Prologue: A history of a Legionary.
Back during the Age of Heroes, there was a battle between the First Men and the White Walkers. The White Walkers had many advantages against the living, one ability that they use is that they can raise loyal undead to fight for them. Steel has no effect on them as it shatters on impact, Valyrian steel, however, was a different matter, the same goes for obsidian otherwise known as Dragonglass.
The First Men, however, do not have such strengths. They did have two things, willpower and creativity. 800,000 men Lead by Brandon the Builder, the Grey King and Azor Ahai, a man who is destined to kill the future head White Walker, the Night King. But there was another great warrior in their midst as well, one who is not of this world, yet chose to defend it to the end of time. The Old Gods chose well.
Brandon slams into the side of a wight's head with his one-handed war hammer made of obsidian, it is pushed away into the snow and lay dead. He then kills another, another and another, the bodies endlessly. His pet Direwolf, Black Roy, named after the Direwolf's shiny black coat, took care of a wight that was about to jump on his back. He looks to his left as he sees Azor slicing through 5 wight' heads with his flaming sword. To his right was the Grey King using his round shield as a large fist and punched a wight's face then drive an axe through its arm.
Then to his back was a soldier, a man who chose to defend this realm as his duty. The soldier held his rectangle blue shield firm as he repeatedly stabs and slices through wight after wight with his Valyrian Gladius, occasionally headbutting wights with his head. His armour, several interlocking laminar steel plates that covered his entire body neck to toe with mail underneath, took many blows but it held strong. He slammed down his shield on a wight's head after it tripped and smashed opened its head.
The 4 were on a somewhat flat rock that was surrounded by wights. Their 800,000 men were close by trying to get through the undead in an unorganized fashion. They had no proper frontline and had been too focused on saving their leaders. The ratio between both sides was a surprising 1:1, with so many dead the White Walkers would have resurrected them by now.
Speaking of which, the White Walkers walked onto the rock with wights forming a bridge up. In front were the White Walkers, who were very fascinated by the soldier. They begin to fight the other 3 as one of them walks to the soldier. The Other spoke through the White Walkers in a cold voice that gave chills to mortal men. "What are you?"
The soldier, now faced to faced with the heads of the undead, had one word, "Rome." He charged at the White Walkers at an immense speed and engaged them in close-quarters-combat. One of the White Walkers swung its sword at him only for it to be swatted away by the Roman soldier's scutum and was in no way prepared for the quick stab of his Gladius. It gave out a gasp as the Roman brought out his Gladius from the wound, clean as the White Walker had no blood. The White Walker soon shatters into ice.
He slices downwards on another and shatters it. He swings like a madman possessed and kicks one White Walker off the rock into another below. Then he flips his Gladius and stabs backwards into the hip of a White Walker with its Ice Spear above its head.
The rest were slowly defeated and routed, with the rest of their army.
The men after the battle began to chant "Men, men, men!" into the cold open air. The Roman, suddenly feeling the adrenaline slowly go away, fell on his knees and laughs. Azor and Brandon held on to each other as Brandon howled and Azor raises his sword for all to see, with the Grey King beating his shield like a drum, they had won the battle, but the war had just begun.
After the battle, Brandon suggested building a long fortress that stretched from the east coast to the west coast. Many men agreed, but the amount of work needed will take some time. Titus, the Roman, suggested asking the giants for help. Brandon agreed with him, the giants would be grateful for the defeat of their slaughters. With haste, Brandon heads north as the Grey King returns to his lands and a horrified Azor Ahai heads to Essos after hearing his followers burned children in his name, he loved children and did not wish to burn their innocence.
Titus followed Brandon and witness the Giants swearing an oath to the House that is Stark, an oath that the Giants will never forget. With their help, they build a massive wall of ice and stone, the latter as a suggestion of Titus as he quotes "Ice is hard, but Stone does not melt."
