First years
Winterfell 262 AC
MC POV:
Being born was a traumatizing experience to say the least. Being pushed out of my mother in a mess of blood and amniotic fluid. Then I had my umbilical cord cut and that hurt like a bitch. At least I have an innie, it's all about the small victories when you are a baby. Getting over the shock of being born, which no one should have to endure, I made the first mistake and reincarnated person can do, I didn't cry once. I never was a crier in my previous life, always preferred silence and brooding which I guess is a boon since I'm a Stark
Needless to say I got super lucky that they said I was a blessing from the old gods and not a demon child looking at the Maester and my mother with eyes that show way more intelligence a new born should have. Thus my life as a new born began. A never ending cycle of sucking on a teet to drink, shitting myself, falling asleep and repeating for almost 5 moons. I couldn't even make any noise other than gurgles and wails since my vocal cords are not developed yet.
What I was able to accomplish was planning out how I was going to help change the north. I had 19 years before the Tourney at Harrenhal to make the North as strong as possible. Thankfully with my increased memory I had all the knowledge needed. All I needed to was wait.
Winterfell 268 AC
Richard Stark POV:
The Lord of Winterfell and Warden of the North sat in his office looking over the piece of parchment his 6 name day old son gave him. His Son Brandon was a strange child. From the moment he came into the world he knew he was different. Many a servant claim he is blessed by the Old Gods as he was the easiest babe to care for. Never crying other than when needed and showing frightening intelligence. He began speaking at 5 moons and walking at 7 and by his 9th moon he was able to speak as if he was 4 or 5 name days old.
At 2 name days he began his lesson, much to the argument from Lady Stark about him being way to young, but a quick reminder that he taught himself to read by his 18th moon put a smile on the otherwise serious Lords face. Maester Walys praised his son every day for the last 4 years of how smart and intelligent the boy was. He even once suggested sending him to the citadel to be a Maester and how he is guaranteed to become an Arch Maester. Oh how he almost killed the foolish Gray Rat right then and there.
Now Lord Stark is sitting in his office waiting for his Son to come explain this crazy plan he gave him earlier that day. Normally he would never entertain an idea presented to a child whose 6th name day just past but after reading over it he felt it just might work.
"Lord Stark you soon is here. May I let him in" said Rodrik Cassel the master of Arms at Winterfell who was escorting the young lord to his fathers solar.
"Thank you Rodrik you may send him in" Lord Stark said as his 6 name day old son walks in. Already almost 4 and a half feet tall with the classic Stark grey eyes he was going to be a force on the battlefield in the years to come. He already was showing promise in the yard and Rodrik Cassel was singing his praises daily, thanks to the blessings he receiving he was well on his way to becoming the best sword in the 7 kingdoms
"Father thank you for allowing me to explain my proposal. I know it seems crazy but I have faith this is going to work." Brandon proudly told his father, confident this was going to work.
Lord stark replies with a concerned look "I do not see how this will work, I mean selling ice!?! You're crazy how do you expect to keep it cold and are people even willing to buy it?
"Yes father, here is the second piece of the plan" Brandon says as he hands his father the second half of his plan. "It's simple, Winter is ending and I want to help us earn some extra coin to fund some projects I have in mind. We can preserve the Ice by concealing it in saw dust and as long as air can not get to the ice then it won't melt. It won't cost us that much money because we have all these workers around winter town doing nothing. We make some fur gloves and build a small shack on the ice with a fire pit and then have the Manderlys ship it when they do their initial spring trade run. We even put the Direwolf symbol on it so people know where it's coming from."
"Aye that could work but how do you know people are going to even buy it? It seems to simple to work" His father replied now with a little more acceptance that this could work.
"Think about it, just like up here In the North we crave a warm fire on a cold night, the people in the south are going to love having ice to cool their drink or their bodies in the heat. We will own the monopoly on it" With hopeful eyes Brandon looks at his father hoping he accepts the proposal as it will provide the funds for his next phase.
After a few minutes of silence his father finally gives in. "Fine it won't really cost anything anyway. I'll write to Lord Manderly and we will see if it works. If it fails it's your responsibility and if anyone dies from harvesting the ice bar an accident then you will personally inform their families"
"Thanks you father I won't let you down I'll get to work right away."
