Author: stevenattewell

Do you think ned , at the rebellion, raised an army bigger than robb’s one in two5k ?

Given that his army plus the Riverlands plus the Vale plus Robert’s forces added up to less than 40,000, I’m guessing no. (Although that’s probably due to GRRM’s problems with numbers…)

But Torrhen Stark brought 30,000 men into the Riverlands back during Aegon’s Conquest. 

Why do you think House Manderly was able to build a thriving port on the mouth of the White Knife when all the other houses that held the Wolf’s Den ultimately failed to last?

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White Harbor was “built with the wealth that the Manderlys had brought with them from the Reach.” The previous occupants of the Wolf’s Den simply didn’t have the money to make the heavy up-front investments necessary to make the city secure (not only does White Harbor have the original Wolf’s Den and the much larger New Castle, but it also has city walls around both of those, and seawalls protecting the harbor, making it really, really hard to assault) and attractive to commerce (White Harbor might be small, but it’s got a double harbor with protective walls, jettys, a respectable shipbuilding industry, etc.)

Once those investments were made, they eventually more than paid for themselves, but it would have been hard for a lot of the smaller houses who held the Wolf’s Den after the Greystarks were brought down to make them in the first place. Moreover, the Manderlys had the advantage of making those investments at a time when the North wasn’t fighting wars against pirates and slavers on the one hand, and the Vale of Arryn on the other, so they had the opportunity to make their investments stick without seeing them burned to the ground. 

If a maester is assigned by the Citadel to a specific location, how can Maester Luwin have delivered Robb at Riverrun and then gone to Winterfell by at least the time Sansa is born? Seems to go against the whole non-loyal to a House or person, but to a castle or keep. Granted this is based on Catelyn Stark remembering that Maester Luwin all her children.

Occam’s Razor would suggest that Ned brought Luwin south with him when he marched with the North’s armies, and then Luwin stayed at Riverrun when it was clear that Catelyn was pregnant. 

alamutjones:

racefortheironthrone:

What calendar date was the basis pre-Aegon’s Conquest/Crowning? I think it may vary per kingdom. If you had to design one for each kingdom what would you have them be? 

North – The Wall being built? Northern Unification?

Vale – Andal Arrival or more likely Arryn Conquest

Iron Isles – Writing/time keeping is for Greenlanders

Riverlands – Varying between ruling dynasty

Westerlands – Lann the clever takes Casterly Rock?

Stormland – Durran Godsgrief’s reign?

Reach – Garth Greenhand’s Reign

Citidel – Founding of Citidel/Andal Invasion?

Dorne – Nymeria’s Conquest

Interesting question. I don’t think it varied by kingdom, because I’m pretty sure the maesters of the Citadel would have been in charge of the chronicles and thus the dating systems and would have wanted a uniform system.

I think Andal invasion would be the most likely. God knows how the First Men chose to keep count, but given that the first written records that the Citadel chooses to acknowledge are from the Andals, it would make sense if the calendar was formally codified at the same time. I DO think it’s a lunar based calendar, rather than a solar one – the year starts again every twelve new moons, so the length of days/winter vs summer doesn’t matter.

There may be a fascinating bit of time where times and dates are difficult to make sense of, because the “Andal calendar” only arrives in a region when they do. Like the split between usage of Julian and Gregorian calendars, in a way; Gregorian/Citadel usage dominates now, but this has been gradual, and in places like the Islands or the more crazily remote parts of the North it may not yet be complete. It would explain at least a little of the fuzzy dating in the records if the meaning of “January 1″ hadn’t always been entirely consistent between kingdoms and half of Westeros was still in last year for a while before catching up!

The Citadel has written records from before the Andals. Sam Tarly might not recognize them, but they’re there. 

What calendar date was the basis pre-Aegon’s Conquest/Crowning? I think it may vary per kingdom. If you had to design one for each kingdom what would you have them be? 

North – The Wall being built? Northern Unification?

Vale – Andal Arrival or more likely Arryn Conquest

Iron Isles – Writing/time keeping is for Greenlanders

Riverlands – Varying between ruling dynasty

Westerlands – Lann the clever takes Casterly Rock?

Stormland – Durran Godsgrief’s reign?

Reach – Garth Greenhand’s Reign

Citidel – Founding of Citidel/Andal Invasion?

Dorne – Nymeria’s Conquest

Interesting question. I don’t think it varied by kingdom, because I’m pretty sure the maesters of the Citadel would have been in charge of the chronicles and thus the dating systems and would have wanted a uniform system.

Suppose that in addition to the attack  on the North or instead, Balon decides to launch a surprise attack on the Arbor to destroy the redwyne fleet. If this happens before Stannis’ attack on Bitterbridge, what do Renly and Mace do? If it happens concurrently what do they do? If it happens after Renly’s death what does Mace do (Does it butterfly the alliance with Lannisters?)? And if it happens after the battle of the black water how does it affect things?

I don’t think Balon has the naval capacity to do both at the same time, tbh.