History FantasyCounterpartCulture / ASongOfIceAndFire

*** The Lengii are a culture which is an offshoot of the [=YiTish=] who emigrated to the island of Leng, much like how the ancestors to the Japanese originated from mainland China. Like Japan, the Lengii closed their ports and shut themselves from foreigners for a great number of years until the Yi Ti were able to establish some trade with them after a war of conquest, on which the colonizing [=YiTish=] established themselves in another island and were later expelled completely by the Lengii, finally opening their ports.

* The Free Cities are loosely based on the [[UsefulNotes/TheCityStateEra medieval Italian city-states]] (including Italian-sounding names) and some elements of Ancient Greek culture, with Braavos being a CityOfCanals like Venice and Volantis having an oligarchical form of democracy like Athens and several medieval Italian city-states. Also they correspond to Northern Europe's (France, England) bias about Italian cities as petty domain ruled from lords of bourgeois origin (mostly merchants as the De Medicis), although their cities are extremely wealthy and cultured. They even speak a language descended from Old Valyrian (Latin). Volantis is also one for [[UsefulNotes/ByzantineEmpire Constantinople]], as the most powerful of those cities which sees itself as the new heart of the VestigialEmpire.

* Old Ghis is a blatant counterpart of Carthage, right down to [[UsefulNotes/PunicWars its rivalry]] with Valyria, the counterpart of AncientRome. The Slaver Cities --Astapor, Yunkai, and Meereen-- are reminiscent of the Barbary States,[[note]]While the term was primarily used from the 16th to 19th centuries, these states had been some of the region's largest slave traders for hundreds of years before then.[[/note]] with their location (where the former Carthaginian Empire and later UsefulNotes/TheRomanEmpire reigned), geography, and dependence on slave-trading to sustain themselves, as well as slave soldiers. Likewise, Qarth seems to share a great deal with ancient Baghdad.
* Westeros as a whole has many similarities to {{UsefulNotes/Britain}}, including the general shape of the continent, TheGreatWall up in the GrimUpNorth to keep out the {{Barbarian Tribe}}s (the Wall as Hadrian's Wall- or more accurately Antonine's Wall), the large and cold Northern province with an independence movement owing to keeping some [[UsefulNotes/CelticKingdoms Celtic]]/First Men culture intact rather than full assimilating to Andal/[[UsefulNotes/AngloSaxons Anglo culture]] ({{UsefulNotes/Scotland}}), waves of conquering cultures (e.g. Aegon as [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfNormandy William the Conqueror]]), and the Viking-esque [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_the_Isles isle kingdom]] off of the northwestern coast. Even the collective name of the independent kingdoms, the Seven Kingdoms, is a dead ringer for the Heptarchy: the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of late Antiquity and TheLowMiddleAges. Specific regions tend to show their own influences:

** Dorne--according to GRRM, "Dorne is Wales mixed with (Moorish) Spain and Palestine". Like the rulers of Wales, the rulers of Dorne style themselves as Princes. Also like Wales, Dorne was initially able to resist conquest by their powerful neighbors, before finally being subdued, later liberating itself, and finally pledging conditional fealty through alliances to the monarchy of the kingdom it shares a land mass with. Like both Wales and Spain, their borders are lined with marches and many wars have been fought between them and their neighbors. Like Spain, a large mountain range separates them from the rest of the continent. And it shares the hot, dry climate of Spain and Palestine.

*** The Lengii are a culture which is an offshoot of the [=YiTish=] which emigrated to the island of Leng, much like the Japanese originated from the mainland. Like Japan, the Lengii closed their ports and shut themselves from foreigners for a great number of years until the Yi Ti were able to establish some trade with them after a war of conquest, on which the colonizing [=YiTish=] established themselves in another island and were later expelled completely by the Lengii, finally opening their ports.

* The Free City of Norvos practices a more ancient, alternative version of the Andalic Faith of the Seven; it has customs reminiscent of both Judaism and Islam; whereas the Norvoshi religion exists, a fictional form of Satanism also exists as the prevalent religion of the Free City of Qohor, which the Norvoshi despise fervently. Its Northeastern location as well as its name are reminiscent of Novgorod, and just like that and other Russian medieval cities, it is on the frontier of barbarian invasions and pays tribute to them.

