Maester Kennet 136 AC
"We can't pay for such a tax; the lords won't stand for it!" Alys raged at her husband, he noted that she was still a beauty after three births and thirty years. Although her beauty wasn't as great as her anger in this moment, he didn't understand why though as the problem seemed rather simple to him; they borrowed money and now it was time to pay back the money that they owed, if they couldn't pay it back then it was there fault for taking too much out in the first place. But he had entered in the middle of the argument and didn't have knowledge of all the facts besides who was he to judge a highlord such as Cregan and his wife.
He was the fourth son of House Waynwood and had joined the Citadel on the suggestion of his mother, he agreed as he didn't wanted to be a strain on his family so he chose to leave and pursue a life of knowledge and wisdom in the goal of bettering the realm. He had joined the Stark household two years before the Dance and had done his best to be seen as worthy to the Maester of a Lord Paramount; only a step beneath Grand Maester who had the ear of the king himself! Not bad for only a decade's worth of studying.
He had been invited invite the solar of his lord, and entered only minutes previously before being welcomed to the inner sanctum of a lord paramount with angry shouts. He looked at the nobles he was meant to serve and found it necessary to end the argument before it could become physical or one say something they would regret in the future. As loud as he dared and with as much respect as he could gather the maester spoke; "my lord and my lady, I would beg the right to be made aware of the topic of which you seem to be almost ready to kill each other for.' They stopped their argument abruptly to silently stare him as if he had never been seen by either of them; their emotions were hidden well as all he could sense that they were fuming with one another.
Lady Alys huffed and spoke first, it was unsurprising as she had shown herself to have the shortest temper of the two preferring to take the more direct route, no matter who it angered or slighted. "My husband seems to have forgotten his manhood and apparently has held a secret desire to become the dragon's whore". Lord Stark's response was as quick as it was incensed; "You dare woman! You dare insult me in my own hall!" "I do more than dare dear husband. What will you do? Bend over, lift up your skirt and timidly ask for it gentle?" her words were light and mocking as she smiled innocently at him, baiting the wolf lord.
Kennet grimaced as Alys released her venomous words and braced for the no doubt fiery response from Lord Stark. It wasn't the first time she shown why they called her 'Black' Alys, he remembered when she had spoken to one of the maids in the Queen's Hold and made the poor girl run away crying after only a few minutes of talking to her. He had wondered more than once why Lord Stark married her, perhaps he liked a challenge? All the same it wasn't his place to judge and so he didn't.
But it was his place to help his masters even if they wanted to kill each other and so Kennet all but threw himself between them preventing all any acts of violence from occurring, he had his back to Lord Stark and so gazed into the dark eyes of Alys Blackwood. His splayed out as if he was to be crucified. He saw humour and anger within them but there was also love, concern and care that made him content somewhat knowing that she bared at least some positive emotion towards her husband. If she did not then he despaired for their marriage as he didn't believe that it would be a happy one.
He heard a howl of righteous indignation behind him and a terrifying scrape of steel, before crying at the top of his lungs "Stop this madness!" He prayed to every god his mind could remember in the short half-second that seemed to last an eternity, he knew that if his lord didn't calm himself then he would get a sharp sword between the ribs or bowels. Not the best place to have them he thought darkly. He closed his eyes in prayer and desperation; his mouth whispering half a dozen prayers in half a dozen tongues each for salvation and a peaceful rest.
A second passed. Then another, and another. He open his eyes, looked down to his chest and then patted down his torso checking that he wasn't in some post-death hallucination and his body didn't have a gaping crimson wound where his heart was meant to be. Although the prospect was fascinating, of that he didn't deny. Once he was certain that he wasn't about to be join his elder brother in the next life, he turned around and saw a tall bearded man with black hairs that were beginning to grey more than likely due to stress. He was a handsome man in the 'gruff warrior king missing his crown' sort of look but the handsome man terrified Kennet all the same.
