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How to improve the north economically?


Brandon Ice-Eyes

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So I’ve seen a thousand off these and I’ve formed my own opinion but I want to hear how you guys would change the north. The north’s military is fine, they can raise up to 45000 men given enough time, though that amount is up for debate, and overall, I believe they need to improve the economy. So here’s how I would change the north and make sure to read and give your opinion down below thanks. :)

•How to get the money?

Obviously the main issue is gold. The starks aren’t poor and are fairly rich but they don’t have the gold to start really making large changes so I’m going to start this with me personally (my names chris so we will pretend I’m Chris stark so this doesn’t just end here) and I’m going to start it a year before the war of the five kings. Balons invasion was imminent, especially now Eddard stark is dead and in his lust for revenge he would invade, I would deal with this invasion but take the fight to the iron isles. Logistically speaking this would very hard and so that’s one thing I would like someone to aid me with but the main point would be taking Harras Harlaws Valyrian steel sword nightfall and dunstan drums Valyrian sword red rain. Sell these both to Tywin for 500 000 gold dragons at the very most, though he would most likely demand a lower price and with that the issue of gold is solved.

•Roads

So first things first, the roads need to be solved. As well as building new minor roads, I would add to the kings road by building a road through barrowton, to where I’m going to build a western port to the rills. Another over the white knife to white harbour where I would rebuild the wolf’s den to later give it to a stark to gain more control over white harbour and add more protection over the white knife. Build another road to the dread fort, one to deepwoodmotte and one through the last hearth to karhold.

•Food

Now food id important so I’m going to be coming up with new sources. First and foremost, at my western harbour, fishing would be very important, as lannisport has a large fishing fleet, mine shall as well. I will also exploit the shivering sea as much as possible as in the world of ice and fire book, it says the shivering sea has an absurd amount of fish. as well as building a tower house and port at the coast of the bay of seals to give to mors crow food to protect against wildling raiders and harvest seals, it’s close proximity to Skagos tho may be a problem. I’d also give farmers a lot more land, so basically I’d be hoping for  quantity over quality, and be hoping that tho the soil is hard to grow, with an abundance of land they’d make a good amount of food. (Not a farmer so don’t know the logistics) The neck has crocodiles and other creates that can only live in warm temperatures so I’d grow cranberries here and maybe rice however I’m not sure where I’d get that so rice is a maybe. Potato’s are a maybe as well as they wouldn’t have been discovered yet but at the same time I’m not sure if they are on planetos so there’re a maybe. Carrots and barley and oats as well and sheepshead hills will have more sheeps imported to help improve the wool industry. I’d also build a whaling fleet to get whale oil to sell. I’d also try and harvest salt but I’ll get into that in a bit

•The mountains and ores

There are a lot of mountains in the north from the lonely hills to the mountain clans so Im betting there’s ores in there. One thing I do want from there are salt mines. As well as trying to harvest salt from the sea due to the north humongous coast.  id also try and set up salt mines in the various different mountains. There’s also talk in one davos’ chapters of silver mines in white harbour and perhaps there modes around it which can be set up by house stark, im relying on house manderlys unwavering loyalty for them not to throw a tantrum over me taking mines in there lands. 

I’d also set up stone quarries along the stoney shore and sea dragon point

•Town and cities

so it’s absurd to me and perhaps one of the greatest plot holes that the north has no western harbour, so I would set this up. It would in the river west of barrowton and east of the rills. It would be under Ryswell control and I’d give them a few leagues of Dustin land to stop border disputes while giving Dustins a few more leagues of land to the north as well as marrying Arya to roger ryswells grandson. I’d also make this harbour called winter harbour built for opening trade in the west but also protecting the coast if not only slightly it would provide a western port that the north is in need of. Just as I’d rebuild the wolf’s den and give it to rickon to add house starks dominance in white harbour. I build a seagard-esque castle here with one of lord ryswells son have a castle in the centre of the town. The castle build by the port based off of sea hard would be given to robb. I’d also try and expand winter town into a full time booming town like this new one I made. I’d make winter town the glass making capital of Westeros by importing artisian glass making slaves and freeing to teach the crafts to the people of winter town I’d also try and have a lot of carpenters and joiners there from wood in the wolfswood but we will get into timber soon. Slowly and surely winter town would expand wrapping round winter fell in a circle and walled hopefully tho that is a maybe depending on if my plan is successful. I’d also rebuild the broken tower because my pride would not allow me to let it stay a ruin lol.

