Hello, Can you explain more deeply why Asha wanted Sea Dragon Point and the Stoney Shore? Or at least what the Iron Islands could do with these two places. SDP apparently has bogs, which is one of the places that has peat (useful for heating purposes). Also, do you have estimates how much more territory the Iron Islands would have if they got those two places? Would it double? I think that if Asha thought she had a shot at the Kingsmoot then these places must have potential use. Thanks.

In general, she chooses thoses areas because they’re coastal, and thus would be easier for Ironborn to reinforce and resupply in the event that the Northmen tried to take them back, and easier to get Ironborn to settle since they’re not trying to get fishermen to become fishermen, and because the Ironborn have held them in the past.

As to why those places specifically, Sea Dragon point likely belongs to House Glover (given its proximity to Deepwood Motte) and thus would be land that House Glover could transfer legally to the Ironborn, providing legitimacy to Asha’s conquest. Stony Shore, which the Ironborn occupied during the War of Five Kings, probably doesn’t have any other population than the fishing villages (because of the poor quality of the soil), and thus may indeed have been (temporarily) depopulated by Theon’s raids, which will make it easier for the Ironborn to continue to hold.

In terms of how much space, Asha describes them as “ten times larger than all the isles put together.” I estimate (*WARNING: A HISTORIAN IS DOING MATH*) the Iron Islands is about 16-25,000 square miles, that Sea Dragon Point is about 17,000 square miles, and the Stony Shore is maybe 20,000 square miles, so Asha is exaggerating somewhat, but the overall point isn’t wrong.

It occurs to me that Jaime’s sulky act surrounding his regicide might have less to do with breaking his oath to avert a holocaust than with his own dysfunctional relationship with Tywin. Have we ever seen an account of Tywin’s reaction to Aerys’s death?

I don’t think it’s got a lot to do with his relationship with Tywin – Aerys ordering Jaime to kill his father is the catalyst that gets Jaime to finally act on his feelings, but the feelings that were already there before Tywin enters into it were primarily about the conflict between his romantic conception of knighthood and the horrific reality of serving a mad king who got his rocks off on burning people alive.

As for Tywin’s reaction to Jaime killing Aerys specifically, I think he would have seen it quite similarly to how he saw the death of Rhaenys and Aegon:

“We had come late to Robert’s cause. It was necessary to demonstrate our loyalty. When I laid those bodies before the throne, no man could doubt that we had forsaken House Targaryen forever.” (ASOS, Tyrion VI)

For Robert to become king, Aerys needed to die. Jaime killing Aerys was another example of the Lannisters demonstrating their loyalty to the new regime, and was thus the necessary and practical thing.

OTOH, I think Tywin would have felt very differently about what Jaime did after. Sitting the Iron Throne ahead of Robert could have jeopardized the Lannister-Baratheon alliance; if you’re going to sit the throne, you only do it if you mean to rule and have a plan that you’ll ruthlessly pursue to make it happen.

And so on.

About Pycelle and Varys. How is it that Jaime and the Pyromancers knew about the Wildfire under KL but Pycelle and Varys didn’t? Pycelle obviously didn’t know since he wanted to let Tywin through the gates and he wouldn’t consciously endanger him. Varys doesn’t seem to know either. Why did Aerys hide the plot from them? If he didn’t trust them about the Wildfire, why did he turn to them for counsel when Tywin knocked on the door, and then deferred to Pycelle anyway?

“Three can keep a secret if two are dead.”

Here’s who Aerys told about the wildfire: the three pyromancers Rossart, Garigus, and Belis. That’s it. (Jaime Lannister was the only other person in the room when this happened, and he killed the other four people involved.) The Lord Hand Chelsted “became suspicious” when he saw “Rossart, Belis, and Garigus coming and going night and day,” but when he confronted Aerys, he was immediately burned alive and couldn’t share what he knew.

So Pycelle didn’t know because Aerys kept his Small Council ignorant of his plans, because he didn’t want anyone trying to stop him.

As for why Varys didn’t know, even the best spymaster needs time to develop sources, collect information, and then correctly analyze this information. The problem is that the wildfire plot only included a few people, who maintained a high degree of operational security:

“Everything was done in the utmost secrecy by a handful of master pyromancers. They did not even trust their own acolytes to help.”

(Jaime V, ASOS)

As for why Aerys didn’t trust them on the plot but trusted them on other things, this was a fairly consistent pattern of his paranoia, where he was simultaneously afraid of the same people he was deeply dependent on, and refused to remove people who he thought was trying to kill or replace him:

“By this time, King Aerys had become aware of the widespread belief that he himself was but a hollow figurehead and Tywin Lannister the true master of the Seven Kingdoms. These sentiments greatly angered the king, and His Grace became determined to disprove them and to humble his “overmighty servant” and “put him back into his place.”
…Tywin Lannister attempted to return his chain of office the next morning, but the king refused to accept his resignation.
Aerys II could, of course, have dismissed Tywin Lannister at any time and named his own man as Hand of the King, but instead, for whatever reason, the king chose to keep his boyhood friend close by him, laboring on his behalf, even as he began to undermine him in ways both great and small.”

