later and over 3,000 likes makes me feel beyond famous
To be fair, pyramids are extremely common among real life cultures as well
@FromNothingICome yeah it would make sense that ancient Egyptians would leave open their broken into buildings just like how banks leave the hole that robbers blew open when they stole shit
Presumably the Yi Ti Emperor's Palace is based on the Forbidden City, which was fabled to have 1000 buildings (it has 980)?
i wonder how many Hodors that is?
@winter melon the number of rooms in the forbiden city is 999, because the ancient Chinese believed that 9 is the biggest number. And emperors are the biggest people - thats why they love to have 999 rooms in their house (the Forbidden City is their palace).
And the qarth wall was based on troy. Recently archeologist found the supposed city of troy. And instead of one great wall they found out that it's comprised by 3 main walls and segmented by multiple smaller ones. It is unknown whether Homer's tales about troy was based on the city that was found but it does resemble alot of things what he described.
@ak87 to keep all of the secret passages as an escape if another rebellion happens. The spider in Robert's rebellion, he was those passages and kept it for himself and his kids/spies to gather information and kill people. Every Monarchies does have some forms of palace secret escape or information gathered rooms?
@books from Windblown Just like Maegor the Cruel executed the labourers of the red keep...
The Palace of Love in Chroyane (though now the ruined Sorrows) was once considered a marvel of the world. The palace alone is estimated by Tyrion through the fog to be many times the size of the Red Keep and was known throughout the world to be splendorously beautiful. Very possible that it was one of the wonders before its destruction.
The Hodor system of measurements - the way to reconcile metric and imperial fanboys!
Brilliant! As an Amurican, the metric system is too confusing and doesnt make sense. Hodors, hands, and hogsheads are the correct way to measure things
Only 3 nations don't use the metric system. So the way to reconcile is for them to join the rest of the world.
metric and imperial *fanboys*
@Caleb Garrett Said the last buggy whip maker on earth.
@POHTUS being unique is better then being identical
One thing I learnt is that GRRM loves his history
@Thelastmemelord Lol Have you read all the ASOIAF books so far? I’m genuinely curious because to say that “there are way more characters in theses stories with arc then in got” in reference to Tolkien makes me believe you just watched the series and are basing your option off the show.
@Thelastmemelord Lol Bigger? Lord of the rings books including the Hobbit 576,459 words. All game of thrones books ≈ 1,770,000 words. In what fucking way is it bigger?
@Thelastmemelord Lol A story which is supposed to be grounded in realism in a fantasy world has sex? No way dude, it's not like sex is literally a giant part of existance. Shows you are a virgin.
@Incognito Mode I know you live off arguing with people and thrive off the attention and angry you raise out of people by making comments like this however I will still bite. To call Game of Thrones just a offshoot Lord of the Rings is insulting to George R. R. Martin's talent as a writer. Also my comment was poking fun at the idea that someone doesn't realize that he does love his history and borrow heavily from it. You need to relax instead of blindly insulting those who make blanket statements without knowing their true intentions. Grow up you sad little man...
DUH. That’s the obvious statement of the century........His whole premise is an offshoot of Lord of The Rings, that’s painfully obvious, plus heavy influence from The Wars of The Roses. Everything in his books is a conglomeration of his favorite periods in history and fantasy he read. Soooooo, if people don’t know that already, they’ve been living under a rock in the middle of the desert, with their ears plugged and their eyes blindfolded........
Half of the story is “nicked” he just founded something kind of new. It’s always the reason I have a lot of respect for him as a writer, while also really not liking him as a creative person. I do separate the 2. Tolkien kind of wrote a song of ice and fire. 🙌🏻🤣
If I'd built the Titan, I'd totally have a rear port for dropping flaming pitch.
Everybody'd be giggling immaturely as enemy ships burned.
During times of war, the Titan would be equipped with a taco and the rear port is opened.
This is Gold.
Literally shitting on your enemies
He can shoot arrows from his boobs
Lmao and a large horn that exited out the rear as you drop firey diarrhea on your enemies
The Wall is Hardrian's wall.
The Titans of Braavos is The colossus of Rhodes.
Hightower in Oldtown is Lighthouse of Alexandria.
Valyria Freehold roads is the Roman Empire's Roads.
The Long Bridge of Volantis is The famous Roman Bridge of Cordoba.
Qarth the trippled wall is probably the Constantinople walls.
Highgarden is the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
Great Pyramid of Giza is Great Pyramid of Ghis.
