In AGOT it is mentioned that part of the crown’s debt is to several Tyroshi trading cartels. What are those and how old is the word cartel itself anyway?

A cartel is a group of economic actors – either sellers or buyers – who agree to cooperate in an attempt to create an oligopoly that can fix supply and/or demand (and thus prices), market share, and so forth. A trading cabal would probably be focused on trying to control a geographic market, or on trying to corner a given commodity.

In terms of its origin, the use of “cartel” with regards to business dates back to the late 19th century, where it was used in Germany to describe business organization in the new industries (whereas in the Anglo-American sphere, the terms “trust” or “combination” predominated).

Followup question regarding the royal justice system (I’m assuming the steps you advise will be met with resistance from the lords across the realm). What would you offer these lords in return, in order for you to placate them?

I would offer them the right to nominate a certain number of candidates to the list of potential appointees, such that they had some say in the overall process but the king has the overall control, and suggest sotto voce that the king would not be averse if some supernumerary sons got cushy government jobs for life that got them out of the family house.

Anon Asks: House Justman

How different would things have been if House Justman hadn’t been wiped out by the Ironborn?

Very, very different. While still making a lot of the same mistakes w/r/t city charters as other regimes, the Justmans were probably the strongest of the Riverlands dynasties.

If they hadn’t died out, then:

Right off the bat, the Riverlands avoid a hundred years of bloody civil war which restarts the Bracken-Blackwood feud.
They avoid the instability under House Teague, and the eventual religious civil war that brings about the conquest of the Riverlands by the Stormlands.
As a result, the Stormlander empire in the Riverlands never gets off the ground. This has a lot of ripple effects: first, the Riverlands is spared ~360 years of rebellions and repressions and having to fight in Stormlander wars. Second, the Durrandons don’t get over-extended and probably stand a better chance against the Gardeners and Martells.
Next, the Hoares aren’t going to be conquering squat. 3,000 men against 35-55,000 isn’t even a concern. Not only does this spare the Riverlands 140 years of really brutal rule, but it also means the Ironborn mythos of superiority isn’t going to get the shot in the arm it gets in OTL. Maybe Qhorwyn’s New Way gets a chance to sink in and the Ironborn continue as a nation of traders and strictly overseas pirates/mercenaries.

Now what happens when the Targaryens come, I don’t know. But if the Justmans survive, they’re going to be much stronger and more stable than the Tullys, that’s for sure.

Which sections on the 7K in TWOIAF did you enjoy the most and least?

Ok, “on the 7K” makes this question a lot easier to answer.

Most would probably be the Reach, then maybe the Riverlands or the North.

Least would be the Stormlands (god, it’s dull) and then Iron Islands (because it puts the timeline through a blender).

Isn’t it unrealistic that Dorne managed to survive the Dragon’s Wroth while simultaneously launching attacks on the Reach and Stormlands?

Not really. It’s guerilla warfare – the trick is to not be where your enemy is attacking.

Do you think Sothoryos’ overall deadliness may be partly due to the unusual magical seasons of the planet? For that matter, assuming the world’s southern hemisphere is similar to our own, would it have a regular long, cool, “winter” season, with occasional blistering summers which last for a generation?

I think Sothoryos is deadly because GRRM likes dinosaurs.

titot asks: Wildlings and the Wall

I loved those last reflexions about Royce and the prologue, it encouraged me to ask you something about the wall, I just hope it’s not too stupid. I think the wildlings are said to come now and then quite easily to the south of the wall, like Mance visiting Winterfell, do they always need to climb the wall, as Jon and Ygritte did? On the other hand, I just can imagine the direwolf mother sent by 3er, avoiding the wall by the coast… Did I miss something? thank you in advance!

The wildlings have a few options: either they climb over the Wall, take the Gorge by the Bridge of Skulls which follows the Milkwater to the Bay of Ice, or take their small leather boats across the Bay of Ice or the Bay of Seals.

In regards to the origin of the Maesters, my guess has been that their original mission was to predict the arrival of Winters as early as possible and as accurately as possible. This would explain why they wanted a presence everywhere (same reason we have weather stations everywhere) and why they would need to develop a method of communicating from across the continent. It also explains why Lords would be interested in maintaining them. Thoughts?

It was more than just the weather:

“Peremore…had an insatiable curiosity about the world beyond his window, so he turned to wise men, priests, healers, and singers, along with a certain number of wizards, alchemists, and sorcerors…”

The Citadel’s original purpose seems to have been “questing after truth” in matters secular, religious, and occult.

Not to beat a dead Royce, but do you think the others could’ve been targeting Ser Waymar? His physical description resembles a Stark and the Others attacked in person. They even mocked him when they realize he doesn’t have Lightbringer.

I don’t think so, because they’d already killed the wildlings. I think Waymar and co. were just monumentally unlucky enough to stumble across a White Walker hunting party.

Shockingly(?) the prologue chapter-by-chapter is what prompted the question. Can you really blame royce for not having a fire if as far as Anyone in the party know they’re up against wildlings up to something suspicious (playing dead then vanishing – Mance is gathering people, maybe this is a trap to lure rangers etc), no one has reason to believe Others are what they’re facing (and how well did Grenn’s torch do again?).

My beef with Royce is that he spends a lot of time needlessly mocking his own men, which is just not good leadership. And while Gared doesn’t know for sure that it’s the Others, we know from ACOK that more experienced rangers know more about the magical plot than most people would guess, so his intuition is informed by experience.

And while the Others don’t react to fire in the same way that wights do, they don’t like fire and as Tormund tells Jon, a ring of fire did balk them somewhat during the southward march of the Free Folk, so it might have kept Will and Waymar alive.