RFTIT Tumblr Weekly Roundup!

Hey folks! Now that the behemoth that was Catelyn II is out of the way, the next project is Politics of the Reach, Part IV, which is already up to 2500 words. But in the meantime, we’ve got a LOT of stuff of the Tumblrs for you to enjoy: ASOIAF: Euron’s Valyrian armor and resizing scale armor. A discussion of pre-Targaryen calendars. Why were the Manderlys able to build White Harbor? A discussion…

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Love your writing and dedication to the series, Maester S. A somewhat gruesome question: do we know what happened to Rhaegar’s body after the Battle of The Trident? And bearing in mind your response to anenemyspy about clearing corpses after battles, historically, would nobles have been likely to get a respectful burial by the other side if their side had lost?

Rhaegar’s body was cremated.

While AFFC & ADWD are often seen as two parts of the same book because they happen at about the same time, would it be more accurate to say that AFFC is the tale of the implosion of the Westerosi social order while ADWD, with its focus on probable future dragon riders Jon, Tyrion, & Dany is the prelude to the coming wonder and terror, the age of gods and heroes?

Someone’s been reading @poorquentyn…

I suppose you can read it that way. On the other hand, you could also read much of ADWD as the tale of the implosion of the Essosi social order…

Could you find a in-universe explanation about the others disappearing after the battle at the fist ?

I’ll discuss this in Jon II, but the main thing is that the Others want their walking larder closer to the Wall.

Assuming Varys had Tyrek Lannister abducted during the riot, how would he have gone about planning it? Did he just suspect there would be trouble and have his catspaws tailing the procession, read to move if the opportunity presented itself? Do you think he also tried to have Sansa abducted at the same time?

Varys was completely aware of rising tensions in the street and it wouldn’t have been hard for him to escalate a situation by seeding a crowd with little birds with rocks to throw. But given that a riot was pretty much inevitable, I think he focused on planning on how to get his hands on a Lannister without leaving a trace.

And no, I think if he wanted Sansa abducted, we would have seen signs of that, more akin to Ser Shadrich.

Is it fair to say that the Stormlands suffer as a polity due to the fact the Durrandons historically relied too much on hard power (military might) at the expense of statecraft and soft power?

That is one of the things I’ll be looking at in my next essay. Also didn’t help that a lot of their expenditure of hard power was on recapturing the same limited territory. At the end of the day, Massey’s Hook is just not that valuable.

How serious was the loss of Massey’s Hook for the Stormlands after the Conquest? How about the lands near the headwaters of the Mander prior to that?

I’ll discuss this in detail when I write my Politics of the Stormlands essay, but the Stormlands we know today is something of a mutilated kingdom, less than half of what it used to be historically (even ignoring its Riverlands empire for the moment).

who is technically speaking higher born, a prince who’s mother comes from a not great house, like when egg married betha blackwood (im not sure if thats her name, sorry if i miss remembered), or children of 2 great houses (i.e. the starks kids and robert arryn)? or are they in equal standing? of course taking into account that a prince is still a royal

Prince trumps Lord Paramount.

What’s with the lack of proselytizing in Planetos? Shouldn’t we be seeing more of the Faith in Essos and the Red God in Westeros?

Well, the lack of West-to-East proselytizing in the Faith can be explained by the fact that the people most likely to listen (i.e, the people of Andal heritage living in Andalos) are probably already members of the Faith, and the Faith views Westeros as the Holy Land, which promotes a certain Western focus.

As for the Red God, they do have temples in Westeros and more missionaries than any other religion…

How fertile is the Vale?

You may have already covered this, but I wonder exactly how fertile is the Vale? According to the wiki: “The Vale proper is a tranquil land of wide rivers, and hundreds of lakes. Wheat, corn, barley, pumpkins, and fruit grow in its fertile soil.”

By all accounts the Vale seems to be more bountiful than the North and probably the Westerlands. Yet for some reason the Vale can only muster about 30,000 or more soldiers at its peak, which is on par with the North.

I find this a bit peculiar because though the Vale proper cannot compete with the Reach and Riverlands in producing as much food (according to your estimates the Riverlands could boast an army of 80,000 at its full potential), surely it should still be able to sustain a larger population than the North and therefore be able to raise more troops.

I’ve discussed this here. The issue you’re missing here is one of size; the Vale proper is quite fertile (“a tranquil land of rich black soil…even in Highgarden the pumpkins were no larger nor the fruit any sweeter than here”), but it’s not very large compared to other regions of Westeros (”Though the Vale itself is famously fertile, it is small compared to the domains of other kings (and even some great lords), and the Mountains of the Moon are bleak, stony, and inhospitable.”)

Take a look at the map:

That blue circle is the Vale proper; the rest of the Vale is all mountains. That little triangle is just about the size of the Trident, far smaller than the Riverlands or the Westerlands as a whole, let alone the huge expanses of the North or the Reach. So while the Vale is quite fertile on a per-acre basis, and far more so than the North, the North has so much more land than the Vale that it evens out.

(Incidentally, I said the Riverlands at full strength ought to be able to raise 40,000, not 80,000 men).