George R.R. Martin Explains Inspiration For Faith Militant; Still Mum On 'Winds Of Winter' Release Date

There has been a lot of speculation on the Faith Militant, which managed to imprison even the Queen Mother Cersei Lannister in episode 7 of "Game of Thrones" season 5. George R.R. Martin explained the source of the Sparrows with the "Winds of Winter" release date still in limbo.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, George R.R. Martin said the inspiration behind the Faith Militant came from medieval Catholic Church history.

"If you look at the history of the church in the Middle Ages, you had periods where you had very worldly and corrupt popes and bishopsm," he said. "People who were not spiritual, but were politicians. They were playing their own version of the game of thrones, and they were in bed with the kings and the lords."

"But you also had periods of religious revival or reform-the greatest of them being the Protestant Reformation, which led to the splitting of the church-where there were two or three rival popes each denouncing the other as legitimate," the author said.

That's also what's happening in "Game of Thrones" season 5 when the Faith Militant's vision can be likened to the Protestant Reformation as the High Sparrow is bent on bringing back the faith "destroyed centuries ago by the Targayens."

The "A Song of Ice and Fire" forum speculated that the Faith Militant is working with Varys which is why it suddenly grew powerful even before Cersei wrongly armed it to bring down Margaery Tyrell down a notch out of fear that she's already controlling King Tommen.

With the "Winds of Winter" release date still in limbo, George R.R. Martin wrote in his blog that the "Game of Thrones" is bound to take a different route that what he envisioned in the novels but that's okay.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, George R. R. Martin claimed that he wanted to announce the "Winds of Winter" release date before the "Game of Thrones" season 6 is aired, possibly next year.