GOT/ASOIAF: A Game Of Ice And Fire - Chapter 17
A combination of well planned exploration and the occasional stroke of luck while looking around the castle’s library.
Sadly, I had time for neither.
Instead I made use of my first Divination spell I managed to make out of the book I got from Raventree hall.
{DETECT MAGIC Lv- 8 (87%)}
{*REQUIREMENTS MET (Observe skill has reached sufficient level and Divine Sense perk has been bought)}
{FIRST LEVEL DIVINATION SPELL: For the duration, you sense the presence of magic within 10 meters of you. If you sense magic in this way, you can see a faint aura around any visible creature or object in the area that bears magic, while also being capable of discerning its density around you, enabling you to pinpoint its source. And you also learn its school of magic, if it has any.}
CASTING TIME: 6 SECONDS
RANGE: SELF
COMPONENTS: VOCAL, SOMATIC
Wasn’t as simple as reading a spell book, working from the basics was like coming up with your own mathematical formula after learning how to add and subtract.
The sad part of finally finding the perfect combination of knowledge to create a spell, especially a Level 1 (which wasn’t the same as how proficient I was with it), was the Mana cost.
A level 1 spell spent in a single use 100 MP, which currently was basically half of my entire pool of mana.
The reproduction of Infusions or Potions hadn’t progressed far enough for me to learn how to mitigate this steep cost.
Thankfully, my natural regeneration of mana combined with my Meditation skill, made me capable of replenishing it in a couple of hours.
And with my ‘Sleeping is for the Dead’ perk, I could also take brief naps and restore it completely as well.
Although with the cost of becoming vulnerable for that brief period of time.
My first one, the Red Keep, had earned me a ċhėst full of gold, spell books with cantrips, two healing potions and my twin Valyrian Steel Gladius.
Which by the way, had learned each coating I used on it as an Enchantment.
{SELECT ENCHANTMENT}
{KNOWN ENCHANTMENTS: RADIANT/FORCE}
Sadly neither were much of a game changer to the wonder that was Valyrian Steel blades.
Almost one atom edge.
I’m sure these dungeons weren’t supposed to be completed in mere hours, much less by a one-man-party, but I seized an opportunity by avoiding cleaning the first dungeons.
Given the Targaryen’s history of ruling all of Westeros, I wasn’t that surprised by the loot I found there.
Even the mere reward of more Gold and some books about basic schools of magic were more than I would have expected for six lesser Houses of the Crownlands.
But I gotta admit my eagerness to visit Dragonstone and houses like house Velaryon.
The first having the biggest chance of surpassing what I got from the Magical dungeon at the capital, or all of the others.
My eighth dungeon helped me acquire my third title, Necromancy knowledge, Mana potion and it was also the one that promised the greatest reward, which would require activating all the other Major Houses.
It made me decide that one day I would break its curse and own the massive fortress.
Perhaps repair and garrison it completely.
Sure, I was acquiring gold at a ridiculously fast pace (which I don’t believe was meant to be the case for any regular player with my system, who wouldn’t be allowed inside so many castles, but I guess being born as the first born son of the King had more pros than cons), but Harrenhal wasn’t the only project of mine that would require ludicrous amounts of money.
After Harrenhal came Raventree Hall and Riverrun, besides the gold, the former rewarded me with knowledge about Divination, and the latter unlocked another main castle of Westeros.
Two out of nine.
Which led me to…
‘Silence human! Respect my master!’ Shadow hissed at him while perched on my shoulder, but I was the only one that could understand her.
I merely calmed her with a gentle scratch and replied to Tywin. “Don’t worry, Grandfather, we shouldn’t be too far away now.”
The Old lion kept silent at my answer, but his doubts were clear to me.
I wasn’t expecting him to know every single route around the Rock, but the entrance to my eleventh Dungeon had to be somewhere he was somewhat familiar with.
Regardless, the reason I brought him with me was to make an attempt to make him loyal to me, not to discuss his lack of faith in me.
His supposedly sixth year old Grandson.
Honestly, I was neither a kid nor his direct blood relative, which was really a bummer for me.
Not that I would ever tell.
By observing him further, I got to finally realize why he had taken the revelation of his children ɨnċėstuos relationship so well.
The recently dead, boy King Joffrey, or the even younger and meek Tommen.
Now, if you would excuse my arrogance, he had me.
Someone who was undoubtedly Robert’s son, offering to give him back Jaime, his golden boy, while also having his son’s bastard rule as King.
His bloodline had never received such uplift.
Or so he thought anyway.
After that, having him become somewhat obedient to my will wasn’t that hard, especially with the prospect of magic to shut down his logical mindset.
That leads to my current situation, after having supper with the Lannister living at Casterly Rock, and setting my visit to the nearby city for tomorrow, I got Tywin to follow me.
Soon enough, after seeking the trace of magical aura through the maze of tunnels inside the Rock, Tywin and I were met with a marked wall.
{SECRET ENTRANCE}
“You were saying…” He remarked sarcastically before becoming silent at the vibrations emanating from the wall before us.
