Chapter 12 - The King's Council, part 1 - Duchies All Day Long

The council room wasn't that large, especially considering it's immense sheer importance to the future of Westeros.

It didn't need to be, however.

It was large enough comfortably house its large round table, and it's thrones.

The table itself was not anything special, just an even round table considerably larger than usual.

Around it, however, was thrones, fashioned after the various coat of arms of the rulers of Westeros Provinces. Each was placed in a position regarding where their seat of power was.

To the right of the King's seat was a throne of silver, stylized with an enormous falcon rising from behind the one who sat in it, it's eyes of sapphires.

Jonos Arryn, the King Who Flew. The last King of Mountain and Vale.

To the right of the throne of the Vale, was the throne of the North. Pretty much just a replica of the Starks own seat in Winterfell. Engraved direwolves in Ironwood, expertly carved.

Brandon Stark, son of Torrhen, the King who knelt. Last crown prince of the North.

Next was another replica, this time of the seastone chair, only instead of the strange substance of that throne, this one was made of gold.

Goren Greyjoy, son of Vickon Greyjoy who was first Lord of the Iron Islands. The second lord of the Iron Islands.

Next was a throne of silver, with golden trident Imagery.

Prentys Tully, grandson of Edmyn Tully, first Lord Paramount of the Riverlands.

After that, another golden throne, this one like a stylized lion with the armrests shaped like huge paws of gold.

Lyman Lannister, son of Lyman the last, the final King of The Rock.

Next up was a wooden throne, stylized in the form roses and vines(though without thorns), painted green and roses gilded with gold.

Bertrand Tyrell, grandson of the first Warden of the South.

After that was not the stag themed throne of the Stormlands, that was a mixture between gold and black painted wood, but instead a new throne.

This throne was made of ivory and gold. It was, however, the only one of the thrones that were unoccupied at the moment.

Empty.

After that one was the aforementioned stag throne of the Stormlands, followed by the king's own throne.

Orys Baratheon, Orys One-hand. First Lord Paramount of the Stormlands, and the First hand of the King.

Finally was The Iron Throne of Westeros in miniature, made up of a couple of hundred swords instead of the tens of thousands, which composed the monstrosity in the throne room. All the swords had belonged to the Ironborn that had risen with Lodos.

Really, it was just a variant of HBO's iron throne. Only made up of Norse style longswords instead.

No one questioned me about that, however.

No, the first question of the day came from Lord Bertrand Tyrell, regarding the empty throne.

"Is… Is this one meant for Dorne?"

My uncle, Orys Baratheon snorted.

"Does it look Orange and Red to you?"

I quickly "stepped" in before an argument broke out.

"No, it is not for Dorne. That is the Throne for the Governor of the Stepstones. But as we have not yet conquered it, there is little point seating my planned governor on it yet."

In the room, there were only me, my Wardens, my Lord Paramounts, and my Kingsguard Knights.

It was a pitifully small parliament, but it was a parliament nonetheless. Or as Westeros would recognize it as, the King's Council, not to be confused with the royal council which was my cabinet.

"Anyhow, I think it's about time we begin. The first topic of the day is the restructuring of Lordly Titles, and then the taxation reforms."

The atmosphere of the room instantly became heavy and tense.

"After that, we will discuss the upcoming war in full, the future plan for new cities, technological advancements, my plans for Canals and roads, the founding of The Royal Eastern Seas Trading Company of Westeros and what effects it will have upon trade and the economy, and we will end this great council upon a discussion regarding the united law code of Westeros."

I looked them all in the eye, one after another, right to left.

"Now, if anyone has any questions before we start, please ask them, now, and not later. I do NOT want our discussions to be interrupted by unrelated questions.

Tyrell cleared his throat.

"You've… Promised that no lords would lose land during this council. How does a redistributing of lordly titles fit with that?"

"It would not. As I said, the topic restructuring of the lordly titles, not a redistribution of land. I'm not planning on stripping the high lords of titles they possess. In fact, it will be quite the opposite. I have several houses in mind who will become quite a bit more powerful than they were before."

"Any other questions?"

Greyjoy lifted his hand.

"We'll discuss the wundership along with technological development."

The Kraken lowered his hand, as his neighbor lifted his.

"I noticed you didn't mention that bank we have discussed…" Lannister said.

I blinked.

"I didn't? Well, in that case, you can be at ease. It'll be discussed after technological advancements."

Any other questions?

There were none.

Alright then, I could finally start.

"Alright, I hereby declare the first King's Council adjourned, to be be held again, once every three years so the leaders of Westeros can plot it's future course."

"Our first order of business is the task of the restructuring of the kingdom's provinces to make the feudal structure clearer and more simple to streamline the collection of taxes, as well as make it easy to. Understand who answers to who. Also to make certain that which lords have the right to the pits and gallows is made abundantly clear."

