House Among Chaotic Kingdoms

Votes for this Turn:

A1 - Wylis - 5

A2 - Jon - 7

A3 - Berenice - 3

A4 - Training - 12

A5 - Omek - 33

S1 - Wikipedia - 51

S2 - Steam - 0

S3 - Paradox - 0

S4 - World - 9

Crossover:

Yes - 48

No - 4

Lego:

Yes - 12

No - 40

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Rolls for this Turn:

Personal: Wikipedia

Thanks to Mithraism, icons of The Grandfather will appear across Westeros, though much more concentrated in the areas controlled by the Golden Company or its allies.

(So like 90% are in Dorne or the Dornish Marches, but they're all over the place.)

These Icons will imply the grandfather to be the true face of whichever local god(s) are worshipped.

(So ones in the North/beyond the Wall will appear on Weerwood trees over the faces, while in the south it’s mostly over whatever icon they have for the father.)

Additionally, because it’s a Warp entity that this roll affected rather than one of Planeto’s more normal gods, these icons will come with a subtle but profound Stranger Effect causing worshipers to not question their presence, and to simply offer it their worship as normal…

World: Runescape Wiki

Thanks to the Rune heraldic armour set 5 (lg), runic protections on armour will start working for everyone, not just people with RNG tools like us, but all people who put Runes on their armour (so mostly the first men).

The effect is somewhat subtle, but will have a noticeable effect, and so the practice should spread throughout the army as people notice the change.

(Also, it’s not just First-Men runes that have an effect, that’s just the most common thing to see on someone's armour in Westeros.

The Ghiscari will be noticing this change at right about the same time, and those rare few with any Valyrian Steel armour will be finding themselves boosted as well.)

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Story:

The good news was that you were finally leaving the Stormlands.

The bad news was that the war had managed to improve and worsen at the same time.

Over the last few weeks, five competing sides had been cut down to three with enough strength to matter.

Renly Baratheon had been captured without you being anywhere near the battle.

Once that happened, the Reach admitted that its position had become impossible and returned to Joffrey’s side.

Its lords would still face punishment for their rebellion, though how severe that punishment became would probably depend on how useful they proved during the rest of the war.

Unfortunately, Joffrey’s side wasn’t alone in gathering strength.

Stannis had secured most of his position across the southeastern Stormlands and apparently reached some agreement with the enormous Ironborn and pirate fleet raiding the coasts.

Whether the fleet truly served him or merely found his coin and targets agreeable wasn’t yet clear.

Either way, he could now move men and supplies by sea far faster than any loyalist army could follow overland.

That made retaking the southeastern Stormlands nearly impossible for the moment.

Whenever loyalist forces moved against one of his holdings, Stannis could reinforce it by sea, attack somewhere else, or disappear before a larger army arrived.

You had enough men to defeat him if he ever agreed to remain in one place.

You didn’t have enough to attack every castle, port, and stretch of coastline at once.

The war might still have been manageable if Stannis were the final enemy left.

Instead, somebody had apparently decided Westeros was overdue for another Blackfyre rebellion.

The new claimant called himself Aegon Targaryen and claimed to be Prince Rhaegar’s supposedly murdered son.

Perhaps he even was, though arriving with the Golden Company and carrying the sword Blackfyre didn’t exactly discourage suspicion.

Somehow he’d also convinced the Dornish to support him, which either meant his claim was convincing or somebody had offered them something enormous.

That left Joffrey, Stannis, and Aegon as the three remaining claimants with real armies behind them.

Joffrey now held most of the realm and had brought the Reach back into obedience.

Stannis controlled part of the Stormlands and had gained a fleet large enough to threaten almost any coast.

Aegon had Dorne, the Golden Company, and enough confidence to march around carrying Blackfyre in public.

Your poor relations with the greater lords once again kept you out of the councils where the next campaign was decided.

For several days, the larger tents filled with arguments between men fighting over routes, commands, supplies, and who’d stand closest to the king.

You heard almost none of those arguments directly.

You weren’t completely out of the loop.

The lower officers you’d trained passed along anything useful they heard, while Berenice’s medics collected scraps from wounded riders, exhausted messengers, and soldiers who spoke more freely around healers.

Most of what reached you was rumor, though enough pieces matched that you could usually work out the general direction of things.

Joffrey also made sure you knew the final plan once the arguing had mostly ended.

You hadn’t been shut out of the campaign.

