The Greyjoy Rebellion- Buildup to the Uprising.

The year is 289.

On a mist filled spring day in Lannisport, of the coast of Casterly Rock in the Westerlands. The sun has not yet risen and the on duty dock guards share a few cups of spirits to help chase away the morning chill.

As they do so they look up and from above they hear the cry of seagulls.

This is a strange sights, since seagulls never gather this early.

Perhaps there was some early fishermen or a whale of dolphin got beached on the shore and the gulls came to feast on it.

One of the guards says to the other and that makes sense. Gulls always gathered before a kill.

Then suddenly one of the guards is struck by a great pain and he collapses to the ground, he regains his bearings and sees that he was struck by an arrow straight in the heart.

The guard looks to his companion and sees his comrade fall to the ground, this time from an arrow to the neck.

Peering through the mist the dying guard sees a ship appear from the fog. This massive vessel makes to no sound as it docks and its crew descend upon a still sleeping Lannisport.

These pirates say not a single sound as they move about the dock and secure every pear. And despite being mortally wounded the guard recognizes them as Iron Islanders.

Another raid has come and this time the injured guard and his dead friend where the unlucky ones to be caught in it.

Then from the fog comes their Captain, a one eyed man with a mad grin on his face smiles at the guard, from he then points behind him and from the mist the guard sees an Iron Island fleet, so massive that it seems to go over the horizon, appear from the mist.

The One Eyed Captain then grins even more and points to the gulls in the air.

The guard now realizes what just happened.

This was no mere raid, this was a fleet that has come to burn Lannisport to the ground and the gulls came to feast on his corpse and the corpses of an entire city.

The sight of the descending seagulls and the soft glow of fire, along with the screams of the men, women and children of the city are the last thing the guard sees as his life fades from this world.

The Greyjoy Rebellion had begun.

Looking at it from a historical perspective, you might say that the Greyjoy Rebellion was doomed to fail from the start. I mean just the idea of one small kingdom taking on 6 bigger kingdoms at once seemed ludicrous.

But when you look into the events leading up to it, you see that it wasn't as farfetched as you thought it would be.

In fact the seeds of the Greyjoy Rebellion where planted by Theon's Grandfather Lord Quellon Greyjoy and many of his contemporaries say that Theon was in many ways the second coming of Quellon.

For you see Quellon Greyjoy was a reformer. He disliked many aspect of the Iron Born Old Ways of life. And tried to distance his people from them.

Quellon fought corsairs and slavers in the Summer Sea as a youth and commanded a hundred longships during the War of the Ninepenny Kings.

Quellon tried to reform the ways of the ironborn and integrate them with the rest of the Seven Kingdoms by freeing thralls, forbidding most reaving, discouraging salt wives, encouraging marriages with the mainland, and bringing maesters to the Iron Islands.

Quellon was also a patron of the arts, a scholar and a poet. In fact some sources say that Rodrik the Reader, Theon's uncle on his mother's side actually inherited Quellon's vast library and got his passion for books from him.

All in all Quellon seemed to have been on the path that his grandson would follow when he came of age and the two seemed to have been of the same 's ironmen did once attack the fleet of Lord Farman and sacked Faircastle, as Lord Tytos Lannister, the father of Tywin, was a poor liege lord of the Westerlands.

But then again no one's perfect.

But all of his moves wasn't just out of personal morals, no! Quellon had a plan, Quellon always had a plan.

By freeing the thralls he ensured a loyal armed force that he could use against his lords if need arose.

By encouraging marriage with the mainland he was opening up alliances and trade routes that would make him more powerful, and by opening up the islands to maesters he would both curb the power of the Drowned Men, and have influence and support from the much greater Faith of the 7.

All in all because of this during his first decade in power Quellon Greyjoy became the most wealthy and powerful Lord of the Iron Islands in the last few centuries.

Everything seemed to be smooth sailing for Quellon, then a messenger came from the mainland.

Lord Rickard Stark of Winterfell and his heir Brandon had been killed by King Aerys. Prince Rhaegar had kidnapped Lyana Stark the fiancée of Robert and King Aerys demanded the arrest of Robert Baratheon and Ned Stark.

The 7 kingdoms where now at war, at this made Quellon's carefully constructed alliances and trade networks fall apart.

But Quellon had a plan, Quellon always had a plan.

And his plan was to let the other 6 kingdoms fight amongst themselves for power, while the Iron Islands stayed neutral and profited of them.

Yeah, not the most exciting plan, but a smart one.

