But there’s a caveat for GoT characters that doesn’t apply to many other shows, which is that each actor must look completely makeup-free — even in the most unforgiving of HD settings. The plot of the series loosely parallels the real-life War of the Roses, a series of wars that went down between two rival branches of the royal House of Plantagenet as they fought for control of the throne of England. Based on that estimate, Game of Thrones would have taken place in the mid- to late 1400s, had there been dragons and White Walkers at that time. The first recorded skin-care brand, Yardley London , was not founded for another 300 years, in 1770.