Location from A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin
The main artery of Westeros — a thousand miles of rutted road running from King's Landing to the Wall, where every traveler is a potential encounter and safety is measured in the size of your escort.
The Kingsroad is where the story of Westeros happens in transit — it's the connective tissue between the great castles, and the place where characters from different worlds collide. Robert Baratheon rode north on this road to ask Ned Stark to be his Hand, and the journey back south set in motion every catastrophe that followed. The road passes through the Neck — the marshy bottleneck controlled by Howland Reed and his crannogmen — and continues past Moat Cailin, the ancient fortress that guards the only dry land route between North and South. Travel on the Kingsroad is never safe. Outlaws prey on merchants, wolves stalk the tree line, and in wartime the road becomes a gauntlet of checkpoints and ambushes. The Brotherhood Without Banners operates along its length, and the Hound and Arya spent weeks moving parallel to it, close enough to use but too exposed to travel directly. The Kingsroad is a promise of connection in a kingdom that's tearing itself apart.
A wide dirt road, occasionally paved near major cities, cutting north through forests, across rivers, and over moors. Inns and holdfasts dot its length at irregular intervals. In summer it's mud and dust; in winter it vanishes under snow for months. Milestones mark the distance to King's Landing.
Also known as: the Kingsroad, the King's Road, the main road