#upjump

[visenyaism]

this goes so hard but then you remember this motherfucker is about to invent english protestantism and literally fuck the whole world and it’s like. wait. stop

[tarnussy]

Insolence! You upjumped little Tarnished!

[piduai]

no times i want to be a man more than when playing rgg. like i also want to punch around with no profound meaning behind it. only choices women got in this universe is to be either merchandise or the dead girlfriends/sisters of the guys who punch around

[sad-endings-suck]

Very true! @addamvelaryon

GRRM Loves Convoluted Succession

Stark Succesion

Bran is technically heir to Winterfell except he is believed to be dead and cannot father children/heirs.

Which would make Rickkon heir to Winterfell, but he is also believed to be dead.

So Sansa is heir to the North, but she has been disinherited due to marrying into the Lannister family. However, if Tyrion is believed to be dead then she could potentially be restored to succession as the Northerners know her Lannister marriage is the only reason she was removed from the line of succession.

Though if that never comes to pass, then Arya is heir, but she is also believed to be dead.

Ah, and Jon has been legitimized by Robb, which makes Jon heir to the North, but only if the Northmen come out of the war victorious with a Stark monarch. Because only a King can legitimize a bastard (and whether or not Robb was a proper King is debatable and depends on if the North successfully achieves independence). Not to mention how Jon’s Targaryen blood could further complicate things.

Targaeryan Succession

If Young Griff can actually prove he is Aegon son of Rhaegar, then he would be heir to the iron throne (never mind the Targaryen’s were usurped). However, Rhaegar and his children were taken out of the line of succession and Viserys was made Aerys heir (whether or not this is valid who knows).

If it is valid, then that means Daenerys’ claim is the best. Plus, she can actually prove she’s who she says she is, and more importantly she has dragons and possibly lots of powerful backers in the near future.

Jon would have a solid claim if Lyanna and Rhaegar were married, except even if they were no one would see that marriage as valid (the show was so dumb for that). Because Rhaegar had consummated his marriage to Elia and produced heirs with her. Ah, but if Young Griff is a Blackfyre then Jon’s claim would potentially still be better than his. Also, regardless of his bastardly, if Jon were to become consort to Daenerys that could strengthen both their claims and Young Griff would be in a very poor position politically if they did so.

Lannister Succession

Jaime would be heir to Casterly Rock, except that he is a member of King’s Guard and cannot hold lands or titles. However, he could potentially be released from his King’s Guard vows (due to the precedent set by releasing Barristen Selmy), and in that case he would be heir to Casterly Rock.

Tyrion would be next in line in Lannister succession, except that he is a kinslayer and for all intents and purposes an exile with no real claim. Unless of course the throne was usurped again, and the new monarch restored Tyrion as heir to Casterly Rock.

As it stands right now, Cersei is the rightful Lady of Casterly Rock. However, as stated above, that is likely subject to change once she no longer possesses the Iron Throne. Plus, if Jaime were released from his vows he could challenge her claim (he probably wouldn’t, but who knows).

Greyjoy Succession

So technically Theon is the heir to the Iron Isles, except that he is believed to be dead, was presumably passed over in favour of Asha, and cannot produce heirs himself.

Which leaves Asha with the best claim. Except that a Kingsmoot was called (fuck you very much for that Aeron) and Euron was declared King of the Iron Isles.

Except, that due to the fact that Theon is actually alive (and has the best-ish claim) but was not allowed to press his claim at the Kingsmoot, that makes the Kingsmoot, well, moot. Seeing as Theon is alive and was not allowed to be “voted for” so to speak. Making Euron’s claim via the Kingsmoot invalid. Also, it’s already tricky enough for a brother to press a claim against a daughter, but for a brother to press a claim against a daughter and a son is a hell of a lot harder. Especially when your whole claim relied on, A) a man having more rights than a woman, and B) a one night popularity contest. Still, he’s a King as of now and will be hard-pressed to give it up.

Victarion… lmfao

Aeron. This is even more pathetic somehow.

Martell Succession

Arrianne was heir to Dorne, but then (presumably) she was betrothed to Viserys with the intent being for her to be Queen of the Seven Kingdoms. But Viserys died, which means she is again first in line for Dorne.

Quentyn was (presumably) meant to rule Dorne until Viserys died and he was pushed back in succession.

Tully Succession

Edmure is now Lord of Riverrun, except that he has no heir. So if for some reason he and his wife Roslin Frey die before they have children, then one of Catelyn’s kids would be heir to Riverrun (as she is the next in line due to seniority, but dead herself).

Arryn Succession

Robert Arryn of course, has the best claim, but if he doesn’t make it to the end of the series then Harry the Heir is next up. And who knows who would be next after him.

Baratheon Succession

As Robert and Renly are dead, Stannis is definitively Lord of Storm’s End. However, he only has one heir, Shireen. Who GRRM has confirmed will die, likely quite soon. Which leaves Stannis without an heir.

As such, Stannis could legitimize one of Robert’s bastard, probably Edric Storm. Since he has two high born parents, that like Shireen, are a Baratheon father and a Florent mother respectively.

However, that hinges on Edric Storm making it out of the series alive, because if he doesn’t, then the claim to Storm End’s is going to be a bloody free-for-all between all of Robert’s bastards, cousins and other relatives. And at this point the realm can’t survive too much more in-fighting.

The Tyrells are the only ones who have their shit together. For now.

[goodqueenaly]

Does it seem odd that when Robert Arryn brings up the hope of marrying 'Alayne' the issue of them being officially stepsiblings isn't brought up? Does this indicate that it is considered acceptable in the 7K or could it just mean that it doesn't occur to Sansa as they're merely cousins or she doesn't feel that Robert is really able to understand this? After all, Lyonel Hightower had trouble with the Faith over marrying his stepmother. Though if we're looking for real-world analogues, in Islam stepsiblings is permissible but stepparents aren't.