You’d simply been given the route least likely to make anyone famous.

The loyalist army would divide into three forces, though the split had little to do with which kingdom the men came from.

One force would remain in the Stormlands and contain Stannis while slowly retaking Griffin’s Roost, Stonehelm, Mistwood, Rain House, and the other places still held by his men.

It would also keep enough soldiers near Storm’s End to prevent Stannis from using the castle to strike behind them.

The second force would contain most of the young lords, famous commanders, and men with enough popularity to demand a place near the king.

Joffrey and Robb would lead it toward Summerhall to face the Golden Company and whatever Dornish forces had gathered there.

After winning, they intended to push straight into Dorne and follow roughly the same path as the Young Dragon.

Everyone involved seemed determined to remember the beginning of that invasion more clearly than its ending.

Your assignment belonged to the third force.

You’d still fight at Summerhall with the rest of the army.

Afterward, while the more celebrated commanders continued south, your group would turn back through the Dornish Marches and retake the holdings seized by the Golden Company earlier in the war.

Most were expected to contain little more than skeleton garrisons by then.

The task wasn’t expected to be especially difficult or impressive.

It still had to be done, since leaving enemy garrisons behind the armies invading Dorne would’ve been idiotic.

Unfortunately, necessary work remained just as poor at producing glory as ever.

Your army wouldn’t spend the entire campaign clearing neglected castles.

Once the Marches were secure, it would become the third loyalist force invading Dorne and advance through the Prince’s Pass.

Some clever maneuvering credited to Willas Tyrell had already resulted in Starfall falling in the west.

Joffrey hoped to reach Yronwood around the same time your force began moving against Kingsgrave.

That gave your later assignment real importance, even if its opening stages looked dull.

It also meant that nearly every part of the plan depended on winning at Summerhall first.

The enemy’s strength there remained uncertain.

Scouts agreed that Aegon’s main army had spent some time near Summerhall, though nobody knew how much of it remained.

The fleet serving Stannis had recently attacked several locations along the Dornish coast and might even have attempted an assault on Sunspear.

Reports disagreed about whether that attack had succeeded, failed, or merely frightened the Dornish badly enough to draw troops away from Summerhall.

Joffrey believed the worst possibility was facing nearly the entire Golden Company.

That would be dangerous, though the loyalist army still had enough strength to win.

The more likely enemy was part of the Golden Company supported by troops from the inland Dornish houses.

Almost every commander expected some kind of victory at Summerhall.

They disagreed over whether it would be clean, expensive, or so bloody that it ruined the campaigns planned afterward.

A victory that left half the army dead wouldn’t be worth much once the survivors reached Dorne.

For Summerhall, you’d once again command the reserve infantry.

By now the position had become so customary that nobody bothered pretending you were only filling it temporarily.

You knew how to handle the reserves, the men trusted your orders, and the senior commanders knew you could move them where needed without losing half the force to confusion.

It still wasn’t a prestigious command, though it was far from meaningless.

Joffrey had also issued a writ naming you head of Infantry for any loyalist army you served with beginning in the seventh month of the year.

The date meant it wouldn’t change your position at Summerhall.

Once the armies divided afterward, you’d hold the least prestigious seat among the high commanders of any force you joined.

You’d command the Infantry while other men handled the Cavalry, scouts, supplies, and the army as a whole.

That wasn’t the command you’d spent your childhood expecting to hold.

It was still far more authority than most men your age had any right to expect, especially since the writ would remain valid after more Reach troops joined your force for the Prince’s Pass.

Several older lords were already unhappy about that detail.

They couldn’t object openly without challenging Joffrey’s authority, though they could still glare whenever you entered a command tent.

You’d had enough practice ignoring that sort of thing.

Most of the army had spent the last several weeks drilling.

Recent battles had made it obvious that the loyalist army was larger than its enemies but much less professional.

Most of its strength came from levies who’d received whatever training could be squeezed into a few months of marching and waiting.

Stannis had fewer men, though many were fanatical followers of the Red God or experienced sellswords.

Their quality varied, but most had better training and equipment than the ordinary loyalist levy.

The Golden Company was worse, since even its common soldiers had years of experience fighting and drilling together.

Nobody expected a few more weeks of practice to turn levies into professional soldiers.

The goal was to make them disciplined enough that the loyalists’ greater numbers could matter.

Men practiced forming ranks while tired, moving around other units without creating a pileup, and following orders passed through several layers of officers.