It wasn't the glare of absolute loathing that was more than likely directed to the person behind Kennet, nor was it the massive smoky grey sword that looked sharp enough to slice through scales of Balerion himself, it was the tired look he held. His shoulders were dragged down, his hair was dishevelled and lacking its usual Stark lustre. He looked run ragged, as if he had aged at least ten years in a single night. The tired man ran a hand through his hair, looked at his wife without the passion he had earlier as if simply drained of all the fire he held only moments ago and sat down on one of the seats in the solar . As he was he sighed dismissively "I don't know Alys, if it makes me less of a man for seeking peace so be it."
They kept staring at the lord waiting for a response, waiting for an action more like his usual self, when they were shown that he wouldn't at least for the time being Kennet turned immediately to the Lady of Winterfell; "My lady, I have never seen such an attitude from the Lord Cregan before in all my years of serving the Starks could you please explain what this conflict could be to provoke such a response?" his tone was respectful but demanding. She looked equally as confused as he felt, he noted though that before she began she shot a look to her husband before settling her eyes onto him; "Truthfully good maester? I would not know, this argument began when my husband told me that the King was to increase taxes on the north by a quarter for the next ten years."
That alone was worthy of rebellion, it was outrageous. No other kingdom had such a burden, it would be detrimental to the prosperity of Westeros and setback the north by years as they would struggle to pay for their new improvements and pay the crown as well. The shock must have shown as, Alys continued "Exactly that is what I felt and told to him straight that the Crown had no right demanding such price upon us."
She certainly had a couple of good points; the Crown was asking for far too much and the northern lords weren't going simply smile as their new riches were being carted away from them. But to defy the crown was rebellion and as long as the Targaryens had dragons they could terrify their vassals into line or burn them if they didn't comply.
Kennet felt that a diplomatic approach was best as to not step on any toes; "My lady surely being a little cautious wouldn't hurt anyone-", Alys erupted at this "This isn't a matter of being hurt. It's a matter of pride! We are a Great House of Westeros, kings in our own right! If this boy king dares to challenge the wolf, we'll show him why we hold the largest amount of land bar none in the known world! If he comes with Fire and Blood, we'll throw him back with winter and steel!" She can speak rather loudly for one so small he thought.
As enraged as she was she continued "- If that bastard wants to send what little dragons he has left to die in the north, so be it! Moat Cailin has faced far greater opponents when it was at a lesser state; let the dragon come in his hundreds of thousands. Our Old Gods won't allow us to fall, name an enemy who has conquered the north? None, not the Andals and certainly not the Targaryens." Kennet said the obvious answer as inoffensively as he could "The Starks my lady". She glared daggers at him that.
A voice came out, it was tired but was confident and strong "one doesn't need to take the Moat to take the North; our navies are nothing compared to those of the Arbor, or the Iron Fleet, or even the royal fleet. Should they land in the north and gain a toehold they can-" "They can be thrown back into the sea!" Alys cut off her husband and once more made her beliefs in the argument known. Kennet in all honesty sided with the lady; he truly believed that if Lord Stark called the banners now he could potentially take King's Landing alongside a naval fleet from White Harbour, with almost little to no resistance.
But Cregan found another hole in the lady's argument; "And if we fail?" Alys looked at him strangely as if the thought of failure did not occur to her. She offered no reply. He continued; "If we fail then not only will our house be put the sword so will half the houses of the north. We will be remembered the same as the Gardeners, the Hoares and the Durrandons; age old kings who fought the Targaryens and died for their efforts", he looked around and saw that no one would offer him a response "if we are to take independence and hold it, then we have to smart about it. We need allies, we need men, and we need to be stronger than we have ever been before."
Kennet felt it opportune to speak; "We cannot be able become stronger, if we are to take a tax that weaken us so greatly." "So we don't pay it" which was Lady Alys' response which was painfully blunt as always, she continued "I'm certain that the Essosi builders that we hired will only need a few more years to finish the new castles then we can have them help finishing the fleets being constructed in the Sunset Sea. We can trade our minerals with the Tyrells for food to help populate the north". Kennet found that was a non-sustainable option as the Tyrells wouldn't be likely to continue trading with the North once they had declared independence. But he kept his silence.
