Vojislav did not have to deal with Littlefinger, because he died of the great plague. Should not have stuck his willy into one too many places. Which was fortunate, as Littlefinger was too potent of an enemy to deal with. Also fortunate, as he died long before he could secure the entirety of the north, and thus contend for the iron throne. This left Vojislav free to fight his war of independence against the Vale Lord Paramount; his son Nenad Miroslav leading the Serbian forces to victory. This victory was not good for Nenad. Clubfooted, arrogant Nenad Miroslav was sure that after winning the war he would soon rule over the Vale, and began acting like an arrogant aristocrat to the poorfolk.
Vojislav only tolerated Nenad. This made him hate him. Vojislav had Nenad castrated; while this would reduce the rate in which the Miroslav family grew, it would also make a far more better heir available to guide the dynasty through.
Little Blaz Miroslav inherited Vojislav Miroslav's good looks. And he possessed a likeable charm, in tandem with his father's killer instinct. A perfect enough heir, he was given the best education possible. With peace returning to the Vale, and the rest of the seven Kingdoms embroiled in occasional conflict (most notably once when a Westerland Lannister tried to take the Iron throne, another when Margary Tyrell tried to take the iron throne from her son), Vojislav reserved himself to ruling over the High Lordship of Newreach.
He set people on fire. No one was going to fuck with his rule. He also expressed his more sincere side,
paying homage to the dead.
It seems the King of the Seven Kingdoms was not even moved the tiniest bit by this small Lord's rule however. With Littlefinger dead, there was no one to advise King Tyros Lannister to keep the Vale weak by keeping the Miroslavs of Newsreach independent.
After having just fought for independence, the Arryns once more subjugated the Miroslavs, with cheap words and not swords. This left Vojislav Miroslav in a rather sour mood, so he did the best he could to
try and make winter even worse just to spite the seven Kingdoms. The White Walking bastards got the message, and peasants froze to death all throughout the world in response.
Having converted to Rh'ollor, Vojislav also managed to betroth one of Stannis's daughters to his own son Blaz. Poor Stannis died on the wall, an infirm and old man fighting winter.
A blacksmith also stole our Valyrian steel sword. He was captured and tortured to death, though the Valyrian steel sword remains in the hands of some distant Qohori Lord; Vojislav merely got a new one. This would be the last matter of rule Vojislav would decide over, as he was promptly
slain in battle by the giant of a man Ser Jaden. Vojislav died trying to take the Eyrie, his castrated son took over command after he died. In the end the Eyrie was taken, dealing a critical blow to the Arryn family. Amusingly, one of the Arryn armies was killed not by the Serbs - no, the Serbs had routed the Arryn army, forcing them into retreating right into a Mountain Clansman invasion led by none other than Shagga of Two Axes. The Mountain Clansmen slaughtered the Valemen, whilst the Serbs took the Eyrie unopposed.
Interestingly the forces of the Wall tried to stop the Serbs, the Serbs proving to be as much a threat to the realms of men as omnicidal frost demons. The High Lordship of Newreach passed down to Blaz Miroslav, and the first thing he did as High Lord
was shag the court fire priest. This fulfilled his ambition to fall in love. Tragically, Blaz would have to throw the fire priest under the bus after the fire priest was discovered to be a bit queer; sent to
the wall to not talk of this again. And as he went, another familiar sight approached: The god damned Braavosi bank.
How could a Miroslav ever turn their offers down?! Of course, holding the Eyrie made everything much easier. The Arryn family had many loyal supporters and still outnumbered the Miroslav forces 8 to 1, but their capital was right next to the Eyrie - and it was the bloody gate. Once the bloody gate was taken there was no hope of outside help saving them, and once Blaz
threatened to set a few of their family members on fire they surrendered the Vale to Blaz. A surprised King Tyros found that the High Lords of Newreach he had given away to the Arryn family had now reduced the Arryn family to destitution. Also of note is that around this time is also the time that the Vale happened to conduct a whole lot of slavery. Blaz may have had a tiny thing to do with this. The giant slave camp in the Eyrie is just for show, the workers get paid... Eventually.
The surprised King Tyros decided that it would be best to keep this Lord Paramount Blaz under close watch.
So he brought Blaz to the capital as Lord Treasurer. Blaz wasn't even that skilled of an administrator...
Though he did manage to build a new castle on the Bloody Gate. And it would be needed.
Times were changing.
Westeros had its first dragon rider. Granted, this was a nobody married to a summer islander baroness of a diftmark Lord. The lowest of the lowest of the lowest... Who happened to be riding Drogon. It was fortunate that this dragon rider had no ambitions to take over the world, seeming to be content with remaining landless as long as no one forced him to use Drogon to scar the world in pyroclastic destruction. And no one could force him to, what with the dragon and all.
And then it happened.
The Iron fucking bank of Braavos keeps happening. They gave an offer I simply couldn't refuse... A chance to take the Iron Throne. I had no problem with the prospect of taking on the six of seven Kingdoms, after all I had already taken on armies outnumbering me 10 to 1, what difference could 100 to 1 possibly make when you have no right to win either? Fortunately not all of the Kingdoms went to war against the Vale, the Riverlands stayed out of the conflict (they had already been battered trying to defend Storm's End from a Vale invasion, I didn't really care about taking such a far away and fortified castle I just wanted to beat up the Riverlands), but the rest of the great houses supplied more than enough blood to the snow-capped mountains of the Vale. Hideous, horrendous hosts of Reachmen, Northmen, Dornishmen, Crownlanders, Westermen and Stormlanders all arrived 30,000 a time, by sea and by northern impasse. They chased after 7,000 men deep into the Vale. That's when they realized their mistake. 8,000 Miroslav men, 7,000 Rh'ollor fanatics and several thousand sellswords moved down from the mountains to block off the Bloody Gate. They had in their eagerness to avoid being shut out of the Vale not noticed that they were being locked
in. Due to the Winter being supernaturally intense, tens of thousands died every month whilst the Serbians enjoyed the warmth of the Bloody Gate's newly constructed hearths. The besiegers attempted to storm the Vale castles on the coast to gain access to their ports and resupply the beleaguered coalition,
it bled them dry but ensured their survival. While they lay siege to the entirety of the northern and southeastern Vale, Blaz Miroslav played his gambit, sending 10,000 Braavosi and 10,000 Gusars from the Vale straight down to King's Landing to capture the capital and capture the King, ending the war.
