House Steambird of Westeros

by StrikeForceHeroeTeller

A collection of one-shots between GoT and the game "Steambirds". No serious plot at the moment, just independent AU one-shots of the show we love. Leave a review if you want to see an specific AU scenery!

3. Chapter 3

House Steambird of Westeros.

Hello again people! The last chapter was one full of lore about the development of the Northern Kingdoms thanks to House Steambird. In this one, we will finally have some action in which they were involved!

Edit 14/11/2020: some spelling mistakes and extended the literature to officially include 'japanese' culture in Westeros.

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Chronicle 3: House Steambird "The Unbeaten Birds".

House Steambird is not only known for their progressive mindset, creativity and innovative discoveries, but also because for their unparalleled amount of tolerance, respect and patience in their people and rulers. Unlike most houses in Westeros, House Steambird considers war as a necessary evil that humanity can't avoid and as such, doesn't see it as something glorious, opportunistic nor honorable. Instead, they see it as a job that must be done quickly, so that the losses are minimal for their side along with the aftermath, no matter which method they should use and no matter what their enemies will think of them. Their First Lord Steambird believed that it is more honorable to avoid conflicts rather than fighting on them, and as such, his descendants became masters of diplomacy to handle them. However, don't take their pacifist ways along with their reluctance to enter into conflicts as a sign of weakness; many houses made that mistake and soon found out that their title of "the Unbeaten Birds" isn't there for nothing. For, the mindset of House Steambird is based upon this phrase quoted from the "Steambird of History": "If you want eternal peace, always prepare for eternal war." In this title, we will write about some of the most notorious conflicts House Steambird has participated along with details of the actions made by their leaders and heroes in such times of chaos.

The Dance of Dragons.

As everyone knows, it was the only fully-scaled civil war in which dragons participated caused by the succession crisis between Rhaenyra I Targaryen and Aegon II "The Usurper", with the main belligerent factions being the Blacks, who supported the former, and the Greens, who supported the latter. At first, the North was uninterested in participating in the civil war, prioritizing in preparations for the arrival of the next winter which their scholars predicted would last for a few years. However, as time progressed and refugees started fleeing towards the North in mass, bringing tales of how the conflict was degenerating the South into anarchy, the Northern Houses started preparing their forces, predicting that they would soon be involved in it.

Eventually it came to be true, when Jacaerys Velaryon came flying into the North, begging for their support specially the one from House Steambird, promising them in particular that he would marry Lord William's first-born daughter, Mariana, and Rhaenyra promised to gave her a seat in their Council once they regained the Iron Throne. After the "Ace Rider" had defeated their ancestor, the members of House Targaryen seemed to have mixed opinions about House Steambird, some of them utterly hating them for stealing the Northern kingdoms from their grasp and making the dragons look weak, while others plainly admired them for their strength and will that managed to save their Northern independence, surpassing even those of their own dragon ancestors. Jacaerys and Rhaenyra were of the latter group, and as such, they believed they were the key to win the civil war. Fortunately for them, King Cregan Stark and Lord William were willing to help, with Lord William leading the force they had prepared earlier as a vanguard while House Stark rallied the main army behind them. Some experts say that it was here when the first legions of the "Stormtroop Vanguard" were formed. When news of this alliance reached the Greens, Aegon II, who hated House Steambird, took it as a golden opportunity to finally "eat the birds" and decided to bring with him the whole pack of his dragons towards the Neck. Unbeknownst to the Greens though, House Steambird had set a lot of spy rings throughout the Southern kingdoms after the First Lord made peace with House Targaryen and at the time the Dance of Dragons began, these spy rings had become masters of their trade. They soon warned Lord William about what Aegon was planning to do against him, which forced him to do the harsh decision to call his brother, Wilson Steambird, and his sister Elizabeth towards the frontlines, since they were the only members of his family that had the ability to ride a "Metal Steambird" too. Many people were confused by this decision, there was three "Steambird riders" but only one "Metal Steambird" so why did William call for his two siblings?

They would get their answers once both groups of riders met near the ruins of Oldstones. To the surprise of everyone who attended there, they saw that the 4 dragons Sunfyre, Dreamfyre, Vhagar and Tessarion were not facing 1 but 3 "Metal Steambirds"! Apparently, House Steambird had secretly completed 2 more of those mysterious (at least for those who weren't of their inner circle) "airplanes", and rumors had it that they had more in storage somewhere secret, where the heads of their house trained their descendants in the art of piloting them. The battle that ensued was one-sided: the 3 "Steambird riders" proved to move in such great coordination, speed and agility that people often said that in this battle the "Steambirds" led a dance that the dragons failed to keep up at. And the 4 dragons along their riders would have been killed if it wasn't for a the surprising arrival of a storm that forced the two sides to disengage and return towards their forces. The 4 dragonriders claimed that it was the will of the Seven that sent the storm that day and that they would have killed the "Steambird riders" if they hadn't escaped "like the cowards they were". However, the "Steambird riders" were anything but cowards, and the reason why they left the fight after the arrival of the storm was because, using their ability to "read" the sky, they predicted that the storm would be a strong one, and both sides would have perished on it. Their prediction turned out to be true, because the storm soon became a hurricane that Westeros had never seen before.

It was called "the Seven Day Storm" yet its effects lasted for months. For starters, the swamps of the Neck along the Green Fork river flooded and threatened to isolate William's vanguard with their supply lines. As such, he ordered all of his forces to retreat and return towards Moat Cailin, where they would search another way to link up with the Blacks. Unfortunately, almost all land routes towards the South had been ruined and the only way left was to go through the sea. And since the North didn't had a fleet of its own, they had to basically develop their own fleet to allow them to link up with the Blacks. The time spent in developing and creating the fleet needed for their transport made William's vanguard arrive late to the war, and by the time they linked with the Blacks, the conflict had already progressed towards the point of the Battle Above the Gods Eye. Needless to say, they arrived late but just in the nick of time for Rhaenyra's case.

Rhaenyra had aforementioned the vanguard to link up at King's Landing as soon as possible. By the time the vanguard fleet arrived there however, they found the city to be in lockdown. They soon learned that the situation in the city was tense and Rhaenyra's position was in danger along with her remaining followers and family after most of her fleet fled in desertion and now the people was doubting her. Fortunately, their appearance helped calm tensions down, specially when William along with Wilson and Elizabeth made a demonstration of their "Metal Steambirds" to the people in the city. It even ended interesting Rhaenyra. Unfortunately, after making a quick observation of the city, William realized that King's Landing was no longer a viable asset. He proposed Rhaenyra to abandon the city and reunite with the Northern main army at Harrenhal, since it was more easily defendable, the castle was in allied hands and it was also a better place for their "Metal Steambirds" to defend against any remaining dragons, although unbeknownst to them, they were only a few left. Rhaenyra refused, considering the number of effort she had to perform to get it back. Unfortunately, it was in one of this discussions that King's Landing suddenly rioted again. Knowing that their most dreadful enemies were now in the capital, the Greens sent rioters to try to wreak havoc and use the chaos to assasinate the Steambird family. Fortunately for the family, the vanguard troops training kicked in very hard and the rioters saw themselves decimated, keeping the Targaryens and Steambirds secured. Unfortunately, fanatical rioters used this to attack the Dragonpit. Fortunately, the dragonpit was at that time guarded by an elite cohort of guards that were escorting lady Elizabeth Steambird whom was visiting it. Guided by her, the guard held against the attackers, but they lost many brave souls that day. Amongst them, was Joffrey Velaryon, Rhaenyra's son, who tried riding Syrax to rescue the dragons and their allies that were in the Dragonpit but was thrown off and fell to his death. After this episode, consumed by grief, Rhaenyra eventually conceded to William's plan and on the next week, the Blacks and the vanguard left towards the Maidenpool, which even if it was in enemy hands, was weakened and a good jumping point towards Harrenhal. Nothing is known about what happened to the dragons that were still alive after the riot, because the next day of their departure, the people found the Dragonpit empty, even the dragons that belonged to the fallen Targaryens of the Greens had left. Some suspect that Rhaenyra forced them to move along with them, even though that was highly unlikely because dragons don't respond to any other than their own masters. Others suggested the Targaryens set them free to avoid that they died at the hands of more fanatical peasants. However, another, crazier idea has been theorized and that is that when Elizabeth came to visit the Dragonpit, her will to defend the dragon's home allowed her to bond to ALL of them, not as their master, but as a familiar. Again it is just speculations, but considering that today the North still has many of those creatures roaming in their skies while in the South they had been absent, it seems to be the most plausible one for now...