•Timber and windings

so first of all timber. I would harvest slot of timber from the wolf’s wood. This is fairly obvious as the north is already doing it but I would expand it ten fold building up the timber industry and floating the timber down the white knife or the long lake then the white knife from umber lands. This is fairly obvious so I won’t expand on timber in the north. And lastly, Wildings, ever an irration. I think benjens idea of rising up lordlings wasn’t a bad idea and I would build tower houses and rise up minor lordlings and settle them. This may be hard as Ned wasn’t wrong when he said that winter coming people won’t go that far north but jojen did point out that the land was arable so who knows.

With winter coming and staying for years, not sure if this is possible but it would be a start I suppose. If I’d made a mistakes or some of my ideas are pipe dreams, please leave constructive criticism below and thank you for reading. Make sure to leave your own ideas below :)

 

 

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I assume this is with no walkers comming.?

-Call the bannermen lords for a meeting , to ease in the tax increase and spell out what il be doing witth the cash to reduce tension

-Slowly Rebuild a western navy to reduce piracy along that coast (increasing settlers there) and bring in fish to help with the winters

-bring the banners north to clear wildlings back from the wall for a wide area, have the men cut down all trees for miles near the wall  and set them to fixing castles too. Then the tricky part......each bannerman will arrange tocycle a few hundred of his men to patrol sections of the wall each month to properly seal off the gift and northernmost lords from wildling raids. The area is described as a huge waste due to peoples fear of raiders keeping it virtualy unpopulated  so once thats fixed it should boom

-begin to  slowly clear back forrests for more farmland 

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1 hour ago, hodorisfaclessman said:

I assume this is with no walkers comming.?

-Call the bannermen lords for a meeting , to ease in the tax increase and spell out what il be doing witth the cash to reduce tension

-Slowly Rebuild a western navy to reduce piracy along that coast (increasing settlers there) and bring in fish to help with the winters

-bring the banners north to clear wildlings back from the wall for a wide area, have the men cut down all trees for miles near the wall  and set them to fixing castles too. Then the tricky part......each bannerman will arrange tocycle a few hundred of his men to patrol sections of the wall each month to properly seal off the gift and northernmost lords from wildling raids. The area is described as a huge waste due to peoples fear of raiders keeping it virtualy unpopulated  so once thats fixed it should boom

-begin to  slowly clear back forrests for more farmland 

Good response, timber will allow for a war navy and fishing fleet and merchant fleet. What about my orginal outline? Did it have good ideas as a whole or some good, some bad? Thank you for the response by the way, thought nobody was going to reply to it haha :)

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1 hour ago, •Brandon Ice Eyes said:

Good response, timber will allow for a war navy and fishing fleet and merchant fleet. What about my orginal outline? Did it have good ideas as a whole or some good, some bad? Thank you for the response by the way, thought nobody was going to reply to it haha :)

Good ideas id say solving the wildling and ironborn raids would be the first step  though,  the gift area and the stoney shore are both descrived as lush and full of potential. As soon as people feel safe there it can all be developed

The mines ,fishing ,extra farnland and towns etc would all follow once the population starts to boom there again

 

 

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19 minutes ago, hodorisfaclessman said:

Good ideas id say solving the wildling and ironborn raids would be the first step  though,  the gift area and the stoney shore are both descrived as lush and full of potential. As soon as people feel safe there it can all be developed

The mines ,fishing ,extra farnland and towns etc would all follow once the population starts to boom there again

 

 

Ah, if Asha became lady of the iron isles, then she could solve the first problem, a western harbour in the salt spear could also provide a port for the western fleet against future ironborn raids, as well as a merchant and fishing fleet. I also think that harrying (Burning vast wilding villages and lands) could prove a good way to reduce the wilding population however I believe it’d be impossible to make the wildings extinct as if endangered, I’d gamble they would resort to guerilla tactics. After burning them out, they’d see a very bad period and allow the north to prosper, also request that you would acknowledge Joffrey as king if all prisoners of war are sent to the watch after the war of five kings (if we start prior to the WoT5K,)as well as all iron born prisoners could take the black. I’d purchase glass making slaves and free them in winter town as said in my original post, and send to castle black, as well as some gold from the Valyrian steel taken from harras Harlaw and Dunstan drumm which was sold to Tywin. Id raise shields (castles) along the gift as Ned and benjen mused over to make sure that any migration from wildings looking for less burnt land would be halted and then carry on the plans I suggested in the original post with all threats to north dealt with.

