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Raventree Hall, Three years later, 345 BC, Before conquest.

Sometimes he felt like throwing himself off the great towers on either side of the gatehouse of Raventree. Being King was a great honour and to be frank he thought he was quite good at it but it was also the single most tedious and frustrating thing he could imagine. Lords had constant messages for him, offers, requests, updates and questions. The mayor of Ravensnest, the rapidly growing city of some 40,000 people that could be found on the western side of the confluence of the Trident, directly in his own lands. The current, and first, Mayor was Lord Harltons heir, Finn, who was in his last year of the three year term. Finn was in charge of the daily runnings of the town and gave him weekly updates on the runnings of the city. Taxes collected, important visitors, large business deals, suggestions, crime rate and reports of Trade and commerce of which there was much. The city was perfectly placed to control trade in the region which it was already doing, becoming a major trade hub in just four years.

The city had grown quickly and it had taken painstaking and meticulous planning from Lucas himself and Finn Harlton to stop the city from spiralling out of their control and slums and other less than desirable conditions from taking hold. Crucial to the expansion of the city where the guilds. Seven in total. The Merchants guild was the most powerful and rich of them all, made up of the merchants who were based out of or did large amounts of business in the city, The builders guild had been key in the expansion of the city. They had been hired by Lucas himself and did probably the most direct business with him other than perhaps the blacksmithing guilds. He hired them often and they had been the ones that put Lucas's plans into action.

Other than the merchants, blacksmith and builders guild their was also the craftsmen guild which consisted of Potters, Gold workers, wood carvers, stone masons, sculptures, artists, fletchers, bowyers and most famed amongst them, the silversmiths who used the metal that could be found in abundance in his lands in the mountains and hills that made up the Blackwood Vale to make jewellery and other high quality products that were gaining a reputation for its quality especially in the Valayrian freeholds where much business was done for the high quality craftsmen ship though it was also highly sought after in Dorne, the Westerlands, the Stormlands and the North, though the latter was to a lesser extent.

The Hospitality and entertainment guild was made up of Brothels, which were highly regulated for health, age and happiness amongst their workers, Taverns, Alehouses, Dorm houses and other such establishments. The agricultural guild was made up of breweries, graineries, butchers, bakeries, fishmongers and the like. Lastly was the Workers guild, which was made up of the smaller and more miscellaneous workers, mostly people seeking employment and the like who where sometimes employed to help out where they where needed, on the docks, with the builders, architects and carpenters of the builders guild or to be employed by the merchants as dockworkers, sailors or ship builders. They were the least influential but important nonetheless.

Not only did these guilds help to attract people, workers and merchants to the city and not only did they help to expand and manage his city they also were a key income source for Lucas, he had invested in many of the workshops, merchants and companies that made up these guilds from the start and made a lot of gold from these investments. Right now they were only limited to the Ravensnest but he could see the idea spreading across the Riverlands after a while as people saw the worth of the guilds. Though how much success they would have elsewhere was anyone's guess.

Currently it was dusk and in the dim light of the hearth and the moon he was sitting in his solar reading one of his reports. This one from Clyde 'Blackbridge'. Former commander of the Ravens, the elite men at arms of the Blackwood King, had been elected as first commander of the Ravensfort after its construction by the men that garrisoned it much like the Night's Watch chose their commander, though in this case it had to be with Lucas's approval as well.

Clyde was lowborn but literate thankfully as his father had been the page of Maester Nelson's predecessor and he had in turn taught his son and while the warrior's hand was not elegant it was legible though honestly Lucas wished that it were not. The report spoke of raids, similar to those Lords Ryger, Darry, Hawick and Erenford, all of whom bordered the Vale in some way. Small raids of horsemen who would strike undefended towns and villages and leave them nothing but burned ruins with their people killed. Lucas knew he needed to do something. Something decisive and firm, anything else would look weak.

Over the past three years he had implemented many changes to the realm using all of his political power to do so. Laws had been centralised, organised and made more uniform just last year after four years of hard thought and drafting by himself, Lara, Brynden, the council and a select few other lords including the now dead Lord Manfred 'The Cackling Eagle' Mallister, and the still living Lord Ryger, a shrewd and intelligent man whose grandson was just recently now a ward of his, six year old Callum Ryger was of age with his own son, Brynden, and the two had made fast friends, and though his son was quiet and reserved for the most part with Callum at his side Brynden was a lot more open and inquisitive. Though even his inquisitiveness could not be matched by his younger brother. Young Louis was barely two years old and was as smart and inquisitive as they came. He loved to be talked to and to be taken on walks around the place pointing at everything and anything he saw laughing in joy, his blue-grey eyes lighting up in happiness at the world.

