When Spring comes and the Others have gone back to sleep (for now, Bran says) Arya can turn her attention to ruling. The first thing she does is execute both Roose and Ramsay Bolton and take the Twins away from the Freys, exiling those that weren't a part of the Red Wedding but executing those that were. The only unblemished Freys that stay in Westeros are those born after the Red Wedding and those women that had married before the Red Wedding. The Martells are called to King's Landing and they grudgingly swear fealty Arya, remembering the slights of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark but admitting that she won the Throne fair and square. Stannis Baratheon has been reinstated as the Lord of Storm's End, as it should have been since Robert won his crown.
Arya offers the North independence and financial aid until they are restored to their former glory which Rickon loudly accepts before Bran can even open his mouth. Next thing Rickon does is kneel in front of Bran, which surprises everyone in the court because he had refused kneeling for Arya, smiling broadly and swearing his fealty to his brother. The next one to swear fealty is Howland Reed, holding his younger grandson and heir's hand. The third is the old Greatjon Umber, and the fourth is Alysane Mormont after which every Northern House present swears fealty to Bran the Blessed, King in the North. Arya feels slightly bitter since she has to go through all kinds of convincing to make the other great houses to swear fealty to her and her son and Bran gets pronounced king and in an instant he has a loyal kingdom of his own. She knows that it is simply because Bran is a Stark and the Starks have held the North for over eight thousand years, starting with Bran the Builder, maybe even before that but that was when Winterfell had been built and House Stark got their seat. House Targaryen was young when compared to Houses Stark, Arryn, Greyjoy and Lannister that had been around since the Age of Heroes. House Martell having been founded a thousand years ago still had seniority over the Targaryens. Houses Baratheon, Tully and Tyrell had been made Great Houses by the Targaryens who had forcibly united the Seven Kingdoms, making them the laughing stock of the Seven Kingdoms behind their backs. Or would have had they not had the dragons.
Arya finds it funny that the first Stark King had been named Bran and the one to secure the throne back to the Starks was named Bran too. Yes, Robb had been crowned by his people, but he hadn't achieved independence for them before dying, but it will be Bran that is to be remembered as the Stark who returned them to their rightful place as the Kings of Winter.
Sansa says she will be content in the Vale, raising her daughter and taking care of the lands and Keep Harry left them. Her marriage with Tyrion Lannister is annulled, not that it had ever been a real marriage in the dark corners of Sansa's mind. Vows made at the sword point do not hold in the North and try as she might deny it, she is of the North through and through. She asks Bran if, after her daughter is old enough to be her own lady, she is welcome to Winterfell. Bran's smile when he answers is not as wide nor as warm as the smile he gives Rickon all the time but his answer is positive and that is all Sansa can ask for now. It will be ten years before she can leave Cat and she has time to get to know her brother again.
The Wall is no more but it is Bran's first big project, and Jon and his wife Val stand to lead the new Night's Watch, much changed from the one before the Winter. For example, each of the Great Houses responsible for keeping two of the castles manned. The three main castle, the Shadow Tower, Castle Black and Eastwatch-by-the-sea, are to be manned by everyone. The Arryns are now responsible for Westwatch-by-the-bridge and Woodswatch-by-the-pool. The Baratheons for Torches and Stonedoor. The Lannisters for Sabel Hall and Sentinel Stand. The Martells for Queengate and Rimgate. The Starks for Oakenshield and Nightfort. The Targaryens for Long Barrow and Icemark. The Tullys for Hoarfrost Hill and Deep Lake. The Tyrells for Greenguard and Greyguard. The Iron Isles will pay a tax straight to the Night's Watch as they aren't obliged to send men. Wives and two children are allowed, but no more and the wives are expected be able to at least protect themselves. The children will have the opportunity to become knights in the service of the houses that sent their father or mother, they can become maesters too, or septas and septons, but they can't take their parents place as an heir to a seat of power of any level. Their father could have been the Crown Prince Eddard Targaryen before had he joined the Night's Watch and his children couldn't have come forward to claim the throne. This was the agreement everyone signed.
Bran will not marry again, he says all his love has been used up on Meera. Alive he is hailed as the second Bran the Builder for completing the Wall and his various rebuilding projects. Long after he dies and Jojen Stark takes the throne, he will be hailed as the best King the North has ever had until his decedent, Bran the Peaceful, comes and brings peace to the shores of war torn Narrow Sea five thousand years later but even after that, people still swear in the name of Bran the Blessed when they have done something nigh unbelievable, such as been healed of a permanent injury or completing a monumental task.
