The Realms of the First Men
by Maester Wendel of the Citadel
For nigh on two millennia the lands of the First Men in the North of Westeros had been a realm apart from the Andal Kingdoms of the South, divided by culture, language and faith. What limited contact between them that occurred came in two principal forms; war and trade.
After the Breaking of the Andals, as the Northerners would later call King Jonathen's attack on the North, the Andals would not bother with the North again.
At least the completion of the conquest and conversion of the vast majority of the South.
The High Septons of Oldtown sanctioned no less than fourteen crusades against the pagans of the North, each ending in failure; most in the swamps and marshes of the Neck, some in the freezing waters of the Northern seas, and a few in the grey wastes of the North itself. Trade with the North, in contrast, was more successful, but largely limited to the entrepots of Wolf's Port and Sea Dragon Castle. However, few Andal Lords or Knights were welcome in such places, even had they wished to visit, and the accounts and experiences of merchants and smallfolk were of little interest to such great and mighty men.
The Targaryen conquest of Westeros, whilst nominally uniting the southern lands of the Andals with the Northern lands of the First Men, did little to change this state of affairs. When King Torrhen Stark submitted to King Aegon I at the Trident, he received a solemn oath that the traditions and faith of the First Men would be guaranteed and protected. Combined with the vast size of Aegon's new domain, and more pressing matters for the King to attend to in the South, this ensured that the North, the most distant and isolated of Aegon's provinces, was left largely to its own devices.
Over the next three hundred years just three Targaryen Kings would visit the North, doing so just six times in total; Aegon I in 8 AC, Maegor I in 44 AC and Jaehaerys I in 63, 67, 71 and 75 AC. Of the three only Jaehaerys made any concerted effort to integrate the North into the rest of the Seven Kingdoms, before slighting the North, and particularly House Black and House Umber by taking away part of their land and giving it to the Night's Watch. This land would later be called Jaehaerys's Gift. After that Jaehaerys abandoned his efforts as a lost cause, famously remarking that just as his family could not conquer Dorne they could not rule the North.
Just as the Targaryens largely left the North alone, so too did the First Men largely ignore the South, with the notable exception of Lord Cregan Stark's intervention in the Dance of Dragons between 129 and 131 AC. Lord Stark agreed the Pact of Ice and Fire with Prince Jacaerys Velaryon, pledging to support Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen and the Blacks in return for numerous concessions and privileges, most notably the renunciation of Jaehaerys' laws in the North and the promise that a Targaryen Princess would marry a future Stark Heir. At the end of the civil war Lord Stark ruled in Kings Landing as Lord Protector for six days and served as Hand of the King for one, before returning North. During his time in Kings Landing, however, Lord Cregan Stark would fall in love with the daughter of the late Rogue Prince and half-sister to the current King, Baela Targaryen.
Relations between the North and the South became troubled during the reign of King Baelor I and his idea to annull the marriage between his aunt, Baela Targaryen and the Warden Of The North Lord Cregan Stark, as, in his eyes, marriage under false Gods is for heathens and pagans, and is not a true marriage. King Baelor I, also refused to complete the Pact of Ice and Fire, and declured the promise made between his late brother Prince Jacaerys Velaryon and Lord Cregan Stark. In response to this insult, Cregan Stark began sending Kings Landing nought but a single pine cone in place of his annual tithe, a situation that would remain unresolved for the rest of Baelor I's reign.
It was said that Baela Targaryen was furious with the insult her nephew made against her beloved husband, and said that he, Baelor, was a dissapointment to not only House Targaryen, but to the same Gods he worshipped.
While the North never did have much love for the Targaryen's, the whole of the North loved, admired and respected Baela. She gave Cregan ten children, five boys and five girls. She ruled not under her husband, but alongside him, making important and great decision that helped the North tremendously, both during summer and especially during winter. When King Tormund the Red, tried to take the Wall with an army of 13.000 Wildlings, Baela rode to battle alongside her husband and killed the King Beyond The Wall herself. She was hailed as a hero, both in the Night's Watch and in the rest of the North. A statue of Cregan and Baela is at the center of both Winterfell and Wintercity. In this statue Cregan and Baela are standing side by side, hands clasped together, with Cregan holding ICEin his free hand and Baela holding a shield with hers. At their feet is curled Lord Cregan's giant Direwolf, who he named Shadow, and wrapped around Baela's shoulders is a little dragon, probably Moondancer, Baela's dead dragon.
