when winter arrives which region will suffer the most

[thelittledragonthatcould]

 

2 minutes ago, lidsa said:

No, it's not. It's going to be fucked over by the War of the 5 Kings. But other than that, Westeros was preparing for a long winter as usual.  
It honestly boggles my mind how you can read the series and *not* think that these people actually know how to get through a winter. 

 

They usually can, it is just that the Starks forgot about  their House words and focused on the Game of Throne.

During the Dance of the Dragons the North was asked to help and they sent a limited amount of men keeping back their full strength to prepare for the upcoming Winter. Once Winter hit and there was no more harvests to bring in then did Cregan take his full force South. And even this did not help them.

There was starvation and suffering in the North, as there had been a hundred years before, in the long winter that reigned from 130 to 135 AC.

Now Cregan had been careful and no battles took place in the North unlike the current period and the North still suffered.

The reasons why the North is in desperate trouble right now, even if there is no long night, is that they are nor prepared. Even in long Winters they are prepared there is large amounts of famine but right now the areas that will suffer

• the lands of Winterfell as it was destroyed and its people dispersed before they could bring in that last harvest. It's food stocks will have either been destroyed, taken by the Ironborn or taken by the Boltons.
• the Glover lands. Similar to Winterfell, the 1 month siege would have disrupted that last harvest and the Ironborn there would have taken there fair share home with them
• the Tallhart lands occupied by the Ironborn. The Tallhart reserves are likely to be feeding the Ironborn this winter.
• the Hornwood lands that had the Manderlys fighting with the Boltons and its people fleeing in response. Little farming in that last year and its food reserves is also likely to no longer be there
• the Umber lands who complained to not have enough men to bring in the last harvest
• the Karstark lands who complained to have not enough men to bring in the last harvest and Alys predicting starvation this winter

That is a very large percentage of the North not prepared for Winter, let alone a long hard Winter that is coming up.

The North and the Riverlands are particularly screwed.

 

[Young Nan]

The North.  Yes, the Riverlands is jacked up, but the North is essentially ground zero for the WW invasion, and there is no Stark in Winterfell right now.  They're also in shambles too, politically, with the Boltons and Manderlys at each other's throats openly, and the rest of the northmen quietly biding their time to screw the Boltons.  

[RobOsevens]

2 minutes ago, Young Nan said:

The North.  Yes, the Riverlands is jacked up, but the North is essentially ground zero for the WW invasion, and there is no Stark in Winterfell right now.  They're also in shambles too, politically, with the Boltons and Manderlys at each other's throats openly, and the rest of the northmen quietly biding their time to screw the Boltons.  

Exactly I can't believe people dispute this 

[Young Nan]

5 minutes ago, RobOsevens said:

Exactly I can't believe people dispute this 

Me too, I just don't see how anyone will have it worse than the North.  Normally they are accustomed to bitter winters, but this particular winter they are ill-prepared due to all of the strife in the region, and I feel like they are dependent on the stability of Winterfell in order to survive their harsh winters.  Plus, there are harsh winters, and then there is the long night...two different animals, IMO.  Nowhere will be worse than the place bearing the brunt of the WW attacks.  

[The Wolves]

13 minutes ago, Young Nan said:

Me too, I just don't see how anyone will have it worse than the North.  Normally they are accustomed to bitter winters, but this particular winter they are ill-prepared due to all of the strife in the region, and I feel like they are dependent on the stability of Winterfell in order to survive their harsh winters.  Plus, there are harsh winters, and then there is the long night...two different animals, IMO.  Nowhere will be worse than the place bearing the brunt of the WW attacks.  

I was hoping that the Others see that the North is basically Land of Winter 2.0 and keep it moving because it's nothing there preferably to the Twins, Red Keep, and Casterly Rock. 

Plus Im hoping that GRRM stops with the Starks suffering in the next books. 

[The Wolves]

13 minutes ago, Young Nan said:

Me too, I just don't see how anyone will have it worse than the North.  Normally they are accustomed to bitter winters, but this particular winter they are ill-prepared due to all of the strife in the region, and I feel like they are dependent on the stability of Winterfell in order to survive their harsh winters.  Plus, there are harsh winters, and then there is the long night...two different animals, IMO.  Nowhere will be worse than the place bearing the brunt of the WW attacks.  

I was hoping that the Others see that the North is basically Land of Winter 2.0 and keep it moving because it's nothing there preferably to the Twins, Red Keep, and Casterly Rock. 

Plus Im hoping that GRRM stops with the Starks suffering in the next books. 

