Meet the “Mad Monks” from Game of Thrones that you never knew existed

Entertainment Weekly has presented some fantastic Game of Thrones articles and spreads over the past few weeks. We’ve seen EW roll out the 4-part collector’s edition magazines, reveal that one actor was majorly surprised when he or she found out they were dying in Season 5, and spend “Two Hundred and Forty Hours in Westeros.”

So, thanks to EW, you think you’ve seen it all, right? Wrong. Because as it turns out, there is much, much more that has yet to be revealed, including the idea that there is a monk, or rather a group of “Mad Monks” who’ve taken on the daunting task of crafting the map of Westeros and Essos that’s used in the Game of Thrones opening sequence.

Apparently there is an entire back-story to the opening credits, something that I had never thought about, devout fan that I am. Recounting Game of Thrones title designer Angus Wall’s original pitch for the Game of Thrones title sequence, producer Greg Spence revealed the story behind the title sequence to EW.

“Imagine that somewhere in Westeros, there’s a mad monk in a tower who actually has created a map of the world. He keeps track of where everything is happening and what’s going on on that map. We don’t know who or where this little odd person is who makes all these little automatons, but there’s a very Leonardo da Vinci thing to the original concept. It’s a weird little working machine.”

See? I told you that you hadn’t heard it all. Angus Wall talked even further, about how he and his design team at Elastic design studio, created the idea of the monk, to help with some of the more tricky titles.

“I always have to invent a story behind stuff. The story we talked about was this group of mad monks who built this model of the universe that was constantly updating, almost like a very elaborate Risk board game.”

Okay, I can get behind that. I love Risk! The idea that the monks would periodically meet to discuss the ever-changing landscape of Westeros is just brilliant. Kirk Shintani, Elastic’s Head of CG, talked about how these theoretical monks would even craft a map like the one from the Game of Thrones opening sequence.

“It defined our language. That idea carried over into, well, if these monks were actually building this stuff, what would they have to actually build it? So we tried to stay away from modern technology and wanted to ground it. That was a way for us to make sure we were on point with our design.”

So these monks are pretty much the equivalent of the Underpants Gnomes from South Park? I’m sorry, I couldn’t resist.

• Phase 1: Create Winterfell out of gears and Popsicle sticks.
• Phase 2: ?
• Phase 3: Profit.

EW notes, in the article, how the map is made of cloth, which I must admit I never thought of. The pop-up cities are crafted from wood, which would be something that these monks would have readily available. And the clockwork locations on the map are also crafted from materials that these monks would have. Here, watch the Game of Thrones opening sequence, and tell me if you see it in a new light.

• Published on 04/05/2015 at 12:14 PM CDT
• Last updated on 04/06/2015 at 7:57 PM CDT