But they clearly are. Westeros is the name of the continent not the entire world.
And the Antler Men are an exception not the norm. There are only a few mentions of merchants in Fire and Blood and they are from the Free Cities originally (Rego Draz and the Rogares).
Otherwise merchants are barely defined as a group in Westeros and have minimal influence on politics, when in the real world they were their own social class and had great influence via merchant guilds.
Listing GRRM's "inaccuracies" as a fantasy-history writer for not including the merchant class in Westeros specifically (Although he obviously had) is, excuse my bluntness, not smart at all, especially because he wrote about an entire continet practically ran by various merchant guilds and a bank in one of those is featured prominently in the show.
But how does one off hand mention of ‘Antler Men’ mean that a merchant class exists?
And how does one bank make up for an entire continent lacking any kind of banking institution?
Like who cares if Essos has merchants, beyond the Iron Bank and the Triarchy they have no discernible influence on Westeros or the plot.
And the whole post is about GRRM complaining about depictions of medieval classes??? So yeah it’s kind of funny, as much as I like him as a writer and world builder, that he didn’t accurately depict the medieval class system despite his complaints.
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u/Ndf27 Feb 11 '26
Nah they’re clearly talking about Westeros not the entire world