Synopsis: After the Long Night, Brandon the Builder stayed in the North, but what if, in a mood-swing that would forever be remembered, he decided that, truly, the neighbor had greened grass and moved South, and why not give a deserved payment to the Reach in the process? - This is the story of what happened after that, an ASOIAF AU were the North is in the Reach, and maybe vice-versa
Rating: M because I can't say if I wrote something more mature and gory or softer
Fandoms: A Song of Ice and Fire, I can write some character of the series but can't say is a crossover
Pairings: Not tough, but I'm a big fan of Jon/Daenerys, Arya/Edric Dayne/Gendry, Robb/Harem (he deserves it, the boy suffered enough already), Shireen/Edric Storm, Bran/Jojen and Rickon/Lyanna Mormont
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Disclaimer: ASOIAF is not mine, period. Initial idea also can be considered it, look in Author's Note
Author's Note: I started writing this story inspired by AsherStark's inital idea posted in the Miscellaneous ASOIAF Thread VIII in , but if he want's to take a different pat, is his story, and who am I to judge? (also, if Ineeded to ask his permition first, please say something, I would fell a shit for it, and probably will suffer some punishment or something like that, I'm kinda new in publishing on ) This story in particullar will by many time shamelles Stark-Wank, and will probably need two to five chapters to reach closer to the books time (probably five, is to fun to write this).
If you see some error that I did, tell me.
Besides that, please, enjoy.
EDIT (2/13/2019): Due to don't thinking, I decided to read my already written chapters and ended up seeing a bunch of places where I tough there would be better ways to write (or more than it, writing errors, my most hated foe), so I made some mild edits
After the Long Night ended, and the Wall was built, Brandon the Builder, the forefather of House Stark and the first and sole King of Winter, wasn't so happy with the southern lords of the First Men for not helping him or the North in saving all of them from the Others, so, in a move of daring and levels never heard again, he made an agreement with the Children of the Forest and the Giant, and traveled across the Neck and the Riverlands, invading the Reach and being followed by most of the northern lords and petty kings of the North, who allied themselves with him.
It was him who leaded an army of men, hardened and strong warriors, giants, whit their claves and size, and children of the forest, with their greenseers and magic, to the green lands of the Reach, intending to conquer the land to them, and being legitimized by his descent of Garth Greenhand by his son, Brandon of the Bloody Blade.
Some did not follow him, with the Marsh Magnars of House Reed deciding for staying on their homes and crannogs on the marshlands and swamps of the Neck, already green and livable enough to them, while the Skagosi simply denied accompanying Brandon for the simple reason of connection to their land, even with all its harshness, and others decided to stop in the middle of the journey, with the Raven Kings of House Blackwood simply stopping on the north of the Riverlands and deciding for settle their people and vassals on the region north of the Red Fork of the Trident and directly to the west of the domains of House Bracken, with the main part of their new realm being named after them as the Blackwood Vale.
The lords and kings of the Reach were taken by surprise and didn't even had time to put a real fight, and, by the time the King Garren II Gardener united them in a war against their invaders, Brandon and his men and allies already had set foot on controlling more than a half of the region, with many lords big and small fleeing to the sea with their people while some others decided to bent the knee and accept their new overlords, some of those who choose to stay were the Tarly of Horn Hill, the Beesbury of Honeyholt, the Costayne of Three Towers, the Merryweather of Longtable, the Fossoway of Cider Hall, the Ashford of Ashford and the Crane of Red Lake.
In the end, seeing how they couldn't put a fight in their own homeland, the Reachmen tried to give back by attacking the North directly, only to find the region almost entirely unpopulated, since Brandon and his allies, in another daring and insane move, used the magic of the Children of the Forest to move their own people of the North to the Reach with them, planning to colonize it now that many of its inhabitants had flew with their lords.
