Stories From The 'Game Of Thrones' Extended Universe That Are WAY Too Intense For Television

When Missandei tells Davos in Season 7 that she's from the southern island of Naath, he mentions the island's butterflies. This makes it seem like Naath is a peaceful tropical paradise. This is horribly, utterly wrong.

According to lore, any non-native who stays on Naath for longer than a few hours succumbs to "butterfly fever." It sounds kind of delightful, like a disease a kitten would get, but it's actually a pathogen carried by Naath butterflies that causes you to sweat blood and shed all of your flesh until you die. It's the only reason Naath remains unconquerable. 

If Game of Thrones were set on Sothoryos – a mysterious continent to the south of Westeros and Essos – the series would be over in one episode. Between the countless diseases, enormous crocodiles, giant piranhas, basilisks twice the size of lions, parasitic worms, velociraptors (!), gargantuan bird/dragon hybrids, and cannibalistic Neanderthal-like natives, everyone would basically only have time to make out once and die. 

Considering the continent is basically like the show 1000 Ways to Die – but with all 1000 things happening at the same time – it's unsurprising most of its inhabitants bounced a long time ago, only leaving behind mysterious ruins. 

Understanding Melisandre's homeland of Asshai-by-the-Shadow shines some light on why she's such a huge bummer. This gloomy Essos city – built entirely of pitch black stone – is devoid of markets, taverns, and joy in general. There are also no children anywhere, which means that everyone is either asexual, infertile, or eating babies as soon as they're produced.

What really makes Asshai a realtor's worst nightmare, however, is the lack of potable water. The population of Asshai – which consists of taciturn sorcerers, necromancers, and other weirdos – has to rely solely on trade in order to acquire fresh drinking water. All of the water in Asshai itself is toxic, and full of hideously deformed fish. 

In the far, far east, past a body of water called Leviathan Sound, there is an archipelago called The Thousand Islands. The women there are green, bald, and have mouths of filed, pointy teeth. If the parallels to the Wicked Witch of the West aren't already strong enough, they're also terrified of water.

The women of The Thousand Islands are incredibly savage. Seemingly frustrated by the fact no one can understand their alien language, they regularly sacrifice friendly, innocent sailors to a hideous, fish-headed god. 

Far past Meereen and Qarth, in the southeastern regions of Essos, there lies the verdant isle of Leng. The men and women of Leng are all beautiful, seven feet tall, and with skin the colored of "oiled teak." They'll also totally kill you, as will the isle's truly giant "great apes," which are so strong that they can "pull the arms and legs off a man as easily as a boy might pull the wings off a fly." Basically, visiting Leng is like going on a vacation where everything is tall and hates you. 

As if the White Walkers weren't horrifying enough, the undead rode on massive ice spiders during the Long Night. According to Sam Tarly's thoughts, they love blood, too. Great:

The horn blew thrice long, three long blasts means Others. The white walkers of the wood, the cold shadows, the monsters of the tales that made him squeak and tremble as a boy, riding their giant ice-spiders, hungry for blood.