The Royal Council, part 3 - Riverlands Cities and Roads
Of the provinces that Aenys took a strong hand in Developing, only the Crown lands surpasses the complete reversal in wealth and power, which the Riverlands would go through following First King's Council.
Before the conquest, the Riverland were Regarded as weakest Kingdom in Westeros, best exemplified by the fact it was the only region of Westeros which was not an independent entity when Aegon came ashore, as at the time it was part of the Kingdom of the Isles and the Rivers, and ruled by Ironborn conquerors, who had ruled the land for a century at that point.
Before the Ironborn, there was the Stormlanders, and before them it was the local royal family of the Teagues, the most despised royal Dynasty in Westerosi history.
The Teague family was founded by an upstart adventurer, who conquered his kingdom with mercenaries and sells words from Essos, and would force the lords of the land to kneel.
That a random sells word adventurer could ever manage to conquer and unite the Kingdom of the Riverlands, speaks volumes about how weak the region was.
To understand the weakness of the Riverlands, one needs to understand it's geography, and it's position in Westerosi politics pre conquest.
The Riverlands is a mostly flat plain(with some hills) dominated by the Trident, the largest river in Westeros. The Trident, as it's name implies, has three main branches, the red fork to the west, the blue fork to the Northwest, and the green fork going straight north stretching all the way into swamps of the neck.
And this is not even counting the thousands upon thousands of smaller tributaries flowing into each of the main three branches.
These countless rivers, along with few hills or rocky terrain, make the plains of the Riverlands incredibly fertile, which meant the region had immense potential for growth.
Unfortunately, in that potential lay the Riverlands greatest weakness. Those same flat fields, and no hills meant that the Riverlands had no natural defenses beyond river crossings, which, while not useless, didn't mean much if the enemy could simply go around the river, which they usually could.
This would have been bad enough, if the Riverlands only had one, or two frontiers. But instead of one or land borders, the Riverlands instead bordered every single nation in Westeros except Dorne.
In the North the Might of Stark ruled. To the East the Vale was protected by large mountains which it could generally cross in force, but having control over the Bloody Gate meant no Western Force could cross the mountains in strength.
To the south east was the Stormlands, the kingdom that fought countless battles with whoever ruled the Riverlands for control over what is today the northern Crownlands. At one point the Might of Storms end would famously conquer all the Riverland and form the largest pre Aegon realm in all of Westerosi History.
To the south West lay the Reach, the strongest Kingdom in Westerosi, who shared many of the Reach's weaknesses, but whose enormous power managed to make up for them.
The knights of Highgarden had problems riding up through their own fields to invade the Riverland in their own right, and frankly, speaking as someone who has studied the history of the Reach, the only reason it was the Durrandons who conquered the Riverlands, and not the Gardeners, is solely due to the Reach having one more border than the Stormlands(In the form of the Westerlands) to worry about.
To the west lay Lion of the Rock, who, like the Arryns, was also protected by mountains they could easily cross, while the Rivermen could not easily make a counter invasion westward.
And finaly, to the north west lies the Iron Islands, who had no difficulty forever raiding the Riverlands western coast, utilizing the trident for raids(as unlike other ships the Longships could be carried over land from the coas to the blue fork) and eventually taking the grand price, the complete dominance over the entire region.
All of these rivals meant that the Riverlands were at risk of a massive series of wars where all their neighbors might decide to attack at once, to take advantage of the opportunity of a lightly defended border.
This lead to local monarchies that were generally rather weak, and even if they did manage to protect their subjects, the wars would leave huge chunks of the land pillaged and plundered.
The line exception to this rule was the Justman dynasty, who managed to centralize a large amount of power, establish strong borders, and took the Riverlands to their greatest height, ruling all of the modern Riverlands, all the northern crown lands north of the blackwater(except crackeclaw point), parts of modern Westerlands and the parts of the vale that is west of the mountains of the moon.
As proven by this success, the Riverlands had the potential to be another of the great kingdoms of Westeros if govermed right, and the Justman dynasty was the Riverlands golden age.