Lord Cregan and Lady Baela Stark are revered all around the North not as Lord and Lady Paramount, but as King and Queen of Winter.
From then on, Lords, Ladies and commoners all around the North began giving their daughters the name Baela, very often.
Considering such historic antipathy towards the South, it is perhaps understandable that King Aerys II grew concerned about the ambitions of Lord Rickard Stark, who had chosen to send his second son Eddard Stark and betroth his heir Brandon Stark in the South, with Lord Jon Arryn and Lord Hoster Tully's daughter Catelyn Tully respectively.
But it was not Aerys that made the first move that would spark rebellion as many thought. It was his son, Crown Prince Rhaegar Targaryen. Everyone in the Seven Kingdoms had high hopes for him. He was seen as a brighter future for the realm. He was smart and kind, and a perfect Prince of the Realm. For all his good qualities, everyone knew that the Prince was obsessed with prophecy, and they were all weary of him.
Prince Rhaegar Targaryen, started the downfall of his own family by kidnapping Lyanna Stark, the daughter of the Warden Of The North, Lord Rickard Stark.
Aerys Targaryen "The Mad King", sealed the death of his House by choosing to have Rickard Stark illegally exacuted by burning him alive and slaughtering his son Brandon Stark along with all his companions, including Ser Jason Mallister and Ser Kyle Royce, brother to Lord Jon Mallister and heir to Lord Yohn Royce respectively. The events that followed after, would irrevocably shake the foundations of Westeros, and forever change the Seven Kingdoms.
The Castle And City Of Winterfell
by Maester Rickard of the Citadel
Winterfell is a huge castle complex spanning several acres and protected by two massive walls. There are runes made of red stone all around the castle walls, made by Brandon the Builder. There is a city outside, the. Wintercity. Winterfell has been built around an ancient Godswood and over natural hot springs. The water is piped through walls and chambers to heat them, making Winterfell more comfortable than other castles during the harsh northern winters. This system was later implemented also in the small town outside of Winterfell, by King Edwyle Stark, whose statue is in the middle of Wintercity. This made winter-town the best place for the smallfolk to spend their whole lives and the winters in the North. Because of this, the population of the winter-town increased significatly. Before King Edwyle Stark, the small town housed around 5.000 people during summer and 15.000 people when full during winter. Now in 250 A.C. winter-town is no longer an appropriate name for the small city outside of Winterfell.
Inside the walls, the complex is composed of dozens of courtyards and small open spaces. Weapons training and practice take place in those yards. The inner ward is a second, much older open space in the castle where archery practice takes place. It is located next to the broken tower. Inside Winterfell stands the inner castle, which contains the Great Keep and the Great Hall. Winterfell's towers and halls have diamond-shaped window panes.
Winterfell and the Wintercity around it was far larger than it had any right to be. Land is something that the North has in abundance and thus there are few crowded alleys or small hovels, and its people prefer to build out than up. It is a city of sprawling buildings, few more than two or three stories tall, spread out along both sides of Winterfell and all dominated by the great castle of Winterfell itself, as vast and squat as all the buildings of the city that bears it's name. Markets, manors, warehouses, inns, meetinghouses, Godswoods and even a couple of Septs litter this city, all in the shadow of the mighty castle. And yet, for all that this city is built on a grand scale, it is empty, perhaps with but half as many inhabitants as White Harbor, the seat of House Manderly.
During the years of summer the North is transformed, as much of the population of its towns and cities spreads out into the vast plains and forests of this realm, to work lands held and worked by their ancestors for generations. Whilst some of the southernmost settlements, like White Harbour, are inhabited year round, the winters being comparatively mild – by which I mean no worse than in the Vale of Arryn – across most of the North winter sees the land empty, as farmsteads, small hamlets, villages and even isolated towns are abandoned as their people move to the rivers and the settlements along them, bringing with them all their wealth and herds. This seasonal migration has occurred for as long as any can remember, and is how the First Men have come to survive years of constant snow and frost. In winter the population of the Wintercity grows by no less than three or four times, from some 30.000 souls to close to 100.000.
