Chapter 7

These books were a treasure trove for information. Tyrion didn't know whether it was the intention of the foreigners, but he was learning a lot about their societies from the explanation of Jon and Robb and the book he was reading, which described the history of the smallest of the two empires. And the things he learned were disturbing, to say the least. This empire seemed to have gotten rich from trading spices and other luxury goods from all over the world, including from the other side of an enormous sea. To accomplish that, their ships had to be faster and more reliable than even the best Braavosian ships. They also bought slaves to produce those goods for them in swaths of land they had conquered on the other side of the world, although the slave trade seems to have been abolished 150 years ago.

What was most disturbing was that the empire had, especially since 200 years ago, started to conquer large amounts of territory in those faraway lands. They ended up with an empire dozens of times larger than their homeland, conquering many native groups on the way. Tyrion had not yet finished the book, but hoped fiercely that they had changed their ways, as he didn't think the seven kingdoms would stand much chance against the enormous population and ranged weapons Jon and Robb had talked about.

The chapter he was reading now had a very disturbing title, but was rather short. It talked about a 4 year long war that involved most of the known world on the other side of the portal. The size of the armies and the number of deaths involved were immense, with casualty numbers in the tens of millions. Tyrion would have thought these numbers insane and totally impossible, had he not seen, with his own eyes, the Atlas Jon had talked about. The reason why this chapter was so short was that the empire made a smart decision and decided to keep neutral, while all its neighbors were slaughtering each other. He should ask Robb more about this as the other empire had participated in it. In this chapter, he also found the first mentions of flying machines. Those machines were equipped with long range weapons and were used to shoot other flying machines and ground armies or to scout the terrain. Tyrion was happy only the last option was used by their new neighbors, as those machines would be hell to fight against in a war.

Tyrion also found out that although the Netherlands was a kingdom in name, most of the power was held by a council of representatives chosen by the wealthiest citizens. However, that suddenly changed around 100 years ago, when even the poorest of the smallfolk got the right to vote for their representatives. He heard from Robb that the same happened in Germany after the war, implying that they were likely dealing with empires where the smallfolk were in power, as they outnumber the rich and the nobility by a large margin. This also scared Tyrion a bit, as this likely meant that the neighboring empires would have little respect for his Lannister name, or any other last name for good measure.

He then looked over to Robb, who was looking pale, likely because of something he read. "So Robb, what disturbing things are you reading about now?"

Robb then shook awake and turned visibly scared to answer Tyrion: "You remember I told you earlier about World War One? Well, the German smallfolk were stupid enough to vote a mad tyrant into power a bit more than a dozen years after they lost that war. He immediately started to build up new armies and took over smaller neighboring countries while the larger empires ignored him. He then started a new, larger world war while massacring some of his own people at the same time because they had a different religion. The machines they used in this war were far more advanced than in the previous war, which is ridiculous as not even 30 years had passed. They speak of horseless carriages which are practically impenetrable and can blow up buildings and people from hundreds of meters away, flying machines that drop metal objects which flatten buildings from above. They even speak of one special object, called a nuclear bomb, which was used at the end of the war on one of the allies of the mad tyrant. That one flattened a whole city and killed tens of thousands of people on its own! I am scared to think what they will do with us if we do not agree to their terms, will they erase Winterfell from existence? Will they kill all our people and move their own here like that tyrant was planning with its neighbors? This is just too much for me, I'm terrified of them, and this is just what they could do 70 years ago!"

Tyrion now understood what had shaken Robb so, those foreign empires had the power of the gods in the hands of mere men. He was actually surprised that there were even empires left on the other side of the world, as they have held such power for 70 years. How had they managed to not kill each other off with those gods-dammed weapons?

"I know what you're feeling Robb, we seem to be helpless in face of those weapons. However, they have not invaded the Seven Kingdoms yet, even though they seem to have the power to do so. I have some ideas about why this is the case, but I would have to read their most recent history to confirm them."

"What might those reasons be then?" Robb answered

"My theory is that the empires on the other side of the portal are afraid themselves, not of us, but of their own neighbors. From Jon's map book, I gathered that those two empires were much less populous then a few of the other nations of their world. Usually, more populous empires have larger and better militaries. Take for example the Reach, it is the most populous kingdom and can presumably field an army of 100.000 man, far larger than any other kingdom. In their world, there are two empires, called China and India, with more than ten times their population. Those empires should able to crush them easily, and will probably do so if Germany and The Netherlands decide to take over our continent. They would do this using their own unprovoked attack on us as an excuse, and afterwards those enormous empires would just claim our continent for themselves. However, if those empires decide not to invade us and only make trade deals, they might be ignored by those larger empires."