Eventually, after making quick work of a siege, William's vanguard force took the Maidenpool, left a little garrison there led by Wilson along Elizabeth and awaited at Harrenhal along Rhaenyra for the main Northern Army, who was now marching unopposed. Cregan Stark soon linked up with them and then everyone proceeded to march towards King's Landing along with the remainders of the Black forces. Eventually, they arrived to see the city gates open for them along with the news that King Aegon II was already dead by poison and the throne open for the Blacks. However, at this time, Rhaenyra was done with everything related to the Iron Throne and abdicated her claim to her last surviving son Aegon the Younger. Cregan sortied out the rest of the mess and, after acting as Hand of the King for a week, which would be later called the "Hour of the Wolf", he passed his position to William, since he had royal duties back at the North. Lord William acted as Hand of the King for three months, helping Rhaenyra educate her son as a ruler, and once he was crowned as the King Aegon III, William and Rhaenyra flew back towards Moat Cailin, him in his "Metal Steambird" and her in her mount Syrax. Some people found it strange that the two flew away together and soon rumors started to spread: some said that it was because Rhaenyra got the secret job to act as a spy for her son, in order to seek out a weakness in the Steambirds in case they needed it; others said that Lord William took the Former Queen as his "prize" for helping the Blacks win the war; others then told that maybe both fell in real genuine love while Lord William stayed in the capital and decided to leave towards the North were both could start a new life together. But one thing is for sure, and that was that the period in which Lord William ruled as Hand was called "the Steambird's Rise", not only because it showed it's greatness and power to Southern Westeros for the first time, but because from there on, the fame of their house would only rise higher and higher like a bird who rules the sky...

The Winter Storm War.

This was the first war in which House Steambird shone with his own light towards all of Westeros, because unlike in the previous conflict, this time they took a more protagonist role. It all started when, in 166 AC, Baelor took a journey to the North along with some southern diplomats and a lot of septons and septas to try and convert peacefully "all of the northern lost heretic people" quoting his words, even though it had initially been conceived as a diplomatic envoy by the Hand of the King Vyserys II Targaryen, his uncle. As such, his uncle had commanded his son, Aemon the Dragonknight, to go along with Baelor but to also perform the secret mission of doing real diplomatic contact with the Northern King and, most specially, Lord Steambird. Apparently, the Targaryens had heard rumours that valyrian dragons like the ones they had still existed in the North thanks to a woman called "the Princess of Scales", and he felt that it was time their house recovered one of the creatures that symbolized their power. He believed that if House Steambird allowed them to have at least one dragon egg and helped them hatch it later once Baelor's reign ended, the Targaryens could regain some political power with their Southern vassals while also improving their relationship with the Northern houses, but most importantly, maybe even bound the Steambirds to the dragons. At that time, Vyserys was planning to give a good use of her sister Daena Targaryen; having heard that in Moat Cailin, the seat of House Steambird, her attitude and manners were considered as something normal and 'acceptable' for a woman and that in there women could be allowed to perform jobs and activities that were initially thought to be only for men, Vyserys got the idea of offering her hand to Lord Nelson Steambird, the heir of the House at that moment. Unfortunately, it didn't went well as he expected.

Even though Lord Matthew Steambird, the Fourth Lord Steambird, was notified of Baelor's arrival and sent an escort to make sure the Targaryen king went directly towards their keep without interacting that much with the commonfolk, the southern party managed to witness more than in one occasion the daily lives of the northern people. Aemon would later write in a message to his father: "The journey through the Northern kingdoms in the Neck proved to be an unique experience. Since the moment we passed through the Twins, we have encountered a different (to my pleasant surprise) kind of North than we imagined. Our people calls it the land where civilized Westeros ends, yet all of what I saw there tells me that they achieved more than that. The swamp lands of the Neck had these trees of beautiful pink flowers and leaves called "sakuras" that flourish on highly humid areas which are common in the Neck. They also had these unique crop systems that allowed them to plant and grow different kinds of crops that flourished in humid places, one of such a sort of grain plant called "rice". Apparently, you can eat the grains of this plant if you clean their shells carefully and after that all you need to do it is to boil the grains in water. We tasted some of it when we reached for Greywater Watch, the moving castle under the leadership of House Reed, the gatekeepers of the North, the Stark's most loyal vassals and also the best friends of House Steambird. It tasted nice, wish we could import this. There was also another type of plant called "bamboo", it looks like a long, tall, one-trunked green-wooded cilindrical tree when it reaches a mature age. According to the locals we encountered, it grows very fast and its "wood" is as resistant as ironwood if not even more flexible than it. As such, it is the primary material for their homes. Speaking of which, the locals that live in here are called "swamp-walkers". Apparently, the term "crannogmen", which southern people usually refer them as, seems to be offensive to some of them so they coined the new title once they realized they can build moving, floatable bamboo houses that can navigate easily through the swamps because of their flexibility and light weight. And it gets even more interesting there: in one of the towns we stopped for the night, I saw a party of 12 guards having some sort of survival training in the swamps under an instructor. To my surprise, there were at least 5 girls in that group and to top it off, these 5 girls ended up succeeding in the exercise with only 2 boys passing while the rest failed. Even then, I saw how they interacted and those who failed didn't seemed even bothered at all that they lost to 5 females. They congratulated them and then went on to continue their duties. I was glad Baelon and his group of septons and septas were asleep because if he had seen this, he would have went into another one of his feasts while the others would have put us in trouble. I later talked with some minor lords and told me that apparently in here, it is normal for men and women to perform the same jobs, activities or exercises that are only reserved for men or women in the South. And the surprises didn't stopped there; apparently, one of House Steambird ancestors nicknamed now "the Steambird Traveller" decided to make an expedition to the West Ocean of Westeros using some new inventions their family created for navigation and seeked out to find the land of Yi Ti using a new type of transport of theirs: a steamship. Apparently, it is a ship made entirely of metal and capable of using a special "steamer" furnace as its main propulsion power, which makes it faster and stronger in open sea compared to our wooden ships. Their ancestor succeeded in his adventure thanks to that, and brought back many objects from the Lands of the Far East while also writing in a diary tales of his exploration that were later published and became very popular in the North. House Steambird kept commercial networks with those lands and now, they were preparing to receive an official embassy from the Golden Empire really soon. I had the fortune of witnessing one their unique exotic treasures: something called "fireworks". These little explosive things were designed to detonate to make some interesting colorful fires in the sky. I won't go on all the details but the Reeds were celebrating a special occasion and invited us to witness the "fireshow" as they called it. It was one of the most extraordinary views I had in my life. Everyone in the southern party was enraptured by this colorful blasts of little explosives. And this wonders happened while we were in the Neck! Tomorrow we will reach Moat Cailin, the seat of House Steambird; I'm excited to see how much has it changed since the days of our ancestor Aegon the Conqueror." Unfortunately for him, the disaster of this visit would take away the marvel of the new Moat Cailin.

Once they arrived, as a symbol of good gesture, Lord Matthew organized a little festival based on the Northern variant of the Faith of the Seven on the honor of the southern king. Unfortunately, things started to went down after that. What was supposed to be a little festival that showed the high amount of religious tolerance and harmony that House Steambird was characteristic for, it was misunderstood as a symbol of the start of the Northern religious conversion for Baelor whom after the festival, sent all of his septons and septas all around to "spread the light of the Faith." However, he didn't specify how to do it, and the septons and septas thought that their hardened methods that they used against heretics in the South would suffice. This only made the Northern people of Moat Cailin consider them as nosy, discriminating and annoying people while it also made some of the southern diplomats to classify the northern people as "wild, ignorant, hypocrite and sinful". However, that's only half-truth, the other half behind their discrimination was the fact that the Northern kingdoms were objectively better than the southern ones and their prides wouldn't have it. As such, they turned a blind eye whenever their group caused trouble in the form of little brawls, racial slurs, and public shaming. However, Lord Steambird would have none of that. When news of a group of southern squires violated a woman without her consent reached him, he immediately sent them to jail, despite the objections and threats of their southern lords. He was willing to negotiate however, and he said that he would set them free IF they bowed in front of their victim, paid her in golden coins as compensation and were to receive severe disciplinary punishment for their act by the hand of their lords under the supervision of his officers. At the insistence of Aemon and some pleads of Baelor, the squires were eventually ordered to concede to the demands. Even so, this episode left tensions very high between the two groups that would eventually explode in the Easter Incident.

