Planetos places in real life

[The Shadow of the Shadew]

I think that the regions of Westeros fits several real life countries.

Th North- Norway or Scotland perhaps because of the weather?

Riverlands- France like the riverlands has been the battlefield of plenty of wars.Quite often their support can make or break sides in a war and ot connects to other nations

The Vale- Ireland???

The Westerlands- the USA, one of the most powerful and richest nations in the world like the westerlands (also with a penchant for war)

The Crownlands- The United Kingdom, has a prominent monarchy and is densely populated

Iron Islands-No clue (maybe just religious terrorists)

Dorne- Spain and South America. Both are exotic, warm, diverse. Spain has a bad relationship with the UK (like Dorne with Crownlands) has a monarchy, South America has a meh relationship with Usa (like Dorne and Westerlands).

The Reach- Italy perhaps? (fertile)

The Stormlands- Germany, has got a strong army, quite short tempered and has some blood in the UK royal family.

Essos- Asia and the rest of the world.

What do you think? What would be the iron islands and what is your representation of the world

[Petyr's Little Finger]

The North is probably similar to Scotland. The First Men seem to have some resemblance to Celts of Britain, at the same time the Andal invasion is based upon the invasion of Britain by Germanic peoples which pushed the Celts to the fringes of Britain (Scotland and Wales), The First Men are now only prevalent in the North of Westeros.

The Iron Island culture is based upon Viking culture even though the land itself doesnt seem to match up with anyway in the world

Dorne is based on Spain, warmer drier climate plus the foreign cultural influence (Arab for Spain) (Rhoynar for Dorne)

It is hard to match up the Reach, Riverlands, Westerlands, Crownlands, Stormlands and the Vale with real life locations. The Riverlands could be Poland, flat terrain and fought over by larger powers, but that's where the similarities end. The Reach's emphasis on chivalry is quite France like but again that is where the similarities end.

Essos is based upon Mediterranean cities and Asia

[Maester Mando]

Beyond the wall are definetly northern polar tribes. The north is a mixture between scandinavian landscape and celtic culture. The iron islands are medieval scandinavia, thus vikings. The vale is amixture between the alps and wales. The riverlands are clearly the lower rhine region, like belgium, netherlands, parts of germany, for its central location, non existent natural borders and constant wars. The westerlands seem pretty english to me. The crownlands are no own cultural section, the northern part is like riverlands, the southern like stormlands. The stormlands are a mixture between germany and ireland. The reach is clearly france. Dorne is clearly medieval spain, with some foreign influence (arab in spain, rhoynish in dorne, but also with areas whose population is like that of the other parts of the continent, stony dornish and northern christian spaniards)

The free cities are much

Braavos is like a cross between venice and amsterdam. Lorath is something on the nort sea. Norvos and qohor seem eastern european to me. Pentos is like a italian city state. Myr, lys, tyrosh could be greek or levantine cities, volantis is constantinople. The dothraki sea is the vast grassland between eastern europe and kazakhstan. The sarnori are a mixture of persians and people farther north, so only persian in appearance, but living in a grassland and so on. The dothraki are turkish peoples, like huns. Valyria seems a bit like the roman empire, ghiscar and slavers bay like carthage, egypt, north africa in general. Qarth would be a port city in southern persia. Ib is some northern, maybe siberian, culture, of course with appearance not known in our world. The bones are a cross between nthe hindukush and himalayas. The jogos nhai are definitely mongols, yi ti is imperial china. Leng is some southeastern asian isle. Asshai and the shadowlands are very difficult to define (i originally thought of them as india, but im not so sure after reading twoiaf) . So are the thousand islands, mossovy (siberia?), the grey waste (gobi desert?) And the other crazy locations in the furthest east.the jade sea isles are like southeast asia or the indian ocean islands.

Summer islands are a mixture of islands off the african coast, like martinique, reunion, cape verde and the afrucan mainlaind. They also have some polynesian and caribbean influences in geography and culture.

Sothoryos is definitely africa on a horror trip.

Ulthos could be australia or a indonesian isle, due to location, and the uncertainty if its a continent or not.

[Gibzit]

Reach-France

North-Scotland

Iron Islands-Denemark

Westernlands-Spain?

Stormlands-England

Vale-????

Riverlands-The Netherlands maybe?

Dorne-The middle east, but more liberal.

Crownlands-Germany????

Valyria-Roman Empire

Ghiscar-Carthage

Free Cities-Italian City states

Yi Ti-China

Sothoryos-Africa

Summer Islands-More Africa?

Ulthos-Austrailia but evil

Asshai-Mordor

[Salafi Stannis]

Valyria is Somalia without a doubt.

[Lord of the Vale]

Iron Islands-Denemark

Iron Island are more like Norway with only smal areas with fertile soil of bad qualety and totaly dependent on fishing like Midival and viking Norway

[Nihlus]

GRRM said that Westeros is basically Britain as a continent. The Iron Islands are the British isles that were colonized by the Vikings, such as the Isle of Man. I recall them being called "the Kingdom of the Isles" or something. The North is Scotland (well, most of it), due to the cultural and historical parallels, geography (very large, sparsely populated), and connection between Longshanks and Tywin Lannister. The Vale is Wales, as a mountainous semi-autonomous peninsula. The Land of Always Winter is the northern highlands. The Wall could be run roughly along the line Inverness is on.

[glasscandle]

I definetly think that Bravos is based on, or heavily inspired by, Venice. As well as the obvious, it is a city of canals, there are other similarities:

Both Bravos and Venice were originally established by refugees on marshy land

Both had a highly 'convoluted' process of voting for a leader. (Convoluted is the word used in twoiaf) The process the Venetians used was certainly complex and multi-layered.

[ummester]

Westeros is what happens when a fantasy author tries to expand medieval Britain/British Isles into Canada(North of the Wall, eh), USA(all them Capitalists and white folks in the middle) and Mexico(ever wonder why the Dornish are kind of Spanish?).

[Balerion the kitten]

I always thought of Britain being similar to the Iron islands.

1- both are islands

2- both are small but can summon a lot of strength and

3- both kinda have the same weather

Didn't base this at all on history or culture but after reading a few comments, have changed my mind.

[PyroclasticFlow]

GRRM said that Westeros is basically Britain as a continent. The Iron Islands are the British isles that were colonized by the Vikings, such as the Isle of Man. I recall them being called "the Kingdom of the Isles" or something. The North is Scotland (well, most of it), due to the cultural and historical parallels, geography (very large, sparsely populated), and connection between Longshanks and Tywin Lannister. The Vale is Wales, as a mountainous semi-autonomous peninsula.

I agree with you with the North definitely, but the Vale I see as more Northumbria, with the Mountain Clans being more like Wales, all cranky and ornery toward their northern neighbors.