Been watching GOT all these years and never actually knew wtf "The Andals" actually were:
The original homeland of the Andals was a region on the west coast of
Essos called
Andalos, located north of the modern
Free City of
Pentos. Six thousand years ago, after allegedly receiving visions from the "Seven-faced God", the Andals were spurred on by their new Faith to migrate to Westeros, where they
overran and conquered most of the continent, which was then inhabited by the
First Men. The Andals brought the concept of chivalry and the manufacture of iron-wrought weapons and armor with them from
Essos.
In many cases the Andals intermarried with the populations of First Men that they conquered. Still, the overwhelming influence on the gene pool of the continent is from the Andals, to the point that the Seven Kingdoms are often called "the Land of the Andals" by peoples in Essos (such as the Dothraki).
The exceptions are the
North, which the Andals never conquered and where the blood of the First Men is still strong, and
Dorne, where the Andal inhabitants later intermingled with the
refugees from the east.
[2]
The Andals did conquer the
Iron Islands as they did the rest of southern Westeros, but these Andal families acculturated to the unique
Ironborn society on the islands, even going so far as to convert to the local religion of the
Drowned God. Thus while some Andal bloodlines were introduced to the Iron Islands, the cultural impact of their invasion was relatively minor.
GRRM must've been on some good ass dope with as deep/complex/intricate as this whole fuccking book series is. Not even mad at dude for never finishing them books. This is an insane amount of shyt for one man to come up with.
