AN: This fanfic is a crossover with Game of Thrones and my own original story, Tale of Delars. The Tale of Delars is simply about the life of the fortunate princess of Delars from young age to old age.

Once upon a time...

There were two ancient houses in the North of Westeros. The well-known House Stark and the other was House Swan. House Swan was actually established by the brother of the House Stark's ancestor who chose to settle at Stoney Shore. When Aegon Targaryen and his two sisters/wives arrived to conquer the North and Torrhen Stark, the king of the North chose to bend the knee, House Swan cut ties to the House Stark and rebelled despite only having an army of 40 000 men and were up against an army of over 500 000 men. Though they defeated two-thirds of Targaryen's arm, by using every mean possible, and forced the Andals and Southerners to sign an armistice to recognize the Northwest, from The Rills up to Bear Island as an independent kingdom, they had lost too many of their people and so gave up on defeating The House Stark and taking The North. House Stark wanted to reconcile afterwards and for decades they have tried but House Swan was silent.

House Mormont, House Ryswell and House Glover were originally vessels of House Stark just like House Swan were, however, after Torrhen Stark bent the knee and House Swan rebelled they took this opportunity to do so as well following Lars Swan's lead. After defeating two-thirds of the Targaryen's army and killing two dragons, the three houses proudly swore allegiance to House Swan who established the independent Northwestern kingdom, Delars. The three houses actively took care of each other, never forgetting what made them bond. Though the rest of the kingdoms of Westeros tried to bring them down it was futile. Delars was independent to the core.

The Crown: We'll starve them until they bend their knee.

House Swan: Oh, look what we found! Books that tells us how to make clear glass and greenhouses as well as how to improve agriculture.

The Crown: We'll cut off money flowing to them.

House Swan: Oh, look what we found! Three mountains of Gold, two mountains of Silver, five mountains of Iron, one mountain of diamonds (of many different colours), oh and we're still finding more...

The Crown: Cut off their trade routes.

House Swan: Did you know that you could sail west and end up in Bravos? We got some smooth trade deals in Ibben, Qarth, Yi Ti by the way.

While the crown continued to think that Delars was having a problem of starvation and lack of coins, House Mormont, House Ryswell and House Glover all partied in joy and made sure to improve their castles from the money they earned through the new trade routes. The rest of the northern households did still not know what they had missed out on. The Southerners laughed at their "stupidity", while still not truly knowing anything. Well, House Swan did build a giant wall from the Rills to Deepwood Motte with the help of giants.

Meanwhile, no one really knew what was going on in the Northwestern kingdom as they were silent and their land borders as well as seaborder were guarded heavily into not letting anyone in. And the defence army were ordered to kill anyone, from the south, who came close to the borders. People would simply think it was the ironborn who killed the southerners anyway. The Ironborn who thought, House Swan and Delars, weak tried to raid them several times but were smacked away with their tails between their legs. Since House Swan made a united army which contained men from the Northwest the Ironborn has ever since then failed to attack.

Delars was so silent to the rest of Westeros that everyone thought them dead and that they had finally lost and that the entire North finally belonged to the crown. Well, Delars let them believe whatever. House Stark, however, knew it wasn't like that at all. From House Tallhart's and House Dustin's messages Delars still seemed to be alive and well given how many soldiers were increasing at the borders.

Edwyle Stark like his predecessors decided to check up on Delars and House Swan, though he only got to the borders and met with King Göran III. He was blond-haired, blue-eyed muscular man with a funny laugh. The two men met and bonded over vodka as they both got drunk. And they knew that this was the moment when House Swan and House Stark would finally reconcile. Perhaps the north would unite once again. However, that wouldn't happen too soon. Edwyle Stark kept in touch with King Göran III, though House Mormont, House Ryswell and House Glover was against the reconciliation they really couldn't do anything if House Swan chose to reconcile. The three houses all had flourished and prospered under House Swan's rule and they never forgot about who started Delars to begin with. Who rebelled to begin with. The three houses only benefitted because their forefathers were lucky in choosing the winning side.

House Stark and House Swan's reconciliation started out small. Few letters here and there. Meetings at the border while drinking some vodka. House Stark started to buy grain and eventually more food from Delars that was enough to feed the entire North, to the point that there was no need in importing food from the Riverlands or the South. When King Göran III died of old age Edwyle and Rickard Stark were invited to attend his funeral though they could only go alone without guards or anything. Edwyle took the risk of going alone with his son Rickard. That was the first time a Stark ever stepped into the lands of Delars. Many of Stark's vessels were anxious for them and when Edwyle and Rickard returned their words when explaining what Delars looked like did not make any sense at all.

From then on House Stark and House Swan continued to get closer.

At some point workers from Delars came over to Winterfell to build a few glassgardens for House Stark.

