CHAPTER 1
-EDDARD STARK-
"For his bravery and service during the war, I call my cousin Edrik Snow" The Lords convened a council where the current Lord of Winterfell was awarding his Lords.
The Lords cheered, shouting and hitting the table with their fists.
"None can doubt his prowess in the field, as he showed when he led the van through three battles in one day, not an easy task almost impossible, but he had done it!" Ned's bannermen cheered once more.
"You praise me my lord cousin!" Edrik Snow, a big man, not as big as Jon Umber but around Bran's size, he was the baseborn son of Edwyle Stark, brother to Rickard Stark.
"Had Uncle Edwyle be alive he would be extremely proud of you cousin" Ned nodded at his cousin
"I live to serve House Stark!" Edrik grinned and bowed his head
"Aye, for that I Lord Eddard of House Stark, Lord of Winterfell, and Warden of the North give the lands of Stony Shore to Edrik Snow, do you Edrik swear to be a fair ruler amongst your lands?"
The council fell silent, Edrik shocked, fortunately he regained his wits.
"I do my lord"
"Do you swear to protect your people from those who wish harm?"
"I do my lord"
"And, do you swear to always defend the North, and serve House Stark loyally?" Ned had his serious face on, the room was so silent you could have heard the flow of the water from the pipes.
"I do my lord" Edrik looked like he was sculpted from Ice
"Swear to me cousin" Ned commanded
"I Edrik Snow, swear to uphold peace among my lands, to defend my people, to be a fair Lord. I swear to raise my arms and any men in my house able to do so in order to defend the North, I swear to Loyally serve House Stark, to show those who wish them harm my fury. This I swear to the Old Gods, may they hear my vow" Edrik drew his sword and knelt
"I Lord Eddard of House Stark, accept this oath of Loyalty from Edrik, may he govern his lands well, may he serve me faithfully, defend the North and its people and to live with Honor and dignity. Rise Lord Edrik, I give to you the name Frostwolf" Ned stood up from his seat and went to his kneeling kin.
"Rise Lord Edrik Frostwolf, may you serve the North as best as you can" Edrik had a few tears in his eyes.
"I thank you my lord, for as long as House Frostwolf shall stand we shall serve the Stark of Winterfell faithfully. So I the Lord of Frostwolf from this day and so on, and should I have any heirs, say, Be just and Vigilant" Edrik bowed his head then howled, soon the Lords joined him, welcoming a new lord.
And so House Frostwolf was built, their banner a white direwolf head on a blue field, their words "To serve and to be Vigilant" it was a sister message to House Stark's words, "Winter is coming".
After the lords left Ned was alone with Benjen.
"Ben" Ned stood up, his coat falling to his sides.
"Brother" Benjen walked to Ned
"I know you are leaving for the Wall, but please I beg of you, do not be selfish, I need now a man I can trust, and that man is you Ben, our family, we are but a few now, I need you more than ever." Ned held his brother's shoulders
"I-, I knew things that would've made our lives easier, you cannot trust me Ned" Ben sighed his hands shaking.
"Then say it now, I too have something to say" Ned smiled assuring his younger brother.
"It's not easy, what I will tell you would have seen Father or brother alive" Ben sits at the chair next to his brother, grabs a mug of ale and sipped a bit.
Ned copies his brother.
"I am listening brother"
"I was there"
"Where?"
"The day Rhaegar came here to fetch our sister"
Ned was truly shocked now, all this time he thought his sister was kidnapped
"At first she didn't agree, but when he said that if Lya would not go then House Stark will fall"
The lord of Winterfell clenched his hands tightly
"She made me swear not to say that to anyone, I should have disobeyed her, I should have, but I never did, I would've saved Bran and father's lives!" Ben was crying now, Ned soothed him
"Aye you should have, but you didn't and it's over now, you now have two choices, take the cowardly way out and join the Night's Watch, or help me here brother, I will give you Moat Cailin, we would rebuild the North to its former glory" Ned looked at Ice, the sword that was never his but he was duty bound to have it.
"But I failed you, I failed our family, let me serve at the Wall!" Ben screamed now
Ned smashed his fist on the table "Yes you failed us! Now you want to leave? Be a man and clean up after your mess, going to the wall will not let you forget your problems, it will only hide them, make you bitter. If you stay here, you would have the chance to redeem yourself" His voice was loud at first but he spoke softly at the last part.
Ben was sobbing, Ned put his hand on his brother's head like he used to back then.
"I never wanted any of this Ben, Bran was supposed to be Lord of Winterfell and I was to be his bannerman, but things changed, and now I find myself something that was never meant to be mine in my hands. But we ENDURE, we are STARKS, and what is our words?"
"Winter is coming" Ben spoke softly
"Aye, When winter comes and the cold wind blows, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives, we are the only ones in pack now, when Winter comes we would not be as strong as before, are you with me brother?"
Ben looked at his brothers outstretched arms.
"Aye" Ben hugged his older brother
"Now would you like to meet your nephew?" Ned smiled
"Aye, I bet you he looks like a tully!" Ben laughed
"You'd be surprise brother!"
XXXXXX
The two Starks arrived at the nursery, Benjen saw his nephew for the first time, as when Catelyn arrive with Ned's son Benjen was at the wolfswood hunting.
