Tag: iron islands

Ironborn and Thralldom

Hiya!! Great work on the newest Politics of the Seven Kingdoms as usual! One thing that I thought kinda went underplayed in your analysis of the Ironborn was the effects of thralldom on military development. Using Sparta, chattel slavery, or manoralism as examples, it seems like there would be a serious concern amongst “Old Way” adherents about thrall revolts, especially since their reaving drastically expands the population of thralls. This would mean that the next time they sail, they would leave more people behind to maintain their caste system which would in turn reduce the number of men they had available for reaving in a stagnating cycle unless some “New Way” king comes to power to clean up. Do you think this would help address some of the concerns regarding the Ironborn’s numbers? I often see it put up that thralldom would increase the Ironborn’s military strength, but honestly this seems backwards compared to a lot of historical examples, where these kinds of systems hamper military mobilization due to fear of revolts (which can be seen even as late as the terror of European aristocrats at the strength of Revolutionary France’s levee en masse). Even in universe, Braavos rapidly developed and seems to have achieved parity with the rather unstable slave societies of Valyria’s ancient colonies and has a glut of ship builders and bravos hanging around, while Volantis is paranoid about having enough guards to prevent a R’hllor led slave revolt. At a fundamental military level, it just doesn’t seem entirely suprising that the Ironborn’s biggest successes (apart from plot power) come from singular strikes after a New Way king reduces the thrall population (freeing up guards and increasing available population) and increases the number of available men closer to its 15000 man limit for Balon or Harwyn Hardhand.

I felt I’d addressed it enough via the Sparta comparisons, but this is a fair point. Generally speaking, keeping a large segment of your population bound to unfree labor means having to hold back a significant number of soldiers to keep them in place.

Just one of the many ways in which slavery warps slave societies.

Say you were Quellon Greyjoy prior to Robert’s Rebellion and you had just “freed” the remaining thralls on the islands. Given the relatively infertile nature of the II’s soils, would it be a wise move to convert most of the farmland into pasture for sheep, similar to the Highland Clearances of Scotland? I think that for a Lord wishing to promote better relations with the greenlanders, this is a smart move. Thought?

I don’t know if the Iron Islands has the landmass to make wool exports a viable economic strategy, especially when you’re right near to the North which can outproduce and outcompete you in that market without stretching.

As I said in my post on the Iron Islands and econ dev, I’d emphasize ironmongery, commerce, mercenary work, and organized crime.