"As for allies; the Greyjoys have wanted independence since the Burning of Harrenhal, the Lannisters have never been happy kneeling to the Dragon and I'm sure the Arryns could be convinced to retake their crown." Kennet saw a major flaw in her argument; "you say that we shouldn't pay the new tax, surely a tax collector or like would notice?" Somehow the lady had an answer "we have to bring a representative for the North's don't we? A Peer of The Realm or something of the like. So we give them Torrhen, he's a loyal man who's been in the south before and knows how to play the game."
Kennet was still unsure; "Do you truly believe Lord Manderly can stall for twenty years?" "If not stall then at least divert the king's attention away from the north." Alys remained steadfast in her trust in the Lord of White Harbour. Kennet felt it best that they spoke less of subterfuge and spies as he was sure that Lord Stark was not as agreeable. her husband entered the argument at that point "They won't. The Arryns share blood with King Aegon. Distant blood, but blood all the same and being as 'high as honour' they're more likely to join the King than rebel."
Kennet offered a counter argument; "Why only allies that are Lord Paramounts? The Princes of Dorne would like nothing better than to burn Highgarden to the ground and alongside the Ironborn striking from the Mander they could achieve such a goal. With our new trade routes and with help from the houses trading with the Free Cities we can surely find allies in Volantis, Braavos and perhaps elsewhere. Houses Osgrey, Hightower and Tarly want nothing better than to put House Tyrell to the sword. And even if the Arryns won't join us, perhaps their banners will; House Royce has craved their Runic Crown since the they lost it and have been waiting for the opportunity to retake it."
Stark's interest was piqued from the look of the man, so Kennet continued "It's all well and good to be simply talking of allies, but how are supposed to tie their houses to us?" Alys looked smug for whatever reason "Have I not borne you three daughters my lord?" You mean to say that you would sell our own daughters for some bloody alliances" Lord Stark snarled in disgust.
There was a tired frustration to her voice as she spoke "I am not surprised to see that you'd only think the worst of me, dear husband." The look in her eyes were tired and held an edge that held more in common with a Valyrian steel sword that was mentioned earlier. She continued "But I am not one to give away my children to houses and families that they have not never even heardof unlike some."
Lord Stark narrowed his eyes, and hissed "What. Does. That. Mean." Lady Stark merely sighed "Nothing, absolutely nothing". Kennet re-joined the argument to release any tension "All the same any marriages outside the north will have to be considered for our independence, not right now of course but at a later date". The nobles in front of him made sounds of agreement.
Kennet then realized what they were talking about and gulped with difficulty. We were actually considering on doing this; to split from the Iron Throne. Lord Stark stood strong and straight as if his spine had been replaced with a spear, there was a fire in his eyes. He looked almost... regal. Kingly but not quite. He spoke as if only realising the weight behind the word he had speaking "This is treason, we speak treason"
Alys half-smiled mischievously to her husband "That we do my dear, but we can succeed, we can rise victorious in this." Still the thought of failure and its consequences lingered, Kennet voiced his issues "Should we fail..." "Then we fail; it needs no ceremony. But won't; we have a plan and we have the resources and we have the time. We can do this."
Kennet thought to himself mayhaps I can be a Grand Maester after all.
Elric Greystark 136AC
I can't do this.
It was hell trying to manage his household, his wife and her entourage and then the foreign men that were hired to rebuild the ancient ruin that was to be his castle. To be honest he was probably making this to be a greater problem than it actually was. Surely it was a normal thing for his wife to rebuke every act he had made to be more than just friends who fucked, it was also probably normal for her holy men to wield driftwood cudgels and threaten anybody bar himself. Of course it wasn't, he failing to trick himself into believing he hadn't been given the short straw in the case of rewards from Cregan. He couldn't even comprehend who he had wronged to deserve such a fate.