The Castle And City Of White Harbor
by Maester Morhen of the Citadel
In around 1.500 BC, House Manderly was driven into exile from the Mander by Lord Lorimar Peake during the reign of King Perceon III Gardener, King of the Reach. The Starks welcomed them to the North, and accepted oaths of fealty from the Manderlys, giving them the Wolf's Den and the surrounding lands, leading to the creation of White Harbor around the Wolf's Den. The ancient castle is now used as a prison, as the Manderlys reside at the New Castle and receive visitors in the Merman's Court.
White Harbor is a harbor city in the North which contains the New Castle, the seat of House Manderly. Located southeast of Winterfell, it is the largest settlement North of the Neck.
White Harbor is the North's primary trade port. Its location on the mouth of the White Knife provides opportunities for trade further North.
Due to its location White Harbor has more contact with the south and there are more Knights and followers of the Faith of the Seven in White Harbor than anywhere else in the North. There number of followers each relegion has is split around the middle, with perhaps the Old Gods having more. The city has access to good fishing grounds and is also the home of many silversmiths.
White Harbor is located on the eastern shore of the White Knife. It is clean and well-ordered, with wide straight cobbled streets that make it easy to walk around. The houses are built of whitewashed stone, with steeply-pitched roofs of dark grey slate.
The harbor is divided into the inner and outer harbors. The outer harbor is larger, but the inner harbor offers better anchorage and shelter by the city wall on one side and the looming mass of the Wolf's Den on another. A mile-long, thirty foot wall, with towers every hundred yards, is located on the jetty that separates the two harbors.
The New Castle is the seat of House Manderly. It is located on a hill inside the city wall, a broad white stone way of Castle Stair, which is a street with steps, leads to its gates from the Wolf's Den below.
The Merman's Court is the great hall of the New Castle where Lord Manderly holds court and feasts. Its walls, floor and ceiling are made of wooden planks notched cunningly together and decorated with all the creatures of the sea.
In the middle of the city center of White Harbor there is a statue of a man with the head of a Direwolf extending his hand to a Merman about to drown as a sign of help. House Manderly built this statue, in honor of House Stark who helped them to their feet when they had nothing, and helped them become one of the most powerful Houses in the North.
White Harbor is year round twice the size of Wintercity in winter, and it houses around 200.000 souls. This makes White Harbor the House which fields the most men in the North.
The Northern Military
House Stark: 7.000 men, 2.250 of them heavy calvary, 1.500 light calvary.
House Manderly: 10.000 men, 5.000 of those foot soldiers, 3.000 of them heavy calvary, 1.500 light calvary and 500 sailors
House Black: 8.000 men, 2.200 of those heavy calvary.
House Frost: 4.000 men, 1.000 of them heavy calvary, 1.500 of those light calvary and 500 sailors.
House Stormwolf: 3.000 men, 200 of those light calvary.
House Dustin: 3.000 men, all of them heavy calvary.
House Ryswell: 2.000 men, 400 of them light calvary
House Umber: 2.500 men, 1.000 of them are Berserkers who are professional fighters, and 200 light calvarly.
House Karstark: 3.500 men, 600 of them light calvary.
House Bolton: 4.000 men, 1.000 of them heavy calvary.
House Mormont: 500 men.
House Glover: 2.000 men, 300 of those light calvary.
House Tallhart: 1.000 men, 100 of those light calvary.
House Cerwyn: 2.000 men, 500 of those light calvary.
House Hornwood: 1.000 men, 60 of those light calvary.
House Reed: 2.000 men, they are all great archers, but they are not foot soldiers.
House Flint of Widows Watch: 600 men
House Flint of Flint's Fingers: 700 men
The Winter Wolves are the Northern mounted force that participated in the first part of the Dance Of The Dragons, led by Lord Roderick Dustin later known as Rudy The Ruin.