Several of them looked puzzled at me. Most notably Tyrell, who raised his hand like I was his teacher and he wanted to ask a question.

"Ja?"

"Does not all Lords have the right to pits and Gallows?"

"In the reach mayhaps."

"In the Iron Islands, the right to imprison and hang men is beholden to the Top Lord of the island one is on. In the North, it has varied dramatically depending on the era, with smaller lords losing and regaining the right to do so after rebellions and services to the crown, but Masters do not have the right to do so. In the Vale, landed Knights have the right to do it, which is not the case in any other kingdom except the Stormlands."

"I will be making a law later down the line about the subject, which will clarify who has the right to do it, and who does not, and the consequences of trying to use it when they do not have the right to do so…"

For now, however, we are simply drawing the lines clearly on the subject, to make it very clear who has what rank."

I snapped my fingers, and Baratheon picked up a sheet of parchments and went around handing everyone seated a specific paper showing their home region.

"We will begin from the top, and work our way down from there."

"Grand Duchy of The North?" Stark asked incredulously reading the words on the page. "What the hell is a duchy? Much less a "Grand" One?"

"Excellent question Stark. A grand Duchy is the new name for a province in Westeros. Like a kingdom is ruled by a king, a duchy is ruled by a Grand Duke, which, subsequently is a new title for all of you."

I snapped my fingers again, and Ser Flowers went around with a chest, stopped by each of the Lords to pluck out a badge of the box, and lay it by them.

"Your new badges of office," I explained.

The badge designs in question was essentially just me ripping off the capital map markers from crusader kings 2, complete with the painted designs not being the house sigils, but instead the base kingdom flags from the ck2 game of throne mods.

For Stark, it was an old ironwood tree with a wolf under it, on a white snowy background.

For Arryn it was the mountains of the moon in white, with a deep blue background.

For Tully, it was a golden trident on wavy red and blue.

For Greyjoy, a golden steamship on pure black.

For Lannister, Casterly rock in red and gold.

For Tyrell, the Green hand of old on White.

And Finally for Baratheon, a grey mailed closed fist, clenching golden Lightning Bolts on a black background.

I see on their faces that not all were happy with the designs, but judging by the next question, it was not the designs that were on their minds.

It was my uncle who asked the obvious question.

"Alright nephew, so you've told us what a grand duchy is, now could you explain what the hell a Duke is?"

"Certainly!". Still keeping on my best smile.

"Duke, is a westernized form of Doux, an old Valyrian title of Vassals who willingly bent the knee before the Archon of Valyria. As for a Grand Duke, it is simply the highest form of Dukes. There are several other ranks of Dukes below you."

"... So it is LITERARILY just the old Lord Paramount title under a different name, same meaning and all."

"Yeah, pretty much," I admitted. "I did consider just leaving the title as it was, but when every other lordly rank was replaced, it kinda didn't fit the new rank system anymore."

"So the Lord Paramount Title will be abandoned then?" Tully asked in a somewhat curious tone.

"Well, if you guys want to keep using it alongside your new title, that is fine by me, I don't care. But in terms of official orders, documents, laws, and so on, Grand Duke will indeed replace the title of Lord Paramount, yes."

"What of warden titles then?!" Stark asked belligerently. "Are they also to be discarded and replaced?"

"Of course not!"

"But the Warden titles are military ones, not ones meant for peacetimes. They are meant to be activated in war, to make it very clear who will command the forces of the kingdom when the king or his hand is not there in person."

"Why my father didn't also grant you the title of Lord Paramounts as well, with that context in mind, I do not know. However, from here on, you are both The Grand Duke and Warden of the North. Our shield against threats from beyond the wall."

Stark glared at me, and my calm smile, until Tully interrupted and drew my attention.

"Alright, so the Grand Duke, the new supreme leaders of a province. But you mentioned other such titles, your grace?"

"Indeed," I said, eagerly jumping at the chance to get away from Stark's Coldness, god, I could understand his frustration at me crippling the North's southern defenses by draining the Neck, but seriously, I wasn't joking when I had told him it would become an enormously fertile piece of land.

"If you look at the maps you have been given, you'll notice each region has very clear borders marked within them and colored clearly to show which part is which. Each of these is a Duchy, ruled by a duke. However, the common duke is not the title directly below the Grand Duke. As I'm sure several of you have noted though, several of these duchies is currently ruled by one lord."

"That is the next title, the one directly below the Grand Duke. The Archdukes are simply Dukes who rule more than one Duchy."

"Sooo… That would make, Osgrey, Hightower, and Peake the Archdukes of the Reach then?" Tyrell asked looking at his map, with furrowed brows.