(WOIAF)

Aerys’ weird mind-game with Tywin lasted for a decade, and then the moment it ended, he started a new one with Jaime Lannister. As Jaime puts it, “Aerys liked to keep me close. I was my father’s son, so he did not trust me.” So it’s entirely consistent that Aerys would feel the same way about Pycelle and Varys.

I’m not sure what to make of the Ashford tourney. In The Hedge Knight, Prince Valarr is only challenged by “old men and upjumped squires,” and “lords of high birth and low skill.” What was going on? Was this a case where the competition was somehow fixed, in the same way as Daemon II’s tourney competition was set up? If it was fixed, are there any clues who was behind it? Or was this a case where people figured Valarr would be king one day, so it’s better not to embarrass him?

I don’t think it’s deliberately fixed, per se. Rather, I think there’s an informal understanding that it’s better to make Valarr look good – who knows, you might even gain favor with him, a la Kyle the Cat – rather than make him look bad. To quote Hilary Mantel:

“Father, I hope I am not drawn against the king…not that I fear him. But it will be hard work, trying to remember it is him, and also trying to forget it is him, trying your best to get a touch but please God no more than a touch. Suppose I should have the bad lukc to unhorse him? Can you imagine if he came down, and to a novice like me?” (Bring Up the Bodies)

It’s also a metatexual commentary by GRRM on the difference between Valarr and his father, who took on all comers on the lists, who remembers every man he ever crossed lances with no matter how lowly, who truly walks the walk on the code of chivalry. Whereas Valarr is all style and no substance, a bit too privileged and not enough noblesse oblige. And he’s the one who’s remembered as the Young Prince, the hope of the realm after his father’s death…

Suggests a bit of hollowness at the heart of the post-Redgrass Daeron regime, no?

How important were crowns as a symbol of power and were they passed down through a dynasty? I’ve always thought that crowns would hold great significance to both the small folk and nobility of a monarchy, and would be held up as evidence that the current ruler has a physical link to a line of previous kings (which the Iron Throne may do for Westeros). I’ve always found it strange that Renly so willingly wore a new crown blatantly featuring the Tyrell heraldy instead of wanting to claim Robert’s.

Crowns were very important as symbols, and they often were passed down, even across dynasties.

However, it was very rare for monarchies to only have the one crown, because the oldest crowns were usually too valuable and heavy to be worn every day. The result is that you get multiple crowns and thus multiple symbols, which GRRM’s notes on the Amok portraits of the Targaryens does a good job of laying out for the Targaryen dynasty.

I’m sure that Renly would have loved to have Robert’s crown to use, but that was never going to happen base on how Robert’s death went down. However, I don’t find it strange at all that Renly combined the Baratheon heraldry with the Tyrell heraldry:

The slender circlet around his brows seemed to suit him well. It was soft gold, a ring of roses exquisitely wrought; at the front lifted a stag’s head of dark green jade, adorned with golden eyes and golden antlers.
The crowned stag decorated the king’s green velvet tunic as well, worked in gold thread upon his chest; the Baratheon sigil in the colors of Highgarden.

For all his faults, Renly is someone who understands political symbolism, so this isn’t an accident. Rather, it’s a bit of quid-pro-quo to reassure the Tyrells that Renly is the path to a Tyrell on the Iron Throne, and to reassure the lords of the Reach that swearing allegiance to Renly is like swearing allegiance to the Tyrells, and you’ve already done that, so everything’s copacetic.

How well organised are mercenaries in Westeros? They’re apparently not as prevalent as in Essos, and there’s the occasional mention of “freeriders”, but are there any larger companies of specialised troops, such as crossbowmen or pikemen?

Freeriders aren’t mercenaries.

Because the ruling class of Westeros relies more heavily on control of military manpower than the ruling class of Essos, it’s usually the case that mercenaries in Westeros are usually Essosi free companies who’ve been brought over as additional troops and/or specialized troops (Myrish crossbowmen, for example), whereas native Westerosi largely serve in the armies of their liege lords.

However, there is a history of Westerosi mercenary companies being founded as a way to get inconvenient fighting men out of the country following a major political rupture:

The Company of the Rose, for example, was founded by Northerners who refused to accept Torrhen Stark’s submission to Aegon the Conqueror, and preferred exile in Essos instead. Their departure for Essos meant that Torrhen wouldn’t have to deal with a large militant faction of nationalists, who might have supported his sons’ faction in Northern politics.
The Stormbreakers were founded in the wake of the Dance of the Dragons, and likely absorbed a lot of the excess soldiers who had been mobilized during the Dance and now had no peacetime employment. Based on the name, I wouldn’t be surprised if the original founders were Riverlander veterans of the Battle of the Kingsroad, but I would also guess that no small amount of their number were made up of the surplus Northmen who were left behind after the “Hour of the Wolf.”
The Second Sons predate the Conquest, which shows how long this tradition has been going on, and were formed more for economic reasons than political ones. As WOIAF tells us, the company was “founded by twoscore younger sons of noble houses who found themselves dispossessed and without prospects.”

