Channel: RedTeamReview

Category: Entertainment

Tags: baratheontyroshgame of thrones season 6game of thrones animated shortsaffcmad kingsong of ice and firegame of thrones loreninepenny kingsgot lorestepstonesjaehaerys ii targaryenwar of the ninepenny kingsmaelys blackfyreblackfishprequelraytywinessoshouse of the dragonaeryshistories and lorewinds of winteranimated shortslannisterblackfyreroberts rebellionmeribaldspeechhistories and lore season 6game of thronesa song of ice and fire

Description: Brother Ray reflects on the War of the Ninepenny Kings and the impact his experiences in the conflict had on him. Ray: "The War of the Ninepenny Kings", they called it. But I never saw a king or earned a penny. After the war ended, I heard it all started when an exiled royal bastard raised an army of sellswords and the rightful king sent his own army to stop an invasion. Sounds simple, the way the Maesters tell it. But an army isn't like a dog that comes when you whistle. The king calls on great lords, who call on lesser lords, who send down their captains to round up all the peasant men on the land the lord claims to own. If the lord is wise and generous, his new soldiers are given steel swords and wooden shields to fight his battles. Most of our army fought with sharp sticks. Singers still sing of the valiant heroes made in the war. Ser Brynden Tully, the "Blackfish." Ser Tywin Lannister and Prince Aerys Targaryen. Ser Barristan Selmy, the "Bold," who slew the bastard pretender and ended the war at a stroke. But the king whose crown we were defending never came. He mattered too much, I suppose. His Hand commanded the crown's armies and died valiantly in his son's arms. Or so the singers say. I never saw that, either. I did see the soldiers when they came to our village. They declared I was too young to fight but my brothers and friends were all going and I wouldn't be left behind. My oldest brother said I could be his squire, though he wasn't a knight, just a pot boy armed with a stolen kitchen knife. He'd never need it. I saw him collapse on our march from fever, along with many from our village. I saw our shoes fall apart on the road, our clothes rot off our bodies and half of us shitting our beds from the sickness and fear. And then we got to the war. In the Stepstones, I saw a mace cave in my last brother's head, I saw the lord who led us there cut down, and some other lord shout that we were his now. One day I looked around and realized all my friends and kin were gone. I was fighting beside strangers under a banner I'd never seen. Didn't know where I was or how to get home. When a lord ran up shouting at us to form ranks with our scythes and hoes, I couldn't remember which side I was on. Then the knights came down on us, faceless men all in steel. The thunder of their charge filled the world. I closed my eyes. Years later, after the war had faded into songs, I opened them again and saw what I had done and what I had become in the war and since. I went looking for a way back home. I know I'll never reach it, but that doesn't mean I don't need a guide.