@Kelly Sun&Serenity Dothekai are imitation of the Mongol Empire and golden hordes
Well done! I applaude you books from Windblown😊👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
The bridge of Volantis is more like Charles Bridge, Prague.
...and in the books, in book 2 Tyrion walks by an actual Sphinx statue on the way to the small council meetings.
At first I thought the bridge is inspired by Pont du Gard, but then I realised Pont du Gard has multiple tier and no shops. The roman bridge in Cordoba seems like a match (minus the shops, but the structure of the bridge itself is like a carbon copy).
Edit: Imo I think it's great that GRRM was inspired by the real world's -our world's- beautiful, historical buildings. We have a lot of these ancient wonders to cherish.
Lomas Longstider never made it past the Bones mountains, as he lost heart and believed he was at the world’s end. It’s stated in the East of Ib in the World of Ice and Fire. Great video regardless.
There’s no one on X-vid that delivers GoT content of this quality do consistently, thanks so much mate
It’s probably the Five Forts and the Hightower. Because the Five Forts are basically the Wall of Essos and the Hightower is the tallest structure in Westeros so it’d definitely make sense. If Lomas never visited the Five Forts than the Great Pyramid of Ghis or Meereen would probably take its place on the list.
volantis is like london: a outpost build by the romans, divided by the river into a respected city on the on side and in medieval times the filthy degenerate and outlawish south bank where theatres brothels and pubs were. the bridge is like london bridge, which in the old times was also built up with houses and shops and the only way to cross the Themes.
@Liz Lee the Roman Britons built hadrians wall to keep out the picts and scotts in 122AD the viking age didn't start for another 6 centuries. Also alfred the great lived in the 800s AD. You have your timelines muddled.
also similiar to edinburgh which has an old and new town
Meanwhile I think culturally you could say it's India- spicy food, warm climate, elephants, tigers, originators of chess (cyvasse). Plus, hathay actually comes from the Hindi word for elephant, hathi.
Liz Lee London is actually a pretty big city. It’s twice the expanse of New York
@Frank Spencer your right, that is totally what I meant and "drowned in sewer water?". Long bridge is totally unlike "Ponte Vecchio"in Florence (I mean what do they even have in common?).
"Sarnath" is an actual city in India where a huge ancient temple devoted to Lord Shiva resides.
I thought it was from a Lovecraft story
"And by a night that never ends, Melisandre really meant... a night that lasts a night."
if it lasted any longer, and thye were defeated at Winterfell, nobody and nothing could have stopped them
I always associated the Bridge of Volantis with the bridge in Florence. It also has buildings and rooms built its entire length.
Sarnath and it's story is also a reference to H.P. Lovecraft's short story " The Doom that came to Sarnath".
I knew that name was familiar somewhere
King's Landing is London, Braavos is Venice, Volantis is Florence (famous for its bridge), Qarth is Istanbul (also famous for its walls), and Yi Ti is Beijing (famous for its forbidden city).
One of the wonders of the modern GoT world is Hot Pies gravy
His gravy might be fine and dandy, but if he pounded up cherry pits to sprinkle on top of his pies, that's just crazy. There's no flavor in cherry pits. It's like wood. It is known.
Maybe even Podrick's 😉
What about Podricks magnum dong?
Yeah you see, most people don't take much time with the gravy. But Hot Pie knows that the gravy must be perfect for the pie to be moist and tasty inside. A bit like clean pussy but with crusts. That being said his pies have very large crusts. Not cool, more beef and gravy please Hot Pie. I knew mine were better.....
You mean Medeival right?
Modern world would be *after* that _Dream of Spring_ thingy {the bittersweet ending}.
Really good episode. Your last few have been absolutely the best in the ASOIAF community
Great video! I think the Long Bridge might also be based on the old London Bridge that existed during Medieval and Renaissance times. It was covered in buildings as well. I'm less sure about this one, but I think the walls of Qarth might also have been based on the walls of Constantinople. They famously protected it for nearly a millennium, allowing it to survive as the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, until the Ottomans finally captured it by using some of the very first siege cannons in the 15th Century to penetrate the walls. It not only brought an end to the Byzantine's empire and led to the renaming of Constantinople to Istanbul, but marked the end of Medieval-style warfare, the obsolescence of the kind of wall/castle fortifications seen up to that point, and the need for Europeans to find another route to Asia (leading to the discovery of the New World).
