Thomas Edison once famously quipped that genius was one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration. It was a statement acknowledging the blood, sweat and tears that  away from the prying eyes of the public - are channelled into the great works of our time - whether theyre technological innovations, or supreme works of art. When the audience observes the final artefact, its easy to forget these labours of love were often wrought through years of trial and tribulation, the end result of personal battles and gnawing doubts in the mind of the creator. George R R Martin, the man who painstakingly forged the Middle-Earth of our era from his own dreams of ice and fire, harboured his own personal uncertainties with Westeros, the setting for the HBO series Game of Thrones, based on his book series A Song Of Ice & Fire. A document was recently leaked (and confirmed to be authentic) that shows GRRMs original vision for the books on which the HBO series is based. Whilst the underlying narrative thrust between the original plan and the finished product is largely similar, there are some key differences that would have resulted in monumental changes to the series as fans know it. The original set of novels was conceived as a trilogy, with GRRM citing the central premise as being the enmity between the great houses of Lannister and Stark, played out in a cycle of plot, counterplot, ambition, murder, and revenge, with the iron throne of the Seven Kingdoms as the ultimate prize. This article delves into how different the world of Game of Thrones would have been if GRRM had maintained the course he originally plotted in his plan to the publisher back in 1992  as well as seeking to understand why he made these changes.