A Song of Ice and Fire
A Song of Ice and Fire is a fantasy book series that you probably never heard of before you saw a pirated stream of the HBO show. It is easily one of the most popular fantasy series of our generation and its author, George R. R. Martin, is has been praised for his highly realized world and gritty low fantasy style. The series is set on a suspiciously familiar continent called Westeros as it is wracked by a massive civil war drawing its nations into conflict. The plot jumps around from character to character, showing the battle from the opposing viewpoints of the various great houses. Said houses include:
- House Stark: Proud, hardass, northerners who serve as the series' main narrators. They have a tendency towards Lawful Stupid that bites them in the ass frequently.
- House Lannister: Rich, fabulous, bastards who always pay their debts. Not much of a martial tradition but once the rape train gets moving it doesn't stop.
- House Baratheon: Ascended to the throne after a successful rebellion. Produce no less than three claimants to the throne, each more shit than the last.
- Targaryen: The one time dragon kings and rulers of Westeros. Due to a policy of catastrophic inbreeding they sired a line of increasingly unstable kings, culminating in Aerys "That Guy" Targaryen and a palace coup.
- House Tully: Lords of the central river lands. Being the obligatory central nation they spend a lot of the series being fought over like a cake in between fat kids.
- House Arryn: Mountain lords turned neurotic shut ins.
- House Greyjoy: Piratical raiders who sail around Westeros sticking their dicks in people's eyes. Nobody really likes them but they're tolerated as long as they remain useful and a relatively minor nuisance.
- House Tyrell: Lords of Highgarden and backstabbers par-excellence.
- Night's Watch: The Night's Watch are an apolitical force in charge of manning the wall, a giant wall that separates the relative tranquility of the south from the Lovecraftian fucked-up-itude of the true north. They are chronically undermanned and undersupplied since nobody believes their stories of a barbarian army or the impending zombie apocalypse. Basically everybody else thinks they're in a game of Diplomacy and the Night's Watch are the only ones who realize they're actually in a Dark Heresy campaign.
Games
Like any fantasy author who finds themselves unexpectedly in the warm embrace of commercial success Martin quickly licensed the shit out of his setting, spawning everything from resin miniatures to replica great swords. While most of this is worthless junk to foist on obsessive fanboys /tg/ has agreed that a few of the games are made of win. The first two are a collectable card game put out in 2002 by Fantasy Flight Games and a risk-esque board game that followed shortly after in 2003. One of White Wolf's subsidiaries also put out a d20 RPG in 2005 but it quickly tanked because, come on, White Wolf. Martin has since wrested the rights back and is developing a new version with Green Ronin games.
Books
- A Game of Thrones
- A Clash of Kings
- A Storm of Swords
- A Feast for Crows
- A Dance with Dragons
- The Winds of Winter
- A Dream of Spring