Well...fuck.
*****
The weight of a crown weighs heavily upon it's wearer, none more so for anyone that claims to be King of the Trident.
Lying between several kingdoms on all sides, the Kingdom of the Trident is rightful to watch his borders wearily for suspicion is an ever-vigilant fiend that lurks in the back of the mind. Despite some early problems a few years into his reign with the invasion from the kingdoms of the Reach and Westerlands, Edmyn had diligently seen to his lands and over the years, they had come to prosper. Her borders were secure, her people were fed.
But the intrigues of lords and kings know no end.
For perhaps the first time in hundreds of years, a King in the north had begun to take interest in the south. Torrhen Stark was able to strike a marriage between a daughter of his and Ronnel Arryn, the King of the Vale.
Though the marriage was celebrated in the north, it was less widly celebrated in the Vale for many of the Vale lords saw Ronnel as a weakling in comparison to his more martial brother, Prince Jonos. The marriage also ruffled many feathers among the conservative lords of the Vale that feared northern influence in the court as memories of the Worthless War and other wars between the Vale and the north came to mind, none more so in the Sisters.
With Jonos rumoured to be harbouring ambitions for the throne, many Vale lords and men of renown and skill came into his sphere of influence, whilst his brother rallied his own supporters with the help of his goodfather, King Torrhen.
Many intrigues followed between the brothers, but it was only thanks to Queen Sharra that the Vale was spared from all-out war between the two, something horrible to even consider, the thought of brother versus brother.
With the situation in the Vale volatile and close to breaking point, it came as a surprise to many when during a hunt, Prince Jonos Arryn was killed by a great white stag. This shocked much the realm and observers of the events happening in the Vale.
The Vale was not the only place that was beginning to unravel at the seems, in the south, Edmyn was also forced to pay attention to the goings on of his two southern neighbours, the Stormlands and the Reach.
In the Stormlands, Argillac Durrandon had finally passed on, leaving the throne to his daughter Argella with the support of her husband, Ser Olyvar Buckler who it was rumoured who chafed at the notion of not being a king outright compared to that of Argella. The notion of Argella ruling in her own right also chafed various lords as they considered a woman, despite her birth and competency, not suitable to rule over the proud lords of the Stormlands.
With infighting against her own husband in control of her realm, many of the stormlords began to fight amongst themselves for influence, some of those battles crossing over into the southern reaches of the Trident's borders.
Something that Edmyn was surely to find an annoyance and something that he had to resolve as soon as possible.
In the Reach, the humiliation that Edmyn had brought upon House Gardener had not been forgotten by its king, Mern Gardener. It is said that ever since his time in captivity, Mern had held a grudge against the Red King and despite coming to an accord of peace with fair but favourable terms to the Trident, Mern stifled the Trident as much as possible.
It was said he gave deniable support to various 'bandits' that operated in the Trident's southern borders.
In the west, it was mostly quiet as King Loren was mostly interested in colonizing the Iron Islands with westermen and destroying the ironborn culture that had been a bane to his kingdom for years on end. The goings on of the rest of Westeros was perhaps something he kept an eye on, but his attention mostly focused on the islands themselves.
And Cracklaw Point? It has always been a footnote to the wider history of Westeros, though it being brought into the influence of the Freehold across the narrow sea had yet to bring much impact onto Westeros as a whole.
*****
As it turns out, you just can't solve all your problems with a little knife in the back.
*****
Somewhat relevant story time:
So anyway, I'm like thinking maybe I should buy A World of Ice and Fire for additional research material only for me to remember that I'm sure I have it cos I remember reading it. So I go through my ebooks, it's not there, though I'm sure I read it as an ebook. Confused, I go through all my receipts from Apple, nada. I'm still confused.
Then I go on Amazon to buy my mum a birthday present, so I'm scrolling through looking for a present for my mum and Amazon shows me all the recent buys I have bought. Guess what? A World of Ice and Fire was one of my recent buys. Turns out I did have the AWoIaF, just not with Apple, but on Kindle, which is surprising, because I didn't even know I had Kindle.
Life man, throws you all these curveballs for doing nothing.