The Riverlands

Harren and his last sons died in the fires that engulfed his monstrous fortress that night.

House Hoare died with him, and so too did the Iron Islands hold on the Riverlands.

The next day, outside the smoking ruins of Harrenhal, King Aegon accepted an oath of fealty from Edmund Tully, Lord of Riverrun, and named him Lord Paramount of the Trident.

Yamaha Resort and Casino at San Manuel is bringing the biggest laughs to the stage.

Now, surely this was the height of House Bracken's influence at court, and maybe just in general.

You'd probably have to go back to truly ancient, ancient times, when they were kings in the Riverlands, to get close to this level of prominence.

But as is often the case with the ultra ambitious, this was not enough for Lord Bracken.

Yeah.

The influence of Princes Daeron and Aemon were sufficient, along with the scandal itself, to end the tenure of the Brackens at court.

Aegor's grandfather was removed as Hand of the King, and he and Barba were banished.

Baby Aegor, the unwitting less than a year old would-be usurper, went with, of course, to Stone Hedge in the Riverlands.

Yeah.

So it's, it's interesting.

You think there's more there because the other thing, I guess, related to this is there's this whole campaign that was kinda touched on last week too of, of Aemond with Vhagar kinda rampaging at random towns in the Riverlands.

And as I noticed last week, it does...

Th- there, there is some ambiguity here where it's like, yeah, Vhagar's doing this, and Vhagar's torching these random towns that don't seem like they're super important.

I think that would be a satisfying continuation of the, of the Rhaena plot.

And there's some interesting stuff also in the book, wh- which we talked about last episode with, like, who's burning the countryside? Is it Vhagar? Is it the, the army coming-

The Riverlands

... down from the north to King's Landing?

After that, we may begin discussing your release.

In the meantime, I require you to send word out to your men scattered in the Riverlands.

They are still nearly 300 cavalry and 1,000 infantry sworn to you.

Not to mention the others still sworn to you.

Even with his men rallying whoever they can and gathering scattered bands of Northmen who fled in the chaos, it will take time.

Catlin instead suggests using the letters they've gathered to shift to a propaganda war against the Lannisters.

Copies of them are made and sent out across the Riverlands and beyond.

He makes sure some reach the Eyrie, Sunspear, and Highgarden, telling them of Lannister treachery and betrayal.

He is facing off against his nephew, Aemond, who rides the colossal ancient behemoth, Vhagar.

Aemond has been a relentless terror throughout the war, burning the Riverlands and responsible for significant deaths, but he has a glaring physical weakness.

The missing eye.

Exactly.

He doesn't just die like a normal man.

He dissolves into the very elements that define his house.

He becomes a ghost story whispered in the Riverlands.

Yeah.

Though six hundred years is well short of ancient by the standards of Westerosi noble houses, they have become the equal of many who are such in a relatively short time thanks to all those tolls adding up.

Indeed, they become powerful enough that, conspiring with a fellow subject of the King in the North, House Bolton, they could turn on the new royal family and shift the entire balance of power in the North and the Riverlands.

That is subject to change, however.

The Freys are widely reviled now in Westeros, thanks to the Red Wedding, and by the fandom for that same reason, among others, but they were quite unpopular in Westeros prior to the start of the War of the Five Kings, let alone the Red Wedding.

Collecting tolls is for the merchant class.

The nobility is meant to own productive lands, charge rents and collect taxes, which the Freys do also, but the toll revenue is the heart of their business.

Thus, many see them as greedy upstarts, and as a result, it's been difficult for the Freys to find marriages within the Riverlands.

doesn't end with that.