7th Moon, 113 AD
Sometimes, when I wasn't too busy being king, I liked to go for a ride around the lands of Riverrun. It sort of relaxed me and also allowed me to experience the fact that I now lived in a world where I had to ride a horse to go from A to B. I mean, that was pretty damn weird for a guy who was used to going everywhere by motorized vehicles.
Sometimes, I walked, but that was beside the entire point.
Maybe this was a part of Edmyn or maybe I had come down to enjoying it, but I couldn't help but find the Riverlands beautiful in truth. It was almost like the sort of image one would have when they thought of the stereotypical English country side...in the whatever century Westeros was apparently and failing to illuminate.
In other words, it felt like I was back home but not really at home as well.
It was well weird.
Did I mention the country side was beautiful? I suspect that the unlucky buggers of the Riverlands had to at least having something going for them in return for being the shit basket for the rest of Westeros.
"It's a beautiful day, isn't it coz?" Lyam asked, riding alongside me. We had something of a retinue of guards following close behind, but not close enough to see to intrude upon their king and lord.
I couldn't help but agree. "The sun's out, sky is blue and the birds are singing." I took in a nice deep breath of the country air. Yeah, it almost reminded me of an English countryside except for the smell of horse. "A beautiful day indeed. Hopefully, there will be more of them in the future."
That was my way of hoping no shit would hit the fan anytime soon. Like, really soon.
…
Why was I tempting fate like this? This was Westeros. Whether I liked it or not, shit was going to hit the fan either way.
"I'm really thankful of you, coz," My cousin continued to speak as we rode at a gentle pace. "For the charter my lord father asked for. He was of the mind that it was never going to be granted."
"Think nothing of it. The charter to Seagard wasn't the only charter I gave out. Stoney Sept, Pinkmaiden, Lord Harroway's Town," I was of the mind to see if I could have Lord Harroway just shorten the name of that place to just Harroway. It's original name was such a mouthful. "Saltpans, Maidenpool, Fairmarket...they all happened to get a charter all of their own. Not developing some of our more populous settlements into cities was a folly some of my predecessors as Kings of the Trident I aim to rectify."
He nodded to that as we followed a small well-trodden path that went alongside a small stream. Goddamn, the Riverlands had a lot of water and rivers and streams and loads and loads of water. I think this wouldn't really be bad to set some land aside near water paths for nothing more than irrigation. It would do a lot when it comes to farming.
Lyam's horse snorted from underneath him when he spurred it on a little to keep the pace we had set. "Although he wasn't particularly pleased with some of the finer points."
"Which ones?" I asked, a playful smile on the tip of my lips. "There were quite a few points his expression soured when he read the charter."
"The lower taxes."
I rolled my eyes. "He says that now, but it certainly isn't going to be lower when he starts collecting them."
"He just doesn't see the point. He fears that corruption would be rife amongst the tax collectors."
"Lord Mallister will know what he's paying his tax collectors. If they suddenly start to live more than their means, he'll know that they have been sticking their hands into the honey pot." I shook my head. "Just trust me on this, it will all work out in the end and Lord Mallister will be thanking me to the Seven heavens and back for increasing his tax revenue."
Sometimes, when you spent your time just going through the motions on the internet, you end up learning a few things here and there. Tax farming was one of them and from the consensus that I had come to read up on, most agreed that if you wanted to run a well-efficient state, well, an efficient a state as you can, tax farming wasn't the most efficient of means to use when it comes to generating tax revenue.
I just had to deal with it for the moment until a suitable infrastructure to support the new tax regime is set up. Until then, the tax farmers would have to stay in business, but there days were definitely numbered.
If I lasted that long.
Lyam didn't seem convinced but he accepted my reasoning, as vague as it was. I just think he was more than glad that Seagard got itself permission to develop into a full-fledged city after so many years. "If you say so."
We rode on for a couple more before the sounds of music and joy floated into our ears as we rode up towards a small village located beside the stream that we had been riding along. From the lively, jaunty music that was being played, something special was definitely happening.
And I would admit, I was curious. Perhaps a holiday or something that I could make statuary for the entire kingdom? There can never be such a thing as too much holidays.
Then the music stopped abruptly when our presence was noted by the locals.
"Greetings!" I called out as I pulled my horse to a stop in front of the gathering of people.
A bedraggled old whitebeard moved himself to the front and bowed to us. "Many welcomes, m'lords, how can we be of service?"
"Service?" I asked, shaking my head. "Nothing of the sort. I didn't mean to intrude on your festivities. If you don't mind me asking, but what's the special occasion?" I asked, looking around. Hm, strange, what was with the sudden collective wince that went about when I asked that particular question?
