MEANWHILE, BACK ON THE WALL

Hey, wait a minute!” some of you may be saying about now. “Wait a minute, wait a minute! Where’s Dany and the dragons? Where’s Tyrion? We hardly saw Jon Snow. That can’t be all of it. ”

Well, no. There’s more to come. Another book as big as this one.

I did not forget to write about the other characters. Far from it. I wrote lots about them. Pages and pages and pages. Chapters and more chapters. I was still writing when it dawned on me that the book had become too big to publish in a single volume. and I wasn’t close to finished yet. To tell all of the story that I wanted to tell, I was going to have to cut the book in two.

The simplest way to do that would have been to take what I had, chop it in half around the middle, and end with “To Be Continued.” The more I thought about that, however, the more I felt that the readers would be better served by a book that told all the story for half the characters, rather than half the story for all the characters. So that’s the route I chose to take.

Tyrion, Jon, Dany, Stannis and Melisandre, Davos Seaworth, and all the rest of the characters you love or love to hate will be along next year (I devoutly hope) in A Dance with Dragons, which will focus on events along the Wall and across the sea, just as the present book focused on King’s Landing.

— George R. R. Martin

June 2005

APPENDIX

THE KINGS AND THEIR COURTS

THE QUEEN REGENT

CERSEI LANNISTER, the First of Her Name, widow of (King Robert I Baratheon), Queen Dowager, Protector of the Realm, Lady of Casterly Rock, and Queen Regent,

— Queen Cersei’s children:

— (KING JOFFREY I BARATHEON), poisoned at his wedding feast, a boy of twelve,

— PRINCESS MYRCELLA BARATHEON, a girl of nine, a ward of Prince Doran Martell at Sunspear,

— KING TOMMEN I BARATHEON, a boy king of eight years,

— his kittens, SER POUNCE, LADY WHISKERS, BOOTS,

— Queen Cersei’s brothers:

— SER JAIME LANNISTER, her twin, called THE KINGSLAYER, Lord Commander of the Kingsguard,

— TYRION LANNISTER, called THE IMP, a dwarf, accused and condemned for regicide and kinslaying,

— PODRICK PAYNE, Tyrion’s squire, a boy of ten,

— Queen Cersei’s uncles, aunt, and cousins:

— SER KEVAN LANNISTER, her uncle,

— SER LANCEL, Ser Kevan’s son, her cousin, formerly King Robert’s squire and Cersei’s lover, newly raised to Lord of Darry,

— (WILLEM), Ser Kevan’s son, murdered at Riverrun,

— MARTYN, twin to Willem, a squire,

— JANEI, Ser Kevan’s daughter, a girl of three,

— LADY GENNA LANNISTER, Cersei’s aunt, m. Ser Emmon Frey,

— (SER CLEOS FREY), Genna’s son, killed by outlaws,

— SER TYWIN FREY, called TY, Cleos’s son,

— WILLEM FREY, Cleos’s son, a squire,

— SER LYONEL FREY, Lady Genna’s second son,

— (TION FREY), Genna’s son, murdered at Riverrun,

— WALDER FREY, called RED WALDER, Lady Genna’s youngest son, a page at Casterly Rock,

— TYREK LANNISTER, Cersei’s cousin, son of her father’s late brother Tygett,

— LADY ERMESANDE HAYFORD, Tyrek’s child wife,

— JOY HILL, bastard daughter of Queen Cersei’s lost uncle Gerion, a girl of eleven,

— CERENNA LANNISTER, Cersei’s cousin, daughter of her late uncle Stafford, her mother’s brother,

— MYRIELLE LANNISTER, Cersei’s cousin and Cerenna’s sister, daughter of her uncle Stafford,

— SER DAVEN LANNISTER, her cousin, Stafford’s son,

— SER DAMION LANNISTER, a more distant cousin, m. Shiera Crakehall,

— SER LUCION LANNISTER, their son,

— LANNA, their daughter, m. Lord Antario Jast,

— LADY MARGOT, a cousin still more distant, m. Lord Titus Peake,

— King Tommen’s small council:

