I haven't even been crowned yet. I don't even think I even had anything resembling a crown, yet all the same, I had begun to found myself falling balls deep into the quagmire that was matters of state. First on the list was the declaration that I, Edmyn Tully was now the newest in a long line of people, to take the title King of the Trident.
This was all, hopefully, going to work out. I was optimistic of the future. I could see the rays of sunshine in the distance with a hint of flying lizard, murder beast and that was fine with me.
They distracted me from the dark grey clouds above me.
"At the moment, I think we've been able to gather up a little over a thousand men that are interested." Ser Patrek informed me. "They've got the taste of war and it hasn't be sated just yet."
"A thousand?" I repeated, brows furrowing. "Well, that's not bad a number to start with. We can build on that."
Over the past few days, I've had Ser Patrek and a couple of my other household knights go around recruiting people for the Army of the Trident...the River Guard? Royal Army? Well, as you can see, I haven't exactly come up with a name for this force of men-at-arms.
I still really wasn't sure what I was going to do with them. I mean, of course their main raison d'etre would be the defence of the Riverlands, that was their entire purpose along with kicking the arses of whoever tried to take control of the place.
What I wasn't sure off, was what exactly was going to be there thing? Was it going to be pikes? All I knew about pikes was the fact that the Swiss Pikes made the rest of Europe their bitch until they got knocked off their porch because they had bigger pointy sticks than everybody else.
...I think I will leave that train of thought until I have something more definite in mind.
"How much will that cost us?" I asked.
"It's certainly not going to be cheap." Ser Patrek helpfully answered by not giving me a number that I could work with. "And that's not including the cost of armouring the men as well. Must they be armoured in steel? Boiled leather, chain is much cheaper."
"I would like for them to be armoured in something more than the rags they turned up in." I think something like that did something for the morale as well. "And I think I have thought of a means to increase our steel production so that it will more than likely drive the costs down."
Look, I had been to enough 'water mills of some sort turned museum' school trips to know that water mills were useful for many things. One of those uses being the production of steel among other things. The river wheels would harness the power of rivers to drive hammers, pump bellows and I think to cut wood as well? All those memories were from so long ago that it was a bit iffy.
And anyway, using the power of water to help with production wasn't such a foreign idea in Westeros. From Edmyn's youth, he had accompanied our (my?...this was very confusing) lord father when he inspected the gristmills that grinded grain into flour. It just seems as if nobody had thought to take that process and apply it to other fields.
I didn't have any sort of technical knowledge as to how any of that worked, but I'm sure the guys who maintained the water wheel in the Wheel Tower could probably come up with something to make that idea feasible.
And anyway, the Riverlands had rivers. Might as well make some use of them.
Ser Patrek grunted. "A lot of them are nothing more than young boys. Green. It will take time and effort to make them any kind of respectable soldier."
"With you leading the reigns, ser, I think they will be more than able to meet your standards."
I had two things that were mostly taking much of the space in my head. Defence and the economy. And both of them were so equally important I didn't know which one to tackle first.
I needed an economy to give me the gold I would need to pay for my army. If there was one thing that any sort of state should be worried about, was having people armed with things that would kill you, not being paid. And I would love to have more than enough gold to pay for my army and then have some more to throw in for some bonuses.
I believe I could pay for an army through my own purse for upwards to a year and a half, but after that? I was hopeful by then that gold would be trickling into my treasury to pay for it. I wonder, would it be the realm's treasury instead of mine?
Then came the problem of defence. The Riverlands were surrounded by potential enemies to the north, east, south and west. With no natural defences of any kind.
Well...give it time and I'm sure I could think of something.
An army and the lack of defences of the Riverlands wasn't even half of my problems. I had to be wary that the ironborn might very well launch a counter attack and somewhat strangely and utterly absurd to me was the fact that Seagard had little to nothing in terms of a naval presence.
I found that strangely weird and not making much sense due to the traditional role that Seagard and the Mallisters have played when it comes to the geopolitics of the Riverlands.
So I needed an army and a fleet.
Thankfully, I wasn't one for screaming, or I would very much be screaming right about now.
***
Apparently, my kingdom just didn't include the traditional Riverlands that I knew off from canon, but it also extended southward towards the mouth of the Blackwater. In other words, the lords of Antlers, Rosby, Duskendale, Stokeworth among others could now call me their king.
Well, that was if they decided to bend the knee to me instead of Argilac the Arrogant.
