Initially, reports claimed that the series would take place 10,000 years before the events of Game of Thrones. More recently, George R.R. Martin clarified that it would be "closer to 5,000 years." Even so, that's long before any of our beloved characters. Even Melisandre, who has managed to stay youthful thanks to powerful magic, is only 300 years old. We're going so far back, in fact, that we probably won't even meet ancestors of ancestors of ancestors of the likes of Cersei Lannister and Daenerys Targaryen.