Soon the wall was built almost in a year, enhanced with magic by the Children of the Forests. Titus was granted lordship of the wall and was henceforth called Titus Ironarm of house Ironarm. His sigil was a flexing arm encased in laminar armour that held a Gladius in hand on a midnight blue base with a silver laurel on top. The wall would have many men sent to be trained by Titus into the most organized force in all of Westeros.
There was a time, however, where the Walkers were not the only threat in the north. A Ranger, who would become the Night King, was seduced by a female other. He turned almost all of the Night's Watch, except for 20 loyal soldiers under Titus. They formed a shield wall in front of the Elevator and waited for reinforcements from the Starks and the Wildlings. As a show of defiance, all of the traitors threw their scutums and gladiuses to the ground. The defence on top of the wall was fierce as waves after waves of the 10,000 traitors tried but failed to break the metal shield wall. For 2 hours, they held the line. For 2 hours, they fought tired. For 2 hours, the loyalist did no break. Then reinforcements came with the Wildling King Joramun who blew the Horn of Winter that called upon giants to help him, then the Starks who sieged Castle Black.
The Watch shall not break, not even to the gods. This would become the motto of the Watch after the brief civil war. Many of the traitors were welcomed back by Titus as lost sons, saying that they were led astray from their path under his negligence and promises to take better care of his men, and many were moved with this gesture, vowing to never betray their Lord again. Soon after they rearmed themselves and the loyalists under Titus were promoted and trained into an elite fighting force as well as officers, the Black Centurions.
Then there was the Andel invasion of Westeros, another story for another time perhaps. It was still a bitch though to get them to fuck off though.
In 2,000 BC word of another conflict then came from the east, prideful white-haired conquerors with dragons that call themselves Targaryens. Intrigued, Titus left the wall with 20 Black Centurions to investigate if the legends are true. To his dismay, they were true, along with the fact that they practised slavery. His attempt at the dialogue was met with insulting drunk remarks of his race and calling him 'Cold Heart' and 'Wolf Fucker', rude.
He was invited to a party which had many influential people who were very fascinated by the Roman. In exchange for bearing insults and jests that really were weak to a man as old as Titus, who thought of better insults like 'Kinlayers' and 'Feather Dragons' for their incest and their strength without their dragons respectively, he gained influence and knowledge. He met many smiths who could make Valaryian Steel, to which he attains the secrets of after convincing a slave smith in exchange for funding a rebellion. He also learned the weaknesses of Dragons, which consisted of the knowledge that their eye is the weakest, that they are magically bonded to their rider and will weaken if they die and designs for scorpion bolts made by conniving Targaryen nobles.
He left as soon as he can, as well as making sure on his promise that would fund the future Faceless Men. On the way, he makes note of the glassblowers, who make glass bottles with cloth caps. If the cloth was soaked and the bottle filled in with alcohol and lit, they could become someone's fiery death. He also made sure that the knowledge n making Valaryian Steel was kept in his hidden library underneath the wall that was only accessible in a well-hidden tunnel.
Around 102 BC there was an earthquake that could be felt as far as the Wall, from Valaryia. Apparently, its volcanos were somehow activated prematurely and nearly caused an extinction-level event. Thankfully in 114 BC a group of them had a vision and went to Westeros and landed where King's Landing would be built. Then for the next 100 years, Titus continued to explore and record many things throughout this world, taking advantage of many things for the next battle. Weapons, architecture, tactics, he even studied medicine.
He would continue on to live as an undying guardian for the Starks and the North for many millennia, until Aegon Targaryen, the first of his name, arrived.
"Lord Stark, may I ask what the freezing hell is going on?" Lord Ironarm asked as he and King Torrhen Stark were observing the mustering grounds. At least 30,000 Northmen readying for battle. Alongside them were his 2 fully trained Legions, each 5000 men full. While small they had great organisation and could defeat an army of 50,000, though it was never proven until now.
The Legions mostly consisted of heavy infantry but did have archer support in the form of 400 longbows trained since birth, mostly orphans left at the well. It made Titus very sad. The Night's Watch was actually a separate branch that was dedicated to maintain the wall and act as an emergency reserve.
