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The Summer Islands are BIG!


Ser Lepus

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He is, and he's under Qyburn's care... I can only attempt to imagine the horrors bestowed upon him, an exotic guinea pig should excite Qyburnstein.

Also, am I the only one unconvinced he is even a prince? I like the idea of him arriving in Westeros and convincing everybody he's a fallen prince of the Summer Islands, living lavishly on their charity.

agreed, hes just been hanging out in kingslanding for like 20 years

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By the way, which continent are they belong to ?

We never quite figured that out, officially. Sort of like their version of the Azores - way out there, and you'd need knowledge of plate tectonics to get a technical answer.

The northernmost of the three main Summer Islands is equidistant from Dorne and Valyria....while the southernmost of the three islands is equidistant from Valyria and mainland Sothoryos.

I'd put it together with Sothoryos, loosely, but only due to similar climate and *apparently*, similar ethnic groups making it one big "cultural zone".

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There's also the possibility that the Summer Islands are closer to either Essos / Sothoryos, or (more likely IMO) Westeros than the maps lead us to believe - since George has said the maps aren't entirely accurate and there's a lot of artistic liberties on part of the map designers that were taken.

Considering the vast amount of suggested trade between Westeros, the Free Cities and the Summer Islands - there's no way that it's THAT actually far from those places. Sure, the long distance helps explain why there's never been any major war that we know of between the continents, but it makes the trade routes way less believable.

So i'm hoping it's closer to Dorne than we thought. That'd be something, the maestors exaggerating the distance between Westeros and the Summer Islands to spread more illusions of Westeros's grandeur. Reminds me of American maps where the Eastern Coast timezone is the center of the world, and Asia is split into two on either side of it.

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The Summer Islander diet consists of mainly fruit and fish so I would take that they practice some arboriculture and possibly some aquaculture like the Polynesians. I don't think Summer Islander agriculture is on the scale with Westerosi agriculture, and Westeros has Arbor wine, gold from the Westerlands, silver from White Harbor and other products alongside their agricultural produce. The Seven Kingdoms as whole may be wealthier than the Summer Isles.

In terms of military power, we don't know how Summer Islanders fight. Do they have disciplined armies or levies or is it more along the lines of the wildlings and Ironborn with one on one? Do they wear armor? In the hot climate metal armor seems unlikely, and armor made of cotton or leather possibly can't stop metal blades.

Their native bow timber (goldenheart tree) is the best bow material save dragonbone. The Summer Islanders look like they excell at archery. I think there should be a lot of games to hunt in Summer Islands, big preys and small ones including all kinds of birds.

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Considering the vast amount of suggested trade between Westeros, the Free Cities and the Summer Islands - there's no way that it's THAT actually far from those places. Sure, the long distance helps explain why there's never been any major war that we know of between the continents, but it makes the trade routes way less believable.

Ibben maintains a good amount of trade between Westeros and it's quite far.

On the maps, the Isles seem closer to Sothoryos but still look equidistant from Lys and Dorne.

I have a theory that the Summer Islanders have already explored Sothoryos but just don't want the world to know what they had found there or had found nothing at all but plagues and things we already know about the continent. I mean, why wouldn't worldwide travellers like them explore an unexplored continent right by their side?

edit: paragraph.

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The Summer Islander diet consists of mainly fruit and fish so I would take that they practice some arboriculture and possibly some aquaculture like the Polynesians. I don't think Summer Islander agriculture is on the scale with Westerosi agriculture, and Westeros has Arbor wine, gold from the Westerlands, silver from White Harbor and other products alongside their agricultural produce. The Seven Kingdoms as whole may be wealthier than the Summer Isles.

In terms of military power, we don't know how Summer Islanders fight. Do they have disciplined armies or levies or is it more along the lines of the wildlings and Ironborn with one on one? Do they wear armor? In the hot climate metal armor seems unlikely, and armor made of cotton or leather possibly can't stop metal blades.

That last statement may not be as correct as you believe, sure the protection is nothing compared to that provided by steel plates, but you'd be surprised how effectively padded or leather armour could stop blows from swords, even if you did go through it, many such armours are effective at trapping a sword or axe, leaving the attacker vulnerable.

Also for archers a lot of armour isn't really needed as long as they use the right tactics, the english archers at Agincourt and Crecy and Poltiers wore incredibly light armour.

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  • 3 weeks later...

A lot of the coastal cities in the Summer Sea were wiped out by giant tidal waves when Valyria blew up. You'll notice that the two major settlements in the Summer Islands are on the west coast of their island.


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There's also the possibility that the Summer Islands are closer to either Essos / Sothoryos, or (more likely IMO) Westeros than the maps lead us to believe - since George has said the maps aren't entirely accurate and there's a lot of artistic liberties on part of the map designers that were taken.

Considering the vast amount of suggested trade between Westeros, the Free Cities and the Summer Islands - there's no way that it's THAT actually far from those places. Sure, the long distance helps explain why there's never been any major war that we know of between the continents, but it makes the trade routes way less believable.

So i'm hoping it's closer to Dorne than we thought. That'd be something, the maestors exaggerating the distance between Westeros and the Summer Islands to spread more illusions of Westeros's grandeur. Reminds me of American maps where the Eastern Coast timezone is the center of the world, and Asia is split into two on either side of it.

Well, it is fantasy. Maybe the trade routes aren't "believable" but anything goes.

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