The Kingdom of Winter

The Kingdom of Winteror or the North is one of the largest kingdoms of Westeros, the dominion of House Stark extends from the border of the Brandon's Gift, which is controlled by the Night's Watch, to the southern edge of the Neck far to the south, ruled by House Reed.

The north has been ruled by the Starks for thousands of years from the castle known as Winterfell.

People
Most northmen are descended from the First Men, although there have been centuries of intermarriage with the Andals who conquered south of the Neck. The Old Tongue spoken by the First Men of antiquity has been replaced in the north by the Common Tongue, with the earlier language now only spoken beyond the Wall.

Some northmen live in remote, distant areas where they act as little more than clans and tribes. These remote folk, such as the crannogmen, the northern mountain clans, and the Skagosi, are still vassals of the Starks, however, and are allowed to maintain their own ways and traditions as long as they remain loyal to Winterfell.

Most of the north's people still follow the old gods and their heart trees, and have little inclination for newer religions. There are a few houses who follow the Faith of the Seven, including Houses Manderly, Wells, and Whitehill.

Economy
As the north is largely uncultivated, there are few roads of import there. Most of the inland trade passes by either the kingsroad or the rivers. Trade items from the north include wool, hides, and timber. White Harbor contains silversmiths and the Old Mint.

Dawn Age
The peoples of the north are nearly all descended from the First Men, who settled the land nearly twelve thousand years ago. Little is known of that time, but cryptic runes carved in old stones and the barrows the First Men lived in can still be found in the barrowlands. Ancient forts of the First Men are scattered throughout the north, including a ringfort atop Seal Rock near White Harbor and ruins in Sea Dragon Point. The children of the forest also made weirwood circles.

Kings in the North
About eight thousand years ago, the legendary Long Night occurred when the Others invaded from the Lands of Always Winter. The event defined and shaped the north, leading to the founding of the Wall, the order of the Night's Watch, the castle of Winterfell and the first Stark Kings of Winter. Brandon the Breaker is said to have allied with Joramun, a King-Beyond-the-Wall, to bring down the Night's King.

The Starks gradually defeated rival kings, such as the Barrow Kings to their south and the Red Kings to their east. For many centuries the Boltons were bitter rivals of the Starks of Winterfell. The practice of flaying their enemies gave the Boltons a sinister reputation. It is said that a thousand years ago, the Boltons finally swore fealty to the Kings in the North and agreed to abandon their practice of flaying their enemies.

King Jon Stark founded the Wolf's Den at the mouth of the White Knife after driving out sea raiders. His son, Rickard Stark, conquered the Neck from the Marsh King and married his daughter. King Rodrik Stark is said to have won Bear Island from the ironborn in a wrestling match. Two thousand years ago the north warred with the Vale of Arryn after the Rape of the Three Sisters, with the Arryns eventually gaining control of the islands in this War Across the Water.

King Brandon the Shipwright attempted to sail across the Sunset Sea, but never returned back home. His son, also named Brandon, burned the northern shipyards in his grief. The north has since lacked strength at sea.

A thousand years before the Doom of Valyria, the Manderlys were driven from the river Mander by House Gardener, the Kings of the Reach, and fled to the north, where they were welcomed by the Starks of Winterfell as their own bannermen. The Manderlys received the Wolf's Den and developed White Harbor, which has become the main northern port for commerce and naval transport.

The Kings in the North rekindled the rivalry over the Three Sisters with their neighbors, the Kings of Mountain and Vale, a few hundred years before the Doom. The islands have been captured, recaptured, plundered and burned many times during the centuries, but House Arryn managed to keep them within their sphere of influence.

King Brandon IX Stark
One of the more successful monarchs in recent memory, King Brandon IX Stark repelled House Hoare's ironmen from the Neck during the black line's invasion of the mainland in 37 AD. House Reed mustered the first line of defence while the king gathered an army at Moat Cailin. The Ironborn had moderate success in laying waste to the marshes, until they made a bold move on the castle. The assault turned out to be a devastating failure, but the King in the North was slain in the fighting. The Northerners chased the invaders out of the Neck and ended the war. After the old king’s prosperous reign of 35 years, Lynara Stark ascended to the throne. Her coronation was accompanied by doubtful grumbling.