The Iron Islands was the smallest Kingdom, if it fought for the losing side the consequences would be disastrous and even if it fought for the winning side they would still get the least of the spoils on the count of their small power.

You may ask then what could such a small power do in a war that engulfed a whole continent?

Well that's the kicker, a whole continent surrounded by water on all sides and since the Iron Islands had one of the fastest fleets in the world, Quellon could use the distraction that the war provided to reave the whole of Westeros.

But that wasn't Quellon's plan, no!

Far from being a simple pirate, Quellon proved to be as clever as his future grandson, for he in fact asked for a protection tax from both sides so as to not reap their ports and coastal villages.

Not only that but even after paying said bribe, Quellon still had one more card to play.

You see many people forget that it wasn't just Westeros that had a stake in the war. Essos and its trading cities also had an interest there and the interest was trade.

You see with the war, which is now called Robert's Rebellion, the sea lanes became devoid of any organized navy to protect the merchant vessels. All of the big navies where fighting on either side of the rebellion and both had hired every available sell sail, leaving the Narrow Sea a pirates paradise.

And through it all Quellon appeared, coming to Essos with his massive Iron Fleet.

Not to reave, but to strike a deal.

In exchange for a protection tax, Quellon would leave the traders alone and even have his ships act as escorts for the merchant convoys.

The Free Cities and Bravos where not too keen on this, neither where both sides of the war in Westeros, since it meant another hefty tax. But what else could they do?

Quellon's ships where the only one's available in the Narrow Sea. And some sources say that the pirates that threatened the shipping lanes were also secretly working for Quellon.

Whatever the truth was one thing was certain, and that now Quellon was the Master of the Ocean in both Essos and Westeros. And he used that influence to put his allies and puppets into positions of power all across both continents.

Yup, things seemed to be going smoothly for Quellon.

Then news came of the Battle of the Trident. Where Rhaegar had been killed, the war was now in the Rebellion's favor.

And from the looks of things Robert would be king, and with the war coming to an end, he might have something to say about Quellon bleeding him and his allies dry and conquering the sea lanes

But Quellon had a plan. Quellon always had a plan.

And his plan was to simply give Robert back the trade routes.

You see Quellon knew that he could not keep them forever, and for almost two years now he'd manage to gather great wealth, influence in Essos and Westeros, and he accomplished all that without losing a single ship and having the only land in Westeros unaffected by the war.

That and he had a hunch that Robert would also allow him to continue building up his fleet. After all a stronger Iron Islands, meant a weaker Reach, Dorne and Westerlands. All of which were Robert's foes in the war. And seal the deal with a guarantee from Quellon that the North, the Stormlands and The Vale would not be touched by his ships.

Quellon's hunch that was proven to be correct. Since documents from that time show that such a secret agreement had been made with Jon Aeryn, who would become Robert's Hand of the King.

Quellon thought that it was a good venture and that it was time to get out while the getting was still good.

And what would he do with the money and power he had gathered?

Simple, use it to buy more ships and continue on with his plan to control the sea trade, only this time he would gradually increase his influence. For Quellon knew that even if Robert won, his reign would still be new and fragile and that war would most likely come to Westeros again.

But Quellon's plans were derailed by his eldest son Balon and his younger son Euron 'The Crow's Eye'. They kept insisting to join the War against House Targaryen before the war was over.

Quellon was hesitant to participate in a war that was already decided. But he was now an old and sickly man, so he didn't have the strength to real them in.

Besides, Quellon figured that a good raid against the Reach couldn't hurt. Then he could return to the Iron Islands and continue to build more ships, curry more favor with the new King by becoming a threat to his enemies and built up once more his Sea trading Empire.

But Quellon would die in the Battle at the Mander's mouth.

And with his death his successor Balon overturned his father's reforms. Ballon also destroyed his father's careful network of alliances by returning to the Old Ways and even alienating the North, Vale and Stormlands by allowing his reavers to sail there.

Quellon must have been spinning in his grave (even though per iron born customs he was buried at sea) from the fact that what he had built on his entire lifetime, his son and heir destroyed in less than a year.

But if Quellon could see from the afterlife this horrifying sight, then the worst was yet to come. For the one thing that Balon kept was his father's Iron Fleet expansion project.

And he would use it not to take over the trade routes, but to start a war that would nearly destroy the Iron Islands.

Join us next time as we take a look into the opening moves of the Greyjoy Rebellion and how a rebellion that at first glance seemed possible and feasible to succeed was mismanaged into a huge disaster.

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