Why are There no Braavosi Exclaves in the North or Beyond the Wall?

[Corvo the Crow]

Braavos is filthy rich, North and especially Beyond the Wall is full of forests that can provide the wood that is vital to Braavos. While Beyond the Wall may not have worked both due to threat of wildlings and 7K not being ok with Braavos doing business with wildlings, a Braavosi colony on the North would really have helped Braavos secure wood and would benefit North economically. It could have helped both sides in other ways too, North could get better shipwrighting knowledge and potentially a navy out of this while for Braavos it would be both a second navy base and shipyard. During winter Northerners could also, instead of dying due to hunger and cold, could serve as a ready source of mercenaries for Braavosi allowing it to take it's anti slavery campaign beyond Pentos.

[Tyrosh Lannister]

Mayhaps the wildlings aren't too fond of strangers setting up a colony

[astarkchoice]

The north and vale are right there as are the forrests around qohor and novos..its simply would have been too costly to invest to build (and dangerous )  when so.many nearby areas are.probably selling the wood cheap en masse!!

[Craving Peaches]

Too cold. Lack of resources. Unfriendly natives. Not worth it.

[sifth]

I mean that part of the map isn’t exactly safe, for many reasons.

[John Suburbs]

7 hours ago, Corvo the Crow said:

Braavos is filthy rich, North and especially Beyond the Wall is full of forests that can provide the wood that is vital to Braavos. While Beyond the Wall may not have worked both due to threat of wildlings and 7K not being ok with Braavos doing business with wildlings, a Braavosi colony on the North would really have helped Braavos secure wood and would benefit North economically. It could have helped both sides in other ways too, North could get better shipwrighting knowledge and potentially a navy out of this while for Braavos it would be both a second navy base and shipyard. During winter Northerners could also, instead of dying due to hunger and cold, could serve as a ready source of mercenaries for Braavosi allowing it to take it's anti slavery campaign beyond Pentos.

All the reasons mentioned above, plus trees are sacred to the wildlings. But I also think wood is the currency that the Watch will use to service the line of credit it is getting from the Iron Bank. The wildling treasure, meager as it was, served as collateral to get the ball rolling, and now each ship that unloads neeps and barely and dried fish at Eastwatch will be sent back to Braavos with lumber. It's the only thing the watch has in abundance that is highly valuable to the Braavosi.

[Corvo the Crow]

48 minutes ago, John Suburbs said:

All the reasons mentioned above, plus trees are sacred to the wildlings. But I also think wood is the currency that the Watch will use to service the line of credit it is getting from the Iron Bank. The wildling treasure, meager as it was, served as collateral to get the ball rolling, and now each ship that unloads neeps and barely and dried fish at Eastwatch will be sent back to Braavos with lumber. It's the only thing the watch has in abundance that is highly valuable to the Braavosi.

Trees aren't sacred to wildlings, it is the weirwoods that are sacred and even they are used for materials such as spears and bows. Also it's not just wildlings I'm talking about but North as well. Norths are renowned for their hospitality laws, they aren't like those savage falsehoods of the seven followers.

[Universal Sword Donor]

It's difficult and expensive to transport large amount of lumber overseas. Even though it wasn't uncommon in medieval times to do so, the normal process was to float them downstream from heavily forested areas to a deep water harbor. That's what Braavos does now. Assuming the forest near Braavos are useful for shipbuilding or firewood -- both of which are more or less confirmed -- they would just be bringing in wood in a more expensive fashion.

https://dendro.cornell.edu/articles/wazny2005.pdf

[John Suburbs]

On 1/20/2023 at 1:17 PM, Corvo the Crow said:

Trees aren't sacred to wildlings, it is the weirwoods that are sacred and even they are used for materials such as spears and bows. Also it's not just wildlings I'm talking about but North as well. Norths are renowned for their hospitality laws, they aren't like those savage falsehoods of the seven followers.

Maybe sacred is too strong a word, but they're still first men. Weirwoods are particularly revered, and  both northeners and wildlings will make things out of all kinds of wood, but they won't stand for wholesale clearing of forests if they can help it. Why do you think that the only widespread forest regions exist in the north and north of the Wall?

 

[Corvo the Crow]

1 hour ago, John Suburbs said:

Maybe sacred is too strong a word, but they're still first men. Weirwoods are particularly revered, and  both northeners and wildlings will make things out of all kinds of wood, but they won't stand for wholesale clearing of forests if they can help it. Why do you think that the only widespread forest regions exist in the north and north of the Wall?

 

North, because they don't need that much wood, beyond the wall because watch can't cut enough of it. We've been told at least once but I think it was more than once that the Watch used to clear out whole swathes of the forest that is immediately beyond the wall. So nope, not sacred, and will stand for.

[John Suburbs]

21 hours ago, Corvo the Crow said:

North, because they don't need that much wood, beyond the wall because watch can't cut enough of it. We've been told at least once but I think it was more than once that the Watch used to clear out whole swathes of the forest that is immediately beyond the wall. So nope, not sacred, and will stand for.

Yes, the Watch clears the forest along the Wall, but there's not much the wildlings can do about it. So if a bunch of Braavosi settlers can manage to build a giant ice wall before they start harvesting trees, they should be fine. Otherwise . . .

[Corvo the Crow]

1 hour ago, John Suburbs said:

Yes, the Watch clears the forest along the Wall, but there's not much the wildlings can do about it. So if a bunch of Braavosi settlers can manage to build a giant ice wall before they start harvesting trees, they should be fine. Otherwise . . .

Or the Braavosi can settle on the southern side of the wall. Or they make a settlement and trade with wildlings who do not exactly revere the forest and even use weirwood spears, bows, arrow shafts, masks you name it. Wildlings aren't a bunch of tree hugging hippies.