Westerosi Peasant

This part of Westeros was known as the Stormlands for a reason – through the years, many a king had won his crown and lost it on the battle-scarred fields. The Targaryens had won their Conquest at Storm’s End and ruled for many decades before Robert Baratheon slew the last of the Dragon Kings and claimed the Iron Throne for his house, of the Stormlands. When that king died, done in by his own debauchery and drunkenness, his sons Joffrey and Tommen had succeeded him in short order, each dying in mysterious fashion. The widow of that last Baratheon King, Margaery Tyrell had usurped the throne from the eighteen-year-old heiress, Myrcella Baratheon, when she had just turned twenty-five herself thanks to the army of her father, Mace Tyrell. So as the year 309 AC dawned, the realm was still in the grips of a precarious situation – most of the Great Houses had seen their men cut down in a series of bloody and futile wars, leaving mostly women, and mostly young women at that, to rule supreme over the land of Westeros: Margaery Tyrell (25) sat on the Iron Throne, Myrcella Baratheon (18) was the puppet ruler of the Stormlands and Sansa Stark (22) ruled the vast North. And over the sea in Essos, the last Targaryen, Daenerys (25) was starting to marshal support for her return to Westeros. The Game of Thrones was entering a new and dangerous era – and only one house could emerge victorious.

You are John, a peasant in the Stormlands. The past year has been tough - a rare snowfall has killed most of your crops, and the icy roads have made it almost impossible to sell what little produce you do have. You have spent virtually all of what little savings you have on food (just enough to survive) and wood, in order to heat your small wooden hut. Your isolation from the major market towns (your hut is several miles from them) has you to rely on yourself for all your everyday needs. As you try to fall asleep one particularly cold and icy winter night, you toss and turn thinking about how you could possibly make it through the winter without starving or freezing or both. As you start to drift away, you hear screaming from outside your hut, followed by a prolonged crashing noise. You jump to your feet and realize that given the location of your hut, you are likely the only one who has heard the noises of this mysterious crash.

Author's Notes: Comments are encouraged! I like reading comments/suggestions/criticism of my writing.