Have you ever wondered what might happen if there was a change in the story? Imagine a scenario where some of the people who had died were still alive, while others remained dead. Would history repeat itself? What could be the possible consequences...
Temple of Love, as depicted by Marc Simonetti in The World of Ice & Fire
The Summer Islanders worship a score of deities, with the god and goddess of love, beauty, and fertility being the most favored. The act of lovemaking is considered an important and even holy skill, with all islanders expected to serve for a time in temples of love. The most skilled and dedicated, those who would be can become respected priests and priestesses.
Prostitution is a respectable profession, practiced even by the high-born. Summer Islanders respect their elderly, and mourning customs include celebrating the dead with wine and lovemaking.
Each of the islands is ruled by a princes or princess, with the three larger islands each having multiple rivals. Some Summer Islanders have become mercenary bowmen or sellsails, guardsmen in the Free Cities, or pirates. Abducted islanders have been forced to fight in the fighting pits of Slaver's Bay. Some descendants of the Rhoynar live on the Isle of Women.[1]
Military
The Summer Islanders traditionally utilized long thrusting spears, short stabbing spears, slings, wooden shields, and little armor. The isles produce some of the best archers in the known world, and their special bows have a longer range than most others, giving their merchant boats added defense against pirates. Aside from dragonbone, the best bows come from the goldenheart tree which are only found on the Summer Isles. The archers fire yard-long shafts.
The Summer Isles are known for their swan ships, which were first designed by Xanda Qo. Koj has been the main center of shipbuilding in the islands since the time of Malthar Xaq thousands of years ago, with three-quarters of all swan ships being built there. Each swan ship has a complement of red archers wielding goldenheart bows.
According to maesters, the Summer Islands are by and large a peaceful place. Warfare is highly ritualized, taking place on days and times chosen by their priests. Battles more closely resemble tourney melees in Westeros. Two opposing teams of warriors, both male and female, meet at a battlefield chosen and consecrated in advance by their priests. It is forbidden to use goldenheart bows, only spears and slings. Such "wars" rarely last longer than a single day.
The losers who survive are not executed or mutilated but must leave the islands in exile, while the winners gain what was in dispute, such as the loser's lands. In this way, only the warriors themselves are harmed. The Summer Islanders have not attempted to conquer other nations.
Economy
Gemstones of the isles include emeralds, rubies, and sapphires, as well as pearls from the coasts. Nutmeg, cinnamon, and pepper are among the islands' spices,[1] and rare spices are used in the creation of the strangler.
Valuable hardwoods include bloodwood, ebony, mahogany, purpleheart, blue mahoe, burl, tigerwood, and pink ivory, among others. Export of goldenheart, which grows on Jhala and Omboru and is famed for making high quality bows, is forbidden, although the lance of Ser Jaime Lannister is made of the golden wood. The islands also produce exotic fruits and sweet amber wine and palm wine.
The islands are home to a myriad of beautiful tropical birds, including parrots, and their feathers are popular with foreigners. Native animls are purchased by wealthy foreign collectors for their menageries; apes, monkeys, apes, spotted panther cubs, and parrots were popular with the dragonlords of the Valyrian Freehold.
The Summer Islanders trade their resources for iron, tin, and other metals which are rare in their homeland. Their large merchant fleet travels to major ports such as Oldtown, King's Landing, Braavos, and Qarth. Ships from the Port of Ibben have traveled as far south as the Summer Isles. The chamber of the small council in the Red Keep has a carved screen from the islands.
History
The Summer Isles have a history dating back thousands of years. Much of this was recorded in carvings made by priestesses on the famous Talking Trees of Tall Trees Town. Even more is recorded in oral tradition, because the Summer Islanders rely heavily upon histories recorded in highly complicated formal verse and memorized by rote.
In Westeros, Maester Gallard painstakingly translated and recorded many of these in his Children of Summer, which remains the chief historical text on the Summer Isles.
For much of their recorded history, the Summer Islanders lived in isolation from the rest of the known world, and they were apparently unaware that other lands and peoples existed.
Maps included in the ancient histories carved into the Talking Trees depict only the Summer Islands themselves, surrounded by a world-encompassing ocean. In antiquity the islanders used oared coracles and then larger ships with woven hemp sails.
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The islands Aegon, Rhaenys, and Visenya are a small grouping of islands in the Summer Sea that were discovered in 56 AC by Lady Alys Westhill. They are the most westerly lands ever discovered in the known world, even farther west than Lonely Light.
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Geography
The islands are located several weeks' travel away from Oldtown, slightly farther south than the latitude of the Summer Isles, and at a longitude farther west than even Lonely Light.
The islands are very small, with a combined land area no larger than Dragonstone; the largest of the islands is no more than a third the size of Dragonstone itself. Alys Westhill described them as "a mountain attended by two hills".
The islands are pleasant and bountiful. Springs and streams provide plentiful fresh water. The islands are uninhabited but for the wildlife, including wild pigs and huge, sluggish grey lizards as big as deer, whose bites can cause severe infections. The trees are heavy with edible nuts and fruits unknown in other lands.
History
The three islands went, as far as is known, undiscovered by men for most of history, due to the fact that they are located far to the west across the open ocean, far away from any shipping lanes.
In 56 AC, Lady Alys Westhill led an expedition on her ship, the Sun Chaser, accompanied by the ships Lady Meredith and Autumn Moon. The expedition stumbled onto the three islands by accident. The three ships had been caught in a devastating storm that sank Autumn Moon, while blowing Sun Chaser farther west. There, after the storm had passed, the crew spotted shore birds and followed them to land.
Sun Chaser recovered the badly damaged Lady Meredith and brought her to the islands, where they remained for a fortnight making repairs and restocking their provisions. As the islands are on no known chart and there were three of them, Lady Alys Westhill named the islands Aegon, Rhaenys, and Visenya, after the Conqueror and his two queens.
![Snow Ghost [Jaime Lannister]](https://img.wattpad.com/cover/322184900-64-k400023.jpg)