I really love the videos you do based on worldbuilding stuff from the books. I know you've branched out a little to other TV series like Westworld, but I think it would be fantastic if you do the same with other books and book series. There's not enough content like that on X-vid and your style and voice would be perfect for it! Either way, thanks for another great video and happy new year :)
So many unexplored wonders to explore!
Each one worthy of its own art book.
Two of my favourite youtubers, both ASOIAF channels, Alt Shift X and Preston Jacobs, both for completely different reasons, but both excellent content nonetheless, big fan ASX, keep up the good work :)
Sarnath was also the name of a glorious ancient city from HP Lovecraft's "Dream-Land" stories, and featured in the story "The Doom That Came to Sarnath".
This was one of my favorite videos besides the chapter readings! Thanks dude, Real history is awesome but I hate non-fiction. Pillars of the Earth is my only inlet into 'historical fiction'. Good enough for me.
I really like this, as even in our own world the 7 Ancient Wonders have always been mysterious and lost to legend as most of them fell long long ago.
Hats off to rr Martin for creating a world so real and fascinating that one keeps on appreciating the history he created. 👍
I felt like I walked into a travel agency and was given a tour of where I could possibly go LOL amazing work!
I’m religious. So i believe in heaven (duh). I always said to myself that when i die and go to heaven i want to basically VR (except it is real) style go back to ALL the fictional worlds i wanted to experience. And actually experience them, so this video is actually helping me.
You may like in deep geek’s channel. He does a series that is just that a traveler’s guide to asofai’s world
Your videos are always really well made, fascinating, illuminating, informative, and thoughtful. I'm back to watching these and am just really impressed, thank you.
'If the Wall falls, night falls as well, the long night that never ends'... Which turns out to be a singular night :/... Dammit D&D.
@Joseph Clark Okay, obviously you took a comment made in jest a little too seriously.
No. Arya was not worthy to rule. I would argue the same thing for Bran. Either choice, practically speaking, would have been a god-awful choice for Westeros, but of course that's how it worked out in this crap season.
@shindari Arya should not have sat the iron throne. She doesn't know how to rule and completely goes against her character.
We all owe Arya Stark our SOULS for saving us from that night, that would have lasted CENTURIES, if a certain teenager didn't know how to wield a dragonglass knife like a FUCKING NINJA! Instead of "Brandon the Broken", "Arya, the Ice-Breaker" should have been sat on the throne instead.
This is just one of about 7,423 things the show runners got wrong about the final season...
@nd4spd S8 should have been all about the night king and humanities struggles against him. Not villain of the week, killed by a plot armored main character and not about the dragon queen saying fuck it to all her morals she had in the previous 7 seasons. fan fiction at best
@Aaron Landry Would've made for a better season!
Love your videos! Would you consider following this up with one about Lomas Longstrider's seven god-made/natural wonders? As Haldon Halfmaester said, "The gods made seven wonders, and mortal man made nine. Rather impious of mortal man to do the gods two better, but there you are."
You are awesome man, thank you. Your video layouts are incredible, your voice and humor are even more cool! Thank you for the extremely well made and thought out videos and commentary. I’m a huge fan of everything you do, so please keep it up. Thanks again.
I really like that you are doing videos like this, I'd also love to see longer ones should you have the time.
i love learning about asoiaf lore and your channel is my favorite place to turn to. thank you so much for the time you put into creating your fantastic videos. i, for one, am beyond thankful for all this game of thrones content. keep up the great work!
Qarth is basically Constantinople
Except it was never conquered. I think Qarth is more like Vienna.
@Freggle well there's Galata beyond the Golden Horn
Nope, it's most likely based on Babylon. The walls closely resemble the Ishtar gate.
@Jon Castillian DEUS VULT YOU SARACEN SPY!!!!
Istanbul
He's less well known than he once was, especially in the US, but I have to wonder if Martin ever read any Mervyn Peake. I thought a lot of the he palace grotesques and power struggles in the Gormenghast series with the war of the Starks and Lannisters, along with many peripheral characters.
I love your didactic tone of correctness about everything. It's very reassuring in these troubled times.
The Long Bridge of Volantis may also be based on a Covered Bridge. The one that came to mind was the Covered Bridge in Lovech, Bulgaria as it's in my country, but also because the way it's designed is that it looks like a large, elongated, wooden house and it is one of the few that do actually have shops on the inside (I think there were 3 in total of those in Europe).
It also wouldn't be the first time GRRM has referenced something slavic, for example - the warg Orell, the guy who skinchanged into an eagle, his name literally means "eagle" in Bulgarian and likely a few other slavic languages.
