The words of the world, defined
Glossary of the Known World
What does it actually mean? An A-to-Z of the terms the books take for granted — the titles, customs, magics, and cant of Westeros and Essos — each given a plain maester's definition, and a road on to the deeper account where one exists.
41 terms
A
- Andal
- One of the second wave of men to settle Westeros, who crossed the narrow sea long after the First Men, bringing iron, the Faith of the Seven, and the custom of knighthood. Most southron houses trace their blood to them.
- Archmaester
- A master of the Citadel who has attained the highest degree in a field of study, each wearing a mask, ring, and rod of the metal tied to his discipline. The archmaesters together rule the order that trains all maesters.Read more
B
- Bannerman
- A lord or knight sworn to a greater house, bound to answer its call with arms and men. A great house's strength is largely the sum of the bannermen who fly its colors.Read more
- Bloodrider
- Among the Dothraki, a warrior sworn to a khal as a blood-brother and bodyguard, pledged to ride at his side in life and to follow him in death. The bond is closer than marriage.Read more
- Bravo
- In Braavos, a young swordsman who duels for pride and reputation in the night streets, fighting in the light, needle-thin style called water dancing rather than the heavy plate-and-broadsword way of Westeros.Read more
C
- Crannogman
- One of the small, marsh-dwelling folk of the Neck in the North, who live among bogs and reeds, poison their arrows, and are wrongly thought by outsiders to be cowardly or uncanny.
- Craven
- A coward. In a warrior culture that prizes courage above nearly all else, it is among the fouler insults one can lay on a man.
D
- Direwolf
- A great wolf far larger than the common kind, rarely seen south of the Wall. It is the sigil of House Stark, and its return to the lands of men is read by some as an omen.Read more
- Dothraki
- The horse-lords of the great grass sea of Essos, who live and fight from the saddle, disdain walls and ships, and follow warlords called khals in mounted hordes tens of thousands strong.Read more
- Dragonglass (obsidian)
- Volcanic glass, called dragonglass by the smallfolk and obsidian by the maesters, prized by the children of the forest and — the texts confirm — able to slay an Other. It is one of the few proven banes of the cold things.Read more
F
- Faceless Men
- A guild of assassins out of Braavos who worship a god of death and can, by their secret arts, change their very faces. Their price is famously beyond the reach of ordinary men.Read more
- First Night
- An old and largely abolished custom said to grant a lord the right to bed a bannerman's bride on her wedding night. Whether it was ever as widespread as the tales claim is disputed even within the story.
- Free folk (wildlings)
- The peoples living north of the Wall, who bow to no lord and call themselves the free folk; "wildlings" is the name southerners give them. They are men and women like any other, not monsters.Read more
G
- Godswood
- A grove kept within a castle's walls for worship of the old gods, at its heart a weirwood tree with a face carved into the pale bark. The oldest, in the North, long predate the castles built around them.Read more
- Greenseer
- In the lore of the children of the forest, a rare seer of immense power, able to see through the eyes of animals and the weirwood trees and to glimpse across time. The greatest are said to be more legend than fact.Read more
- Greensight
- The prophetic gift of the greenseers: true dreams and visions of things past, distant, or yet to come. The books treat it as real magic, though its visions are famously slippery and easy to misread.Read more
- Guest right
- An ancient and sacred law: once a guest has eaten a host's bread and salt beneath his roof, neither may do the other harm. To break it is held the blackest of sins, cursed by gods old and new.Read more
H
- Heart tree
- The weirwood at the center of a godswood, its bark white, its leaves blood-red, and a face carved into its trunk before which the followers of the old gods keep their vows and prayers.Read more
- Hedge knight
- A wandering knight with no lord and no lands, who sleeps beneath hedges and lives by tourney winnings and hired sword-work. Many are little better than robbers; a few are the truest knights in the realm.
K
- Khal / Khaleesi
- A Dothraki warlord and his wife. A khal leads a khalasar — his riding horde — and a khaleesi is his queen, a title of real standing among a people who otherwise prize men and horses above all.Read more
M
- Maester
- A scholar of the Citadel who has forged a chain of many metals, each link a mastery, and serves a castle as healer, tutor, counselor, and keeper of ravens and records. A maester forswears lands, wife, and crown.Read more
- Milk of the poppy
- A potent narcotic drawn from the poppy, given by maesters to dull great pain and force sleep. Taken too freely it dulls the mind and takes a hold of its own on those who lean on it.
