The Rise of The Dragon artist imagines what House Martin would look like

George R. R. Martin has fathered one of the most beloved fantastical realms of all time, full of characters and creatures that have truly enamored the readers of his books and the viewers of his shows. Martin recently revealed an interesting tidbit about Game of Thrones, and the story’s foundations were being laid even when he was younger, inspired by his pet turtles.

A Song of Ice & Fire artist turns George R.R. Martin’s earliest inspiration into a house

Ertaç Altinöz, who was the illustrator on George R. R. Martin’s recent release The Rise of the Dragon, shared a picture on Instagram depicting a sigil for House Martin. The sigil consists of 3 pet turtles, and the motto: “Deadline, What Deadline?”

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A post shared by Ertaç Altınöz (@ertacaltinoz)

How did George R. R. Martin’s pet turtles inspire him to write Game of Thrones?

In an interview with Kevin Smith, Martin talked about his fond memories from his childhood. He recalled, “We lived in a project, since we didn’t have much money. We lived in a federal housing project on First Street in Bayonne. And you were not allowed to have dogs or cats in the projects. But of course, I was a kid and I wanted a pet, so I got turtles. Dime store turtles that you bought at Woolworths or Kresge and they came in these little plastic bowls that were half water and half gravel with a fake palm tree in the middle.”

“Sometimes one of them escaped, turned up 6 months later all shriveled up under a refrigerator. I was very upset that my turtles kept dying. And I wondered why they kept dying I was giving them everything, food and water. So I decided they were killing each other to compete for the turtle throne. So the first Game of Thrones was all about turtles. Killing each other and stabbing each other and I started writing stories about that. So Turtle Castle is a precursor that I may return to one of these days.”

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