The source material for 'Game of Thrones: Kingsroad' (hereinafter 'Kingsroad'), George R.R. Martin's 'A Game of Thrones', is a title that has become synonymous with the franchise. It originates from the words of the series' ultimate schemer, Petyr Baelish, who famously remarked, "There is only one game, the game of thrones." The stage for this cutthroat struggle is, of course, the continent of Westeros.

Westeros looks like a cocktail of Great Britain mixed with an inverted Ireland. It is home to the 'Seven Kingdoms', which are loosely based on various European powers. In 'Game of Thrones: Kingsroad', Westeros is a pressure cooker of clashing dynasties and brewing chaos—and now, you are stepping right into the middle of it. Before you dive into the gameplay, it is worth getting your head around the lore, the main conflicts, and the threats. To help you out, KookminTree has compiled a history of Westeros.

The war between the native 'Children of the Forest' and the invading 'First Men'

Westeros' chronology is split by the conquest of Aegon the Conqueror into 'BC (Before the Conquest)' and 'AC (After the Conquest)'. Let’s look back to around 12,000 BC, an era chronicled as the 'Dawn Age'. Westeros was originally the domain of a non-human race known as the 'Children of the Forest'.

They were small, roughly the size of children, with nut-brown, dappled skin. Their ears were oversized, allowing them to hear things mere humans could not. They were depicted as highly intelligent, possessing wisdom that far surpassed humanity, with slit, cat-like eyes that shifted between gold, green, and red. The giants called them 'squirrel people', and they were indeed remarkably agile in the trees. Think of them as a strange, mystical fusion of elves and dwarves.

While they had the occasional scuffle with giants, the two races coexisted reasonably well. Then, humans from the continent of 'Essos' crossed over through the southern region of 'Dorne'. These were the 'First Men', the ancestors of the northern folk. They arrived armed with bronze weapons and leather shields, clear-cutting primeval forests to make room for farmland. When they began destroying the 'Weirwood' trees—sacred to the Children—the situation escalated into open warfare. The First Men claimed the trees, which bore faces, felt like they were spying on them.

This war dragged on for millennia. The Children of the Forest attempted to use grand magic to shatter the land bridge known as the 'Arm of Dorne', turning it into the 'Stepstones'. They also turned the Neck—the current border between northern and southern Westeros—into a swamp. In truth, these were failed attempts to sink the land into the sea.

The seemingly endless war finally ended with a pact signed on the 'Isle of Faces' in the middle of the 'Gods Eye' lake. The First Men took the open lands, while the Children retreated to the deep forests, with a promise that no more Weirwoods would be felled. The First Men adopted the native 'Old Gods' faith, and in 10,000 BC, the 'Age of Heroes' began.

The Age of Heroes and the arrival of the 'Long Night'

The peace of the Age of Heroes lasted two millennia until 8,000 BC, when a new threat emerged. The blue-eyed 'White Walkers' descended from the frozen lands of the north, butchering every living thing in their path. For decades, the sun vanished, marking a catastrophe known as the 'Long Night'. This event echoed across the world, appearing in legends in Essos as well.

The White Walkers raised the dead as 'Wights', swelling their ranks indefinitely. With the First Men on the brink of annihilation, a hero named 'Azor Ahai' rose up, joining forces with the Children of the Forest to drive the Walkers back. The Children provided the First Men with weapons made of 'dragonglass', the key to their destruction. After the threat was pushed back, Brandon the Builder of House Stark, aided by giants and the Children, constructed the massive 'Wall'. Along with the physical barrier, powerful magic was woven into the structure to prevent the White Walkers from returning, and the 'Night's Watch' was founded to keep watch.

The crisis nearly repeated itself when the 13th Lord Commander of the Night's Watch fell in love with a woman who looked like a White Walker. He declared himself the 'Night's King' and crippled the Order, until he was defeated by an alliance between Brandon the Breaker of House Stark and Joramun, the King-Beyond-the-Wall. Since then, the Night's Watch has maintained a tradition of political neutrality and non-intervention in southern affairs. Later, the 'Andals' invaded, driving the First Men and the Children out of the south and claiming the rest of the continent, except for the North. This era established the great houses we know: Stark in the North, Martell in Dorne, Lannister in the Westerlands, and Arryn in the Vale.

And then, the dragons arrived.