Rickon, the Prince in the North and Lord of Ricold (the newly renamed and rebuilt Dreadfort) at the age of fifteen became the most eligible bachelor in nearly all of Westeros. He isn't nearly as strange as his brother according to the rumor mill, but he refuses to even consider anyone south of the Neck, saying he won't have silent, distant gods worshipped in his home, or one that demands other gods to burn or one that drowns it's worshippers. In a few years he will meet Erena Glover in Winterfell during court and fall head over heels in love with her. The story of the following courting and eventual stealing will be used to entertain children for years to come. They will have nearly a dozen children, all as wild as their father, but also King Bran's most loyal supporters as their father before them. Their family line, Ricstark, will produce the most unpredictable warriors which makes them nearly unbeatable and their sigil, a black direwolf and a man on weirwood leaf red, will strike dread in the hearts of their and the North's enemies. Every five or so generations they marry one daughter to the Winter Prince and in exchange get their own winter princess for their heir, making sure the loyalty stays strong, always.
After her daughter has fastened her cloak around her husband's shoulders Sansa returns to Winterfell where she takes over running her brother's home. The smallfolk knows her as the Princess Stark, the woman with red hair and gentle manner but hard eyes and sly words should someone cross her. In all but name she is the Queen in the North and will remain so until her death a few years before Bran when people turn to Princess Rosemary, Prince Jojen's wife, her Tully hair inherited from her grandmother, Lysa Tully Arryn. Many a Queen in the North will have red hair and the saying, "Hot and cold to look at," is accredited to Princess Sansa Stark's looks.
Queen Arya is not the best ruler, she differs too much from what the southern Westeros expects of women, but she is just and rebuilds much of the Six Kingdoms. She stubbornly keeps the Old Gods and teaches her son to do the same, all the while wearing leathers and cutting her hair once a year to her shoulders. A few years after the Spring, she rides through King's Landing when she sees someone familiar with black hair, blue eyes and hulking build. He is working as a smith, this time in his own forge. She stops and slides down from the horse and walks in. No one says anything when a few months later she marries the knighted black smith and soon swells with child. Prince Consort Gendry becomes like a father to the eight-year-old Prince Eddard and Eddard is ecstatic to finally have siblings after having heard from his mother what it is like. History will regard Queen Arya's decision to give North independence as her wisest. It lead to a harmonious relationship between the two realms for three thousand years until one of her decedents, the Crown Princess Daenerys ran away to Essos and married a Dorthaki Khal named Drogo, slighting her intended's family. The relationship between the realms didn't reach the same peaceful point until Bran the Peaceful.
Lord Commander Jon Stark and his wife guard the half built Wall, repelling small attacks from the remaining Others from Winter to Winter. They have two sons, one whom takes the Black and one who becomes a knight for King Bran and King Jojen after him. Eventually he is rewarded with a small keep near the Wall but dies before he has children of his own. His brother follows their father to the command of Night's Watch, not directly after of course, but after the one following his father, Mance Stark took the command. After that, nearly every second Lord Commander has been a Stark, of that same bloodline. During his life, Jon kept a thorough record of the comings and goings of the Night's Watch, writing down the War against the White Walkers. Ten thousand years later, during the following Long Night, his writings were the main source of information for the Night's Watch and Lord Commander Eddard Stark, 2341st Lord Commander of the Night's Watch.
"There must always be a Stark in Winterfell and at the Wall," is a known fact through the common folk and no one can even imagine a world where there were no Starks. After all, other families rose and fell from power as seen with the other Great Houses, Lannisters having been killed five hundred years after the War of Five Kings and the Second Conquest, Tyrells dying out, Targaryens being assassinated, the Arryns only producing girls, the Baratheons growing in numbers so much and dividing their assets so thin the Storm lands became eventually absorbed into the Crownlands, the Tullys hanging on longer than most but eventually the only daughter of the House married winter Prince Edwyle Stark. House Greyjoy died with Asha and Theon Greyjoy. The Martells still rule Dorne, but Dorne has always been a backwards place that most of other Westerosi regard with suspicion and eventually Dorne declared independence again a thousand years after the Second Conquest. But Starks stayed as they had done since the Age of Heroes, always prepared for the Winter.
