Yep, and the ones that were there generally wouldn't have been residents or citizens, but travelers and merchants just passing through. I imagine most places in the world were in a fairly similar boat as the modern rural Chinese peasantry. When a foreign tourist wanders through their areas, they catch pretty much non-stop gawking from the locals who are astonished to see a non-Han wandering around. And I'm pretty sure rural China sees more foreigners these days (in the form of tourists) than a lot of major medieval trade cities would have eight or nine hundred years ago. Outside of major entrepot cities like Constantinople, which sat more-or-less on the border between major ethnic blocs, or World-renowned seaport cities like Venice, it still would have been pretty damn rare.

And as for the Poland example, I doubt many Arab, African, or East Asian traders made it to Krakow, if only because there wasn't much reason to when they could dump their goods somewhere like Constantinople and have Byzantine, Radhanite or Norse caravans move the stuff from there. And even the ones who wanted to cut out the middleman and go all the way themselves would likely show up sometime in the summer, take their goods to market, and be gone before autumn, with 95+% of the Polish people having never laid eyes on them.

 

You would be surprised...

 

First episode date: January 1, 2022
Executive producer: Vince Gerardis
Based on: Fire & Blood; by George R. R. Martin
Composer: Ramin Djawadi
Created by: Ryan Condal; George R. R. Martin

Waiting for this, we have to wait a few months until the first episode is released.

 

The first teaser for the series.

It's fine I suppose. Since the ending isn't a mystery, it will be all about characters and the actors playing them and it's not enough to tell anything about it. What I'm unsure about is how the more casual fans will react to not having clear positive characters. There is no Jon Snow or even Dany, until her end, for them to get behind. Heck, you don't even have someone like Walter White who starts goodish and turns villain. It's more like Succession where everybody is horrible since the beginning to each other and while it has its fans, it's not exactly a hit that HBO wants this to be.

 

Meh.

At this point, I'm just looking forward to Matt Smith bodying everyone else with his acting ability. Man may look like a foot but goddamn is he sklled.

 

Yeah, the credibility of Matt Smith as an actor is what makes me willing to give this show some good faith in spite of the ending of GOT. He absolutely smashed Prince Philip in The Crown.

That said, there's always the possibility that Smith is finally selling out and just cashing in on some HBO $$$.

 

Season 1 does not begin with Viserys' death. The show-makers are at least trying to portray Rhaenyra in a sympathetic light.