A couple things.

Number one, when Lysa first mentioned the marriage between Robert and Sansa (when the latter was disguised as “Alayne Stone”), she did so knowing full well who “Alayne” really was:

“I … [sic] I am married, my lady.”

“Yes, but soon a widow. Be glad the Imp preferred his whores. It would not be fitting for my son to take that dwarf’s leavings, but as he never touched you … [sic] How would you like to marry your cousin, the Lord Robert?”

(It goes without saying, of course, that this proposed marriage was never so much as formally announced, much less actively planned, in the brief period between Sansa and Littlefinger’s arrival and Lysa’s murder.)

Number two, whether or not Robert ever learned from his mother that he would marry “Alayne” someday, I wouldn’t take the beliefs of young Robert as any sort of accurate reflection on Westerosi politico-religious statutes or tradition regarding marriage. Having lost essentially the only woman in his life, not to mention the only person who ever showed him anything resembling affection (a full critical review of her parenting notwithstanding), Robert has very clearly taken to Sansa-as-Alayne as a sort of surrogate mother. Being all of eight, not to mention very sheltered and infantalized by his mother, Robert does not have a real, practical idea of what marriage in a Westerosi context means; for Robert, marriage to Sansa-as-Alayne would mean “sleep[ing] in the same bed every night” while Sansa-as-Alayne would “read [him] stories”, “sleep[ing] and kiss[ing] and play[ing] games” with him - that is, essentially what Robert already did with or wanted from Sansa-as-Alayne. Robert isn’t thinking about what the Faith of the Seven or Westerosi law would say about marriage between step-siblings (or, maybe to put it more accurately, a stepson and a bastard daughter); Robert is trying to keep close to Sansa-as-Alayne as the only person giving him some modicum of comfort, stability, and love as his mother had.

Indeed, to that point, Sansa-as-Alayne underlined the impossibility of their union for Robert:

She put a finger to his lips. “I know what you want, but it cannot be. I am no fit wife for you. I am bastard born.”

“I don’t care. I love you best of anyone.”

You are such a little fool. “Your lords bannermen will care. Some call my father upjumped and ambitious. If you were to take me to wife, they would say that he made you do it, that it was no will of yours …[”]

…

Alayne stroked his fingers. “There, my Sweetrobin, be still now.” When the shaking passed, she said, “You must have a proper wife, a trueborn maid of noble birth.”

“No. I want to marry you, Alayne.”

Once your lady mother intended that very thing, but I was trueborn then, and noble. “My lord is kind to say so.” … “Any child of ours would be baseborn. Only a trueborn child of House Arryn can displace Ser Harrold as your heir. My father will find a proper wife for you, some highborn girl much prettier than me. You’ll hunt and hawk together, and she’ll give you her favor to wear in tournaments. Before long, you will have forgotten me entirely.”

Again, because none of this has ever gone beyond the imaginations of Lysa or Robert, it is impossible to say whether the aristocracy of the Vale, much less anywhere else in Westeros, would have reacted to a betrothal ostensibly between Robert and “Alayne Stone”. (And I say “ostensibly” because even in Littlefinger’s current nuptial scheme, Sansa is going to reveal herself as Sansa Stark, rather than “Alayne Stone” at her wedding to Harry Hardyng.) It is interesting to point out that Sansa-as-Alayne’s argument to Robert isn’t that they can’t marry because his stepfather is (officially) her natural father, but that they can’t marry because this marriage would be seen as too ambitious and tyrannical a move by Littlefinger - not necessarily mutually exclusive ideas, but certainly not synonymous either. That’s not to say Sansa is any more versed in the nuances of Westerosi law and/or the doctrines of the Faith to know whether or not this marriage would also be unlawful in the eyes of man or the Seven, of course, but at bare minimum we can say that Sansa-as-Alayne’s instinct with Robert regarding this marriage is to cite the gulf of rank between them, and the perceived influence of Littlefinger, rather than any idea that such unions are objectively forbidden.

(And, when it comes to Westeros legal-religious tradition, I don’t think GRRM has really put much thought into it, as indeed I’m not sure, for example, what the High Septon could or would have done about Samantha Tarly’s allegedly incestuous marriage. Generally speaking, I don’t think GRRM puts very deep thought into the religious and legal details around rules for marriage, much to my curiosity and sometimes chagrin.)

[serpentface]

How do the people of the lower classes live in wardin? Is It different in each region? How dynamic is the social ladder? Does slavery exist?

Gonna just go through the whole social structure to answer this thoroughly

(little note for this post- when I say 'urban' and 'rural' it doesn't have the same meaning as the contemporary- urban Wardi spaces are the major cities and towns INCLUDING the massive areas of farmland that surround and them. Rural spaces are lands distant from major cities, wherein most people live in small and isolated villages sustained by herding or small-scale farming and are surrounded by grassland or scrub)

SOCIAL HIERARCHY:

The majority of cheap labor is maintained by high levels of class stratification in a fairly strict and well defined social structure. This hierarchy can be roughly divided into 3 main classes- royalty, nobility, and commoners.

---

Royalty consists of the Usoma and immediate kin, functionally the Usoma, the Usoma-Hittibe, the Usoma's wife, and his male heir. The rest of the royal family will be married into nobility and be functionally a part of that class (though tend to be appointed to high ranking roles in provincial government or the imperial court).

