Game of Thrones season 8 is well underway and people are losing it. And artist Julio Lacerda is one of them. The 25-year-old fan of the show has decided to welcome the last episodes of his beloved series creatively, as well. The cartography enthusiast has created a Westeros map, and it’s so detailed, it’s a perfect representation of the complicated world George R. R. Martin has created.

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And you couldn’t think of a better man for this map drawing job. Julio has been an artist since he was little. Nowadays, he works as an illustrator, mostly drawing dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals for books, magazines, and museums, although he has a soft spot for fantasy and pop culture as well. “I found out about Game of Thrones when the show was in its second or third season,” Lacerda told Bored Panda. “It was starting to gather a big following, and even though none of my friends had been watching it yet, people were talking about it a lot on the internet. So, I decided to give it a chance and immediately fell in love with it.”

Julio is not only following the TV series, but he has also read the books. “As cliche as it sounds, I have to say that I prefer the literary version,” the map maker said. “The world that George R. R. Martin has built over the years is so incredibly detailed and well-thought-out; some aspects of it just have to be simplified or left out altogether for the TV adaptation. Also, working with such a huge audience, a [limited] budget and deadlines do the writing for the show a lot less rich and smart compared to the original. That said, I still like the show very much, and it did a great job of bringing the story to life.”

“I think what makes me like Game of Thrones so much is the fact that it’s one of the most complex stories I’ve seen, coupled with truly incredible worldbuilding,” Julio said. “At least in the books, every single person and Game of Thrones location mentioned have some background info presented at some point, and almost every action of the characters have a meaning or pay off later in the story. It’s a rabbit hole of trivia and theories that are hard to leave once you’ve jumped in!”

“I’ve always loved geography and cartography, and for the past year, I’ve been creating some fantasy maps of fictional countries myself. With season 8 airing, I felt inspired to try my hand at replicating this iconic map in a somewhat realistic way (as if it was seen from space), since most reconstructions of the maps in Game of Thrones go for either a simplified or traditional, vintage look.”

“Fortunately, the map of Westeros is fairly well-documented,” Julio concluded. “I cross-referenced several different sources, with special attention to the official The Lands of Ice and Fire maps. It took me around two days to create it; At first, I did the outline of the landmass, I then created a height map to represent the different altitudes and ran it through an erosion simulator, which gives the terrain this realistic look. Then I textured the image with the help of some aerial photographs from NASA and rendered it in a 3D software that interpreted the height I created to replicate lights and shadows. The final step was to add all the graphics and text.”

People noticed this map looks like Ireland and the UK combined

Image credits: kiro555

“Being from west Dublin it appears I live in a place called Crakehall just south of Lannister port.”

Image credits: kiro555

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