Rex Vidar Taeniar: The Early Years
The outbreak of a civil war after Myr had been captured by the Band of Nine, and its established governance structures were wrecked, was inevitable. Initially, seven sides to the civil war emerged, but those quickly became three through defeat and consolidation. The first of these last three to crumble was Maehamarys, who, to many, seemed like the inevitable victor. He controlled most of the east and was able to beat Taelyx, leader of an opposing faction, in a race to Myr and, in the subsequent battle, was able to gain control of the city.
This proved to be a huge strain on his resources, as the population was a fraction of what it had been and was wracked by violence and gangs. In response, Taelyx, who controlled much of the wealthier south, retreated, consolidated, and strengthened his position. He watched with wary eyes on the other faction – Vidar's.
Where Maehamarys and Taelyx were traditional factions in this war, Vidar was a reformer – or so he claimed. In truth, he did take a very different approach to power – more in line with a Westerosi viewpoint, or as he claimed, a 'traditional and strong governance.' While Maehamarys moved many of his forces to Myr to capture it, Vidar moved from the north and captured the east, and swung his forces inward to the core territories. Using both force and political alliances, he captured Maehamarys' old territory, squeezing him between the two factions.
With this pressure, Maehamarys sought an alliance with Taelyx, but with his ego bruised from his recent loss to Maehamarys, Taelyx denied him. Instead of attacking, as Vidar expected, Taelyx sought peace from Volantis, who had begun to capture the lightly defended lands in the Disputed Lands that Taelyx desperately needed to shore up his control. During these negotiations, of which Vidar was unaware, Vidar took the time to increase the size of his army and further train them. He also, as was discovered in his private journals, began to send some of his mercenary forces on bizarre missions that tended to be suicide missions. For example, he sent one mercenary group in his employ to the Golden Fields in an attempt to exert control over the region for the first time in centuries. The mercenary group was told that they were but one of many such forces being sent to this task, and they were happy to leave the bloody civil war for such easy conquest. Unfortunately for them, they were alone and in territory that the Dothraki were known to frequent. Many songs now sing of their glorious defeat, songs that in time would spur Myr onto greater heights, but there exist only a few garbled accounts from survivors, and none paint a glorious end – merely a messy one.
While Vidar and Taelyx were occupied, Maehamarys took advantage of the lull in the fighting and sought to bring mercenaries from abroad to fight for him, though this mostly came to nothing. The trade deals sought with Pentos also came to nothing because, as we know now, Vidar had already secured a deal with them. In a move of desperation, as Vidar's armies began to march once again, Maehamarys sought official recognition from Myr's allies in the fight against the Band of Nine, but the responses were bland and committed to nothing – no one was interested in opening up another battlefield.
Vidar, after running out of patience with waiting for Taelyx to attack, decided to attack Maehamarys' remaining possessions, and he marched his army westward. Meanwhile, Rex Vidar's honored grandfather, Taelar, sought to bring Taelyx and his allies under Vidar's banner through negotiation.
Vidar's military campaign was unusual, and it is only with hindsight that we can see his purpose, but at the time, it caused great confusion among his enemies. His armies tended to loot the countryside very little, compared to other armies at the time, and he was known to occasionally give his opponents gracious offers of surrender. Many at the time thought it was a new form of mind games so that his opponents would compete for the best offers, but looking back, we can now tell that these offers were solely given to forces that were mostly composed of Myrish citizens. Mercenary armies were given no such offers.
When Vidar arrived outside Myr, Maehamarys met him outside. The transcripts of this exchange are many, so this article shall not repeat them. In summary, Maehamarys wished to surrender in exchange for him and his supporters keeping their lands and wealth. Vidar, knowing that he had the advantage, refused to concede the wealth he had captured – and to allow his opponent to cause trouble in the future. Instead, they would be allowed to live, retain their Myrish citizenship, and retain legal ownership of any foreign wealth. Anything inside Myrish lands was to be stricken from their families.
Seeing no other option, Maehamarys accepted, and another faction in the Myrish civil war fell. Focusing his energies on fixing what he already held, Vidar allowed his grandfather to continue to bring Taelyx and his allies back into the fold peacefully. Vidar's governance system was similar to Westeros in that authority was derived from the King, in this case, the Rex, but Vidar aimed for a more central authority and did not give the same power to his wealthy and powerful allies as a King does his Lords. In keeping with recent structures, he allowed the rich families to form a Council of Peers in which they could vote on proposals that could be presented to the Rex, who could then choose to sign them into law.