It was dull work, which usually meant it was important.

You spent most of that time seeking out the best corporals, sergeants, and other lower officers across the army.

You wanted men who were competent, steady, and trustworthy enough to keep following orders once the host divided.

Some were Northmen, while others came from the Riverlands, Crownlands, Westerlands, or Reach.

Their birthplaces mattered much less than whether they could keep fifty frightened men from running in the wrong direction.

You had little doubt that several lords would dismantle everything you’d built once your army group separated from the main host.

Some would pull experienced noncoms back into their original units and scatter them through badly managed levies.

Others would send them into the most dangerous positions because competent commoners were easier to spend than knights.

Fortunately, almost all of those men were smallfolk.

They didn’t have titles, family alliances, or powerful fathers arguing over where they belonged.

With Joffrey’s writ, you had broad authority to offer them positions in the Infantry you’d eventually lead through the Prince’s Pass.

A lord might complain about losing a useful sergeant, though few would challenge the king over one common soldier.

You used that freedom as heavily as you could.

Every capable officer who agreed to join you meant another unit that might hold together when the fighting started.

You’d spent months creating a working body of noncoms, and you weren’t about to watch it disappear because the army had been split between jealous lords.

Kingsgrave would be one of your first serious targets after entering Dorne.

Before reaching it, you intended to make sure your Infantry was the most organized and reliable part of the army.

You couldn’t choose the assignment, though you could make certain it was done properly.

You also had longer plans for some of the men you were gathering.

Many came from poor villages or overcrowded farms, and some had little waiting at home beyond another lord who barely knew they existed.

If they survived the war, you hoped to persuade a fair number of them to move to Long Lake with their families.

Long Lake had land, growing towns, and plenty of work for men who already knew how to lead others.

That could be dealt with after the war.

For now, you kept gathering officers and preparing for Summerhall.

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Skills:

Combat:

(11) Westerosi CQC - 210/300 (+30)

(10) Westerosi Swordsmanship - 70/200 (+30)

(11) Northern Archery - 170/300 (+10) (Skilled)

(11) Northern Equestrianism - 75/300 (+30) (Talented)

(12) Heavy Armour - 225/400 (+40) (Prodigious)

Diplomacy:

(11) Interpersonal Communication - 145/300 (+30) (Skilled)

(7) Public Speaking - 90/100 (+15) (Skilled)

(13) Management - 200/500 (+50) (Prodigious)

(7) Stewardship - 70/100 (+15) (Knack)

(7) Northern Law - 30/100 (+5) (Knack)

(7) Westerosi Law - 20/100 (+5) (Knack)

Language:

(10) Common Speaking - 115/200 (+25) (Knack)

(11) Old Tongue Speaking - 140/300 (+10) (Knack)

(7) Valyrian Speaking - 75/100 (+5) (Knack)

(7) Common Reading - 25/100 (+0)

(4) Westerosi Runes - 90/100 (+0)

(6) Valyrian Reading - 30/100 (+0)

Scholarly:

(9) Math(s) - 35/100 (+5)

(12) Accounts - 60/400 (+25) (Prodigious)

(10) Northern History - 150/200 (+5) (Knack)

(8) Westerosi History - 5/100 (+5)

(8) Northern Peoples - 80/100 (+0)

(6) Westerosi Peoples - 85/100 (+5)

Leisure:

(10) Northern Hunting - 8/200 (+0)

(7) Fishing - 59/100 (+0)

(6) Swimming - 39/100 (+0)

(6) Seacraft - 6/100 (+0)

(6) Climbing - 60/100 (+0)

(4) Acting (Lying Convincingly) - 100/100 (+10)

War:

(11) Strategy - 100/200 (+50) (Prodigious +)

(5) Castrametation - 110/100 (+30) (Knack)

(2) Poliorcetics - 10/100 (+0)

(3) Fleetcraft - 85/100 (+5) (Knack)

(2) Battlewise (coup d’œil) - 50/100 (+25)

Magic:

(12) The Green - 225/400 (+25) (Prodigious)

(5) Warging - 60/100 (+30) (Gifted)

(1) The Force - 20/100 (+5) (Knack)

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Earning: 6

Spending: 0

Banked: 72

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Rolls for Next Turn:

T6 = Personal Power/Skill

L4 = Just what's described

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Voting:

Main Actions: Who should we focus on during the march South?

A1 - Focus on the needs and training of the Common men.

