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Harrenhal--Better Suited as Westerosi Parliament/Congress Building?


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If no single family can afford to maintain it, why not distribute the costs of the castle through joint ownership by the major houses--Stark, Lannister, Tyrell, Arryn, Baratheon, etc.? Each region could maintain or could help to maintain a tower. It's centrally located on the continent. It has a history of symbolism tied to deal-making. The people of the Riverlands would probably appreciate a greater degree of diplomacy amongst the houses. The only hitch seems to be the Kings and Queens of Westeros not wanting to give up power... Besides that, this could be how you "break the wheel."

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Whats the point though?  harren built it as his version of King's Landing, a fortress to awe his enemies and vassals into submission.  Aegon built his own to do the same thing, and in a better place.  There's really no reason to keep it up.  Why tax the whole of westeros just to maintain some silly castle that serves no function?  Better to use it as a rock quarry for a new smaller more reasonable structure.

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3 hours ago, argonak said:

Whats the point though?  harren built it as his version of King's Landing, a fortress to awe his enemies and vassals into submission.  Aegon built his own to do the same thing, and in a better place.  There's really no reason to keep it up.  Why tax the whole of westeros just to maintain some silly castle that serves no function?  Better to use it as a rock quarry for a new smaller more reasonable structure.

Agree with this; tear the thing down and use the remains to build a smaller castle and maybe even other structures around it (maybe be kind to the common people and build houses, or maybe a harbour by this new castle, for ships and boats to dock and finally get some better trade in the Riverlands?)

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4 hours ago, argonak said:

Whats the point though?  harren built it as his version of King's Landing, a fortress to awe his enemies and vassals into submission.  Aegon built his own to do the same thing, and in a better place.  There's really no reason to keep it up.  Why tax the whole of westeros just to maintain some silly castle that serves no function?  Better to use it as a rock quarry for a new smaller more reasonable structure.

 

53 minutes ago, Vaedys Targaryen said:

Agree with this; tear the thing down and use the remains to build a smaller castle and maybe even other structures around it (maybe be kind to the common people and build houses, or maybe a harbour by this new castle, for ships and boats to dock and finally get some better trade in the Riverlands?)

Even the beginning of a canal to Maidenpool.

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8 hours ago, argonak said:

Whats the point though?  harren built it as his version of King's Landing, a fortress to awe his enemies and vassals into submission.

That's the history we're given, sure. But then there's the stuff about blood in the mortar and weirwood construction. And how Aegon invaded the same day Harren took residence in it. And how the unexplained sterility and eventual extinction of dragons coincided closely with house Lothston taking possession of the castle, and how the birth of new Dragons only occurred after the last Whent was driven out.

It makes one wonder if the castle served another purpose, one in the Mythic "game", whether known to Harren or not. And if so, one wonders what might happen if a descendant of house Whent, perhaps someone currently posing as the natural daughter of its current Lord, were to retake possession of that castle. Would it put that person into conflict with a certain someone who has a vested interest in her dragons remaining functional war machines?

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Is there a Westeros historical society?  it is a pretty interesting part of the continent's history but as far as practical uses it's worthless better off using it to rebuild more realistically. Antidragon  designs? I kinda doubt it just seems like there'd be more said. And I know she wasn't the one in control of the castle but Arya is just as much Whent and her presence doesn't seem to have affected anything.

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Just now, TPTWP Timett said:

Is there a Westeros historical society?  it is a pretty interesting part of the continent's history but as far as practical uses it's worthless better off using it to rebuild more realistically. Antidragon  designs? I kinda doubt it just seems like there'd be more said. And I know she wasn't the one in control of the castle but Arya is just as much Whent and her presence doesn't seem to have affected anything.

I take some issue with the idea that Arya is as Whent as Sansa, when great care is taken by the author to associate each of them with a distinct and different hemisphere of their ancestry. Genetics isn't like mixing paint, you have a gene or you don't.

As to "more would be said" I have a hard time with that too. We don't have a single clue why dragons stopped breeding. There's nothing said at all on the topic. So any given hypothesis is as valid as the next.

Finally, I didn't say Harrenhal was anti-dragon. I don't think it is, not directly. Rather, Harrenhal is anti-magic, a weapon aimed at the Children of the Forest (hence the location of the castle) and the extinction of dragons was simply a side effect, dragons requiring magic to breed, and long term, to live at all.

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1 hour ago, Damon_Tor said:

I take some issue with the idea that Arya is as Whent as Sansa, when great care is taken by the author to associate each of them with a distinct and different hemisphere of their ancestry. Genetics isn't like mixing paint, you have a gene or you don't.

As to "more would be said" I have a hard time with that too. We don't have a single clue why dragons stopped breeding. There's nothing said at all on the topic. So any given hypothesis is as valid as the next.

Finally, I didn't say Harrenhal was anti-dragon. I don't think it is, not directly. Rather, Harrenhal is anti-magic, a weapon aimed at the Children of the Forest (hence the location of the castle) and the extinction of dragons was simply a side effect, dragons requiring magic to breed, and long term, to live at all.

I get what you're typing but the IronBorn aren't really into magic (except Euron atm), Its a bit strange to build something monstrous above the God's eye that your long ships can't even reach 

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18 hours ago, Frey Kings said:

I said this a hundred times, its not really a prize to award a new house with. It should've been owned and maintained and in time, rebuilt by the Iron Throne (by the Targaryens)

 

Its a solid fortress within a strategic location. 

The issue is with both maintaince and havinv enough men to upkeep it esp as many of the buildings were semi melted and are thus slowly falling down

My solution would be to not treat it as just as castle but due to its sheer size as a heavily defendable town/small city. Slowly bring in soil for small crop areas or convert  loads of the godswood area there etc 

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7 hours ago, Frey Kings said:

I get what you're typing but the IronBorn aren't really into magic (except Euron atm), Its a bit strange to build something monstrous above the God's eye that your long ships can't even reach 

I'm not sure I can say with confidence that Ironborn "aren't really into magic". I can't recall any particular bias against it: Euron has no particular trouble being elected King, after all. And even if magic was a particular tabboo amongst the Ironborn I'm overlooking, house Hoare had been seated on the mainland for three generations before Harren, from the seat established by Harren's grandfather in (IIRC) Maindenpool. And House Hoare has a history of bucking Ironborn tradition anyway: they were the ones to first allow Septs on the Iron Islands, for example.

But as I implied previously, it's entirely possible Harren himself was unaware of the nature of the castle, and was simply manipulated by the Citadel. The Maesters have a near monopoly on engineering, which means any significant architectural project in the modern era would have had to have involved them.

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