 So pretty much all the information in this video comes from a book called The World of Ice and Fire, which was a book written by George R. R. Martin. And it's really cool because you get to learn all about all these cool places and cities that George R. Martin didn't really have time to go over in Game of Thrones, but you still get to learn more of the lore and history of the Game of Thrones universe. If you want to check it out, there's an Amazon link below. And while you're down there, why don't you go ahead and hit the subscribe button. Game of Thrones, one of the most popular TV shows of all time and easily, one of the most critically acclaimed, garnering 132 Emmy nominations and winning 47 of those awards, including Outstanding Drama Series for three of their seven seasons. If it wasn't for Breaking Bad, they probably would have won seven for seven. Like your typical fantasy, it takes place in a medieval world, with knights, kings, princesses and dragons, but much, much more dark and twisted. In the TV series, pretty much all of the action happens here, on this tiny continent called Westeros. But what many people don't realize is that Westeros is only a small portion of the known world. This is the known world. It's wide and vast. Many think it even rivals that of Tolkien. Unfortunately, we don't get to explore or see much of it in the TV series. Granted, we do get to see Daenerys and Arya in Essos a couple times, but never in the further East regions. With a world so wide and vast and with a TV show so popular, why aren't there any Asian people in Game of Thrones? To preface this, yes, I do know that Asia doesn't exist in Game of Thrones, but for the intent of this video, the word Asian will mean characters and countries that were obviously based on Asian culture, history and appearance. So back to the question, why are there no Asians in Game of Thrones? Actually there are. Given that there were very few and most were actually background characters, but the only character with any significance at all is this red priestess. Found in Season 5, preaching that Daenerys is the savior. And this priestess is the only Asian character with any lines in the whole Game of Thrones series. Before you grab your pitchfork's demanding representation, you have to understand the geography of the world. The world of Game of Thrones was built to resemble our real world very closely. As you probably noticed, Westeros is based on the island of Great Britain and even looks just like it, just rearranged a little bit. King's Landing is England, the north is Scotland, the region is France, Dorne is Spain or Portugal and Valeria is a tribute to ancient Rome. So this priestess, where does she come from? She comes all the way from this empire on the east side of the world called Yiti, the golden empire of Yiti, located on the eastern region of Essos, east of Carthens and the Bone Mountains. To the south lies the Jade Sea and Yiti of course is obviously based on ancient China. Yiti is a large and diverse country. It is described as being a realm of windswept plains, rolling hills, jungles and rainforests, deep lakes and rushing rivers and shrinking inland seas. The land of a thousand gods and a hundred princes, ruled by one god emperor. As the name suggests, in ancient days the emperors were treated like gods, they had power greater than any western king, wealth that exceeded even that of Valeria at its height and armies of almost unimaginable size, the great empire of the dawn. It was ruled over by the first god emperor, known as the God on Earth. For ten thousand years, his rule reigned until he ascended to the stars. Dominion was then passed to his eldest son, the Pearl Emperor and he ruled for centuries yet every preceding emperor's reign was shorter and more troubled than the one preceding it. For wild men and baleful beasts pressed at the borders of the great empire, lesser kings grew prideful and rebellious and common people gave themselves to avarice, envy, lust, murder, incest, gluttony and sloth. When the Amethyst Empress was crowned, her envious younger brother cast her down and slew her, proclaiming himself as the bloodstone emperor. And thus, beginning a reign of terror, he practiced dark arts, torture and necromancy and slaved his people and took a tiger woman for his bride. He feasted on human flesh and cast down the true gods to worship a black stone that had fallen from the sky. That ushered in an age of darkness called the Long Night. Because of their evil, it is said that the gods came forth to rot their punishment on the wickedness of men. And eventually, the empire crumbled. After the fall of the great empire of the dawn emerged the golden empire of Yiti. Since the Long Night, there has been eleven dynasties. The cities are far famed as well, for no other land or country can boast so many. It is said none of the cities of the west can compare to those of Yiti in size or splendor. Not King's Landing, not Highgarden, not even Valeria at the height of their power. The emperor sits in a palace larger than all of King's Landing. Imagine that for a second, not the city it resides in, but a palace with a larger square area than the biggest city of Westeros. To quote adventurer Lamas Longstrider, even the ruins put ours to shame. Its legendary wealth is such as to allow its princess to live in houses of solid gold and dine on sweet