"Westeros is under attack, by some dragon lord. In your travels, did you come across any dragons in your travels, Lord Ironarm?" Torrhen Stark asked.
"Yeah, and I bet the dragon lord is a Targaryen. Fucking pricks." Titus accent was a combination of his native roman and the local northern ones. He and Lord Stark were observing a map of the surrounding areas of Moat Caili, the first place that will besiege.
Word reached that a vanguard of 30,000 southern soldiers, while the main force was still mustering, to gain a foothold at Moat Cailin. Seeing that only the 2 Legions were ready, Lord Stark sent Titus and his Legions to hold them off while northern forces could muster into an organized march.
After days of marching, the Legions found a massive mob of soldiers camping on the other side. From what the Mont Cailin's merger garrison told him they just got here yesterday but had trouble with the snow as it prevented their cavalry to advance at the light defences. Titus had his men dig at night and place stakes with a very unnoticeable mound of dirt in front to hide it. The next morning as the light began to shine on the battlefield.
The southern army began to advance by trudging through the snow, most of their infantry wore light mail and were armed with longswords and round shields. Their cavalry decides to rush ahead to disorganise the Legion, the snow low enough for them to speedily cross.
The Black Legion began to beat their shields rhythmically, to try a demoralise the enemy. The archers aimed their bows into the sky, then lose a volley of whistling arrows. The arrows startled the men and horses causing them to halt and get shot down by said arrows. The ones that still survive tried to continue much to their horse' horror. They charge when they were in the javelin range of the Black Legion as pilums were thrown.
The horsemen, now only at 2/3rds of their full strength finally reached the lines only to fall into the hidden stake pit and lose even more men. The Black Legion then took care of any survivors by stabbing them to death, simple really. The horsemen, now at 1/10th of their strength retreated behind the infantry line who began to throw their own javelins and arrows.
The Black Legion formed a testudo, negating most of the damage, and held the line. The enemy, running out of ammo, began to charge and use their shield to cross the stakes. The first to die were those without shield, then those who had them. The Black Legion suffered quite a bit under the relentless assault of their opponent. The centare was ordered to withdraw a dozen paces, causing a crescent-like formation that draws the southern troops in before finding themselves flanked by both sides.
The battle continued to rage until exhaustion hit both sides and all withdrawal from the battle. They carry their dead away to bury and injured to heal. For both sides, they saw the many bodies were littered about but all know who won, the North with 200 deaths vs the South's 10,000. Deterred the Targaryen forces head back to their camps to lick their wounds and waited.
The Stark Army finally arrived with Torrhen and his brother, Brandon Snow, as well as 3 Maesters for some reason. Then the sounds of dragons caught Titus's attention.
An hour later he, the Stark brothers and the Maesters met with Aegon Targaryen and his sister-wives. They were somewhere in the trident to discuss terms.
"I'm sorry did you say sister-wives?" Titus sighed as Torrhen asked.
'Not this shit again.' He thought as Aegon's wife, Visenya, replied.
"Yes, the bloodline must be preserved pure, Lord Stark, otherwise our blood would be the same as the rest of the rabble."
"It's not that bad Torrhen, they used to practice slavery." Titus whispered to Torrhen as Aegon got out the terms of surrender and read it aloud.
"I ask of you to bend the knee and pledge your troops to my cause, no land shall be revoked and a portion of taxes must be paid, Torrhen Stark shall be Warden of the Nor-"
Torrhen interrupted him "I would like for Titus here to be assigned the Warden of the North, he is more deserving of the title." he gestures to the young-looking roman who had a goblet of sour wine in hand.
Aegon looked at him, his eyes were very interesting as they the eyes of an old man, an experienced old man. "Very well, he shall be named Warden of the North, The Wall shall be no longer be considered a priority. You have the option for the Night's Watch to be disbanded or join them to your army, actually, you can do anything with them as long as it will not undermine the King."
