Southron Ambitions and Lord Varys

[devilish]

There goes without saying that something was brewing in the North, maybe some sort of semi independence or something of that kind. However they wouldn’t have rebelled against the King unless they were forced to do so. If that wasn’t the case than Rickard would have never gone to KL to try and sort the issue with Aerys. He would just called the banners and forced himself South just as Robb did.

Having said that I still think it is wise to counter for such alliance. My plan would

1. I would try to mend things with the Lannisters. Hopefully that can be achieved by releasing Jamie Lannister from Kingsguard, giving his father a role in the small council and having Jamie him marrying Rhaenys Targeryan once she comes at age. I’d promise similar terms to Mace Tyrell (a role in the small council and a potential marriage between Aegon and Margaery Tyrell) and Balon Greyjoy (a marriage between Viserys whom I appoint as future lord of Dragonstone and Asha Greyjoy).

 

1. If I have the King’s complete trust I’ll suggest he’ll increase his dominion in the near future through invasion. By invading new lands the King would have more subjects and more lands to handle to those loyal to him. I’d suggest the freefolk lands as they are poorly organized and armed, making it an easy picking. It would also keep the Northern Block busy planning a meaningless campaign while losing troops on the way.  

    

    

2. I would revolutionise the small council by adding four seats to it, ie the master of trade (ie promoting and supervising trade between Westeros and Essos), the master of diplomacy (ie promoting and supervising diplomatic relationship between Westeros and Essos), the master of the royal army (which would include the gold cloaks) and the Master of the Unification of Westeros (ie which will recruit and train people for a possible expedition to invade the freefolk land). These roles will be given to Hoster Tully, Oberyn Martell, Stannis Baratheon and Rickard Stark respectively.  I’d ask Tywin to return as Hand of the King while I would appoint Rodrick Greyjoy as Master of ships, Mace Tyrell as master of coin and Arryn as master of justice. I’d also offer the vacant Kingsguard role left by Jamie to the Starks (Ned would be perfect for it). Rickard has loads of sons to spare so he would find it difficult to turn his king’s generous offer down. Such actions would raise my profile among the big families and can swiftly be converted in potential hostages if things go south.

    

3. With both Martells and Tyrells in my pockets I would start orchestrating some potential alliances of my own. I would use my links with the Martells + with Sir Arthur to convince the Daynes to offer in marriage the beautiful Ashara to Lord Arryn (Lysa can’t compete with here). If Arthur manages to pull that off I would promise him the role of Commander of the Kingsguard once the Hightower guy dies.

    

4. I declare war to the freefolk while making sure Starks, Arryn and Tullys provide the bulk of their army (they are used to cold after all) with support of the Unification of Westeros army which would be lead by Stannis Baratheon (an army mostly made up of prisoners and poor people from the 4 corners of Westeros) and the Greyjoy fleet. The Lannisters and Tyrells will provide the financial means for such campaign while the Greyjoys will provide their fleet. If the invasion is successful than I will

    

1. Dismantle the Nights watch (they are not needed)

2. The new gift back to the starks

3. The Western part of the freefolk land (Frost fangs, the Western part of the gift  and the wall (including shadow tower) and the Thenns to the Greyjoys.

4. The central part of the freefolk land to the Tullys (from the fist of the first men to white tree including Castle Black), the haunted forest to the Arryns (including Eastwatch by the sea) and Id appoint Stannis lord of Storrold’s point with his capital city and Hardhome.

Respective castles at the wall would be given to Greyjoys, Tullys and Arryns respectively.

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Summary

Give important roles to the Northern lords with the idea of turning them into hostages if things go south. Organize an expedition up North which would expand your realm and force the Northern Lords to lose troops. Meanwhile consolidate your influence with the Southern Lords through marriages etc.

[Good Guy Garlan]

Very good ideas. 

Lannisters - On point about Jaime.  Deny his request to join the Kingsguard.  Make some friendly gestures to Lord Tywin and honor the man.

Greyjoy - In addition to what  you said, make them this promise.  They can have the house and the lands of any Stark bannerman who rebels against the throne.  Give them White Harbour after putting down the rebellion.  Put all of the Manderlys to the sword.  Foster Theon with the Darrys.

Tyrell - Rhaenys and Willas.  Good match.  Put Mace on the small council.

Tully - Hoster really was just looking to marry off Lysa.  And he's not going to settle for a non-high lord, so that pretty much ruins any chances with them.  I say, kill Hoster Tully secretly.

Martell - Viserys + Arrianne.  Yeah, the children from that union are likely to be weird but that's an issue that can be addressed later.

We also know that the crown has friends in the east.  I say maintain good relations with them should the Targaryen royal coffers were to run out.

Any solution, in my opinion, has to involve killing Brandon Stark and Robert Baratheon. Send Rhaegar into exile so he can't interfere with the planned elimination of the traitors, more importantly, so he can't fall in love with Lyanna, Rickard's bargaining piece.  She may have to die too.

 

Hang on, maybe I'm being dense, but why would I go out of my way to appease the Houses that are already likely to fight on my side and anger the rebels even further by killing their people left and right? I feel like that's such an Aerys thing to do. 

I mean, why waste Viserys on a marriage to Arianne if I can already get the Dornish on my side with the implicit threat of having Elia hostage?Same with Rhaenys, why waste her on the already loyal Tyrells? 

The situation seems quite simple to me. Aerys was always gonna lose the Starks, Baratheons and Arryns, so there's nothing to do there. The key is to win the Tullys, Lannisters and Greyjoys. 

So my main marriage offers are Viserys to Cersei and Rhaenys to Edmure. I also scheme to marry Lysa to a loyalist heir like Willas or Baelor Hightower, and a newly-released-from-the-KG Jaime to Asha. 

[Ser Greggor the Baked]

Stopped reading this pretty quickly so it may have been said already but if you are putting stuff in from the chapters in WOW (I think that is what "Mercy" is) can you put them behind spoilers? not all of us want to read the released chapters ahead of time. 

[Farstrider]

There was no peaceful way to handle it without jeopardizing the Targaryen monarchy and the dynasty.  Listening to a comment by George, he stated that some of the lords, mentioning Robert specifically, saw no reason to continue following orders from the Targaryens when the monarch no longer had dragons.  So, it is safe to say, Robert, Rickard, and Brandon were planning to undermine the monarchy.  Appeasing them is not the answer.  Killing them is.  The only real decision for Varys is how to best go about it.