** Dragonstone is thus analogous to Roman Britain, as the farthest island outpost of the Valyrian Empire.

* We know almost nothing of Mossovy, but its extreme northeastern placement within the known world, terrain of cold forests, and folkloric reputation for hosting "shapechangers and demon hunters" – together with the phonological character of its name – all suggest a counterpart to {{UsefulNotes/Russia}}.

* The Valyrians are basically the Roman Empire with dragons with some {{Atlantis}}/Lemuria thrown in. From their small peninsula nation they conquered a huge chunk of their continent and their form of government, the Valryrian Freehold, was the Roman Republic with the serial numbers filed off. Now (Middle Ages), though their empire is no more, their provinces stand as independent kingdoms and speak dialects derived from Valyrian on their way to become separate languages (like the Romance languages).

* Valyria is a fallen empire modeled on UsefulNotes/TheRomanEmpire, with some {{Atlantis}}/Lemuria thrown in.

** Much like the Dothraki to Western Essos are the Mongols to Europe, the Jogos Nhai are the Mongols to China's perspective, which would be the in turn Golden Empire of Yi Ti. The Jogos Nhai are horselords as well, though they do not quarrel between themselves like the Dothraki; however, they are not less barbaric when it comes to war.

* The Valyrians are basically the Roman Empire with dragons. From their small peninsula nation they conquered a huge chunk of their continent and their form of government, the Valryrian Freehold, was the Roman Republic with the serial numbers filed off. Now (middle ages), though their empire is no more, their provinces stand as independent kingdoms and speak dialects derived from Valyrian on their way to become separate languages (like the Romance languages).
** Dragonstone is thus analogous to Roman Britannia, as the farthest island outpost of the Valyrian Empire.

** the North--[[{{UsefulNotes/NorthEastEngland}} Northern England]] and {{UsefulNotes/Scotland}}, with their retaining of First Men culture reminding of [[UsefulNotes/CelticKingdoms Celtic]] influences in Scotland. The northern mountain clans are reminiscent of the Scottish highland clans. House Stark in particular is similar to a Northern English House, the House of York, that went to war against the House of Lancaster. Its political organization, somewhat of a federation with thinly populated and isolated settlements in a vast taiga expanse swearing loyalty to a nominal overlord at the center, is somewhat similar to UsefulNotes/KievanRus.

** the Westerlands-- England, particularly western England. House Lannister is based on a Western English House called the House of Lancaster (coat of arms a golden lion on a red background) who went to war against the House of York, and Tywin Lannister is, per GRRM, based on Edward I of England, the Hammer of the Scots.

* The Drowned God heavily resembles Myth/NorseMythology, in the sense that godly Ironborn who die at sea are said to feast in the Drowned God's halls under the ocean akin to how Norse warriors would feast in Valhalla when they died. Additionally, followers of the Drowned God practice hospitality much like the Vikings.

* While SacredHospitality is observed of all Indo-European cultures (think of the Greeks, the Vikings or the Romans), the tradition of serving salt and bread is typically Slavic, increasing the UsefulNotes/KievanRus connection to the North. In {{UsefulNotes/Russia}} (and also {{UsefulNotes/Ukraine}}, {{UsefulNotes/Belarus}} and {{UsefulNotes/Bulgaria}}) the tradition is greeting important guests at the door with a traditionally-baked bread with a bit of salt on the top. The tradition is so typical that in Russian the idiomatic phrase "with bread and salt" is equivalent of "with open arms".
* WordOfGod says that the planet it all occurs on is an alternate Earth.

** The Iron Islands-- Denmark-Norway and/or Ireland due to their culture of being seafaring raiders (which the Vikings were most famous for, but the Irish did their fair share of, too), with their independent streak reminding of Ireland's relationship with the rest of Britain. They bear an even stronger resemblance to the seafaring hybrid Norse-Gaelic culture of the Hebrides under the [=MacDonald=] Lords of the Isles.