How the Justmans fell is unfortunately not all that well understood by historians, as while the events that lead to their extinction at the hands of house Hoare is known, the causes that lead to the rapid decline in power that let the Ironborn achieve their destruction, is not.
All in all, the Riverlands were a region that never was allowed to reach it's true potential for any longer periods of time. Either they were at war to protect their nation from outsiders, or they were forced to. Fight in the wars of outsider overlords, who were fighting other outsiders.
The Riverlands has by many been called the battleground of Westeros, and a more fitting monicer can hardly be found. More blood has been spilled into the trident and blackwater rush, than any other place in Westeros.
All of this would change, with the coming of the dragons.
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Aegon famously wiped the Hoare dynasty from the face of the planet with dragonfire at Harrenhall, and with it, he established something the Riverlands had never seen before, not even in the age of the Justmans.
A true, stable peace.
Aegons reign was, at least after the Dornish war had ended, one of true peace and stability, and nowhere was this more apparent than the Riverlands and the Reach, both whom exploded in population during Aegon's reign.
It should not come as a surprise that the reach and the Riverlands, being as similar as they were in geography, both suffered during this time period with the same problems. Namely that at first, their ruling Dynasties did not have the power to enforce their rule.
Both the Reach and the Riverlands got new ruling dynasties following the conquest. For the Riverlands, this dynasty was the Tully's of Riverrun, an old lordly family, but not one that was particularly rich, prestigious, or powerfull.
This was a problem that marred the Riverlands during Aegon's reign, as it became abundantly clear that the riverlords loyalty was to house Targaryen, not to house Tully.
Many a time the riverlords would take their issues before their king, instead of going to Riverrun, as was the proper conduct.
During the first King's council, Aenys plan to solve this problem was, as with most of his problems, with economic growth.
Not only did Aenys grant an astonishing number of City charters to the Riverlands, he also personally financed the construction of what he deemed to be the best solution to giving house Tully the clout they needed to enforce his will effectively.
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Osgiliath. The pearl, the center, the capital of the Grand Duchy of the Riverlands.
Situated on the spot where green fork and the blue forks flows into each other, the city is built in three parts, one on each of the sides of the rivers, with the city center being on the Northern bank between the two forks.
This allows it to dominate trade on both rivers, while also being well situated to take advantage of the Blue Fork-Ironborn Bay canal, allowing it direct trade with the Western North, the Iron Islands, the Westerlands and the Reach.
As this canal was finished far, far earlier than the Northern Canal(Whose first attempt was a complete disaster), this allowed the new capital of the Riverlands to form very strong ties to both the rising North and Iron Islands.
Needless to say, this made the Tullys very, very rich and powerfull, to such a degree it would come to dominate even the other rising cities in the Riverlands. The other 3 grand canals of the Riverlands would make the leading house even richer, as they all flowed through the Duchy of Osgiliath as well.
Osgiliath is also far more centrally located than Riverrun ever was, allowing them to more easily centralize and extend control over the rest of the Grand Duchy.
The city Itself is a marvel in it's own right, with it's white concrete making it seem like it was made of marble, and it's size being one of the largest in all of Westeros.
The city is home to many marvels, such as the Arsenal of the Riverlands, the palace of the Tully's the starry dome, and like all the great cities of westeros, it's many, many factories.
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Osgiliath is, like most of the Riverlander cities, very much one without any huge specializations in it's Economy.
Like the Reach, the Riverlands economy was heavily based around a massive farming economy, though the product which they produced was very different from each other.
Whereas the reach had large areas with more specialized forms of more exotic produce, such as sugar, rice and so on, the riverlands instead stuck to exclusively producing actual food.
As such, countless amounts of grain, barley, fish and other foodstuff would pass through Osgiliath on their way to the Islands, The North or the Vale. While the reach and the Crownlands might have a larger produce all in all, when it comes to products that may spoil, distances will always play a huge role.
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This is not to say that it's fertile fields or rivers full of countless fish is the only thing the riverlands and it's cities has to offer.
The most important export the Riverlands has to offer, is of course clean coal.