Upon the revelation that their foes lands were now almost completely devoid of people, the Gardener Kings and their colleagues in the new status of exiled royalty, decided to simply colonize the now mostly unpopulated land, settling their people in the now abandoned castles and cities while killing or absorbing the remaining locals, while in the Reach, similar things happened, with the remaining locals being killed or absorbed by the northerners, who started to settle in their new lands.
After years of moving and many changes, the Reach was finally settled by their new inhabitants, with the major kingdom being the realm of the Starks, who established their new seat in the smothering ruins of Highgarden (not that the Gardeners didn't did the same with their new seat, located were old Winterfell was) and crowned themselves Kings of Spring (a title who, with time, would be changed to Kings in the Reach, and after that Kings in the South), while their allies broke off and restored their old petty realms, the Bolton with their new home in Dreadoak, were Old Oak was located, the Dustin in their new city were Goldengrove once was, the Umber with their fortress of Bright Heart were Brightwater Keep stood, and the Rayders (the now extinct forefathers of House Ryswell) founding a personal domain within the northern parts of the Mander, naming it Breakstone Hill.
Other houses who also became important in this new Reach were House Woodfoot, who became the Kings of the Misty Islands (until they would be put to sword when the Ironborn conquered the isles five hundred years later), House Flint, who became one of the many petty kings of the Red Mountains, and House Hornwood of the Hornwood, who, while not styled themselves as kings, ruled over a good part of the northwestern coast of the Reach, even if they answered House Stark as their liege lords.
All of them were powerful, but also all of them knew that, independent of all wealth or power they gained, the Starks would always be the main and most powerful, because all the houses that now lived in the Reach owed to them the fact that now they lived and ruled over the most fertile lands in all Westeros, and even the most brutal kings would never go full frontal against the wolves of Winterfell.
And during the centuries that followed, the Starks only expanded their power over the Reach, slowly but surely annexing by the ways of war, diplomacy or marriages all the petty kings and lords that made the Reach, making them vassals of the Weirwood Throne on Winterfell and part of an realm that, by the time when the first Andals landed on the shores of the Fingers, could boldly and proudly declare itself as being the biggest in all of Westeros.
While that happened, the Gardener Kings on the North, who styled themselves as "the Kings of the Cold and of all the North", became almost extinct from time to time, fighting hard to maintain their realm, threatened bot by being on the center of the region and for the bitter resentment that many houses, who in times prior revered and respected them, held for them due to their ineptitude to defend their homeland on the Reach, creating hundreds of great and petty kingdoms and fiefdoms that broke all ties to the Oakenseat and didn't even wanted to remember their kinship by Garth Greenhand.
Of all those houses and dynasties, no other made bigger threats to their rule than three, the Hightowers, who lost their old domains and founded a new city, called of "Newtown" in an unoriginal manner, made of seastone at the mouth of the White Knife, controlling most of the trade inland and from time to time raiding Gardener lands; the Rowans, who became the rulers of a new kingdom on the large plains north of Blazewater Bay, made hilly by the many barrows dotting them, and who from time to time leaded raidings to the lands north of them on hordes of horsemen; and the Florents, who settled on the lands where in the past House Bolton ruled and became the bitterest of all enemies of House Gardener, creating an feud between the two lineages to last for eternity.
But besides the many enmities created between those new "Northmen", there was also the matters of those who already lived within the region and had decided to simply stay instead of participation of Brandon's migration south, as just like between the enemies of House Gardener, three powers still existed there, the Crannogmen, leaded by the Marsh Magnars of House Reed, who not only stayed on their swampy lands but fought both against the Rowans and the Ironborn, managing to take some of the large plains north of Moat Cailin from the Golden Kings and, more than that, becoming the overlords of Cape Kraken, even if at the cost of much fighting; the Skagosi, who even while fighting between themselves on their snowy and rocky mountains, still had time to attack and raid the coasts of the Shivering Sea, in a manner only slightly less cruel than the Ironborn on the other side of the continent; and, even more surprisingly, the Night's Watch, since with the constant pressure made by the Gardeners and other kings to control them, decided to simply defend both its north and southern borders, fending against Wildlings on the Wall and warring against the southern kings at the same time more than once to the point that its members were freed from their oaths of chastity by the Thirteenth Lord Commander, who himself married an albino woodswitch.