Titus raised from his seat, his mouth opened to voice his arguments. He stops and froze, as he felt a gust of wind brushing through his hair and everyone else's, even the armies felt it. He heard voices that none could hear. "Let it be, the south requires you." He slowly sat down as he felt drowsy. Everyone else was staring in confusion as he drank his wine in silence.
After a few moments, he says spoke "Fine, but the Watch shall remain."
Soon Titus would be named Warden of the North and be henceforth be called Warden Titus. He had pledged himself to the Starks and in turn, was granted a position in politics in the North in exchange for being no longer the Lord of the Wall. He was allowed lordship of Moat Cailin and started to rebuild the defences. During the renovation, he had discovered a rich silver ore vein that was hidden underground, he made a silver mine directly connected to the Moat. It helped the reconstruction of Moat Cailin and a new 24 feet tall wall that stretched to both coasts on the edge of the swamps, becoming the Swamp Wall.
For the next few centuries, Titus remembered. He remembers when he was first brought into this world as he died protecting his. He remembers when he had a family, before they were put to the sword. He remembers his men under his command, before telling their families of their demise. He remembers his friends, who had been tried and exiled to the harshest lands. He remembers his constant need for justice, which cost him his life.
The corrupted, or the Senators of Rome, were very annoyed by his constant investigations into their 'immoral acts'. They first exiled his friends, so he would be alone. Then they betrayed his Legion, so he would have no strength. Finally, they murdered his family, so he would have no hope. He was alone, with no strength or hope to continue. Then they killed him at his weakest, judging him for crimes he had not committed and crucified him in the coliseum for all to see.
He died, then light. He was brought into another world, chosen by other gods who had seen his righteousness, and promised that he shall have revenge in exchange for helping them. He did not want revenge, he just wanted to see his family. The gods relented and gave him the second-best thing, they gifted him the ability to interact with his loved ones while he sleeps. He could talk to them, hear them and love them once again. The cost for helping him just got higher but he did not care, he will pay the cost no matter what, if it means seeing his family again.
He entered a bright light, and was reborn in a river. Baptised, Titus raised from the waters as a young, brown-haired blue-eyed soldier he once was. He found himself in his roman armour and walked towards the north, a wolf needs his help.
Hundreds of years, it was during the time of King Aerys the second, otherwise known as The Mad King. Titus had been preparing for years for the fall of the Targaryens since the bloody Blackfyre rebellion. He did not care who's ass sat on the uncomfortable Throne of Iron. He had 2 Legions standing that totalled 10,000 men, organized and trained to be able to take the south with ease.
The Night's Watch was not what it once was, now filled with criminals and scum, it became a glorified prison. It sickens him that all his hard work at The Wall was wasted. Thank the Old Gods that he did not tell anyone of his library underneath the Wall, that would cause a lot of problems.
He was currently holding back a mercenary army of 30,000 that was trying to intercept the main force heading to King's Landing. He had one of his best and most trusted spies, a man named Kentan, to rescue the Dornish Princess Ella Martell and her two children as they needed to be on Dorne's good terms afterwards.
With said spy...
Kentan was a simple man, with a square face, raven black hair and green eyes. He was inducted into the Legions of the North when he was caught stealing bread from the wrong man, Warden Titus Ironarm, when he was only 7. After that, he was given a home and fed plenty after Titus found out his mother died in childbirth and his father died in battle with the Legion. The child had shown a natural talent to hide in shadows and move fast yet soft, surprising Titus when he found him almost a starved skeleton and weak bones.
Kentan was very grateful to finally have a childhood, except school. The girls were probably the good part, and maybe the fighting classes. He soon after joined his adoptive father's Legion as an expert spy. He would occasionally disobey his father about his love life as he conquered brothel after brothel, something that annoyed his father greatly.
He moves from hallway to hallway, armed with one of his father's new invention, a repeating crossbow. It looks like a normal crossbow except it had a 4-round magazine underneath that was loaded by a leaver in the far back, the leaver also pulls the string and arms the crossbows. It was a bitch to load but it still worked quite well. The bolts were propelled with much more force and could pierce decent mail.