Easter was a special religious event that happened on Sunday and it was to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus after three days of being in deep slumber, signifying his victory over death and his soul being cleansed of the Original Sin. This is one of the few celebrations in which catholic followers along with those of the Faith and of the Old Followings would reunite together and celebrate in harmony in the festival that came along with it. Disgracefully, the southern septas and septons were aware of this and sabotaged the event. After the religious ceremony ended, the main event consisted on an "Easter Egg hunt", in which families would search for specially painted eggs that had little prizes inside their shells. Since it involved exploring away from the churches, that meant that the High Temple, the biggest church of the city and also the main site of the event, would be low on vigilance and guards since they would be needed elsewhere, something that the most fanatical septons and septas used to their advantage to set fire to it and to kidnap the Bishop, the leader of the nature catholic religion. The fire alerted everyone however, the "fire brigade" (which later would become the modern Firefighter Force) moved in along with the "street garrison" (which would later evolve into the modern Police Garrison), the arsonists were soon arrested, and the Bishop was rescued but it was too late for the building: the temple was soon consumed by the flames despite their best efforts to save it with only the structure and the area inside the starter base chapel surviving intact. This hit hard in most of the people of Moat Cailin, that temple had taken one generation to construct the starter chapel, and two more to expand it and remodel it to the wonder it was; now many of the inner workings and details like beautiful paintings, wondrous sculptures and some carefully kept relics laid down now as ashes. The commonfolk demanded justice and fortunately, that's what Lord Matthew and King Brandon Stark were going to deliver. Brandon was on his way to Moat Cailin to meet Baelor and was 2 days away from the city when the news of the incident reached his ears through Nelson Steambird. Furious of this, the party shortened their trip by half and soon enough, they were in time to assist at the prosecutions. At first, the southern lords appealed that since the perpetrators were southerners, only king Baelon could judge them and following only southern laws. So Brandon requested his assistance on this, but Baelor refused, opting instead to do a fast as a way to obtain the forgiveness of the septons and septas. Unfortunately for the southerners, northern politics were seriously different than theirs and they wouldn't take a King's word nor that of a religious league as the ultimate word: that one belonged to the laws of reason. As such, the trials continued without Baelor's consent and the culprits were soon declared guilty, the septons being sent to take the black while the septas were condemned to serve in the logistics crew of the recently formed "Stormtroop vanguard". The southerners were displeased while also shocked to see that the word of Baelor nor the religious prestige of the septons and septas were enough to avoid the northern grasp of the law and it left many with a thirst for payback. As such, historians consider this incident as the main antecedent of the Winter Storm War.

After dispensing justice, King Brandon Stark tried to start the diplomatic talks for which Baelor's party was, even after all the problems aforementioned before. As to be expected, the talks broke down instantly when one group of southerner knights tried to murder Matthew's 2 sons and 3 daughters in an act of revenge. In the end, however, they were defeated by Nelson and his younger sister, Eleanora, keeping them busy while their younger brother Charles spirited away to safety their two remaining sisters and called for help. In the end, once news reached Brandon, he had enough and basically kicked the southerners out of the North, giving them a deadline of two weeks to reach the South. And to make sure they stayed in control, he made Aemon their hostage, threatening to execute him if they didn't do as Brandon demanded, and that he would go to war if they ended up causing more chaos on their way back. To everyone's surprise, Aemon made the honorable act of offering himself to stay as their hostage for a whole year in exchange of removing the deadline and also avoiding such war. To the southerners, he was doing a naive act of courage, believing that their armies could gladly take the northerners easily. However, Aemon was anything but naive and in this extract of one of his messages sent to his father, a few months after his 'imprisonment', he explains the reason behind his decision: "I had the benefit of being invited to train some new northern recruits thanks to my fame as the Dragonknight. However, what I saw in there gave me clear indications that for each southern knight with a similar level of skill as mine that lived in the Southern kingdoms, there were at least 5 northerners of similar capabilites, if not better, and with more companionship between them. Most of the noble houses in the south are at each other's necks, trying to step over each other in their 'game' to obtain power, reflecting that kind of attitude in their subjects and troops. However, here in the Northern kingdom, their houses are more united and with few grudges between them, even to the point of everyone being genuine friends between each other. Their troops also reflect this, and their rivalries are more about competition and ability rather than ideology and power struggles. Their competence as soldiers is exceptionally high, and their officers and captains are more flexible and tactician than most educated nobles in the South are, and some of them are seasoned veterans from the times of the Dance of Dragons that had decided to dedicate themselves as full-time soldiers rather than retiring into a nice fertile field of their land. And to add more surprising details to this, most of those officers were young, humble farmers that volunteered into the famous vanguard led by Lord William, and soon got promoted thanks to their skills, actions or leadership, meaning the Vanguard has efficient units for every kind of role in a war. But most importantly, their forces aren't solely formed by only men, women are also allowed to join and some of them prove to be of superior intellect, skill or force than their counterparts. Such example can be seen on Lady Victoria Steambird, Lord Matthew's wife, whom was known to be the second-in-command of the Vanguard, a master in the art of Braavosi 'water-dancing' and has a charismatic and determined attitude that has gained her the respect and loyalty of the troops that some even nickname her "Lady Victorious". My time on Moat Cailin allowed me to see and experience her administration, which taught me that her skills and wit are not to be triffled with. And all of this power belongs just to the vanguard of the Northern army. Father, as much as it hurts my pride and that of House Targaryen, we must NOT go to war against the North, otherwise it would spell the end of our house. Tis' the main reason of offering myself as their hostage." Unfortunately for him, his warnings would be ignored in the year of 168 AC.

At the end of the year 167 AC, Matthew decided to release Aemon earlier as a reward for his services and teachings done during his time in Moat Cailin, and as a bonus, he gave the Dragonknight three dragon eggs, the same dragon eggs that King Aegon V would try to hatch which would cause the Great Fire of Summerhall. Unfortunately, as soon as Aemon was back in the South, the spy rings in the South started to communicate warnings about the armies of many lords starting to form up along with some fanatical calls from the Faith for another Andal Crusade. Realizing that the South had basically waited for Aemon's return to finally attack the North, Matthew sent messengers towards Viserys, ordering him to put a stop to that madness. Unfortunately, Viserys had been politically outwitted by the Faith, the latter stating that it was Baelor's "holy command" so he couldn't do anything to stop the preparations, specially now that he had restored the Faith Militant, the fanatical military branch of the Faith. Knowing that everything would only be solved through war, House Steambird soon alerted the Starks, and the banners of the North soon responded to the call. The Winter Storm War had begun.

Originally, the southern plan for the 'Last Andal Crusade' was to attack the Northern kingdoms through three sectors: an assault on the West from Flint's Finger, a central push through the Neck and an assault on the East through White Harbor, so that all of them would reunite at Moat Cailin and completely isolate it from the rest of the North. Unfortunately for them, various factors made the assaults on the sea flanks impossible: the western fleet was manned and owned by House Lannister, one of the few who refused to answer the call of the Faith and because they really needed it in order to avoid being assaulted by the Ironborn, the western assault was cancelled. The Eastern fleet however, was formed by both the royal fleet and the Redwyne fleet, whom were more than enthusiastic of helping the crusaders journey through the sea, thinking that they would sail unopposed towards White Harbor. However, all of them made the mistake of forgetting that the North had developed and reconstructed their fleet, doing what many southern houses couldn't do: standardizing and mass producing them. A night just before the official departure date, two Northern expeditionary fleets made mostly of sloops, few galleons and 3 experimental Steamships (that would be later form the "corvette" line) each one, attacked the ports in which the royal and the Redwyne fleet were stationed at. The southerners were caught entirely by surprise, which allowed the Northern fleet to burn and destroy almost 80% of the Eastern fleet before fleeing back towards the safety of their Northern ports. The damage had been huge, affecting mostly House Redwyne who wouldn't recover of it until the time of Robert's Rebellion.

With their plans for a three-front campaign trashed to the ground, the "Holy League" settled on the central push, reuniting all of their forces at the Twins before finally pushing through the swamps of the Neck, being led by Sir Solas Thorne, second-son of House Thorne and a devout follower of the Faith. He was also one of the few knights that had accompanied Baelor's party in the previous year and a seasoned commander, so he was a solid option. But even with his leadership his army would face many difficulties. For starters, it wasn't even a proper army, it was mostly composed of fanatical commoners, hedge knights, a few minor lords, third-sons of the major houses whose followers were kind of overenthusiastic and rookie glory seekers, and some mercenaries and not all of them weren't too fond of going through swampy lands just to face some "heretic salvages". Secondly, they learnt the hard way that the term "Swamp-walker" wasn't coined to the men and women of the Neck just for a sense of dignity. Following their role of being the "Keepers of the North", House Reed and their subjects went through a transformation thanks to House Steambird's networks with the Jade Empire. Turns out that the "Steambird Traveller" met a retired shinobi, a man specialized in the arts of silent killings, espionage and also agile fights, at Yi Ti who joined his expedition and later returned along with him to the North. This retired shinobi was in debt with the "Traveller" and offered to teach everything he knew about the shinobi arts with the crannogmen, seeing them as ideal candidates and the swamps of the Neck as a perfect place for their training. The generation that came after his teachings soon learned not only to survive in the harsh cold swamps but to also use it on their favor and to discover secret ways to move around the swamps along with new techniques to harass and make enemies regret their decision to mess up with them. And that's what they did to the Holy League, since something that the "swamp-walkers" had kept secret was the fact that the bamboo bridges that formed most of the path across the Neck could be easily dismantled. Solas found himself more and more frustrated as the journey through the swamps turned out to be slower than expected because many of the bridges he had used previously weren't there. This, along with the fact that the longer they took to flank the swamps, the more people he was losing to disease, hunger, thirst, desertion and skirmishes made the Holy League lose more than a third of their original force. However, they pressed on and soon, after 1 hard month of travelling through the swamps, they finally arrived at Moat Cailin.

