Last I left off, White Walkers were invading the increasingly decreasing Seven Kingdoms, which at that point numbered only 3 Kingdoms in total. Because the Serbs refused to engage the White Walkers in battle, the White Walkers could never quite win their invasion, and so just kept taking more of the north. This was good in the short term as it meant the white walkers could not win so long as they didn't fight anyone, bad in the long term because they were quickly occupying the entirety of the north. Some time later Lady Meliana Karstark would realize that southern help would not arrive if she didn't first help herself.
She took charge of the defence of the north from the Miroslavs, which was just as well because otherwise the Miroslavs would have done nothing and let the North fall. This also reset the warscore as the northern soldiers' morale was boosted to righteous levels of furor. This meant the white walkers could finally be engaged in battle by the Miroslavs.
Granted, the Miroslavs were still being ferocious, selfish dicks about defending the realms of men that weren't serbs. They only really defended the North because the White Walkers ran out of northmen to easily kill, the survivors were holed up in tough Forts, marshes, mountains and islands; the only other accessible southrons to slaughter
lived past the neck. So inevitably, the armies of the dead marched south, presumably while Meliana Karstark breathed a sigh of relief.
Blaz saw the white walkers army of the dead marching south (some of it at least) and decided to raise a large army of mercenaries, rh'ollor fanatics and a few levies, over 22,000 in total to stave off the dead people
at the mountain pass. The mercenary captains were very
skilled and very valuable commanders, it made me regretful that I didn't have that many loyal captains of equal calibre if any at all in my court. It was here that some valuable
lessons were learned.1. Generals without Valyrian steel weapons are likely to be killed by white walkers almost immediately, if you lack in generals or valyrian steel, your armies will be routed.
2. Homosexual serbian warlords > zombie ice lords
Suffice to say, the armies of the dead were massacred and the mercenary companies liberated the North. Happy that the legions of the dead were totally defeated for good, King Blaz disbanded his armies and gave Lady Meliana Karstark independence despite all of her protests that the threat was not at all all over. Blaz then did the same with the smelly Crannog swamp yokels. The Serbs then briefly delved into the horrors of democracy.
A grand council of all major Lords was assembled to elect the future leader after King Blaz died. Under primogeniture succession laws, the crown would pass to King Blaz's grandson through his firstborn son, which meant by default Prince Nikodim was heir apparent. There was nothing necessarily wrong with Nikodim, he was just very young and Blaz was very old. There was a risk that should Blaz die, Nikodim would be too young to inherit Spyrax and so Spyrax would fly away freely. Ultimately King Blaz favoured Prince Mislav Miroslav, his secondborn son. He inherited his father's good looks, was a skilled warrior at the age of 13, squired for his father and was just in judgement and gregarious by nature - perfect. Prince Nikodim got 4 votes, Prince Mislav got 5 votes, Ser Barth got 45 fucking votes. Truly, democracy is a woeful machine - Ser Barth was a baron Miroslav whose only notable feature was his baldness, inability to offend and age. Still, it could have gone worse. Prince Mislav was made Lord Paramount of the Vale so as to not waste such a valuable Miroslav and at the very least Ser Barth was an ok fighter who would stand a good chance of inheriting Spyrax. With democracy settled, Westeros returned to its usual schedule of noble nobles desperately trying to hold onto the old honourable world (which wasn't actually all that honourable) against an onslaught of pure Miroslav. Most notably the Lord Commander of the King's Guard, an old chap called Urlon, challenged Blaz Miroslav to a 'friendly' duel.
This was a bold provocation, sheer, total and utter disrespect for the King. Granted, the King didn't really show much respect to the Kingdoms outside of the Vale and Crownlands either, but that still didn't change the fact that Urlon was insulting the King of the Andals and the First Men, the Rhoynar and the Serbs, dragon rider and fucker of white walkers and the most destructive force currently alive during the long night 2 serbian boogaloo.