** the Vale-- the nations of the Alps such as Austria, Switzerland, and Milan, for their terrain and architecture. Also Wales, for being a heavily mountainous jutting peninsular region with green valleys, featuring an ethnic conflict between the First Men (Celts) and Andal (Anglo-Saxon) settlers.

** the Stormlands--Medieval Germany in that it's a heavily forested, rivered, and martial land that once had a massive empire that slowly fell apart over the centuries.
** the Reach--Medieval France due to their terrain and status as the most populous kingdom and the homeland of chivalry and stereotypical knights, at least in the eyes of the common people. Also, middle-south England. The most populated region in the kingdom, immensely fertile and rich, and the heart of the kingdom's chivalry. The historical Tyrrell family hails from Essex which lies in this region; the ruling family of the Reach, the Tyrells, are named after this house.

** The Neck--bears striking similrities to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fens The Fens]] of Eastern England, at least up until they were drained from the 1600s onward. A mass of swamps and marshes inhabited by hardy, insular "crannogmen", who seem to take after the notoriously hermetic towns and settlements of East Anglia.

** The coastline contours of Westeros and Essos look a lot like those of the Balkans and Anatolia - Westeros is elongated in the north-sough direction, with its southern coast having some more prominent peninsulas. Eastward of its southern half there is a small sea riddled with islands which separates it from a more monolithic, rectangular landmass stretching from west to east.

*** The Lengii are a culture which is an offshoot of the [=YiTish=] which emigrated to the island of Leng, much like the Japanese originated from the mainland; like Japan, the Lengii closed their ports and shut themselves from foreigners for a great number of years until the Yi Ti were able to establish some trade with them after a war of conquest, on which the colonizing [=YiTish=] established themselves in another island and were later expelled completely by the Lengii, finally opening their ports.

* The destroyed Kingdom of Sarnath has a similar location and culture to Achaemenid Persia, and its name sounds like that of the Sarmatians, a culture based around horses and chariots.

* [[HordesFromTheEast The Dothraki]], according to GRRM, are based primarily on "Huns, Alans, Sioux, Cheyenne, and various other Amerindian tribes... some Mongol, certainly... seasoned with a dash of pure fantasy." Contrary to fan belief, he stated that "any resemblance to the Turks or Arabs is purely coincidental." The name is also reminiscent of the Thracians, who, while a much more sedentary culture, were still a warlike culture with a cult toward horse riders.

* Westeros as a whole has many similarities to {{UsefulNotes/Britain}}, including the general shape of the continent, TheGreatWall up in the GrimUpNorth to keep out the {{BarbarianTribe}}s (the Wall as Hadrian's Wall- or more accurately Antonine's Wall), the large and cold Northern province with an independence movement owing to keeping some [[UsefulNotes/CelticKingdoms Celtic]]/First Men culture intact rather than full assimilating to Andal/[[UsefulNotes/AngloSaxons Anglo culture]] ({{UsefulNotes/Scotland}}), waves of conquering cultures (e.g. Aegon as [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfNormandy William the Conqueror]]), and the Viking-esque [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_the_Isles isle kingdom]] off of the northwestern coast. Even the collective name of the independent kingdoms, the Seven Kingdoms, is a dead ringer for the Heptarchy: the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of late Antiquity and TheLowMiddleAges. Specific regions tend to show their own influences:

** Crackclaw Point--a small peninsula in the continent's east where every valley has a king and they've been feuding with each other since time immemorial. Aegon Targaryen had great troubles conquering that place and had to convert the local rulers one by one. This sounds like the Balkans, especially in the wake of the Ottoman conquest. Its Northern border is a river with a trident-shaped delta, like the Danube.

* The rarely-mentioned southern continent Sothoryos is roughly analogous to {{UsefulNotes/Africa}} during this time period--specifically the image of DarkestAfrica as Europeans historically perceived, except with FrazettaMan in place of HollywoodNatives.

* The rarely-mentioned southern continent Sothoryos is roughly analogous to {{UsefulNotes/Africa}} during this time period, most specifically the DarkestAfrica as seen by ancient Europeans.

* From what we know of the port city of Ibben, it sounds like a theoretical [[EskimoLand Inuit]] or Siberian native society if they had founded cities.

