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  ==Maps==
   Slaver's Bay, Valyria, and Sothoryos
  ''A Game of Thrones'', the first installment of the ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' series, has two maps of Westeros. Each new book has added one or two maps so that, as of ''A Dance with Dragons'', seven maps of the fictional world are available in the books. Martin said in 2003 that complete world maps were not made available so that readers may better identify with people of the real Middle Ages who were uneducated about distant places. He also did not "subscribe to the theory put forth in ''The Tough Guide To Fantasyland'' ... that eventually the characters must visit every place shown on The Map." He conceded, however, that readers may be able to piece together a world map by the end of the series. He was intentionally vague about the size of the ''Ice and Fire'' world, omitting a scale on the maps to discourage prediction of travel lengths based on measured distances. A new map artist was used in ''A Dance with Dragons'' so that the maps are available in two versions by James Sinclair and Jeffrey L. Ward, depending on the book. The old maps were redone to match the style of the new ones.
  A set of foldout maps was published on October 30, 2012 as ''The Lands of Ice and Fire'' (). The illustrator and cartographer Jonathan Roberts drew the maps, based on drafts by Martin. The twelve maps in the set are entitled "The Known World", "The West", "Central Essos", "The East", "Westeros", "Beyond The Wall", "The Free Cities", "Slaver's Bay", "The Dothraki Sea", "King's Landing", "Braavos", and "Journeys". The latter tracks the paths taken by the novels' characters.