Chapter 2-
Robert Arryn – The Eyrie – 297AC
It had now been two months since his little excursion into the magical world of Westeros and things were looking significantly better. His father had yet to die meaning he had not yet inherited much responsibility seeing as old Nestor Royce was castellan of the Eyrie. Yet his weak body had grown much stronger due to a combination of swords practice and eating plenty. It seemed the majority of people in Westeros had little concept of healthy eating and a balanced diet. What else could you expect of a people with no concept of science where everything from the weather to illness was blamed on the will of whichever gods happened to be most prominent in that particular kingdom or lordship.
There had been much to learn in his stay, he now had a reasonable understanding of the culture of the people he would soon rule over along with managing to remember the myriad names and sigils of the various houses both of the Vale and beyond.
Distance between him and his 'mother' had grown to an acceptable degree that he was now more or less free to wander the Eyrie without constant supervision from her. Yet of course he would never escape the constant presence of his two sworn shields.
They followed him everywhere from the privy to the courtyard where he would practice his growing skill with a blade under the supervision of the Master-at-arms. Naturally, being born in a world where nobody used swords anymore he had little skill at first. Luckily for him Robert had rarely practiced himself and so there had been no expectations of his skill. Allowing him to practice without any questions asked.
He found himself to be more proficient in a bastard (hand-and-a-half) sword allowing him to use both hands when necessary, it was between the size of a long sword and great sword and allowed him greater reach.
Let's just say there was some progress he needed to make before he'd be competing in any melees. He had also made great strides in riding, the first few times he had only succeeded in bruising his bollocks but after some practice he was now reasonably comfortable cantering he had yet to hold a lance for a number of reasons but he hoped he would be good enough to attempt such.
In other news he had begun to think about possible inventions and such he could bring to Westeros. The majority of the more important revolutionary inventions such as advanced metallurgy and steam engines he would be unable to implement as he simply didn't know enough about them. Yet he had thought that introducing seed drills, horse driven ploughs and a form of crop rotation could be achieved to increase the output of the limited farming space in the rocky vale by many times.
Due to the landscape of the vale much of the farming was pastoral land including this worlds version of Scottish highland cattle and sheep. He also figured he could start animal breeding. It was already practiced for animals such as horses as he remembered Willas Tyrell breeds them. By only breeding animals with certain qualities, he should be able to breed much more profitable livestock.
He could also make use of hydropower for watermills to create lumber mills and increase the production of flour and perhaps even introduce paper. Paper would probably be one of the best inventions he could make as parchment was expensive as fuck and if he could undercut the market he could significantly improve the financial state of his kingdom.
The main aim here was some sort of Agricultural Revolution. During the Agricultural Revolution, the agricultural output of England increased about three and a half times (The Agricultural Revolution). With more productive farms and a far smaller work load, a huge number of people were able to leave the farms and go to the cities. It was this large available workforce that allowed for the greater production needed to spark the Industrial Revolution. Whilst he didn't have the knowledge capable of the Industrial Revolution, he could certainly set the foundations for future progress.
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A few days later and other conclusions had been drawn. With his increase in strength and lack of fits he was attracting attention from many people. His father to name one, but his other vassals too. Most nobles had assumed the sickly Robert Arryn wouldn't live to see adulthood yet now it was looking increasingly likely. This on its own was not something to inspire worry. That was due to the attentions of a certain Petyr Baelish. It was known through the books that he held significant control over my ill mother and eventually inspired her to kill my father with poison.
Would seeing me strong and healthy make me his next target? If he couldn't be appointed as the regent of the sickly boy he would never see power in the vale.
One thing for certain was that I would need the full support of my vassal lords to retain complete power in the Vale during the wars to come. The war of the five kings could indeed become the war of the six kings.
The Vale only had one border which was protected by huge mountains, as such it had not suffered as much from wars as other kingdoms. Of course there were the mountain clans that came down and raided small villages every now and then but nothing close to the same scale as other kingdoms had suffered. This meant it boasted a rather large population for the rocky landscape that it was. It suffered neither terribly harsh winters like the north, nor the hot desert heat of Dorne and had enough food to feed its people. As such the Vale boasted could raise a total of forty-five thousand men. Of course even during war the full strength of the Vale was never truly called upon. Such as during Roberts Rebellion only fifteen thousand knights of the vale fought. But if truly necessary such a force could be called upon. The Vale also had a fleet of sixty or so war galleys moored at Gulltown, the same as the Westermen fleet at Lannisport
This strength was roughly the same as the North and Dorne. Though it is said the Daeron II lied about the Dorne fielding fifty thousand men after his conquest so as to make their defeat all the more impressive. During the war Dorne only sent ten thousand spears to fight for Rhaegar. Though this could be that they didn't wish to fight for him in strength.
The strength of the Westerlands was apparently fifty thousand men but similar to the Vale not all of them were ever fielded. The Stormlands has thirty thousand men and the Reach eighty to one-hundred thousand including twenty-thousand cavalry. Somehow the Iron Islands were meant to be able to call on twenty thousand men and a few hundred longboats and the Iron Fleet of one hundred war galleys, even as a group of islands with little to no farming land and no lumber of their own to rebuild their ships. Lastly the Riverlands could call upon roughly forty thousand men but they had no natural defences and so were always getting royally fucked during every war.
That put the whole of Westeros together at roughly three-hundred and fifty thousand men all together plus about a thousand ships. All in all rather impressive for a continent roughly the size of South America back on earth. The Free Cities however reportedly had more, and certainly far more ships than that. Whilst there were no true numbers, Volantis alone allegedly has a population of three million, most of its army being land based you can imagine it to easily be the match of any kingdom of Westeros.
Then there was Braavos which was meant to be one beasty motherfucker.
Increasing trade with the free cities is an excellent idea too. Braavos is according to GRRM in the early renaissance period whilst everyone else has still been clinging to the early middle ages for eight thousand years.
All in all there were still many improvements to be made if Robert wanted to become King of more than just the Vale when other Robert died. In fact, the war of the five or six kings would be a brilliant opportunity for him. The only real way into the Vale was the East Road guarded by the Bloody Gate so he could just sit there and wait for everyone to kill each other before he gathered his men and marched out to show Westeros who was daddy. The North / Riverlands and Iron Islands were fighting for independence so he would leave them be. That left the Crown lands and Stormlands as feasible for conquest. In fact he may not even have to conquer the Stormlands as his father and the King were good friends and many lords from both kingdoms had fought together during the Rebellion. Both kingdoms also place high value on honour.
He could just stick it to Joffrey nick all his shit and leave it at that. Westeros would cease to be a single Kingdom and turn into three or four. He was sure Dorne would split from the kingdom as well.
It was as these thoughts ran through his head that he once more tuned into the world around him, he was sitting at the table in his room staring at a mildly ponderous tome of debateable quality written on the histories of the many houses of the Vale. The tale of King Robar Royce II and his loss against Ser Artys Arryn his ancestor.
This reminded him of one of his plans. Tying his bannermen to him strongly would require them to meet and like him. He would propose a tour of the Vale to his father.
He could leave the Eyrie and see the lands he would one day soon rule and be back before autumn truly set in.
'Twas good to be a noble in Westeros.
A/N Hope this was of good enough quality, mostly a filler to set out some of the plans for one good old Jon kicks the bucket.
