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Third episode for miniseries - The Grey Wolf. For those yang missed the previous two episodes can check on below links.
Queen Sansa Stark sent her advisor, Lord Fredrik Greystark to negotiate with Queen Daenerys for potential alliance. After a month of sailing from White Harbor, Fredrik's entourage landed at the Dragonstone Island, ancestral seat of House Targaryen. Joining him is Bronson Snow, his chief household guard together with 50 Greystark's household cavalry.
Daenerys is the youngest daughter of the late King Aerys II Targaryen whom being toppled in the Robert's Rebellion twenty years ago. His father was being assassinated by Ser Jaime Lannister during the Sack of King's Landing by the Lannister's army. Despite the massacre of royal family at the capital, Queen Rhaella managed to fled to Dragonstone with the help of Ser William Darry. Reaching the castle, she gave birth to Daenerys before died post-partum. Ser William, sworn to protect the royal family quickly set sailed to Pentos in the nick of time before Stannis's forces storm the castle. Later, he took the initiative to raise both Viserys and Daenerys before passed them to Magister Ilyrio Mopartis, the Governor of Pentos who later brokered a marriage between Daenerys and Khal Drogo, Dothraki's warlord. After a years building her army of Unsullied, Dothraki and the Second Sons totaled around 100,000 men, Daenerys crossed the Narrow Sea and retook Dragonstone to begin her invasion of Westeros to reclaim the Iron Throne in the name of House Targaryen
Lord Fredrik finally met Daenerys in person, relaying message from Queen Sansa to seek for alliance in order to defeat Queen Cersei Lannister. She asked the North to bend the knee and pledge their fealty to House Targaryen as the rightful ruler of Westeros. Fredrik, having discussed with Sansa prior to his journey to Dragonstone politely reiterate the North does not have any intention to claim the throne as her queen only wish to preserve their independence, nothing much. In return, the North will supply army and provision to House Targaryen in order to achieve their common objective - to defeat the Lannister. Despite Sansa's honest intention, Daenerys declined the proposal as she will only cooperate once the North willing to bow to her.
Fredrik sent raven to Queen Sansa before departing back to White Harbor. With Daenerys refused to the alliance prospect, he will be having a heavy responsibility to carry the North to survive the war. Assessing his situation, the realm is now facing two imminent threat - the Lannister and the Iron Island. Luckily, the Lannister is currently occupied with two major conflicts - Riverlord's Rebellion and Dornish invasion of the Reach. The Ironborn however is actively raiding the coast of Cape Kraken and goes as far as Stony Shore. This left towns and castles such as Flint's Finger, Moat Cailin, Greywater Watch, Barrowtown and even Torhen's Square exposed to the Ironborn raiding party.
Shortly after he arrived at the North, he straightly went to his ancestral seat of Wolf's Den where had the opportunity to meet his wife, Lady Dacey and their one year old son, Edrik. The castle of Wolf's Den is bustling again after refugees returned to their home, Lady Sharra had done a great job in administering the people's welfare and passed major reconstructing works. Due to Fredrik's contribution in the rebellion, House Greystark was being rewarded handsomely and received hefty funds in recovery program by Queen Sansa.
At Winterfell, he met the Queen and the two discussed on the plan to defend the realm from any potential invader, including Daenerys. With the removal of House Bolton, Umber and Karstark, Fredrik can muster a total of 16,000 soldiers from the remaining ten houses in the North, coupled with another 3,000 troops of the mountain clans. While the number is fair, majority of it consisted of rookie soldiers. Plus, he is unable to deploy all of them together as it will leave the stronghold defenseless. Considering the situation, Fredrik only have less than 12,000 troops at his disposal, with 2,000 mountain clansmen.
He introduced massive armament program to speed up the defensive preparation. While the northern region is safe from any external threat, Fredrik concentrated his forces in the western and southern regions where he created the formation of three standing army with 3,000 troops each located at The Rills, Flint's Finger and Barrowton while maintaining his Greystark's forces around 2,000 men at Greywater Watch.
303AC - he received raven from his spy at the Pyke, capital of Iron Island. The coded message read "Ironborn invasion incoming. Euron Greyjoy. 12,000 Ironborn". Shortly after that, he received a messenger from Lord Brynden Tully requesting reinforcement to lift the siege of Riverrun as the supplies is running low. Queen Sansa ordered Fredrik to give priority to her uncle as a prolong war at the Riverland will delay the Lannister incursion into the Northern region.
Unable to leave the North defenseless against the Ironborn, Fredrik led a meager army of 6,000 Northmen into the Riverland, arrived at the Twins a few weeks later and quickly lay siege the Frey's stronghold. The defender, around 3,000 Frey's troops holed up in both end of the castles. Although outnumbered, the Twins is a formidable castle and difficult to be taken in a frontal attack.
A day later, Fredrik was being approached by a young girl who claimed to massacre the entire male members of House Frey, she brought Walder Frey's head as evidence and told Fredrik he can now storm the castle by surprise. Convinced with the young girl, Fredrik's army attack the northern gate of the Twins, the leaderless Frey's soldier panicked and retreating to the other side of castle.
The Northmen eager to avenge the death of the late Robb Stark charged furiously. A swift attack managed to caught the defender off guard and both ends were captured after an hour of fight with Fredrik's suffered less than 200 casualties.
After the battle, the young girl met Fredrik and revealed her identity. She is Arya, the youngest daughter of the late Eddard and Catelyn Stark. Fredrik humbly requested Arya to return to Winterfell as her sister, Sansa is waiting for her return. Rickon is dead, while Brandon is nowhere to be found.
