Is Sothoryos the other edge of Westeros?

[Gustaf Stark]

It's an interesting theory but as people have mentioned, GRRM has stated that none of the continents are connected. But what I'm more interested in is what kind of people and creatures that live really south in Sothoryos, like the totally unexplored areas. In TWOIAF it is mentioned very little about Sothoryos except for the fact that there are rumours of huge apes and lizardmen, but I would really love it if GRRM could create a story which takes place in Sothoryos.

[LmL]

I'm curious if Sothoryos wasn't a normal continent in the Dawn Gae, but at some point the evil human-animal hybrid experimentation got out of control there, and the freaks and crossbreeds took over the whole continent like invasive species. Th summer islanders have very vague memories of forming colonies on Sothoryos that failed - but what if it's the other way around? Summer Isles were the colony, Sothoryos the homeland. Black people come from Africa after all. Islands are only inhabited when seafarers come from a mainland and settle there. Humans didn't evolve from chimps on a small island, so it's logical to assume the Summer Islanders came from somewhere. Sothoryos is the likely answer.

[BalerionTheCat]

There is something I find strange about women of distant lands:

Sothoryi women cannot breed with any save their own males.

Ibbenese females, when mated with men from other races, bring forth naught but stillbirths and monstrosities.

While at the same time, we have legends and evidences, of giantess and Children's women having child with humans. I don't know what to conclude, except that Children and Giants must not be very different from Westeros and Essos breed.

[Bluetiger]

I see the map as our planet about half a million years into the future. The sea levels are higher and there has been some continental drift. The westernmost edge of Europe has broken off and joined with the UK, and there is a land bridge connecting that mass to the Arctic. Sothoryos is obviously Africa, perhaps connected to the Antarctic.

I also like to think that dragons, children, Others, giants, etc are all the products of our own military/industrial complex after, say, another 500 years of chemical and biological research. When the intervening ice age wiped out all traces of our civilization, these creatures went native while man was sent back to a prehistoric state.

Then the ice receded and mankind went through the same socio/cultural development as before, from hunter/gather to early farmer to metal worker, right back to the feudal period we see now, except this time the dragons are real.

Of course, Arda is Earth 1 million years ago, now Earth is Earth, In 1 million years it'll Planetos, later it'll be Coruscant...

[Maester Barth]

I think it's possible, but I think it's more likely that The Shivering Sea is, or was not, connected to the rest of the world's oceans and some point. I'm not sure if it ever happened in Earth's History, but hypothetically if there were an ice age where the polar cap reached the southern tip of South America and South Africa, then life could evolve independently in the two oceans.

[LmL]

I think it's possible, but I think it's more likely that The Shivering Sea is, or was not, connected to the rest of the world's oceans and some point. I'm not sure if it ever happened in Earth's History, but hypothetically if there were an ice age where the polar cap reached the southern tip of South America and South Africa, then life could evolve independently in the two oceans.

Before the breaking of the arm of Dorne, aquatic life really would have been separate. If the Shivering sea wraps around to the sunset sea, it does so a loooooong way away, so for all intents and purposes, sea life on either side of the arm would be very different. Warmwater animals from the sunset sea wouldn't use the shivering sea to migrate, because it's too cold. Without that broken land bridge, ocean currents wouldn't mingle, and the shivering sea would be REALLLY cold. In fact, the breaking of the arm would be a catalyst for increasing global temperatures, especially in norther westeros, as the warm currents of the summer sea would work their way into the narrow Sea. Think about how England and norther Europe is only warmer than Canada because of ocean currents. That land bridge totally changed the global climate patterns.

And I think we are selling George short if we don't imagine he gave this idea a little bit of thought, since he does call the breaking of the arm perhaps the most significant event in the history of Westeros in TWOIAF.

[Ser Duncan of Flea Bottom]

How are they connected if we see all the south of Westeros? It ends in Dorne and we see the Summer Sea below

[RumHam]

How are they connected if we see all the south of Westeros? It ends in Dorne and we see the Summer Sea below

The idea is that Sothoryos wraps around and connects to the extreme north edge of Westeros, in the Lands of Always Winter.

[Falcon2908]

I always thought Sothoryos and Ulthos are connected in the south

[Maester Barth]

Before the breaking of the arm of Dorne, aquatic life really would have been separate. If the Shivering sea wraps around to the sunset sea, it does so a loooooong way away, so for all intents and purposes, sea life on either side of the arm would be very different. Warmwater animals from the sunset sea wouldn't use the shivering sea to migrate, because it's too cold. Without that broken land bridge, ocean currents wouldn't mingle, and the shivering sea would be REALLLY cold. In fact, the breaking of the arm would be a catalyst for increasing global temperatures, especially in norther westeros, as the warm currents of the summer sea would work their way into the narrow Sea. Think about how England and norther Europe is only warmer than Canada because of ocean currents. That land bridge totally changed the global climate patterns.

And I think we are selling George short if we don't imagine he gave this idea a little bit of thought, since he does call the breaking of the arm perhaps the most significant event in the history of Westeros in TWOIAF.

Wow, I hadn't though of it in terms of global climate change. I wonder if the sea levels were the same in both oceans. While the Mediterranean was unconnected to the other oceans it's level fell to, like, dead sea levels. There seem to be a lot of ruins that are partially submerged or otherwise, like the sea level used to be higher. Interesting....