His wife, Alayne Greyjoy was easy on the eyes with her raven hair and dark eyes. She had a high enough standing being the eldest daughter of the Red Kraken which was better than he'd ever thought he'd get as a third son. She hadn't come to his bed a virgin but she more than made up for it in how... experimental she was, so everything was fine in the bed. She was good at managing a household and knew how to direct the servants efficiently. When they had journeyed around their lands and met their small number of vassal lords, she behaved every bit the daughter of a Lord Paramount and made plenty of friends and allies.
She had borne him beautiful twin daughters and a healthy son despite her young age. They got on in nearly every topic they agreed or made a compromise that benefited both of them. She enjoyed her role as being his equal in all things and he enjoyed her advice and stories of her childhood, she was very nearly the perfect wife and it hurt him so much that the two problems she had were so terrible.
She kept to the gods of her ancestors; the Drowned God. Elric allowed her such religious freedom do so, as he wanted her to be happy and content with him. He still kept to his old gods of course, and had decided he didn't want to force his children into either religion and so decided to let them chose when they grew older.
To share her 'wonderful' culture she had invited some of her relatives and some priests of her homeland. Which were more forceful with their religion, and had begun to inadvertently turn his lords against him as they feared some kind of religious conflict which made things just perfect when trying to build up goodwill with them.
Her relatives which somehow included half the nobility of the Iron Isles, had thought it was a great idea to begin building their own keeps on his bloody land with builders from the Iron Islands. When he brought his grievances to his wife and would have commanded them to stop, she pleaded for their 'right' for them to have their keeps, she said of how his cousin; Cregan wanted the western coast populated.
Which was although true, as small folk from the Iron Islands were settling in the north by the thousands increasing the population of the fishing villages greatly and adding many new ones. Elric was certain that when his liege wanted the western coast populated it was with northern houses, but it mattered little their origin as long as they swore fealty to him and Winterfell.
They made excellent fishers and sailors, and there were enough young men willing to help with construction that the eastern fleets would finish moons before planned. So he compromised and gained around six new Ironborn vassals, much to the growing dismay of already existing northern vassals.
He had tried to integrate his new vassals into northern lifestyles, cultures and making them at least be aware of their neighbours by having them marry into the existing houses there and stay at the castle of the house they would be marrying into while the ironborn castles were being built, they would also grow weirwood grooves in their keeps to placate the northern lords.
Gratefully all the ironborn vassals all were happy having their keeps on the coast away from the more inland northerners and were already trying to make trade deals with the more inland houses for wood so as to craft more ships. They made warships and fishing vessels with equal enthusiasm much to his approval as what was the point of a hundred warships if you didn't have the men to properly man them and vice versa. He had also had them change from long ships favoured by the ironborn to the more standard galley which needed less men per ship and could have multiple uses apart from war. It wasn't much but it was progress.
His son; Cregan (named in the honour of the man who had given him so much) had just met his first name day and it was a day of relaxation with just him and his family but there was always some issue or another that bothered him. His heir although being quite young, had been already asked to be betrothed for several houses in the north and a couple houses in the south. The most relevant to him was the Mormonts; they were the most likely to become the Wardens of the Sunset Sea and it was in his best interests to the himself to them.
Although the Lannisters would also be a great ally to have with their mighty gold mines, would make him a major trading power. His fleet already was an equal for the Mormonts despite him being a very new lord and he wouldn't gain much from the Mormonts in comparison to the wealth and power that House Lannister could bring.
Those are tomorrow's problems and I can just be happy here with my wife and my children. He thought as he looked to his smiling gleeful son. Although he wondered how his brothers were managing.
Benjen Greenstark 136 AC
The Lord of the Laughing Tree was enjoying a pleasant trip around the gardens of Greywater Watch, with his loving wife, Lyanna in hand and his eldest son, Jon following his faithfully pointing out every strange thing that caught his green eye. Or he would be if he wasn't trapped in one of the numerous boring meetings that could have been a simple message he was forced to attend as Lord of Moat Cailin. Gods how he hated that name. To him; Moat Cailin was a symbol of the old North; a half forgotten ruin that was at best an echo of times past and at worst it was a useless eyesore. But it was his and he had done a lot to change it.