— (LORD TYWIN LANNISTER), Hand of the King,

— SER JAIME LANNISTER, Lord Commander of the Kingsguard,

— SER KEVAN LANNISTER, master of laws,

— VARYS, a eunuch, master of whisperers,

— GRAND MAESTER PYCELLE, counselor and healer,

— LORD MACE TYRELL, LORD MATHIS ROWAN, LORD PAXTER REDWYNE, counselors,

— Tommen’s Kingsguard:

— SER JAIME LANNISTER, Lord Commander,

— SER MERYN TRANT,

— SER BOROS BLOUNT, removed and thence restored,

— SER BALON SWANN,

— SER OSMUND KETTLEBLACK,

— SER LORAS TYRELL, the Knight of Flowers,

— SER ARYS OAKHEART, with Princess Myrcella in Dorne,

— Cersei’s household at King’s Landing:

— LADY JOCELYN SWYFT, her companion,

— SENELLE and DORCAS, her bedmaids and servingwomen,

— LUM, RED LESTER, HOKE, called HORSELEG, SHORT-EAR, and PUCKENS, guardsmen,

— QUEEN MARGAERY of House Tyrell, a maid of sixteen, widowed bride of King Joffrey I Baratheon and of Lord Renly Baratheon before him,

— Margaery’s court at King’s Landing:

— MACE TYRELL, Lord of Highgarden, her father

— LADY ALERIE of House Hightower, her mother,

— LADY OLENNA TYRELL, her grandmother, an aged widow called THE QUEEN OF THORNS,

— ARRYK and ERRYK, Lady Olenna’s guards, twins seven feet tall called LEFT and RIGHT,

— SER GARLAN TYRELL, Margaery’s brother, THE GALLANT,

— his wife, LADY LEONETTE of House Fossoway,

— SER LORAS TYRELL, her youngest brother, the Knight of Flowers, a Sworn Brother of the Kingsguard,

— Margaery’s lady companions:

— her cousins, MEGGA, ALLA, and ELINOR TYRELL,

— Elinor’s betrothed, ALYN AMBROSE, squire,

— LADY ALYSANNE BULWER, a girl of eight,

— MEREDYTH CRANE, called MERRY,

— LADY TAENA MERRYWEATHER,

— LADY ALYCE GRACEFORD,

— SEPTA NYSTERICA, a sister of the Faith,

— PAXTER REDWYNE, Lord of the Arbor,

— his twin sons, SER HORAS and SER HOBBER,

— MAESTER BALLABAR, his healer and counselor,

— MATHIS ROWAN, Lord of Goldengrove,

— SER WILLAM WYTHERS, Margaery’s captain of guards,

— HUGH CLIFTON, a handsome young guardsman,

— SER PORTIFER WOODWRIGHT and his brother, SER LUCANTINE,

— Cersei’s court at King’s Landing:

— SER OSFRYD KETTLEBLACK and SER OSNEY KETTLEBLACK, younger brothers to Ser Osmund Kettleblack,

— SER GREGOR CLEGANE, called THE MOUNTAIN THAT RIDES, dying painfully of a poisoned wound,

— SER ADDAM MARBRAND, Commander of the City Watch of King’s Landing (the “gold cloaks”),

— JALABHAR XHO, Prince of the Red Flower Vale, an exile from the Summer Isles,

— GYLES ROSBY, Lord of Rosby, troubled by a cough,

— ORTON MERRYWEATHER, Lord of Longtable,

— TAENA, his wife, a woman of Myr,

— LADY TANDA STOKEWORTH,

— LADY FALYSE, her elder daughter and heir,

— SER BALMAN BYRCH, Lady Falyse’s husband,

— LADY LOLLYS, her younger daughter, great with child but weak of wit,

— SER BRONN OF THE BLACKWATER, Lady Lollys’s husband, a former sellsword,

— (SHAE), a camp follower serving as Lollys’s bedmaid, strangled in Lord Tywin’s bed,

— MAESTER FRENKEN, in Lady Tanda’s service,

— SER ILYN PAYNE, the King’s Justice, a headsman,

— RENNIFER LONGWATERS, chief undergaoler of the Red Keep’s dungeons,

— RUGEN, undergaoler for the black cells,

— LORD HALLYNE THE PYROMANCER, a Wisdom of the Guild of Alchemists,

— NOHO DIMITTIS, envoy from the Iron Bank of Braavos,

— QYBURN, a necromancer, once a maester of the Citadel, more recently of the Brave Companions,