Chapter 17: Fairmarket

Fairmarket

Of all the things that I have done and will do in my life here in this world of Ice and Fire, the city of Fairmarket stands out among them all.

When I first got Fairmarket on my sixteenth birthday it was a town of around ten to fifteen thousand souls, houses were made of logs and undressed stone and half-timbered, the streets were muddy and crooked, and the twenty-foot wall that surrounded the town was built during the Hoare times, and hasn't been properly maintained since the Conquest.

Its glory days of being a flourishing market town like Tumbleton and Maidenpool were long gone with the Hoares and it was a grubby trader's town, the Tullys spent the bare minimum on Fairmarket for they found engaging in trade beneath them. While there were more than a few Tullys who might have paid attention, over the past hundred years, most Lords of Riverrun including Grover, neglected the town leading to its decline. With only a thirty-foot tall round tower house used by the Hoares during their rule for my residence, the place was barely suitable for a landed knight, much less a Prince of the Realm, but I wasn't fazed.

I had a clear task on my hands and I got to work immediately. Of course, my father had already set up a plan to get the whole place up and running and all I had to do was enforce it. The blueprint for a future city was already made by my father and the builders he hired so I implemented the plans with only a few minor adjustments to my ideas. Now the city of Fairmarket boasts more than sixty thousand people and it's only going to increase. By the time Viserys kicks the bucket, I am certain that it will be well over a hundred thousand.

The streets are wide, straight, and cobbled, the city is clean and well-ordered with planned squares and community spaces. The logs and stones have been replaced by bricks, instead of sticking to a single color the bricks of Fairmarket are of many different colors which have given it a lively look, and the roofs are made of slate tiles instead of the previously thatched roofs. There were proper sewers following the same grid plan of the streets above carrying the city's wastes into the Blue Fork. The wide and parallel streets gave an unobstructed view of the city and makes it easy to move troops around to quell any riots that should occur, something that gripped King's Landing twice in deadly effect.

The ashlar mortar and brick curtain walls that now surround Fairmarket are more than thirty feet tall and ten feet thick, studded with bastions, and anchored by defensive towers at every angle, complete with crenelations, arrow slits, and ditches. There are four main gates for the city and each gate is protected by a portcullis, and murder holes. Only two postern gates are present, one by the river bank on the North and the other by fields on the South. The doors are made of solid oak nine inches thick and studded with iron. The bridge that spans the Blue Fork is made of stone, it is wide enough for two wagons to pass abreast, it is guarded on both sides with two identical square towers that are nearly sixty feet high and crenelated, bristling with scorpions, spitfires, murder holes, arrow slits, machicolations and a portcullis for each.

The riverfront is long and chaotic yet organized and it handles goods and trade from all over the Seven Kingdoms and beyond, the northern wall that runs along the riverbank shelters shops, stalls, storehouses, and warehouses along the stone piers. Perfumes, textiles, spices, timber, gold, silver, honey, beeswax, all kinds of fishes from the river, Arbor gold, mead, Dornish reds, ceramics, gemstones, grain, iron, steel, marble, ivory, exotic fruits, and silks changed hands along the marketplaces and merchant stalls. The port of Fairmarket was a major commercial hub connecting the North, South, East, and West of Westeros, a tremendous amount of materials and goods flowed through the city daily. There was a large marketplace between the walls and piers, it was here that the merchandise was traded by the ship owners.

Longships, Cogs, Caravals, river galleys, fishing skiffs, and flat travel barges plied the harbor. The port is a bustling spot, it is full of strange smells and sounds for the average Westerosi with a dozen different languages being spoken all the while Customs officers working for me, assessed the goods being unloaded and taxed them accordingly and as Fairmarket is the terminal point of all trading voyages, nearly everything is unloaded and taxed. Shipyards were set up on the opposite bank of the Blue Fork, where most of all the new ships in the Riverlands were built, with shipbuilders from King's Landing coming to Fairmarket to work for me on my father's invitation, this shipyard is also what helped me set up my riverine fleet.

Every square in the city has a fountain and a statue of a dragon, the colonnade at each square is a hubbub of moneylenders, hedge wizards, tradesmen, and entertainers that give the city a bustling nature. Guards and knights walked about the city, with far more small folk, merchants, and traders, each marketplace had more than a dozen wooden stalls with goods from all over. Inns, taverns, alehouses, brothels, gardens, arbors, breweries, townhouses, manses, Septs, a Motherhouse, a Septry, a building of the Alchemist's Guild, a couple of bathhouses, and a Red temple dot the city.

The main religious center of Fairmarket is the Blue Sept, it was a brand-new sept built by myself and the High Septon, it was the largest sept in the Riverlands, whilst larger than the Sept of Snows and the Stoney Sept, it was smaller than the other major septs of the Seven Kingdoms. All operations of Faith of the Seven in the Riverlands were transferred from the Stoney Sept to the Blue Sept, signaling the change in leadership of the Riverlands.

Silver and Goldsmiths ply their trade as do wine sellers, brewers, and seamstresses, the gold and silverwork, the spiced honey wine, the hopped beer, and the textiles produced in the city are on par with those of Oldtown, Lannisport, and elsewhere. And one of the main things was wool, good quality wool was produced in the Riverlands and it is brought to Fairmarket to be manufactured into clothes and textiles by the weavers before export, linen, sable, moleskin, crisp leathers, and velvet were also produced by the weavers, the textile industry was becoming more and more profitable for everyone involved.

As such, Fairmarket was the manufacturing and exporting center for all goods in the Riverlands, the raw materials were brought from all over the Riverlands for the goods to be manufactured in Fairmarket before being exported out throughout the country and abroad. Within the Riverlands, the Trident acted as a highway for tradable goods to travel quickly and efficiently.