He had gotten the name from when his wife had shown him her favourite part of the Neck which was an old Godswood only half a league away from Moat Cailin, at first glance it would appear to be the same as any other Godswood just of a larger variant but as one entered the keep they were would see a great weirwood heart tree. The size of the tree was on calibre with the heart tree of Winterfell, it made Benjen wonder of the age of the heart tree and upon the face of the heart tree was a mighty face; merry and crying bloody tears of joy. It even laughed when a great wind blew through it. The tree must have been either planted and carved by the Marsh Kings of old or even the Children of the Forest of lore.
The thought of such a legendary origin made him almost shake in awe of the effigy of his gods. He had ordered that they would build a tower or keep close to the Godswood as so to mark it for times of future prayer. He wanted thought to make his second son into a masterly or knightly house of the soon to be built keep sworn to the eldest son of course.
The Knight of the Laughing Tree he thought, that was a good title and any man would be proud of such title. He would make it a powerful seat worthy one with the blood of a Stark. He would name his third son and any sons he would have would be they trueborn or no. He already had quite a few numbers of minor houses sworn to him and was quick in becoming a very powerful lord. Most of them were landed knights who he had seen fit to reward with keeps, as a reward for their longstanding friendships and loyalty to him. Their keeps hadn't even been started yet as his own wasn't finished and he allowed them and their families to take residence within his own nearly finished hall.
If Winterfell was the heart of the north, then the Moat was its sword and shield. Outer Moatsville was the larger town and was closest to the actual moat. It was poorer and held a larger number of people; it offered items and services of less quality of than those with Inner Moatsville. The buildings within were mostly made of wood and quite a few of them were rather substandard and would have become a northern mirror of the Flea's Bottom of King's Landing but Benjen had provided them with proper sewer systems from his coin that poured the outflow into the Bite away from any wildlife or man-made settlements.
Inner Moatsville was of a vastly better quality town with buildings of stone, most of its occupants were skilled tradesmen, merchants and the like. Benjen had offered to have their homes built from his own deep pockets on the condition that they would have a hand in building his castle and those of his vassals.
He had gotten quite well with both towns, as they would just supply him with levies for his armies but also servants for his castle. He had employed good number of men, women and young boys to serve as guards, maids and messengers from the Outer Moatsville and from the Inner Moatsville, he had employed the more educated people to serve as more complex jobs. All the servants were paid a fair wage, and given a communal keep for their accommodations with plentiful spacious chambers that had a fireplace for the cold winters, given a standard uniform and properly equipped with the tools the needed to do their jobs to the maximum efficiency.
These simple acts won him much favour with his smallfolk as they saw him not as an uncaring cruel master who oppressed them but instead as a kind and caring leader who only acted in the best interests of his people. And he was glad about it as the more his people loved him the less trouble they'd give him.
The workers of that had been renovating the castle had done a wonderful job in three short years. They had rebuilt the Great Keep which were Benjen, his family and all the families of his soon to be vassals. It was at the very centre of the entire complex, everything else orbited around it. The glass gardens, the stables, kennels, non-laughing Godswood, all of it orbited around the Great Keep. The keep that he was more than a little proud of, he would never allow his sigil of a black hand encircled by runes of the First Men upon a field pale green to never stop flying high.
The Great Keep was the stronghold of the castle, it was so impregnable that Benjen once boasted that he could lose both towns, all the walls and towers upon them, have an impossibly sized army of Others besieging him daily with only a handful of guards on his side and yet simply ignore the attackers for at least a decade.
The reason behind this host was that simple; the thickness of the walls on his stronghold was greater than his waist, and in the centre of the keep was a well that could deliver fresh water to the defenders. The well was nearly finished, despite being one of the earlier constructions in the castle. They had finished converting the many underground caverns into usable cisterns, granaries and coffers these caverns were only accessible from the Great Keep and none other. He had already beginning to fill up some the storages, especially the coffers.
