9. Andals

There is some info dump in this chapter about Andals and the Andal invasion.

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Jon studied the book briefly until midnight and made a summary,

Around 6000 BC years ago A race of men from Essos, the Andals, crossed the Narrow sea in numerous ships and made landfall in the Vale of Arryn. Under the banner of the Faith of The Seven, riding horses and wielding weapons made of iron, they overran and conquered all of Westeros south of the Neck. In a migration lasting several centuries, they spread out from the Vale to invade the rest of southern Westeros. The Andals killed the few remaining Children of the Forest as they encountered them, and the survivors disappeared.

The Andals introduced the first full writing system to Westeros, whereas before the First Men had used only simple runes for tasks such as tomb markings. Thus the first full historical records in Westeros began to be produced after the Andal Invasion: legendary oral traditions about kings who lived for centuries and warred with gods fade away, though, of course, these later historical accounts can be politically biased and still do not form a totally accurate record.

The Andals originated in the land of Andalos, near modern Pentos, east across the Narrow Sea.

Thus the Andal Invasions were bloodiest along the eastern coasts of Westeros, in the Vale, the Riverlands, and the Stormlands. Their overland migration waves only reached the western side of the continent generations later, and by that point, they were clearly inevitable. Therefore, the rulers of the Westerlands and the Reach peacefully intermarried with chosen Andal groups, inviting them in and uniting with them to fight off the other Andal kingdoms in eastern Westeros.

The Andal family House Arryn came to rule in the Vale, to the point that the region came to be known as "The Vale of Arryn". The First Men living in the Vale were nearly exterminated, except for those pushed back into the Mountains of the Moon, where they lived a hardscrabble life as the Hill Tribes.

In most of southern Westeros, even regions that once bitterly resisted Andal incursions, local elites of the First Men eventually intermarried with Andal invaders as a form of submission, rather than fight them to extinction.

Thus, most of the later Great Houses considered "Andal" are actually an Andal/First Men mix, including House Lannister, House Gardener (predecessors of House Tyrell), House Tully, and House Durrandon (ancestors of House Baratheon).

The Andals' attempts to invade the North were frustrated by the North's natural defenses, namely the swamps of the Neck and the formidable fortress of Moat Caitin guarding the strategic chokepoint there. The strong leadership of the Kings in the North from House Stark also enables the Northmen to throw back any Andal invasions by sea along their eastern coasts. Wars would continue in later centuries against other kingdoms in Westeros such as the Kingdom of the Vale, but by that point, the Andals had intermingled with the local First Men so much that they stopped being seen as distinct groups, and such conflicts just faded into local politics, no longer considered "invasions".

About 4000 BC years ago The Andals finally conquer the Iron Islands, much later than the mainland of Westeros due to their isolated location. However, the few Andals who invaded the Iron Islands essentially "went native" and acculturated to the distinct ironborn culture, even abandoning the Faith of the Seven to convert to the worship of the Drowned God. Ancient ironborn families such as House Hoare and House Greyjoy intermarry with the Andal invaders (just as the Lannisters, Gardeners, and Tullys did on the mainland). The cultural impact of the Andal invasions was therefore relatively minor in the Iron Islands. Thus the ironborn of later centuries are composed of the same First Men/Andal ethnic mix as most of the rest of Westeros, and they took up the language of the Andals, but otherwise, their unique culture was not drastically affected by the Andal Invasions.

'So almost every part south of the Neck follows the seven. with the exception of House Manderely in North, they were exiled from Reach thousand years ago and still follow the seven. And now also in Winterfell, there is a sept; because of that Tully trout fish. Seriously Ned Stark only has his honour and nothing else, which was also damaged because of me. he chuckled.

I have to collect more information to deal with them. Well, I am in no hurry right now. Tomorrow I will try to use the warg ability.

Jon decided to sleep as he was feeling tired.