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7 minutes ago, •Brandon Ice Eyes said:

Ah, if Asha became lady of the iron isles, then she could solve the first problem, a western harbour in the salt spear could also provide a port for the western fleet against future ironborn raids, as well as a merchant and fishing fleet. I also think that harrying (Burning vast wilding villages and lands) could prove a good way to reduce the wilding population however I believe it’d be impossible to make the wildings extinct as if endangered, I’d gamble they would resort to guerilla tactics. After burning them out, they’d see a very bad period and allow the north to prosper, also request that you would acknowledge Joffrey as king if all prisoners of war are sent to the watch after the war of five kings (if we start prior to the WoT5K,)as well as all iron born prisoners could take the black. I’d purchase glass making slaves and free them in winter town as said in my original post, and send to castle black, as well as some gold from the Valyrian steel taken from harras Harlaw and Dunstan drumm which was sold to Tywin. Id raise shields (castles) along the gift as Ned and benjen mused over to make sure that any migration from wildings looking for less burnt land would be halted and then carry on the plans I suggested in the original post with all threats to north dealt with.

Shes not gonna be though and  the north should get their own western fleet that way they arent reliant on ironborn goodwill

No you cant exterminate the wildlings but a well defended wall  to largely stop most raids would do wonders for the northmost lords and the gift areas. 

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7 minutes ago, hodorisfaclessman said:

Shes not gonna be though a  d thenorth shoukd get their own western fleet that way they arent reliant on ib

No you cant exterminate the wildlings but a well defended wall  to largely stop most raids would do wonders for the northmost lords and the gift areas

I agree with trying to rebuild the watch, hence me wanting to send prisoners of war there, nor do I believe giving asha land from the north. My idea was to rid the ironborn of the north, attack the iron isles and taking house drumms Valyrian steel sword red rain and house harlaws Valyrian steel sword nightfall and selling them for gold. Behead balon and burn as many ironborn longships as possible and villages to cripple the ironborns power whilst imprisoning the peasants of the iron isles to send them of to the nights watch to take the black and build up the manpower of the nights watch. Then install asha as lady of the iron isles As she seems to be smart and forward thinking valuing peace and not war. To deal with the wildings I would raise castles along the new gift and make them pay tax to nights watch to increase the revenue of the nights watch and be a final barrier to wilding raiders against the north. After that, go north of the wall and burn as many wilding villages and field as possible to reduce there population. The western city in the salt spear is to harbour a western fleet, which should be around 20 war galleys strong as well as around 5 dromonds (Dromonds are gigantic medieval war ships) which could easily together cut through ironborn longships like a hot knife through butter. I would raise 40 - 50 war galleys at white harbour as well as 10 dromonds To defend it. I’d also put vast fishing and merchant fleets at both cities, in case of future ironborn attacks and to open trade with lordsport, seagard, lannisport, oldtown and the arbor as well as duskendale gulltown and kings landing etc, increasing the revenue of the north. I hadn’t included the burning of the wildings in my original post as I forgot about them but you made a good point when saying that we should try and kill as many wildings as possible as frankly there a nusance. After that I’d begin reforming the north with points made in my original post and yours. :)

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29 minutes ago, hodorisfaclessman said:

Shes not gonna be though and  the north should get their own western fleet that way they arent reliant on ironborn goodwill

No you cant exterminate the wildlings but a well defended wall  to largely stop most raids would do wonders for the northmost lords and the gift areas. 

Also, if I was unable to seize the Valyrian steel swords, to sell for a lot of gold to act as the back bones for my ambitions for the north, then I’d hire bravoosi captains and try and set sail for the golden empire of yi ti and qaarth. It’s a long and dangerous but one trip there and back and you’ll be as rich as gods. Corlys did this same voyage and came back the richest man in Westeros, so this provides a solid alternative if unable to sieze Valyrian steel to sell for gold. The gold would form the backbone for my ambitious northern reforms so it’d be important to have a backup.