Benjen had only been lord of the Moat for two years and already was very much on his way of becoming a great deal more powerful and richer than the majority of the lords of Westeros. He imagined the great times that awaited him and his family; he adopted a smile with a faraway look in his eyes. "Lord Greenstark? Are we boring you?" Benjen snapped out of his daydream and did his best to assume a regal pose worthy of a Stark as quick as he could. No one was fooled.
Lord Torrhen Manderly looked unimpressed but held a glint of mirth in his eye; the flaxen-haired man was blue-eyed and was every bit was fat as he was intelligent. The portly man wore his house colours, with a bold black trident on a field of sea-green. The edge is his clothes outlined in white. He knew that any Stark would have an ally in the Manderlys and gave a smile to the merman.
"I think you're just boring him with endless droning Tor, let the poor lad rest his poor ears." Was Lord Robyn Ryswell jovial reply; the man was old, pushing his forties this was made more than evident with his bald head and greying beard worthy of any Northern lord. He wore high quality riding clothes with his house sigil proudly embellished on his chest.
That's not to say that his age made him a lesser warrior or lord, as the man could still fight with the best of them and the Rills was in age of growth and prosperity that it hadn't seen before with the recently built Rysport. Which Benjen didn't know much about the town as he should have, he could probably guess like most places in the north that it was doing well.
The final lord that made this boring meeting was quiet and offered no words he merely looked at Benjen in annoyance, waited for the meeting to return to whatever they were talking about. Lord Cedric Dustin of the Barrowlands was dour person, never smiling or laughing. He was older than Benjen if not physically then also mentally; the man acted twice his age and was as lively as graveyard.
He apparently held some distaste of House Stark and all its cadet branches after the death of his father in the south and had railed against every edict and reform that had come out of Winterfell since the Dance but he couldn't do much alone other than hold his tongue.
Lord Ryswell spoke his voice was warm and grandfatherly; "Just to remind everyone who was unaware," Benjen needed no help to understand that comment was pointed towards him, he had the decency blushed lightly in embarrassment. "We are here to plan the construction of a set of canals that will join the Saltspear and the Bite to Moat Cailin. This will create a direct route from the Narrow Sea to the Sunset Sea, making trade with our friends in Essos even easier and more profitable"
Gods above, how powerful could one man get in such a short time? That was a riddle that Benjen could not know the answer to. Benjen could control the flow of trade to half of Westeros, he could block control of the trade and weaken the strength of the lands that border the Sunset Sea. The youngest lord spoke "Although I am grateful for such power to places upon me I don't understand why all the lords here are needed." Dustin looked me, his intent impossible to read as he was always melancholy. "What do you imply Stark?" he spat the word Stark as if it was bitter curse on his tongue.
'If the taste of the word is so terrible upon his tongue, then perhaps the problem is with the tongue, and perhaps it would better removed' Benjen thought darkly. The Lords of the Barrowlands and Moat Cailin exchanged glares at one another. Greenstark or Bluestark, a Stark was still a Stark. Benjen was about to unleash a volley of insults, that would have caused instantaneous war between their houses in one fell swoop.
Before such a thing could happen Lord Manderly cleared his throat loudly, then stopped after he realised what he was doing and then adopted an apologetic look "Oh my apologies, I've had this nasty cough for the last moon or so it been just terrible." Strangely enough, the lord didn't sound in any way apologetic if anything he sounded as if he had won a great victory. Lord Ryswell shot meaningful look to the merman, and continued his spiel "The lord here are all necessary and are the ones that will be most affected by the canals."
He motioned to himself "I represent the Rills; my house, the houses sworn to me and my people". He looked at Lord Dustin "Lord Cedric represents the same but for the Barrowlands. He looked intently at Benjen "Lord Greenstark represents the same for the Neck including the Reeds and Flints, as well support from Winterfell." Benjen furrowed his eyebrows in thought, he could potentially speak for Flints and Reeds as he had met both houses and their own vassals and they had formally acknowledged that he would more than likely be their liege within a decade. But for Winterfell? He couldn't say the same, surely a man as intelligent as Lord Ryswell would know this.
