Yeah, the North is very, very strong. I guess it all depends on how strong the South is and how the author manages this strength. Still, even if it goes the HFY route, I think it's a nice story to follow. Sometimes curb stomps are exactly what the doctor ordered - though, who knows how this will turn out...

 

See, 100,000 reads 100 in my country.

But yes, I meant one hundred thousand men.

 

Yeah, that's what I thought. Still a bit funny. :3

 

I haven't read the story but how do they justify being able to raise 100k? Is their culture less feudal with more conscription or is it just a much larger population?

 

How could they justify it? I mean, they could try and justify it, but the only way I see that as possible is if they're literally a different culture significantly more advanced both socially and technologically than the rest of the world, and they have been for a very long time.

In which case why the fuck wouldn't they be living in one of the areas of Westeros that are just flat out better? What, they loved their shitty cold climate and land that barely grows anything in comparison too much to leave and take over the rest using their superior Northern technology?

 

It's justified by the mass introduction in the North of Highland Cattle which can survive in poor climates eating virtually any plant while it produces a cheap wool for trade, high-fat milk and lots of meat - thus allowing the North to sustain a higher population even despite the harsh winters. It's only a couple of chapters so far, generally of well-written quality, but I worry that it'll simply turn into a Stark-wank and lose all quality as a story.

 

Are there any Starkstarks, who are twice as Stark as any other Stark? Unless you count the Stark²s.

It's actually kind of fun, to come up with new Stark names, can't really blame the author.

Treestarks, Riverstarks, Sunstarks, Desertstarks, Mountainstarks, Grassstarks, Hillstarks, Woodstarks, Foreststarks, Moonstarks, Sandstarks, Icestarks, Windstarks, Stormstarks, Starstarks, Cloudstarks, Shadowstarks, Rainstarks, Thunderstarks, Steelstarks, Saltstarks.

I could go on, but I won't.

I apologize for this post. It was immature and annoying, yet I felt oddly compelled to do so.

 

In all honesty, it would make for a pleasant change, since there's still a large number of fics where they get buggered to hell and back, simply because some authors feel like they must emulate GRRM in their continual elimination of all things Stark.

Not saying I want it to turn to "And Robb summoned his banners, marched through Westeros, set Casterly Rock/King's Landing on fire, and marched back home just in time to join forces with the Night's Watch and defend the Wall from the Others' incursion", just that it's not bad if every now and again they get a smidgeon of happy ends.

 

I've registered, still can't read it.

It's saying I don't have permission.

 

You have to wait for a bit, I think it's a day or so at most, until your account gets approved by one of the staff. In the meantime, for you and any other who might not want to go through the hassle of registration and account activation, here, the first two chapters:

 

The thing that makes no fucking sense is how ridiculously underpopulated the North is in the canon in comparison to the other Kingdoms. It is fucking massive. The land is not so terrible that it can't support a shit ton more lords-peasants-armies

 

Yeah, I had to wait a few hours until my account got approved and I could see everything. Worth the wait, though.

 

I've always just figured that the North has a higher mortality rate during the winters which devastated the population once in a while.

 

Except in canon, the North can field armies equivalent to the Vale, the Riverlands and maybe even the Westerlands so it's not that underpopulated.

The North might be fucking massive, but the climate is also fucking terrible.

I doubt yields are going to be high when you have summer snows.

So yeah, the North having a lower pop./km^2 makes perfect sense.

 

There's also the fact that a sizeable portion of the north is beyond the wall, wildling territory. It's also heavily forested, and there might even be a desert in there somewhere.

Look at Russia for example. Nearly 5 times India's area, population around 146 million. India's around 1.25 billion. That's nearly 8 times Russia's.

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Very out of topic, but Steam has Crusader Kings II on sale, which, I hear, has a very nice GoT mod. Forgive the diversion, but yeah, I think I'm going to buy this.

 

I read the word pack six times before I gave up. And then there were all the Stark cadet branches... *rolls eyes*

Greystark. Karstark. Maybe Barrowstark and Whitestark, for the two biggest population centers, if you want to push it. Anything more and it gets a bit ridiculous.

And a hundred thousand northmen? Lol, no. 50,000 is roughly canon with them pushing it, and 100,000 was the Reach pushing it. Someone's just throwing out numbers, it seems.

Edit: half a chapter to worrying about what colours his doublet were? Atri, you lose all recommendation privileges forever.

 

The entire premise of the story is an alternate history where the North has a population density on par with medieval Russia.

 

Eh, I'm not gonna nitpick since the story is only starting. Besides, TLs on AH can be a bit different from usual stories and from all the other TLs I've seen there, I can at least be reasonably sure that the author isn't just throwing around numbers. Besides, it's something different from the usual ASOIAF stories. Or do you know a story with a similar premise, Hash?

 

A premise that's on shaky ground considering how seemingly nothing else has changed for any of the other lands, we've got multiple characters looking down on the South for any reason the writer can find and apparently no one south of the Neck has ever learned anything about the North and thinks they're still canon North.

Warning signs are warning signs. As for the premise... do you mean one where the North has the population density of Russia, or just one where the North is a lot better off? Because you can find a hundred stories about that latter, and I'm pretty sure you're writing one of them.

Problem with the concept of a better North is that the writers rarely take the effort to maintain the setting and balance of power reasonably. They'll throw half a hundred advancements and changes into the setting, from canal-building through the Neck to a Manderly Bank to taking back the Gift, as if throwing all of these advantages like they were panties at the Starks made up for actual good storytelling or logically changing up the setting as a result of such changes. Which is a major problem with the ASOIAF TLs on ASB, I've already been able to tell. Eddard Stark the Great was in particular rather notable on this.

 

I meant not a North that is better necessarily but a North that is visibly different in some way from canon, be it in culture, magic or whatnot.

And, yeah, I know what you mean with the ASOIAF TLs on ASB, but I think we approach ASB a bit differently. When I go to AH, I'm not looking for superior character development or writing technique - though no doubt there are some TLs which have them - but for butterflies, technical development, etc. I'm not approaching TLs as stories but as TLs and am thus not disappointed if I find them different. So if I occasionally stumble upon Stark-wank or something similar it doesn't disturb me.

To me, ASB is for "let's poke this thing and see what happens" and not "OMG, I'm gonna cry now because of the feeeelllllsssss".