He comes across Ser Gregor Clegane and Ser Amory Lorch trying to break down the door, Kentan fires a bolt at the back of Lorch's head and impales him into the door and causing it to fall down into the room. Gregor ran in to kill Ella, with Kentan running in to get a shot at him again.
He was too late, however, as he sees Gregor impale Ella on his sword, it can be seen bloodied out of her back. Kentan fired a bolt into Gregor's shoulder and the force of it and his weight causes him to fall out of a window. Kentan runs to the window to see the Mountain survived the very short fall, like 10 feet, and limps back to his Lord who was currently ransacking the city.
He runs to Ella and saw that she was losing too much blood. "Hold on, you're going to be alright." He was stopped by Ella as she points towards a closet, Kentan looks behind to see a teenage woman holding a little baby boy, Rhaenys and Aegon Targaryen. The girl ran to her mother and hugged Ella tightly, tears in her eyes
In her dying breaths, she says "You must protect them, please." Kentan nods and watches in sadness as her children began to cry. He hears more guards coming and hastily takes the two away.
He shoots down a Lannister guard down the hallway and heads towards the stables. Throughout the castle, he could hear a mad man scream "Burn them all!" as he heads towards the stables and gets the two on a horse and slap its ass. It gallops away as Kentan gets another horse and follows them.
With Titus...
After dealing with the pisspot of an army Titus forced marched his men to King's Landing. Outside its walls were Starks, Baratheons and Vale's soldiers besieging the castle walls on the western and northern sides, he was to deal with the one facing the river. He had large Onager catapults to target the gate with large stones easily procured. The Mud gate fell within the hour just like the others.
A pontoon bridge was formed with help from allied ships and Titus's men reached the gate in no time. Beyond said gate were the Lannisters raping a pillaging the city. This cause Titus to go red in rage and ordered his army to kill any Lannisters they find, an order that his men were all too happy to comply. A mad frenzy of Legionaries began to hunt down any Lannister soldier found raping and/or stealing and put to the sword.
Titus himself was said to have joined as several witnesses saw that he drowned a Lannister, who was drinking stolen wine, in a barrel of wine. He castrated several would-be rapists and even carried one by the neck with one arm and repeatedly stab him 40 times over with the other.
Titus came upon Kentan with a teenage girl and a baby boy. "My lord, may I present Ella Dorne's kids."
"Good work." He hugged Kentan and tells him to lead them out and make sure they renounce their claims to the Iron Throne. He heads down the street to see Ned Stark and Robert Baratheon riding to the Red Keep.
"Lord Titus! I see you had something to do with this." Robert gesturing to 3 hanged Lannister soldiers that were hanging outside a brothel.
"I hate rape, that is pretty much it." He replied as he follows on foot to the keep.
When they got into the keep they found Jamie Lannister killing the Mad King. Titus would applaud him if not for Ned, a man known for his honour, yelled "Kingslayer!". He asked me to escort Jamie to the cells. On the way, they come across a corpse of the Alchemist Guild, very worrisome.
"Jamie, what happened?" Titus got no answer from him, whether it was pride or belief that Titus would not believe him, he did not know.
Later, Tywin Lannister finally came out where he was hiding and brought the corpse of Ella Dorne and two heavily beaten up corpses that are believed to be her children, to prove that he was on their side. Robert and Ned knew they could not afford to make an enemy out of him and so, accepted it. Titus knew, however, that the children were safe, they renounced their claims and were sent home.
Robert was proclaimed King of Westeros, a title he would not hold long. Titus lived a long life and met many people, making him a master at knowing a person's intention even if they were the best at hiding. He knew that Robert will not live long and saw a second civil war in the near future, a Game for the Throne.
He became a steward of Winterfell for his dedication to the Starks, and be witnessed to the children he would protect.
End of Chapter