The whitebeard nervously licked his lips as he tried to look everywhere but me, tugging at his breeches. "It's a...well, a wedding, m'lords. Pardon me for asking so, m'lords, but please take mercy, we knows it's within your lordly rights to take the bride and we should have had you told..."
Lyam had a cool look on your face. "Coz, don't tell me this is why we went out for this ride." He said, disappointment and perhaps some anger lurking in the back of his throat.
I looked at the whitebeard then to Lyam confused. I'm sure I was missing something here. "What are you on about Lyam?" I thumbed in the direction of the whitebeard. "And what right is he talking about?"
Lyam's cool expression changed to that of mild confusion. "You're not here to take your right of first night?"
I had something of an owlish look on my face as I stared at my cousin. "Right of first night?"
Isn't that a thing that was considered not to be a thing? I'm no expert but I'm sure that wasn't a thing back in the Middle Ages. Why was he-oh right. This wasn't the Middle Ages, this was Westeros and this was probably a thing. I nearly let out a shout at the annoyance and bullshit of it all.
"No." I would like to say that my voice at that moment did not sound much like the squawk of some bird. "No." I shook my head to reiterate my point. "I'm not going to-Why would-No."
Lyam now was genuinely confused before frowning. "So you're not here to partake in your right?" The whitebeard looked almost relieved but still somewhat apprehensive.
"No."
Why was that a right? I'm quite positive that's called rape.
And I am quite aware that my excessively progressive world view points are quite different to the values that are espoused in this day and age. It didn't mean I had to agree with the whole load of them.
I reared my horse around without a word and began to make my way back to Riverrun.
I think I had just about had enough of this ride.
Fucking Westeros.
***
I was absolutely and utterly livid.
For all of George's saying that his series was a realistic take on the many tropes of fantasy fiction, it still found itself falling into the pit traps of fantasy. That was the only thing that I could think that could explain why he thought to take an extremely questionable practice that has been thought off as debunked by most historians as fact.
Yes, yes, I know I was now living in a fantasy world, but that fantasy world happened to have been based on real world history and customs, even if those customs were taken and changed little by little to make it different.
The fact still remained it was still somewhat based on the reality that I knew off from back home.
Somehow, my mood was made worse by the fact that Lyam had genuinely thought I had taken him along for my ride to partake in my so called 'right' on some poor woman.
"I'm genuinely sorry." He definitely looked sorry and honestly appalled. If I didn't know any better, I would have thought he was close to tears. "I thought you brought me there for..." He made a motion with his hand.
Yes, because I had definitely decided to randomly go rape some woman I didn't even know existed until then. Hell, I didn't even know there was a village or any sort of settlement at that place.
"It's fine." I said with a sigh, trying to keep my anger and annoyance in check. For as long as he had known me, it wouldn't have hurt for him to give me some benefit of the doubt.
"You don't look fine." Damn him for being so observant.
"I suppose I could be better." I shook my head to rid myself of the entire altercation from my head. I doubt it was going to go away so easily, but that right could definitely go away though. "I think I'm going to outlaw the practice."
Lyam blinked. "The right of the first night?" I nodded and a smile, a genuine smile came across his lips. "That would be noble. A marriage should be between two people who love and care for each other."
Yeah, let's go with that.
Considering the fact that he seemed to be on his way to marrying a Bracken due to some efforts by Lady Anya and some sweet words from me to my uncle Lord Mallister, Lyam was about to have himself a bride. One he had only begun to meet every now and then.
There was a reason he was slowly becoming a more regular presence in Riverrun.
So, it was something of a genuine surprise to me that he had that sort of romantic thoughts on marriage. He must have noticed the stupid look I was giving him.
"What?" He shuffled as he stood, probably unnerved by my staring.
"I-I just didn't expect those words to come out of your mouth." I admitted with a sheepish grin on my face. "Didn't know that you were quite the romantic, considering everything else."
He shrugged, but this time, he was a little more confident with himself. "There is nothing wrong with being a good man. Hopefully, me and my future bethrothed would come to love each other both body and soul."
And if that wasn't the case? I wanted to ask, but I couldn't bring myself to do so. I was still somewhat surprised that the guy seemed to be something of an optimist. I...I genuinely don't think that's a good trait to have in Westeros.
It was better to be a pessimist and cynic if one wanted to live a long enough life.
He then frowned for a moment. "Enough about that now, if you truly wish to outlaw the right, you will have some trouble."
"I can just make a decree and that will be the end of it."
"If only it was so simple." He sighed as he began to pace the room. "You will be depriving them of a right that has existed since anybody can remember. Lords guard their rights jealously."
"I was being sarcastic." That was something of a half-truth. It was part sarcasm on my part and some part hopefulness that I could just easily make a new law outlawing the right. "How many lords actually take their rights anyway?"