"Lord Manderly not only represents White Harbour but also Houses Woolsfield, Locke and Flints of Widow's Watch as well as their vassals". To be honest it wasn't surprising that the Manderlys held such political clout and yet it still astonished Benjen how powerful the Manderlys were despite being a relatively young house in comparison to the majority of the northern lords.
"Lord Greenstark to ensure that we gain as much as possible from this canal, it would be best if you placed a vassal at each point where the canals would meet the seas." He placed markers on the map, one castle symbol on the mouth of the Fever River. The position of the castle almost made Benjen laugh, as it was the point where had wanted to build a castle for his second son; Howland. He placed a second marker on at the coast of the Bite, presumably where the second canal would be constructed.
"To ensure that we have mutual control and to cement our alliance, it would be best that whoever gets these positions would have to marry from our houses. If a lord was given the eastern castle then they would marry into the Manderlys, if they were the western castle then they would marry either a Dustin or Ryswell." Lords Ryswell and Manderly kept sharing looks between one another to Benjen's confusion then it hit him like thunder and he then realised the reason behind the visit.
'They knew I would give these positions to my sons, and would seek to tie the success of my house to theirs.' Despite his disgust, Benjen nodded his consent to Lord Ryswell as he didn't trust himself to insult the smug lord who smiled widely, knowing his victory.
He would have commended on how despicable they were if he could get the anger out from him. It was an unfortunate side-effect of the mass growth the north was undertaking, older houses were on the way out would tie themselves to as many younger up and coming houses as they could and feed of them like leeches.
Younger houses didn't see as anything major as they would feel honored that such an old house would find them 'worthy'. Benjen had expected such behavior from a lesser house perhaps a masterly or knightly house not the damned Manderlys who were arguably the third most powerful in the north, and would only grow in time. Benjen complained "The builders that were given to me are too few to finish my castle and to construct the canal." Lord Manderly replied "Bah. I can hire more from Essos for you, don't worry about that lad."
He kept the grumblings he had to himself, growled "Apart from the canal, is there any other major issues that need to come to our attention?" The reply from the chipper Ryswell "Aye lad, I was ordered to go south and converse with some of the river and reach lord who have the most fertile lands in Westeros and to see if they could offer us any crop seeds that could last longer in the north."
At this Lords Manderly and Dustin perked up in attention, Dustin asked him the question that was on everyone's mind "So what did you find?" The horse lord smiled "The Tyrells gave me some crop seeds that they believed would fare better in the cold, as did the castellan of Harrenhal, the Hightowers and the Tullys." "Which one's the best, Rob?" Lord Manderly asked.
The horse lord simply shrugged "I haven't the foggiest, so I thought as a little test we could each take a type of grain, sow it in our fields and whoever has the highest crop yield wins and we send those seeds to Winterfell so they can share them with the rest of the north." Benjen thought the plan ridiculous "Why not just send all three to Winterfell and mix the seeds?"
The other lords stared him as if had proclaimed himself the King Who Bore The Sword. "You know nothing about agriculture do you?" Once again Benjen was shown up as a boob and in front of his peers as well, this day certainly had its ups and downs. He apologised swiftly and swore to not to say one more word in this meeting. "So I shall use the Tully seed, Tor you use the Hightower seed, Dustin you use the Tyrell seed and Greenstark you use the Harrenhal seed."
AN
To the person who said that Bolton has more men than Stark and that the city could raise more men alone. Firstly Bolton has fewer men it's just that Bolton doesn't have any masterly or knightly houses sworn to him. And they are both are weakness and a strength, as they can improve the land they've been given or can rebel and try to usurp their superiors. House Stark has several; Cerwyns, Glovers and Tallharts they are principal houses sworn to House Stark. So imagine if the Starks weren't Lord Paramounts, the Cerwyns, Glovers and Tallharts would still be sworn to them.