Lynara Stark, the Bitch Queen
Although many suspected a swift end to the new queen's reign, Lynara ruled over a long but violent period of time. Her firstborn son, Edwyn Stark was sent to Barrowton for courtly tutelage, and unbeknown to the queen, the Dustins harbored plans to raise the young man to his mother's throne. As winter thawed into spring in 43 AD, Barrowton began raising her armies, summoned all her allies and sympathisers to join her strength and declared war on Winterfell. Houses Glover and Ryswell were the primary supporters of the Dustins and Edwyn Stark, who would later become known as the Spring King. Queen Lynara in turn called her own banners. Houses Umber, Karstark and Tallhart answered the call immediately and marched their armies to Winterfell.

The War of the Wolves
The Dustin host laid siege to Torrhen’s Square while the Queen’s army rallied at Winterfell. Harlon Karstark, the king consort, marched with a host to the Dreadfort, Hornwood and White Harbor, seeking the neutral lords’ support and levies. Winterfell marched on Torrhen’s Square, lifting the siege and sending the rebels to fortify at Wolfholt. The two hosts were at a stalemate during which each side harried and raided the other; the loyalists in the Rills and the Wolfswood and the rebels along the White Knife.

The next year, Harlon Karstark arrived at Torrhen’s Square with a host of eastern Northmen, boosting the Queen’s numbers dramatically. They offered the rebel host battle in the hills of Wolfholt, and although at a strategic disadvantage, managed to overcome the rebels with sheer numbers. The battle was a costly but decisive victory for the Queen. Harlon Karstark died in the fighting, leaving the Queen a widow. The Dustins retreated back to Barrowton and prepared for a siege while seeking foreign aid from the Iron Islands. After receiving the news, many Ironmen took the chance to raid the unprotected coasts of Cape Kraken and the Stony Shore. The Queen’s host laid siege to Barrowton while reaping their early spring harvests and putting many Barrowman peasants to the sword.

The Siege of Barrowton continued for closer to a year, and many of the northern lords left the host to protect their lands from the Ironborn, making an assault an even less inviting option. With most of the hostilities over, Queen Lynara held a victory feast at Winterfell while the siege was still ongoing. As spring turned to summer, Edwyn Stark, going against Lord Dustin’s better judgment, challenged a champion of the beleaguers to single combat to resolve the war. The Spring King was promptly subdued and taken hostage. With no more cause to fight for, Barrowton surrendered, the rebel lords were captured and the city was plundered.

The Queen's Peace
After the lords had spent many moons in the dungeons of Winterfell, Queen Lynara began dispensing justice on the rebels. Each perpetrator of a rebel house was sentenced to death by beheading, their kinsmen were taken as wards of Winterfell and Edwyn Stark, still demanding a trial by combat, was sent to fight a pack of hungry wolves to the death in a makeshift arena. The animals tore the Spring King to shreds while Queen Lynara watched from the stands, branding her a wicked kinslayer and giving her the nickname she is known for, “the Bitch Queen”. The War of the Wolves ended and Torrhen Stark, the queen's younger son, became heir to Winterfell.

Two years after peace was declared, Queen Lynara celebrated her fortieth name day in Winterfell with an opulent feast and tournament. After raising a toast and watching all her bannermen swallow their winecups empty, the queen announced that the suspected traitors’ cups were poisoned and that only she had the antidote. An uneasy moment later a young man stepped forth, lunged for the queen’s vial, emptied it into his mouth and dropped dead. The Bitch Queen revealed that only the supposed antidote was poison and used the debacle as a warning to all of her enemies. The ploy helped keep the queen’s foes in check, but her reputation was worsened even further. Though the dreadful feast is what the queen is widely known for, she did marry her children to wealthy and influential lords and ladies and turned out to be a savvy ruler in her own ways. During her elder daughter Sarra's wedding disgusting rumors of the queen's baser cravings spread widely in Winterfell. It was said that the queen lay with her daughter's groom. Several suspected guests paid for this slander in the dungeons of Winterfell.

