Redditor compiles info on 1599 A Song of Ice and Fire characters in epic spreadsheet

In an act that should lead us all to question how dedicated we really are to George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series, Redditor Confused_Shelf spent the past two-and-a-half years creating an incredibly thorough spreadsheet that compiles information about well over a thousand characters from the novels into one easily readable spreadsheet. Stare ye into the face of madness/unending delight.

Intimidating as it looks, the spreadsheet is actually fun and easy to read. Confused_Shelf lists not only characters’ names (including nicknames, of which there are a lot) and houses, but also their house sigils, occupations, relations to other characters, and their ultimate fate. We don’t need to tell you this, but a lot of people die in this series.

Confused-Shelf talked a little about his criteria:

"I only add named characters. For example “Lord Somebody and his wife came to dinner.” That is only one character as far as the spreadsheet is concerned. His wife is descriptive text about him (he has a wife). “Lord and Lady Somebody came to dinner.” That is now two characters. My reasoning for this is that there are so many “and they had two daughters” or “his brothers” that it would be impossible to keep track of who’s who. Additionally, characters known only by their occupation are not on the list for similar reasons. For example “the captain of Boaty McBoatface came aboard” does not count as a character, even if he has dialogue. That means there are a couple prominent people missing (namely, the High Septons) from the list. Characters known only by their nicknames are added too. I see no reason to omit them. For that reason the High Sparrow is the only High Septon that makes the list. Gods are not included, are they the same god with different names? Who knows? Named animals (like the dragons and direwolves) are on the list."

As huge as it is, this chart only covers characters who have appeared through the fourth book of the series, A Feast For Crows. Perhaps we have uncovered the real reason Martin completes the books at a snail’s pace—coming up with names (and nicknames, and occupations, and histories) for 1600 people must take time. Some have complained that Game of Thrones has too many characters to keep track of, but clearly, the show has nothing on the novels. Season 6 began with roughly 50 named characters on screen, and ended with 37. Quite the difference from the books!

For the super-fans out there, the spreadsheet goes into the kind of exhaustive detail only you can appreciate. Always forgetting the names of the archmaesters of the Citadel? The spreadsheet has you covered. Or what about all the names of the Kings in the North long before Robb (or Jon) held the title? Have no fear: that information is here. We can’t thank Confused_Shelf for all the fun we will have with this! Head here to check it out!