The book inspiration for Arya’s final journey in ‘Game of Thrones’

What’s west of Westeros? It’s the question that Arya Stark sets sail to answer in the Season 8 finale, to discover what lies beyond the edge of the world.

Many in the Game of Thrones universe have tried to cross the vast Sunset Sea in the hopes of being the first to complete that ambitious quest. None ever made it back alive with much of an answer, either not reaching very far west of Westeros before returning in defeat, or dying in the process, or mysteriously disappearing. 

Except, possibly, for one legendary badass highborn lady-turned-pirate named Elissa Farman, who parallels Arya in many ways. Recently introduced in George R.R. Martin’s Targaryen history book Fire and Blood, Elissa’s epic story, set a couple hundred years ago, can help us imagine where Arya’s journey could take her.

It could be more than just a fun thought experiment, too. We might actually get to see Arya’s quest play out one day. 

While there haven’t been any new announcements on the many Game of Thrones spinoffs currently in development, it’s not hard to see Arya’s arc as a perfect setup. Out of all the characters, Arya arguably received the most and best character development in Season 8. Her finale ending, sailing away from Westeros, would certainly bring us to never-before-seen places outside the main narrative.

Martin has confirmed that the planet of Game of Thrones is, indeed, round. So despite what most citizens believe, it isn’t just fiery pits of hell and nothingness awaiting whoever attempts to travel west of Westeros. 

And there’s no better candidate to prove them wrong than the woman who killed the existential threat that was the Night King. Not to mention that Arya mentioned wanting to brave this seemingly unconquerable quest back in Season 6, telling theater actress Lady Crane she’d like to see the edge of the world.

Also, another Stark famously attempted to do the same thousands of years before Arya. King Brandon the Shipwright was known for his love of the sea, leading him to attempt to cross the Sunset Sea — never to be seen again and leaving his tomb empty in the Winterfell crypts.

But back to the only person who’s come close to answering the question of what’s west of Westeros.

The bold, tomboyish, sea-loving Elissa Farman was a favorite of Princess Rhaena Targaryen, with heavy suggestion that the two were lovers, even after Elissa’s brother married Rhaena. But a falling out between her and Rhaena led Elissa to steal three dragon eggs (which, in all likelihood, became Daenerys’ eggs), only to sell them in Braavos and fund construction of Sun Chaser, a badass ship built specifically for long and difficult journeys.

Elissa always dreamed of sailing west to discover the strange and unknown lands never known to man before — which, again, was considered a laughable goal. Yet she made for a compelling enough captain to convince two other ships to join her daring journey beyond the edge of the world.

Changing her name to Alys Westhill, she set sail from Oldtown on Sun Chaser, with the Autumn Moon and the Lady Meredith beside her.

Soon after, harsh storms took down the Autumn Moon, possibly with the help of a kraken. But Sun Chaser and the Lady Meredith indeed managed to sail farther west than anyone ever had before, discovering three new islands which Captain Alys named Aegon, Visenya, and Rhaenys. 

Though Alys wanted to continue the journey, the Lady Meredith decided to take the new spices and goods discovered on the islands and turn back to Oldtown. So Sun Chaser’s whereabouts fell off the map, along with Captain Alys Westhill.

Decades later, though, a famed captain and friend to the Targaryen family reportedly spotted Sun Chaser in Asshai. And that’s huge. 

Asshai is on the easternmost edge of the known map. So the most logical explanation for Sun Chaser winding up there would be if it actually did made it past the edge of the world to the west, circumventing the globe to arrive on the other side of Essos.

The true fate of Alys Westhill remained ambiguous, though. We don’t know if she died during her travels, or settled down in Essos, or took on another identity. Why wouldn’t she tell the world of what she had discovered, if she really did make it west of Westeros? 

We’ll probably never know. But when it comes to guessing what she could’ve discovered, we can look to the real world parallels set up between our geography and Game of Thrones‘.

Obviously, Westeros shares heavy similarities to Western countries on the Eurasian continent.  Meanwhile, Essos bears a resemblance to the Eastern parts of the Eurasian continent. Sothoryos,  mentioned far less on the show, is equivalent to Africa.

Presumably, that would mean that the answer to what’s west of Westeros is something akin to the Americas.

We don’t know what kind of strange and magical anomalies would be part of a Game of Thrones version of the Americas. Martin does like to embed legends from each continent into the reality of his world’s equivalents, like the dragons in Westeros and Essos.

So maybe Arya wouldn’t be the first actual person to ever make it west of Westeros. But we wouldn’t put it past her to be the first to ever bring news back of her discoveries.