290 AC...
Seven Kingdoms were thrown into another rebellion before being able to recover from the deadly disease. The disease was the deadliest in history as people were burned alive by those who judged them sick.
Children and babies were burned in their village by the local militias to prevent the disease from spreading. Common people went to septs to pray and find health in the arms of Gods. However, this caused more death as people who went to septs got sick and touched others.
There were many rumors from Gods punishing the people of Seven Kingdoms because of their sins to witches of crannogman spreading the disease to take over kingdoms. However, the truth never faced daylight as the rumors spread and got wild.
On the eight moons of the disease, people found the cure in the new faith's hands, which came from the lands beyond the Narrow Sea. At first, everyone was wary of these foreign people and their gods, but when one of those who were sick went to their doors and asked for help, everything fell like domino pieces.
The man converted to find health in this foreign God's arms, and when he was cured, his faith in this God grew more robust and opened the way for others to convert.
In just one moon, two-tenths of Westeros people found faith in this new God, and from those who refused to convert, nearly half of it died because of the disease.
Though those who converted were discriminated against by others, the lords who converted to get cured like Lord Renfred Rykker, Lord Mathis Rowan, and Lord Norbert Vance of Atranta, opened their doors to those who were discriminated against.
However, the temple's influence did not grow simply because of the disease as the crown and many houses began taking loans from them because of their low-interest rates. And their power only increased with the end of the Greyjoy Rebellion. With the temple's encouragement to many houses of Westeros, some of the houses in the Iron Islands went extinct, accidentally.
In the end, some of those lands of the extinct houses were not given to new lords but the management of the temple in return of forgiving debts owed by the crown to them. Of course, they were still banned from arming common people, and the lands they owned were patrolled and protected by the militias loyal to the crown.
However, while the temple's influence grew in the kingdoms, unrest was also growing because of other reasons.
In the Dorne, people were on the brink of rebellion as the inland water sources were drying, and the lords of the land were doing nothing.
In the Stormlands, frequent raids were coming from the Stepstones as the royal fleet was damaged during the Greyjoy Rebellion. Though lords of the Stormlands were answering these raids with the blood on their swords, villages, and towns near the shoreline were having trouble.
In the Reach, there was religious unrest as the Lord of Goldengrove; Lord Mathis Rowan converted to the foreign religion from Essos. People of Oldtown were grumbling about the heretics in the Northmarch, but they could not do anything as the laws of the crown were absolute. Though with the waning of the crown's power, there some small fights between the two groups.
In the Westerlands, some houses were plotting against the lions of Casterly Rock with help from shadows. The mines of Lannisters were collapsing upon them unknowingly as the spoiled remnants of the red lions were working in the shadows.
In the Crownlands, nobles were having the most relaxing time as the good king of Westeros, Robert Baratheon had feasts and tourneys. Nobles were happy, but the common men were starving though the time of oppression was coming to an end in their mind.
In the Riverlands, the death of Hoster Tully because of the disease hit the people hard as their new lord, Edmure Tully, was having a hard time to govern because of the pressure coming from his disloyal subjects. However, he did not know that he would find the help he much needed in another form.
In the Vale, mountain clansmen were getting rougher every day as even the Vale's famous knights were having a hard time dealing with them. They even captured the castle of House Belmore, but they still lost it after two days.
In the North, the disease was met with the cold of the lands and was not as effective as in the South, but the problem of the North was not of disease but food. The South was already having issues with feeding their subjects, so food export was cut up to the North. At first, lords did not have any problem as the summer was going strong, so their food stocks were full, but slowly those stocks diminished. If not for help from the king, nearly one-third of the North would have died due to starvation.
On the other hand, Essos was having its troubles as the news about the burning of the red city, now known as the Purge of Volantis, spread to the rest of the Western Essos, the fear of the new religion grew, and ban of worshipping this new God hit hard to the cities.
The Magisters, Sea Lord, bearded priests, followers of the Black Goat met in Braavos and signed an agreement against the beloved Prophet of Lys. A permanent military force trained by all the true Free Cities would be placed on the border. If the Prophet's forces attacked a city, then all the other Free Cities were going to answer with military support.
This agreement caused a stalemate in Western Essos. However, there was one thing they did not know…
The Prophet's interests did not lie only in Westeros and Essos.