There's some history involved. When the Miroslavs rose to power, it was not a bloodless coup. The Arryns had their lands taken, were exiled, their supporters killed and if they weren't exiled before slavery was legalized you can bet they would've been sold to some Qohori goatfuckers as troop fodder or sent to be court eunuchs in the Celestial Palaces of Yiti... Or just set on fire. Quite interesting is that the Arryn's seemed to have a genetic disposition to being handsome as fuck.
Commander Hugh was handsome and
Commander Urlon was handsome. The Miroslavs had some notable handsome members in their family like Prince Mislav and King Blaz, but the Arryns had handsome folk everywhere. They would have made good stock for assimilation into the Miroslav family, but alas, they were Arryns. Commander Hugh for example, was one of the lead commanders under King Tyros Lannister in the Seven Years war. Legends go that he joined the Kingsguard to avenge his family and reclaim the Vale as none hated the Miroslavs as much as he.
After brief success, he was captured and burnt alive, the Seven Years war being won by the Serbs.
Commander Urlon Arryn was the last Arryn. A skilled warrior, a man out to avenge his family, his lands, his people - he'd given up everything to just have this one chance to get close to the King and kill him. I have to say I was a little worried when Blaz accepted the duel, as Urlon was still one of the greatest swordsmen in Westeros; and just he had aged, King Blaz had aged. Urlon was owed at least one chance to let the Arryn family die with pride.
Urlon raised his greatsword to strike Blaz. He was parried but the counterstrike failed to connect. Blaz pursued his attack with vigour and Urlon skillfully replied with strikes of his own. Blaz raised his guard and Urlon lunged forwards to kill Blaz before he could react; Blaz had already sidestepped him, and kicked his injured leg. Old wounds and old pains were reawakened as Blaz circled around Urlon, desperately trying to fight Blaz off, resting on one good knee.
Blaz demolished his defence and drove his Valyrian steel sword through him with all his might, leaving him bleeding to death on the floor. He died of his wounds later.
Around this time the independent North was crumbling to a renewed White Walker offensive. Pleasingly, due to the Westerlands having a county in the North, the entirety of the Westerlands was also subjected to damaging incursions by large bands of undead. The North remembers, but the North is dead.
King Blaz had a slight fear that the White Walkers could not be permanently stopped, since the wars for dawn - where the Night's Watch called upon all of the southern Kings to set aside their political intrigues to unite for the good of all, failed. The Nights Watch's calls went unheeded by all except the Karstarks. The Night's Watch fell.
Should the Vale, Crownlands and ultimately the last of the Westerosi Miroslavs fall in Westeros, all of the Seven Kingdoms (except maybe the Ironborn) would be lost. Whether the white walkers could cross the narrow sea or southern seas was another issue entirely. It was assumed they couldn't, but even so, there was one land in particular of extreme value. King Blaz turned his sights on
the Summer Islands, declaring war on all of them. The Summer Islands were separated by a large expanse of ocean between Westeros and the Islands, meaning white walkers would have a hell of a hard time getting there. In addition, it was the only place where, as the name suggested, it was Summer. Everywhere else had winter. Two of the Summer Islander Lords joined the Iron Throne, the rest resisted fiercely. Before Blaz arrived, the Summer Islands were divided amongst several tribes, High Lordships, Princedoms and even a Merchant Republic. While even the fiercest Summer Islanders could take on soldiers fighting for the Vale, they could not take on Iron Throne soldiers led by Blaz himself. Nevertheless, they had a highly effective and particularly horrid tactic of just attacking any of the Summer Islanders who joined the Iron Throne. At first Blaz got by just using the 5,000 troops supplied by the loyal High Lords, supplemented by conquered islands and a sizeable army of Vale auxiliaries who landed on the northernmost island. Eventually just owing to attrition and Summer Islander attacks on supporters, troops had to be brought in from King's Landing to hammer the nails into the coffin. Alas, despite even this being done, two High Lords and the Basilisk Isles remained independent
as Blaz died. Spyrax flew off, Ser Barth had died just days before and Prince Nikodim became King.
King Nikodim is where things start going off the deep end.
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Topic: Crusader Kings 2 is released. (Read 2112357 times)