2 Years of Progress

It has been 2 years since the War ended in the year of 288AC. And now the year was 290AC.

The Seven Kingdom's have been somewhat stable for the time being with Jon Arryn as the Lord Protector besides the Greyjoy rebellion which happened in the year of 289AC.

Balon Greyjoy was trying to secede from the Iron Throne and restore the Old Way, lost almost three hundred years before, during Aegon's Conquest.

The Old Way is a term used by the ironborn when discussing their ancient tradition of reaving and plunder.

In the Old Way, only women were allowed to buy ornaments (jewelry), whereas warriors were only allowed to wear the jewelry if they had paid the iron price for it, or if they had acquired it from the corpses of enemies they had slain himself.

Under the Old Way, farming and mining are derided as unsuitable for free men, but fishing is respected.

Under the Old Way, the ironborn lived by the axe and the sword. The usage of catapults and siege engines, with the goal of starving a castle out, was considered to be without glory.

The Old Way dictated that a captive would have to be executed by giving him to the Drowned God, thus drowning him in salt water.

The Old Way allowed the ironborn to capture men and women on their raids, bringing them back to the Iron Islands. These captive thralls were put to work on the isles. When a warrior wished it so, he could take one of his female thralls to wife in a ceremony preformed by a priest of the Drowned God.

A man can join himself to multiple salt wives, the number of which speaks to his power, wealth, and virility. The children born from such a marriage are not considered to be bastards, but can inherit should their father have no surviving sons by his true, freeborn rock wife from the Iron Islands.

While thralls are made to perform labor on the Iron Islands for those by whom they have been captured, they are not considered to be slaves. Taking slaves is not considered to be the Old Way.

But back to the reason for the War. Balon believed that Robert I's rule was insecure, that the new king lacked support amongst the nobility and would not be able to muster a host against the ironborn. But then Robert died and now Jon Arryn was named the Lord protector while Robert's son came of age.

But even then that only motivated him more since he sought the independence of the Ironborn anyway. Rodrik Harlaw, Lord of Harlaw, unsuccessfully advised Balon against rebelling. Thus this resulted in the Rebellion.

Balon proclaimed himself King of the Iron Islands and led a rebellion against the Iron Throne. Beneath Nagga's ribs on the holy isle of Old Wyk, the priest Tarle the Thrice-Drowned crowned Balon with a driftwood crown.

After that the Ironborn and the Iron Throne had fought against each other with the Ironborn only winning by surprise attacking the other Kingdom's Town's.

But in the Long run with the help of ship's from Essos the Rebellion didn't last long and came to end with many named character's participating in the war such as Lord Eddard Stark, and Lord Tywin Lannister.

The Iron Throne also used Ser Barristan Selmy, Lord Commander of the Kingsguard to attack Old Wyk.

The Final battle of the Rebellion was the siege of Pyke Led by Lord Protector of the Kingdom Jon Arryn and Lord Eddard Stark.

After the siege Balon Greyjoy was brought before Jon Arryn to swear fealty to the Iron Throne once again. His surviving son, the nine-year-old Theon, was given into the care of Lord Stark as a hostage to ensure Balon's good behavior.

This was how the Rebellion went transpired.

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Meanwhile during the Rebellion Thornir was spending time developing his Kingdom while also raising his son Ragvir who was 4 years old at this time. He also had another child with Dalla this time that was a girl which he named Asra.

She was already 4 months old and she loved her Mother Dalla the most. Unlike his son Ragvir who liked him more than his mother Val Asra liked Dalla more over Thornir.

It wasn't anything bad it was just that Dalla spoiled Asra all the time while Thornir was often busy managing the Kingdom. And since she wasn't able to walk yet she couldn't follow Thornir around like Ragvir could since he was walking.

Thornir wanted to form a good relation ship with his children and raise them in a good environment which is something that they were currently in.

The Kingdom is at Peace and the people have enough food and houses to live in this cold part of the world.

Thornir had also turned Castle Black into a city which he renamed to Icedale. He turned it into a Town so that outsider's and other people who wanted to see the otherside of the wall could.

But instead of just letting them come through they had to go through an intense and rigorous screening to make sure that they are not an assassin from another country or somebody looking to cause trouble.

The Port at Hardhome was closed and a New port was opened up in the Port town of Eastwatch-by-the-Sea which was renamed to Stormdrift. This would be the new Main port of the Kingdom replacing the one at Hardhome with a military only port.

Thornir did this because as he said before he would close off his Kingdom to the Southerner's just like they did to him but instead of just copying what they did he changed it a little.

People from other Kingdom's were allowed to come to visit his city but they must come to Stormdrift or Icedale in order to go through a screening to get into the deeper part's of his Kingdom.

This would keep unwanted individuals out and allow the outside to see how great his Kingdom is from the inside.

Icedale had quickly become a major trade port for ship's looking to trade. Thornir had created many things that he began to sell to the outside world.

The #1 thing was Soap. It had quickly become the most wanted thing on both the Continent of Westeros and Essos. Almost every Lord, Lady, and other influential and powerful people wanted this soap that could wash away dirt and germs off of the body.

The Demand for it was high and if you had it you were seen as very rich since it was sold at a high price at Stormdrift and even higher by Merchant's.

This increased the reputation of the Free Folk Kingdom and made the world see them not as savages anymore but as a powerful Kingdom that can contend with the Seven Kingdoms.

Because of this more and more Free Cities and even some Lord's of the Seven Kingdom's tried to establish a relationship with Thornir to get their hands on Soap or to just have a very powerful ally.

But Thornir didn't meet with any Lord in person and most of the talks were settled over messages. He had established Trade deals with many of the Kingdom's and Lord's getting a substantial amount of resources and money.

Even Jon Arryn despite's Stannis Baratheon protests had started to trade with the Free Folk Kingdom. He saw it as an opportunity while Stannis still considered them to be an enemy as they killed his brother and wiped the Royal army off the map leaving only a few survivors to return to tell the tale of the battle.

But what could Stannis do if majority of the people saw it as beneficial to form a relationship with the Free Folk Kingdom.

After the Rebellion Jon Arryn even looked to further their relationship with the Free Folk Kingdom and even looked to get a loan from them since the Kingdom was accumulating a lot of debt.

But not as much debt that would have been accumulated if Robert was still alive. But it was still enough that Jon Arryn needed to do something about it.

He hoped to get a small loan from the Free Folk Kingdom to help the economy of the Seven Kingdom's but even with that it still wasn't enough.

And now entering the year of 291AC he needed to solve it within the next few years or else when Joffrey get's older and takes the Throne he would have a huge debt to settle.

Thornir on the other hand looked to expand to the Island of Skagos since it was in a strategic location and had some resources that he needed.

He had also been getting report's of White Walker sighting's within the Land of Always Winter. Something that he needed to keep a Watch so that he can crush them in one battle.

For now he will keep watch and continue to develop his Kingdom and expand his influence in the Process.