Only that when they did, they realized dreadfully that the Northmen were more than ready to receive them. Since the time it was handed over to the First Lord Steambird, Moat Cailin had transformed from being an old ruin into a super fortress. The 20 towers had been restored and a new wall had been built connecting them all in a circular way and inside of these circular wall was the central metropolis of the whole city that grew up since then, with its most important silos, warehouses, administrative buildings, highborn homes and military buildings; there was also a a set of 4 new walls, two covering the northern side while two others covered the southern side. Between the 2 inner walls and "The Ring" (as the circular wall with the 20 towers was named by Lord Steambird) was where business buildings, brothels, factories (Yes, you heard that right!), public buildings, military academies, and middle-class homes were settled, and in the space between the inner walls and the outer walls was were the homes of the rest of the commonfolk along some farms and most of the military barracks and training camps were located. Most of the farms were on the outside of the northern side. Because most of the city walls were built on a moat, with the highest point being "the Ring", they were designed so that the outer walls were smaller than the inner walls so that the inner defenders could give fire support to the outer defenses; they also contained most of the 'counter-siege' machines used to destroy the siege tools of any attacker who dared came to their home. All of these defensive structures were also made by a new construction material that the First Lord Steambird happened to knew about: concrete. Lighter but more resistant than normal stone, capable of being mass produced with few resources and easy to repair, this material became the new primary material for the construction of forts, towers, walls and castles all around the North.

Needless to say, the "Holy League" was not prepared for the siege that would happen. They first tried "diplomatically" to ask for the surrender of the moat, saying lies about how reinforcements were soon coming to join them and how the Warrior would personally destroy their heretic walls and the Father would judge them all to hell for their sinful lives. Matthew wouldn't buy the bluff nor the threats and the besiegers soon set to work. They tried first ramming through the main entrances, but the doors of such entrances were made entirely of metal along their portcullis. Not only that, but the defenders over the walls had a lot of angles of attack against the carriers without the need to abandon the safety of their covers along with ingenious counter-siege designs that during the initial assaults, the Holy League lost another third of their remaining forces. It eventually dragged down to a stalemate with the southern forces being forced to put up a useless siege that didn't even put any kind of danger to Moat Cailin. Mining the walls down was also impossible, since Lord William used his experience in the Dance of Dragons and found out that a body of water covering even one flank of a castle was a as worthy as a wall made entirely of steel, so he redirected some of the swamps of the Neck to cover and surround the southern area of their walls. To everyone inside the walls and outside the walls, it was clear that the Holy League would lose, either if they tried to assault the fortress or if they stayed there and waited. And with word of the rest of the Northern army marching south to lift the siege, Solas Thorne knew he needed to do something fast. That was when he decided to deal with the sinners with valyrian fire. The southerners had been using the forests of the Neck to construct their siege engines in the zone, with the intent of using them on the walls to open a path, but now that it was clear that an assault would be suicidal, he had now intentions of using it to launch valyrian fire barrels and unleash hell inside the walls or on the walls.

Lord Matthew wasn't stupid to wait and receive the wildfire, in fact, he was already preparing an assault force that would attack the main camp and cause the enemy forces to flee. But once he received word that the enemy was going to use valyrian fire on his city, he changed his plans. He ordered his wife, Lady Victoria, to grab a century made entirely of female warriors and to sneak out of the walls through a secret exit that led to a ravine towards the river. In there, Victoria led the flanking soldiers through a shallow part of the river that she knew from childhood and waited in the woods just south of the catapults and the valyrian fire storage, along her daughter Eleanora until the next morning. Just when the sun was rising on the horizon, a horn sounded from the main entrance that sent into confusion the southern forces stationed there when they saw the portcullis of the southwestern entrance rise up and the doors being opened. Then to their horror, they realized it was a fully powered counterattack from the northern forces led by lord Matthew along his son Nelson and a whole cohort of the Stormtroops. The forces near the gate were caught unprepared and were soon crushed by the defenders. However, those on the main camp got enough time to organize and receive them. Because it was the first official open battle for the Stormtroops, their performance was in some way sluggish which neutralized their advantage of flexibility. However, their skills and new armor made them able to take on against a force 3 times bigger than them. Even so, the southerners had advantage in numbers and they were soon gaining the advantage that Solas soon believed victory was within his grasp. It was that same moment that a second horn sounded from the forest along female warrior cries. Then to his complete shock, the siege engines along the catapults AND the valyrian fire reserves went up in a explosion of green flames! Turns out that when the assault started, Victoria and Eleanora along their comrades used the confusion to sneak into the valyrian fire storage, kill the guards and move the barrels near the siege engines. Legend says that when they were in the last barrels, one of the guards broke free and lighted the rope of one of the barrels with the intention of tossing it into the main cache when he was run through by Victoria. Victoria then ordered everyone to safety, grabbed the aflame barrel and ran towards the siege engines where she then tossed it with incredible strength and retreated back with her troops and blew her signal to everyone. It was thanks to her intervention and the complete destruction of the siege engines and the valyrian fire barrels that caused the "Holy League" to break. The sudden appearance of highly trained, horse-riding armored females totally shocked the rest of the enemy forces, a mistake that cost them dearly. Soon, all this girls under Lady Victoria proved to be as fatal as their male counterparts, if not more efficient, that the besiegers started to get decimated everywhere. Eventually, the southerners broke and chaos erupted among their ranks. Only very few managed to escape from the battle, and of those, only a handful managed to return to their homes, the rest of the unlucky ones ending up as prisoners of the northerners, Solas Thorne included. With the siege lifted and a crushing victory that would surely spread towards the South in no time and shock everyone there, the Stormtroops celebrated and returned towards their city where they received a hero's glorious feast, specially the century under command of Lady Victoria and Eleanora, whom managed to disarm Solas Thorne in a duel and then captured him much to the cost of the man's pride. For their sudden charge of bravery, cleverness and determination, their century was coined the nickname of "the Valkyries".

Soon enough, news of the crushing defeat reached the Southern kingdoms. Even though the nobles took the news with a mild surprise that they soon recovered from, panic spread throughout the religious commonfolk and the high ranking priests of the Faith. Turns out that when they were forming the "Holy League" under the assumed command of Baelor, they had actually tricked him to gain his blessing saying that the "Holy League" was actually an expedition of educated septons and septas that would have the objective of converting the North through more "pacifist" methods, which was what had kept Viserys from intervening with their plans. But now that the truth had been exposed, and the consequent reaction from Baelor was to go into a fast again, Viserys now had legal grounds to arrest all of them. However their trial was put on hold when everyone suddenly received the news that the Northern army was already through the Riverlands at Harrenhal, and on route towards King's Landing. This surprised everyone, the march through the Neck alone took 3 months and then through another 2 through the Riverlands; the Northern army had covered all of that by half that time. In desperation, the Faith sent messengers to every corner of the Southern Kingdoms calling for help. But the Steambirds had already gotten ahead of them. Just after the news of their army advancing fast towards King's Landing reached the southern regions, lord Matthew sent messengers towards all the Major Houses of the South, demanding them to avoid siding with the Faith in the conflict. If they disobeyed, then they would be in the receiving end of many serious economical blockades. But if they obeyed, then it would be the opposite and they would receive many trade benefits that were practically bribes. Needless to say, all of the Major Houses secretly agreed with them, including House Tyrell, one of the closest collaborators of the Faith while publicly saying that they would support the Faith but wouldn't be there on time to help them against the Northeners. For the Steambirds, this was just enough for their plans.