However, this system was stopped before it could truly begin when Vidar's grandfather brokered a deal to bring Taelyx and his allies back into the fold. Ultimately, Taelyx was given the lifetime position of Senior Governor of the Disputed Lands and was given two votes on the Governor's Council. Letters reveal that Vidar was apathetic about granting honor to Taelyx as he viewed him as a fool who could be manipulated – Taelyx's eventual marriage to Vidar's niece and his voting record indicates that this was not an entirely unreasonable assumption.
The trouble began with the Governor's Council. Once word spread of the offer from Taelyx, Vidar's own allies demanded its formation as they sought power for themselves. They had been locked out of true power, as Vidar's cult of personality was already forming, and they felt that going against him on their own was a fool's errand. But bolstered by outside forces, they made their demands clear. While Vidar would retain significant control and would be titled Rex, it would not be a hereditary title, and his authority would not be unlimited. The Governor's Council would be able to vote on any law that was to be passed and would retain 60% of the vote, with the Rex being granted the other 40%. If a law received 50% or more, the law was passed. In certain areas, like the military, Vidar was granted sole control, but he was also forced to give up local control to his Governors as they began to function somewhat like Lords.
While Vidar was ascendant, and his enemies growing fewer, his people were exhausted. Myr had been sacked, surrounding towns and villages burnt down and looted, and his people killed or enslaved. Famine had been ravaging the Disputed Lands, and the population was at an all-time low. His army was not mutinous, but they were rapidly approaching their limits. Seeing this, Vidar agreed to Taelyx's terms and thus ended the Myrish Civil War.
As the Band of Nine were defeated, and the Westerosi left the Disputed Lands, western Essos was left in shambles. Myr was among the hardest hit, but famine was common throughout the lands. In the first few years, Rex Vidar was able to restore the enormous docks of Myr as well as the walls. Sections of Myr that were left in ruin from the violence were completely torn down and rebuilt – though many sections were left bare as the population was unable to fill the city. Rex Vidar promoted many child-rearing policies to try to repopulate the city and made deals with Volantis to bring in more slaves to his lands.
While the population was war-weary, over the next five years, Rex Vidar still managed to build a permanent army and used it to regain a significant portion of the land they had lost in the Disputed Lands and focused to a lesser degree on the land north of the Sea of Myr. One thing that Rex Vidar was never fully unable to ban was mercenaries. It infuriated him for years, and he spent time railing against it, but mercenaries remained a fixture in the Disputed Lands – though they were absent from the lands north of the Sea of Myr.
From an economic standpoint, Myr, like most of southwestern Essos, was in ruins. The sack had seen wealth taken or destroyed, and the population reduced. Time and money were spent on trying to rebuild what was lost, and there was a distinct lack of coinage during these early years, which only compounded problems. In 264 AC, the first Dothraki horde visited Myr since the sack – while smaller hordes had arrived at outlying territories, only the larger ones ever sought out the city itself. When this horde arrived at Myr, they came bearing their traditional gifts – slaves. In return, they demanded a large gift – more than Myr could afford.
Rex Vidar hosted a large feast for the Khal and his bloodriders, but they saw this as an insult, for in the past, Myr provided food for more than just a few Dothraki. They also saw that the gifts they received were few in number and not befitting of the Khal's status. With this poor opening to the visit, the rest of the Dothraki's stay was disastrous. While they did eventually leave without sacking the city, which Rex Vidar counted as a win, they delayed their departure to purposefully destroy the nearby farmland so that it might revert back to grassland in accordance with their religion – something they typically avoided as a gift to the cities. When they left with their gift, they did so without immediately gifting back the slaves – a not unheard-of event – which left Rex Vidar furious. They eventually gifted slaves to an outlying Myrish town before leaving the area, but much less than initially discussed.
As life continued on, this period in the Myrish mind was one of exhaustion. The initial hopes that had carried Rex Vidar to power had started to fade, as things did not magically get better nor did they change overly much for the average person. The most visible change was the army, and while it was much loved by the average person, it did not affect their lives much.