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7 hours ago, •Brandon Ice Eyes said:

I agree with trying to rebuild the watch, hence me wanting to send prisoners of war there, nor do I believe giving asha land from the north. My idea was to rid the ironborn of the north, attack the iron isles and taking house drumms Valyrian steel sword red rain and house harlaws Valyrian steel sword nightfall and selling them for gold. Behead balon and burn as many ironborn longships as possible and villages to cripple the ironborns power whilst imprisoning the peasants of the iron isles to send them of to the nights watch to take the black and build up the manpower of the nights watch. Then install asha as lady of the iron isles As she seems to be smart and forward thinking valuing peace and not war. To deal with the wildings I would raise castles along the new gift and make them pay tax to nights watch to increase the revenue of the nights watch and be a final barrier to wilding raiders against the north. After that, go north of the wall and burn as many wilding villages and field as possible to reduce there population. The western city in the salt spear is to harbour a western fleet, which should be around 20 war galleys strong as well as around 5 dromonds (Dromonds are gigantic medieval war ships) which could easily together cut through ironborn longships like a hot knife through butter. I would raise 40 - 50 war galleys at white harbour as well as 10 dromonds To defend it. I’d also put vast fishing and merchant fleets at both cities, in case of future ironborn attacks and to open trade with lordsport, seagard, lannisport, oldtown and the arbor as well as duskendale gulltown and kings landing etc, increasing the revenue of the north. I hadn’t included the burning of the wildings in my original post as I forgot about them but you made a good point when saying that we should try and kill as many wildings as possible as frankly there a nusance. After that I’d begin reforming the north with points made in my original post and yours. :)

Hmmm slaving their peasants wouldnt sit well with the north if ur soo keen on slaves though unsullied to patrol the wall seems a good investment

As for the dromonds idea the wiki states the ironfleet ships while a little smaller are a match for the larger galleys and dromminds of the mainland whereas the other longboats are a matxh for the smaller war galleys that make up the bulk of most fleets,to truely wreck the iron isles id make weapons and arm the thralls for an uprising

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8 hours ago, •Brandon Ice Eyes said:

Also, if I was unable to seize the Valyrian steel swords, to sell for a lot of gold to act as the back bones for my ambitions for the north, then I’d hire bravoosi captains and try and set sail for the golden empire of yi ti and qaarth. It’s a long and dangerous but one trip there and back and you’ll be as rich as gods. Corlys did this same voyage and came back the richest man in Westeros, so this provides a solid alternative if unable to sieze Valyrian steel to sell for gold. The gold would form the backbone for my ambitious northern reforms so it’d be important to have a backup.

Dunno if 2 swords even val steel would go for that much 

The bravossi captains are already heading there for their own money,you could send brave northern sailors but thats always a gamble in such a dangerous seass

I agree with increasing  trade ,maybe even plead with yi ti etc to offer all its criminals the black as alternative to deatg or prison

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3 hours ago, hodorisfaclessman said:

Hmmm slaving their peasants wouldnt sit well with the north if ur soo keen on slaves though unsullied to patrol the wall seems a good investment

As for the dromonds idea the wiki states the ironfleet ships while a little smaller are a match for the larger galleys and dromminds of the mainland whereas the other longboats are a matxh for the smaller war galleys that make up the bulk of most fleets,to truely wreck the iron isles id make weapons and arm the thralls for an uprising

It could backfire however, I’d they’d be going the nights watch to man the wall so I think that the north wouldn’t mind

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2 hours ago, hodorisfaclessman said:

Dunno if 2 swords even val steel would go for that much 

The bravossi captains are already heading there for their own money,you could send brave northern sailors but thats always a gamble in such a dangerous seass

I agree with increasing  trade ,maybe even plead with yi ti etc to offer all its criminals the black as alternative to deatg or prison

If the starks were to seize harras harlaws Valyrian steels world Nightfall and Dunstan drumms Valyrian steel sword red rain, I’d believe you could get at least 250,000 for both of them from Tywin Lannister, maybe more 

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4 hours ago, •Brandon Ice Eyes said:

If the starks were to seize harras harlaws Valyrian steels world Nightfall and Dunstan drumms Valyrian steel sword red rain, I’d believe you could get at least 250,000 for both of them from Tywin Lannister, maybe more 

Id doubt youd get a colossal amount not the kind of cash needed to sustain a navy 

Plus given they are in the hands of the knight  and the house whos champ is abdrik the unsmiling...so getting them is easier said that done

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11 minutes ago, hodorisfaclessman said:

Id doubt youd get a colossal amount not the kind of cash needed to sustain a navy 

