Game of Thrones: Complete Timeline, Explained

2024/01/22

and can sometimes feel uninviting to new viewers. Both shows, set in George R.R. Martin's fictional land of Westeros, are dense with details, characters, politics, and histories. With so much going on and so many things for fans to keep up with, it can be hard to keep the full timeline of events straight. The timeline of Westeros is not only limited to the timeline of the two shows--which themselves are set almost 200 years apart--but has a full history that stretches back thousands of years.

Even within the shows themselves, the changing timelines and ages of characters can be tricky to keep up with.

Beyond the boundaries of the shows, the history of Westeros is what shaped the playing field of the story. It determines who has and hasn't got power, what relationship the great Houses have to each other, and even explains why some Houses still follow the Old Gods. The first thing to know about the timeline is how years are referenced. In the real world, years are referred to as relative to the Common Era, either before or after (BCE or CE). Westeros uses a similar system, except the pivot point is around Aegon Targaryen's conquest and uniting of six of the seven Kingdoms of Westeros. Hence, years are measured in BC before the conquest and AC after.

When Does Game of Thrones Take Place?

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The main event that sets the stage for the main . This is the war that started after Prince Rhaegar Targaryen allegiantly abducted Ned Stark's sister and Robert Baratheon's lover, Lyanna Stark.

This happened in 280 AC, along with the burning of Ned Stark's father and brother by the Mad King, and resulted in Robert leading an open rebellion against the Iron Throne.

The rebellion lasted about a year, stretching throughout 281 AC. Key events included the double marriage of Ned Stark and Jon Arryn to Catelyn and Lysa Tully and the siege of Storm's End, where Robert's younger brother, Stannis, held out against the Tyrells until being saved with food shipments from the smuggler Davos, later Ser Davos Seaworth, the Onion Knight. The decisive battle of the conflict was the Battle of the Trident, where Robert Baratheon killed Rhaegar Targaryen with his warhammer.

The war concludes with the sacking of King's Landing, where Jaime Lannister and Gregor Clegane raped and murdered Princess Elia Martell and her two children. After the conflict, Ned finds his sister dying at the Tower of Joy, where she hands him a newborn baby that he takes and claims as his bastard. At the same time, Robert is crowned king and marries Cersei Lannister.

The year after the rebellion, in 282 AC, Robert orders Stannis to rebuild the royal fleet and take the island of Dragonstone, the last Targaryen stronghold. On Dragonstone, the Mad King's wife and sister, Rhaella, gives birth to her third child, Daenerys, during a summer storm.

Rhaella dies in childbirth, and with the garrison at Dragonstone ready to surrender to Stannis, Daenerys and her older brother are smuggled away to Essos.

In 289 AC, Balon Greyjoy declares himself the king of the Iron Islands. Robert calls his banners and reunites with Ned to put down this rebellion. In the war that ensues, Balon's oldest two sons are killed. The Lord of the Iron Islands capitulates to Robert and bends the knee. As a consequence of his rebellion, his last remaining son, Theon, is taken to be a ward and prisoner of Ned Stark at Winterfell.

The prologue and parts of first episode,

takes place towards the end of 297 AC, but the bulk of the first season takes place over 298 AC. It can be hard to precisely map the show's timeline, but some ideas can be had by equating it to books. As said, the bulk of season one, from the death of Jon Arryan to the beheading of Ned Stark, takes place in 298 AC. After that, it seems the War of the Five Kings, which consumed seasons two and three, took place over the course of a year, 299 AC. The War of the Five Kings, season three, and the year 299 AC seem to end with the Red Wedding in Season 3, episode nine,

The Purple Wedding, which takes place in Season 4, Episode 2,

takes place on the first day of the year 300 AC. From there, the events of Season 4 seem to take only a few months, ending with Tyrion's escape from King's Landing and Daenerys taking control of Meereene. The events of Season 5 bring the show most of the way through the year 300 AC, at which point it passes the books, and creating a definitive timeline becomes impossible. Seasons 6, 7, and 8 of are known for greatly compressing time to fit events into fewer episodes. This, along with the aging of the younger characters, makes it likely that the show's final three seasons occupied as much time as its first five.

Putting the Series Finale around 303 AC.

When Does House of the Dragon Take Place

Though the time jumps in House of the Dragon haven't been warmly received, they represent the importance of the Targaryen history over those years.

Game of Thrones is a universe built on legends and stories. As a result, there are so many that could make their way to the small screen in time.

begins with a prologue at the Great Council of 101 AC. Presiding over the council is King Jaehaerys, the fourth Targaryen king.

Jaehaerys had ruled since 48 AC and was one of Westeros's greatest and longest-serving kings. His reign was a time of peace, and he hoped to maintain that after his death by calling a council to serve his successor. At the council, a vote was held to choose the hair for the Iron Throne; the main choices were between Prince Viserys and Princess Rhaenys, who was married to the Sea Snake Corlys Velaryon. The former was chosen and became king upon Jaehaerys' death in 103 AC.

The first season of has become infamous for its time jumps. Years regularly pass between episodes, with a decade-long time jump in the middle of the season.

This is a breakdown of when each episode takes place.

