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#wyman manderly – @zaldrizer-sovesi on Tumblr
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All Dragons Must Fly

@zaldrizer-sovesi / zaldrizer-sovesi.tumblr.com

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Anonymous asked:

Do you believe in the great northern conspiracy theory? Because I think that's what happens in the end based on S6 conclusion. The northern lords together declare Jon as KiTN. Only with Robb's will to validate stuff..

I think it’s partly true. There are pockets of resistance to the Boltons throughout the North, but it’s unlikely they were coordinated into one grand conspiracy before Roose summoned them all to Winterfell for Ramsay’s wedding. The North is enormous, and to coordinate by mail they’d have to trust every maester in the region not to be a spy.

My general sense of it is that there’s a Small-to-Middling Northeastern Conspiracy, led by Wyman Manderly and backing Rickon, and a Small-to-Middling Northwestern Conspiracy led by Maege Mormont and backing Jon. (It’s not impossible that some dissident Riverlanders and former members of the BWB have formed their own faction or joined up with the northwestern group, though I’m less sold on that.)

Both groups have the same primary objective of crushing the Boltons. They have diverging secondary objectives and emotional investments - the northwesterners are explicitly nationalist, while the northeasterners really want to make the Boltons and Lannisters pay. Their respective claimants do make sense: honoring the Young Wolf’s will is its own statement of Northern legitimacy for the nationalists, while sticking to conventional succession and declaring for Stannis shows Manderly’s faction looking south. That reflects the broader cultural diversity of the North, in that White Harbor and other towns to the east or south of Winterfell are more Andalized, while the farther-flung rural areas keep to the older way.

That said, I doubt the different factions are opposed to each other or unwilling to work together. I think the different approaches are more reflections of cultural preferences and limited information. Thenortheasterners were loyal to Robb, and the northwesterners are with Stannis now. (He really should lay off the heart trees, though, that crowd doesn’t care enough about him to tolerate disrespect to the old gods.) They mostly care about dealing with the Boltons.

There wasn’t a grand northern conspiracy before, but there sure is now:

"I have just come from the high table," Lord Wyman went on. "I have eaten too much, as ever, and all White Harbor knows my bowels are bad. My friends of Frey will not question a lengthy visit to the privy, we hope." He turned his cup over. "There. You will drink and I will not. Sit. Time is short, and there is much we need to say.” (ADWD, Davos IV)
"We must look at Manderly," muttered Ser Aenys Frey. "Lord Wyman loves us not."   
Ryswell was not convinced. "He loves his steaks and chops and meat pies, though. Prowling the castle by dark would require him to leave the table. The only time he does that is when he seeks the privy for one of his hourlong squats." (ADWD, A Ghost in Winterfell)

The people inside Winterfell are mostly older men on that final hunt, to save food for their families and bring the Boltons down with them. Lord Wyman will put together whatever seems most likely to work, and those of us who are following the show have a pretty good guess what that’ll be.

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Maester Luwin’s Just-So Stories: Knighthood and Northern Culture

“How many knights?”
“Few enough,” the maester said with impatience. “To be a knight you must stand your vigil in a sept, and be anointed with the seven oils to consecrate your vows. In the north, only a few of the great houses worship the Seven. The rest honor the old gods, and name no knights....but these lords and their sons and sworn swords are no less fierce or loyal or honorable. A man’s worth is not marked by a ser before his name. As I have told you a hundred times before.” (AGOT, Bran VI)

Okay, that’s cute, but aside from the last sentence, it’s a pack of lies, missed points, and deflections.

His assessment that knighthood requires religious devotion to the Seven is, of course, patently false.

“Any knight can make a knight, and every man you see before you has felt a sword upon his shoulder.” (ASOS, Arya IX)

By the time Lord Beric says this, he is a staunch convert to R’hllorism, and yet we see he has no problem adapting the ceremony.

[T]he lightning lord did not set the blade afire, but merely laid it lightly on Gendry’s shoulder. “Gendry, do you swear before the eyes of gods and men to defend those who cannot defend themselves, to protect all women and children, to obey your captains, your liege lord, and your king, to fight bravely when needed and to do such other tasks as are laid for you, however hard or humble or dangerous they may be?”
“I do, m’lord.”
The marcher lord moved the sword from the right shoulder to the left. “Arise, Ser Gendry, knight of the hollow hill, and be welcome to our brotherhood.”

And we know Northerners have gotten in on the action.

Ser Bartimus: “It’s said they hung their entrails in the branches of the heart tree, as an offering to the gods. The old gods, not these new ones from the south. Your Seven don’t know winter, and winter don’t know them.”
Ser Jorah: “When Robert’s stonethrowers opened a breach in King Balon’s wall, a priest from Myr was the first man through, but I was not far behind. For that I won my knighthood.” (ACOK, Dany I)

Even knights who do follow the Faith aren’t necessarily expected to stand vigil, but can be knighted on the battlefield, after tourneys, or really whenever a knight is in a pinch and needs another knight.

“Without me, you are only five.”
“The lad has the truth of it,” said Ser Lyonel Baratheon. “Do it, Ser Duncan. Any knight can make a knight”....The Laughing Storm gave an impatient shake of the head. “Go to him, Ser Duncan. I’ll give squire Raymun his knighthood.” he slid his sword out of his sheath and shouldered Dunk aside. “Raymun of House Fossoway,” he began solemnly, touching the blade to the squire’s right shoulder, “in the name of the Warrior I charge you to be brave....” (The Hedge Knight)

Knight’s vows are exceptionally easy to make nondenominational: “I charge you by the old gods and the new to be brave and good and not kick puppies, blah blah blah.” They could even be adapted to the Northern faith by being said before a heart tree in the presence of community members, like Northern marriage ceremonies and the Night’s Watch vows.

So why not do that?

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