Ok, not so much a question… On reread, the War of the Five Kings, on top of being an direct allusion to the War of the Roses, deeply reflects contemporary civil wars as they happen in much of the postcolonial and post-soviet world. I think first and foremost of Afghanistan (because it’s my strong suit) or Somalia (or even Yougoslavia, in spite of its more overt ethnic character).

I rather doubt it, GRRM not being much of an expert in those fields.

Maester Steven, do you ever wonder if Maester Yandel gets much the same criticisms submitted to him that those who wrote THE WORLD OF ICE AND FIRE have to put up with in Our World? (It amuses me to imagine that he takes observations about the inconsistent Ironborn chronology in Good Heart but just buried his head in his hands to keep from howling in frustration when he realised that his nicely illuminated King List had put Baelor the Blessed BEFORE his predecessor King Daeron).

If they’re anything like medieval academics, I imagine there’s pretty much constant critique and backbiting. And if they’re anything like medieval academics in historical mystery novels, they’re constantly murdering one another.

Thanks for the answers. I’m mostly interested in the royal fleet as a possible explanation for Stannis’ idea of a unitary polity. Lord Borrell mentions Stannis coming up to the Sisters to hang smugglers and threaten him over the Night Lamp, which hints at a far more direct state role in local affairs than any other royal institution. It’s headcanon, but what do you think of the theory that his administration of a uniquely imperially immediate, institution crucially shaped his ideas of kingship?

Interesting…

I think Stannis’ ideas were already formed by that point, but it probably contributed.

Follow up to the Royal Fleet question: Would you characterize the 200+ ship royal fleet under Stannis as being exceptionally well-maintained and centralized then, or do you think that most of that is holdovers from the build-up following the War of the Usurper and Greyjoy’s Rebellion?

More the latter.

Consider that the Royal Fleet was destroyed in that big storm when Dany was born and Stannis had to build a new one. That highly unusual circumstance meant that, for once, the royal fleet would not be a patchwork but rather a unified cohort of ships with the same longevity, which would be running out around the start of the ASOIAF timeline. This provides unusual opportunities to maintain a steady number of ships through rationalized maintenance and repair schedules and other procedures.

Now, an open question is to what extent the Greyjoy Rebellion offered an opportunity to overhaul the Royal Fleet – after all, the ships would be about halfway through their normal lifespan and here you have a war where naval power is absolutely necessary; likewise, the voyage around Westeros to link up with the Redwynes, the subsequent Battle of Fair Isle, and the various amphibious landings that followed it would put a good deal of wear-and-tear on the fleet. So it’s possible that the Royal Fleet got a refresh before or after the Greyjoy Rebellion.

All of that Watsonian explanation aside, I think GRRM doesn’t want the headache of tracking ship counts over time – he’s trying to tell a story, and it’s not a Patrick O’Brien story where that kind of nautical pedantry sells.

You’re part of a great set! You’re with GoodQueenAly, noonesuspectsthebutterfly, poorquentyn, WarsofASoIaF, and racefortheironthrone!

joannalannister:

@theaudientvoid said:

You are part of the ASOIAF Analysis User Set

@riverkingdom said:

ya ur with a set?? all the asoiaf meta discussion blogs + u, thanks to all u for providing easy access and expanded grrm material for me to drown in 👏👏👏👍💖

@captainbookamir

Sure you’re part of a set, @joannalannister. You’re part of the Amazing Meta and Research for ASoIaF set! To my mind anyway, and I’m sure I’m not the only one. I associate you most with @nobodysuspectsthebutterfly and @poorquentyn who in my mind are also part of this set, and I sometimes see you guys replying to each other or referring people to each other.

omg thank you!!! So many nice people responded to this post saying we were part of a set, @goodqueenaly, @nobodysuspectsthebutterfly, @poorquentyn, @warsofasoiaf, and @racefortheironthrone!

I don’t know enough math to make a set joke, but it’s a very nice sentiment!

I think you may have written a post about this, but I couldn’t find it. I always thought that the royal fleet’s administration was out-of-sync with the rest of the continent’s medieval political development in the sense that it is much more centralized and permanent than any land force. Is this correct?

Discussed here.

Navies were historically always more centralized and permanent than armies, because of the fiscal and administrative complexities of ship-building.

That being said, “more” is not the same thing as “entirely.” Medieval kings would “borrow” merchant ships to bulk up their navies, they sometimes required port-cities to maintain auxiliary navies, they hired mercenaries, etc. Likewise, while royal navies had more longevity administratively, the realities of irregular warfare and the lifetime of wodden ships meant that their size fluctuated drastically – so technically it would be a series of fleets rather than a permanent fleet.

Maester Steven, may I please ask where and when you would set a DARK AGES CTHULHU campaign if you were asked to run one that took place in THE WORLD OF ICE AND FIRE?

A merchant caravan in Essie, starting in the well known rational world of the Free Cities and ending up in Asshai or points beyond.

Without the Rhoynish arrival which house do you believe would have united Dorne?

The Yronwoods.

Maester Steven, do the Unsullied have an internal command structure in place? TY

Normally, no:

“Ask the Good Master if the Unsullied have their own officers.“
“You must set your own officers over them. We train them to obey, not to think. If it is wits she wants, let her buy scribes.”

But Dany’s Unsullied do:

“When she had commanded the Unsullied to choose officers from amongst themselves, Grey Worm had been their overwhelming choice for the highest rank. Dany had put Ser Jorah over him to train him for command, and the exile knight said that so far the young eunuch was hard but fair, quick to learn, tireless, and utterly unrelenting in his attention to detail.”

How “tailored” (don’t know another word for this) was a knights personal armor to his physique? This is in regards to Garlan wearing Renly’s armor in the Battle of the Blackwater, as well as the opposing knight’s kit won (for ransom) by the victor of a joust. TY Maester Steven.

Depends on the era and the type of armor in question, but when you get to plate armor, it was usually “bespoke” as opposed to “off the rack,” because the whole weight-distribution thing requires that the pieces conform to the dimensions of the individual body.

However, that doesn’t mean that no one else can wear it – just that the utility of the armor is going to depend on how close you are to the original intended wearer; if you both wear the same “size,” no problem. So as long as Renly and Garlan were roughly the same height/weight/proportions, it would work fine. (Indeed, it’s possible that’s the reason Loras wasn’t wearing the armor – it wouldn’t have fit him right…)

As for the opposing knight’s armor, as the Knight of Snails points out, the armor itself isn’t about to be worn by the victor or even likely to be sold. Armor was so expensive and so important to the livelihood of the knight that it was understood to be a possession you’d redeem it at all costs, and thus it was acceptible collateral for a debt.