Lyam stopped his pacing and gave me a shrug of the shoulders. "No good riverlord that is for sure. When the ironborn ruled us, the right of the first night was more practiced by our beloved ironborn overlords."
This being positive, I'm quite positive that some, if not all, the riverlords did their fair share of partaking in that particular supposed right of theirs. It seemed my coz just thought that good honest riverlords were better than that.
I wouldn't put in past the ironborn though.
"So why would they guard that particular 'right'," I air quoted much to his confusion judging by the look he gave me. "If no riverlord would partake it?" It was a genuine question then I sort of answered it for myself when I remembered a bit of knowledge from canon about the books.
Aegon the IV had tried to introduce smallfolk friendly rights to Westeros which somehow ended up offending many lords at their rights being degraded. Even if those rights were aimed to making the basis of many a lord's wealth and power living a little bit more easily.
I slumped into my seat as a hand ran down my face. "Never mind, I think I just answered my own question. The amount of political capital that I'm going to need..." You would think me breaking the yoke of Harren would garner me a shit load of said capital, but in truth, I think I had used quite a load of it with the whole scutage and then some along with some of the terms for the city charters even though I was positive I was doing them a favour that they didn't know I was doing them. "It seems I'm going to have to bear this outrage for the moment, until I can tackle it head-on."
The heir to Seagard gave me something of a bitter laugh. "I can't say I envy you coz, it seems you have found yourself with many a responsibilities I wouldn't wish on anybody."
A snort escaped from mouth. "And here I thought everybody envied having one crown or another sitting prettily on their heads."
"It would all rather depend on whether they have the neck strength to hold up the weight of that crown."
***
You learn something new every day and man, have I been learning a lot of things every day.
Like Medieval government for starters. Right, I would gleefully admit that I'm no expert on government, but I would admit that something about running a kingdom as nothing more than a really large private estate was somewhat, I don't know, weird?
I mean, that's what it looked like to me. There wasn't that much a change to the basic running of Riverrun let alone the kingdom when I was made King of the Trident. I think the only thing that changed was the amount of daily administrative paperwork I had to deal with increased in scope and volume.
Everything else was still ran by the household servants that had been serving the Tully fiefdom before I was king.
I don't think that should do.
So that meant reforms and somewhat thankfully, since Harren's idea of running the Riverlands along with half the crownlands was making sure that his tax payments and his demands for working men and women and building materials for his castle were met, he didn't really care about building state institutions or anything really.
Actually, none of the ironborn seemed to have cared at all about building institutions. It seemed they had mercifully somewhat left that to me.
I say somewhat mercifully because the asshole who had said something about it easier building institutions from scratch rather than changing them was talking complete and utter bull. As it turns out, it's quite difficult to build said institutions when you don't meet the requirements in terms of infrastructure that would support those institutions.
In my case, learned men that could count their numbers and read and write their letters.
I was working on that, but I was positive I was still decades away (if I lived that long) from anything to work with personally.
Oh, don't get me wrong, my current household servants could very well read and write, mostly the ones whose duties involved various means of reading and writing quite the few letters here and there, but that was enough for a fiefdom, not a kingdom.
A kingdom was an entirely different beast compared to a fiefdom.
So, I needed learned men. That meant that I had to acquire the help of the Scribes Guild. All of them.
There was a Scribes Guild in every major settlement in my new kingdom. From Duskendale to Seagard. Maidenpool had one. Fairmarket had one. Stoney Sept had one. Basically, any place with a population in the hundreds that could call itself a town had a Scribes Guild.
The more powerful Scribes Guilds were located in the larger towns in the mould of the Antlers, Seagard and Duskendale.
And every Scribes Guild fought for influence in their parts of the country. And I had made it my mission to bring all these guilds into one and somehow get myself something that resembling a Civil Service. I mean, the Scribes Guilds pretty much did nearly everything that a Civil Service would be doing.
"Hello, my good masters!" I greeted loudly and cheerfully to the gathering of guild masters. I counted just over a dozen or so of them, included in their midst were the most prominent of the Scribes Guilds. Not going to lie, they each looked like one would expect to be the guild masters of professions that involved reading a lot or writing a lot. "I'm quite thankful that you have all decided to come and meet me in such a short amount of time. I hope my summons weren't of any inconvenience to any of you."
I genuinely didn't care if my summons had been an inconvenience, but I was king and I could do nearly anything I wanted as long as you didn't have some sort of title. A guild master was still someone to be respected if you knew what the fuck they did and these guys were important and thus, I was going to be nice.
That, as well as the fact that they were soon going to be working for me, I wanted them to be happy to work with me. A happy worker was a productive worker.
