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I’m sure you’ll answer this in more detail when you start ASOS, but did Robb do the right thing with Catelyn? Rickard Karstark acts like he’s a big softy for not doing something worse, but wouldn’t a King murdering his own mother be worse for loyalty and morale than imprisoning her is? I would think the reaction would be extra bad since she’s a woman, a Tully, and the wife of Ned, and we’ve seen how the northmen feel protective of anyone related to Ned.

I will discuss this more. But Robb doesn’t imprison her – Edmure does. Robb forgives her to get her to forgive him. 

In WOIAF it is mentioned that there are no cities in the stormlands due to the strong martial culture there. However, if a Lords Paramount did decide to build a city in the Stormlands, where do you think the best location for it would be?

warsofasoiaf:

racefortheironthrone:

Probably building on top of Rainytown. 

Do you mean Weeping Town? Either way, someone better give the place a re-name. You’re not gonna drum up business by making your town suggest constant downpours and/or endless crying. That’s just Tourism 101.

– NFriel

Works for Seattle, somehow. 

Dear maester Steven, in the past you’ve talked about creating new Great Septs in Westeros, but do you have any architectural designs in my mind for these that contrast the white and black marble septs in King’s Landing and Oldtown? For example, what would you think of a Sept that is seven septs in one (similar to how Saint Basil’s cathedral is eight churches in one)?

Well, I think @joannalannister and others have correctly called it that there would be a Golden Sept in Lannisport. (I’m imagining the walls and ceiling in gold mosiacs like St Marco’s in Venice with tons of candles to make the whole thing but larger-than-life grandiose statues in full-blown Baroque style, like Bernini but in gilded bronze) 

The Vale’s Sept would probably be called the First Sept or something like that to emphasize their love of tradition and ancestry – given the Vale’s marble industry, the whole things going to be in gleaming white marble and quite grand but austere, with the main feature being huge statues of each of the seven in different colored marble. I’m also guessing that because of when the whole thing would have been built, the Warrior and the Father would be most prominent. 

Similarly, I’d guess that the Stormland’s Sept would be made all in glorious, gleaming polished hardwoods and have beautifully carved wooden statues of the gods. I’m guessing the Smith is probably depicted as a woodcarver or lumberjack. So maybe looking  like Russian Orthodox Churches made of wooden with onion domes and the like? 

Dorne’s Sept would have to be rather unusual, given the ways that their Rhoynish culture clashes with the Faith’s normal attitudes about gender roles, sexuality, and so on and so forth. So I’m guessing hardcore Marianism, but with more of a focus on fertility and sexuality, and also a bunch of former Rhoynish gods reinterpreted as saints and the like. Basically I think of some of the more colorful Hindu temples. 

what should court in Winterfell look like? Winterfell always seems to me so underdeveloped. Where are Catelyn laides, shouldn’t she have brought ladies with her as well as had northern ladies too? Where are all the squires and fosterings, where are the young ladies to be with Arya and Sansa and to hope to catch the eye of the heir? Is this realistic for the capital of the north to seem more like an out of the way small keep rather than the bustling core of the north?

I dunno if underdeveloped is the right word. Seasonal might be the better description – if you look at Robb gathering the banners in AGOT, or Bran’s harvest feasting in ACOK, the North definitely gets together at Winterfell to politick and intrigue and propose marriages. 

So my guess is that Winterfell’s court in winter is massive, as Wintertown turns into a city filling up with nobles and commons alike. And because everyone’s basically trapped indoors and sharing one another’s company all the time, I expect that you get very intense relationships, both positive and negative. I’m thinking it’s very reminiscent of classic Russian literature, but with more broadswords. 

But I think distance works against having a court during the other time of the year. Rather, House Stark seems to have turned to dynastic marriages and tours of the provinces instead. 

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To answer your other questions:

  1. I think Catelyn didn’t bring any ladies with her because of the war. 
  2. Northern ladies I think it’s mainly the distance issue. 
  3. Squires probably are de-emphasized due to the lack of the knightly tradition. 
  4. As for fostering, Ned seems to have taken against it due to his generation’s experience. 

Lyanna is exposed as the Knight of the Laughing Tree after winning that round at Harrenhal. does this change anything?

Depends on what Aerys II does. If he tries to imprison Lyanna over this, you might well have a stampede into the Southron Ambitions camp or Rhaegar’s Great Council camp, because there’s no argument from the Aerys loyalist camp that will fly, especially with chivalric passions at full flood. Imagine Rhaegar’s reform agenda linked to a public image as the defender of innocent young women and the knight’s oath. 

If he doesn’t, then it’s a minor scandal – Lyanna Stark gains a reputation as being a headstrong wild Northern woman which makes her a celebrity on par with Ashara Dayne and Cersei Lannister, but I doubt Robert drops the engagement over it. My guess would be that he simply changes his mental ideal, from Lyanna as Woman On Pedestal to Lyanna as Nymeria Reborn. 

Regarding your post …/139299401261/… specifically mentioning the Stark cousins Brandon and Benjen (sons of Artos Stark) when Catelyn mentions Stark relations in the Vale — those relations are closer to the main line, being descended from Rickard (Ned’s father) Stark’s aunt Jocelyn, and might have precedence, though one does run into the whole business of distaff inheritance, on which GRRM blows hot and cold.

That’s probably true from a southron political perspective, but from a Northern political perspective, the Stark cousins being of the North and followers of the Old Gods would probably be more important. 

You’ve mentioned in the past that you would focus on a spoke-and-hub model if redesigning King’s Landing where the central square has an Avenue connecting to each gate. However, would there be anything else you would change in this process?

Better sewer and water systems, quality public housing in Flea Bottom or at least some decent housing codes to prevent fires – oh, and definitely the city needs a public fire brigade. (Seriously, kind of shocked that King’s Landing didn’t burn down any time in the last 15 years) A public hospital and public health department is desperately needed. Another institution of higher learning (maybe focused on engineering so as to avoid competing with the maesters?) would be good.