Alden Rothack

the English Civil War and the French Revolution were the result not the cause of progress and did in fact in both cases set it back centuries, the US Revolution was good for the local elites but bad for everyone else especially the local people while all three countries became or regained greatness afterwards they did not do so directly because of the revolutions.

Sparta at least had so many slaves because most were owned by the state, those who benefitted from their labour were not allowed to free them even if they wanted to.

Half that for a Star

Unfortunately revolutions tended to have the opposite effect

it may in fact have been a good deal worse particularly in the cities in fact some sources suggest that the quality of life for most working people dropped sharply as more and more of them came to live in the cities, in fact on average its been suggested that the urban rich died sooner than most rural poor

I did read it, I agree with most of it though the exchange rate informs the weights of the coins, its why coins must be a certain size to be worth their face value, bad things happen when commodity money is not worth its face value still causes problems for stars though, it seems like they would be worth too little

yes and medieval rulers rarely tried anyway at least in medieval europe, they needed a strong nobility for the system to function

yes and no, emperors were often the most powerful of the nobles but not more powerful than the nobility as a whole, in fact this was usually why they got the job in the first place and certainly how they managed to keep it. no leader in history has ever had no limits to their power and influence, the king can do as he likes but a wise king won't and a follish king will often only do it once.

In the book Arya wasn't a personal servant, she was a general servant of dubious loyalty who was hiding her identity from anyone of influence, thats not a good example

Its not the most important because its not the oldest, nothing says that its not the most powerful branch

the emperors servants were often high nobility themselves but being the personal servants of a mid-tier noble was still very much worth having, particularly as they unlike household servants tended to travel with their employers, service was for a long time the second most common and by far most popular profession for a very good reason.

In fact in some cases it was better to be the personal attendant of someone very powerful than be free but far from anyone important, the quaity of life for some upper tier servants was as good or better than that of poor nobiity.

twenty times the weight is rather unlikely as it gives you either a dragon weighing too much or a stag weighing too little, more than a dozen times the weight doesn't really work

I'm wondering that too, one of the reasons free companies because popular that very wealthy countries without the people to spare for their own armies that isn't the case in essos

yes and the reason is because notable activity occurs there more often there is a rather large gap between what might normally be needed and say The Company of the Cat merchant caravans will employ sellswords, as many as they can because otherwise someone will steal their cargo. we know that many sellswords are employed in westeros during the war, the Freys and Stannis among others are noted as gathering in large numbers but even there no company names are given, they appear to be gathered the same as other fighters are by sending out the call.

I'm with the Great Jon as far as a united westeros goes

I am aware of the Free companies small sellsword companies who are affordable by most mid-ranked lords are going to have work most of the time, either due to feuds or trade protection, gold and food alone are going to provide a lot of work

Honestly it isn't going to make a difference in that respect most sellsword companies aren't large enough for the crown to care and the ones that are a single lord couldn't afford to have on retainer

the Far West is my favourite to think about outside of Westeros

the sellsword already has structure and recruitment, thats what a captain and officers do, in the absence of officers the Sargeants will do until new officers can be appointed. they aren't going to give up a chunk of their money to some lord unless the benefits are worth it its not like now where owning a company actually gives you enforcable power over it, sellsword companies are infamous for the lack of control lords have over them even when they are nearby.

Because curently they and only profit from their efforts. that is the difference between them and just about every fighter out there, because eeryone gets pay and plunder

Well actually it does, because a one sided relationship tends to result in them showing up only to burn your house with you in it. if you want it to matter then that house owning it has to benefit the sellsword company in fact the main difference between sellsword companies and those who recruited for the nobility was that the former did not care about anything but their own profit and the latter did so in answer to your question its feasible only if the sellsword company benefits from the arrangement.

yes thats my point, the sellswords get paid regardless so why would they allow someone else to own the company where they get nothing out of it, one of the very few good things about being a sellsword over being an armsman is not being beholden to anyone outside the company unless it is to the companies benefit to do so. the ironborn when not led by the crazy, stupid or both are just fine with making profit, as were both of their main inspirations so they would absolutely do it if the offer was good enough

What do the sellswords get out of it, in the case of the ironborn they to flee home and rebuild but that doesn't appear to be the case with the sellsword companies

While I wouldn't be suprised if westeros had cave lions at some point the only recent incident involving a lion suggests it is at best normal lion sized, a pack of hounds against a lion is impressive but doable, a pack of hounds against a cave lion is not. Back to the direwolves, Bran was comparing the size, though the direwolf weighing more than Brans pony isn't unlikely, Grey Wind and Ghost do seem to be large pony height though weight is uncertain. a scale up would conservatively put it at five times the weight of a real wolf