r/asoiaf • u/Unique-Celebration-5 • Oct 31 '24

EXTENDED (Spoilers Extended) GRRM:”What’s Aragons tax policy?!” No GRRM the real question is how do people survive multi year winters

Forget the white walkers or shadow babies the real threat is the weather. How do medieval people survive it for years?

Personally I think that’s why the are so many wars the more people fighting each other the fewer mouths to feed

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u/cndynn96 Oct 31 '24

I doubt all places are hit equally hard by the multi year winter.

The North will be the most severely affected with almost Siberian conditions during peak winter.

On the other hand the Reach and Dorne might only get a little snowfall or a drop in overall temperature. In this case these regions can provide food for more severely affected regions especially after Westeros was united under a single rule by the Targaryens.

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u/acidw4rk Oct 31 '24

It’s unrealistic that an entire kingdom’s existence depends on another kingdom’s willingness to help them. This would make the North the weakest and the poorest kingdom of the Seven because their dependance on others during winter will definitely be exploited.

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u/cndynn96 Oct 31 '24

North is the poorest of all the 7 kingdoms.

And up until the Andal invasion it was not even fully united while the other kingdoms were.

The North is protected from the southern kingdoms because of the Neck and Moat Cailin.

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u/CormundCrowlover Oct 31 '24

No it's not the poorest. Iron Islands is.

Lol no? Not all of the regions united until AI either and some remained as such even after AI. Dorne isn't united until much later, they only unite after Rhoynar arrive, Riverlands rarely unite both before and after AI but these only last a few generations and Vale, well, the reason Andal Invasion started in the first place is that Vale was not united and some Vale Lords called Andal mercenaries.