What's the ball of light in HBO's Game of Thrones intro?

Angus Wall, Creative Director at Elastic (the company that created the intro) describes it as an "Astrolabe"

It was by and large the same people that I've worked with before, which
is nice. They were very, very supportive of what we were doing. One of
the things that came out of our conversations were the bands on the
astrolabe — they’re the bands that surround the sun. We show three
close-ups of those bands that tell the pre-history of the world in
relief-sculpture form. They tell about dragons attacking Westeros.
They tell about how the different houses on Westeros got together and
defeated those dragons, and how those houses, represented by their
respective animals, bowed in allegiance to the Baretheon stag.

You can view a concept picture here;

and the "final render" here;

star wars - Why does the separatist army not use more non-droid soldiers?

In universe you do see other species fighting for the CIS in the clone wars, but just in their homeworlds: Genosians and Umbarans are the two who come to mind. However, from a logistical standpoint why use the combined droid armies of the different members of the CIS (the Trade Federation, the Intergalactic Banking Clan, the Techno Union) who are designed for almost any environment, already trained, quick to manufacture, and require very little for support. An army of citizens would require training, weapons, armor, food, and lodging.

Also, you're missing the entire point of the separatist army: It's there to distract the Jedi, create an army for the republic, and make it easy for Sidious to take over. In the final scenes of the war Sidious orders Vader to have the droids shut down after executing the CIS leaders who were assembled on Mustafar. A non-droid army would have made the Republic -> Empire transition much harder and Tyranus or Sidious didn't want to deal with quelling those planets (who would have had an army) PLUS the rebellion planets.

story identification - Looking for a novel about extreme climate variations

I am guessing you are hearkening back to the Helliconia Trilogy: Helliconia Spring, Helliconia Summer and Helliconia Winter. Per Wikipedia:

The Helliconia Trilogy is a series of science fiction books by Brian Aldiss, set on the Earth-like planet Helliconia. It is an epic chronicling the rise and fall of a civilisation over more than a thousand years as the planet progresses through its incredibly long seasons, which last for centuries.

Although perhaps the geography indicates otherwise:

Helliconia is 1.28 Earth masses in size, making it somewhat larger than Earth and with a bigger axial tilt of 35 degrees. This means that small year seasons are harsher but the planet still has huge polar ice caps, capable of surviving even the great summer, and the human-habitable surface area is comparable to that of Earth.

There are three continents, a tropical continent (Campannlat), a northern continent (Sibornal) and a southern continent (Hespagorat). "Helliconia Spring" and "Helliconia Summer" mainly take place in Campannlat, with its rich vitality, and "Helliconia Winter" focuses on Sibornal, where the harsher environment encourages technological progress. The southern continent features only briefly in the books.

game of thrones - Tywin's history lesson in Season 4, Episode 3

In the most recent episode (Season 4x3), there is a chilling scene with Tywin, Cersei, and

soon to be King Tommen.

Tywin gives a history lesson and talks about the three rulers that lacked wisdom. They were Baelor who was holy, the last was Robert who was strong, but the second one he mentions I am unfamiliar with. His name was either Orys or Horace and Tywin talked about him being just but it didn't stop him from being murdered in his sleep by his brother. I do not remember anything like this from the books so I am wondering which king Tywin is speaking about. Perhaps Orys Baratheon who was Aegon's bastard brother but I don't remember anything about him being murdered.

story identification - Please Help identify a book featuring a robot, trolls, Merlin and stonehenge?

This sounds like the kids' book Sir Machinery where a wealthy hippy inventor type (American?) and his robot move to an old Scottish castle. A local crew of fairy creatures mistake the robot for a heralded knight (vague memories of a line about the fairies reading the robot's box like "MAC... HINERY. A fine Scottish name, although I've never heard of the clan." Arr arr arr.), and proceed to drag him and his owner into adventures in a magical world where trolls present an existential threat to the world, and Excalibur and Merlin figure prominently. I read it over 30 years ago, so can't quite recall Stonehenge, but that sounds right in line. The book cover is below.

lord of the rings - Is there any canonical reference to the fate of the Blue Wizards: Alatar and Pallando?

In a letter written during the writing of The Unfinished Tales, in which Tolkien first named Alatar and Pallando, also called Morinehtar and Rómestámo, he wrote concerning them:

I think they went as emissaries to distant regions, East and South,
far out of Numenorean range: missionaries to enemy-occupied lands, as
it were. What success they had I do not know; but I fear that they
failed, as Saruman did, though doubtless in different ways; and I
suspect they were founders or beginners of secret cults and 'magic'
traditions that outlasted the fall of Sauron.

However, in The Peoples of Middle Earth, written by Tolkien in the last years of his life, he said that the Blue Wizards had succeeded in turning the tides of conflict in the East during the Second and Third Ages. Whether this is a revision of what he previously wrote, or whether they were initially successful and then fell, is not known.

The quote from The Peoples of Middle Earth is as follows:

The other two are only known to (have) exist(ed) [sic] by Saruman,
Gandalf, and Radagast, and Saruman in his wrath mentioning five was
letting out a piece of private information.

The 'other two' came much earlier, at the same time probably as
Glorfindel, when matters became very dangerous in the Second Age.
Glorfindel was sent to aid Elrond and was (though not yet said)
pre-eminent in the war in Eriador. But the other two Istari were sent
for a different purpose. Morinehtar and Rómestámo. Darkness-slayer and
East-helper. Their task was to circumvent Sauron: to bring help to the
few tribes of Men that had rebelled from Melkor-worship, to stir up
rebellion ... and after his first fall to search out his hiding (in
which they failed) and to cause [? dissension and disarray] among the
dark East ... They must have had very great influence on the history
of the Second Age and Third Age in weakening and disarraying the
forces of East ... who would both in the Second Age and Third Age
otherwise have ... outnumbered the West.

star trek - Do we ever learn what the Prophets did to the Dominion Fleet?

We don't know, nor is it ever stated within the main canon (TV, Films) what happened to the Jem'Hadar fleet.

The script notes state:

The approaching Dominion reinforcement fleet has begun to be hit by
some sort of strange energy jolts that crackles from ship to ship. And
as we watch, the ships seem to vanish until the entire fleet has
disappeared.

...

GARAK: Then where did they go?

Sisko begins to understand what the wormhole aliens have done.

SISKO: Wherever they went, I don't think they're coming back.

And that's literally your lot.

---

Moving down the canon scale, the fleet reappears in the future in the Star Trek Online mission "The 2800", later retitled as the "Cardassian Struggle".

In this mission, The Dominion fleet suddenly materialises around 40 years into the future and proceeds to board DS9 and take the crew hostage. It's up to you, the player to liberate that crew with the minimal loss of life.