Prologue: Watcher on the Wall
Cold winds swept over him as he faced north, or as the free folk say true north.
Brodding, that's what he does, or as Arya and Robb used to say.
Arya hasn't been heard from in years and Robb...Robb was dead, murdered at his uncle's wedding by Frey and Bolten.
Yesterday he was so hopeful when he saw the Lords of the North reinforce the Brothers on the Wall just when they need it most, when the wildlings attacked from both sides.
Hope fled like the snow in the wind up here on the Wall, where he'd retired to read Robb's last words to him.
Jon,
I know that's not what you want, but I need you.
I would have from the start.
I see that now, everything has turned to shit, through my own mistakes, I admit that.
But what really broke me was my mother, I don't know how much you know at the wall.
Darcy and Small Jon will explain everything to you, now I understand why father never wanted anything to do with southern politics.
The Riverlands are indefensible and I've tried everything, everything we learned from Father and our games of conquering Westeros.
These games are a lot bloodier than we ever imagined, it's like dad said war makes a monster of us all.
I know we've talked about it many times, never agreed, you always said we all have a monster in us and try to tame it with honor.
Honour, what father always strives for, I tried and I think I succeeded in many ways.
But that was my mistake in war honor doesn't exist and I've fallen from one honor trap to the next in the last few months.
I got married in case you didn't know.
She is a Volantien beauty, a healer who left her homeland because she could no longer live with slavery.
I was hurt, she healed me, and as Sansa's stories always say, the rest is history.
Because of that I lost the Frey, in order to cross her bridge I had to be engaged to one of old Walder Frey's daughters.
I'm just trying to patch that up, if this reaches you, Edmund my uncle should have already married Frey's daughter.
But my worst mistake was trusting my mother and giving her too much freedom.
The others explain everything that happened to you, it's too painful for me to put it into words.
Just knowing that your mother doesn't believe you can win the war was enough for me.
Enclosed are two more documents, one is my will in case something happens to me, the other is my proclamation that I release you from your oaths as Black Brother and legitimize you as Jon Stark to be my heir in case I don't leave any children behind.
Small Jon and Darcy have other suggestions I have for you, but it's up to you to decide what you do, Prince Jon.
I hope we meet in the middle to drive Theon and the cursed Squid's out of the north.
I remain your brother
King of the North Robb Stark
My brother's last words to me, the meeting that will never happen.
Robb was right I always said we all have monsters inside that we chain with honor.
But what use do I have for chains.
The cold winds move the snow like a dance.
Cold as the wind so let us dance, until we run out of our enemy's blood.
"Long life the King" says Jon one last time in the solitude on top of the wall.
A tear in his eyes, until it ran down his cheek and finally became part of the wall.
Excerpt from the chronicles of the 2nd age Anno 333 after the conquest.
Much has been handed down about ancient times, much has been lost in the waves of the centuries.
With this manuscript I try to prevent this for our age, with this chronicle inspired by Arch Measter Erwide who tried to supplement the chronicle about the reign of the Targeryen and their history and the "Unnatural History".
Even just a few decades later, many witness testimonies are no longer complete or reliable.
I'm trying to paint the most likely picture of that time of great upheaval while remaining as neutral as possible.
For this I have to start with my bias, our order is greatly reduced after the "Rape of Oldtown" as it was titled.
That was not one of the important conflicts of this times, it was just a consequence of the aftermath.
The decisions of a ruthless monster are what they are, even if we don't wish them to be, and He plays a central role in the conflicts that have birthed our age.
Shifting borders where always part of a war, but Westeros had not seen such great upheavals since the Conquest.
Though he himself only gained prominence at the end of the conflict, the rise of the "Butcher of Oldtown," a title rumor has it this demon in human form likes, is significant.
Everything looked like a conflict in the recess, in winter only the madmen make war, until one incident after another plagued the southern lands in winter.
One of the kings of the "War of the 5 Kings" left one last revenge on the south.
The King of the North, Robb Stark, first of his name, had sent emissaries to the Wall to free his bastard brother from his oath and, if the worst came to the worst, to appoint him as his heir.
This must have been a decision made in dire need.
But for the North the salvation they needed, to the sorrow of us all, King Robb was himself killed in the most monstrous way shortly thereafter.
Some the believers to this day believe that all that followed was the Old Gods revenge for Frey and Bolten's breach of guest rights.
Those two obliterated houses weren't enough to satisfy the hunger of the "Butcher of Oldtown", though.
Winter came and with it the hordes of the north...