A Song Of Ice And Fire Illustrated Maps Part 2: Essos And Misc

A Song of Ice and Fire Illustrated Maps Part 2: Essos and Misc…

Here is a the last batch of Illustrated maps by J.E. Fullerton (AKA: Other In-Law) I could find.

if there are any missing, please let me know and I’ll update my post.

Here is a link to a super high-res version of the last image above which is the known world map: WORLD MAP!

“[Would he] become the Lord of Winterfell? It seemed an easy choice when he thought of it in those terms . . . though if Ygritte had still been alive, it might have been even easier.” - Jon XII ASOS

Part 1 in any crown design series, art by: @nataa.draws on twit

For about a year, I have been thinking about creating a series of artworks with my designs of crowns that either canonically existed in the ASOIAF universe but went without description (Ceryse’s crown, Jaehaera’s crown, Naerys’s crown, etc.) or crowns that could have existed but didn’t due to deaths of the ladies involved or a break in betrothal (the Ygritte one above and a Sansa QOT7K crown, which is what I’m hoping to do after this one). The only problem is, I’m awful at drawing! The design I can get down to the smallest detail and envision it in my head, but it simply doesn’t translate to paper. And because this is a series rather than one piece, it was a bit difficult to find an artist that both drew jewelry like I envisioned and also could make a commitment for an ongoing project. Luckily, I did end up finding Nata, which I was SO happy about because she was somehow able to commit exactly what I was envisioning on paper, and for that I’m so grateful. She is a lovely and talented woman.

I do want to talk about the designs a little bit, because I have been working on it for so long and absolutely in love with it, but I do want to make one thing clear first. This is not necessarily ship art, and the crowns I work with Nata in the future most certainly will not be. The relationship between Jon and Ygritte is problematic at best, and the other Queens I have mentioned above have even more abusive relationships with their husbands/betrothed (with the exception of Jaehaera and Aegon III, whose relationship was practically nonexistent and the problematic elements came from the situation and not from either of them individually). The focus of this series is on jewelry and designs that reflect the culture the person is from and their personality, rather than their relationship to their husbands. So I hope even if Ygritte and Jon are your NOTP and/or if you absolutely despise Ygritte, I hope you can still appreciate the art and cultural influences. The art was originally just supposed to include the crown and therefore be up for interpretation of it was Ygritte or Val’s, but I got carried away with the dress design I had thought of and because it was green which goes beautifully with red hair, I went ahead and asked for Nataa to draw Ygritte.

Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, I can talk about the design, which I’m sooooo excited about. The main idea was the merging of Freefolk and Northern culture, but I still did want to remain relatively true to the 15th to 16th century English time period that ASOIAF is roughly centered around. I understand the idea that Ygritte would never be caught dead in such a thing, but you must understand!!!! Jon designed it for her himself when preparing to ask for her hand. So she grumbled and griped, but was secretly chuffed, so she wears it. From the beginning, the main element that I think Ygritte needed if expected to wear a dress is that she needs lots of furs lining it. Not only because of the cold, but also as a symbol of where she came from the make her feel more comfortable in her skin. The puffs are meant to be general fashion at the time, something more common in the Vale or the Reach, but I imagine that could be more of a Sansa influence on the North. The emeralds’ only purpose is to contrast and compliment Ygritte’s hair and to show the wealth of the dynasty. There are two different weirwood embroideries implemented in the dress design: the one on the top that is by the wolf, which of course represents the Stark dynasty that she has now married into, and the bigger weirwood at the base of the dress which has mammoths walking underneath it. Mammoths are one of the symbols of the Freefolk, and weirwoods are very sacred to both the Northern people and the Freefolk, and their shared religion following the Old Gods. I imagine that when Jon was designing this dress for Ygritte, he was more attentive and involved than men in this universe usually were, and his ultimate goal was her comfort and for her to feel included in her new position instead of feeling like a commodity for Jon and the North.

As for the crown, which was the reason for the commission in the first place, I wanted it to follow the same general design as the King of the North crown. I know there’s lots of different ideas of different crowns Jon could adopt as King of the North instead of somehow either regaining possession of or replicating his brother’s crown, but there were way too many options and it made my head spin, so we’re doing this. So the structure of the crown is the same, but the main difference is that instead of being made of metal, this crown is made of weirwood. Of course, weirwood is very special to both cultures, but I figured that metal wouldn’t impressive Ygritte or her culture as much as weirwood would. Therefore, the texture is very different. There are emeralds around it to compensate the lack of metal and extra agency, and to give the crown more of a feminine look as well as to compliment Ygritte’s hair. The tops of each bar are meant to look white and as if capped by snow. This is meant to symbolize the Beyond the Wall influence and I was also thinking about the Crown of Winter when creating this part of the design. The Crown of Winter was given up by Torrhen Stark when yielding to Aegon the Conqueror. We aren’t given a description of it, but I have always imagined it having those snow caps and generally being mostly white. I’ve thought of Jon bringing back the design of the Crown of Winter, but because we have so little to go off of, I chose for there just to be a small influence included instead of going off nothing and trying to create something from scratch. Lastly, there’s the three engraving in the middle. The two mammoths are meant to show who Ygritte is, where she’s come from. She is a member of the Freefolk, and becoming a Northern Lady is not meant to erase that or get her hide that part of her (not that she’d ever agree to that anyway), but it is a part of her and a part of the future of the North merging together. There’s a wolf in the middle as well, because she’s married in to that family and she is a representation of the Starks. But her and Jon and their resulting family is part Stark, part Freefolk, and both of those cultures are meant to be displayed and remembered. The next generation is a merger of the Freefolk and their ideals, and the the traditions of the North.