"Indeed. There is also House Manderly in the North, and there will be another Archduke in the Vale."

"Wait, what? Where?" Janos held the paper right up under his eyes to try and find who he was talking about.

"Whoever we put in charge of The Northweald, will also become Duke of the fingers. There simply isn't any lord on them strong enough to rule the others. Whoever that will be, however, I will leave to you Lord Arryn. Choose whomever from the Northweald, you think would be best suited for the job."

"Which brings us to our next topic. Namely that there are duchies currently not united under anyone. In the North, we have Skagos, the Wolfswood, the land of the Mountain Clans, and the Stoney Shore."

"In the Reach, we have the Shield Islands, the Mandervale, and the lands north of said vale, which I have dubbed the Duchy of the Rose Road."

"In the Riverlands, there is thankfully only the bay of crabs, in the Westerlands and Iron Islanda there are none, while in the Vale there is the Northweald, the Fingers, Wickenden and the southern coast of the bite."

"And finally there is the Stormlands… Well, the Stormlands have the Dornish Marches, the Summerfields, the rainlands, and two so far unnamed duchies along its northern coast."

"Given I am not as intimately familiar with these areas as you all are, like the Northweald and the fingers, I want you to choose who shall be the new dukes for all these new duchies."

Silence. Everyone stared at him.

"You must be jesting your grace."

"I am not. What is the problem exactly?"

"Well, nephew, there are a few," Orys answered.

"For one thing, each of these unconsolidated "Duchies" is made up of houses who have hated and quarreled with each other for centuries, sometimes millennia. By far the most volatile of them is the Dornish Marches. The marcher lords are a bunch of proud assholes who I can assure you will all be rather wroth they weren't each granted the title of Duke."

"If you want us to force these regions together, you'll have to do it by threat and force."

"You comprehend that I am a dragonrider right?"

"Oh, I'm not complaining. If you wanna fly everywhere and give each region a reminder of your might, feel free to do so. I'm just telling you the way it is."

Well, it wasn't like he was wrong about that, but, again, Dragons.

"Idleness is not a sin of mine. If I need to fly from the marches to the wall to get my reforms done, I'll do it. That being said, wouldn't the houses we elevate to Dukedom rank be on board and add their support to the centralization?"

"Sure-" Stark said sarcastically. "But the houses that are strong enough to keep their neighbors in line have already done so. Of the regions you want to unify beneath one lord, few of the potential Dukes are drastically stronger than their neighbors. Skagos is a prime example of that."

"None of the Skagosi ruling families are capable of decisively beating the others. Believe me. They have TRIED. If you want this to happen, you'll need more than just dragons. You'll need men on the ground, to hold it after you leave."

"If ONLY I had an army in the field. Maybe then I could use it to do just that."

I had said something wrong I realized, as every single looked at me in horror.

"Is… Isn't this army just for the Stepstones war?" Lannister asked carefully.

I rolled my eyes.

"I'm not bloody planning on using them to enforce never-ending Martial law, my Lord. The point, after all, is to help the Dukes consolidate power so they can rule in their own right."

The tension, for a moment thick as pea soup, evaporated.

"Yes… Yes, of course, your grace. That makes perfect sense."

Wow. They really didn't like the idea of a true standing army for Westeros. They had no problems with me forming such an army to invade outside the Kingdom, but to use it inside the kingdom? Now that was really uncomfortable to my feudal Lords.

Of course, they were going to have to get used to it. Once the war was over, this army would be deployed in Westeros itself, but that was years away. Once I had my new taxation system going, and with it, the cash flow to pay my troops indefinitely, I could be far, far more liberal with how I deployed my army.

However, that could wait for later. Right now, I needed reforms, not an army the hundreds of thousands.

"In any case-" Stark continued. "There is also another problem."

"Which is…?"

"Well, for both the Mountain Clans and the clans of the woods, part of their feudal contract is that they will be ruled over by a Stark, not any other Lord. It is one of the reasons why Deepwood Motte isn't had never risen to be a lordship despite their power."

"The same goes for the Marcher Lords." Orys piped in. "They have been promised that they will always answer directly to a Durrandon of Storms End."

I looked at my uncle, and I saw instantly that he had seen the obvious pretext I could use here.

"Well, in that case, remind them that the Durrandons are no more. And that it is house Baratheon and Targaryen they owe their fealty to."

I turned to Stark.

"As for the Clans, just name a Stark as their Dukes then. You have enough family members to do that. I know. I meet them."

I sighed. "Well… Assuming there are no more hyper-specific feudal oaths at play, let us get down to business to choose which houses becomes Dukes, shall we?

---

It took four goddamned hours to get it all done.

Four fucking hours for something that I had expected would take 30 minutes at most.