---

The noble class is broader and describes all landowners, who occupy a variety of roles. They staff the imperial court, form the majority of provincial officials, and many of the most Major priesthoods take their members (or at least high priests) from noble families. They own most of the land and livestock that urban agricultural laborers work, and are expected to distribute much of their take of agricultural goods to their provincial government. This status is hereditary and only lost in cases of individual disowning or Extremely profound familial disgrace (usually severe criminal behavior) that leads them to be stripped of their title and their lands seized.

There's three main variants of the nobility class

Old nobility: families with very longstanding status and land holdings, long predating Imperial Wardin as an entity and often derived from older chiefdoms and/or descended from the royalty or politicians of its previous kingdoms + city-states). These typically own the most land and have the most political power, but this is not universal. New nobility/'new money': an emergent class that rose in tandem with a wealthy mercantile class, largely in the past two centuries. These primarily derive from very wealthy mercantile families that secured political/trade power during the chaotic formation of Imperial Wardin. Most 'new money' families are actually at least a century old and TRULY New 'new money' status is rare. They are likely to have less landholdings but may have the same or greater political power (and sometimes material wealth) than old nobility. 'landed commoners' or 'lesser nobility': This isn't Really a subclass of nobility in practice, but have similar status and privileges in theory. These are people/families who have been bestowed minor titles and granted land ownership, while generally lacking the hard power of others in this class group. Most lesser nobility is comprised of priests or members of elite warrior orders, some other lay/civilian commoners may occasionally receive this grant as a reward or recognition. Very minimal hard power comes with this title, though it can enable a person to maneuver their family into a true position of 'nobility' with luck.

There are mild cultural distinctions between old nobility and new money nobility (as is typical when 'new money' status is differentiated). The most socially conservative old nobility families have avoided intermarriage with their new money counterparts and tend to conceptualize their status as an Innate quality rather than the circumstances of their birth, one that would be sullied by intermarriage with upjumped commoners (often accompanied by appeals to traditionalism and fond memories of a morally superior time that never actually existed). This is a minority however, and the two groups are largely intermingled and united by a sense that, regardless of ancestral origin, they're notably better than most other people.

---

The commoner class includes the VAST majority of the population. This class is very broad and includes a significant spectrum of wealth (some commoners are outright rich), but can be defined by lack of legal land ownership. 

The majority of commoners (and majority of people in general) are agricultural laborers, and form a distinct subclass.

-Urban agriculturalists mostly work on land owned by nobility and used to sustain their city's population- the majority of their harvest is required to be given to their landowners, and a (smaller) majority of that is required to be distributed to the provincial government. They are allowed to live on their granted land and grow food for their own subsistence, but will have to buy or obtain their own animals for completely free use of livestock. -Rural agriculturalists are primarily living in villages away from any urban centers. Their land is not owned by nobility but not considered their own, being legally designated 'owned' by their province, and (in most cases) a percentage of their harvest is required to be paid to their province as tribute.

The other members of the lower commoner class are mainly fishers, sailors, trade caravaneers, and a variety of 'unskilled' laborers (contracted to build roads and buildings and general public works, etc).

---

The upper commoner class is varied and more difficult to place, and consists largely of people living Within the urban centers. These are mostly artisans and merchants, as well as a variety of lower status public officials, teachers/tutors/scholars, specialized agriculturalists, poets, bards, athletes, actors, etc.

Within many of the major cities, skilled artisans exist in selective mercantile guilds and can be economically secure or potentially even wealthy. These are potters, painters, sculptors, silver and goldsmiths, blacksmiths, weavers, saddlers, leatherworkers, shipbuilders, tailors, etc etc. The merchant owners of these guilds are typically fairly wealthy, and the most powerful guilds tend to be owned by established new money nobility. These guilds are most common and diversified in the major coastal provincial capitals and some of their towns (Ephennos, Wardin, and Erubinnos, some will say that Godsmouth is Run by its guilds) and a lesser/less diversified phenomena in interior or small coastal capitals (Jatsait, Erub, Lobera). Artisans may be commissioned by temples, nobility, or even royalty to produce their goods, and very successful artists can make a name and very good living for themselves.

Animal sacrifice is very important to religious practice- captive sacrificial stocks are owned by each priesthood and reserved for their internal or public rites, but the general public often desires to bring their own high value offerings and sacrificial stock vendors have emerged as a concept to meet this demand in urban contexts. These are a subset of merchants who purchase surplus livestock from nobility or agricultural laborers (or hunt or poach wild game) and resell it to the general public, priced by value and rarity. The vast majority deal in birds (cheap to acquire and good enough for common offerings), but some wealthier/craftier merchants trade in larger livestock or other highly valuable animals. A subset of sacrificial stock vendors are more opportunistic and deal in non-animal offerings, usually vending desirable flowers, grains, spices and oils utilized in common offerings and strategically setting themselves up near temples or en-route to festivals. This is practice is legal and not considered outright heretical in of itself, but is kind of the used car salesman of Wardi culture (ie: "this cow is DEFINITELY older than a year, clearly diseased, and has ABSOLUTELY been bred and yoked, I'm not paying you ten gulls ((coinage)) for this shit come on man") and they do not tend to be regarded all that positively.

--

There are a few other subclasses who do not neatly fit into the core class hierarchy:

Priesthood: This group consists of all official priests of the Faith. Their hard material social status can vary- a significant proportion are selected from nobility and retain other aspects of that status, but some are commoners. All enjoy a degree of social protection, esteemed status, and security.

Warrior class: This is not the same thing as being a soldier (all male citizens can be conscripted as footsoldiers), and is rather a high status warrior placed into an elite military order. Much of the warrior class is members of nobility, but this isn't Always pure nepotism and this status will often be given in recognition of prowess regardless of class origin. If a commoner, they are very often bestowed land titles and become lesser nobility.