Amongst his many, many technological achievements, Aenys the first not only discovered the capacity of coal as a fuel, but also predicted the way it's mass implementation could poison the very air itself in a toxic smog.
Thankfully, Aenys also invented the way one cleanses the coal of Sulfur, and thus drastically reduces the poisonous air which burning coals produces.
However, while it is fully possible to use coal powered machines to operate the machinery necessary to cleanse coal, Coal, is as Aenys never stopped reminding his subjects, a finite resource, which would one day go empty.
Thus he enforced that coal cleansers would be powered by water instead. Not too surprisingly, this meant that the riverlands and the massive trident would be used for this porpose.
This of course led to the problem poisonous wastewater. However, this work shall not go into the long, and complicated way in which the crown dealt with this problem over the years.
As the solutions did not affect the Riverland themselves for the most part, we shall instead focus on benefits of the coal cleansing industry, of which the Riverland were able to take full advantage off.
All the mountains of Westeros has coal in them, from the Northern mountains and skagos, to the red mountains of Dorne, coal is abundant.
However, the place where it is the most abundant by far, is the mountains of the moon, which the riverlands have access to on their western side.
This has lead to coal flowing from the western mountains, be treated along the green fork, then be shipped down to Osgiliath to either be used there in it's factories, or be shipped through to the rest of the continent.
Making this coal export even better, is that unlike the Vale or the North, the Iron Islands do not possess more than a few powerful rivers, and certainly nothing like the Trident or the Mander.
Thus, coal from the Iron Islands is shipped to the Riverlands to be cleansed, then either shipped elsewhere, or back to the Iron Islands. Either way, it passes through Osgiliath.
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Osgiliath, like all great cities in Westeros, does of course have it's own factories as well, however, as previously mentioned, it is not a very specialized production center.
One will find all the basic necessities of life made in Osgiliath, but nowhere near as good as elsewhere.
Osgiliath is in many ways the living embodiment of the river lander cities for good and ill. It makes everything, but usually not as good as other capital cities, and it's real purpose is as the trading middleman between all it's neighbors.
It's paper is plentiful, but not as good or plentiful as Winterfell's or the Bywater's. It's iron and steel is of good quality, but do not hold a candle to Ironborn steel. It has a massive amount of food products, but only good geography allows it to compete with the fertility of the Reach or the Crownlands.
Smaller cities within the Duchy of Osgiliath during this period includes, Harroway City, Fairmarket, Riverbend, Nutten.
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The older, smaller, and less important of the Tully's two great settlements is the castle, and later city of Riverrun.
Riverrun is very well located as a regional capital for a regular duchy, but as a capital for all of the Riverlands, it was abysmal.
Located far to the west, away from the actual powers of the trident, the best that can be said of river run as a capital was that it lay close to the both Stone Hedge and Raventree Hall, allowing the Tully's to theoretically stop any bickering between the two early.
This is not to say that Riverrun would not be both an important settlement for both the Riverlands and the Tully's however.
Riverrun as a city was the major stopping point for trade from the westerlands, and even if the northern road through the cliffy mountains meant one could actually bypass the city, most travelers did stop off at the city through that road anyway.
Riverrun the castle was situated on the spot where the tumblestone River runs into the red fork, and thanks to the way the Tully's have dug up the ground, the city can easily be turned into an island, with water on all sides during a siege.
Riverrun the city, is built with a similar idea. As the city expanded westward, flanked by rivers on two sides, the Tully's would copy their earlier defensive strategy by simply digging a huge canal between the tumblestone and the redfork, once again turning Riverrun into an island surrounded on all sides by water.
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In terms of local marvels, the city of Riverrun doesn't have much to offer, besides it's titular castle, which has never fallen to an enemy.
It's economy is generally based around agriculture, and as a shipper of goods between the Westerlands and the rest of the Riverlands.
Other cities in the duchy at the time includes Willow wood and Atranta.
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The ancient settlement of Pinkmaiden has a long history, and is closely connected with the Stoney Sept, which has throughout history been regarded as the religious center of the Riverlands.