One of the guild masters stepped forward and was pleasantly surprised that he wore what I was pretty sure were spectacles. Were spectacles a thing during the Middle Ages? I would have figured that they were more of a Renaissance thing to be honest.
"You have no need to worry, Your Grace. A royal summons is something the likes of us are never likely to receive. If anything, they are more of a joyous occasion in truth."
Okay then dude, ass kissing much? Didn't care though. I gave the guy my most brilliant smile. "Thank you, good master...?" I said, trailing off for a name.
He gave me a bow with something of a remarkable flourish. "Lucas, Your Grace. Guildmaster of the Scribes Guild of Duskendale."
I made a note to remember that spectacles guy was Lucas from Duskendale. And deciding to seem not like a dick, I asked for the rest of the lot for their names. My mother always insisted that I always be courteous to people that I want to work for me.
"I know you are all wondering as to why I called for you here, it's quite simple really, I am in need of your services." That and I think because of one particular invention of mine, your old way of life was slowly going to wither away and die, so might as well come and work for me. I didn't say that, but I continued speaking anyway. "Frankly, good masters, running a kingdom isn't easy and some of the many tasks that I aim to make our new kingdom prosper requires for me to have a pool of well educated, skilled and talented men such as yourselves,"
A little flattery here and there never hurt and some of them seemed close to beaming with their puffed-out chests at my giving acknowledge of their undeniably vital services to every settlement and House they give, even if lordlings cared nothing for matters such as counting copper.
"I have yet to come across many men of your likes that are skilled in the areas of bookkeeping, dictation and the keeping of records of judicial, business and historical. It also doesn't hurt that many of you make sure that nothing but the highest of standards are met in standard with the quality of your respective guilds."
We had met outside Mikken workshop which had been slowly converted into a rather large barn like building inside the castle grounds. Was it a waste of space? Not really. It was to make sure that any wandering eyes saw nothing and reported nothing.
Only Mikken and his trusted apprentices were allowed inside and it was guarded thoroughly. I liked to keep my secret weapons, secret.
I motioned at one of the guards to pull back the main door in a slow and deliberative manner that we had practiced thoroughly before the arrival of the guild masters. I continued speaking as the doors were opened behind me. "See, recently, we have come to possess a machine that might very well put many of your livelihoods at stake and I wish to see nothing of that sort happening, thus I am offering all of you an opportunity, for growth, for change and perhaps, even more in the future..."
If I remember correctly, the printing press triggered the death of scribes back home, so it would be safe to assume it would do so the same here.
Bernard, the Master of the Scribes Guild from Seagard regarded the strange contraption, to him anyway curiously after I had directed their attention to it. He then asked the question all of them were wondering. "Pardon me for asking, Your Grace, but what is this device?"
"We call it the printing press, because it has one function in truth." I answered before giving a nod of the head to Karl, one of the apprentices who was to work the machine for this particular demonstration. The first printing press wasn't bad, but it wasn't good, but with time and experience, slow improvements were slowly being made.
Those improvements meant that their workers had more time to familiarize themselves with the printing press and to me, it seemed with each day, they got better and better at working it. It was visibly faster working it and printing out the words.
"Your Grace." Karl said with a nod as he handed me the printed piece of paper.
I took it and gave a nod to the burly young man. "Thank you." I said before passing the piece of paper to the guild masters to share among themselves. "As you can see, this particular device allows us to reproduce the elements of a document onto another document in less than the time it takes to copy said document by hand. If I'm not wrong, it takes many of your copyists about fifteen months to reproduce a book the volume of the Seven-Pointed Star, yes?"
They nodded to my question as they passed the paper around, some of them seemingly feeling the paper. That was something I was going to have to explain later on too, I guess.
"Well, with a trained enough crew working this machine and not to think of hundreds of other similar calibres, then you are looking at hundreds of thousands of pages being printed in hours, let alone days. Enough," I motioned to the side were a stack of books, quite a big stack at that, had been left lying around. "To reproduce the entirety of the Seven-pointed Star within just a few weeks."
Jaws dropped at that. I was exaggerating, true, it hadn't been that effective with the printing press still being worked on to make it run better and break down less, but they didn't need to know about that. "We've also taken the workings of such a machine and think of somehow making it smaller, it's still early days, but I've been told it's doable."
Eyes quickly drifted from me to the stacks of books, to the printing press and perhaps somewhere in their heads, vision of something resembling a typewriter that could do the same. I think they could see that their days were quickly numbered.
Lucas stepped forward once more seemingly getting it quicker than his contemporaries. "Your Grace, how could my guild be of service to your workings?" The others were soon to clamour and let out their agreements.
I had to try hard to keep the grin I felt would give a shark a run for its money from slowly forcing its way onto my lips.