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Westeros is a world roughly equivalent in size to South
America. The northern lands of Westeros are less densely
populated than the southern lands despite their roughly equivalent size, and
much of the far North remains unmapped. This is due in large part to the
extreme cold and the presence of hostiles known as wildlings that inhabit the
region.
Westeros was originally divided into several independent kingdoms. But in
the War of Conquest, these various kingdoms were united under the rule of
House Targaryen into what is known as the Seven Kingdoms. House Targaryen
divided the Seven Kingdoms into four principal regions - North, South, East,
and West - and named one of its bannermen as the Wardens and Lord Protectors
of each; House Stark the North, House Tyrell the South, House Arryn the East, and House Lannister the West. The five
major cities of Westeros are, in order of size: King's Landing, Oldtown,
Lannisport, Gulltown, and White
Harbour.
Two other continents share the world in which Westeros resides: The
continent of Sothoryos, about which little is known, lies to the South, and a
vast, unnamed continent lies to the East, across the narrow sea. The closest
foreign nations to Westeros are the Free Cities, a collection of independent
city-states along the western edge of the eastern continent. The lands along
the southern coastline of the eastern continent, collectively called the
Lands of the Summer
Sea, include Ghis and
the ruins of Valyria, the former home of Westeros' Targaryen kings.
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