Apropos of really nothing, but I just wanted to remark that I much prefer the epithet “White Walkers” to “the Others.” I find it creepier, more haunting, and just more descriptive, while still leaving a great deal to the imagination and the depredations of historical preservation/lack thereof.

I agree.

If the Essosi city states regard Westeros as such as backwards place, why don’t they invade it?

Because A. Westeros is quite large, B. it is a more militarized society, and C. it’s much easier, and more profitable, for merchantile societies like the Free Cities to simply trade with them at hugely advantageous terms.

Can anyone who can trace descent from the noble families of old valyria go inside the black wall of volantis? Like if a targaryen, velaryon or rogare visits volantis would they automatically gain entrance, or would they still need an invitation?

Here’s how it works:

“…the Black Wall that had been raised by the Valyrians when Volantis was no more than an outpost of their empire: a great oval of fused stone two hundred feet high and so thick that six four-horse chariots could race around its top abreast, as they did each year to celebrate the founding of the city. Outlanders, foreigners, and freedmen were not allowed inside the Black Wall save at the invitation of those who dwelt within, scions of the Old Blood who could trace their ancestry back to Valyria itself.” (ADWD)

Emphasis mine. Even if you’re of the blood of Old Valyria, if you weren’t born within the Black Walls of Volantis, you need an invitation.

How might Dorne fare in a war against Tywin Lannister’s employment of chevauchée? Given Dorne’s limited farmland and water, wouldn’t they be forced to fight if every farm were burned, every castle pulled down, every field salted and every well poisoned? Say a campaign like William the Conqueror’s Harrying of the North? The Dornish seem unbeatable, but if their land were left so ruined that cannibalism arose and population levels collapsed, in a generation an invasion might be an easy thing.

The Targaryens tried that, with more destructive firepower than Tywin could dream of, and they failed. Tywin would die in the sands.

My favourite tinfoil theory is that Gregor Clegane and Amory Lorch were framed and the murderers of Elia and her children were actually Tywin and Kevan in disguise all along. Yours?

That’s a bad theory that requires ignoring a lot of explicit textual evidence to the contrary.

Away with it!

If, as per speculations about Bran’s planned future as holding a castle as a bannerman to Robb, assuming it was a minor unnamed-in-the-books holding or maybe a restored Gift holding, would he be a lord or a master? Does his close relationship to one of the highest lords mean he retains his status, or does the title depend on the holding? It seems like the latter is the case in real life, as the Prince of Wales’ sons are Dukes of…, rather than Princes of…

Depends enitrely on how Ned decides to structure things; he could give Bran the lordship of a holdfast or just the mastery of it.

Considering your vast knowledge on history and creative way of imagining What-Ifs, I think I have an interesting question for you. The Aztec Empire, imagine that they had a better trade and militar relation to their neighbors, more akin the early Robert Baratheon’s solid war alliance than to the Mad King’s enemies-everywhere stuff. Did they had a chance to resist Spain? To be traded-with instead of conquered?

Well, the Aztecs didn’t do a half-bad job of resistance in really bad circumstances, as we see from La Noche Triste. which almost wiped out the Spanish. So yeah, if things go worse for the Spanish, the Aztecs could have avoided disaster and given themselves an opportunity to consolidate their position.

To me, the question mark is smallpox. Even if the Aztecs manage to see off Cortez, smallpox is going to be wildly destabilizing and create vulnerabilities for the next conquistador to exploit, so victory against Cortez might just delay rather than prevent conquest.

You mentioned Fevre Dream in a previous post. Do you have any thoughts on possible parallels between the Vampires and the Others? What about Joshua telling Abner that Vampires have long lives but are few in number, using almost the same phrasing as Leaf telling Bran the same thing about the Children of the Forest?

I don’t think it’s an accident that the Others are presented as eldritch slavers (hat tip to @poorquentyn), no.

What might the average annual income of a peasant in Westeros be? Would it vary from region to region? Would peasants pay their taxes in goods or coin, and would that go directly to their local lord? Sorry if you’ve answered these before, I did try searching your previous posts.

See here for incomes.
I imagine it would, with peasants in less fertile regions like the North or the Iron Islands or the rockier parts of the Vale having a lower income than in the Reach or the Westerlands, etc.
Tended to be more in kind than in coin, although there would be taxes you had to pay in coin which is why people would grow and market surpluses.
It would be a bit of a mix, with local lords collecting and keeping local taxes and rents, but also collecting royal taxes, which they would send to the monarch minus a share for their troubles.

In our own world much of the administrative work was done by learned men of the church or educated men from universities schooled in law and other matters. Maesters can surely only do so much themselves. so who fills the giant void as far as administrative matters go in your mind? we don’t here of clerics or lawyer sorts.

I think maesters do a lot of it, and certainly we have examples of educated septons who have positions at court, so there’s that too.

And a lot of it is done by people learning on the job, as it always is.