Non-Imperial Wardi: These are groups within the claimed territories who are not a part of the cultural core, mostly ethnic minority groups (Hill Tribes, North Wardi, Cholemdinae, Wogan, and unassimilated remnants of other pre-Wardi tribes). These groups live within their own social structures (though many could be considered to fall under the 'rural agriculturalist' class group). Many are in a tributary relationship with their surrounding province, in which case they retain full self governance in return for giving a percentage of their yield to provincial officials. Some people living on claimed Imperial Wardi territory exist fully outside of the tributary structure (mainly areas that are difficult to access, very distant from city centers, and/or hostile to the production of mass-desirable crops or agriculture in general) and are entirely just doing their own damn thing.

SOCIAL MOBILITY:

As implied in all that, social mobility is very limited. The vast majority of people will occupy the same class position (same OCCUPATION at that) as their parents and grandparents and great grandparents and so on.

Intra-class mobility (ie from a field laborer to an artisan) is possible, but practical and cultural limitations discourage this. Your children inheriting the same labor as you is generally the most guaranteed method of security for yourself and your family. In the artisan and mercantile classes, passing your knowledge and trade from father to son is culturally typical, and taking up your father's position is somewhat a matter of familial piety (though outright IMPROVING your position to your family's benefit is better).

Servant positions actually offer some of the best intra-class mobility (and sometimes Full movements up the social ladder). A person from a very poor family can potentially find very well paid and secure labor in working for a noble family or priesthood. Servant positions to major priesthoods in general can have very good outcomes, potentially landing one a job as a high ranking attendant. The child servant-squires of Odonii may be initiated into the warrior class if they remain in the order as adults, which can be a VERY desirable outcome (if it occurs).

Initiation into a priesthood or the warrior class through any means is the other main method. The major priesthoods tend to select their members from nobility, but this is not ubiquitous (the Galenii are the biggest priesthood that will readily initiate across class lines). Initiation into the warrior class in recognition for prowess gives one high social status and will land one in the lesser nobility, in which you are bestowed land and a title. (This may not have all the hard power of true nobility, but it will generally set yourself and your family up for life).

The 'new money' nobility primarily stems from wealthy members of the mercantile class involved in the trade system, but most established themselves and secured their position a century ago and there's not a lot of remaining 'openings' for other merchants to achieve this. Most of the upper mercantile subclass will be economically secure but not landed or having the other status of noblemen.

Marriage into a noble family can occasionally be an avenue for mobility. The vast, VAST majority of marriages in noble families are arranged, and arranged with other noble families. Intra-class marriages will be functionally rare, but not non-existent- this will mostly be the daughters of the upper mercantile subclass being married to noblemen, but it will VERY occasionally be a "yeah fuck it, I'll let my dumbass sixth son marry that hot fisherman's daughter, who gives a shit" type situation.

SLAVERY:

Slavery is not a major part of the framework (as most cheap labor is provided via class stratification to maintain a massive, dependent lower agricultural class), but exists in the form of forced labor of enslaved prisoners (war captives and some condemned criminals) and indentured servitude.

Chattel slavery is not practiced here (beyond forms of illegal human trafficking, which is an Extant but not substantial phenomena), and enslaved prisoners are considered ‘owned’ by their province for the duration of their ‘sentence’. This force is mostly exploited for dangerous hard labor, especially mining and building products. Their enslavement is conceptualized as a form of punishment with a sentence of an explicit duration (ranging from months to years to life), so this status is not hereditary and Ostensibly not necessarily lifelong, but enslaved prisoners often endure grueling conditions and abuse with high mortality rates, and may experience tremendous barriers to the protections of citizenship or other forms of social security even if freed.

Indentured servitude is a form of slavery in which a person enters a legally enforced servant/labor position and is denied freedom of movement or ending their servitude for the duration of their contracts. Most indentured servants are forced into (or occasionally voluntarily enter) this position to pay off debts. Legally, indentured servitude can only be enforced during the duration of their contract (either the length to pay off a debt or an allotted time span) and the contract owner is required to provide for their basic needs, but abuses obviously occur. 

This is separate from what I just refer to as servants, who are free commoners in paid positions with enforceable legal rights to end their servitude at any time (with pay cuts or similar consequences if this breaks a contract). These people occupy a broad spectrum of positions from cheaply paid labor to very well paid, even high status positions serving nobility, priesthoods, and royalty. As mentioned, these positions very occasionally offer class mobility, more commonly offer a good chance of ensuring lasting security for oneself and one's family (without class mobility), and in most cases it's just work that puts food on the table.

The exception to the freedom of servants is in the case of child servitude, which exists under the same rules and structure as free adult servitude but is functionally slavery due to the child's complete lack of legal autonomy. Their contracts CAN be ended at any time, but a child is under the legal control of their father - basically if their father denies to break the contract, they have no means of ending their servitude.

Boys are legally adults at 16 and can end their own contracts. It’s messier with girls, considered legally women upon menarche but still under ownership of their father until/unless a husband is found. Female child servants have a Degree of legal protection in which their father is required to either end their servitude upon menarche or has a year to arrange a marriage (also thereby ending it)- if these conditions are not met, the father is legally expected to end the contract, and the young woman has a right to contest his wishes if he does not. This is legally enforceable but very fraught in practice, given that women cannot self-represent in court and require a male representative, and a child servant can very easily be Prevented from acquiring or contacting one. (This difficulty does not apply in the same way to adult women servants, as they enter the contract under their own name and do not need a father/husband's permission to break it (though they are similarly more vulnerable to abuse than men due to their lack of legal autonomy))

Forms of child labor is culturally normalized and not everyone who participates in this system is personally malicious or cruel (note that this does not say "HAVING CHILD SERVANTS IS OKAY IF EVERYONE'S REAL NICEYS ABOUT IT"), and a young woman in this position Might be recognized by the person/institution they serve and given representation against their father in this fashion (especially given they likely socially outrank the girl's father). Forced servitude of adults (separate from the wholly accepted practices of indentured/prisoner slavery) is a punishable crime and widely considered reprehensible, which certainly doesn't mean it doesn't Happen, but does mean that the average person will not want to enable it (or at the very least will fear consequences) enough to prevent it if it's in their power to do so.

