Must all men die? Game of Thrones study gives surprising survival tip

“Valar Morghulis." For those whose High Valyrian language skills are a bit rusty, this nugget of gnomic wisdom roughly translates as “All men must die.”

The foreboding motto, first imparted by sly Jaqen H’ghar in Game of Thrones’ (GoT) second season, turns out to be a pretty spot on prophecy.

Over the course of the show’s seven seasons, a whopping 174,373 characters have met their maker. And with the show’s eighth and final season airing in 2019, this number is only set to increase.

The Game of Thrones universe - first created as a book series by George R. R. Martin in the late nineties - is a treacherous place to dwell. Its inhabitants are at constant threat of death by fire, water, poison, arrow, sword, or even wild animal attacks, with high status, intelligence, and good looks providing little protection.

The show has become so synonymous with death that an illustrated encyclopaedia of all the show’s grisly deaths was published by The Washington Post to provide a reference point for those who simply couldn’t keep up with who stabbed who in the heart at whose wedding.

Though mortality rates in all seven kingdoms are eye-watering, there does seem to be one trick to staying alive - and it’s not what you might expect. Forget mastering weaponry, avoiding goblets poured by strangers, and keeping your enemies close: according to a new study by researchers from Macquarie University in Australia, the most fatal thing you can do in Westeros is be loyal.

This might sound counter-intuitive, but after evaluating the deaths of all important GoT characters, researchers found that characters were far more likely to survive if they switched allegiances: wily Tyrion Lannister, who switches between the houses Lannister and Targaryen, has the right idea.

The study also unearthed some morbid statistics: the most common causes of death in GoT are wounds of the head and neck, including 13 decapitations. Only two characters have been lucky enough to die of natural causes so far: Maester Aemon and Old Nan.

The next biggest killers were burns (11.8 per cent) and poisonings (4.8 per cent), with the most common circumstances of deaths being assault (63.0 per cent), operations of war (24.4 per cent) and legal executions (5.4 per cent).

Dr Reidar Lystad, injury epidemiologist at the Australian Institute of Health Innovation and author of the study, commented: "While these findings may not be surprising for regular viewers, we have identified several factors that may be associated with better or worse survival, which may help us to speculate about who will prevail in the final season."