At another point, House Swan gifted a necklace, made out of silver that formed a Celtic heart and decorated with diamonds, to the bride of Rickard Stark. The necklace came with a peacock blue sapphire diamond crown for Lyarra Stark. The crown became known as Queen's Crown. It also came with a valyrian sword for Rickard even though he would inherit Ice. The valyrian sword had been made with the thought that Ice would be buried with Edwyle Stark, it was simply a misunderstanding of culture.

When Prince Erik and Duke Michael Swan from House Swan arrived with a representant from House Ryswell, House Glover and House Mormont the other northern houses were in shock that the four northern houses that originally cut ties off with the rest of the north finally decided to show up. The wedding was splendid though a bit awkward in the beginning as the otherer northern houses did not know how to speak with the northwesterners. It seemed that because they had been cut off from the rest of the north the language had changed a lot to the point that it was unrecognizable. However, House Manderly being the merchants and opportunists they were decided to break the ice and try to speak with them. Turned out that though the language was unrecognizable at first-hand certain words was still recognizable. Using translators the representant from House Ryswell, which was Earl Rodrick Ryswell, and Lord Manderly started to find a common ground and eventually came up with a trade deal. Seeing House Manderly take the initiative the other houses began to speak. The representative of House Mormont and Lord of House Cerwyn seemed to get along even though they only spoke through gestures and bottles of beer.

In conclusion, though awkward at first the northern houses began to warm up to each other...

280 AC

The sixteen-year-old Eddard Stark showed his golden pass to the Delars guard at the border. He put a stamp beneath the stamp that said "enter" in Delars' language and the date when Eddard Stark had entered Delars as a young ten-year-old.

"Hɑː ɛn brɑː ri:sa", the guard in blue helmet said.

"Jɑg œnskar dæj ɛn bra dɑg", Eddard answered back and got up on his horse, Skywalker, who was a brown muscular horse, and they rode out as the gate closed. On the other side his house's men had awaited him.

"Lord Stark", the men greeted.

"It's good to see you all again. Let's leave and hurry to Winterfell. I can't wait to see my family", Ned Stark said with a smile as he thought about his family who he hadn't seen for six years now since he left for Delars.

The original plan had been to send Eddard to The Vale to be squired under Lord Jon Arryn and to also make the connection with southerners. However, at the invitation of Delars, Rickard Stark decided to send his second son to the Northwestern kingdom instead.

Eddard had only head stories about Delars and the capital city, Chorey where the Swan Castle was built after Aegon signed the armistice, but to actually see all of it in person was an unforgettable memory. Though the castle was named after swans the keep itself looked like a blooming flower from above. Eddard knew that since he had been on the Wheeling Rys. It was a Ferris wheel taller than any buildings. From it, you could almost see the entire city and Swan Castle. It was a beautiful castle. The inner city, where Wheeling Rys stood was originally part of the castle. However, the previous king felt that most of the space was unnecessary and turned most of the castle ground into a city. Eddard had the honour of being fostered under Duke Michael Swan, who was the brother of the prince.

Eddard had a hard time to understand what Duke and Duchess meant but it was simply a title cast to the prince and princesses whose position was degraded when their sibling took the throne and they were thrown out of the castle and managed to build their own castle and establish at least two cities and five villages in the middle of nowhere, in their given fief by the previous king i.e. their father. If they did not manage to do so within three years they would lose their title as a Duke or Duchess and everything they had built would be split among the other dukes. That is why many princesses and princes given land by the king would start developing it immediately in case they got thrown out by their sibling. Of course, they could always try and take the crown but that is even harder than developing a city. You would think that killing the royal heir would naturally make the second in line to the throne become the heir/heiress, that is of course if that had been any other kingdom than Delars. Delars was crazy. The process for when the heir to the throne is dead is that the other princesses and princes (whether you want it or not) need to go through the Rikswan trial. This trial is not a matter of days, weeks or months. It can take up to years. By the time you finally became the king/queen you would be old enough to die if you hadn't already been killed by the trial or your siblings because of their anger at you for perhaps killing the original heir to the throne and by doing that wasting their lives and youth. It was how the first king of Delars designed the trial and no one dares to change it. That's why the heir to the throne is so protected by siblings because no one wants to end up having to go through the Rikswan trial. The last time it happened all royal princesses and princes (regardless of age) died during trial except for one who became the Queen in the end after fifty years of trial, however, she was so old that she couldn't bear any heirs and had to abdicate it to a Duke from the Swan House. The current king is the great-great-grandchild of that Duke (who was later crowned king). Also, the Duke didn't necessarily need to be a royal princess or prince thrown out of the castle. It could also be the ones who inherit the title. Eddard and his family were apparently in the same position that a Duke's was considered as. If the children who failed to become a Duke/Duchess they could try and become Baron/Baroness, should they fail that then they either need to become knights or they will end up as commoners and could try and earn themselves a degree to become a minister.