House Stark could remove those houses completely and still have the land and the people upon said land would still be sworn to them just more directly. I put House Lyeton so as to be able to used by the Starks to control the Bolton's from within. House Stark can rally 15000 and the Boltons 10000, I don't know the exact land placements as they don't make it clear in canon so forgive me if I get them wrong.
Cregan fears them because he isn't an idiot, he's allowed such things as an irrational fears and this is one of them. He knows that the Bolton's have blood ties to him and that may allay some of his fears but that doesn't mean much as Ramsay killed his brother Domeric and Roose rewarded Ramsay with lands and a title so I'm not sure how that gonna work out.
Also you can't empty the Wintercity of men, well you can do that but it's out of canon. It's also unsustainable as you'd have to pay for the men for the weapons/armour/food and supply so it's nonsensical. Also you'd be removing a city of all the working men. That's a dead city, you need working men for services, I'm not saying women couldn't fill the roles. They could in a modern city with equal rights, but in a male-dominated medieval environment where men do all the practical jobs? They don't have knowledge or experience or skills, and they'd be laughed at for even bringing up the idea, destroying any morale.
If it was so easy to empty a city of men why didn't the Targaryens or Lannisters do it? Even if only one in every five people in King's Landing is able to fight that's still a hundred thousand people. They would have won Robert's Rebellion and the War of the Five Kings respectively through sheer numbers. I'm sure it's a good idea on paper but in practise it's just not doable.
Aegon is not a well-liked King at all and for all intents it's his brother Viserys that's main power behind the Iron Throne. He's the one that meets the lords, the one that has ties outside of Westeros; he's practically Renly with the skills of Stannis. A likeable face and personality, but actually knows what needs to be done so as to rule.
Viserys obviously would like to hold onto the throne and so while it would be Aegon calling the banners it would be Viserys commanding, fighting, convincing people to bend the knee etc. He could make marry his kids tho other powerful families to get them allies.
As for the strength of the south, I believe it's better to overestimate an enemy and wipe them out completely than underestimate them and entertain the chance of defeat. The Stormlords and Reachlords jumped for joy when the Young Dragon declared war against Dorne and many of those lords sided with the Black Dragon against Baelor the Blessed and Daeron the Good when they tried to make peace. I could imagine the Valelords, Riverlords and perhaps the Westerlords doing the same against the north.
A problem presented to me was the premise; Aegon wouldn't allow Cregan to just help himself to the coffers. At that point Aegon is an eleven year old boy who watched his mother get eaten by his uncle's pet dragon. Who believed he lost his brother to a painful death via drowning, lost his father and pretty much everyone in his family to the war for him and his mother bar like three. On top of all the other thousands of people who died in the war, the orphans, the slaves taken by the ironborn the ruined families. He also flew to King's Landing on the neck of a dying dragon while in the middle of a terrible thunderstorm.
Everyone gives a guy a unfair judgement, it's a miracle he doesn't curl into a ball and cry every time he sees or hears anything to do with dragons or Targaryens. No, but really he should be suffering from depression and a guilt complex larger than the north at least. So at the very least while he's mourning for his family, when someone (Cregan) he trusted to deal with the affairs of ruling a country asks him for to get paid. I'm sure he didn't expect to get stolen from.
Another thing is that the LPs come to Winterfell, I'm sorry that seems kind of expectant as not only is the King bringing forward a new position that changes the political landscape giving all the Lord Paramounts a voice on the Small Council for the first time. I think that's good enough reason bring all the LPs.
The conflicts are just power struggles between neighbours, to competing for the best trade deals, for the marriages etc. It's nothing that could threaten a war yet, although as he north gets more powerful and after the canal gets built and trade deals become more lucrative. Some houses begin to depend heavily on trade rather than taxes.
Northern expansion is quick because they're importing workers from the free cities to do their labour, not slaves although there could be an argument to use slaves as a source of cheap labour to build their castles and dig in their mines.
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