Plus given they are in the hands of the knight  and the house whos champ is abdrik the unsmiling...so getting them is easier said that done

Maybe not enough they to make a navy but most certainly a port town to protect the coast and open up trade, the town could support the navy. Regarding Andrik the Unsmiling - He may be Lord drumms champion but he’s not good enough to fend off an army and old wyk and harlaw would be overrun - Either way, Tywin Lannister is obsessed with family legacy and house Lannister and would most likely pay a colossal amount for both swords. A Golden dragon is worth around £2100 so you could easily support half a dozen to a dozen war galleys at a western port I’d say

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24 minutes ago, •Brandon Ice Eyes said:

Maybe not enough they to make a navy but most certainly a port town to protect the coast and open up trade, the town could support the navy. Regarding Andrik the Unsmiling - He may be Lord drumms champion but he’s not good enough to fend off an army and old wyk and harlaw would be overrun - Either way, Tywin Lannister is obsessed with family legacy and house Lannister and would most likely pay a colossal amount for both swords. A Golden dragon is worth around £2100 so you could easily support half a dozen to a dozen war galleys at a western port I’d say

Itd be a start towards a navy yes but given the nature of warfare unless a stray arrow or someone bests them one on one the sword will stay with their living owners , itd be hard to justify siezing the blades just for money if the iron islands king honourably bends the knee

Besides all this assumes the north wages a naval war and wins vs westeros top tier naval power , then follows up with total war at land. ...the costs of which would massively outweigh the gains even if sucessfull at war.

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1 hour ago, hodorisfaclessman said:

Itd be a start towards a navy yes but given the nature of warfare unless a stray arrow or someone bests them one on one the sword will stay with their living owners , itd be hard to justify siezing the blades just for money if the iron islands king honourably bends the knee

Besides all this assumes the north wages a naval war and wins vs westeros top tier naval power , then follows up with total war at land. ...the costs of which would massively outweigh the gains even if sucessfull at war.

Hmm, you make a good point about going against westeros’ top tier naval power but if the north accepts Joffrey as there king, then technically balon is attacking one of his subjects. Or the north could hire a bravoosi fleet and try and sail to the iron isles, though logistically itd be a nightmare to sail from white harbour to the iron isles - the north could build a fleet around sea dragon point with all the timber they have nearby but I’m not sure how the iron isles would not notice we were building ships unless we stationed our army where the ships would be built but even then, it could take years to build a fleet - definitely a loose end for my plans but we’d need that fleet as balon Greyjoy would not likely bend the knee to Joffrey as he’d lose a lot of pride?

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1 hour ago, •Brandon Ice Eyes said:

Hmm, you make a good point about going against westeros’ top tier naval power but if the north accepts Joffrey as there king, then technically balon is attacking one of his subjects. Or the north could hire a bravoosi fleet and try and sail to the iron isles, though logistically itd be a nightmare to sail from white harbour to the iron isles - the north could build a fleet around sea dragon point with all the timber they have nearby but I’m not sure how the iron isles would not notice we were building ships unless we stationed our army where the ships would be built but even then, it could take years to build a fleet - definitely a loose end for my plans but we’d need that fleet as balon Greyjoy would not likely bend the knee to Joffrey as he’d lose a lot of pride?

Id say beggining with a secure natural  harbour then building upthe fleet slowly , the ib cant attack en mase without declaring war on the 5 kingdoms , just slowly build up a fleet at first itd just patrols to remove the threat of surprise raids on the west coast

Overall though until the wot5k the wildlings seems like the more pressing issue  to the norths growth

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  • 8 months later...

I kind of doubt that the Northerners would be able to defeat the Iron Isles, especially since they haven’t got any sort of Navy on the Western coast, the closest thing they have would be the fishing fleet of Stony Shore. I would expand the ships at Stony Shore and build proper ports there to discourage the iron men from attacking. T9 increase population density I would first encourage more farming and food production then start taking in refugees from the war.

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Thing is, their winter's are the worst known to Planetos. The sensible thing to do when winter rears it's ugly head is leave. Go south. There would need to be a leap in technology in-order to facilitate a wide-spread population that could survive the winter. 

They could probably rear a lot of sheep up in those hills. And they don't lack for timber (maybe don't chop the white ones) so it is possible. But it would require a northern leader who isn't interested in the game of thrones. Plus, there's a good chance that the Lords and Ladies in the north simply possess too much land in order to control it effectively. 

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