Things I want to know once the story ends

[PCK]

I'd like a flash forward 600-700 years and I'd want to know:

 

Who is on the Iron Throne at that time? There's good reason to think it won't be the same house as at the end of A Dream Of Spring. This would also be a great way to show that the story doesn't necessarily end there and leave the readers wondering how it all unfolded.

Is the monarchy overthrown altogether like in France, or does it just exist for historical purposes like in England or Denmark and does power rest with a congress/parliament and prime minister?

How is the modern day game of thrones played?

How are the characters of the series viewed in historical context versus what we experienced of them in the story?

What are their tax and immigration policies like?

You can add whatever you want to this list.

[Winter prince]

What technology advancements have been made?  Are they still in a permanent state of medieval history?

Are the seasons more normal or can Winter still last a generation?

[Sator]

I like the idea, though a jump of 600-700 years would be too much.  A story about the end of our own middle ages that then jumped 600-700 years would be about the real world present day, which has almost no notable connection to any particular major figures from the medieval ages.

I'd say a jump of about 100 years would work.  It would be enough to say the grandchild of so-and-so is now the ruler of whatever.  A good glimpse into the future, while still being connected to our story.

[rotting sea cow]

31 minutes ago, PCK said:

I'd like a flash forward 600-700 years and I'd want to know:.

 

12 minutes ago, Winter prince said:

Are the seasons more normal or can Winter still last a generation?

Yes, there is winter, but instead a magical winter, we have a nuclear one, consequence of the massive exchange of nukes between the Soviet Republic of Essos (descendants of Dothraki horselords and Volantene freedmen) and the United States of Westeros.

Turns out that there was something that burns hotter than dragonfire. Many cities across Planetos can attest it.

[Magnar of the Dreadfort]

I'd like to see a story set about 100 years after the events which will take place in a dream of spring.

It would be just one characters POV such as Dunk and Egg , and we would get the odd reference to previous events.

Ofcourse we the readers would be like "omg i remember that" or "wait a sec... that didn't happen like that!"

[Lady Blizzardborn]

1 hour ago, Sator said:

I like the idea, though a jump of 600-700 years would be too much.  A story about the end of our own middle ages that then jumped 600-700 years would be about the real world present day, which has almost no notable connection to any particular major figures from the medieval ages.

I'd say a jump of about 100 years would work.  It would be enough to say the grandchild of so-and-so is now the ruler of whatever.  A good glimpse into the future, while still being connected to our story.

 We'd be in essentially the 1990s at the earliest. Westeros would be a democracy or constitutional monarchy with a parliament, and no one would believe the stories about all that magic stuff that supposedly happened during their medieval period.

100 years works better.

[AlesterFlorentReborn]

4 hours ago, Lady Blizzardborn said:

 We'd be in essentially the 1990s at the earliest. Westeros would be a democracy or constitutional monarchy with a parliament, and no one would believe the stories about all that magic stuff that supposedly happened during their medieval period.

100 years works better.

Nah,  remember that planetos suffers from technology decline unlike our world. More knowledge is lost than found, nothing is constructed, important scientific books are lost, an so on.

[Lady Blizzardborn]

3 hours ago, AlesterFlorentReborn said:

Nah,  remember that planetos suffers from technology decline unlike our world. More knowledge is lost than found, nothing is constructed, important scientific books are lost, an so on.

Yeah, that whole dragon warfare thing in particular causes problems. Imagine all the great works that were lost at Harrenhal when it got roasted by those pesky Targaryens.

I think after the death of magic though (assuming that would happen) they'd move forward on a fairly equal basis. Look how early Magna Carta was, and from then on the power of the monarchy in England was almost continually eroded. Sure it would take Westeros longer than it took us, but I still think the eventual trend would get them to about where the real world is, give or take a century.

[Smirking Knight]

Planetos seems to have been stuck in late middle ages / early Renaissance technology for at least a thousand years, with no signs of progress. Apart from some mild advances in metallurgy, things do not appear to have progressed since the Andals invaded Westeros. Without the advent of an industrial age or gunpowder, it's very likely to remain in a feudal system/monarchy because there are very few means for an educated/business-oriented middle class to compete with feudal landholders or common soldiers to combat armored knights.

Littlefinger is the best example of someone proving that you can rise above your station using commerce rather than land holdings, but I feel like he will get his comeuppance at some point when he needs to engage in actual military conflict. 

[Lady Blizzardborn]

9 minutes ago, Smirking Knight said:

Planetos seems to have been stuck in late middle ages / early Renaissance technology for at least a thousand years, with no signs of progress. Apart from some mild advances in metallurgy, things do not appear to have progressed since the Andals invaded Westeros. Without the advent of an industrial age or gunpowder, it's very likely to remain in a feudal system/monarchy because there are very few means for an educated/business-oriented middle class to compete with feudal landholders or common soldiers to combat armored knights.

Littlefinger is the best example of someone proving that you can rise above your station using commerce rather than land holdings, but I feel like he will get his comeuppance at some point when he needs to engage in actual military conflict. 

Yes, SK but the only reason it has stagnated like that is because the author needed it to be where it is now for story purposes. After the story is over and GRRM isn't holding them back, Westeros could potentially flourish.

IIRC, he said that Westeros is roughly on par with 14th century England, behind in some things, but ahead in others--most notably scientific and medical knowledge, dyeing capabilities, and having far more flexible and fun heraldry.

Edited to add a missing "e" because dying capabilities are not a thing.

[Orphalesion]

We don't know for a fact what Westeros 1000 years ago looked like. Look at how people in the Middle Ages/early Renaissance (or even later) tended to imagine past eras: in real life books from those times you can see scenes, supposedly from Greek Mythology or the wars of Alexander the Great featuring knights in Medieval armour, with Medieval weaponry, complete with maidens in girdles and hennins cheering them on from the battlements of castles. The broad masses a few centuries back didn't realize that the past didn't resemble their present. Even the Athen presented in A Midsummer Nights Dream has much, much more in common with Tudor England than anything close to antiquity.

The same could be true for Westeros. For all we know Winterfell started as a wooden motte and barley castle, or as something even more primitive. And the Andals who arrived in Westeros strike me much more as a band of unwashed, provincial, religious fanatics than the  (relatively speaking) refined, chivalric inhabitants of the Reach. Clearly there was some progress with them.

I also don't really see a "decline", sure knowledge is frequently lost or becomes difficult to find. But that's what tends to happen in societies that have no easy way to mass produce and distribute books. No different from real life during that period. On the other hand we do occassionally hear of new inventions being made or improvements being done. No construction? Summerhall was built during the reign of Daeron II about a century before the sart of the series and I'm only mentioning that because it's the only castle where I'm even able to tell the date of its creation.

I think it stands to reason that the castles we know about have been continuously worked on since they were created to put them on par with the neighest technology/trends. Like it happened with real life castles. Robert sure remodeled parts of the Red Keep to his liking for example and Ned built a Sept for Catelyn in Winterfell.

So I agree that 300-400 years would be way too far in the future and would make Westeros unrecognizable (look at a map of Europe 400 years ago)

 

[Dorian Martell's son]

10 hours ago, rotting sea cow said:

 

Yes, there is winter, but instead a magical winter, we have a nuclear one, consequence of the massive exchange of nukes between the Soviet Republic of Essos (descendants of Dothraki horselords and Volantene freedmen) and the United States of Westeros.

Turns out that there was something that burns hotter than dragonfire. Many cities across Planetos can attest it.

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