Essos, Sothoryos, Will They Be Further Explored?

[Ser Taeser Celtigar]

I would like to see more of Planetos, but only as one-off stories AFTER A Song of Ice and Fire is finished.

My own personal favourite would be the City of Winged Men in the Mountains of the Moon...

Perhaps we may get a character from there as a freed slave who falls in with Tyrion...

[Aerys Blackfyre]

I hope so, especially about Essos (Land of the Shadows)

[Lost Melnibonean]

We might learn a bit more in the musings of learned characters, but only if the topic reflects or explains something in the plot, or if we get little Easter eggs.

[Alliser Trump]

I think that GRRM should pull a George Lucas and let other writers jump in and help build the literary world of Planetos. Then we can have an "expanded planet". George knows what he does well and what he prefers to write about and he's sticking to that, but that still leaves a LOT of Planetos left for other writers from all across the world to write about. He can say that it was translated by some random maester or some other educated person if it's a story from outside Westeros. As long as no one sells the rights to Disney, this can really go on forever. They can even hire Elio and Linda as full-time editors and have them act as the final authority on what is or is not to be considered book canon.

[Ser Pounce FTW]

Yes I would like to know more about these locations but not in the ASOIAF series. I think they'd be good novellas like D&E. Having said that, I hope they'd be thought out more than people from Sothoryos wearing feather capes.

I really enjoy world building and also thought it would be cool to visit Beauxbaton and Durmstrang in the HP world.

[Bluetiger]

I think that GRRM should pull a George Lucas and let other writers jump in and help build the literary world of Planetos. Then we can have an "expanded planet". George knows what he does well and what he prefers to write about and he's sticking to that, but that still leaves a LOT of Planetos left for other writers from all across the world to write about. He can say that it was translated by some random maester or some other educated person if it's a story from outside Westeros. As long as no one sells the rights to Disney, this can really go on forever. They can even hire Elio and Linda as full-time editors and have them act as the final authority on what is or is not to be considered book canon.

Do you know how Star Wars ExpandedUniverse finished?

Elio & Linda - OK, but I don't think GRRM would let someone else...

[Nymeria_Stark]

I really want to learn more about Asshai, don't care about the rest of Essos though(slavers bay just made me lose interest in most of the continent) I'm mostly interested in the land of always winter I hope we get to see it in the next book.

Hmm... you just got me thinking. The next book is def gonna be called The Winds of Winter. Maybe it doesn't mean the season of winter and the possibility of another long night. The title itself could mean we'll get to see the far north and just maybe the home of the Others! How sick would THAT be?!

[Tharvot]

I'd love to see more of the lands unexplored. I'd specifically love to learn the history behind Yeen, but places that aren't central to the main story are going to have to wait till there are spinoff stories because they will either be lightly touched on or not mentioned at all.

[Lord Lannister]

I would like to see more of Planetos, but only as one-off stories AFTER A Song of Ice and Fire is finished.

This definitely. Let's focus on the main course and not the trimmings for now.

[Kyll.Ing.]

I'd actually say that half the appeal of the mysterious and faraway places is that they're mysterious and far away. Exploring them further would take that magic away. Would it really be as interesting to hear about the City of the Winged Men, and learned what was really going on there? I daresay no, it would be reduced to something concrete and mundane, instead of being a very, very distant place with a strange name, and only the faintest of rumours ever reaching Westeros. We can imagine the mysterious terrors of K'dath for ourselves, or speculate endlessly about the purpose of the Five Forts. But once we get solid information, the places become familiar, known locations not unlike White Harbour or Lordsport. Where's the fun in that?

A thorough explanation of every nook and cranny of the map would take away the sensation of "the great unknown", and we'd start asking for what lay beyond the next horizon instead. If anything, Martin would give us another set of vaguely named locations, where little is known but the name itself. Just where we currently are with the faraway Essosi locations.

Besides, I've got a hunch that some of these places were never explored in Martin's head beyond their name. "City of the Winged Men" is very intriguing, but I doubt he ever made serious efforts at imagining what the place was like. For the purpose these places serve, a name and a vague legend is all that's needed. "Bonetown, the town made of bones", that's good enough for a place that only exists on a map. It's enough to hook the readers. No need to chalk up the layout of its streets, or to write the lineage of the city's rulers. The name is all you need, and that's all we're ever likely to get (plus maybe three sentences in the World Book, which mostly recount the sailors' legends connected to the place). The rest of the fun, we'll have to make for ourselves.