The Stark Conquest (A song of Ice and Fire Lore)

House Stark of Winterfell, former kings of the North
Their Conquest over every other family in the kingdom

art by -

[melodyogonna]

People mistake Ned Stark's calm demenor as the standard Stark behaviour, but Ned Stark is actually an outlier, an exception if you will, probably why they call him the silent wolf or the shy wolf. Starks are harsh, brutal, reckless, and very very dangerous - with an over-inflated sense of what is right and wrong. All of Ned's children except Sansa and maybe Bran (very debatable) embolden this normal Stark attitude. All of Ned's other siblings as well.

[aicchi]

A lot of the audience get this dissonance with how savage and brutal Stark History was. Even I sometimes have to remind myself that Ned was an outlier since he was fostered in the Vale.

[JesusChristMarie]

To sum up most Northerners opinion of the Starks, I’ll give you this quote said by an unnamed Liddle in ASOS:

“When there was a Stark in Winterfell, a maiden girl could walk down the kingsroad in her name-day gown and still go unmolested, and travelers could find fire, bread, and salt at many an inn and holdfast. But the nights are colder now, and doors are closed ... It was different when there was a Stark in Winterfell. But the old wolf's dead and young one's gone south to play the game of thrones, and all that's left us is the ghosts.”

[AnarchoCatBoyEthan]

Definitely agree the Boltons shoulda been wiped out a long time ago. Just look at how loyal the Manderly house is. If the starks had taken a small house and raised them up in the place of the Boltons i’m sure they’d have lost a great enemy and made a very loyal friend. Who would protest?

[dromankass]

I was always rather suspicious about the Blackwood claim that they were driven out of the North by the Starks. Houses remember ancient insults and feuds and pass them down from father to son like a good wine. Look at how the Manderleys recall how House Peak drove them from the Reach, and in their time of need, the Starks took them in. That sort of thing is remembered.

But the Blackwoods of Raventree Hall seem to have a good relationship with the Starks, fighting with the Blacks in the Dance of the Dragons, and joining their forces in both Robert's Rebellion and the Kingdom of the Young Wolf. No issue, no complaint, no 'hey, you drove us out of the Wolfwood and forced us to live down south, and we remember.'

But there is none of that, and their are certainly more loyal than the Brakens, as Raventree was one of the last castles to hold out for the Starks even after the Red Wedding, and even after Rivenrun had surrendered to Jamie. So I think that the Blackwoods had a more amicable agreement with the Starks and left the North for some other reason and the tale of them being driven out is just a cover. Perhaps they went South on the orders of the Starks to secure some ancient sites of the First Men or the Children. They are rather close to both the God's Eye and the Isle of Faces, and Old Stones, not to mention that massive weirwood they build their hall around . . .

[alexei]

The Starks should've pulled a Castamere on the Boltons.

[tim]

my theory is that they were called the kings of winter because during winter they held the only viable lands to live, glass gardens (or possibly an earlier equivalent) and hot springs, so during winter time the starks helped the others in exchange for concessions. when summer came they all went back to their kingdoms but crossing the starks could mean being banned from safety next winter. the starks used their geographic location as a power move. once they controlled the north they no longer were just kings of the winter time but kings of the north.
perhaps the times the boltons sacked winterfell was because they were banned from safety in the upcoming winter and decided to attack in order to secure safety for themselves, those winters would have been terrible and this is partially why the boltons are hated, the guys that fuck up winter for everyone do not go down well in history.

on top of that, i have a theory about the boltons being starks that did not get the skinchanging powers. the bitterness meant they acted out the skinchanging literally by flaying starks and wearing them as a mockery and justice for the magic they didnt recieve.

[zhangeldy]

I feel like Tywin would make a good OG Stark. Bloodthirsty, calculative, prideful, with disproportional levels of retaliation, literally butchering your enemies into submission with acts of atrocities so great you cower your own banner man into loyalty.

[simonalexander]

The Starks biggest mistake was allowing the Boltons to bend the knee they should have wiped out the entire bloodline

Edit... The Boltons had more than enough chances to change their ways and bend the knee, but they kept returning to flaying and wearing the skins of dead Starks, no matter how many chances the Starks gave them they wanted Winterfell and the North for themselves... leaving the Starks only one choice which unfortunately they failed to carry out with Ned as head of the family...now had that been Brandon what was left of the Boltons would have now been displayed outside the Dreadfort as a warning to other houses that don't honour their words of fealty

[adrianbergstrand]

You should make a video about theories how the different houses in Westeros got their Valyrian Steel weapons. We never get to know how the Starks got Ice for example

[surrealbirch]

Keep up this masterpices coming man, you do some amazing job at keeping the fandom alive

[dld]

Whycreate, thanks for making all these videos, they're entertaining, interesting and useful. Please continue cooking bro, you're blessed for this.

[swetcan]

personally i think the feud between the Boltons and the Starks after the Boltons bent the knee is greatly overstated. as far as we know the Boltons only rebeled 2 times in several thousand years. once with the Greystarks and another where the Dreadfort held for 2 years under seige until a peace was reached. other than that the Boltons have been quiet, and seemingly dutiful. fighting against the Arryns and the sistermen in the war across the water, and before that fighting alongside the Starks against the Andal invader Argos Seven star. they presumably marched with Torrhen Stark against Aegon the Conqueror. and Barba Bolton asked for food from Aegon III at the maidens da ball on behalf of the north.
i think Roose Boltons actions can be best explained by Roose Boltons personality moreso than any enduring Bolton-Stark Feud.
compare this to actual rebellious houses, like the Greyjoys, Peakes, or Yronwoods. each which rebelled more than the Boltons in 300 years than they did over the course of thousands.

[Divine_Chareka]

Brandon of the Bloody Blade was in god mode

[havok]

The Starks are not "colonizers". They created no colonies. They were conquerors. Those words are not synonyms.

[estiux]

One thing that George Martin could have made in the north is to create a third “city” (like Barrowtown and White Harbour that have the state of a city) in the west coast of the north with naval power (small) to put in check the raid of the Iron born

[franciscojimenezcervantes]

I luv so much the style on your videos, it’s an amazing work and you have an incredible way of explaining, thanks so much for being the best asoiaf lore channel.

[estiux]

Last time I checked there were at least 54 houses in all the north (that if you take the semi canon sources like the tale tale game that mentions houses Forrester and Whitehill or houses they mention in the show like Tywin when mention house durmond or house Mason that fought with the Hornwoods and Mormonts in the battle of the bastards)

[OverLordthest]

Great video. It would be cool if you could do this for all the southern kingdoms. The Riverlands has a long and bloody history and it would make for a cool story with visuals.

[robertsmiley]

I didn't know about Brandon of the bloody blade but I absolutely love that name 😎