Around 5,000 BC, as the Andals were settling in Westeros, the 'Valyrian Freehold' was born in Essos. Originally peaceful sheep-herders, the Valyrians discovered dragons in a volcanic region called the 'Fourteen Flames' and successfully tamed them. This birthed 40 dragonlord families wielding immense magic. They obliterated the 'Ghiscari Empire' through five wars and brought most of Essos to its knees. They lived in decadent luxury, believing their power was eternal, until the Fourteen Flames erupted simultaneously in 114 BC, wiping Valyria off the map.

The dragonlords were thought to have perished, but in 126 BC, House Targaryen survived because they had relocated to 'Dragonstone' in Westeros. Lord Aenar Targaryen had moved his family after his daughter, Daenys the Dreamer, predicted the catastrophe.

A century later, in 27 BC, Aegon Targaryen—the future Conqueror—was born. Twenty-five years later, in 2 BC, Aegon launched his invasion with 1,500 soldiers and three dragons: Balerion, Vhagar, and Meraxes. Their first landing point was the mouth of the Blackwater, later named 'King's Landing'.

The lords of Westeros scrambled to form an alliance, but they were no match for the sheer, apocalyptic power of dragons. Within a year, Aegon had seized the southeast and center. In desperation, the Lannisters and King Mern IX of the Reach combined their forces into a massive army of 55,000.

Aegon had only 11,000 men, but he deployed all three dragons simultaneously, incinerating the army and Mern IX. The Lannisters retreated, and Harlen Tyrell, steward to Mern IX, immediately surrendered, securing the Reach for Aegon and establishing 'House Tyrell'. To commemorate the victory, Aegon forged the 'Iron Throne' by melting down a thousand enemy swords with dragon fire.

Aegon was crowned in Old Town, marking the start of the Targaryen dynasty and the new 'AC' calendar. With the Starks surrendering and the Arryns subduing, six of the seven kingdoms were united. Dorne, which fought on, eventually joined the realm peacefully in 187 AC.

The fall of the Targaryens and Robert's Rebellion

Just like Valyria, House Targaryen began to rot from within. The tension peaked in 129 AC upon the death of King Viserys I. Though his daughter Rhaenyra was the heir, Queen Alicent Hightower's faction crowned her son, Aegon. The ensuing civil war between the two factions, known as the 'Dance of the Dragons', was a bloody affair. You can catch the full story in the HBO series 'House of the Dragon'.

The war ended in 131 AC, but at a terrible price: most of the royal family and all the dragons were dead. This weakness triggered a string of rebellions across Westeros, though the dynasty barely managed to hold on.

In 259 AC, King Aegon V gathered the royal family at 'Summerhall' in a desperate attempt to hatch dragons. It ended in a disaster known as the 'Tragedy at Summerhall', where the palace burned down and the king and his kin were wiped out.

The dynasty survived, but the final nail in the coffin was hammered in 281 AC. Rhaegar Targaryen, son of the Mad King Aerys II, 'proposed' to Lyanna Stark, who was betrothed to Robert Baratheon. When Rhaegar abducted her, Aerys II executed Lyanna’s father and brother, Rickard and Brandon Stark, sparking 'Robert's Rebellion'.

The Targaryen house, already despised for their madness and lack of dragons, collapsed. The coalition of Stark, Baratheon, Arryn, and Tully forces took King's Landing, and Jaime Lannister famously ended Aerys II's life. Thus, the 300-year Targaryen reign ended in 283 AC, and the Baratheon dynasty began.

The 'War of the Five Kings' breaks out

Robert Baratheon was a great warrior but a terrible king. Broken by the loss of Lyanna and the stress of the crown, he drank and ate himself to death in 298 AC after a boar hunt went wrong. Following his death, Cersei Lannister's schemes led to the execution of Eddard Stark, shattering the peace between the North and the Iron Throne.

Robb Stark marched south to avenge his father, but the betrayal by Houses Frey and Bolton led to the 'Red Wedding', where Robb and the core of the Northern leadership were slaughtered. It remains one of the most shocking moments in both the books and the show.

In 'Kingsroad', you play as a bastard of House Tyrell who was present at that very Red Wedding. Set during Season 4 of the show, your story begins as the Lord of House Tyrell, having lost all legitimate heirs, petitions to have you legitimized. You are now a pawn in a continent teetering on the edge of total collapse. Whether you end your life as a mere piece on the board or rise to become something more is entirely up to your choices.