- Moon tea
- A brew of tansy, mint, wormwood and the like, taken by women to prevent or end a pregnancy. Maesters and midwives know its making, and it is asked for more quietly than most remedies.
- Mummer
- A traveling player or actor. Because mummers paint their faces and pretend to be what they are not, "mummery" and "a mummer's farce" are used throughout the tale to name any hollow show or deception.
N
- Night's Watch (black brothers)
- The ancient sworn brotherhood that holds the Wall against whatever lies beyond, its men called crows or black brothers for their black cloaks. They take no wives, hold no lands, and serve until death.Read more
S
- Sellsword
- A hired soldier who fights for pay rather than fealty, often serving in the free companies of Essos. Loyal while the coin lasts, and famously no longer than that.Read more
- Septon / Septa
- A holy man or woman of the Faith of the Seven, the dominant religion of southron Westeros. Septons lead worship and counsel lords; septas often serve as tutors and companions to highborn girls.Read more
- Ser
- The honorific of a knight, borne by any man who has been anointed in the Faith and dubbed with a sword. It is earned, not inherited, and a lowborn man may win it while a lord's son may not hold it.
- Silent Sisters
- An order of women sworn to the Stranger, the aspect of death among the Seven. They take vows of silence and tend to the dead — washing, shrouding, and preparing the bodies of the fallen for burial.
- Skinchanger
- A person able to enter and control the mind of a beast, seeing through its eyes and wearing its body. One who bonds especially with wolves is called a warg. The gift is rare and feared where it is known.Read more
- Smallfolk
- The common people — farmers, craftsmen, servants, and laborers — as distinct from the highborn lords and knights. They do most of the dying in the wars their betters start, and the tale never lets that be forgotten.
T
- The Old Way
- The reaving creed of the ironborn: to take with the sword rather than earn with coin or labor, and to pay the "iron price" for what one owns. Its adherents scorn the "green" ways of the mainland as soft.
- Thrall
- Among the ironborn, an unfree servant taken by raiding — a captive set to labor. The ironborn hold that they keep thralls rather than slaves, a distinction their thralls may find thin.
V
- Valonqar
These partings name deaths, endings, and roads not yet ridden in the books. Unveil them only if both roads are known to you — or if you do not fear to know.
- Valyrian steel
- A rare, ripple-patterned steel forged with lost Valyrian arts, lighter, sharper, and stronger than any common blade, and — the old tales promise — a bane of dark things. The craft to make it anew is lost.Read more
W
- Warg
- A skinchanger who bonds with and enters the mind of a wolf, and by extension the common name for the gift itself. In the far North the word is spoken as both a marvel and a curse.Read more
- Weirwood
- A pale, red-leaved tree sacred to the old gods and to the children of the forest, said to be nearly eternal. The greenseers of legend could see and speak through the faces carved into weirwood trunks.Read more
- Wet nurse
- A woman who suckles and nurses another's infant in place of its mother, a common arrangement in noble households where a lady may not nurse her own child.
- Wight
- A corpse — of man or beast — raised to a cold, mindless half-life by the Others, with burning blue eyes and no will of its own. Fire reliably destroys them. They are the Others' dead soldiery, not the Others themselves.Read more
- Wildfire
- A volatile green substance brewed by the alchemists of King's Landing, which burns fiercer than any ordinary flame, clings and cannot easily be quenched, and grows only more dangerous with age.Read more
- Words (house words)
- A house's motto, a short phrase stitched on its banners that captures its creed — a warning, a boast, or a promise. "Winter is coming" is a house's words, not a season's forecast.Read more
What does "warg" mean in Game of Thrones?
A warg is a person who can enter and control the mind of a wolf, seeing through its eyes and wearing its body. It is a form of skinchanging, the broader gift of bonding with any beast, and in the far North the word is spoken as both a marvel and a curse.
What is guest right?
Guest right is an ancient and sacred law of hospitality: once a guest has eaten his host's bread and salt beneath his roof, neither may do the other harm. To break it is held the blackest of sins, cursed by gods old and new — which is precisely why its violations land so hard in the story.
What is the difference between a maester and a septon?
A maester is a scholar of the Citadel — a castle's healer, tutor, and keeper of records, who forges a chain of many metals and forswears lands and family. A septon is a holy man of the Faith of the Seven, the dominant religion of southron Westeros. One serves knowledge; the other serves the gods.
What does "khaleesi" mean?
Khaleesi is the Dothraki word for the wife of a khal — the queen of a khalasar, or riding horde. A khal is a Dothraki warlord, and his khaleesi holds real standing among a people who otherwise prize men and horses above all else.