They would spill blood and fight hard to unite the North under their banners, but the Gardeners would never be capable of making the Marsh Magnars, the Skagosi or the Watch bent the knee to their will, even if they became known as the Kings of the North.
When the Andals came to Westeros, from two thousand to four thousand years after Brandon's Conquest, conquering the Vale and bringing its many petty kings to their knees, who became lords under the banner of House Arryn, they did not knew were to invade after, not because there was no option, but because there were many.
The Riverlands were in their doorsteps, and divided in many petty kings of their own, but many of them were also strong or allied themselves and could make a threat. The North, also, was close and easy to invade by sea, but the Gardener ruling over it, a Gwayne IV, was a strong man, who ruled in the Oakenseat still enjoying the doings of his great-great-grandfather, Garth VII. And just like the Riverlands, the Reach was close enough, even if its young king, Theon Stark, had inherited his throne from his father, Karlon II Stark, after purging the other thirty-seven children that he had with his many mistresses (having never married). The Stormlands were considered, as were the Westerlands and the Iron Islands, but the two later were in the other side of the continent and the first was ruled by a series of strong-willed kings, at the time represented by Qarlton II Durrandon and his son, Qarlton III Durrandon.
In the end, their choice was made to them.
House Gardener and its king, in a unexpected and wild act, renounced the Old Gods and, while they did not burn their godswoods, as the fear of what could happen was still one on their hearts, converted to the Seven, proving it by attacking the Neck and Skagos at the same time, only to the first force, leaded by Gwayne IV himself, be defeated by Jojen III Reed, who killed the king and annexed the plains north of the marshes to his realm, while the se-cond, a smaller host headed by his youngest and most loved son, was captured by the High Queen of Skagos, Marna I Crowl, the Ironcunt, who united her homeland against all odds and took the prince, who was only fifteen and trying to make a name for himself, to be her consort, breaking his mind and will so he wouldn't fight, and, in the end, would love her.
Because of that move, the Andals made their choice, and while they would later invade the Riverlands years later, in a series of wars so bloody that many Houses continued following the Old Gods out of spite while others continued due to exist due to timing, they first tried their luck against the Stark Kings of the Reach, at the time ruled by the young, but already bathed in blood, Theon Stark, named the "Hungry Wolf" of "Bloody Wolf" by his enemies and "Snowhand" or "the Great" by his vassals and allies.
Argos Sevenstar named by his men and allies "Seven Incarnated", invaded the Reach in the third moon of the eight year of Theon's reign, crossing its borders in the same day he married to the sole daughter of Rogar the Huntsman of House Bolton, the last Red King to rule and the one who bent the knee and united his realm with the one of House Stark after the event. He had crossed the north of the domains of House Durrandon in the process, and already had fought some battles against the Storm King Qarlton III Durrandon, who had become a ruler after his father's death.
The Andals' forces marched across the northeastern parts of the Reach, killing thousands in their way and ending the Rayder lineage before meeting Theon's forces at the banks of a small tributary of the Upper Mander, five miles north of where is Stonebridge, to their fated battle, an event that, even without the exact numbers or records, we can still record were marked by two of Argos' men to each of Theon's.
The battle itself, for all the built and the waiting, as relativelly fast, not lasting more than a quarter of a day in what could be considered the single bloodiest moment in the history of Westeros until then, with thousands being killed and killing in an bloodshed marked by brutality and ferocity never heard, with men becoming monsters as they forever stained the lands and the water around with the blood, giving the area the name of Red Fields after it while the river nearby was called the "Stain"
Ironically, Argos himself, even after leading his forces into a miserable and brutal defeat, survived the battle with almost no great injury besides the lost of his right hand, chopped of by Theon himself as he was taken prisoner with all of his seven sons to the Reachmen's camps, where they would stay for almost a week before the victorious king declared that they would accompany him down the river to Winterfell.