Lord Cregan Stark having seen what a well trained, fully mounted force can do, declared the Winter Wolves as the North's Standing Army. This force would later consist of 5.000 men. 3.000 heavy calvary, 1.000 light calvary and 1.000 mounted archers armed with Weirwood bows, the best kind of bow right after those made of Dragon Bone and the Goldenheart Bow used by the Summer Islanders. The Winter Wolves are based in Moat Cailin, and during war time go wherever the Lord of House Stark command's them. The men of the Winter Wolves, are provided by all of the North. Every house in the North provides a number of men to the Winter Wolves. The largest houses like Stark, Manderly, Black, Frost, Bolton, Karstark and Dustin provide around 120 men each. Other Houses like Glover, Umber, Ryswell, Stormwolf and Cerwyn provide around 70 men each. The other Houses in the North that are not as powerful provide around 10-50 soldiers each, in order to hit the 5.000 mark that Lord Cregan envisioned.
The full military might of the North, if you include boys, old men and peasants that have never picked up a sword in their life, is around 80.000 men. But this number will never exist in practice.
Lord Cregan Stark was shocked at how much time it took for him to gather his armies and resolved to fix the problem. He hired architects from Braavos, Volantis and the other Free Cities to built good roads to connect all of the major keeps to each other, and to Winterfell. The project took a couple of years, but in the end the North had one of the best road network on Westeros, just behind the Westerlands.
After Torrhen Stark bend the knee to Aegon The Dragon, he limited the North's Fleet to 10 war-ships on either side of the North.
The total number's of the North are:
19.000 horse, which consists of around 12.500 heavy calvary and 6.500 light calvary, 35.000 foot soldiers. All in all, the Northern Army consists of around 55.000 men. In addition to that, are the Winter Wolves which number 3.000 heavy calvary, 1.000 light calvary and 1.000 mounted archers. So the full force of the North is around 60.000 – 70.000 men.
During wartime, however, these numbers are not possible. The North, during war, usually takes 13.000 horse and 17.000 men with them to march alongside the Winter Wolves, because it can't feed more than 35.000 men at a time.
The Riverlander's Military
House Tully: 2.500 men.
House Rivershield: 4.500 men
House Blackwood: 4.000 men
House Bracken: 3.500 men
House Vance: 3.500 men
House Mallister: 2.500 men.
The combined millitary of the Riverlands is about 50.000 men. That almost never happens, however, because the Riverlands are very divided and seldom stick together.
House Tully was unique amongst the great houses of Westeros. Aegon the Dragon had made them the Lords Paramount of the Trident, yet in many ways they continued to be overshadowed by many of their own bannermen. The Brackens, the Blackwoods, the Rivershield's and the Vances all ruled wider domains and could field much larger armies. The Mallisters of Seagard had a prouder lineage, the Mootons of Maidenpool were far wealthier, and Harrenhal, even cursed and blasted and in ruins, remained a more formidable castle than Riverrun, and ten times the size besides.
Dorne's Military
House Martell: 3.000 men
House Dayne: 6.000 men
House Yronwood: 3.000 men
House Uller: 2.000 men
House Blackmont: 2.000 men
House Fowler: 2.000 men
Dorne's military strength, was about 30.000 men. With House Dayne having the most men, in comparison to the other Dornish Houses, and twice the men of the second largest Houses in Dorne, House Yronwood and House Martell. What gives House Dayne such an advantage compared to the other Dornish Houses is, quite simply, it's location.
House Dayne rules a wider domain than all other Dornish Houses. In addition to that, the domain of House Dayne exists along almost the entire Torentine River, which flows in between two mountains. That makes the location of Starfall, the castle of House Dayne unique in Dorn, as the weather along the river and between the mountains surrounding it much more bearable than the rest of Dorne. Rainfall is twice more common in between the mountains and in the domain of House Dayne. These weather conditions allowed the only city in Dorne, Star City, to flourish. The city, by the time Dorne was a part of the Seven Kingdoms housed 25.000 people, and was home to the fleet of House Dayne, the only fleet in Dorne. The existance of this city is what has made House Dayne the most powerful and rich House in Dorne.
This is the Stark Family Tree I have in mind for this story, from Cregan Stark and Baela Targaryen, to 300 A.C.