"So you say the Seven Kingdoms are probably save from them? Are they truly sincere in their peaceful intentions?"

"I indeed think so, but I would have to read their most recent history to be certain. Of course, if they decide to hold another world war between themselves, we will probably get invaded and exploited for recourses anyway. This will happen because my reasoning for our safety won't hold if those empires are already at war."

This statement seemed to bring some of Robb's fears back, but at least he was no longer panicking or looking white.

Tyrion now knew what he had to do, he had to devour those book before the foreigners arrived. He especially had to find out their political situation so that his family might know what was coming, and maybe even try to take advantage of it by playing the different empires against each other. The letter did state that multiple empires were coming, and that they seemed to be working together in what was called the European Union. Neither he nor Robb had seen any mention of it, so it was certainly a recent alliance. The book he was reading should mention it, if it was accurate.

The rest of the day, Tyrion continued reading through his book. He found out that The Netherlands were invaded by the German empire during the so called Second World War, and were occupied for 5 years until the Germans were driven out of the country by their allies. It was unfortunate that the book seemed more focused on the resistance fighting within the country than on the big picture of the war, as he was very curious how wars between those empires were fought nowadays. Afterwards, the country of Germany was split up between its different invaders, who apparently started to turn on each other a few years after the previous war.

The new war was the strangest war he had ever heard or read about. The so called 'Cold War' was not really a war at all. The two opposing great empires hated each other with a passion, but were unwilling to attack each other. Tyrion discovered the reason from another one of Robb's shocked statements:

"By the gods, did they seriously think it was a good idea to build even more and deadlier versions of those demonic weapons?! This book claims that if they were to use all these weapons against each other, the Long Night would come for their world!"

Tyrion immediately understood why those empires didn't attack each other directly. There would be no victor in any direct conflict between the two, only dead people. They instead let their weaker allies attack each other or installed puppet governments in other empires. This cycle continued until 30 years ago, when one of the two great empires collapsed from within. The new machines mentioned in the book were also getting weirder and weirder. They claimed to have made ships that could leave the planet for the stars, even landing with some of those on the moon. The book talked of machines with which people could see and talk to each other from half a world away and flying machines that could transport hundreds of people to the other side of the world within a day. Tyrion was getting overwhelmed and didn't know what to believe anymore.

Tyrion did however find out what he was looking for. The European union was founded somewhat less than thirty years ago and is now composed of 27 empires, or as they seem to call them: nations, collectively encompassing most of their continent. They seemed much more loosely bound than the seven Kingdoms though. The individual nations still had control over almost all of their affairs, although the EU had a set of laws each country had to follow, and the member nations had to pay some taxes to the EU. There also seemed to be some friction within recently, with one island empire even leaving the union. Still, Tyrion was amazed that those empires who had fought against each other for hundreds of years could bury their differences and work together. Tyrion even thought about suggesting King Robert to join their Union, but the foreigners likely wouldn't want them. The main reasons being that all those countries had their smallfolk in power and that the Seven Kingdoms had a worse military.

Even though Tyrion hated his father, sister and his oldest nephew with a passion, he was still loyal to his family. Hence, he decided to send his father a letter. In that letter, he wrote about the foreign empires who's ambassadors would arrive in Winterfell. He did not tell everything, as his father wouldn't believe him if he wrote that they could fly ships into space, but he did state that they were more powerful than the seven kingdoms put together and that angering them would spell doom upon their house. He also asked permission from his father to negotiate trade deals with the foreigners on behalf of house Lannister. Tyrion didn't expect much to come from this letter, but there was nothing to lose from writing it.

Now he was done reading and writing, Tyrion felt that he could use some time to relax. He had not yet visited the brothels in Wintertown and was curious how the northern whores would measure up against the ones from Lannisport. Being the gracious guest he was, he asked Robb and Jon to join him there, but was met with blushing and polite refusal. 'Well, it is their loss', he thought as he set off to Wintertown himself to have some fun.

AN:

Hey everyone, sorry for the rather late update. I have had some difficulties writing chapter 9, which made me delay the release of this chapter. As I now have only 2 chapters in reserve, I have decided to temporarily slow down the release scedule. For the next few weeks, I will release one chapter per week on either Saturday or Sunday. The time gained will be used to increase my number of reserve chapters and to adress some of the reviews of last chapter. The main change I will make to my earlier chapters due to the reviews is that I will change the SI units from Westerosi perspective to old imperial units. As always, thanks everyone who followed/reviewed/favourited my story!