18,000 survived the journey. Time was of the essence, and with only 5,000 soldiers left defending King's Landing, the decision was made to storm the walls at once. They were so close... 18,000 men had died on the walls of King's Landing and the remaining 3,000 of Braavosi and Serbian alike were only 4 days away from breaching the Red Keep and taking the whole city. They were that close to winning the war. Realizing just how close it was, 8,000 relief troops were sent from the Bloody Gate to march on King's Landing and support the remaining 3,000.
It was too late. The Loyalists had remustered 40,000 men from the Reach and the Crownlands, untouched by the horrific winter of the Vale mountains.
The reinforcements were also ambushed on the road. And all the forces sent to kill the loyalist armies likewise caught off guard by the sudden arrival of the Reach host. The Miroslav rebels finally halted the Crownlander-Reach advance
at the bloody gate. But by then, the only thing that achieved was ensuring that Blaz's family was unharmed in the Eyrie. Blaz himself was somewhat fucked. Too much of the Vale had fallen, and the gambit had not succeeded.
It was a crushing defeat.Blaz was thrown in the dungeon indefinitely. The Bloody Gate itself, taken and controlled by King Tyros. The Riverlands were likewise given a foothold, and one High Lord given independence. The strategy was clear; control the Blood Gate, control the Vale. And then why not give the most powerful loyalist some land right in the heart of the Vale and give a High Lord in the rear his power in exchange for a third front on any disloyal Miroslavs. This was a problem, but one that would have to be solved later. The immediate problem was the fact that King Tyros controlled all of the Vale simply by virtue of holding Blaz Miroslav prisoner. So I did what would guarantee the Miroslav freedom. Either Blaz would die and the Lordship would pass to the next Miroslav, or he would gain freedom and glory. Trial by combat.
King Tyros chose his champion while Blaz Miroslav chose his sword, for he fought his own battles (unlike the cowardly Lannisters!).
King Tyros picked Ser Randyll, some shiny Knight of the Red Keep's court. The blue steel of Titan's Spit ran through Ser Randyll's heart. He never stood a chance.Lord Paramount Blaz Miroslav promptly walked on home with the smuggest grin on his face, the smuggest grin the world has ever seen. Legends have it for that one day, Winter fucked off, because Winter itself could not handle his smugness.
Sadly,
he would emerge from one victory only to return home in time to hear little Ivan die.King Tyros tried to reconcile with Lord Blaz. Tried to solidify Blaz's position as ruler of the Vale. Instead, Lord Blaz did the only thing almost as taboo as Kinslaying and breaking guest right: He broke a truce. He could not take the Iron Throne, but he could give the Vale independence. This war would be a lot easier.
Firstly, all Blaz needed to do to win was maintain control over the Vale. This in turn only necessitated the killing of traitors, the securing of the southern valley from Dornish marines and the holding of the
hot gate bloody gate and northern pass. This was easily done with 11,000 levies (slave labour also translates into slave armies), gusars on the bloody gate and mixed force of gusars and Rh'ollor fanatics putting down traitors and Dornishmen alike. And all the while the Serbians were striking when their fores were replenished (enough), the Iron Throne was still bankrupt, still being pressured by the Iron Bank, all the other Kingdoms bar the Riverlands were devastated by the previous invasion of the Vale - their efforts to stop the Miroslav family were fierce, but fruitless. The Westerlands and the Reach together got the closest to taking the Vale as anyone, but their efforts to capitalize on traitors within the Vale's mountains were hampered
by infighting, the winter, and their inability to break past the stalwart Gusars led by Blaz Miroslav himself. The Westerland-Reach forces would have broken through the northern pass, had they still gotten Iron Throne support from King Tyros.
The King Lannister, Tyros himself, would set his side's side backwards by several leaps. In his attempt to secure an easy victory without having to waste his already bankrupt arse and his already depleted manpower, he attempted to tame a dragon to use against the Serbs.
The Dragon ate him. This left a new King. King Rupert Lannister split his armies in two, one host trying to help the Lannisters and friends take the Miroslavs, the other trying to save all of humanity from succumbing to endless winter. Hilariously, before the Serbian war for independence, the Serbs had been building up this army to send to help the Knight's Watch. Then Blaz realized: If the Knight's Watch gets screwed, then the Iron Throne will be doubly screwed, and that means more serbs!
And that's how the Serbs became independent. And the omnicidal embodiment of russian winter also took a third of the wall.In its weakened state, the Iron Throne was attacked by
the Pentoshi from across the narrow sea, the Pentoshi looking for an easy city. This galvanized the entire Kingdom (sans Ironborn and Serbs), unfortunately
the Serbs would break truce (again) to take the Bloody Gate leading to
a Myreneese invasion resulting in a bankrupt iron throne, out of soldiers, being invaded by two merchant republics and serbs and omnicidal frost demons (not serbs).
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Topic: Crusader Kings 2 is released. (Read 2121986 times)