Absolutely love how you even revealed how each wonder was inspired by
i love how you make the videos and take us trough a journey , always looking forward to see more!!
I would love to see Yi Ti's great ruins on the show, its those wonderfully made castles and fantastical locations we need after all these big dragons and cgi battles.
Loving these videos that show case the environment and the rest of the world of GOT. Keep them coming!
These new videos of exploring the ASoIAF world are awesome! Keep it up!
Another Wonder made by Man that Lomas could have meant would be the city of Asshai. All the buildings there are described as being on a scale much larger than anywhere in the West and that the city itself is so huge, it always seems void of people. There's also constant trade between Asshai and cities further west, so Lomas could have reached it fairly easy
There's another likely inspiration for the Titan, the Memnon colossus in Egypt. For centuries, early morning sunlight would cause the stones to emit some kind of noise that was famous all across the ancient world (because some blocks had been displaced slightly following an earthquake). I love how reality is rich enough to feed fantasy.
The Sarnath palace could be inspired by Minoses palace in Knossos Crete. It was said to have a thousand rooms and was seen as a superior nation untill the Mycenaeans invaded not unlike the Dothraki with their barbaric ways and destroyed the palace, some historians even used to believe that the palace is what inspired the maze where in greek mythology the minotaur resides.
I love the Titan of Braavos, as it is essentially the Colossus of Rhodes meets the Colossus of Memnon.
I would consider Winterfell a candidate for a Wonder of the World, because it never falls, even when up against White Walkers. It’s even believed that the Builder himself built Winterfell on the battlefield of Winter, because that’s where Winter fell, during the time of heroes.
Loving these expansion videos 💙
As someone who doesn’t have time to invest in the books and was dreadfully bored by the show, your videos diving into the lore really intrigue me. George R. R. Martin really knows how to write interesting lore, and you do a great job explaining it!
Doesn’t have time for the books and was bored by the show, what are you even doing here you cynical asshole….
Gratz on reaching 100 videos! Thank you for making great content for the GoT mass' to consume! Keep up the great work!
As always: Extremely good video! I'm always amazed by the work you do with this videos and the research.
Keep up the great work!!
skip the code captcha and see the new trailer of GOT 8: yass-link.tk/tysFcXjm
Am about a quarter of the way through the second book.
The book lovers had it right about the extra details, all the little battles that the show hints at, are actually explored and better so.
The show had its moments but my main thankful point is having faces and voices from the show whilst reading, brings it all a bit more to life.
Hadrian's wall was meant to keep the Picts out, not the Scots. Different cultural groups from slightly different times. Didn't see anyone correcting it, so I did it. Hope you carry on making these for the books after the series are done.
Alt you did a masterful job of pointing out the amazing and novel elements that make TWOIAF so fascinating, it really took me a long time to absorb the mythos of this very complex world and three actual starts and quits to really read the books. But when I did the whole story was comprehensible and I think people will still be discovering and marvelling at the series 50 years from now and long after I'm taking a dirt-nap.
Are you planning to do a video on the book "Wonders" also written by Lomas Longstrider about the natural wonders of a song of ice and fire?
Absolutely amazing quality video as always.
I cannot express how wonderful your videos are. Your voice is very calming and your content very well researched. Can't wait for your s08e03 breakdown video.
I think the Long Bridge of Volantis was inspired by Trajan's Bridge in real life. It was a bridge across the Danube River, built by Emperor Trajan as a means of travel from Rome to Dacia, one of the empire's more obscure provinces. It was the first stone bridge built across the Danube and for centuries remained the largest bridge ever built.
Excellent video as always. GRRM lives in Santa Fe and there's a 95 year old festival there called Zozobra which centers around a huge marionette. It likely served as an inspiration for Titan.
The triple walls are likely inspired by the theodosian walls of Constantinople which also were triple-layered and gave the city an unconquerable reputation
The triple walls of the qarth were likely inspired by the triple walls of the consantinopolis. The consantinopolist was besieged several times and could only be captured by the crusader army and the ottoman
Great video as always. Would love to see that video about the children of the forest!
Fun fact that you may had missed is that the 3 walls of Qarth are in comparison to the 3 walls that Constantinople used to defend their city, and it worked really well against the Turks...until the Turks got ahold of canons
These videos are so good they make me want to read TWOIAF more than the main series sometimes
I would love to know where I can find out more about the far east and YI TI and the five forts as they seem really interesting parts of the game of thrones world
The Five Forts always amazes me, just sad that we wont see it in the series or hear much of it in the Books.