AVERAGE LIFE:

The average lower class person in Imperial Wardin is a urban agricultural laborer whose crops sustain their associated town or city. Their parents and grandparents most likely lived this way as well, and so will their children and grandchildren. They live on a tract of land and grow crops and/or herd and care for livestock owned by a nobleman they might never meet, and most of their output will go to these landowners and to the city/town/province they serve. A provincial official will come to their village at designated times during the harvest to oversee the collection and its division of their crop.

They are allotted a small amount of their output (crops, wool, etc) that, under normal conditions, should be sufficient to sustain themselves. If they produce a surplus, they can take it to the town or city to sell. It's ideal if they manage to purchase their own livestock (fowl are easily acquired, horses are fairly affordable, cattle are costly, owning a khait is a dream situation) to provide dairy, potentially grow their own herds, and maybe even produce enough to afford to slaughter their livestock for meat. They will also need to attempt to accumulate valuable goods and livestock for any of their daughters' dowries.

Their diet is very high in grain and very low in meat. In most parts of the region, maize will be the basis of the diet (and their likeliest crop), which will be consumed in nixtamalized form for better nutrition. Most of their protein will come from legumes and eggs. Any hunting or fishing on the land they live without express permission will be considered poaching, though some may dare to risk it. Foraging for wild plants is permissible, and this will supplement their diet.

In lean times, they bear a high risk of starvation, as their required output to give to their landowners/province remains the same. The nobles who own their land are expected to help keep them alive and give some of their own surplus back to their laborers if necessary, but this is less a legal obligation than one of honorable behavior, and may be partly or completely neglected. Most agricultural laborers experience at least mild starvation on a seasonal basis, and their year round diets are nutritionally poor.

If in proximity to their province's capital city, they likely face little dangers of raiding or predators, as the nearby roads are periodically patrolled by soldiers and most large predators have been extirpated from their land. The biggest animal-based danger will stem from crocodiles in the rivers in which they fetch water, and from snake bites. Agricultural pests are a much bigger threat to their livelihood, ranging from rodents and birds to (in some parts of the region) very aggressive and dangerous wild buffalo. Those adjacent to smaller towns may sometimes be troubled by raids, or find their livestock or themselves threatened by large predators (most commonly hyenas).

They most likely live in a village with other families, many of whom will serve the same nobility and all of whom serve the same province. Their village is likely run by a semi-official leader who retains the word 'chieftain', who is an agricultural laborer such as themself and functions as the primary go-between for the village and the provincial official collectors who come for their harvest (as well as a general leader and mediator). How this chieftain is decided and whether the position is (semi)hereditary or elected will vary by subculture.

Their style of home will vary regionally, but this is most commonly going to be a small mudbrick house with a straw roof. If they're an adult man, they likely live with their older mother and father (and any living grandparents) along with their wife and children, and any unmarried relatives. If they're a woman, they likely live with their husband's family in a similar setup (their own family may be in the same village, or may live further away).

The culturally idealized gendered division of labor is not fully attainable to them. The women in their family will do the majority of the endless task of textile labor, but the men will participate as well when they are not actively at other work. All members of the family will work in the fields, and mothers will carry their infants on their back as they do so.

Their clothing is typically limited, and consists mostly of what their family and community has produced itself. In hot seasonal temperatures, they will probably be wearing only a cloak, loincloth and sunveil (standard for women, optional for men), and walking barefoot or in basic sandals. They are diminishingly unlikely to own any weapons, and instead will carry a staff or use farming/herding equipment if self defense is needed.

They most likely live a short distance from a town, and a few days' journey at most from their province's capital city. As such, they have close access to religious centers and most likely practice a largely doctrinal version of the Faith of the Seven Faced God (with some folk-religious elements). Most will make the commute to their towns or cities for major festivals and holidays. Their lives and survival depend significantly on the fertility of the land, crops, and their livestock, and much of their religious practice will revolve around the agriculture-fertility oriented Faces Ganmache, Mitlamache, and Anaemache.

They are very unlikely to be literate, probably knowing key common logogram characters without being able to construct or read grammatical sentences. An education may be ostensibly attainable, as there will be free public schools for citizen commoner children in their province's capital city, but they likely have little motivation to send their child away for years to gain skills that will ultimately matter little in their line of work (and lose valuable help in the process). Most knowledge and life skills will be passed directly from parent to child.

The average Wardi agriculturalist has a difficult life, but has significantly more leisure time than the average wage laborer in a capitalist industrialized country. Their working day lasts only as long as it needs to (with the longest days being in the planting and harvesting season), and free time can be spent at rest (or at least the comparatively restful tasks of weaving and knitting). They are expressly exempt from labor on the majority of religious holidays (some lasting multiple days), as well as the third day in each solar calendar week (considered a day of rest to attend to the domestic sphere).

[agentrouka-blog]

Harry: why would it please me to do anything with Littlefinger's bastard

Alayne: If Robb hadn't died he would be the same age as Harry is now but Robb had died a king and Harry is just a boy (aka Littlefinger's bastard is literally a princess, and way out of your league)

... well you know who DIDN'T die and who IS now the same age as Harry

.... Ned Stark's bastard.

(But Jon Snow is Lord Commander of the Nights Watch and Harry is just an upjumped squire.)

(aka GRRM is going out of my way to not have Jon and Sansa think of each other even when they have plenty of opportunity to do so.)

