Westeros is presented as a realm whose royal concerns extend beyond its shores, while its place in the wider world remains open to question. The search for a missing princess and dragon carries the king’s attention east across the Narrow Sea; Elissa Farman, by contrast, looks west from Westeros toward lands she believes remain undiscovered.

A Realm Reaching Beyond Its Shores

Jaehaerys I treats the stolen dragon eggs as royal property wherever they may be found, declaring that the crown will demand their return even if the dragons have turned up as far away as Yi Ti. If that demand is refused, he is prepared to recover the dragons by force, or kill them if necessary. His resolve gives Westeros’s authority an ambitious reach: the distance from the realm to the far east does not, in his view, diminish the claim.

The search for Aerea and Balerion likewise turns outward. With no sightings of Balerion in Westeros, Septon Barth reasons that the princess may have flown east across the Narrow Sea into Essos. Agents and informers are redirected to find them, and reports arrive from along the sea. One particularly alarming account comes from the hills of Andalos, north of Pentos, where shepherds describe a creature killing whole flocks. Jaehaerys sends a party of twelve men across the water to investigate, though the lack of reports of fire leaves him doubtful that Balerion is responsible.

Between Known Lands and Unknown Worlds

Westeros occupies a place in arguments about the world’s shape and scale. Learned men accept that the world is spherical, but disagree over whether the Sunset Sea is too vast to cross or might be navigable by a sufficiently capable ship. A western route from Westeros toward Yi Ti and Leng is imagined as a possible passage to trade and riches, though its feasibility depends on how large the world is.

Elissa Farman’s ambition goes beyond the merchant’s hope of reaching known eastern lands by sailing west. She believes the world is larger and stranger than the maesters suppose, with other lands and seas lying between Westeros and the distant shores of Essos and Ulthos. Her imagined geography includes the possibility of another Westeros: not a claim that such a land has been found, but an expression of how little the known map may contain. In her vision, Westeros is both a point of departure and one of several possible worlds awaiting discovery.

Westeros as a Point of Departure

The passages place Westeros within a wider network of seas, routes, and uncertain reports rather than defining its borders or regions. From the king’s perspective, the realm’s interests can follow stolen property across the Narrow Sea; from Elissa’s, its western shore opens onto a still-unmapped expanse. These contrasting movements—an eastward royal search and a westward voyage of discovery—make Westeros the fixed point from which the known world reaches outward, but not the measure of all that may exist.