After the prologue, most of episode onetakes place nine years later in 110 AC. This is when Viserys loses both his wife and newborn son and names his daughter, Rhaenyra, as his hair. Episode twooccurs six months later, in 111 AC, when Viserys marries Alicent.

Episodes three, four, and five all take place three years later in 114 AC. The war in the Stepstones has been raging for three years, and Alicent has given birth to two children. Episode five ends with Rhaenyra's marriage to Laenor Velaryon and initiates the season's major time jump.

Episodes six and seven pick up ten years later in 124 AC, with recastings for the major younger actors.

By this point, Alicent's children have grown into adolescents, and Rhaenyra has just given birth to her third child. These episodes conclude with Rhaenyra marrying her uncle Daemon and initiating another mini-time jump of four years. The final three episodes take place in 130 AC and mark the start of the Dance of Dragons, the conflict that will define the rest of .

When was Aegon's Conquest?

Aegon's conquest has yet to be explored in live-action.

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Before the Seven Kingdoms were united, the great Empire of Valryia existed in the East; that's where the Targaryen and their dragons originated. The empire first came to prominence in about 8,000 BC and became the undisputed power around 4,700 BC. In 114 BC, Daenys Targaryen had a prophetic dream that caused her father to take her and her family away from Valryia. They settled on the Valryian outpost of Dragonstone, and twelve years later, in 102 BC, the Doom came for Valryia.

The great Valryian empire and all their dragons were wiped out overnight, leaving the Targaryens as the last Dragonlords.

One hundred years after the Doom of Valryia, Daenys Targaryen's descendant, Aegon, along with his two sister wives, set sail for Westeros. This starts the two years of Aegon's conquest, where six of Westeros' seven kingdoms were united with fire and blood. One of the , where Aegon burned the armies of the Reach and its king. This led to the Tyrells surrendering Highgarden and being made Lords of the Reach. It also motivated the surrender of House Lannister, who gave up their title as Kings of the Rock to become the Lords of the Westerlands.

Meanwhile, Aegon's bastard brother, Orys Baratheon, commanded an army that defeated the Storm King in the field. As a reward, Orys was granted the ancient castle of Storm's End and became Lord of the Stormlands. The Riverlands and Iron Islands were being ruled by King Harren of Harrenhal. He wasn't a well-liked king, and the Tullys had already chosen to side with Aegon against him. Harren and all his sons were burned alive inside Harrenhal, and the Tullys were made Lords of the Riverlands. Seeing the destruction being brought to the rest of the continent, the kings of the Vale and the kings of North, house Arryan and Stark, bent the knee to Aegon rather than be burnt alive.

Aegon was crowned King of the Seven Kingdoms in Oldtown, and this is the day from which 1 AC is measured. Although he was crowned King, Aegon still had not conquered the seventh kingdom of Dorne. In 4 AC, Aegon launched a campaign to take Dorne; it was a war that lasted nine years and was ultimately unsuccessful. Dorne would not enter the Seven Kingdoms until 161 AC.

The Times Before Aegon's Conquest

The Long Night was one of the most anticipated battles in .

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The Rhoynar were a people originating in the southern part of Essos. During the Valryian expansion, the Rhoynar and the Valryians entered into a conflict that lasted over two hundred years. The Valryians eventually gained the upper hand, and many great Rhoynar cities were destroyed. In 700 BC, Queen Nymeria led people west aboard 10,000 ships, ultimately landing in Westeros at Dorne. Once there, Nymeria married into House Martell and assimilated her people with the Dornish. This is why the ruler of the Seven Kingdoms is also the ruler of the Rhoynar.

In about 6000 BC, the Andals crossed from Essos and made land in Westeros. They came under the banner of the Seven-Pointed Star, hoping to spread the Faith of the Seven across Westeros. At the time of their arrival, the continent was primarily controlled by the First Men, who still had some interactions with the Children of the Forrest. The Andal invasion stretched for centuries, resulting in many wars with the old kings. Eventually, the Andals had conquered almost every corner of Westeros, marrying into old families, fashioning themselves as the kings of the realms, and preaching the Faith of the Seven everywhere they went, with only two exceptions.

The first is the Iron Islands, the last place the Andles managed to conquer; the new arrivals assimilated with the old ways of the island and didn't force the Faith of the Seven upon them. The other exception was the North, where the First Men held off the invaders and kept their bloodline pure. This is why the North still follows the Old Gods and seems rather different from the southern kingdoms. The amount of Andal blood in Westeros is why the ruler of is also known as the ruler of the Andals.

The further back in the timeline, the more events start to resemble myths and legends rather than tangible history.

This is the case with the so-called Age of Heroes that lasted between 10,000 and 8,000 BC. It was the time when many of the great houses and great castles of Westeros were founded. with the Children of the Forest and Giants to construct the Wall and founded House Stark. Lann the Clever tricked the Casterlys out of their seat in Casterly Rock, giving birth to the song The Rains of Castamer.

The Age of Heroes is also , a mysterious period where winter lasted a generation, and the White Walkers invaded Westeros. They were eventually defeated by an alliance between the First Men and the Children, led by Azor Ahai and his flaming sword, Lightbringer.

It was also at this time that the Night's Watch was founded and given its solemn duty.