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You’ve mentioned in your analysis of ACOK that you believe Martin has big things in store for Stannis. Being a huge Stan fan myself, I was pleased to read this. I’m curious, do you see Stannis and crew as being one of the few bastions of order once the Others invade/the wall falls/general chaos? Or is it more like something specific that he takes part in? Most fans believe he’s a goner, and won’t sit on the Iron Throne. What are your thoughts? Do think there’s any chance he’ll survive the story?

http://racefortheironthrone.tumblr.com/post/108480260796/twow-predictions

http://racefortheironthrone.tumblr.com/post/109378396211/any-ados-predictions

Re: 1% troops. So this is interesting and maybe it tells us something about the amount of noble families in Westeros? Frey can raise 4k, the Florents can raise 2k. Both are considered relatively major houses, so perhaps your average big-time noble can raise around 1k, presiding over roughly 100k people. With your population estimate of 40 million, that means that there are roughly 400 of the “types” of noble families that we see represented in the books.

I vaguely recall a thread on westeros.org that had some textual cite about the minimum number a lord should be able to raise, but I can’t find it or the citation.

However, 1,000 seems about right for a minimum number for a “major” Lesser House. House Templeton, despite being only landed knights, have 1,000 men and are considered to be the equal of many lords. 

This would suggest around 400 “major” Lesser Houses in Westeros. These would be the bottom of the upper reaches of the nobility, right below the “superstar” lesser Houses like the Hightowers, Manderlys, Redwynes, etc. and the Great Houses above them. 

In turn, the “major” Lesser Houses rest on top of “lesser” Lesser Houses. For example, in Sworn Sword, House Webber has between 6-20 knights, as many squires, and 20 crossbowmen, which it keeps under arms in times of peace. In addition, the House has around 60 villages of peasants which it could recruit around 240-odd infantry. Which puts it around 270-300 men, which is a good figure for a “lesser” Lesser House.

This would suggest that House Rowan probably has anywhere from 3 to 10 vassal houses, given its important position as Marshall of the Northmarch.

Krim here, going over your tiers of relative wealth within Westeros. In consideration of that and something I’ve been curious about is whether there are any hard figures on is what percentage of taxes actually go to the crown and how much is left over for the Lord Paramounts? Are specific Kingdoms taxed differently, such as Dorne or the North or the Iron Islands their given environments and sparse populations, compared to the more lush Vale, Westerlands, and Reach etc?

There are not hard figures on how taxes are distributed between immediate lords, liege lords, lords paramount, and the King. 

We know that Dorne has “the right to assess and gather the taxes due to the Iron Throne with only irregular oversight from the Red Keep,” which suggests that the other kingdoms have more oversight from the Red Keep about the portion of taxes due to the King.

But that’s about it. 

Do you have any thoughts on the percentage of troops/population able to be raised by a relatively wealthy noble with a decent population density and plenty of time to wait for the banners? Maybe 1%? Frey can rally 4k, making his population 400k (roughly 1% of the population of Westeros, and also 1% of the total military power). This seems to make sense based on the Frey’s perceived importance. But maybe I am off base. Is there some historical consensus on this?

There is a rough historical consensus around 1%.