A New War for the Three Sisters
In an attempt to alleviate the division in her kingdom, in 65 AD Queen Lynara invited a delegation of Sistermen nobles to Winterfell, picked one of them as a pretender to the islands’ lordship and declared war on the Kingdom of Mountain and Vale. She named her son Torrhen as commander and tasked him with gathering a host in White Harbor. The war came to an almost immediate halt when Sistermen loyal to the Eyrie blockaded the port with their ships. With Torrhen Stark already at White Harbor with a sizable, but not complete army in his command, he made a bold move by manning Manderly ships to break the blockade. The blockade was lifted as the Sistermen’s fleet scattered, but the Northmen lost half of their navy in the struggle.

The Sistermen, under orders from King Arryn, raided and pillaged the Northerner shores all throughout the following year. Without as many ships as Torrhen Stark had intended to sail to Sisterton with, he elected to set sail without his full army. The bulk of the Northern force landed on Sweetsister while single ships raided the coastal areas and scouted enemy vessels. As the local overwhelmed levies fortified at Breakwater Castle, Sisterton was stormed and plundered. The Northerners began a siege.

Northerner scouts reported that the might of the Vale had arrived in the Bite aboard a fleet from Gulltown. In a desperate attempt to gain a foothold for the fighting to come, Torrhen Stark assaulted Breakwater Castle. The casualties were high, but after three subsequent attacks on the walls, the castle was breached and the nobles huddled there were taken captive.

Torrhen Stark assigned a garrison and sailed with his fleet back to White Harbor for reinforcements. Later, the Arryns arrived, retook the island and prepared to recapture the castle. Their commander hesitated when the occupiers threatened to slay all the Sistermen hostages.

After returning to the Northern mainland Torrhen Stark prepared to ship another army to Sweetsister, but found many of the lords and levies scattered, gone to protect their lands from the raiders. In addition the Sistermen had regrouped another blockade of the harbor. Unwilling to risk another sea battle, he was forced to send a raven to Sisterton and the Eyrie, offering ungainly peace terms that favored the Vale. The Arryns accepted, the hostages were released and the occupiers of Breakwater Castle were given safe passage to White Harbor.

Torrhen's Uprising
Displeased by the Bitch Queen’s pointless war, Lord Manderly and the other lords who fought by Torrhen Stark’s side conspired to march on Winterfell and name their commander King in the North. With a loyal and battle-hardened army at his back, Torrhen Stark gave into the temptation and joined the scheme in 68 AD. After a long march across the White Knife, the bulk of the force camped outside Winterfell’s vicinity while a smaller party rode with the would-be king into the castle. Come nightfall, Torrhen’s army broke camp and approached Winterfell while Torrhen and his men left the gates open. The fortress was captured with minimal bloodshed and Queen Lynara was thrown into the dungeons. When the sun rose, there was a new king in Winterfell.

The coronation of King Torrhen III Stark took place soon in Winterfell. Shortly afterwards the former queen was tried before a court of lords appointed by King Torrhen to answer for the murder and kinslaying of Edwyn Stark. Lynara Stark was found guilty and sentenced to exile in Bear Island and stripped of all rights to the Kingdom of Winter. While traveling through the Wolfswood, the Bitch Queen’s escort was intercepted by men of House Glover, who brought Lynara Stark to Deepwood Motte and hanged her for the execution of their old lord. Though dissatisfied, the court at Winterfell was too occupied with a fragile realm to answer the injustice.

The new king's reign was far more lenient compared to his mother's vicious antics. Some lords found him too indecisive, allowing the lords who had won him his throne too much freedom and letting them run his kingdom on his behalf. The biggest source of dissatisfaction was his refusal to declare another war for the Three Sisters, a war that many northmen thought had only failed because of the queen, and for this reason many called the king Torrhen the Tenuous. He was chided for being indecisive, easily swayed and uncertain of his own rulings, but the kingdom did see peace during his nine years' reign.

King Brandon X Stark
Torrhen III Stark passed away peacefully in Winterfell at the ripe age of eight-and-forty and was succeeded by his eldest son, Brandon. After the better part of a century of war and misery in the North, the new young king elected to follow in the footsteps of the previous Brandon, favoring peace and balance over foreign conquest. Brandon X Stark fulfilled this goal rather aptly, taking a bride from a venerable family and focusing all of his attention on internal affairs. Most Northmen would agree that his reign had been a prosperous one compared to earlier rulers, though some reproached his unwillingness to bring war upon the Three Sisters once more.