The next title under Duke was Baron. Anyone worthy of the title could be anointed Baron, by the King/Queen, but the Baron was otherwise the children of the Duke who had been thrown out of the Ducal House by the heir, and who managed to develop their given land. Of course, there are requirements for who becomes a Baron. The normal requirement is that the person needed to establish a city on the given land. Though the requirements vary from Ducal House to Ducal house.

The title beneath Baron was Captain. The Captain could be someone who inherited the title or a knight who had taken part of at least ten battles, had high morale and good leadership. In order to be called Captain you must at least have 500 knights under your wing. They usually live in the land of the Baron and serve the Baronial House and the Ducal House.

The last title you could be given was Knight. The title Knight couldn't be inherited. You had to be anointed as a knight by the King or Queen.

To Eddard it all seemed confusing at first but once he understood the meaning of the titles he could simply make a connection to the usual noble titles of Westeros which were:

The Royal House (supreme rulers of the realm) - Royal Family of Delars

The 8 Ducal Houses (appointed by the king) - There are more Ducal houses in Delars (usually inherited or established by cast out royal children). Fighting between Ducal Houses are taken to the court. The King or Queen could also make Ducal house cease to exist and the other Ducal houses may split the land amongst themselves.

Baronial Houses (sworn as bannermen to the Ducal Houses) - Can be appointed by the supreme rulers or the Dukes

Lordly Houses (either powerful enough but without the title to be sworn in as full bannermen or simply sworn vassals to Baronial houses) - This could be interpreted as the Captain Houses however, the captain is usually a person which is in charge of a group of 200-500 Knights. The Captain is not necessarily sworn to the Baronial House on which land they live on. The captain is also a General during War.

Knightly Houses (basically landed knights and are sworn to whichever noble house which has granted them land) - The Knightly houses of Delars could only be inherited if the inheritor is knighted by the King or Queen. If not then the house either needs another heir or do not have an heir, and falls apart. The knightly houses are expected to have at least 1000 soldiers.

Besides the noble titles, Duke, Baron, Captain and Knight there were other titles:

Minister of Culture

Minister of Military affairs and Ministry of Defence which was for the moment the same thing.

Minister of Education and Research

Minister of Employment

Minister of Household affairs

Minister of Enterprise and Innovation

Minister of the Environment and Agriculture

Minister of Finance

Minister for Foreign Affairs

Minister of Infrastructure

Minister of Justice

Minister of Oversee

These titles were a bit confusing to Eddard Stark at the beginning since the nobility is usually the ones in charge of these affairs by calling them Master of Coin and so on. However, from what he gathered was that the different ministers are people who have been elected by the people within their ministry to become the minister. The minister could be from a Ducal house but it could also be from a Baronial House, a Captain House, a Knight House or even a commoner house. In other words, commoners could climb up in ranks within Delars society, even if the titles cannot be compared to nobility titles they still held equal amount of power as those with the titles of Minister of "something" are the ones who truly rule Delars. The King is merely there to make the final decisions. Otherwise, the Kingdom can also work even without nobility and a royal King. Of course, there are also simply ministers (who could be from nobility or simply be commoners), those are the people who have earned a minister degree and can vote in the Parliament. There are big ministers and small ministers depending on how much they have contributed to society.

The big and small ministers can become governors, which means that they are in charge of a certain area in the kingdom. The area is not limited to a Duke's land but it is often small. It is often the big ministers that end up as governors while the small ones become executives.

It would be expected that clashes between the ministry and nobility would happen but they surprisingly get along and also most of them are afraid of the Minister of Oversee who really will "spank" the one who misbehaves in the Kingdom, whether you are a commoner or noble. There had been cases in the past when a Ducal House was destroyed for misbehaving.

There were also different kind of people living in Delars too. There were the giants who mostly lived in the giant cities around Stoney Shore and The Rills since the buildings there were more built for them. There were also the children of the forest living in the weirwood forests. Shapeshifters could live anywhere but most of them preferred to live in Bear Island and Deepwood Motte. The current Shapeshifter clans are:

Wolf clan

Tiger Clan

Fox clan

Bear clan

They usually contribute soldiers or knights to the Northwestern Army. The current Minister of War was from Bear Clan and is also connected by blood to House Mormont.

Speaking of The Four Houses. The Four Houses also is known as the founding Houses which are House Ryswell, House Glover, House Mormont and House Swan are all considered royalty even though The King is from House Swan. However, these four houses hold a dear place in Delarsians' hearts as they were the ones to defeat Aegon Targaryen and force him to sign an armistice and also improve the living standard in The North. Of course, that was all House Swan, the other Houses simply benefitted from the knowledge in House Swan's family library.

