Westeros has always been a land of turmoil. Whether this is for land, money or power, there has been little peace to grace its history. However, with the fall of the Mad King Aerys Targaryen seventeen years in the past, Robert Baratheon holds a tentative calm over his kingdom.

We enter the series during the change of tides; King Robert has recently descended upon Winterfell to ask his old friend Eddard Stark, Lord of Winterfell, to return to King’s Landing with him as the Hand of the King. He has brought with him his two young daughters, Arya & Sansa Stark, to study the ways of court in the capitol city. This leaves Catelyn – Lord Eddard’s Wife- , Rickon & the now crippled Bran Stark in Winterfell.

The Targaryens in the eastern lands of Essos rise from hiding, Viserys Targaryen promising his younger sister Daenerys to the Khal, or ruler, of the Dothraki people in exchange for manpower when the time to attack does come. Viserys - naming himself true King of the Seven Kingdoms - bides his time, waiting for the right time to attack the stronghold of King’s Landing & restore the Iron Throne to his name.

On the Wall, the baseborn child of Eddard Stark, Jon Snow, has taken to training to take the Black. Whispers of Wildlings & rumors of the White Walkers returning from beyond the wall spread through the ranks. The thinning ranks of the Night Watch make these tidings all the worse; but the wall could never fall to those beyond it, could it?

Spiders & birds mingle, these days, passing secrets of murder & a change in kings. But what will happen to our noble houses as the Game of Thrones plays out? Time will tell, as it tends to do.

“When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground.”