Okay, that is all, thank you so much if you read all of this! I loved working on this so much and I want to thank Nata again, because she did an amazing job. I hope this is enjoyable to someone else like it’s enjoyable to me. I think the idea of Ygritte as Queen of the North is hilarious, although probably bad for the health of Northern Lords. I can’t even imagine what unhinged things she would do, or how violent archery practice could become. The only thing I can say in her favor is that I think she would get along great with Rickon and be a good (well depends on what you think a good upbringing is, manners would lack, but I think he would be happy) mother figure to him. They would be the worst duo to terrorize Winterfell. I also like to think that Theon and her, although she would not like him, could build up some sort of beneficial relationship between them and she could help him regain his strength and his love of archery, because that is something they share. Anyway, I’ll see you soonish with my next commission ^_^

here I am, once again. @bbygirl-aemond dropped some new lore about her amazing "stormbreak" fic, and I've been obsessively making these since then.

part 1/2.

vhagar, god of war and destruction. father of vermithor. associated with protection, struggle, battles, and destruction. considered to be the patron god of soldiers and fathers.

vermithor, god of victory and achievement. son of vhagar, born from his sword hand as he won the first ever battle. associated with resilience and overcoming obstacles. prayed to for inner strength.

balerion, god of death and transformation. brother-husband of syrax. associated with the afterlife, rebirth, renewal, and change. prayed to for safe passage into the afterlife when someone is dying or on their deathbed.

syrax, goddess of life and motherhood. sister-wife of balerion. associated with fertility, women, and family. considered to be the patron goddess of mothers.

caraxes, god of the past and wisdom. brother of tyraxes and meraxes. associated with tradition, blood, heritage, and history. prayed to for guidance during difficult decisions.

tyraxes, goddess of the present and learning. sister of meraxes and caraxes. associated with innovation, invention, and building. considered to be the patron goddess of craftsmen and scholars.

meraxes, goddess of the future and foresight. sister of caraxes and tyraxes. mother of shyrkos. associated with instinct and planning. prayed to for good fortune.

What if you wanted to be KING but your niece and nephews were BASTARDS and your brother was GAY and STUPID and everyone HATED you and you couldn’t find a DENTIST for your teeth you ground down and a PRIESTESS told you to kill your DAUGHTER and a CLOWN was there

"The crown is crushing him, she thought. He wants so much to be a good king, to be brave and honorable and clever, but the weight is too much for a boy to bear."

Robb Stark, The King in the North

[alt versions under the cut!]

never get in between a woman and her blood magic baby

my commission from @wweskywalker

I don’t have as much to explain with this piece as my Saera and Jaehaerys commission because it’s Maegor and Visenya and their insanity is self explanatory, but I did want to take a moment to gush bc isn’t it so beautiful??? The thought struck me one day that normal mama’s boys get their mothers jewelry or otherwise provide for them, and Maegor tried to do the same, but what was the most special to him was not how the other boys acted. I imagine he would have started out by giving parts from the animals he hunted, and it spiraled from there. To him, there is no stronger and purer declaration of love and devotion than bringing a human heart to his mother (he brought Ceryse one too but she did not react as positively for some reason). Some have characterized Maegor as a sociopath, but I don’t think is true as it seems he does have loyalty and love towards his mother. He’s a horrible person, but I imagine he has never ending aim to please the people (or maybe it’s just one person) that he holds dear. I see him almost as some kind of twisted mutt. Of course, that’s not how Visenya views him, for to her he is her world. The original intention was for this to be set during the early reign of Aenys and certainly before the Trial of the Seven. The crown does sort of contradict that, but I love how Veronica draws jewelry so much and asked her to please please please deck them out as much as she could, so let’s just not think on it too hard. I don’t have a person specifically in mind whose heart this is, the gift was more important than the person who it came from. But my friend @theweirwoodfiles told me it could be the High Septon’s, if we were going with the Maegor being King timeline instead of Aenys.

What I *do* want to think on too hard is how beautiful the Valyrian fashion and jewelry is! When I think of Valyrian fashion, I think of the Byzantines. So the reference photos I gave Veronica were inspired by that, and I think she did a great job of making Visenya look luxurious and still representative of her family’s roots, what I imagine fashion looked like in the Valyrian freehold (maybe just a little more fancy, seeing as she’s Queen Dowager). Maegor’s dragon on his armor is a total Veronica original, I didn’t give her any references or anything, I just told her I love the dragon imagery that she displays in her art and she delivered ^_^