A2 - Focus on your reputation with the Lords by training with them.

A3 - Work with the Medcorps and other Support Staff.

A4 - Focus on your Marshal Skill by Training with Jon and the Knights.

A5 - Focus on the Organisation and Non-Coms of the Army.

Personal Rolls Sources:

S1 - Wikipedia (On Cooldown 1/2)

S2 - Steam Games (On Cooldown 2/2)

S3 - Wookieepedia

S4 - World Rolls List

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Information/Maps:

1 - War-Map: In Zones mode for easier understanding.

Imgur - More accessible, but likely to get deleted at some point.

Catbox - Only works most of the time, but won't get deleted.

2 - Why it jumped from “2 of 6” to “5 of 12.”

When we switched to weekly updates, I was worried we would hemorrhage people if we weren't getting enough done.

So I stuck to 2 Month chapters so we could skip any boring parts and have some level of action in every chapter.

But at this point, things are close enough together that realistically two months is how long it’ll take for multiple events that should each be a chapter to occur.

Especially the invasion of Dorne, where we’ll be jumping from siege to battle to siege with like a week of marching in between.

So I converted us to monthly chapters, which is how we got “5 of 12.”

Hopefully this makes sense, and you lot are comfortable with 2/6 being the same as 4/12, but I figured I should explain just in case.

3 - Extras from last chapter's votes:

As you may or may not have noticed, the Star Wars and Lego crossover votes from last chapter actually had hidden bonuses if they won.

Since we're now a Star Wars crossover, one of the sources is now Wookiepedia.

I’m sorry to the people who liked paradox wikis, but they've been getting increasingly annoying to come up with plausible roles for, so I've been looking for some way to replace them for quite a bit.

For those who are curious, the only change that would have happened if Lego had won would have been that, on top of being a Sith like he now is, the Night King would have been a Lego person.

Likely along with some discussion later on about how absolutely out of context and alien he looks compared to everything else.

As is, the Night King is a Sith made of Ice and Dark-Side Sorcery, and there are no Lego people in the galaxy.

There will, however, likely be more aliens appearing in Westeros thanks to the new source.

4 - About Sci-fi Guns and Tech Uplift:

Just to clarify, if some kind of sci-fi weaponry gets rolled for, it can appear in setting.

However, I do want to be clear that there will not be any faction starting Industrial Revolutions or anything like that.

If we get some kind of “x character now has the memories of y” roll, then any “end of feudalism” type results will be held off until after the Long Night.

However, to compromise with the people who DO want guns and lasers, I won't actually stop them from getting rolled.

I will simply treat them like magical artifacts, where one or a few exist and that's it unless more get rolled from natural RNG.

5 - On Lightsabers:

Also, there was some discussion on QQ about how Lightsabers should interact with the weapons of Westeros.

As a compromise, I am going to say that if the Night King ever did have a Lightsaber, he doesn’t have it anymore, but he and his acolytes do have access to force-imbued weapons (those weapons made of ice/crystal that seem to be on par with Valyrian Steel).

That’s not to say that he’s incapable of getting a new lightsaber once the current conflict ends and he becomes a valid target for rolls.

But that would require you lot to go for Wookiepedia rather than Wikipedia on a low roll, so it seems unlikely.

Finally, I will say that, since this is now a Crossover, Valyrian Steel is now (for the sake of this story) Force-Imbued Metal and thus roughly on par with a Lightsaber.

Lightsabers do have other advantages, light being only as heavy as their hilt and the ability to cut through anything not on the short list of exceptions.

But to be clear, if a Lightsaber does come into play, for the sake of this quest, it will be treated like a Valyrian Steel sword that’s enchanted to burn whatever it touches.

Rather than a superweapon that trumps all other local weapons and armor.

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Write-In/Questions:

1 - Should the tags and title be changed to include the Star Wars Crossover?

This is more of an opinion/etiquette question than anything.

But generally my instinct is not to tag every setting we roll in a Wiki Warrior, but once something becomes major enough, you include it in the tags.

As an example, in my fic Celestial Saga at one point Tsunade was rolled and became a recurring character, so I added Naruto to the tags.

However, unlike Celestial Saga, this crossover doesn’t even start to take effect until chapter 69 and more than 175,000 words into the fic, and even then the crossover is pretty subtle for now.

So what do you think?

Should I change the tags and title or leave it be and let people discover it when they get to Chapter 69/70?