It is important to note, though, that all of these free companies left Westeros and worked exclusively in Essos – which was probably quid-pro-quo for allowing them to be formed in the first place.

Besides Rickard Stark & Qarlton Chelsted, do you/we have any idea who else Aerys BBQ’d?

In terms of named characters: the Lace Serpent, possibly House Hollard (although most of the Darklyns seem to have been beheaded instead of burned), and probably Elbert Arryn, Kyle Royce, and Jeffory Mallister.

But there’s a substantial number of un-named people who died the same way:

By 280 AC, Aerys II had taken to burning traitors, murderers, and plotters, rather than hanging or beheading them. The king seemed to take great pleasure in these fiery executions, which were presided over by Wisdom Rossart, the grand master of the Guild of Alchemists … so much so that he granted Rossart the title of Lord and gave him a seat upon the small council.

(WOIAF)

Chapter-by-Chapter Analysis: Arya V, ASOS

“They can’t hurt me, they’re dying. She took her cup from her bedroll and went to the fountain.”

Synopsis: Arya and the Brotherhood Without Banners visits Stoney Sept, where they debate the ethics of the death penalty and whether Gendry should bone his half-sister, before Arya meets someone from her past.

SPOILER WARNING: This chapter analysis, and all following, will contain spoilers for all…

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Piggybacking of the recent ask on coins, do we have examples of periods of inflation or, bettered yet, hyperinflation in westeros’s history? If we don’t why do you think that is? Thanks

Follow up to inflation question on further thinking: it seems especially strange if there are no periods of crisis level inflation on a third century Rome level given the rudimentary knowledge, lack of financial governing (esp. between kingdoms pre-conquest) and the need to outbid rivals for swords given the very regular inter- and intra-kingdom violence. I admit to being no financial expert but that seems like a nice mixture for devaluation and inflation. Thanks.

As people have pointed out, GRRM is not super-consistent on this stuff. For example, in a time of plenty, Dunk sells his horse for 2.3 dragons; in the midst of bloody civil war, with people increasingly unwilling to take coin (which you can’t eat) for horses (which you can), Brienne buys two horses for 1.5 dragons each.

On the other hand, at times, GRRM is better at depicting the impact of the War of Five Kings on prices. For example, when Tyrion arrives in King’s Landing just as the Tyrells have cut off the city from the south (a major supply shock) and the city has become swollen with refugees (a major increase in demand), we see hyper-inflation in action:

“The markets were crowded with ragged men selling their household goods for any price they could get … and conspicuously empty of farmers selling food. What little produce he did see was three times as costly as it had been a year ago. One peddler was hawking rats roasted on a skewer. “Fresh rats,” he cried loudly, “fresh rats.” Doubtless fresh rats were to be preferred to old stale rotten rats. The frightening thing was, the rats looked more appetizing than most of what the butchers were selling. On the Street of Flour, Tyrion saw guards at every other shop door. When times grew lean, even bakers found sellswords cheaper than bread, he reflected.”(Tyrion I, ACOK)

“Muddy Way was crowded, but soldiers and townfolk alike made way for the Imp and his escort. Hollow-eyed children swarmed underfoot, some looking up in silent appeal whilst others begged noisily. Tyrion pulled a big fistful of coppers from his purse and tossed them in the air, and the children went running for them, shoving and shouting. The lucky ones might be able to buy a heel of stale bread tonight. He had never seen markets so crowded, and for all the food the Tyrells were bringing in, prices remained shockingly high. Six coppers for a melon, a silver stag for a bushel of corn, a dragon for a side of beef or six skinny piglets. Yet there seemed no lack of buyers. Gaunt men and haggard women crowded around every wagon and stall, while others even more ragged looked on sullenly from the mouths of alleys.“ (Tyrion IV, ASOS)

So there you go.

In terms of devaluation, you have the example of the Gardener coins that Olenna uses to cheat merchants with, which are small and thin compared to post-Conquest dragons.

Is the reason that Lysa’s death was not particularly investigated in depth by the Lords of the Vale because they were relieved to be rid of her instability(and eager to try and seize control of Robert Arryn)?

Those were some of the reasons. There were others:

First, there was no physical evidence and very few witnesses, who all told the same story. So even if they wanted to do an in-depth investigation, there wasn’t much to go on.
Second, even if they had wanted to, I’m pretty sure that Nestor Royce, as High Steward and Keeper of the Gates of the Moon, would have jurisdiction over the crime. And since Littlefinger had bought him off…
Third, Marillion had confessed to the crime, and Marrillion was disliked for his arrogance and for singing satirical songs about various noblemen who came courting Lysa.