The right of the first night had been abolished, punishments had been standardised, the rights of lords and smallfolk had been agreed upon and the noble titles had been changed to distinguish the great lords of the realm from the lesser nobility. Dukes were the lords like the Mallisters, Darrys, Rygers, Redwoods, Smallwoods, Harltons, Charltons, Erenfords, Mootons and the like. While the counts were the Lords like the Paeges, the Counts of the God's eye, the house of Janos Mallister, now named Janos Adler, the Lychesters, Shawneys and the like while the Barons were essentially landed knights with small lands and keeps. This had been done in large part to more easily define the differences in social class rather than calling everyone Lord and while Lord was still sometimes used the new titles were more preferred by the nobility. Initially he had been reluctant to change up what had been the status quo in these lands; his wife had thought it a good idea and it had been well received by the lords who saw it as a way to better define the classes of nobility.

This had given him even more wiggle room to work with and had implemented the tax system that had worked so well in his own lands with a few minor changes. It was, in his opinion, a good system that promoted growth in his lands. The tax on luxury, especially foreign luxuries, was raised by ten percent from three to thirteen percent, taxes on raw materials were lowered slightly by around three percent to promote development, tax on grain was reduced as well though the tax on things like salt, spices and sugar was raised to counteract this and the tax on things like tools, coal and processed materials like steel and hardwood was lowered by a small amount. New fines were introduced for smaller crimes that would originally be a bit of a question zone as to what the right punishment should be. Subsidies on expensive things that would improve production had been introduced for a month at a time, things like the plough and similar things paid for from his own treasury and results were slowly beginning to show.

He had coordinated with Kevan Mallister as well to finance the mining of the abundant Iron, coal, bronze, copper and the odd silver mine and his own house drew profits not just from that investment of which he got 15% of the profits on but also the tax he got from it as well.

The defiance of Seaguard as it was called was one of the single, in his opinion, moments of Riverlander history and it had been a great opportunity for him. It had not been a hard fought victory, well not for him personally, the men of seaguard had fought like Spartans and were honoured by Riverlanders in memory and immortalised by song and the blood that still stained the fortresses walls. All he had to do was sail the designated parts of the eastern fleet up the trident and east on a tributary until the ships had to be beached and carried, longships all, across the small stretch of land to the eastern coast. And while this land was small it had still taken two weeks for the ships to be carried across the land as men and horses needed frequent breaks. Eventually though the fleet had been in position and the fleet had easily linked up and during the night sailed north past seaguard and past the ships blockading the city until they reached the cove where the main part of the Ironborn fleet was anchored. Nearly completely undefended, the Ironborn obviously did not expect sufficient numbers of ships to challenge them.

But ships he now had in abundance. The 100 larger longships had been incorporated into his own fleet, large, fast and versatile; these longships were more than capable of proving a threat to a Essosi War galley on its own. The other smaller longships had been dealt with differently. Twenty had joined his own fleet, twenty had been gifted to the Mallisters, 40 had become armed trading ships and the rest were sold to the Lannisters and a few to the north for good money. His fleet was now more than capable of defending both coasts without having to do another risky and time consuming move such as that. However he had seen the benefits a canal to connect the east and west of the continent would bring him. But such a thing would be extremely expensive and time and manpower consuming. And though the idea was a good one it was not really viable right away but it, like all his ideas was written and discussed in his diary and if he couldn't do it then perhaps one of his descendants could.

All of these things gave him the funds and political power to do what he had been hoping to do for years now. These raids just gave him the excuse to implement it. Enemies surrounded him on all sides, he needed an army. And now he had everything he would need to get it. Men to fight in it, the veterans of the last two wars, power, gold, the men to train it in the form of his ravens and men at arms, the excuse to do it. All that was left was to decide the specifics, where would they be housed? How many? Who would lead it? What would they wear and use? What would it consist of? Archers, Cavalry, Infantry? And if all of them then how many of each? That was what he needed to decide. But first a more immediate solution had to be arranged. He would send 2,000 of his men to garrison and protect the Vale border. Volunteers who would be offered five silver pieces for their joining up and another five when they returned home or to their families if they died. He would get more than enough men like that and until he could announce, train and coordinate the standing army it would have to do.

—-

West of the High Road, A year later. 344 BC.