Thanks to their diplomacy, the Northern army moved swiftly and unbothered through the Riverlands, only meeting a few pockets of resistance that they neutralized swiftly and soon enough reached the Crownlands. In here, their first and only obstacle was a small army raised by houses Rosby and Stokeworth, both with the intent of buying time to the capital and the forces stationed there. Even if it was rushed, the defenders had prepared themselves really well, choosing a narrow path of the Kingsroad surrounded by a very dense forest that covered their flanks, putting the heaviest armored of their forces in the frontlines along lines of archers behind them. Nevertheless, their efforts were in vain. 3 days after resisting the charges of the Stormtroop Vanguard, Eleanora, who was now in command of the Valkyries, devised a plan to surprise the enemy from behind. She had been scouting the forests surrounding the pathway and soon found a secret route that lead directly towards the back of the enemy lines. She proposed to use the same strategy her mother had used before in the Siege of the Moat, and was soon approved. She then led her force now composed of two centuries through the middle of the night, miraculously avoiding detection and waited until the next morning. Then once the assault was resumed again, Eleanora played her part and surprised the defense line from behind. This, combined with the experience gained after the counter-attack on the Siege, finally broke the defenders, who feared to suffer a similar fate to those of the besiegers and surrendered along their lords. They were sent as prisoners to the Northern main camp escorted by Eleanora and her Valkyries, while the march towards King's Landing continued under the guidance of Nelson and Matthew.

Eventually, the Northern army soon reached the walls of King's Landing. The populace that lived on the outskirts were already inside the walls and those who weren't were sent towards the North as PoW's. The Northern army were in the middle of siege preparations when suddenly the doors were opened and out came a parliamentary party led by Aemon. They brought critical news: King Baelor had died, starved to death because of his fasts and now Viserys ruled the Iron Throne. As soon as he got into power, he arrested the main instigators of the war and sent his son to negotiate the terms of peace. Being the pacifists and practical men they were, Lord Matthew along King Brandon accepted to parlay, seeking to avoid the bloodshed and cost that conquering the city would take. As such, a new treaty was made called "Treaty of the Godsbane" whose basic statements ordered that the culprits of the war were to be given to the Northmen who would judge them according to their laws, pay a big sum for the ransom for the prisoners (with exception of the captured common folk whom were translated to the North and made a new, better life) and also stated that, to keep the Faith in check, they would put a Northmen Lord in a position of power in the King's Council. Viserys accepted the terms, and after signing them, consulted with Brandon until both agreed that the representative would be Nelson Steambird. In many ways, he was the most suitable man for the job in the 'snake pit' that is King's Landing: he was strict, fierce, incorruptible, determined and clever. So, after settling everything, the Northern army along their King and Lord Steambird returned home, while leaving behind the heir of Moat Cailin along an elite cohort of the Stormtroop Vanguard. The "Winter Storm War" had officially ended after a year.

Lord Nelson soon set to work along King Viserys and turned out to be one of the best 'Hand of the King' to ever hold the position. In the two years he served the realm, King's Landing received a lot of reforms, from infrastructure to law, never got roped into the 'game' and kept good relationships with the commonfolk and most nobles in court, including the king himself, the Kingsguard led by Aemon and, most importantly for him, Lady Daena Targaryen. In fact, it was Daena Targaryen and her bastard son Daemon Waters the main reason he stayed that long on the job. Even if he was very efficient on it, Nelson had communicated his disgust upon the corruptibility and dangers of the city: "Never had I ever before being forced to set all of my senses into a maximum. In this bottomless pit of treachery, corruption and hypocrisy, your life can be terminated in the blink of an eye, and the repercussions can be manipulated easily by those who seek something out of you. No matter at what time of the day it was, I had to always carry the special knife you gave me as a gift for my own security. I cannot remember the exact number of times I had to bring an escort of at least two men of the cohort, even if it was only for a little walk in the gardens. Not even inside Daena's chambers I could feel safe either, even in the sanctuary of her comforting arms. Father, sometimes I curse this position as the Hand of the King, because it gives the impression that all of my efforts to make a change on this city raised by Aegon the Conqueror himself are drowned into an endless pit of snakes who would gladly strangle me the moment I let my guard down. And worst of all, I have the certainty that the Crown Prince, Aegon Targaryen is behind a big one to put me 'out of business'. Just 1 more year until Daemon Waters becomes healthy enough for travel and I will be able to finally return to the safety of Moat Cailin along Daena and some families created by our stormtroops." He was correct on that certainty.

Nelson and Aegon IV had been at each others necks ever since the former became Hand of the King. The latter saw him as a danger for the power and support of his house while the former saw him as the main obstacle of his reforms and also was convinced that he would become a 'mad' king and plunge the realm in chaos again. But he didn't had any evidence and as such, things remained tense between the two powerful and healthy men. It was thanks to Vyserys and Aemon's participation as mediators between them that things didn't escalate. However, that changed when Viserys suddenly died in the year 172 AC. After his death, the crown soon passed towards Aegon IV, whom suddenly stopped dead on their tracks/reversed all of Nelson's reforms. He was inciting him to come and threaten him so he could have a reason to downgrade Nelson's support from the nobles and finally catch him into the 'game'. However, Nelson saw through his scheme and when he went to confront him, rather than demand to discuss a new policy to restore his reforms, he dropped the silver brochure he had used to represent his role as Hand to the ground, furiously stomped on it, then picked it up and launched it towards Aegon so that it ended in his feet. Then he announced to everyone in the chamber: "My service was with King Vyserys II Targaryen, and with his death so does it too." He then left, grabbed all his stuff that was already prepared for departure along his bride and her son, and then journeyed home escorted by his Stormtroop cohort. It is often said that it was after this event when the Targaryen dynasty started its slow demise for the years to come...

The Suppression wars and the "Golden Westerosi Pax".

The period after the Winter Storm War was one of relative peace and isolation. It was disturbed briefly when Daemon Waters, who became Daemon Blackfyre after Aegon IV gave him the ancestral sword of House Targaryen "Blackfyre", tried to rally some support from the North to support his claim for the Iron Throne that would spark the Blackfyre Rebellions. His step-father's reaction for that was to exile him for threatening to bring the North into a war that they didn't want to involve with. Even so, that didn't deter him from gaining a few supporters and proceed with his plans. And everyone knows what happened next.

Eventually, it was during the reign of King Willam Stark that the North started opening again to their neighbors in the South and such reconnection would reach its peak during the reign of King Aegon V Targaryen. Because of the relative stability the Southern Kingdoms gained thanks to the crown, trade between the North and the South was reinforced, along with new diplomatic policies that enhanced the relationships between the houses. However, the most important aspect of this period was the big collaboration between House Steambird and House Targaryen during the rebellions that happened during Aegon's reign. These were called the 'Suppression wars'. It was the first and only time that the famous rivals worked together for the good of the realm. Their first antecedent was in the Fourth Blackfyre rebellion in 236 AC, where a cohort of the now renamed "Peregrine Falcons" took head on an outnumbering force of the Golden Company and defeated them in the Battle of Wendwater Bridge, allowing the royal forces to claim victory. Then they would gain fame and prestige again in the final battle against Maelys Blackfyre, the last pretender of the Blackfyre line, when the Northern Navy singlehandedly defeated most of the naval forces of the Band of Nine without losing one single ship of theirs.

Both kingdoms enjoyed a period of prosperity and intermarriages that allowed for some of Aegon's ambitious reforms to happen with the support of House Steambird; this period was known as the "Golden Westerosi Pax". Even if there were some lords that resisted, everyone was glad of many of the changes because it was performed by the heir of Praefectus City (officially renamed after Nelson became Lord of Moat Cailin) of the time, Valiant Steambird, a very clever man, with enough flexibility, comprehension and patience for his job as the new "Master of Progress", a position created by both Kings for him. He knew how to implement the reforms while toning down some of Aegon's ambitions while also making sure they were effective and were authorized by the nobles that would go through them. This allowed him to keep any rebellions in check while also allowing the Peregrine Falcons to make peacekeeping operations in the South. It was during these period that the southern armies realized how different were the Northern armies compared to theirs, and some of the wise lords took notes about it for the future.

Even so, it was a great period between the two kingdoms that there was even rumors that Aegon was planning some political weddings between one of his children and one of Brandon's, and already in the process of forming a contract with Valiant to betroth him to one of his daughters. However, that went out the window once his heir, Prince Duncan, renounced the Iron Throne for love. Following the domino effect of that event, Aegon feared of retribution from the North and House Steambird but was soon relieved when Valiant Steambird told him: "To be fair, I would have chosen the woman I would live and love for the rest of my life over my seat of power too." The only thing that DID bother the North was to basically help Aegon sort out HIS mess with the rest of the Houses. Then, when Aegon started to become a little obsessed with dragons, Valiant was wise enough to resign and return home. And he was assertive in his decision because the "Golden Westerosi Pax" ended with the Great Fire of Summerhall.

Robert's Rebellion.

