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Game of Thrones is a fantasy drama television series based on the fantasy book series "A Song of Ice and Fire" by George R.R. Martin. The show itself is a fantasy-drama fiction based in medieval times, a time when rulers, castles, horses, and swords were all common things. During this period in time, healing sticks, fairies, demons, magic and similar beliefs were also believed and practiced by some, but was not a mainstream belief, in fact it was often a sign of the devil and those who practiced magic were considered witches and were burned or hung.

 

The series itself contains the likes of characters that are made of ice, a character that has magical healing powers, a character that has flying dragons as pets and even characters who can change their appearance to look like another person. However, among all of these fictional characteristics are religious and spiritual influences that are an important part of the story within the show. Each of the religions and spiritual dieties were specifically made for the show, but many of them are confirmed to have direct inspiration from real-life religions, while some of the others - though may not have officially confirmed - have a very close ties and distinctive characteristics to some old traditions and religions as well. Every group within the Game of Thrones world has ties to some sort of religion, this makes sense given that during this period, religion was of major importance to everyone's lives and often dictated the way of life.

Above is the world map created for the show which is divided into two continents: Westeros (west) and Essos (east). Each half of the Game of Thrones world contains places that hold communities and royal families (those who control certain areas). Generally speaking, each sub-geographical area or community in the show also have their own set of beliefs; each of those groups believe that the god that they follow is "the one true god". Martin himself does not believe that there is any "one true god" and is skeptical of whether any of these entities that people believe in really exist or ever did partly because many religions of the world tend to have very similar belief systems and values, just under a different religious names and gods. He has also said that religion is like magic in that magic is really anything that is mysterious and not fully understood: if it was, it would just be known as something like “technology” but by another name. 

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For my project, I will be looking at the some of the main religions in the show - some of which have been confirmed to be directly linked to real-life religions/spiritual entities and some that though may not have been confirmed, still have very distinct relations to real-life religions or spiritual entities. I will also look further into George Martin's views on religion and why he sees religion as an important aspect of life and his books/show.

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