After leaving a small garrison, Fredrik resume his advance with 5,000 troops. As the army passed the town of Fairmarket, Lord Marq Piper joined his forces with additional 2,000 Riverland knight. Wish to keep his element of surprise, Fredrik took long route by crossing Red Fork, before ascending the hill of High Heart.
He sent his spy dressed with a Westerlander scout uniform to provide false information to Lord Jaime. The trick worked as the Lord of Casterly Rock concentrate his army to defend the crossing of Tumblestone river. A diversionary camp was being planned by Fredrik opposite of Tumblestone with Lord Piper's army will be responsible in shadowing Jaime's movement.
The day has come. Fredrik led his troops to attack the unready Lannister's army from its rear by unleashing his famous Northern sharpshooter who release arrow barrage from a stunning distance of 800 metre. The Lannister forming up and lock their shield while Lord Jaime rally his cavalry to charge the Northern missile troops thinking they are the diversionary forces. He about to led his cavalry into the mouth of the entire Northern army.
As the enemy cavalry nearing his position, Fredrik ordered his spearman having concealed in a tall grass to stand up and form spear wall. Within a minute, the Lannister knight crashed into a solid wall of spear which inflicted heavy casualties to Jamie's precious cavalrymen.
Lord Kevan, the second in command of the Lannister's army ordered the his elite infantry to cover the retreating cavalrymen. Here, Fredrik lost its element of surprise as Lord Kevan commit almost the entire Lannister's army, around 10,000 men to strike Fredrik's thin battleline.
As victory in his grasp, Lord Kevan sent another wave of missile soldiers to provide additional support. Heavy battle ensuing at the center with both sides fight valiantly and refused to yield.
The sheer number of Lannister's troops start to break the Northern's center and left flank. The victorious Northern's right flank led by Lord Cley Cewyn continues to pressed the attack into the Lannister's camp, supported by cavalry to divert Lord Kevan's attention. Despite the maneuver, the experience Lannister commander quickly commit his final reserve to block Cley's advance. The outnumbered Cerwyn's army stood their ground but eventually surrounded.
Seizing the opportunity, Lord Fredrik led his cavalry to reinforced Cerwyn's troops with a heavy charge from its rear, managed to killed Ser Devan Lannister in process.
At the same time, Lord Piper ready his troop to cross the Tumblestone and joined the battle from the west. The Lannister's army continues to offer resistance by fighting in two fronts. Lord Brynden Tully decided to sally forth with his 3,000 men to aid the reinforcing army. With the river at their back and now fighting in three fronts, Lord Kevan Lannister saw the battle is lost and surrendered to Lord Fredrik Greystark.
In the Battle of Riverrun, the North-Riverland coalition suffered 3,000 casualties. Massive casualties for the Lannister as a total number of 8,000 dead or wounded, 3,000 captured including both of its commander, Lord Jaime and Lord Kevan.
With Queen Cersei's brother and uncle were captured and put in the dungeon of Riverrun, this gave the North an opportunity to force the Iron Throne for a peace treaty.
304AC - After the destruction of the eastern Lannister's army at Riverrun, the Riverland's Rebellion ended with a success. Lord Brynden Tully recaptured a number of stronghold from the capital up to the extent of Maidenpool. The Royalist is unable to mobilize a new army to crush the rebellion as it now facing a larger threat - Daenerys invasion forces already landed at the Crownlands. This event convinced Queen Cersei to make peace with the North and demanded the return of his kins to Casterly Rock. In response, Queen Sansa offered peace with the following conditions - Riverland shall remain independent from the Iron Throne and the rebel's leader, Lord Brynden Tully shall be install as the new Riverland's king. Both kingdoms will remained non-aligned with the Targaryen and shall not interfere in the war. Any breach of these conditions will render the truce void and the North would not hesitate to move her army into the Westerland region.
305AC - The Targaryen's invasion of Westeros starts with a resounding success where Daenerys's army around 100,000 troops landed at three different points at the Crownland and secured majority castles/towns at the Crackclaw's peninsular. Another army led by Prince Trystan Martell of the Dorne crushed the Reach at Ashford before seized King's Landing from the Lannister. Cersei's army retreated to Westerland after suffered a heavy defeat in the hand of the Dornish's prince.
Fredrik march northward to Winterfell after successfully negotiated peace treaty with the Lannister which allow the North and Riverland to rule their subject independently. The army around 4,000 Northmen camped near Seagard to rest from their long journey.
Euron ordered his elite Greyjoy Housecarl led by his brother, Victarion to strike the North's center. Followed by a flanking attack by Urrigon Greyjoy to surround Fredrik from his left. Realizing his dire situation, Fredrik wrote to his wife and family bidding a farewell message and later ride to take command of his meager army.
Bitter fighting happened at every flanks where the brute forces of Ironborn heavily press the attack. Fredrik's army mostly composed of its battle hardened and veteran troops stood their ground and fend off perpetual waves of attack thrown by Euron. The North did not have any cavalry squadron left after their campaign in liberating Riverland and now relied on the infantry and missile troops to perform their last stand, away from home.
Although Riverland is now free from the Iron Throne, there's a few lord remained discontent with the success of Tully's rebellion. One of them is Lord Jason Mallister who is watching the battle from his castle of Seagard and reluctant to aid Fredrik as he is staunch supporter of House Lannister. But his son, Ser Patrek disgust with his father ignorance, rally his retinue around 200 cavalrymen sallied forth and smashed the Ironborn from the rear to support the failing Northmen.
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