After king Aerys II Targaryen assigned Tywin Lannister as Hand of the King, many of the changes that Valiant Steambird brought in Aegon's reign were removed and their influence cut a lot during the start of their reign. Apparently, Aerys was one of the Targaryens that saw his House superior than those of the Steambirds and tried to use all kinds of dirty and humiliating tricks to make their house look incompetent. Valiant's response to his behavior was to call back all of the Peregrine Falcons stationed at the Southern kingdoms, which made Aerys unpopular. The Peregrine Falcons force was very well respected in the South and their actions had kept the realm safe and sound. Once they withdrew, many of the villages that were under their care were soon raided by criminals and a consequential rise in crime in many cities happened. Tywin Lannister took care of the security holes left behind but never manage to solve that completely. This in turn, made Aerys show the first of many signs of hatred towards House Steambird. As such, Valiant knew that next time both Houses faced each other, only one would survive.

His prediction became true when things started to heat up in the Tourney of Harrenhall. Rhaegar Targaryen, the Crown Prince, had initially invited the Northern nobles to it to secretly gain support from them while at the same time make amends between his house and the Steambirds. However, those plans were thrown out the window when Aerys himself attended the tourney. Needless to say, the presence of the two Kings of Westeros created a lot of tension since the beginning because it could be seen clear as water who was the most powerful of the two. King Rickard Stark, at 32 name-days, was one fine example of a king: eyes full of wisdom, a healthy body fit of a warrior, a face to which the stress of ruling and age had been kind to, and a host of companions that would follow him till the end of dawns. In contrast, King Aerys was the exact opposite of him: eyes full of paranoia, his body resembling that of a sickened tramp, a face full of wrinkles and his host was being very cautious around him. If this wasn't more than to piss the Targaryen king, the arrival of House Steambird was...

Lord Valiant alongside his two children, his son heir, Wesley Steambird, and his daughter Valerie Steambird, had arrived a day later because they had taken a detour to reunite with the heir's sworn blood-brothers, Robert Baratheon and Eddard Stark. Apparently, he and his father consented to this after the request of Wesley's fiancée, Lyanna Stark and Valerie. When their party arrived to the tourney, everyone was marveled at how age has been graceful with Valiant Steambird, who was over 60 name-days but looked like one of 40. But the true beauties were the soon-to-marry couple: Lyanna Stark was a beautiful winter rose only rivalled by a few other noble ladies, while Wesley Steambird looked like a graceful falcon: nimble but strong, very agile, super intelligent and a man of strong moral codes but also very pragmatic and observant of the situations around him. (For his appearance, think of him as Fionn Whitehead, the main protagonist of the movie 'Dunkerque') Many people that saw him even said that he could be Rhaegar's northern counterpart. However, unlike Rhaegar and Elia Martell, he and Lyanna were happily in love with each other and their soon-to-be-marriage was widely supported in the North in contrast to the many discrepancies Rhaegar's marriage caused with the southern Great Houses. Needless to say, everyone knew something was bound to happen in that tourney... and it did.

The tourney lasted for a 10 days, and yet that was all that history needed to change. The first sign was when, during the feast held in the Hall of a Hundred Hearths, Wesley caught Rhaegar flirting with Lyanna which was in many ways wrong. Fortunately, Lyanna managed to maneuver her way away from him so he didn't need to intervene. She was also a little shocked that Rhaegar would do that even if he was already married. The second sign was at the end of the joust in which Rhaegar ended up victorious, he ended up crowning as the 'queen of love and beauty' to Valerie Steambird. Rather than being flattered, Valerie alongside the northern visitors were indignant about this action, that soon after the King of the North ordered all the northerners to return home. And it only got worse...

While packing up, Valerie went with Princess Elia Martell to apologize and keep diplomatic relations with House Martell in a cordial state. In hindsight, it was more of a formality since House Steambird and House Martell had a long history of great diplomacy between each other and both Lord William and Lord Doran were actually long-distant relatives. Nobody knows how it happened but while giving her sincerest apologies to Elia, Valerie was intercepted by Rhaegar. She would later explain to everyone that Rhaegar tried to apologize for his behavior before, and as a bonus, offered her to have a conference to discuss something "very important" according to his words. She would have called it a bluff if it wasn't for Elia saying that Rhaegar was very serious about it. So she agreed, only in the condition that she would talk it with her father after her brother's wedding.

Soon enough, the northerners returned to their land and their sour mood soon changed once they arrived at Praefectus City, where the wedding between Lyanna Stark and Wesley Steambird soon took place. After the celebrations were over, Valerie finally communicated to everyone what happened earlier and a discussion soon ensued about what to do. Eventually, everyone came to the agreement that Valerie and Valiant would go to King's Landing along a century of elite guards while Wesley enjoyed his honeymoon with Lyanna in the North. This journey would take a turn for the worst later...

Scholars speculate that Rhaegar's intentions were to talk with the two nobles about receiving support and planning an uprising with the objective of deposing his mad father. Nevertheless, such talks never occurred because Aerys was notified by the Master of Whisperers of their arrival and in one of his moments of madness, he ordered them all arrested as soon as they entered the city. This caused a very serious uproar in the North, since technically, the crimes in which Aerys was accusing the prisoners of (conspiring against the throne, threats of assasination, etc) never happened, as such King Rickard demanded that Lord Valiant's party to be returned safe and sound to the North. Seeing the clear mistake that their King had done, everyone in King's Landing and in the South started to plead to Aerys to let the prisoners free. But Aerys had then another attack of madness and, rather than setting them free, ordered the party to be executed. However, one day before the execution date, the northern spy rings (called the "Silent Owls") settled in King's Landing managed to spirit away to safety all of the prisoners with exception of Valiant Steambird, who stayed behind to make sure that Aerys didn't catch them up. Later on, the spy masters informed with heavy sadness in their notes that Valiant Steambird died in a stake of valyrian fire. However, he did not go out without a show. The witnesses of his execution reported that Aerys wanted to see the Steambird lord shake in agony and scream in pain, but as Valiant burned into ashes, he never once turned his stare away from the mad king, with no signs of pain, not even a flinch in his face. Meanwhile, Aerys was the opposite, since the longer the burn happened the more he would throw a fit of rage and shake in anger. Eventually, it was in the final moments of Valiant that Aerys screamed: "Cry in agony for me, you stupid bird!" To which Valiant responded: "Our birds soar higher than your dragons, your Grace. Our cries are only for the wise and the Gods." And with that, he passed away, never once bending to the wishes of the mad king, who went into the biggest fit he ever had in his life. Rhaegar would later store the ashes of the fallen lord and leave them to be safeguarded by Elia Martell.

Once the news of Valiant's death reached the North, a big grieving was done in his city, and condolences came from all the regions of the North, some from the South and even a few from Essos and the Golden Empire. Once that period ended however, the whole North was FURIOUS and King Rickard called the banners to avenge the loss of one of his most loyal vassals: the steambirds and the direwolves were finally going to war against the dragons.

Two alliances soon formed and even if the North was one of the main players of the war, it was called 'Robert's rebellion' because the Lord Paramount of the Stormlands was the first one to openly rebel against the royalist forces in the South, the reason being that previously, Valiant had agreed to let him and his daughter to court between each other, and even though it was not confirmed yet, Robert had already assumed that Valerie would be his bride. The northerners had the support of the Stormlands, the Riverlands and the Vale while the royalists were conformed of Dorne, the Crownlands and the Reach. The Westerlands had declared neutrality towards both sides, although to many, it was clear that House Lannister was more inclined towards the Northerners because of the dislike between Lord Tywin and King Aerys.

The war was divided in three fronts: the Riverlands, the Stormlands and the Reach. The first front to open was that in the Riverlands was led by King Rickard along his heir Prince Brandon, his second son Eddard Stark, Lord Paramount of the Vale Jon Arryn, and, later, Robert Baratheon. They were the main force of the rebels and of the northern army and were the first to encounter the bulk of the royal forces. However, things appeared to not start well for the rebels once Robert found out his forces were surrounded on all sides by their enemies in Storm's End. Even if he managed to slip away towards the Riverlands with a huge portion of his army, Storm's End, under the leadership of Stannis Baratheon, was in desperate need of a relief force and supplies. That's when Wesley Steambird along Lyanna Stark intervened.