The main boulevard of the city that I have named the Dragonway runs from the Bridge to the Dragonhall through the center of the city, it is wide enough for six wagons to pass abreast and it is lined on both sides with rows of trees, and as it approaches the Dragonhall, the Dragon way is flanked by the Guildhalls of all the legitimate and recognized guilds of the city.

A theatre was set up with playwrights coming from Lannisport, Oldtown, King's Landing, and Braavos in addition to those already in the Riverlands, I was a major patron of the arts in the city along with the other rich inhabitants and local elites, a permanent melee arena seating fifteen thousand and a permanent jousting arena with fourteen jousting lanes and a seating capacity of ten thousand were also built for the entertainment of the people and the elites.

It should be no surprise that House Targaryen of the Fairmarket is the most powerful and richest House of the Riverlands. With trade featuring so heavily in Fairmarket, it has become the largest, richest, and most populous city of the Riverlands within half a decade. The fact that I had three-fifths of the taxes of the Riverlands went a long way in helping Fairmarket reach where it is today. And the Blue Fork River helps in making trade accessible for everyone with Lord Harroway's Town, Saltpans, and Maidenpool benefiting from it.

Fairmarket is THE trading center of the Riverlands, goods from the Riverlands, the Westerlands, the Vale, the North, and the Reach are exchanged here, and merchants from Braavos, Pentos, Dornish, and sometimes even Volantis show up to trade. The growing mercantile class of the city is far wealthier than some of the ancient and minor noble houses of the Riverlands, a few minor noble families and minor branches of bigger families have even settled in Fairmarket hoping to stem their decline by taking service under me.

Taxation was the main income earner as was trade and the manufacturing of goods taking place in Fairmarket but the cornerstone was always agriculture, then and now. The lands of the Blue Fork are under my control and they are fertile with irrigation canals, water-wheel run smithies and granaries, wheat fields, orchards, apiaries, vineyards, herds of livestock, sheep, and dairy cattle filling the land along the river from the headwaters at Oldstones to the point where it joins the Green Fork.

I set up a City Watch for Fairmarket once it reached a population of thirty thousand people, the fifteen-hundred-strong City Watch is supported by five hundred guardsmen who guard the Bridge, and Dragonhall, patrol the Blue Fork, and help keep the peace.

To hammer in my near complete dominance of the Riverlands with Gaelithox, I could raise around five thousand able-bodied men which is more than what any other House in the Riverlands can raise. Three hundred knights are in my service along with three hundred longbowmen and a hundred crossbowmen, and that number can easily be doubled if needs be. To ensure that my men will be ready should the worst come to pass, I have mandated that my knights, Captains, and Veteran men-at-arms go into the villages every seven days to train the conscripts.

Up and down the lands of the Blue Fork, fortifications were set up to serve as deterrents against any river-borne piracy and as a rallying ground for levies to assemble during times of war, in cases of attack, they served as defensive points meant to slow the enemy's march to Fairmarket, strongholds for the peasants to flee to for safety and also as launchpads for counterattacks.

In addition to all that, I have a fleet of around twenty river galleys that patrol the Blue Fork. There is a separate harbor on the other side of the Blue Fork dedicated to them, complete with its towers, storehouses, shipyards, and defensive structures. The galleys were originally manned by men of the Royal Fleet coming from Dragonstone and Driftmark though as of late, they have been crewed mostly by men of the Blue Fork.

With the amount of gold that is flowing into the coffers every year, and with the water wheel run smithies and skilled armorers there is a high degree of standardization of good quality weapons and armor for everyone, from the knights to the levies.

The regular infantrymen get to have suits of black plate armor under which they have mail hauberk, the helmets are a Y-shaped barbute that had a distinct draconic look due to the ridge on top. They are also given blue cloaks to wear and as common sense dictates for the smallfolk they are called the 'blue cloaks'.

The soldiers are well protected by their flat-topped kite shields, they are armed with spears, pikes, longswords, axes, long axes, maces, longbows, crossbows, darts, and daggers being issued to every man according to their specialty. The longbowmen and crossbowmen are given black gambesons and kettle steel helmets with mail coifs and each crossbowman is given a pavise shield, they are given maces, axes, and knives for close combat instead of swords and spears. The pikemen are given brigandines instead of plate armor, and an axe as a secondary weapon, and their shields have been inspired by the large pavise Bolton shields used by the deadly noose phalanx during the Battle of the Bastards.

The men of the City Watch are equipped with burgonet helmets of grey steel with cheek guards. They are armored with long suits of the plate and mail armor and blue coats, like the City Watch of King's Landing, each man is given a longsword, a dirk, an iron cudgel, and an iron spear. They have also been given the name 'blue coats' for their blue coats for the Smallfolk have to give a name no matter what.

The levies are equipped with mail hauberks and Targaryen surcoats, and with nasal helmets with a mail coif, and each man is given a late Roman shield, a spear, a steel knife, an axe, and a blue cloak.

Normally, any other Riverlord would use such armor to equip his guardsmen and not his levies but since I was rich enough to give my men-at-arms plate armor like the Lannisters and Tyrells, the armor meant for the men-at-arms was now used for common levies, while such armament was a slow and expensive process, yet to be completed, but it was worth the cost.

The blue dye used for all the cloaks and coats for the soldiers is produced from the locally occurring woad plant while Indigo dye is used by the richer nobles and knights, Indigo is not widespread nor readily available to be used for common soldiers. And it has helped the woad dye industry flourish.

And all this has resulted in a well-trained, well-equipped, and well-organized fighting force that has helped to cement my authority over the Riverlands.

By the time I left for court after Viserys ascension, the work was well underway, my monthly visits were more than enough to keep things steady here as Fairmarket entered a golden age.

Fairmarket population capacity: 150,000-200,000