"He has your wife's coloring brother, Ha! Didn't I guess right" Ben touched his sleeping nephews cheeks.
"I'm about to tell you something" Eddard spoke softly, he looked around, but he frowned
"Come with me to the crypts" Ben was confused but followed
"What's so important that you brought me here?" Benjen looked around the crypts.
"When I arrived in Dorne, with Ser Barristan and other northerners, we battled the last of the Mad King's Kingsguard"
Benjen caught on, "How did she die?"
"After we defeated the Kingsguards, I went up the tower, Lya-, she was pregnant, but the child, he was still born, I planned to have him with me as my bastard as we had the same colourings but the child was dead. I tore down the tower by my hand"
The younger Stark looked mad "He raped her!"
"Aye, but that was done, Rhaegar is dead, killed at the trident" Ned looked at his ancestors, all with direwolves, but it ended with his namesake Eddard Stark, where the last of the direwolves died.
"I should have told somebody! Gods!" Benjen was so angry now
"Calm brother, what's past is past. We must look at the future now, Winter is coming" A gust of cold wind hit them from the North, they looked over there and found the Statue of Brandon The Builder looking at them.
"Let us go brother" Ned agreed immediately, the hairs on the back of his head was straight, was that a warning?
Soon they were out of the crypts, and they planned the future of the North.
XXXXX
First Ned loaned from the Ironbank, he ordered the reconstruction of Moat Cailin, hiring the best architects from Essos, then he ordered to House Manderly to begin to renovate their port, to attract more traders. He allowed them the construction of five ships, to which he wrote to Robert.
House Frostwolf was not silent too, Edrik was given Gold Dragons by Ned to start his keep, to be given back when he is rich, so far the keep was halfway done and was called Snowkeep, he also had a port made, a task where the Manderlys helped him as well as lending him five of their fifteen ships, to protect their waters.
The Umbers began to mine the Iron found near their lands, they sent it to be traded. The Glovers, and the Forresters, began to ship Ironwood, the Dustins, they bred horses, fast and light but strong, as well as horses for heavy cavalry, many northern Lords bought horses from them, to breed their own, southerners were open to the idea of Dustin steeds as well. And the Boltons begun to ship deer leather, many men were jesting about it being human ones, but Ned put an end to that.
The mountain clans were taught to mine, as they found many precious stone in their mountains, and in return they introduced to the north beasts they called oxen, a type of cattle, but with heavy fur surrounding it, horns sharp as knives and fat as a whale. They sold this for materials such as leathers from the Boltons, and Wood from the Forresters and Glovers, they gifted ten to House Stark, to which Ned promised them plans of how to heat a house up without burning it to survive the winter there, or if they cannot, they are free to live in Wintertown without a cost.
The mountain clans were extremely happy, vowing to always help House Stark should they need it.
The clans of Skagos island, Ned taught them how to act more civilised, it was a hard task, and he stayed there for a month, he taught them how to raise cattles, forge weapons, to read and to write. When Ned left the skagosi vowed to help the Magnar of Winter now and always.
And for Winterfell? He renovated the broken tower, fortified the walls around the keep, Catelyn was happy that the North was alive, her husband Ned pioneered the rise of the North to which they called him Eddard of the Northern Rise.
However the rise have stopped when the Ironborn decided to rebel, attacking Stony shore, Deepwood Motte, Bear Island and moat Cailin.
News about the North was scarce to outsiders, but they did notice the increase of trades in the north, but little to no news arrived to them when Ned shut it down after the war.
So when the Ironborn decided to attack the north they saw how a reinforced Moat Cailin, while incomplete with sixteen towers, repelled them easily. They raided the Stony Shore but was met by the force of Edrik Frostwolf, dubbed the Seawolf, the Mormonts were ready as well, before the Ironborn had even touch their lands they showered them with arrows, their former poor state was now gone, they had begun fishing whales and a new fish called Marlin, whose five feet horns was on their shore, acting as spears, and was as sharp as one.
But they have been successful against the Lannisters, putting the ships of Lannisport to the torch, as well as raiding some houses, all this done in a single night.
So Robert called his Banners, all the great houses united, and they decimated the Ironborn force, Ned called with him half his forces, which was 70,000 in total, because of the new state of the north, so he fielded 35,000 almost the same as what he fielded last time, to fool the other houses into thinking nothing had changed.
The Ironborn soon tasted the NORTHERN FURY, House Manderly sent out 50 new warships, among them was THE NED, for Eddard himself and YOUNG WOLF, for Robb, Ned's heir. But among this was the biggest war galley the North has, captained by Edrik Frostwolf, the NORTHERN FURY, because of the Pirates he had defeated, whose loots he claimed, he had built a galley, with scorpions line across its body, flame throwers, which was a mechanism which held a bowl of fire, and had the ability to fling it to about as far as 300 meters.
The Ironborn surrendered when Eddard Stark himself bested Euron Greyjoy in single combat, slashing of one eye, but unfortunately escaped.
As punishment, Robert ordered Ned to take Balon's only living heir Theon Greyjoy as ward to Winterfell.
After the War, Ned had the upgrade of the north up once again, preparing for the coming Winter.