Great video! What about Harrenhal and Casterly Rock? I was under the impression that in the books, Casterly Rock was ~2000 ft tall...
This is so cool. I never knew the depth and beauty of the world in Game of Thrones
Yi Ti looks interesting.. would like to see more!
Can you do a video about the similarities between The Wheel of Time and A Song of Ice and Fire? For example "Lomas Longstrider" reminds me of "Jain Farstrider" a lot. Also GRRM and RJ knew each other well and there are reference to each other in their work.
Loving these History + Geography videos of Thrones!
The Long Bridge of Volantis might be also inspired by the real Ponte Vecchio in Firenze, a bridge with buildings on it, and the old London Bridge
If Lomas actually saw the Five Forts, he’d most definitely make them a wonder
story wise, you could also say that the titan of Bravos is similar to the statue of Holger Danske, here in Denmark.
because, it is said that when the danes are in dire need, Holger Danske will rise and help them :)
probably a little long out, but I found it interesting they had this in common :)
Here’s my little theory about the five forts: so it’s said in the lore that that the valyrians were taught to tame dragons by a culture so ancient they had no name that hailed from the shadow lands the same place where dragons are said to have first originated from and going by the description of the material the forts are made out of it seems to be a more simplistic version of dragonstone the same material the valyrians used in the construction of the dragon roads and the wall of volantis and they were known to adopt technology from other cultures and improve them like the real life Roman Empire, so I think the people that taught the valyrians how to tame dragons were the ancestors of the yi tish people making them the first people to ever tame dragons and used them to build the five forts and at some point the yi tish dragons all died out possibly during the long night. That’s my theory
Great video. Could we get a sequel for "Wonders?" A bit harder, I know but I would love to see that.
Those layered walls may be a reference to Plato's concentric Atlantis, but I find that it is more likely a reference to the great Eastern fortresses of old like Hatra or my favorite, Ekbatana.
The quality of your content is amazing every time
The long bridge is also based on bridge in Florence in Italy where the whole bridge is covered in shops and other things it is called Ponte Vecchio
Edit: thanks for likes and if you enjoy the game of thrones as i do you may genuinely enjoy this game, Conqueror's Blade I have some gameplay on my chanel if you like it you can join our discord or whatever even subscribe :D .
the long bridge also refers to the catacombs in edinburgh scotland
many such similarities built along a roman aqueduct
More like the historical London Bridge
Looks more like old London bridge
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/48/Claude_de_Jongh__-View_of_London_Bridge-__Google_Art_Project_bridge.jpg/800px-_View_of_London_Bridge_-_Google_Art_Project_bridge.jpg
This channel is so fantastic! Thanks for this amazing work!
skip the code captcha and see the new trailer of GOT 8: yass-link.tk/tysFcXjm
I died at "over a hundred Hodors tall" 😂😂didn't expect that
The part about Norvos reminds me a lot of old Finnic religion (Finland, Estonians, and large chunks of Russia by non-Slavic inhabitants). Much of it was taboo to speak about, and the bear was seen as a "holy" animal. In fact it was so holy and respected that the Finnish word for bear ("karhu") is/was a synonym to a synonym of the real word for bear. You were not allowed to utter the real word for "bear" out of respect. So the synonym became the word for bear over time.
I think it's possible that GRRM has also borrowed some elements of real culture and changed it here. I love it.
Love this channel. I admit I merely skimmed the books many years before the show started and never gave them a fair chance.
I love you videos because, they give full information of the topic that they are set upon and you get right into it
7 books, 7 kingdoms, 7 gods, so there are 7 wonders as well
I’m gonna say that there are also very strong ties to:
Forbidden palace
Great Wall of China
Alhambra
The fact that this whole universe is the imagination of one single man is baffling. I don't know if GOT did justice to GRRM.
No wonder it takes him a dozen lifetimes to finish one book
I really liked how you related it to our world wonders it was rlly cool awesome video overall loved it ur channel is amazing
The Qartheen walls (specifically, Layer #3) kinda remind me of the carvings at Khajuraho in India.
What about Dubrovnik as Quarth? Not only do they still keep the fortification of the city but they were independent from any empire for hundreds of years surrounded by powerfull epires like Constantinopla and Venice but they did it thanks to their fortification and their prowess as merchants. Much like the Quarteen!