What a great thing to notice! 😃

Jon and Harry are the same age! Because Jon and Robb are the same age, obviously.

I imagine Harry's confident (to put it mildly) attitude also helped in nudging her comparison toward her brother Robb over Jon "He who is sullen and terse and deferential" Snow, BUT at this point the fact that Jon is Lord Commander of the Night's Watch and alive right now (ahem....) should warrant a bit more attention. Especially as disdain for bastardy is part of the context here. Alayne-Sansa, are we repressing things again?

I think this one also really fits the "too painful to think of" territory. After all, while it would be so sweet to see him once again, it can - of course - never be....

[witchthewriter]

𝐇𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐅𝐥𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝑜𝑓 𝐵𝑟𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡𝑤𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝐾𝑒𝑒𝑝

𝑴𝒐𝒕𝒕𝒐: "Listen Carefully"

𝑺𝒊𝒈𝒊𝒍: A red fox in a circle of blue flowers on ermine (Ermine, a fox gules within an annulet of flowers azure)

𝑻𝒓𝒂𝒊𝒕𝒔: Members of House Florent tend to have prominent ears.

House Florent is one of the many noble Houses sworn to House Tyrell of Highgarden. Descended from Garth Greenhand by his daughter Florys the Fox, House Florent boasts a superior claim to Highgarden by their close blood ties to the House Gardener, the extinct Kings of the Reach.

During Aegon's Conquest, House Florent followed their liege, King Mern IX Gardener, in taking up arms against Aegon the Conqueror during the Field of Fire.

After the battle, when King Mern and his sons burned and the Gardeners' line ended, Aegon named the Tyrells as Lord Paramount of the Reach, despite the Florents possessing a superior claim by their blood ties to the Kings of the Reach.

House Florent was among the great houses of the Reach that bitterly complained about being made vassals of the Tyrells and insisted that their blood was nobler than that of the "upjumped stewards". Their protests were denied by King Aegon I, perhaps because the Florents had fought House Targaryen when the Tyrells did not.

[toskarin]

I love war and dying horribly at some other upjumped murderous freak's hands, but otherwise I am quite a sweetheart

[dailyadventureprompts]

Villain: Duke Sabrian, the Trueborn Bastard

The barred windows of the carriage let in only cold mountain air and the endless procession of crucifixes marking the road up to the Duke's castle. You idly wonder if he's picked out which ones he'll nail you and your friends to once you've told him that you've failed.

Though he styles himself the gallant exemplar of everything the noble warrior class could be, Duke Sabrian is in truth the embodiment of all the failings of his social order: brutish, bloody-minded, and blind to any plights beyond his own. More than a decade past Sabrian fought a war against his own sibling to seize control of their duchy and since then has ruled from an isolated mountain fortress fearing reprisals from the people he subjugates.

As long as the Duke rules things will continue to get worse, and it's only a matter of time before the party and those they care about get caught up in it.

Adventure Hooks:

Exhausted after delving their first dungeon the party are shaken down by a group of the duke's men, who are better armed and carry the threat of reprisal should the party draw steel on them. Perhaps it's better to give the toughs what they want and live to fight another day... say after finding out where the guards get drunk so they can trick/charm/beat the location of the stolen treasure out of them.

Countess Ledrick has a problem. Despite being one of the mercenaries who helped win Sabrian his throne she was never formally sworn in as one of the duke's vassals when she took over her lands and is widely regarded as little better than an upjumped brigand. Now a large shipment of tribute heading for the Duke's council has gone missing on the borders of her land, and it's only a matter of time before the blame comes to rest on her. She'll need all the help she can in recovering the lost treasure which just might be the party's ticket to a position in her court.

While out in the market a couple of the party members are approached by a woman in a hood doing her very best to try to seem inconspicuous. Through smiles and whispered pleas she begs them to help her hide from the guards, palming them a small handful of jewels in the attempt. If the party gives her aid she'll eventually introduce herself as Mina, keeping most of her story to herself but letting slip that she stole something precious from Sabrian and that she needs their help getting out of the duchy and into some neighbouring lands. It'd be an arduous journey, made even more arduous when in the next town the party discover posters and criers proclaiming that the duke's wife Minerva has been kidnapped, promising a great reward for her return and a terrible punishment for those who made off with her.

Background: While many born into the nobility feel confined by their station, Sabrian always knew he was made to rule. He was one of those people who excelled at the standards he was expected to meet, for whom the path of life is not only a straight line but part of a larger destiny that gave order to the world.

The problem was that Sabrian was the younger son, and his older sister chafed against noble life as much as he suited it. Sabrina was high minded, well read, and was possessed of several strange notions. The first being that those who own and govern the land owed something to those that lived upon it, the second being that her name was Solace, not Sabrina. The third was that she was not a woman, simply a person. The fourth and perhaps most outrageous was that she they would not be taking a husband, nor even a lover for the purposes of producing heirs and rather than just handing over their claim on the duchy to their well deserved brother like so often happened when the noble family tree refused to branch they would instead be creating some kind of made up of council made up of their vassals the elected mayors from the duchy's largest towns.

Sabrian wasn't having any of it, his sibling had clearly gone mad and was denying both of them (but mostly him) their birthright. After years of arguing, petitioning their mother on her death bed, and an outright threat of banishment from the now ascendant Duke Solace, Sabrian went out, raised himself an army, and went to war with his softhearted kin. The fighting was worse than anyone could have imagined, the people rose in Solace's defence and Sabrian had to resort to brutal tactics to put them down burning villages and farmland in the drought of summer and marching his followers over the ashes towards their next target.

Solace's head was delivered to him in a basket the same day he took the throne, and for the decade since Sabrian can't hold court without remembering the reproachful look in his sibling's dead eyes.