In the days before the Faith of the seven was united under the high septon in Oldtown, most kingdoms had a center for the leader of their own clergy, and in the Riverlands, this was the stoney Sept, which according to legend was the first Sept made in the Riverlands which was not destroyed by attacks from the first men.
The Sept and it's town however, was not directly ruled by it's lord for most of it's history, instead being ruled by the local Septa or Septon in the name of the lord of Pinkmaiden.
Before the unification of the faith, the place was also the center for the order of the Maiden, a knightly order dedicated to said aspect of the seven who are one.
However, as the various religious orders of Westeros was united in the swords and stars, the order became obsolete and died out.
Still, even after this, The Stoney Sept remained the religious center of the river lands, and would remain so all the way until the Hoares conquered the Riverlands.
At this point, the local clergy of the riverlands were cut off from the Stoney Sept, as the Ironborn would not tolerate meddling from the reach in their kingdom.
This created a disconnect between the riverlands and the Starry Sept, which never truly healed.
Though attempts were made during the reign of Aegon to reestablish bonds between the riverlands and faith overall, the Riverlands would remain aloof during the reign of Aegon, with closer ties to King's landing than to oldtown.
This would famously lead to the Riverland clergy, lead from the Stoney Sept, choosing to support Aenys during the war of the faith, the only section of the Kingdom to do so.
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Other than controlling the Stoney Sept, the only thing that separates the duchy of Pinkmaiden from other Riverland er cities, is that it controls the city of Mummers Ford, a smaller less popular crossing of the Red Fork south of riverrun.
Other than the cities of Pinkmaiden, Stoney Sept and Mummers ford, the only other city during the period was Sherrer and Tumblers Fall.
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The Duchy of Wayfarer's Rest, is about as Riverlander as they come, with nothing really separating them from the rest of the Riverlands.
About the only thing of note is that in the age before the coming of the andals, there was supposedly a location of great importance for the first men religion in the area. However, as I have found no actual documented proof of this matter, I cannot claim that I find these legends very trustworthy.
The three Cities of the Duchy is Wayfarer's Rest, the local capital, Acorn Hall, and the Rushing Falls marking the border with the Duchy of Harrenhall.
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Of the occupation by the Ironborn, very little remains, either in culture, or in landmarks.
The exception is Harrenhall. Originally constructed as the largest castle ever built, Aenys decreed that it should be converted to a city, a job in which it succeeded quite well, as a large and prosperous way stop between King's Landing and Osgiliath.
It's most famous aspect however, is not the enormous size of it's walls, it's incredibly large towers, or it's success.
Instead it is most famous for the horrible, horrible fates which befalls it's rulers.
Going over the full history of Harrenhall could fill a book in itself, covering all the dynasties that has ruled it and what fates befell them. However, as it is not the purpose of this chronicle to cover it, I shall instead simply note that as of the time this book was written, the Castle has burned through 13 dynasties, each who came to a very unfortunate end.
Other cities in the duchy included Crossed Elm and Briarwhite.
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The bay of crabs stands out amongst the riverlands, as the only area that was never united by any single lord.
This changed with Aenys granting the Duchy, along with a city charter to to house Mooton. The duchy was thus named after it's capital, Maidenpool.
Maidenpool is named after Jonquil's Pool, the supposed meeting spot between Joquil and Florian, two characters from Riverlander folklore.
The waters are contained in a bathhouse, and are considered to possess healing properties. Having personally bathed in these waters, by permission from his Grace king Maegor, I can give my honest opinion that I find this aspect of the myth at least to be complete fabrication.
In terms of it's economic history, Maidenpool is generally a poor man's Duskendale, having always been drastically overshadowed by it's neighbor to the south.
This did not change much after getting it's charter as Maidenpool is generally regarded as little more than a stopping point on the way to Osgiliath, or sailing out of the trident into the bay of crabs.
However, as one does not actually NEED to stop by the city, it does not possess the grip on trade which Osgiliath or Spice town does.
In terms of produce, Maidenpool very much just another Riverlander city. It's economy is based of fish, harvest and trade.