I really cared nothing for that part of my kingdom. It just meant more territory to try and come up with a plausible defence for, but Duskendale was the biggest port in that area and could bring in a healthy amount in taxes. Antlers was a fairly modest enough town, and once again, a healthy amount of taxes could come from that.
In other words, I cared nothing for the most southern tip of my realm, but I really couldn't afford to lose economic centres like the Antlers and Duskendale to the Kingdom of the Storm. It wouldn't really also give me much of a good rep among my vassals if I just gave up land just like that.
Ravens had been dispatched to the lords of the northern part of what would be the crownlands to come to Harrenhal and bend the knee to me, but at times like this, it didn't hurt to have a little bit of encouragement from me to those particular lords to bend the knee to me.
Which was why I was having this little impromptu meeting with what could be termed as some of my more powerful bannermen. They also happened to be located rather conveniently right next to the southern most part of my new kingdom.
"Lord Goodbrook, Lord Mooton." I greeted the pair of lords.
Lord Jason gave me a wide grin. "Your grace." Whilst Lord Samwell inclined his head in a bow. Lord Jason continued talking. "We still need to find a crown for your head. Not much of a king without a crown."
"Crowns can be crafted easily enough." The Targaryens had more than enough crowns. "What's more important now is matters that ascertain to our fledgling realm and it's continued survival."
The mood changed a little bit as the two lords took on a little bit more of a serious countenance. That was good. They clearly wanted for this kingdom to succeed just as much as I would like it to succeed as well.
I mean, if it failed, that meant that my head was going to be removed from it's perch on my lovely, pale, soft neck. And I didn't want that.
"Tell me, what do you know of our southern most lords? The Darklyns, Buckwells and their likes."
It was Lord Samwell that answered first. "Lord Tytos Buckwell is a good enough sort. I've met him a few times. He'll bend the knee. Lord Gared though..." He trailed off, shaking his head.
Lord Gared? Who was that? I went through my head for a face to the name or something. Then I got something. "Lord Darklyn?"
Lord Jason nodded as he confirmed my guess for me. "He's always complained that things were good during the time of the Storm Kings despite the fact that he wasn't even born at the time. Nothing more than ramblings he picked up from his lord father I say. Harren and the Hoares were heavy in their taxes, especially on Duskendale. Of course they weren't the only ones to be taxed heavily, but they certainly felt it more than most."
Duskendale was the principle port of Blackwater Bay and I wouldn't be surprised if there was a lot of wealth passing through that particular town. So I wasn't at all surprised to be told that they felt the brunt of the taxes that Harren levied on them. Harrenhal had been costly. He would have needed a lot of gold to purchase the building materials.
"Would you say that he would bend the knee to me or Argillac?" I asked carefully.
"Hard to say." Lord Mooton answered slowly. "Darklyn lands have suffered from storm lord raids. And if Argillac was to marshal his strength and make overtures of taking Duskendale by force, then Gared would probably bend the knee to him."
"Just like that?"
Lord Jason shrugged. "Duskendale is a strong town with stout walls and the Darklyns can call upon two hundred knights and thousands more in terms of foot. Good, but against the might of Storm's End?" He shook his head. "Gared would make a show of it, no doubt. But eventually, if help doesn't arrive or if he isn't given any reason to think help shall arrive, he'll bend the knee to Argillac. The man's not a fool."
"So the man needs to be convinced that I'll be able to protect him from the predations of the storm lords?"
"More or less." Lord Samwell answered. "Depends on the type of convincing at hand as well."
"In that case, I was hoping you would go and convince the lord then, Lord Goodbrook." I told them. "Along with however many tools you need to convince him to bend the knee."
Lord Goodbrook gave me a toothy smile as he nodded. "Aye, your grace. I'll convince old Gared to bend the knee."
I then turned to Lord Samwell. "And you, my lord, I hope you can travel to Braavos as an envoy of our fledgling kingdom to the Iron Bank." Maidenpool was the busiest port in the Riverlands. I hoped the amount of traffic that went through meant that Lord Samwell was at the very least, adequate, in terms of negotiations. "We'll have need for their financial support to turn back from the ruin that Harren had forced upon us."
Dealing with the Iron Bank was going to be a daunting process, but once again, Harren had near beggared the Riverlands. I needed gold to, at the very least, work on projects that could very well lead us into actual financial security.
And the Iron Bank would more than give me enough incentive to actually make sure that I worked towards that goal. No-one fucked with the Iron Bank and I didn't intent to be replaced by whatever prince they would raise up.
It would more than likely end in my head being removed from my soft, pale neck. I liked where my head was already.