It’s more the latter, plus the nobility are going to be really really unhappy with the idea that their future king broke an oath of betrothal. Kind of a big sign that he’s neither stable nor trustworthy.

And Aegon V could have disinherited Duncan and gone with another son, so he couldn’t have held out. Indeed, his abdication was sort of a way to force a resolution of the scenario by doing that voluntarily and removing any potential question of the legitimacy of his younger brother’s claim. 

In our world, yes archon is Greek.

But in Westeros, where Greece has never existed, it’s Valyrian. 

Well, the bigger issue is that annulling the marriage to Jenny wouldn’t have stopped Duncan from abdicating, which was a crisis in itself. With Jaehaerys and Shaera, the problem is that after elopement, everyone would consider the marriage consummated, so annulment wouldn’t work in terms of making the original marriages stick. 

I may have made a mistake with Elyria, but the wiki does note that Hizdahr zo Loraq has kin and political influence there, so…./shrug.

I did mention Vaes Diaf. 

And Ghozai probably wasn’t one of the Octarchy, because it was destroyed during the Doom. 

I love the Discworld series, and those books were very influential in my thinking on this topic. Guards Guards, Men at Arms, The Truth, and Going Postal especially.

Well, given that the culture of Old Ghis was trodden into the dirt thousands of years ago, it’s probably something of an invented tradition. Especially since the word “arch” or “archon” is Valyrian, not Ghiscari, in origin. 

My guess is that, following the fall of Valyria, the remaining cities that had once been part of the Ghiscari orbit (Astapor, Yunkai, Meereen, New Ghis, Elyria) were each ruled over by an Archon in a league of eight. The other three were probably Vaes Mejhah, Vaes Diaf, and Vaes Efe, three Ghiscari settlements that the Dothraki sacked during the Century of Blood. 

It’s probably a timeline mistake, but it may have been a public relations statement, a demonstration that Aegon was putting the whole of House Targaryen into the defense of the realm. Sort of similar to the Earl of Warwick killing his horse before the Battle of Towton to show his troops that he was going to win or die there. 

He agreed to get the Lannisters off his back, some claim to the titles he was going to need, and safe passage out of the Riverlands. But once he got into the North, Roose knew that he would be too far away for the Lannisters to do anything about. 

So I’m pretty damn sure Tyrion and Sansa would have been killed by “Ironborn raiders” if the Purple Wedding hadn’t intervened. 

Well, as I just finished writing about, I don’t think the Bael the Bard story is quite correct. 

But you’re right, we should know where the female line was, especially Bittersteel’s kids. 

serfriendzonetoth:

racefortheironthrone:

Because women, wine, and books cost money, and Tyrion doesn’t have any outside of his family. It goes back to what Tyrion said when he and Jon were on the Kingsroad to Castle Black: “if I had been born a peasant, they might have left me to die.”

Tyrion doesn’t fit very well into the economy of a feudal society – without an inheritance from House Lannister, he’s not going to have an estate that provides him an income. He’s not physically capable of performing the labor that makes up 90%+ of the labor market (although a market in labor doesn’t really exist at this time). He’s literate, but he’s not a maester, so he’s got a credentials problem. He’s a skilled politician and administrator, but given that those positions are filled based on blood ties and/or the patronage of liege lord to vassal, as a political nobody he’s not going to get an appointment as a steward or anything. 

At best, Tyrion might be able to eke out a living as a scribe or clerk in some merchant’s office, but he’s not going to be able to afford much of wine, women, and books on a clerk’s salary.

In ADWD, we see how precarious the life of a dwarf on his own can be with how quickly and easily Tyrion is thrown into slavery, and from the example of Penny’s precarious existence. It’s only by extreme luck and his own cunning that he’s found a place in a mercenary band rather than dying in a fighting pit as an undercard amusement. 

Braavos seems pretty meritocratic, especially for the setting.

Given their roots as a melting pot of escaped slaves, wouldn’t the Braavosi welcome immigrants, especially ones as skilled as a noble Westerosi? I’d think the Iron Bank would have particular use for a Lannister with knowledge of both Casterly Rock and King’s Landing, and the major players therein.

I’m sure Braavos does welcome immigrants, but it’s also an intensely capitalist society, so they especially welcome immigrants with money. Look how quickly Sam, Aemon, and Gilly went from being OK to poverty. 

So while Tyrion could do well there if he had starting capital to pay for room and board, transportation, bribes and other investments, it would be very difficult indeed if he showed up with just the clothes he stood up in.