More interesting is it's vassal city Saltpans, who has the dubious honor of having been the greatest producer of Salt in the kingdom, until Aenys the Second brought Dorne into the fold, and with it, the abundance of salt that is Saltshore.
Saltshore however, stopped producing salt as the remaking of Dorne reached this corner of the south top of Westeros, leading Salt pan's to once again regain it's status as the greatest producer of salt in the Kingdom.
For a decade or so anyway, until Maegors conquest brought more salted deserts into the realm.
Other than these two, the only other city in the duchy at this time was Widow's ford, which, ironically given it's name, was built on the spot where there used to be a ford that Aenys demolished in order to allow easier sailing up the trident.
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One part of the Riverlander economy not brought up so far is Horsebreeding. Just like the plains of the reach, the riverlands great plains makes for great horsebreeding and an enormous amounts of horses for all jobs.
However, despite this, the Duchy of Stone Hedge is far and away the biggest exporter of horses in the riverlands, to such a degree that they killed the local market for them elsewhere.
While lords breeds their own horses for their knights, everyone else in the Riverlands, who wishes for a horse, whether for war, transport or farmwork(The latter of whom becomes less and less relevant with each passing year) one goes to Stone Hedge. The city of the Horse Lords.
Aenys I invested a lot of coin into growing the city, and even constructed a personal estate for the royal family to use when visiting it, Meduseld the Golden Hall.
Needless to say, it is thus a very rich city, and the duchy is famous for being the center of Westeros cavalry culture, with both the great grounds around it used for cavalry training, and the city being home for a military academy for cavalry officers.
Smaller cities in the duchy during the period was Lychester, Lambswold and Sellydance.
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On the opposite end of the trident from Stone Hedge, is the Duchy of Raventree.
Like Stone Hedge, Aenys invested a lot of coin into the duchy and it's capital city, but while it's growth would make it rich, the path to get there would take well over half a century to make happen.
One of the projects Aenys instituted following the first council, was the planting of Ironwood in large, enormous forests, with the eventual goal of turning the rare hardwood into a common commodity. This however would require decades, upon decades of planning, hard work, and a refusal to take advantage of the resource until it was ready.
Such was the path of Raventree, who in the second century is the largest producer of Ironwood South of the neck(Though still dwarfed by the Northern market).
The woods, carefully guarded and harvested by house Blackwood, makes the duchy rich, and is used in pretty much any wood product under the sun.
Other cities in the duchy following the council are Penny tree, Mudgrave and Wendish City.
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Seagard was constructed to guard the river lands from Ironborn, and is extremely well defended against attacks from the sea.
Which made it somewhat awkward for the city when the Ironborn became trading partners with the rivermen instead.
In terms of it's economy, Seagard is a Riverlander city with a far larger emphasis on fishing than it's harvests, as the city is, like the Iron Islands, located in the most fish rich waters in the world.
Needless to say, Seagard is thusly a fishing city, and a stop for the harvests that flows out of the Duchy to feed the Iron Islands.
It is not the city itself that makes the duchy rich however. Rather it is it's canal. The Blue Fork-Ironman bay canal, the first large canal in Westeros, the first successful attempt Bridge a quicker sea route between the easter seas and the sunset sea.
Along with the disaster that was the First Northern Canal, it was the only canal that was already put into motion at the first council. It was also the only canal Aenys himself would live to see finished.
The canal, Unsurprisingly, dominates the trade of the duchy, and though the Wendish City is along it's south Bank, the actual tariffs, and trade checks are done by house Mallister itself, thus making them obscenely rich.
Though the second Northern Canal would eventually make this canals stranglehold on trade quite a bit lesser, it still remained the quickest and easiest way to get from the Iron Islands to the east.
Other cities that was chartered during the council was Sevenstreams, Hag's Mire and Ramsford.
The city of Oldstones(Built around the ancient seat of House Mudd, kings of the rivers and hills) was also declared during the council, as a royal holding of the crown, but it's colonization and construction wouldn't actually be started before the second council, and we will thus not cover it here.
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Extract from "The King's Councils: Aenys the first, Volume 1" by Rohanne Von Tyrosh. Historian serving Maegor the First, the breaker of chains