268 AC marks the transition period between the Early Years and the Rising Years. During the second moon of the year, a third Dothraki horde darkened the horizons of Myr. The Khal, who had visited in 264 AC, had returned, with a larger khalasar and a bigger reputation for himself. The city at this time was much more prosperous, though still not at what it had been before the Band of Nine, and so Rex Vidar feasted with the Khal much more lavishly. The Rex gave more gifts than before – even enough to account for the Khals increased standing among his people – but the Rex was standoffish and in a poor mood, for domestic issues left him troubled. His wife had died in childbirth with the infant dying alongside her – leaving Rex Vidar with an six-year-old daughter – only a few weeks prior.
While we can never know the motivation for the Khal's actions, it seems likely that Rex Vidar's current attitude and past treatment of the Khal pushed him over the edge. The next day, the Khalasar marched on the city.
Dothraki lack the ability to properly siege and assault a city – a fact known far and wide. What the Khal did was instead sack the area around the city to starve it. Large cities like Myr cannot sustain themselves for long – not without extensive preparation. The Rex's preparations were too little, and he was forced to attack the Khalasar with his army, which he had recalled to the city as a precaution. While performing above expectations, the conclusion was forgone as the Dothraki outnumbered them too heavily. The army was forced to retreat from the city and return to their fortress.
With his army defeated, Rex Vidar sought to come to terms with the Khal, but his delegation was beheaded, and their bodies trampled by the khalasar. With the city starved and its population desperate, the Dothraki used one of their classic techniques. A gift of safety and gold to the group who would open the gates to the city – but they can only walk from the city. Greed is a powerful motivator, and fighting broke out in the city once more.
A popular tale of the time says that it was a mercenary group heading from Lorath to Lys that started the fighting. The tale speaks of how the cowards wished only for gold and chose to betray the people. They killed all the guards at the gate and opened it for the oncoming horde.
Trying to find a true tale of what happened is impossible, but most accounts that were recorded in the aftermath do not mention any mercenaries. Instead, it seems gangs, a constant problem since the civil war, began to fight amongst themselves to be the ones to open the gate. Seeing this, various citizen groups joined in, hoping to be spared. In the end, it doesn't matter who opened the gates, only that they did.
The outer sections of the city were completely sacked. Some of the inner sections were as well, where people opened the gates – or fires burned them down. Rex Vidar was able to keep control of most of the key areas, but for a week, the city burned. Most of the poor died, as they lived in the outer sections and those that lived in the secure sections starved.
Seeing these horrors unfold, Rex Vidar took action. He took the opportunity to rid himself of his opponents and shift the blame from himself. A few mercenaries that had been in taverns at the time, likely just passing through the city, were hung as traitors. The Governors who opposed Vidar that were in the city were blamed for the city's poor finances and executed. He took possession of their wealth and used what food they had in storage to feed his people. Even as his city burned, the Rex promised that everything would be better soon. Once the traitors in their midst were dealt with, Myr would be strong again. Too long had the traitors weakened the city; too long had they trampled on the dream for a better life all the people had. His message was incredibly popular.
When the Dothraki finally left, they left behind a different city. Each time the city was sacked, Myr was irrevocably changed, and Vidar Taeniar came out on top each time. With the latest sack, he was able to divest himself of internal opponents and finally build Myr the way he wanted. It should be noted that while it was true that the Governors had made many bad choices, some of the financial woes the city faced lay at the feet of Vidar himself. Records show that tax levels were incredibly low during the time, and trade was at historic lows. With Vidar's ascension to Rex, Myr moved from a city-state run by merchants to a true state – one with responsibilities that had to be paid for. The Myrish had never looked at trade and finance on a state level before – instead, every merchant family looked only at what they themselves made. If they made more than last year, things were good. They would pool money to afford mercenaries to expand their influence, but cooperation and sharing of knowledge was nonexistent. With the responsibilities of the state transferred from a merchant's council to the Rex, the perspective of the finances needed to change as well, but change was slow and minimal – hampered by many things, including the Governors.
Still, with the Dothraki gone, Rex Vidar was reenergized, and, with his opposition gutted, he launched Myr into a new period. Myr would rise again.