The Westerlands

When the great John Umber declared that the North should secede with Robb as their king, Lord Rickard is the first to agree, laying his sword beside Lord Umber's at Robb's feet.

And Lord Rickard accompanied Robb on his foray into the Westerlands.

At the Battle of Oxcross, it was he who slew the enemy commander, Sir Stafford Lannister, and then he who led raids across the West Coast.

But then he found another outlet for his anger.

Rhaegar turns and smiles.

It looks as though the Reach and the Westerlands have come to our aid.

Now's our chance then.

Randyll Tarly and Jaime ride up over the ridge.

And he won't do it alone.

Cavalry, to the king.

In a united surge, the combined cavalry of the Reach and Westerlands charge into the Night King's army.

At that moment, Ned and Rhaegar sally out of Winterfell and at the head of their army.

He's a resourceful man who takes his vow seriously, so would surely just see that as a temporary setback.

And Jamie is concerned that the Blackfish will try to stop the wagon train that Jamie sends to the Westerlands containing Jane and Edmure, so he doubles the guard on it, then doubles it again, as he says to its commander, Fawley Prestor, we don't know where the Blackfish is, but if he can cut Edmure free, he will.

So I think we've got a good idea of what the Blackfish is likely to want to do.

Rally the Riverlands, retake Riverrun and rescue Jane and Edmure.

We haven't been there.

We haven't been to the Westerlands at all yet in terms of POV characters, but I feel like there's a gap there in terms of stuff that could happen.

Mm-hmm.

So yeah, so maybe, maybe some secondary character helps with that.

This makes the rock itself, with its natural defenses, the strongest castle in all Westeros, according to George R.R. Martin himself.

It stands three times as tall as the Wall and looks out over the Sunset Sea, Lannisport, and the mountains of the Westerlands.

As grand as that sounds, today we're going to where there's little to no light at all, let alone a view.

The Red Viper once commented that even the rooms for highborn guests have the feel of a dungeon due to the lack of sunshine.

That seems to have been the final prompt for Tywin.

Jaime leads an army out of the Westerlands a week later, winning the battle at the Golden Tooth, then pushing on to Riverrun, defeating Edmure on the field and besieging the castle.

Meanwhile, Tywin himself, with Kevan, took out two other key Riverlands castles, Raventree Hall and Harrenhal.

He ended up camped around the Inn at the Crossroads.

Bad news, however, keeps coming as Tywin stays at Harrenhal.

Stannis declares himself and spreads the story about Jaime and Cersei.

Beric Dondarrion refuses to die despite seemingly being killed several times, and Robb takes a fast-moving part of his army into the Westerlands, destroying a new Lannister army being trained and winning several battles.

Tywin's apparent inactivity here frustrates many on his side and on Robb's.

Mace is eager to secure his holdings and plans to send more troops.

He divides his forces with one contingent rushing the Stormlands and the other advancing toward the Riverlands, just as Devon Lannister gathers the rest of the Westermen.

Rather than going on the offensive, the Blackfish organizes his men in a defensive formation, aiming to keep the enemy army at bay, and this pays off as far fewer men manage to arrive than expected, thanks to the Dornish.

under prince obren's command raiders cross the prince's pass harrying the tarly and florent lands they burn crops destroy bridges and vanish into the sands before any counter-attack arrives it is not yet a full invasion but enough to force the tyrells to recall soldiers from both the riverlands and king's landing to defend their borders the iron throne's strength is split across three bleeding fronts the riverlands the stormlands and dorn yet the starks soon have to contend with a new front in the most unexpected place while their armies war in the south another army arrives from the wall a host of wildlings they batter the exhausted They batter the exhausted Night's Watch, and many of their men fear that they may breach the wall entirely.

In the Stormlands, Stannis nods in approval as he captures Storm's End.

The Northmen in the Westerlands all celebrate, with Rickard Karstark roaring the loudest, though lamenting that he could not have witnessed it.

And in the Lannister camp, Tywin is raging.

He is furious at Tyrion for trying something like this, and Robb for actually being able to execute Jaime.

With him gone, the Northmen retake Harrenhal and leave him trapped in the Crownlands.

Seeing this, the Tyrells decide not to ally with Tywin, so Stannis soon rides out to crush them.

But Tywin realizes that the battle is not lost and instead returns to Harrenhal and returns to lick his wounds in the Westerlands.

Seeing this, Roose Bolton bunkers down in the massive castle for a strike, but Tywin sweeps around the God's Eye to try and move past them, moving through the crownlands in the Reach.

Not just, as Jaime suspects, because he might know the truth about Robert Baratheon's death – that now seems quite a long time ago in the plot – but because Varys needs someone sympathetic installed as chief holder of the crown's biggest debt for whenever young Griff comes to power, and leader of one of the Seven Kingdoms.

If Young Gryff can conquer the Crownlands, and John Connington can deliver the Stormlands, and the Dornish come on side and the friends in the Reach turn out to be important, and with Tyrek the Westerlands pledge their support, that means a large portion of the continent might be supportive from day one.

Varys has a plan, and is two steps ahead of most of the Seven Kingdoms.

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