** Crackclaw Point--a small peninsula in the continent's east where every valley has a king and they've been feuding with each other since time immemorial. Aegon Targaryen had great troubles conquering that place and had to convert the local rulers one by one. This sounds like the Balkans, especially in the wake of the Ottoman conquest.

* The Free Cities are loosely based on the [[UsefulNotes/TheCityStateEra medieval Italian city-states]] (including Italian-sounding names) and some elements of Ancient Greek culture, with Braavos being a CityOfCanals like Venice and Volantis having an oligarchical form of democracy like Athens and several medieval Italian city-states. Also they correspond to Northern Europe's (France, England) bias about Italian cities as petty domain ruled from lords of bourgeois origin (mostly bankers as the De Medicis), although their cities are extremely wealthy and cultured. They even speak a language descended from Old Valyrian (Latin). Volantis is also one for [[UsefulNotes/ByzantineEmpire Constantinople]], as the most powerful of those cities which sees itself as the new heart of the VestigialEmpire.

* The Free Cities are loosely based on the [[UsefulNotes/TheCityStateEra medieval Italian city-states]] (including Italian-sounding names) and some elements of Ancient Greek culture, with Braavos being a CityOfCanals like Venice and Volantis having an oligarchical form of democracy like Athens and several medieval Italian city-states. They even speak a language descended from Old Valyrian (Latin). Volantis is also one for [[UsefulNotes/ByzantineEmpire Constantinople]], as the most powerful of those cities which sees itself as the new heart of the VestigialEmpire.

** Dragonstone is also an equivalent to the Channel Islands, which are personal possessions of the British crown and were held by the Dukes of Normandy over a century before the invasion of England, similarly, Dragonstone was home to the Targareyans for over a century before Aegon's conquest.

* [[HordesFromTheEast The Dothraki]], according to GRRM, are based primarily on "Huns, Alans, Sioux, Cheyenne, and various other Amerindian tribes... some Mongol, certainly... seasoned with a dash of pure fantasy." Contrary to fan belief, he stated that "any resemblance to the Turks or Arabs is purely coincidental."

* The Free City of Norvos practices a more ancient, alternative version of the Andalic Faith of the Seven; it has customs reminiscent of both Judaism and Islam; whereas the Norvoshi religion exists, a fictional form of Satanism also exists as the prevalent religion of the Free City of Qohor, which the Norvoshi despise fervently.

* Yi-Ti is heavily inspired by ImperialChina. The similarity is only hinted at in the main novels, but
''Literature/TheWorldOfIceAndFire'' gives a detailed description where it becomes self-evident.

** The town of Port Plunder in the Basilisk Isles is a settlement of pirates, slavers and debauchery in the style of the now sunken town of Port Royal in Jamaica; unlike Port Royal, Port Plunder is usually reconstructed elsewhere in the islands whenever the previous town falls.
** The Free City of Norvos practices a more ancient, alternative version of the Andalic Faith of the Seven; it has customs reminiscent of both Judaism and Islam; whereas the Norvoshi religion exists, a fictional form of Satanism also exists as the prevalent religion of the Free City of Qohor, which the Norvoshi despise fervently.
** The Valyrians are basically the Roman Empire with dragons. From their small peninsula nation they conquered a huge chunk of their continent and their form of government, the Valryrian Freehold, was the Roman Republic with the serial numbers filed off. Now (middle ages), though their empire is no more, their provinces stand as independent kingdoms and speak dialects derived from Valyrian on their way to become separate languages (like the Romance languages).
*** Dragonstone is thus analogous to Roman Britannia, as the farthest island outpost of the Valyrian Empire.
*** Dragonstone is also an equivalent to the Channel Islands, which are personal possessions of the British crown and were held by the Dukes of Normandy over a century before the invasion of England, similarly, Dragonstone was home to the Targareyans for over a century before Aegon's conquest.
*** There are also comparisons to be made with the Minoans, including the fact that they were apparently destroyed by tectonic activity and were based off a chain of Southern islands.
*** The Targaryen custom of incestuous marriage has some similarities to another aspect of the Macedonian Greek Ptolemaic Pharaohs of Egypt, who married brother to sister as well.