Initially, he made a move to leave the area, fearing the rock ceiling would fall on our heads, but I stopped him.
“Wait!”
He turned his head with a raised eyebrow, and almost gasped at the silhouette of a doorway forming before us, revealing a newly formed passageway.
{YOU HAVE FOUND A PASSAGEWAY LEADING TO THIS CASTLE’S DUNGEON!}
I ignored the usual warning and turned to face my grandfather, with Shadow actually showing signs of amusement.
“I find your lack of faith in me disturbing.” I told him with a serious expression, before signaling for him to continue following me.
“Shadow, scout ahead.” I ordered my familiar and she jumped off my shoulder.
‘As you wish, master.’
Turning to face Lord Lannister, I picked a piece of cured leather and watched it be consumed as I casted one of my latest spells.
{MAGE ARMOR Lv- 5 (23%)}
{FIRST LEVEL ABJURATION SPELL: A spell that uses Mana to conjure an invisible barrier of magical force that protects you. The more mana you use the denser it becomes. You can also touch a willing creature and grant it a protective magical force surrounding it until the spell ends. The spell ends if the defense is broken or if you dismiss the spell.
CASTING TIME: 6 SECONDS
DURATION: 8 HOURS
RANGE: SELF, TOUCH
COMPONENTS: VOCAL, SOMATIC AND MATERIAL (A piece of cured leather)
“Stay still.” I told him as my voice reverberated with a magical filter and I moved my hands in the appropriate gesture. “Mage Armor.”
{-100 MP}
As the spell engulfed him, an armor of glowing arcane runes and lines spread all over his figure before turning invisible.
“What was that?” Tywin asked, puzzled.
“Something that will keep you alive if I fail to protect you.” I replied before summoning a regular steel dagger out of my Inventory and pressed it against his ċhėst, prompting the man to flinch for the first time since we met.
As the blade was about to touch him, a flash of arcane energy lit up from that point, bringing back the illuminating armor and making it visible for a moment.
Storing my spare weapon again, I told him.
“As we made our way here, I saw you were still worried about preparing for the oncoming rebellion. But I brought you here to show what is really the main objective of my search for power.”
After that, we began to make our descent down the set of stairs, the wall sealing back behind us.
Surprisingly enough, to both me and Tywin, was that, instead of the walls and steps being made of regular stone, it was actually all gold.
With some pillars of silver.
There were no cracks in the perfectly cut blocks, nor could I find any form of fungus life covering it.
The symbols spread all around it were finally beginning to make sense.
From the little I could translate, we were actually traveling to a pocket dimension, a place that would migrate to somewhere else had the previous Lannisters carved a new path to where we should be.
It was somewhat logical, given how these Dungeons weren’t supposed to exist before my transmigration.
“I… I had no idea such a place actually existed.” Tywin remarked astonished, having previously lost some sleep at the prospect of Casterly Rock running out of gold in a few generations.
“That reminds me.” I told him, turning at him for a moment and handing him a loaded crossbow with a radiant bolt. “I will be requiring an instructor to teach me the skill of mining. I’m pretty sure I will be making great use of it.”
Tywin simply stared at the luminescent bolt and nodded. “I will arrange that.”
“Good.” I replied before preparing him for why he should expect. “I will show you what type of creature I’m expecting to find here.”
Casting my trusty cantrip, Minor Illusion, I showed him the figure of the average Zombie I faced during my expeditions.
The undead moved with a jerky, uneven gait, clad in the moldering apparel it wore when put to rest, and carried the stench of decay.
“Don’t tell me…” The Old lion stopped in his tracks before covering his nose. “The stench is fowl.”
“It sure is.” I agreed, having heard the same complaint from Rhaenys during the time I brought her with me to clear the Dungeon under the Red Keep.
Ah, that brought me memories.
“Keep in mind that if they aren’t carrying arms, they will most certainly attempt to strike you with their dead arms, tear at your skin, if not outright stumble into you. That ammunition loaded on the crossbow I gave you is especially effective against those dunderheads.”
As we moved on, and I kept preparing the usually skeptical man to face magical creatures, torches began lighting up as we passed by them.
“So after all these years, these monsters have been dwelling deep under the Rock.” Tywin came to a realization.
“Indeed. Originally they would have remained sealed down here for all of eternity.” I began bullshitng my way around. “Now, we are approaching the age where magic will return to this world. And soon enough, not only these undeads will be threatening mankind, but others will as well.”
“The others?” Tywin worried about what my words implied. “As in…”
“Oh, the White Walkers will come out of their supposed extinction for sure. But I was referring to other types of mythological beasts and monsters.”
The Lannister Lord remained silent, slowly ȧssimilating all I was telling him.
He might not remain loyal forever, but having someone as influential as him being less skeptical about the warnings of the Night’s Watch when the time comes should do.
As the tunnel we were traversing began to widen up, we sighted several statues made of pure gold, with some elaborated ornaments made out of silver and numerous jewels.