Everyone in the South considers the waters of the Stormlands to be impossible to tame and use on anybody's favor but the Steambirds were very well known to accomplish the impossible and they just did that again. Apart of having now a fleet entirely made of metal corvettes, one of the advantages the 'Peregrine Falcons' army had amongst their allies was the experience they had gained in all the areas of the South during their peacekeeping jobs, alongside very effective scouting units and spies. As such, the northern naval captains soon found out through notes and interviews with seasoned captains that in many parts of the stormy waters there were some 'corridors' of calm water that allowed ships to travel safely to the coast back and fort which they used to their advantage, which in turn meant that the Peregrine Falcons could land their forces safely in the few coastal areas of Shipbreaker Bay. And because Lord Mace Tyrell and his forces that were besieging Storm's End were overconfident that the stormy bay would keep any naval relief force away, they soon paid heavily for their mistake. Without being spotted by their enemy, the Peregrine Falcons marshalled their forces in the coastline, while also smuggling supplies with the help of a smuggler called Davos Seaworth until they eventually attacked the left flank of the besieging forces after weeks of preparation. The Tyrell host was caught entirely by surprise and fearing for his safety, ordered his forces to withdraw into the main camp rather than send a few of his reserve troops to reinforce the flank. This gave the besieged an opportunity and exited the castle to exploit it. After the long battle that followed, the Tyrell forces were forced to retreat and the rebels along the northerners celebrated their victory. After that, they reinforced and prepared to send another army to link with the main northern forces that were now tied down in the Riverlands.

Meanwhile, the Tyrell host retreated towards Summerhall, were he planned to rally his forces and march into Storm's End again. However, it was during such planning for a counterattack when he received shocking news: a northern fleet had been spotted near the Shield Islands and making way towards Highgarden. Turns out that Wesley's fleet was only HALF of their forces, the other half was being led by his sister Valerie Steambird towards Highgarden with the intention of besieging Highgarden and inflict as much damage as possible while baiting the Tyrell forces to return. The bait worked perfectly and forced the Tyrell host to abandon any offensive plans and rush back to the relief the siege. The few ships sent against the Northern navy were crushed without inflicting considerable damage, and even if the defenders had numerical advantage, all of their attempts to exit and attack the Peregrine Falcons ended up in failure so they stayed inside the walls of the main castle while the besiegers bombarded constantly their walls and sacked the outskirts. Eventually, Valerie would abandon the siege once she heard reports of the Tyrell forces being near and sail towards King's Landing, leaving behind a humiliating chapter for the house of the roses.

Meanwhile, the Steambird and Baratheon forces reached the Battle of the Trident at its most crucial moment after many days of marching, surprising and crushing the royal forces from the rear. This put the royal forces in a critical point now that they were being surrounded from all sides, and as such, Rhaegar made the wise yet fatal decision of engaging the rear force to make way for a tactical retreat. During the battle to force their way out, he and Wesley came up face to face and a duel soon endured between the two. The Kingsguard knights that were with Rhaegar had been unable to reach him because they were engaging Wesley's new personal guard: the Blades, which had at least double the amount of knights. female and male, with the same skill level as them. However, everyone that was near their area agreed that the duel between Rhaegar and Wesley was the most intense they had seen in their entire life. Rhaegar was the most skilled knight of the Southern Kingdoms, but Wesley's training had been a unique one: he had been trained in the Yi Ti arts of the "wind slicers", a combat technique that required crafty movement, fast reflexes, a cool head, and years of training to unleash its whole potential. Wesley had been described by his instructors as a "prodigy", learning many of the moves in a months whereas it took years to many others and even going so far as mixing his with many other known styles. This meant that Wesley had speed, reflexes and unpredictable moves to counter the strength, toughness and quick counters that Rhaegar had. His armour was also one of a kind, rather than the typical chainmail or plate armor, he wore a laminar armor conformed of a special alloy between titanium and valyrian steel (think of the male Orochi default armor from 'For Honor'). Wesley himself designed and made that armor for him and not even to this day had the secrets of its creation been revealed to the public; however, that armor proved to be superior to its steel contemporaries, being light, resistant and aerodynamic. He also had another advantage over Rhaegar and that was his weapon: a valyrian steel katana he himself forged and baptized with the name "Divine Wind". In his hands, it was fast and nearly impossible to foresee. The duel between the two lasted very long until it ended with Rhaegar being accidentally slayed by Wesley. He aimed towards Rhaegar's shoulder in an attempt to disarm him in a non-fatal injury with a downwards attack using a pose which the Targaryen misread thinking Wesley was going to rush him forwards, this caused him to raise his arms in an attempt to make a downwards chop once he got in range. This action exposed his upper body for the attack Wesley was about to use, which ended being a somersault (the upwards 'Storm Rush' attack of the Orochi) that made Rhaegar's attack miss and Wesley's to connect with greater force than expected. His blade ended up going through Rhaegar's shoulder armor and his chest until it hit his left lung. Wesley was shocked, specially because he knew that the injury was a fatal one and Rhaegar only would had a few minutes to live. The Crown Prince used those minutes to give some last-minute instructions to his kingsguard, surrender and ask for Wesley to forgive his family. Wesley replied: "Your children and wife will never have any moment of terror under my protection. Your father however, will respond to what he has done. I swear it upon the wings that raises my house." Rhaegar passed away peacefully after that and the royal army was no more. The Battle of the Trident was over.

The Northern alliance soon took a few days to rest, regroup, take and secure the prisoners in their camps and bury the dead before resuming their march towards King's Landing. Once they arrived there, they found out horrified that the city was being sacked by Lannister forces. Fearing for the royal family, Wesley, Lyanna, Ned and Brandon along with the remaining members of the Kingsguard, Ser Gerold Hightower, Ser Arthur Dayne, Ser Oswell Whent and Ser Barristan Selmy whom had promised Rhaegar to follow Wesley's orders until they recovered the royal family, went to rescue them. Forcing their way towards the royal chambers, they found out that the doors that safeguarded Elia and her children in Maegor's Holdfast had been broken which made the rescuers fear the worst and rush up the stairs only to arrive at the scene of Valerie holding off Ser Gregor Clegane, "the Mountain that Rides", from entering the royal chambers. Screams of fear could be heard form the inside and the rescuers soon put 2 and 2 about the giants presence there. The Kingsguard spirited away the princess and her children along Valerie whom was wounded while the rest engaged against the big armored monster. In the end, the Mountain fell to the blade of the 'She-Wolf' in an impressive fight that was seen by the "Silent Owls", who would later use this to make new songs in the North about it. After that, the rescuers regrouped at the Red Keep, which was where they saw Aerys II Targaryen slayed by Jaime Lannister. Ned was quick to call him an "oathbreaker" which then earned Jaime the nickname of the "Kingslayer" to everyone (but that would change once Wesley interrogated him in private and learned the real reason behind his kingslaying after the sack ended.) With King's Landing on control of the Northern alliance and the Lannister forces, the rebellion had unofficially ended after 8 months of bloody fighting. Valerie would later explain while recovering from her injuries that she managed to make a secret deal with House Martell while sailing through their southern coasts which involved rescuing Elia and her children from Aerys' grip and bring them back to Sunspear in exchange for the Martell host to withdraw his forces from the conflict. In the end, she arrived with her fleet in secret a few days before the Lannister forces and was preparing the escape along the "Silent Owls" until the day the Lannister forces arrived. Once she knew that escape was now or never, she rushed alone towards Elia's chambers through a secret passage and JUST managed to arrive before the Mountain, whom had just brought down the door to her room. As such, she had no other choice but to engage him. Usually, this meant certain death to whoever was crazy or stupid enough to face the giant man, but if Wesley was known for his agility and speed, Valerie was known for being remarkably though, strong and smart (consider her style as that of the Warmonger class of For Honor) and that helped her to hold the Mountain long enough for rescue to arrive.

Once they secured the city, Ned and Brandon would continue with an army to the South to communicate and parlay the surrender to House Tyrell while their father Rickard, along Wesley and the rest of the alliance would deal with the aftermath in King's Landing. And it was in here that the cracks started to show. Many of the rebels wanted the royal children to be dead to avoid future attempts of restoring the Targaryen dynasty; Wesley refused to have that and took them under his protection along with the support of Rickard and the rest of the northerners. Even so, the rebels insisted, with Robert and Tywin being their biggest supporters, much to the frustration and dismay of Wesley. It went into a point were Robert and Wesley ended up exchanging physical blows. Fortunately, nobody was killed but it ended the brotherhood between Wesley and Robert alongside Valerie's contract with the latter at her request; Robert tried to win her back but she refused to relate to a "monster willing to put innocent children to the sword." After that fight, Wesley basically isolated himself and his followers from the negotiations, leaving them in the hand of Rickard and Tywin who decide to wait for Ned and Brandon to bring along the Paramount Lords of the Reach and Dorne to work out all the details. Once they returned 2 months later, the deal they set would later become the "Treaty of Madness" whose most important points were the following:

1- Robert Baratheon would become the new King of the Andals and the Six Kingdoms along House Baratheon.

