, , . Over the almost seven years since wrapped up with what we’ll generously call an ending, several follow-up series set in the A Song of Ice and Fire universe have been announced or rumored—only to later be canceled or put on hold.

Aside from , a prequel chronicling the Targaryen succession war that erupted 170 years before Thrones, none of these titles had made it to air until now. On Jan. 18, HBO will debut the first episode of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, a spinoff co-created by showrunner Ira Parker (House of the Dragon, Better Things) and author George R. R. Martin that follows the adventures of hedge knight Ser Duncan “Dunk” the Tall (Peter Claffey) and his young, bald squire Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell).

Drawing from Martin’s beloved Tales of Dunk and Egg prequel novellas, the first season of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms follows Dunk across six episodes. When his mentor—Ser Arlan of Pennytree (Danny Webb), the knight Dunk grew up squiring for—dies of a chill on the way to a jousting tournament (before he could formally knight his humble apprentice), Dunk sees a chance to improve his lot. He’ll travel to Ashford Meadow, a rural gathering spot in Westeros’ Reach region, and pass himself off as a true knight to compete in the tourney. Along the way, he meets the wily, sharp-witted Egg and takes him on as a squire, forming an unlikely friendship between the two.

What Dunk doesn’t know is that 10-year-old Egg is actually Prince Aegon V Targaryen—the fifth child and fourth son of Prince Maekar Targaryen, and the youngest grandson of King Daeron II Targaryen. When we meet Egg, he’s disguised as a commoner. But he eventually goes on to unexpectedly inherit the Iron Throne, becoming known as “Aegon the Unlikely.”

The series is intended to be more lighthearted than its predecessors, focusing mainly on the lives of Westeros’ “smallfolk” rather than the ruling elite. “This doesn’t have any dragons or big battles,” Martin told the . “It has a field, a lot of tents and some horses.”

“At the end of the day, we’re Game of Thrones without all the extra stuff,” Parker added. “We have one of the key ingredients—two unusual characters like Arya and the Hound, or Brienne and Podrick—paired together and having conversations. I hope that’s what made Thrones work. It was a big part of what it was for me.”

As for where A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms fits into the Song of Ice and Fire universe, the show is set around 80 years after House of the Dragon and 90 years before Thrones—a relatively peaceful era when the Targaryens still ruled but dragons were long gone.

Season 1 closely follows the story of Martin’s first novella, The Hedge Knight, while Season 2—already greenlit—will adapt the second, The Sworn Sword. “The big issue is I’ve only written three novellas, but I have so many more Dunk and Egg stories in my f-cking head,” Martin told the Reporter about the show’s future. “I’ve got to get them down on paper.”