They dressed as clansmen once again and for the first time in a year they would be able to descend upon an undefended settlement. They had been stationed on the border of the Riverlands for over a year now and at first it had gone well. They had donned the barbaric dress of the clansmen and descended on villages of the the heathen kingdom, raping their women and girls and slaughtering them along with the men and boys not when they where done before leaving the village a burnt ruin. For a moon that was how it went until the villages were no longer undefended and instead manned by armed and fearsome men including the dreaded longbows of Raventree as more than a few of his brothers in arms had found much to their peril. But now the Riverlanders had withdrawn and their commander Ser Ilyn Corbray had told them it was likely that the heathens couldn't sustain keeping enough men to garrison the border for that long and since they had not raided in a while the Blackwood King had obviously deemed it safe to withdraw.

They would make sure the Blackwood regretted that. 500 of them had amassed on the Riverlander side of the Mountains of the moon, having all come together through a variety of smaller mountain passes. Their target was a juicy one. A large town of some 3,000 occupants situated south of the Bloody gate and the imposing heathen fortress that had been constructed further down the road that proudly flew the Weirwood and ravens of the Blackwoods.

They rode for most of the journey before they reached a clearing in the forest they had ridden through. They dismounted from their horses and tied them up on posts that had been hammered into them in preparation for this attack. Glancing around the clearing of lush grass and red poppies he looked up to the trees that gave them shelter from the early autumn sun and nearly laughed as he spotted a large flock of Ravens observing them with beady eyes. He knew in first men tales the Raven symbolised death but to him it was a hilarious irony that the symbol of the heathen kings family would be their to watch them plunder and slaughter this town especially after said king had withdrawn the men from it that had originally flown that symbol. Truly the seven had the greatest sense of humour. Drawing his purposely rusty axe he joined the others in marching through the rest of the way to the village.

The forest seemed to create its own path for them as the trees seemed to just stop growing and made a sort of ravine like pat with the open skies easily visible over their head and he gave a full belly laugh pointing with a hand shaky from laughter up to the skies at the ravens above that seemed to be following them.

"The ravens have come to see us slaughter their King's subjects!" He laughed and the others laughed at that as well. Out of the corner of his eye he saw three of the men's eyes widen in fear at the ravens and realised they were some of the men from the lands of Lord Royce and likely still held the old beliefs of the Ravens symbolising impending doom to the enemies of the first men. Laughing even more at that he turned around and took two more steps before the Ravens began to caw in a way that made even him pause. It was chilling and sent shivers down his spine but the sound that followed it nearly made him shit himself.

Twang.

The sound of arrows flying through the air, the screams of men as the arrows struck and the shouts of fright as they saw others in front of them be stuck by arrows. Around a hundred went down in just the first volley and from out of the thick shrubbery on both sides came men dressed in Blackwood colours, hundreds of them on foot. Another volley from somewhere and more of the men fell. These men were dressed differently than the average Blackwood soldier he had seen before, they were more heavily armoured and while they came out of the shrubbery in small groups they smoothly formed a battle formation. They wore all black armour but rather than mail they wore mostly plate covering most of their body with a few holes that were instead covered by mail and padded black leather. They were heavily armoured and armed and made a fearsome sight. The heathens began to advance on them and they hastily formed up battle lines to counter them but they were still being fired upon from all angles and only a handful of them had shields and armour and those that did were of poor quality and did little to stop the dreaded powerful longbows of the Blackwoods.

The ravens continued their cawing and they quickly realised they could not remain here and be shot like fish in a barrel as the Rivermen seemed more than happy to allow as the Blackwoods stopped their advance.

"Charge! Kill the heathens!" Cried someone all thoughts of their cover going out the window and while some tried to flee or stood stock still in terror the majority of them followed the lead of that man and charged both sides of the heathens. He was among the back line on the right side having been stood in the centre of the group and it was for that reason that he saw the slaughter in front of him. And a slaughter it was, razor sharp black swords came from the holes in the shieldwall and found the exposed and largely unarmoured bodies of the Valemen while said men's blows seemed to only find shields. It reminded him of chickens being beheaded one by one with brutal efficiency. They killed with brutal precision and unflinching bravery.

It was not long before he found himself in the front row and was vaguely aware that he was one of the last men standing but his rage and zealousness made him not break like others did or surrender like more instead he was desperate to get some heathen blood on his rusty blade. Dodging a stab that seemed to come from nowhere he slammed his body into the shield in front of him trying to use his frame to make a gap in the shield wall instead he heard a huff and he was pushed back by three shields coming from all directions and his eyes widened as the man in front of hims blade came shooting forward in a deadly thrust, the bale making a home in his neck and quickly ending the unnamed raiders life. His head, joined by his comrades across the vale border was placed on a pike and much like Theon the hungry wolf was planted along the andal border to deter any ideas that they might have.