A Sword Without a Hilt: A Song of Ice and Fire/D&D 3.5 Crossover

Twentieth Day of the Fifth Month 294 AC

As one might imagine the announcement that you would be erecting bases throughout the realm for the protection of all your citizens is greeted with open enthusiasm and veiled concern. One the one hand it is good to know help can be as close as the sky and as swift as the wind as a poetically inclined Duke Redwyne puts it, on the other it escapes no one that this would put literal eyes in the sky on the realms under the wings of the respective bases, more outwardly obvious than anything the House of Mirrors can do. Thankfully as in most cases the glint of gold goes a long way to showing all concerned why they might wish an airforce presence in their provinces. Not only is it a one time infusion of wealth and state effort, the infrastructure for such a thing is not lightly made, but you make it clear these bases will serve as a source of revenue and a lot of the places you had chosen could use the leg up.

Bear Island and Skagos are both almost as poor as they are cold and the similarly named Morogos and Morosh are both in need of capital for related reasons, neither is a major port and the waters there are grey and storm-tossed. Wheeling back south Volantis does not really need any sort of boost, but it is well placed for the need and better protected than any more easterly posting. Ar Noy would probably make for the strangest posting simply because people are yet few on the ground there and not gathered together for protection against winter and raiders as they are in the North. Odds are the airforce itself shall be a major cultural touchstone to the lands of the Rhoynar given the wealth and the Imperial attention that shall flow into the region because of it.

In the deepest south in Gogossos the circle of airforce coverage almost touches that of Volantis, but as the Summer Sea is already guarded as much as it needed by the steam and vapor rising from that same ruin and flame there is no concern that foes should slip by that quarter. West and north again here is Westheaven and the Deep the best guarded skies in the realm, though not by much. Northwards again the Eyrie, Harrenhall and the Rock intersect their patrols to cover much of the Riverlands the Vale and the Reach in patrols from three sources and finally the Arbor completes the circuit of the proposed construction. It is not perfect and you had considered making use of the same positioning within reason to sweeten this lord and that, but at the end of the day it makes sense to go with military incentive over all others. No room for the worm to wiggle on the hook as the saying goes in Braavos...


Thus in the best tradition of a fisherman who cannot quite bait his hook as he might want you throw some fish guts into the water in the hopes of making up the difference. Petty lordships and minor titles, the sort of things that you have no use for really, not for revenue and not for positioning and not for any favorites left to land. You thus generously apportion them to local lords, often simply cutting the fiefs up and literally dividing them and at other times handing them off to younger sons or kin of loyalist houses. You are much praised for your generosity, by those at least who had read the precious map as a series of colored circles and nothing more as opposed to the admission that you do not care for local affairs so long as they are in order That has been a refrain of yours as long as you have ruled over any realm larger than a single city.

You are almost ready to swear Zherys would laugh if he were not in the middle of trying to sway the more conservative voices of southeast Essos to his block before the Sealord can make more headway. That rivalry is alive and well in your halls it seems, though you must say you much prefer to see it waged with the spilling of ink and not blood.

As to the matter of the Feyhome, as it had come to be known it transpires that Dalla makes the better offer after you claim the Veridium deposit for the realm as too dangerous to allow into private hands.

Finally as you move into the evening the matter of the succession for titles large and small is decided just as the lords might wish, with no meddling from the throne. Usually it is simply putting a seal on tradition, eldest son inherits first, daughters before uncles and any children take the name of the mother, though a few even outside of Dorne put in a provision that the Lord may on a case by case basis select the eldest child regardless of gender to succeed. The Skagosi being very fold of their traditions make for some of the most complex succession laws on the books since their way is for the tile to go to the most worthy and not simply to the eldest, a fact which is known by deed and acclamation.

So it is that the Curia is to enter the closed session on the next day in good spirits. One can only hope that it will help, though you expect tears rage and denial aplenty. It might be worth colluding a touch with those who already know the dark truth so that you can make the day more than one of you dropping dread news after dread news.

How do you begin the Closed Session?

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OOC: OK this is it, the big one, there is a reason the day after has counseling penned in. Not yet edited.