10 moons later
Winterfell end of 268 AC
MC POV:
To say the ice trade was a success it would be an understatement. We managed to cut and store tons of ice in snow packed sheds all around Winterfell and began shipping it with the Manderly ships 4 moons after my Father wrote to the Mermaid Lord. All around the south of Westeros and esos the lords and ladies were buying the ice like it their life depended on it. We nearly sold all 250 tons of ice at 1000 dragons per ton. Minutes shipping, crew, and Lord Manderlys cut House Stark made over 160,000 dragons from the initial few moons of trading. Obviously the price is going to go down after the novelty passes of having ice for everyday use but I predict we can still get around 300 dragons a ton of ice.
After the first shipment came back successful I had my father write to Lord Manderly again to search out for a few specific things I knew were essential and with my new funds it was now possible. The first and most obvious was getting a ton of rice from Yi Ti to plant in the neck. How no one has cultivated rice in Westeros baffles me but it will be a major boon to the food in the North. The second thing I asked for them to obtain was the best horses they could buy from any city. Dothraki or zhorses from north if Yi Ti it didn't matter we were going to begin some cross breading to try and make the best possible horses we can. Third I had the mermaid house seek out Rye, Potatoes, and carrots to plant as they survive well in the cold. Lastly I had them find any talented worker and offer them work in Winterfell as I would be needing all of them in the future.
The second notable action that occurred was the earthquake that hit the North a few days after my father accepted the ice trade proposal. I asked for it to be on my 6th name day but a few weeks after didn't really matter. It basically split the north along the Fevre river right in front of Moat Calin. It's almost 75 meters across and 10 meters deep. Large enough for any ship to pass through but small enough to easily build a bridge over. It took about 3 moons for the report to come back and my father immediately sent people to repair the Moat as it now has immense financial and military importance.
Following my boons I "accidentally" found an ancient vault of gold in the crypts while "exploring" about a moon after the earthquake. All in all if we found around 3 million gold dragons and 2 Valyrian blades. Twin bastard swords we named 'Frost' and 'Winters Bite' and I'll be begin training in duel welding soon. I can't wait. The gold is being use to repair the moat though that will take years or until I invent concrete which hopefully will be sooner than later. The rest is going to be used to upgrade Winterfell and after some convincing my father gave me an additional 100,000 dragons to start my "projects". All in all a good 6th year in Westeros. Now all I need to do is wait for my small farms to show progress and my father will give the green light for me to show everything at the harvest festival in 270 AC.
Flashback
A few moons after the success of the ice trade experiment
3rd Person POV:
"Father I have some ideas that can help the North, now that we have extra coin from the Ice trade can you hear my out. I promise this is worth the investment" Brandon Stark looks pleadingly at his father while he looks over the stack of papers his sons just casually tossed on his desk. How he came up with this he will never know, not that he could guess he is from Earth, but he sees the merit in them. First an expanded forge that is in fact a smaller and slightly less efficient Bessemer furnace that would easily quadruple their steel production. The design is based on Benjamin Huntsman crucible steel making technique and a smaller version of the 19th century large Bessemer furnaces that you are pouring tons of processed iron and coke to make steel. While not as efficient as the factories of the 19th century it's still hundreds of years ahead of the steel making of Westeros.
Second was a design for a water mill to help provide kinetic energy to both the sawmill and furnaces. The water mill is a simple design based on the French furnace and cutting water mills from the 14th and 15th century. If they placed them along the many rivers in the north they can increase lumber and steel production 5 to 6 times it is now. It took 4 moons for each of the furnaces and mills to be completed along the White Knife and with the string current the river provided the project was a complete success. It took a while for the workers to respect the 6 nameday Lord ordering them around like a seasoned overseer but after showing and explaining the designs they started to worship the young lord. Most notably is a young blacksmith named Mikken who was practically worshiping the ground the young Heir to Winterfell walked on after seeing the Bessemer furnace start churning out steel at an unseen speed. With all this new steel he began to build steel plows, seed drills, and large steel plows that were to be pulled by horses.
A few moons into the construction of the river workstations Lord Manderly personally came to Winterfell praising the young Stark for the idea to sell ice to the Southerners. He also delivered all the requested items directly to Lord Stark. Brandon immediately flooded a small field along the White Knife and planted some of the rice brought back as well as utilizing some of the prototype farm equipment to begin farming the decent sized farmland his father let him experiment with. Everything was set for the harvest festival in a years time. Now he just hoped that the Lords take him serious enough to humor his ideas.
Until next time
-Sooman