If characters are cultural constructs, then Game of Thrones is the story of humanity’s relentless lust for power distilled into prime time drama format. Perhaps that’s why the story speaks to us on such a visceral level. It holds a mirror up to our own darker selves.

Beyond the courtly intrigues, the special effects and mythical creatures, it’s essentially how power in society is acquired by violent means — a trope we are all too familiar with.

George R.R. Martin, in his richly imagined universe, has used a composite of medieval Europe, Judeo-Christian apocalyptic beliefs and Eastern mythologies as a canvas for this grand saga. Besides our species’ myopic view of their own self-interest, there are many other interesting historical parallels that can be gleaned from the multiple story arcs of the show.

The richly imagined universe of Game of Thrones might actually be inspired by real-world facts and figures

The Dothraki and the Mongols

The Dothraki are Nomadic bands of marauders on horseback that have a striking resemblance to the Mongols. Just like their real-world kinsmen, the Dothraki are said to be born, fight and die in the saddle while unleashing hell on settled populations.

Genghis Khan united the disparate bands of Mongol tribes into a single world-conquering war machine; Danaerys Targareyen has also taken the confederacy of Dothraki tribes (khalsars) under her wing (no pun intended). As the cavalry in her army, they serve as the vanguard in battlefields.

The Unsullied and the Janissaries

The elite band of emancipated slave soldiers that comprise Danaerys Targaryen’s infantry mirror the Janissaries of the Ottomon Empire. Like the Unsullied, the Janissaries were adolescent boys enslaved on the peripheries of empire and ultimately brought up and trained in the martial ethos of their imperial masters.

Like the Janissaries, the Unsullied are renowned for their cohesion, unflinching obedience and fighting skills. The Janissary corps eventually became a power centre within the empire and was later disbanded; that is where perhaps the two slave legions diverge.

Whitewalkers and the Gog and Magog

The Whitewalkers — an endless army of supernatural beings emerging from the nether regions and sweeping the lands like a plague — have an apocalyptic quality to them. Similar ‘end of days’ prophecies are steeped in Biblical escathalogy, such as the armies of Gog and Magog (Yajuj Majuj) that would burst through from their confinement and swarm like locusts on the realms of man.

Couple that with a resurrected Jon Snow during his days at the night watch and his decisive role in the war with the Whitewalkers and the show is riddled with the iconography of Abrahamic faiths’ final battle between good and evil.

Incest in folklore and royal dynasties

Few things are as universally reviled as incest and yet one finds numerous instances of it in the folklore and histories of different cultures.

In this respect, the Cersei-Jaime Lannister brother-sister romance is a mere footnote to its real-world parallels. The Egyptian pharaohs routinely married their siblings, half-siblings and their nieces as well. The Roman Emperor Nero was notorious for his incestuous proclivities too. Further down the annals of history, the European royal houses practised consanguineous marriages to protect their bloodlines.

So, if the flaring passions of Jaime and Cersei Lannister raise eyebrows today then history has more scandalous and shocking examples.

The Faith of the Seven and the Catholic Church

The dominant religion of Westeros seems to draw many of its precepts and hierarchy from Catholic Christianity. Their conception of the Divine as being one but having seven facets to it — including the Father, The Mother — share common ground with the Christian doctrine of Trinity. The patriarch of the faith, The High Septon, is akin to the Christian Pope whose word is the law.

In the preceding episodes, the High Septon revived the military order Faith Militant with the mandate to morally police the lecherous offenders of the realm. Compare that to the crusading zeal of the numerous Christian military orders such as the Knights Templar that served a similar brand of militant morality.

Also, it’s no small coincidence that Jonathan Pryce, who played the role of High Septon in the show, is touted to play the role of Pope Francis in a forthcoming movie of the same name on Netflix.

Lord of the Light and Zoroastrianism

A faith that originated in the East and whose adherents venerate fire and worship the Lord of the Light. While we could be speaking about the Zoroastrian faith, in this instance it’s the R’hllor — the infamous Lord of Light who needs to be only appeased by combustible sacrifices in his name. The red priestess Melisandre has played no small part in the power struggles of the Seven Kingdoms, being the aide of Stannis Baratheon and more recently Jon Snow.

Their great temple of fire at Lys and the concept of duality between the Lord of the Light and the Lord of the Darkness bear similarities with the Parsi faith.

The Seven Kingdoms — medieval Europe

Rival houses raising their own armies proffering their fealty to a King or a rival claimant and ever-shifting constellation of alliances harks back to medieval Europe. Seen through this lens, the Stark-Lannister feud starkly (again, no pun intended) resembles the English War of Roses when the rivalry of the House of Lancaster and House of York spanned generations and contained one of the most gruesome episodes of Middle Ages England.

While these arcane facts may not amount to much except that we often fail to appreciate the influence history exerts on the present, a better orientation of the subject helps in a deeper, more nuanced understanding of every-day phenomena — even a widely popular TV show.

Published in Dawn, ICON, September 24th, 2017