Cersei Lannister tried to warn Ned Stark right before he died in the first season of Game of Thrones: "When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die." That simple, iconic statement only became more complicated as the episodes rolled by and as the stakes ratcheted up. Through eight seasons of prestige television, medieval kings and queens made political plays; Jon Snow discovered some truths about his parentage; Daenerys seemed like she had learned how to govern and then burnt it all to a crisp. After the the last dragon in the world melted down the Iron Throne and Jon killed the second love of his life, a council of Lords and Ladies elected Bran the Broken as their King, exiling Jon Snow, the last Targaryen in the world, to the Night’s Watch.

Luckily, for those who felt the series ended without exploring all the narrative possibilities, Game of Thrones started as an adaptation of a series of novels by George R. R. Martin, and there are still two books left to be published. We haven’t caught up with the characters in Martin’s novels since A Dance With Dragons from 2011, so a lot of the end of TV’s Song of Ice and Fire could be relitigated in the upcoming text. David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, the Game of Thrones showrunners, were told the ending of the master arc of the series by Martin when they started, but have otherwise remained silent about what those specific details were when it comes to the ending. The show may be over, but the race to the Iron Throne still has a larger conclusion that needs to be reached.

Below are the players in the literary Game of Thrones world with the best chance at winning King’s Landing and control over the realm. Thanks to the scope of Martin’s sprawling epic, this list is far from complete. We highly suggest you read the novels yourself: You a lot of time to catch up before the series is completed.