Further Adventures:

Knowing the common people hold no love for him, the duke governs from an ancestral bastion high in the mountains, a cold and lofty perch quite suitable for an unassailable tyrant who thinks himself above all. His remoteness and unwillingness to bother has paradoxically allowed his vassals the ability to govern their lands the way they see fit, which leads to a patchwork of graft, neglect, and personal ambition. In recent years Sabrian has sought to curve this independent streak by putting more and more resources behind his personal guard, who are now commanded by a former bountyhunter famed for her ruthlessness.

Increasing isolation gives the party a chance to rally together a resistance against the duke, but such a coalition might be built on shoddy foundations. A sizeable minority of his underlings feel hard done by him and might turn if given the right encouragement, though they may prove untrustworthy. Solace's old supporters have been ruthlessly hunted and will be mistrustful of newcomers, especially those that fought under the usurper. Minerva's clan are powerful nobles in their own right in a neighboring territory, and once they have their daughter back would be happy to throw their support behind the party's plan to oust the useless tyrant, provided the party are willing to play ball with them.

Sabrian has been unravelling, retreating from public life, executing his servants an courtiers for suspected treason, even keeping his formerly loving wife locked in a tower for the better part of a year. In the ten years since he married Minerva to secure her parent's support for his usurpation he has been unable to father a child, no matter what healers he turns to or what concubines he lays with. The inability to produce an heir was one of his primary reasons for going to war with Solace, and now he is failing in that exact same noble duty. This rather ironic fate was delivered unto him by Litirenn, god of farmland and cultivation, as punishment for burning one of the god's shrines during his rampage through the countryside ( along with the shrinekeeper who was an outspoken proponent of Solace's reforms. The god is going to be watching the party's actions closely if they set themselves in opposition to the duke, giving them a nudge now and again, ensuring the land rises to support them, that kid of thing.

Art 1

Art 2

[greenbloods]

jeyne says she's arya of house stark, but she's really jeyne: to everyone around her, she's an upjumped smallfolk, a nobody. arya says she's nobody but she's not, she's arya of house stark. but neither matters over the other simply because of their name: they both matter. everyone matters.

[daenystheedreamer]

what are your asoiaf culture/race headcanons?

ooo im siberian starks truther forever, or just general indigenous arctic circle north. general aesthetics of slav/kievan rus. like kokoshnik ushanka and ryasna are canon to me. harsh, stilted syllables like in russian.

the riverlands is the balkans + ireland to me for sure, cat is so irish to me. i think of like south slav folk costume for them :) lots of ribbons and embroidery and intricate braiding. lilting accent

i like east asian targs :) but also like, they just arent any earthen race to me. hate when people are like "erm they cant be coloured cos they have purple eyes and silver hair?" and its like do white people have purple eyes and silver hair??????

the dornish are a mix of indian subcontinent+west asia+sephardic/mizrahi jewish+palestine+turkish+arab. the melting pot of westeros! like the daynes are jewish to me, and the rhoynar are arab/turk/'moorish'. yronwoods are white latines. sea of dorne/narrow sea evokes the mediterannean :) dornish is described as melodic and drawling, def lots of rolled Rs

stormlands is very german+eastern europe. maybe im jsut thinking of oktoberfest but i always think of them bundled up. lots of headdresses. harsh accent.

vale of arryn is very anglo to me. french/english/swiss/etc. yodelling on the mountains. sweet and sing-song accent.

westerlands is italy to me cos i like thinking of the borgias and lannisters. lannisport gives off SUCH florence/venice vibes.

the reach is again quite meditteranean to me. maybe its the wine? but i hc the tyrells as black, i think the dynamic of "upjumped stewards" compared to the "blue-blooded" hightowers, florents, etc is interesting. its why i also hc the manderlys as black, since they're from the reach :)

iron islands... obviously norse/viking, but i like pasifika headcanons too. i like asha with moko kauae and i just love if the ironborn have cultural tattooing practices. this is lessened by how they do not at all have a pacific climate lol.

[thevelaryons]

There are many different accounts in Fire and Blood raising questions about the paternal status of Laenor “father of five” Velaryon.

WITH MARILDA:

And Seasmoke, who had once borne Laenor Velaryon, took onto his back a boy of ten-and-five known as Addam of Hull, whose origins remain a matter of dispute amongst historians to this day.

.

They had his look, it was true, and Ser Laenor had been known to visit the shipyard in Hull from time to time. Nonetheless, many on Dragonstone and Driftmark were skeptical of Marilda’s claim, for Laenor Velaryon’s disinterest in women was well remembered.

.

It should not surprise us, therefore, that Grand Maester Munkun and Septon Eustace both dutifully assert Ser Laenor’s parentage…but Mushroom, as ever, dissents. In his Testimony, the fool puts forth the notion that “the little mice” had been sired not by the Sea Snake’s son, but by the Sea Snake himself. Lord Corlys did not share Ser Laenor’s erotic predispositions, he points out, and the Hull shipyards were like unto a second home to him, whereas his son visited them less frequently.

In this instance, it must be said, the tale told by the fool seems more likely than the versions offered by septon and maester. Many and more at Queen Rhaenyra’s court must surely have suspected the same. If so, they held their tongues.

.

Ser Willis Fell declared mournfully, “and now she has tied herself to Lord Corlys’s upjumped bastard. A snake for a sire, a mouse for a mother…is this to be our prince consort?”