Eddard lived in The Swan Castle in a guest room of the Western Wing. Every day he woke up and could see the greenery inside the magnificent greenhouses which used glass as clear as air. Though Eddard was used to see it in Winterfell since the glassgardens there used the same glass, he was aware that getting such clear glass was not common in Westeros. Only Winterfell used such clear glass either as gifts from House Swan or they paid a lot for it. However, what was even more shocking when he arrived to Delars was the fact that the majority of houses, whether apartment houses or not used glass as the roof since the people living in the building all had a greenhouse on the top floor. You could see the sea of greenery when you were on the top of the Wheeling Rys. That's how integrated Delars was with nature. Of course, the Keep also used glass roof though not on the side towers of the keep. The keep consisted in general of one big round tower that had eight floors the tower roof was made out of very thick glass that could enhance the view of the stars so that you could see them much closer and all the other planets. Then there were the eight towers surrounding the big tower and they had blue pointy roof which was common for castles. The eight towers all had six floors. Surrounding these eight towers where the parts of the keep that looked like a flower's petal. There were six of them in total, each had four floors. Their roof was made out of the thick glass as well, except that the glass shone like diamonds in the sun. Eddard was lucky to have gotten a guest room on the fourth floor as he could sleep under the starry sky. He received a big room. Bigger than his room in Winterfell. It had its own bathroom, and he was glad that his father had a bathroom made in Winterfell using the Delarsian workers to make it as otherwise he wouldn't be familiar with how to use them. Being the shy person he was he wouldn't either ask about how to use them. He got his own walk-in-closet though he barely used it as he didn't have many clothes with him, to begin with. The first day he arrived in the Castle was spent touring it. He especially enjoyed the giant library with over five-thousand books. He then hung out in the Bath hall and sat in the sauna before receiving a massage by a servant. Those thirty minutes of massage felt like heaven to him. He then dined with the royal family which consisted of:

King Lars IIV; a blonde-haired, blue-eyed muscular and tall man that was as intimidating as you could get. He looked similar to his predecessor.

At that time when Eddard first arrived the King was at the age of forty, while the queen looked younger than she looked. The princess was older than him and the eldest prince was a bit older than him while the youngest prince was as old as him.

Queen, Cynthia; a cold woman who originally came from House Glover and the marriage was more out of convenience so there was no love between them. In fact, both the King and Queen had their own lovers and openly showed it. Cynthia had black hair and green eyes.

Though according to the laws the lovers couldn't become more than just lovers. If they wanted to climb up the social hierarchy then they had to do so on their own accord.

Princess Carolin; The eldest child and daughter. She is the crown princess of Delars and has blonde hair and green eyes.

Prince Ingvar; The second child and eldest son. He has blonde hair and blue eyes.

Prince Orvar; The third child and second son. He has black hair and blue eyes.

Because they were at a similar age Eddard and Orvar got along very well. Though Orvar was very eccentric he wasn't as loud as Lyanna or Brandon. Prince Ingvar was like Eddard. Quiet. Princess Carolin was a lot like Lyanna when it came to like to fight with swords, however, she wasn't wild. That, however, must be because of her position as the crown princess. She knew her duties.

During his stay, Eddard was taught reading and writing and also sword lessons, though, he was more taught of how to fight with his legs and hands rather than a sword. He was taught more of the other martial arts like Muay Thai, Taekwondo, Kali and Escrima, as well as fencing and also building up his body to become muscular. Muscularity was a norm amongst the men in Delars and Eddard had seen many muscular men throughout his stay which inspired him to become more muscular. His practice partner was often Prince Orvar though there were a few other squires on the royal training ground to practice with. He was also taught administrative work and also got to follow the Minister of Oversee along with Crown Princess Carolin. Eddard also had to go to the dentist each half-year to check on his teeth and he went to the doctor to have a health check-up. He also went to the hairstylist to get a Side Part cut which was very popular at the time and made many men look handsome. During balls, he danced with the children of dukes, barons, captains, knights and also commoners who were children of ministers. Once he was sent out on a field trip with twenty squires to live out in the woods and survive in the woods for a month. While he survived, and got used to living in the forest, this made him appreciate more of the warm home and room he had. He also travelled around the Kingdom and stayed with Duke Mormont, Duke Ryswell and Duke Glover for awhile. He helped a village fight off some Ironborn which was there to raid. As a graduation exam, he was in charge of a village for a year. Though he had fun there were moments when he missed home, like when Delars celebrated Spring and Summer, Autumn Harvest and celebrated in remembrance of the dead, and celebrating Julmar in the winter. Julmar was especially a family Holiday. It was a time when you made peace with people and with family. A time when gift each other presents to show your appreciation or love for each other. Though he received presents from his hosts and his friends Eddard missed his family especially. Naturally, the presents he considered best were letters from his family.

And today he was finally home.

Eddard Stark was home.