First, we had gone over every single duchy in Westeros. Then we had to go into stupidly long debates on who would get the brand new unified duchies.

In any case, in the North, the last surviving branch of the Fishers, the first dynasty to ever rule the Riverlands became Dukes of the Stoney Shore.

Two Stark Boys became Dukes of the Mountain clans and the Wolfswood, and I had to promise help build both castles and cities for them.

House Magnar became the new Dukes of Skagos, for the simple reason that they had the best harbor on the archipelago.

In the Vale, the branch of house Arryn that in canon became the rulers of the Vale became the new Dukes of the Bite. Wickenden became the Dukes of Wickenden, rulers of all the land the vale had west of the mountains of the moon.

House Coldwater of Coldwater Burn became the only Archduke of the Vale, Dukes of Both the Northweald and the Fingers.

The Fossaways became the new Dukes of the Mandervale. House Caswell the Dukes of the Roseroad. And finally, House Hewett of Oakenshield became the new Duke of the Shield Islands.

And yes, I did choose him just because of the name of his island.

The Westerlands and the Iron Islands all had very clear cut dukedoms that were all centralized(especially iron islands where literarily every single island had a clear overlord, and thus an obvious Duke) by one house.

The Riverlands, despite their rather fractured political strength, was still generally centralized under one regional lord in all areas. The only exception was, of course, the bay of crabs. And given our choices were Saltpans or Maidenpool, it shouldn't be too much a surprise to hear that the new duchy was named Maidenpool.

Then there was the Stormlands. House Wylde became the Dukes of the Rainlands, the coast, and woods on the south side of shipbreaker bay.

North of the internal Duchy of Storm's End was the two new duchies of Bronzegate and Parchment, ruled by the houses of Buckler and Penrose respectively.

West of Storm's End was the Duchy of The Summerfields, ruled by House Toyne.

South of that, were the Dornish Marches, now a Duchy under house Dondarrion of Blackhaven.

And that was all the previously ununified Duchies of my provinces. In my own home Grand Duchy of the Crownlands, I also had 2 regions to hammer into one.

Well, 3 actually, but unlike my vassal's special feudal contracts where I couldn't care less, I wasn't going to do the same with my own special contracts. Namely that all the lords of Crackeclaw point would swear directly to the Crown. Which I had no real problems with.

So I had simply cut the knot and made all of the Crackeclaw lords into Dukes. Very Weak Dukes, but Dukes nonetheless.

That left the region west of King's landing which had decided to just call the Duchy of Blackwater Rush like CK2 did, and the eastern Kingswood.

I had given the Duchies to houses Mallary and Bywater respectively.

"And now that we are FINALLY done with the topic of Duchies, we can finally move on to the last four ranks of our nobility. I shall be brief, as I am sure you all want a break as much as I do."

At that, everybody nodded, or grunted, or did both vigorously. My uncle responded by saying "Yeah get it over with already". We were all tired as fuck after 5 five hours of debate on one single topic, no refreshments, no wine to drink, and no real breaks.

"Firstly, we have the Count, essentially the replacement title for the common, smaller Lordship."

"Beneath them, there is the Viscount, essentially the ruler of a City. At the current point, this is just an extra rank for anyone who rules a city, but in the future, Counts and dukes and Grand Dukes and even me will have Viscount vassals, who just rules a city in our name."

"At the bottom of the landed nobility, we have the Baron, the replacement title for both landed Knights and Masters. Not much more to say about them, other than that they can no longer swear fealty to another of equal rank. They must swear fealty to a count, a Duke, a Grand Duke, or The King himself."

"And absolutely finally, we have Landed Princes, like my brother Maegor. Essentially, they can hold a title that ranges from anywhere from a Viscount to Duke. Unlike other titles, however, they answer directly to the crown. And that is it, we are done for today, we will reconvene on the morrow."

As everyone hastily cleared out, I stood back and made sure to let all of them leave before going myself.

Well, that had been… Horrible really. 5 hours with no real breaks, or food, or anything other than water and short piss breaks really. Frankly, I was also tired, but I had done this before in my old life.

I could handle it.

My lords were not, and could not, and as the hours had gone by, they had become more and more grouchy and irritatable and had just gotten more and more pissed off regarding the very concept of this council.

If I wanted them to be less hostile on the matter taxes tomorrow, I would need to do better than this.

Dear God, I needed to do better than this. I had assumed this would only take 2 hours at most, i had not made any plans if it took longer than that. That was a critical mistake. One i could not repeat on the morrow.

I could not alienate them with the concept of Parliaments by jumping straight into the full day, no real breaks end of the spectrum from the start.

I needed to do this gradually. Two and a half hours, then an hourly break with food. Rinse and repeat. Same working time, but with more rest for my glorified fratboys.