The entourage stopped seven times on the journey down the Mander, and each time they set foot on the banks of the river, Theon would take one of the sons of Argos, starting from the youngest one, an squire of twelve, and would impale them until only the warlord himself remained, broken after seeing the bleeding corpse of his oldest, an knight of twenty-seven.
"One for each of your gods", Theon said to him, and when his forces reached Winterfell, he hanged Argos by his own entrails over the highest branch of the Heart Tree, leaving him to suffer for seven days and seven nights before his death.
After that, Argos' body was dried and nailed in the Great Hall of Winterfell, watching while Theon ruled the realm he tried and failed to conquer.
There would be other Andal lords who tried to invade and conquer the Reach during Theon's reign, but none succeeded, and all stopped after, when an Andal killed his only son, Brandon, in battle, Theon executed a bloody revenge against them, uniting a fleet and putting his father-in-law to rule for him while he sailed to Andalos, with the corpse of Argos lashed to the prow of his flagship.
It is said the Scourging of Andalos turned the hills in a new sun, that burnt for eight days before ending, and letting only black wastelands while a hundred thousand were taken as thralls to Westeros, being put to work to dead while their wives were forced to work as nurses and handmaids and their children were turned into sex slaves. The ones who survived after a decade, having had their wills and Faith broken, were finally accepted on the Reach, and forsake their seven gods for never saving them of their suffering.
The first half of Theon's reign was not one of peace, and during the first four decades of his rule, he fought and won many wars, during which the Reach conquered the Misty Islands for decades before losing it not long after the end of his reign, took the Arbor from the Ironborn, adding the island to the domains of House Greystark of the Hightower, and made House Dayne of Starfall a vassal of the Starks, when Ferron II Dayne, the Sword of the Morning and last King of the Torentine, bent the knee.
War would also be brought directly to the Iron Islands, when Theon sailed North on the Sunset Sea in what would be called the "Rape of Great Wyk" (or "the worst middle-age crisis I ever saw" by his grandson, Rickard the Galant), when many tough the Sun had rose in the West and the Ironborn became so frightened that would be another two hundred years before one of their ships raided the coast of the Reach, even while controlling the mouth of the Mander.
The second half, in other hand, was one of peace, and he ruled more than any other king of Westeros with completely recorded dates, with him using the Weirwood Throne as his seat for ninety-four consecutive years, dying at the age of one-hundred and six and being succeeded by his great-great-great grandson, Beron II Stark, who ruled for a third of a century but was considered not one to remember.
In his memory, no other King in the Reach or in the South would name himself Theon, even if their enemies would pay homage with six Hoare Kings named after him, and the Bloody Wolf is still the sole one to bear the name, who was responsible for turning the words of House Stark from a simple warning about the cold and hard Winter and became instead the memory of the chill and dread brought by House Stark to its enemies.
The next millennia saw a remarkable neutrality by House Stark, with their biggest wars being fought to defend themselves from the Petty Kings of Dorne, the Storm Kings, the Kings of the Iron Islands and the Kings of the Rock, adding from time to time some lands to their domains, including half of the Dornish Marshes vassal to Storm's End. Rodrik III Stark, descendent of Theon in nine or ten generations, would also bring the Misty Islands, who he renamed Shield Islands, to the realm, when he won a wrestling match against the Ironborn after the death of Loron Greyjoy, who had taken the island during his father's reign after somehow taking the throne of House Hoare for a total of seventy years, being the sole High King of the Iron Islands before they regained their power.
The Stark also fought against their vassals sometimes, even if most of the rebellions were ended by the ways of treaties and marriages, besides the common taking of hostages, but the last great one to happen, incomparable to the time-to-time provocations of House Flint or House Dustin, was the Greystark Rebellion…