2- Robert will marry Lady Cersei Lannister to consolidate his alliance with House Lannister.

3- The Targaryen survivors would become subordinates to House Steambird, and as such, will become subjects of the Northern crown, meaning that any harm done to them from their southern neighbors would be interpreted as an attack on the North.

4- As such, if any member of House Targaryen tried to make any attempts of reconquest in the foreseeable future, House Steambird will personally take care of the problematic member.

5.- The ancestral home of Dragonstone will become House Targaryen seat of power, meaning that it will also belong to House Steambird and the North. As such, a strong naval presence of the northern navy will be assigned there.

6.- House Steambird will offer asylum at Praefectus City to Elia Martell and her children, princess Rhaenys Targaryen and little Aegon Targaryen in exchange of abdicating their claim to the Iron Throne. They would stay there until Rhaenys had grown into legal age to take control of Dragonstone.

The treaty was signed, and with that, Robert's Rebellion officially came to an end. After that, the northerners returned home safely where they would later enter into a minor succession crisis while in the South the long tedious task of rebuilding the Six Kingdoms was just about to begin.

Greyjoy's Rebellion.

Ever since the Conquest, House Greyjoy and the North had been hostile towards each other since the former believed that the latter would be an easier picking without the protection of dragons, only to be finished off later by the same reason that helped them stay independent. However, it wouldn't be until the aftermath of the Dance of Dragons that the competition for supremacy on the sea from both kingdoms would start. After creating the new "Northern fleet", William knew he needed to put them up to good use after the war so he separated the whole fleet into two forces: one would be the "Coastal watchers", in charge of patrolling the coasts and intercept any hostile ship trying to disembark on them, and the "Expeditionary Marine fleet", the ones in charge of bringing the fight to others before they bring it to their homeland. Even though both fleets had advantage in numbers, tactics and quality of their ships to beat up the Ironborn, they usually only faced them near the coastal areas or in bays where they could use the terrain to exploit their tactics against them, but in open seas, the Ironborn were still superior because of their battle prowess. That soon changed however, when a group of retired Yi Ti captains that had been accused falsely in their homeland arrived to the North in search of political asylum. Lord Valiant had gracefully allowed them to stay in exchange for their services and these captains soon wiped up the northern navy into a formidable force. By the time the Greyjoy Rebellion occurred, the whole northern navy had completed retraining on using the same styles of the Yi Ti marines (I'm putting samurais to the Game of Thrones, people!) along both fleets being equipped with a new weapon that would revolutionize warfare in the years to come: naval cannons.

Once the rebellion started, the King of the North Eddard Stark called the banners once he got word from the "Silent Owls" in the Iron Islands that Euron Greyjoy was planning to attack directly against Flint's Finger as a bypass and then aim at Praefectus City using the new 'Fever Channel' that connected both Saltspear and the Bite and had just been finished after more than half a century of work. Ned soon sent orders to Wesley to set the watchers and the marines to intercept Euron's fleet and destroy them before even giving them a chance to see the coast. Just some weeks later, the Northerners received news that Lannisport had been attacked with most of the Lannister fleet lost and that Robert Baratheon was calling the banners and asking for help from the North while at the same time, they also received reports from scouts about Euron's fleet approaching Blazewater Bay. Having anticipated this, the Northern Navy was ready to make Euron's bold attempt his last one.

The battle of Blazewater Bay started in the early morning, when some scouts spotted Euron's fleet trying to sneak using the early lights of the day to catch by surprise the awaiting northern navy thinking they were sleeping. Unbeknownst to them, Wesley had hidden a part of the fleet near the rocky shores of the bay using bushes, seaweed, fallen branches and even dirt as camouflage in order to sneak behind their fleet and surround them later. The plan worked and those ships stood hidden at the beginning of the battle. The first shot came from Wesley's side in the form of a cannon shot from a special ship called a 'turtle ship': a normal ship with a reinforced spiked iron roof that covered the whole deck which made it impossible to board, the Ironborn favorite method, and armed to the brim with cannons. And worst for the Ironborn yet, Wesley had a full squad of 6 of those ships in that battle as their vanguard. These turtle ships literally stood still, taking head on the vanguard of the Ironborn fleet without receiving heavy damage while their opponents were sunk fast. Eventually, Euron made a different move and simply divided his force in columns to break in the gaps left by such small number of turtle ships and surround them. In response, Wesley commanded the vessels in his flanks to rush forward and flank the Ironborn vessels through the sides and try to surround them. It was also there when he sent the signal for the hidden fleet to surround and attack the rear of the Ironborn fleet, which they did smoothly. Being surrounded from all sides without a possible way to retreat, Euron went crazy and ordered his whole fleet to ram against the Northern ships. Their plan was simple: ram, board and capture their vessels. However, all the Ironborn received a nasty surprise when they found out that the ships of the Northern Navy were WAY different than they remembered: they were taller, sturdier and bigger than those of the Iron Fleet. Even Euron's ship, 'The Silence', dwarfed in comparison to Wesley's captain ship, 'The Northern Victory' (a reference to the famous HMS Victory captained by Horatio Nelson). This made boarding difficult and costly and once they succeeded, they realized in horror that the crew of the ships were way more hardened and equipped than them. One surviving sailor described them in his words as "men of true ice". Soon enough, the Ironborn found themselves being decimated by the northern navy both in enemy or friendly decks that desperation soon swept into their ranks. In an attempt to recover the offensive, Euron rammed his ship against Wesley's and boarded it along his men, intent clear on taking the head of the navy off to send the others in disarray. However, it soon turned out that Wesley's crew was the toughest of them all and Euron's men were repelled so fast that in the end, the northerners were boarding the Silence now. Seeing this, Euron went crazy and berserk against Wesley, and started attacking him. Wesley in turn, avoided and blocked all of his attacks while also making some quick counters. The longer the duel went on, the more exhausted and crazier Euron was getting until a point in which he tried to slam himself in a rushing attack against Wesley to throw both of them overboard; to Wesley, this was an easy to read tactic and decided to use it to his advantage. Once Euron started charging, he countered with a rush of his own, and when both men were about to collide, Wesley jumped very high that he ended up stepping literally on Euron's back, then made pressure to make a mid-air body jump from him, forcing Euron to crash into the deck floor, and then used his airborne momentum to make a downwards swing that ended up connecting with Euron's neck and decapitating him. The birds of steam had dominated the krakens at their favorite domain. The rest of the Ironborn fleet was destroyed and many of their ships, including the 'Silence', were taken as trophies.

After reporting the results of the battle to Ned, Wesley was ordered to bring the expeditionary fleet towards Lannisport and wait for the northern host to rendezvous there. Eventually, all of the armies of the southern kingdoms arrived there before the northern army which gave time for Wesley and Lyanna to make a survey to organize the invasion force. Later on, the Peregrine Falcons alongside the northern army finally arrived and the invasion of the Iron Islands could begin. Wesley and Lyanna were assigned to invade and occupy Harlaw while Valerie would take the Peregrine Falcons and attack Pyke alongside the rest of royal forces. They stayed there until they received the news of the Greyjoy's surrender. During the aftermath negotiations, the North claimed Harlaw as their prize, which was granted. Knowing very well the traditions of the ironborn, Wesley made sure to make the fight as bloody as possible on both sides to "pay the Iron price" so that their new vassals would surrender. This turned into a wise decision, since it put into submission the survivors of Harlaw which then allowed Wesley to perform various reforms that would transform the island into a mayor fertile naval port that increased the quality of life of the commonfolk, which in turned made House Harlaw voluntarily switch allegiance. As a reward for the Yi Ti captains for their service, and as token of confidence to House Harlaw, Wesley created a betrothal between his most loyal captain and one of his best friends, admiral Yi Sun-Sin and lady Gwynesse Harlaw and married them after 1 year of courting and cultural exchange. The marriage was successful and created the new and only Yi-Ti house of Westeros House Sun. Their emblem became that of a red sun rising out of a blue horizon. (Imperial Japanese Flag FTW!) They built a new keep based more on Yi Ti architecture and culture that would be called the "Iron Sakura Hold" and where the Yi Ti captains and their staff would live on and interact with the locals from them on, with their offspring creating a new race that would later be called as the "Sun people".

It was after this last war that the Southern kingdoms gave House Steambird the title "the Unbeatable Birds"; no matter in how many conflicts they went, they always seemed to turn it into their advantage and claim victory everytime. But will that streak of victories keep up for a long time or will they soon run out of it?

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All done! I hope you liked these retells of the famous conflicts we all love to read and analyze in the Game of Thrones! Please leave a review and see ya later in the next one-shot, which will be the first with character interactions of this series!

House Steambird, "Rising to skies unknown" signing off.