meats, powdered with pearls, and jade. There are many parallels with ancient China and Yiti. In fact, Yiti actually means one body in Mandarin. Much like how Asia is separated from Europe because of the Ural Mountains and the Himalayas, Yiti and the surrounding regions are separated by the Bone Mountains, the largest mountain range in the known world. To the north is the plains of the Jogosnai, a race of mounted warriors said to have shared ancestry with the Dothraki. Like the Dothraki, they are nomadic people who live their lives in yurts, tents and saddles and are a proud and warlike race who prize their freedoms. The Jogosnai are shorter than the Dothraki and have much more Asian features. They are bow-legged and have pointed skulls, which come from biting their skulls as babies. They ride these strange animals called sources, which are hybrid of horses and zebras in the Game of Thrones world. They are loosely based on huns or the Mongols of ancient times. Like the Mongols, they are always raiding and fighting the cities of Yiti. Over the past 2,000 years, the Jogosnai have sacked a dozen Yiti cities, a hundred towns and farms and fields beyond counting. Many emperors have tried to defeat the Jogosnai, none have succeeded. To the north, these are the Five Forts. Massive fortresses made of black stone, said to be almost a thousand feet tall and can hold 10,000 men. For comparison, the wall in Game of Thrones is said to be 700 feet tall. The forts were built by an emperor to protect Yiti from the Lion of Night, an ancient god and his demons, but also from raiders and enemy armies. We can assume that this is a nod to the Great Wall of China. To the south of Yiti lies Leng. The verdant isle of Leng is home to 10,000 tigers and 10 million monkeys. Leng actually used to be part of Yiti up until 400 years ago, when Leng became an independent nation. They speak a dialect of the same language, pray to the same gods, eat the same food and follow the same customs. However, they are ruled by their own god emperors. In addition to the people of Yiti's descent, Leng is home to native Lengi, which are said to be the tallest people in the known world, sometimes growing up to 8 feet tall. Up until Yitish rule, Leng had been an isolated country, very much hostile to outsiders, closing with borders for centuries. Many people say Leng is based on Japan, but judging by its history, it seems to resemble Taiwan's history very closely. Like China and England, Yiti is actually thousands and thousands of miles from Westeros. Yiti is so far away from Westeros that encountering a Yitish people in King's Landing is as unlikely as encountering people from China and Medieval England. Medieval long distance travel was quite limited. Add that to the fact that if you go by land, you would have to go through Bone Mountain and then through the Dothraki Sea or the Red Waste. Good luck. Then you will still have to walk thousands and thousands of miles to either Braavos, Pentos or Mir. By sea, it isn't that much easier, so it makes complete sense as to why there aren't too many Asians in Game of Thrones. They're on the other side of the world. In our current day, since the Azure Emperor Bukkai, yet far to the east, past the legendary mountains of Morne in the city of Carcosa, dwells an exiled sorcerer who claims to be the 69th Yellow Emperor from a dynasty fallen for a thousand years. And more recently, a general named Po, called Hammer of the Jogos Knight, has given himself imperial honors naming himself the first of the Orange Emperors with the rude, sprawling garrison city called Trader Town as its capital. Each of these three men declare that they have the claim to the throne and are willing to go to war to become emperor. Wait, wait a minute, this story sounds really familiar. The three separate kingdoms going to war to become the Emperor of China, I mean Yi Ti. Much like how Game of Thrones was inspired by the War of the Roses of the 15th Century, it seems like George R. R. Martin is setting up a story in Yi Ti, very similar to the romance of the three kingdoms. The three kingdoms was a war in China from 220 to 280 AD. China was in a fractured state, where many warlords were vying for the Emperorship. Eventually, it came down to three separate kingdoms, all fighting to become emperor. It went down as one of the deadliest wars of all time, with 40 million deaths. Second, only to World War II, it has been the subject of many TV shows, movies, and even video games. I mean, how amazing would that be? Romance of the three kingdoms, but set up in the Game of Thrones universe. A much darker and twisted dynasty warriors. And if Leng, or any nearby country is set up to be a parallel to Japan, we could potentially get warriors, samurai, ninjas, sorcerers, and monks all in one insane dark story. Seeing how it's been 10 years and winds of winter still isn't finished, which is the next book in the series, it's kind of doubtful that this story will ever get close to ever being made. But, Martin already has the universe set up for it, so if HBO or whoever ever wanted to make a spin-off series, they're good to go. Which I think is really exciting. If you want to check out the World of Ice and Fire by George R. Martin, there's an Amazon link below. Also, hit subscribe, hit that like button, and remember, John should a pet ghost. I mean, why didn't he pet the dang dog?