[Lord Varys]

The North is of course fucked in the coming winter. Really hard. There is no doubt about that. The coming winter will affect the entire world - it will snow heavily in all the regions were it usually doesn't snow (Dorne, Oldtown) as well as in those regions were snow is literally unknown (Lys, Volantis, the Summer Isles, Sothoryos). The North and everyone in Westeros will go through hardships that are unheard of and unremembered (after all, the last time there weren't severe civil wars before the attack of the Others...).

One expects that George has some system how the whole provision thing for winter is working. I mean, they must have ways to store food for quite long periods of time or else nobody is going to survive winter, really.

Perhaps we'll learn there are large underground storerooms in many large castles similar to those at the Wall where provision for winter are kept. Places that are considered to be taboo even during wars, and which aren't touched during sieges and such outside of winter. That's not very likely but it would, perhaps, add some realism to the whole thing.

Mild winters most likely enable the Reach and Dorne to plant and harvest some crops since there is little to no snow in those regions, but back in the days before the Conquest no one outside those regions would have seen any of that food. But this time they cannot rely on anything like that because all of Westeros will be freezing and aching under a huge amount snow.

Those castles in the North untouched by the war should have a decent amount of food stored but that's not going to help those who live in regions were the castles were taken by the enemy and/or destroyed. Granted, both the Riverlands and the North lost quite a lot of men during the fighting, reducing the amount of mouths to feed considerably (that's more true in the Riverlands than the North since much more smallfolk in the Rlverlands was slain than in the North - and many more fled with the sparrows to KL) but that's not going to help much. War continues both in the North and the Riverlands, after all.

Littlefinger could actually become king during all that. If he remains in control of the majority of the food supplies of the Vale he certainly could come in a position where the lords and smallfolk will drag him on the Iron Throne in exchange for something to eat.

[Sydney Mae]

I'm hoping the north.  They should be defending the realm instead of petty fighting over that ruin of a castle called Winterfell. 

[kimim]

Obviously, the North is screwed, as it'll be the first to meet the Walkers. .

Dorne might be as screwed as the North, though, as its climate sounds Mediterranean, where winter, not summer, is the growing season. If Dorne is eating through its winter hoard this summer, and counting on a mild, wet, fertile winter...it's going to starve.

 

[The Fresh PtwP]

If this was a normal winter the North would be screwed because it lost manpower for harvests due to the war...add the Others coming, Northern civil war, no Stark in Winterfell, the Lord Commander of the NW getting stabbed to the mix and serve with Ice. 

[Lord Varys]

8 hours ago, kimim said:

Obviously, the North is screwed, as it'll be the first to meet the Walkers. .

Dorne might be as screwed as the North, though, as its climate sounds Mediterranean, where winter, not summer, is the growing season. If Dorne is eating through its winter hoard this summer, and counting on a mild, wet, fertile winter...it's going to starve.

I don't think the Dornishmen plant any crops in the sands, though. There are some fertile regions but crops would be harvested there in all seasons, really, because they aren't as hot as the sands, and they have water there.

Dornishmen should also be able to deal with the cold, especially those living in the mountains and the sands. After all, it grows very cold in desert during the nights, so the people living there must have placed where they are safe from that cold, and, more importantly, clothes to keep off the cold if they are camping in the desert (which should be pretty good winter garments). Admittedly, they don't have experience with a desert full of snow, but then, the coming winter is going to hit everyone by surprise.

We have to keep in mind that it is already snowing in KL on the very first day of official winter. The Others have not yet even made their first move, but we know they bring the cold with them when they come. Once they arrive at the Wall in huge numbers it will become unbelievably cold there. We'll see all the stuff that was hinted at in the earlier books (and was elaborated upon a little bit during the snow storm in ADwD). People will literally freeze to death on their posts, the cold will creep into the people who aren't sufficiently protected (and perhaps even into those who are), and the people dying this way will, most likely, all turn into wights because the cold coming with the Others is no natural but a magical cold.

Once the Wall falls/is destroyed, whatever feeble protection it had against the winter/cold magic of the Others will be gone for good. The Others can swarm down south and cast their huge shadow over Westeros and the entire world. It remains to be seen how powerful they will be then, and whether they have to physically go down to Dorne to make it snow there, or whether they magic is going to affect the entire world in much stronger way simply because the Wall is no more.

Even if the survivors of the debacle at the Wall will be able to create a second front in the Neck, making it difficult for the Others and wights to cross it, the cold and the snows might cross it and bring cold and death to the southern reaches of Westeros even if the Others and wights aren't there yet to do the killing personally. 

Considering that the Neck must have some sort of magical heat resources to support reptile life this far north, I'm not sure this is going to stop the Others for long, though. Once the water is frozen shut they will control that land to, and face no troubles in crossing it.