WITH RHAENYRA:

Ser Laenor returned to Driftmark thereafter, leaving many to wonder if his marriage had ever been consummated. The princess remained at court, surrounded by her friends and admirers. Ser Criston Cole was not amongst them, having gone over entirely to the queen’s party, the greens, but the massive and redoubtable Breakbones (or Brokenbones, as Mushroom had it) filled his place, becoming the foremost of the blacks, ever at Rhaenyra’s side at feast and ball and hunt. Her husband raised no objections. Ser Laenor preferred the comforts of High Tide, where he soon found a new favorite in a household knight named Ser Qarl Correy.

.

Thereafter, though he joined his wife for important court events where his presence was expected, Ser Laenor spent most of his days apart from the princess. Septon Eustace says they shared a bed no more than a dozen times. Mushroom concurs, but adds that Qarl Correy oft shared that bed as well; it aroused the princess to watch the men disporting with one another, he tells us, and from time to time the two would include her in their pleasures. Yet Mushroom contradicts himself, for elsewhere in his Testimony he claims that the princess would leave her husband with his lover on such nights, and seek her own solace in the arms of Harwin Strong.

.

Whatever the truth of these tales, it was soon announced that the princess was with child. Born in the waning days of 114 AC, the boy was a large, strapping lad, with brown hair, brown eyes, and a pug nose. (Ser Laenor had the aquiline nose, silver-white hair, and purple eyes that bespoke his Valyrian blood.) Laenor’s wish to name the child Joffrey was overruled by his father, Lord Corlys. Instead the child was given a traditional Velaryon name: Jacaerys (friends and brothers would call him Jace).

.

Meanwhile, back in Westeros, Princess Rhaenyra had given birth to a second son late in the year 115 AC. The child was named Lucerys (Luke for short). Septon Eustace tells us that both Ser Laenor and Ser Harwin were at Rhaenyra’s bedside for his birth. Like his brother, Jace, Luke had brown eyes and a healthy head of brown hair, rather than the silver-gilt hair of Targaryen princelings.

.

In 117 AC, on Dragonstone, Princess Rhaenyra bore yet another son. Ser Laenor was at last permitted to name a child after his fallen friend, Ser Joffrey Lonmouth. Joffrey Velaryon was as big and red-faced and healthy as his brothers, but like them he had brown eyes, brown hair, and features that some at court called “common.” The whispering began again. Amongst the greens, it was an article of faith that the father of Rhaenyra’s sons was not her husband, Laenor, but her champion, Harwin Strong. Mushroom says as much in his Testimony and Grand Maester Mellos hints at it, whilst Septon Eustace raises the rumors only to dismiss them.

.

When pressed by the king, Prince Aemond said it was his brother Aegon who had told him they were Strongs, and Prince Aegon said only, “Everyone knows. Just look at them.”

.

Lord Corlys also had half a dozen nephews, however, and the eldest of them, Ser Vaemond Velaryon, protested that the inheritance by rights should pass to him…on the grounds that Rhaenyra’s sons were bastards sired by Harwin Strong.

.

Thus perished Joffrey Velaryon, Prince of Dragonstone and heir to the Iron Throne, the last of Queen Rhaenyra’s sons by Laenor Velaryon…or the last of her bastards by Ser Harwin Strong, depending on which truth one chooses to believe.

BONUS INTERVIEW BY GRRM:

“Rhaenyra’s relationship with Harwin Strong…she had three children by him, but we never see them get together for the first time or kiss. We never have a scene where they first slept together. We don’t know exactly what has happened and how he felt about that and how Laenor felt about him. There’s a whole story there. There’s at least a novella and maybe a novel, but we simply did not have the time to tell it. And it did not fit the format of my history book. But it’s a story and I would love to do that.”

The author’s statement here does confirm that in both book and show canon, Laenor is not the father of Rhaenyra’s sons. The true identity of the father of Marilda’s sons does still remain ambiguous in the book.

[toskarinfr]

me: was I in the wrong to give my girlfriend the "ARR Gaius dub" of head? I should have at least asked beforehand, right?

my therapist, genderbent grigori (voice unchanged): the tongue game of an upjumped zealot makes for tedious entertaining

[visenyaism]

using 'upjumped' like it's a real word... asoiaf rot has gotten to you too i see 😔

well what real word do classist british people use to derogatorily describe someone who has transcended class boundaries “too far.” i know they must have at least one. i just did not look it up because why would i

[buttercuparry]

Even if Grrm was writing a Disney fanfic, I think people forget who the heroines truly are. They mentioned Cinderella? Cinderella's story of keeping hope resonates so much because not once she lets the unkindness shown to her, bleed onto those who are even weaker than her.

Belle looks beyond Gaston's beauty and is disgusted by what he offers her. Snow White was similar to Cinderella. Obviously they are going on with the most superficial discussion of a tale that has already been watered down so that it might be suitable for children. But even with the old Disney princess movies where sometimes beauty=to good and evil=to ugly, the girls were more than damsels who got their struggle rewarded by marrying into royalty.

Sansa perhaps does have a trope parallel to protagonists who keep lighting a beacon of hope even in dreariness. And maybe her storyline is about constantly maturing in ways one terms happiness- marrying the golden haired prince and having his golden haired babies to wondering if anyone would truly love her beyond her claim of inheritence. This suggests that perhaps in future, she too may consider a relationship that isn't motivated by the consideration of the station one holds in life. But this has yet to happen in any significant way. When they say that Sansa is still the same girl from AGoT ( she has grown somewhat though) and would continue to be so till A Dream of Spring, they imply that they see none of the wrongs she did in AGoT. She was gentle yes, but gentleness has nothing to do with kindness. And Sansa wasn't kind in AGoT. She has been kind perhaps on some occasions (growth definitely) throughout the series, but she still has a long long way to go if they truly want her to parallel a Disney princess (which would definitely include being horrified at the frivolity of the tourney feast and the huge lemoncake during the onset of winter and starvation of the mass )

Words cannot express how INCORRECT—