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[TWOIAF Spoilers] First Poll: Most Fascinating Regional History (Westeros only)


Mithras

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Here are the histories of the major regions of Westeros given in TWOIAF.



The North + The Wall and Beyond



The Riverlands



The Vale



The Iron Islands



The Westerlands



The Reach



The Stormlands



Dorne



I would like to see which part did you like best. After enough votes, I might show the poll result in the OP.



My own vote: Iron Islands. Hats off!



It was thrilling. Especially the story of the Hoares was shocking for me. I always thought them as the best appliers of the Old Way and shocked to see that the priests of the Drowned God scorned them because they married the Andals and carried out "perverse" policies.


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Dorne.


Even the (generally boring) Andals who ended up there, were the most interesting of their lot.


I especially liked that the smallfolk did not give a shit about highborn hostages, they decided that they don't want to be conquered and they fought...



The Iron islands were interesting too, a lot of new info.


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Starks - though I am biased.


Theon Stark is a badass and Cregan wasnt too bad either (Hand of the King for one day - this is what Ned should have done).



There is some interesting information for those of us who believe the North should be independent - Apparently the North wanted to rebel back in the day as well (Some went ahead and refused to bend the knee at all - forming the Company of the Rose - I'm guessing Brandon Snow might have been their first captain or one of Torrhen's sons) and interestingly they fought bitterly against the arranged marriage of Torrhen's daughter to Ronnel Arynn (This piece of news makes Rickard's southron ambitions even more interesting - the Starks not only were not interested in marrying into southron families they actively resisted marrying them). Also Jaehaerys wasnt so good to the Starks either - forcing them to give up their lands. And the pact of ice and fire Cregan made with Jacaerys was left unfulfilled.



Also nice to see that the Northerners have their own "tourneys" - though they dont play around with fake toys like the sissy southrons do :).



Crackpot - Does anyone feel that Aegon might have been a bit afraid of the Starks? When he heard Torrhen had come down south he not only calls both of his sisters but every lord and knight who ever bent the knee to him. Why does he need 45k men and 3 dragons to beat the Northerners? The field of fire clearly proved that his dragons alone are enough for armies much bigger than Torrhen's 30k. And after the capitulation of the North we see that Visenya was sent alone to deal with the entire Vale and Rhaenys to deal with the all of Dorne and Aegon himself went to Oldtown. Why does he think he can capture the Vale and Dorne and Oltown with one dragon each and little to no army but for the Northern army he needs all 3 dragons and every Lord and Knight in the 7 kingdoms as well?


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Their melees are the exact same thing as southron melees.

I'd have to say the Iron Islands.

Except that people regularly die in theirs - suggesting much more brutal competitions. They are described as being just this side of a battle leaving fields trampled and villages half torn down - doesnt sound anything like a southern melee to me

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Except that people regularly die in theirs - suggesting much more brutal competitions. They are described as being just this side of a battle leaving fields trampled and villages half torn down - doesnt sound anything like a southern melee to me

Unless Southerners are sissies compared to their real life European counterparts, there are most certainly injuries and deaths in southern competitions. The Melee at Last Hearth was an exceptional one. Real life tourneys(both jousting and melees) were very dangerous affairs. I find it hard to believe Westerosi ones are any safer.

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Dorne. But I also really enjoyed the Reach stuff about Garth Greenhand and his descendants also nice to se a Queen there. Stormlands were good too. I wasn't that into the North stuff really, it seemed like all the Starks were quite samey to me all conquering badass types, which is good but we sort of already knew or suspected that.


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Unless Southerners are sissies compared to their real life European counterparts, there are most certainly injuries and deaths in southern competitions. The Melee at Last Hearth was an exceptional one. Real life tourneys(both jousting and melees) were very dangerous affairs. I find it hard to believe Westerosi ones are any safer.

If they were anything like southern melees, Maester Yandel wouldn't have specifically highlighted their destructiveness.

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and interestingly they fought bitterly against the arranged marriage of Torrhen's daughter to Ronnel Arynn (This piece of news makes Rickard's southron ambitions even more interesting - the Starks not only were not interested in marrying into southron families they actively resisted marrying them).

That's a mischaracterization, since we know from the text that there have been several southern brides and two southern husbands for the Starks in the last 200 years, including the attempt to marry a Targaryen. If anything, this book clearly shows that Barbrey Dustin was speaking only from her own bitterness when she said otherwise in ADWD.

Crackpot - Does anyone feel that Aegon might have been a bit afraid of the Starks? When he heard Torrhen had come down south he not only calls both of his sisters but every lord and knight who ever bent the knee to him. Why does he need 45k men and 3 dragons to beat the Northerners? The field of fire clearly proved that his dragons alone are enough for armies much bigger than Torrhen's 30k. And after the capitulation of the North we see that Visenya was sent alone to deal with the entire Vale and Rhaenys to deal with the all of Dorne and Aegon himself went to Oldtown. Why does he think he can capture the Vale and Dorne and Oltown with one dragon each and little to no army but for the Northern army he needs all 3 dragons and every Lord and Knight in the 7 kingdoms as well?

He split his men in a prior battle, but as Yandel notes, each of those forces ran into troubles and took casualties, even if the dragons ultimately prevailed. So why not gather everybody for a show of force.

He didn't send Visenya and Rhaenys to conquer the Vale and Dorne singlehandedly; he sent them, basically, as messengers/negotiators. He took his army with him to Oldtown.

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Also nice to see that the Northerners have their own "tourneys" - though they dont play around with fake toys like the sissy southrons do :).

I don't see how the Northerners being morons who played their sports competitions (which is what the tournaments essentially are) with a much increased possibility of injuring and killing each other stupidly and with no reason at times of peace, is something to praise them for.
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I don't see how the Northerners being morons who played their sports competitions (which is what the tournaments essentially are) with a much increased possibility of injuring and killing each other stupidly and with no reason at times of peace, is something to praise them for.

Seriously? You don't see how this fits with their hardass cultural outlook on life?

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