King of Winter and Ice (asoiaf)

Westeros is the continent on which everything happens. It has the longest starting some 10,000 or 12,000 years ago. At that time, it was inhabited by many mystical beings like Children of the Forest, Giants, Centaurs, Green Men and Merman and many mythical creatures like griffins, giant eagles, giant falcons, dire wolves, shadow hounds etc. Some of their tribes may have once migrated to Essos but they have long since returned back to Westeros. Westeros and Essos are connected by a thin strip of land known as the Arm of Dorne. This strip of land also became the reason of their plight as well in future.

Men with rising population started migrating from Essos some 10,000 years ago to Westeros using the Arm of Dorne. They were called the First Men, at first both of them ignored each other but to build homes men started chopping down trees indiscriminately, of which some were the white weirwood trees. These trees were the cornerstone of the faith of the natives of this land who worshiped the nameless gods of land, river, streams and stones. These trees, especially those on which a face is carved are believed to be the eyes and ears of the Old Gods.

Children of the Forest and Giants tried to stop them, but Men started killing them and soon a war started which lasted for 2 thousand years. The Children of the Forest which were in hundreds of millions came out to be the losing side because despite their numbers, they were peaceful creatures as were the Giants and neither did they have proper weapons. On the other side Humans kept coming from Essos and repopulated much faster than these races. They used their magic to destroy the strip of land, but the humans started coming on ships. They tried to run to the north of the continent and cut it from south like with the Arm of Dorne, but this time they were only successful in flooding it only, not separate it.

Desperate and unwilling to give up, Children of the Forest decided to make a weapon, driven by desperation they decided to call upon the evil god of Ice and Death, known as the Great Other, who turned a human into his champion against his will, known as the Night King. Night King has a body made up of Ice and wears armor and uses weapons made up of ice. This Night King has the power of turning human children into his servants, White Walkers, who also had body of ice. These White Walkers had some of Night Kings power and could raise the dead as there servants called Wights and could control the cold to some degree.

But before the Children could unleash this weapon, the First Men called for peace in which they agreed to not cut weirwood trees and take the religion of Old Gods. The Children send their weapon to deep in the North and wait for their orders. But the Children made a mistake, they believed in an evil god to help them. The Great Other started to remove the power of the Children to command the weapon from his champion and unleashed it on the living after a few years. This started what is known as the Long Night as the Night King unleashed the world into darkness and cold such that no crop survived and those who died of starving became the servant of the Night King.

When this threat became apparent to all the living, they decided to band together but still they seem to be on the losing side as they couldn't defeat wights with their weapons and neither harm the White Walkers. But one day, a Child of the Forest killed a White Walker with his obsidian tipped arrow and also discovered that fire is effective in countering wights and once you burned the dead, they will not rise again. This became the turning point in war. The living started to push back the dead and finally achieved a major victory after which the dead returned to the place where he came from. Unable to find him Men thought him dead and started dispersing.

The living started to return to their home but the Children of the Forest, Giants and the leader of the Men named Brandon, son of Brandon the Bloody Blade who once fought in the war with the Children and later led the humans against the dead, knew that the threat is still alive and waiting. They decided to build a giant wall of ice made through magic, spanning from one side of the continent to the other, isolating the Night King from the living. But in building the Wall, they forgot about the scouts who were left on the other side of the wall. When they returned, they were shocked to see a wall in their path but agreed to continue their duties as scouts and started living on the northern side of the Wall.

The Children of the Forest and Giants were hit hardest as they were on the brink of extinction. There used to be millions of them which were reduced to some hundreds of thousands in the war between them and Humans. They were further reduced in the fight against Long Night to some tens of thousands.

Brandon returned to the hill where the Night King suffered his most major defeat and built one of the most defensible castles on the peak of the hill, known as the Winterfell and married a Child of the Forest. Preparing for the future conflict with the Night King he sought to unite the northern part of the continent under his rule. Over the years his descendant accomplished his dream and took their animal companion as their banner, a Direwolf on a field of white, and left a warning for their descendants in their house words that winter is coming. Brandon and his descendant for their stark nature took the name, Stark. 

The Starks fought with the Warg King, the Barrow King, Marsh Kings, Red King and many other petty kings. Slowly, slowly one by one, they conquered them all, either through alliances with their vassals or defeating them and ending the line or exiling those who didn't bow to them. In the next 2 thousand years the Starks finally conquered everything from the Wall to the Neck, the land which the Children flooded.

Brandon in his life also built many other things like a huge tower for his uncle, the highest point in world standing at 800 ft. This tower came to be known as the Hightower and his uncle took the name Hightower as his own. He also built a castle for another uncle, built on one of the most fertile lands of the continent with three curtain walls and a labyrinth between the second and third wall. With wells for water coming from the river that came to be known as Mander, the land between first and second wall could be easily farmed along with the sprawling gardens that left any siege useless. They named the castle Highgarden and took the name Gardener. The Gardners went on to conquer the surrounding lands that were called Reach.

He also got an offer to build a castle from his friend, Durran from war to build a castle that could stand any storm so that he could get the hand of the daughter of Storm God in marriage. Using the magic, he built a mighty castle that can't be stormed and could last any storm and will stand for thousands of years. In future his descendants will go on to conquer the land which came to be known as Stormlands.

He also got a request from another friend that a star has fallen on his lands, and he want to forge a sword from the metal found inside it but is unable to. He wanted Brandon's help in forging the sword. Brandon helped him in forging the sword which they named, Dawn and also built a strong castle for him on an island on the river Torrentine called Starfall. In future, the wielder of the sword Dawn came to be known as the Knight of the Morning. His lands were one of the southernmost lands in the future kingdom of Dorne. They will be known as the Kings of Torrentine.

North of the Reach, the hilly and mountainous lands full of gold and silver were ruled by many petty kings. One of them were the Casterly, who by a stroke of luck ruled the thickest and deepest gold veins in the whole land but the House ended when a clever man named, Lann was able to sneak into night and killed all male Caterly' and married their daughter. His descendants will go on to take the name Lannister and will come to rule the lands called Westerlands.

In the other mountainous region in the east known as the Vale, two strong houses will come to rule till the arrival of Andals. This mountainous region is filled with tall peaks and fertile valleys. The two major houses that will rule till the arrival of Andals were Royce, also called the Bronze Kings and Griffin, also called griffin kings.

The land in the center of Westeros is the most disputed of all, no king is able to rule it for more than a few generations. This land is almost as fertile as the Reach on which the river Trident flows, named for its 3 tributaries, the blue fork, red fork and green fork which merges to form Trident River that flows into the Narrow Sea. This land for its river and streams is called the Riverlands. The only House to rule it for a long time is House Mudd who fought against Andals and fled North when they were overwhelmed by the Andals.

The lands north of Stormlands and northeast of Reach are disputed lands between Riverland and the Stormland, ruled by hundreds of petty kings. The archipelago west of Riverlands are ruled by savages called Ironborn and the islands as Iron Islands. They are pirates and slavers combined into one. The like to attack undefended towns and villages and loot, rape and pillage. They think themselves better than mainlander despite getting defeated on their own lands hundreds of times.