** The Hightowers, vassals of the Tyrells have close ties and have been longtime patrons to the Order of Maesters and the Faith of the Seven. This closely mirrors the real life House of Medici of the Republic of Florence, both in their pursuit of the higher arts and knowledge, and in their contributions to the church; much like the Medicis of old who became Popes, for instance, there have been Hightowers who have become High Septons as well.
** The Tyrells may be partially based on the Carolingian dynasty. The Merovingian dynasty that ruled France were eventually eclipsed in power by their stewards (the Mayors of the Palace), who ended up overthrowing them. The Tyrells are a family related to the ruling House Gardner, who are hereditary stewards of Highgarden. When House Gardner is wiped out the Tyrells are given control of Highgarden.

** WordOfGod says that the planet it all occurs on is an alternate Earth.

** The Neck - bears striking similrities to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fens The Fens]] of Eastern England, at least up until they were drained from the 1600s onward. A mass of swamps and marshes inhabited by hardy, insular "crannogmen", who seem to take after the notoriously hermetic towns and settlements of East Anglia.

* While SacredHospitality is observed of all Indo-European cultures (think of the Greeks, the Vikings or the Romans), the habitat of serving salt and bread is typically Slavic, increasing the UsefulNotes/KievanRus connection to the North. In {{UsefulNotes/Russia}} (and also {{UsefulNotes/Ukraine}} and {{UsefulNotes/Belarus}}) the tradition is greeting important guests at the door with a traditionally-baked bread with a bit of salt on the top. The tradition is so typical that in Russian the idiomatic phrase "with bread and salt" is equivalent of "with open arms".

* Asshai and its native religion were probably inspired by Persia and its native religion, {{UsefulNotes/Zoroastrianism}}. The actual ''shape'' of the region it resides in, the Shadow Lands, is also obviously inspired by India, where the vast majority of surviving Parsi Zoroastrians reside today.

* The Faith of the Seven is an analogue to medieval Catholicism but lacks the Messianic figure and most of the political power, having largely been hollowed out and subverted by a continent-spanning secular empire. The Seven-faced God is also analogous to the Holy Trinity, in that the religion is monotheistic but the worshipped deity is portrayed as having multiple aspects, the male portion in this case still having the Father, but replaces the Son and Holy Spirit with the Warrior and Smith. The female portion of the Seven: the Mother, Maiden, and Crone, is based on the Neopagan Triple Goddess.

* Qarth is the major trade center between East and West, like [[UsefulNotes/ByzantineEmpire Constantinople]].

* The Rhoynar culture, whose history is told in ''The World of Ice and Fire'' is somewhat modeled after the [[AncientGreece ancient Greeks]]: independent city-states with a common culture, eventually conquered by Rome/Valyria. Though considering that they lost their homeland and eventually found home in Dorne/Moorish Spain, they are also quite similar to the state of Judea after the fall of Jerusalem by Rome (Valyria), which birthed the Jewish diaspora. Most Jews settled in the Iberian peninsula (equivalent to Dorne) for centuries. Within the Rhoynar, the orphans of the Greenblood bear even more similarities with Jews, as they have retained their ancient culture, while modifying it to their status as exiles.

** north of The Wall--the wildlings/freefolk are roughly analogous to the Pictish tribes north of the Antonine Wall.

* Yi-Ti is heavily inspired by ImperialChina. The similarity is only hinted at in the main novels, but ''Literature/TheWorldOfIceAndFire'' gives a detailed description where it becomes self-evident.

* While SacredHospitality is observed of all Indo-European cultures (think of the Greeks, the Vikings or the Romans), the habitat of serving salt and bread is typically Slavic, increasing the UsefulNotes/KievanRus connection to the North. In {{UsefulNotes/Russia}} (and also {{UsefulNotes/Ukraine}} and {{UsefulNotes/Belarus}}) the tradition is greeting important guests at the door with a traditionally-baked bread with a bit of salt on the top. The tradition is so typical that in Russian the idiomatic phrase "with bread and salt" is equivalent of "with open arms".