Hi, new reader here, your website is a godsend! Do you think the first and third estate (especially bourgeoisie) seem a little underdeveloped for plot or simplicity purposes? We don’t really see any “guilds” beyond the antler men and you’d think Dorne would have build some cities on the Greenblood since they don’t have fertile land (a la Egypt or Persia), right? Plus does the history of the faith make any sense at all? A highly centralized religion that develops its lead figure in just one realm

out of the blue? There doesn’t seem to be any organizational history in Essos (or crusade like endeavors for that matter) and some how none of the other kingdoms build up their own puppet religious head or organization. Wouldn’t it make more sense for them to each have a religious head competing for primacy, with unification occurring only under the Targaryens?

Hi, glad you like it!

As for the first estate, the organizational theory is not the part that I find odd. The Seven was the religion of the (at the time nomadic) Andals who underwent a mass migration under pressure from Valyrian expansion, so they wouldn’t leave behind any organizational structure, but they did when they put down roots. The part I do find odd is only partly the centralization, it’s more where the centralization happened – why down in the Reach in Oldtown and not in the Vale, where the Faith had been longest, or the Riverlands where there was the most religious conflict? And I do think there would have been some competition for prestige between the different kingdoms.

As for the third, I don’t think you’re right. We’ve got the guild of smiths in King’s Landing, and if they’re organized it’s likely that the other trades are – we know there’s a merchant’s guild in King’s Landing that Cersei deals with and we know there are multiple guildhalls in the city, we have the Guild of Alchemists in King’s Landing, Oldtown has an entire district where “west of the Honeywine, the Guildhalls lined the bank like a row of palaces,” there’s the Guild of Spicers in Qarth, the Ghiscari freeborn are guilded up the wazoo, the Braavosi have guilds and guildhalls, etc.