No matter if the loot I got by the end of this dungeon didn’t offer me a ċhėst full of gold, I was sure that a single one of these statues would be more than enough to compensate.
“Do you recognize any of them?” I asked Tywin, pointing at the statues.
“I haven’t seen anything like it in my entire life. But…” He mused for a moment before replying. “My best guess would be that they are the previous Lords of the extinct House Casterly.”
That was strange, each Dungeon I visited had always paid homage to the ruling house of the castle on the surface.
Perhaps the System simply regarded the name Casterly Rock to the letter.
But still…
The metallic noise coming from behind us stopped my train of thought.
As Tywin turned to observe, I told him. “Don’t worry, the metal portcullis always drops after I delve enough inside the dungeon.”
‘Mostly common monsters ahead of us.’ Shadow informed me with a meow, surprising Tywin. ‘Oh, I’ve found a bigger cat.’
“Is it actually speaking with you?” Tywin asked, having a harder time to believe that a cat could speak intelligently than he had while I told him about Undeads.
“She is. And it seems we will be fighting a Lion.”
I answered his question. “Come, we are taking too long to clear this place.”
As Tywin walked behind me with a luminous crossbow ready to shoot, we eventually reached the section where deep compartments were carved into the walls.
“A crypt?” Tywin questioned, hiding his unease behind his cold expression. “Are they hiding there?”
“It seems so. Be on guard but let me deal with them.” I commanded.
My mental map pinpointed the hostile creatures, so when I heard rumbled noises, I headshot four Zombies clad in armor with my Eldritch Blast.
Funnily enough, the noise of crackling beams of energy was harmonious only to me, given how Tywin covered his ear.
More out of reflex, because Mage Armor shielded him against Thunder damage.
A real-world context would be getting caught in the shockwave of a large explosion, as the damage the shockwave would do would be considered thunder damage.
My cantrip was merely cacophonous.
But I digress…
Picking small stones out of my inventory, I coated it with Eldritch Smite and threw it.
Sadly it wasn’t enough to blow past the Zombies’ ċhėstplate, but it was enough to knock them prone.
And this was all the advantage I required.
Rushing at them with my Twin Gladius lighting up with a Radiant aura, I brutalized them with devastating slashes.
This was taking too long.
Activating Thaumaturgy and having the entire tunnel vibrate due to an earthquake, I had all the graves beginning to burst open.
I fastened my pace, feeling free to not hold out.
It was nothing short of carnage, if undeads could be considered as people.
The last standing foe was also the strongest among them.
{ZOMBIE KNIGHT, AVERAGE UNDEAD}
{A reanimated knight, taken from their grave to serve a new master, as devoted in death as they were while alive.}
{LV – 20}
DEF: 40
HP: 100
SPEED: 30 ft.
POWER: 23
MOBILITY: 15
ENDURANCE: 25
INTELLIGENCE: 10
DAMAGE IMMUNITY: POISON
DAMAGE RESISTANCE: NECROTIC
DAMAGE VULNERABILITY: FIRE
CONDITION IMMUNITIES: EXHAUSTION, FRIGHTENED
SENSES: DARKVISION 120 ft.
LANGUAGES: IT UNDERSTAND THE LANGUAGE IT KNEW BACK IN LIFE, BUT CAN’T SPEAK IT.
Though I left him for last to test the feature I got from my title as Knight.
Which made no sense if this Dungeon really belonged to the Casterlys, especially since they were supposed to be First Men, faithful to the Old Gods.
Perhaps the statues were so well made that Tywin didn’t recognize his ancestors.
Or he didn’t know all of them, which was definitely more likely to be the case.
Nonetheless…
Before the towering Zombie, covered in full plate armor, managed to cut me in half with its Greatsword, I raised my hand and a dark liquid came out of my palm and covered the undead before vanishing.
{CONTROL UNDEAD}
{As a feature, you target one undead creature you can see within 10 meters of you that is of a lower level than you. The target must obey your commands for the next 24 hours, or until you use this Divine Smite option again. An undead whose Level is equal to or greater than your title level is immune to this effect.}
Noticing that my Mental map now regarded the Zombie as an ally, I grinned.
Turning to face the silent Lannister Lord, I noticed his description revealed that he now was afraid of me.
Though god damn the man knew how to hide it behind his usual cold expression.
“Are you done?” He asked, not skipping a beat.
“Yes.” I nodded while storing my weapons. “How are you holding?”
“Wasn’t expecting that.” He replied, still clinging to the possibility that I could only discern if he was being truthful or not.
To make him unsure of that I simply grinned back at him. “Few men would have the stomach to deal with these creatures.”
“Aren’t you forgetting that one?” Tywin asked, referring to my newest pet.
“It’s mine now.” I told him and casted a minor illusion to make it resemble a Lannister soldier, to the Old lion’s surprise. “Let’s continue…”
I stopped mid sentence, as my Familiar warned me of an enemy rushing towards our location.
“Stay on guard.” I commanded while storing Shadow in her own dimension.
Hearing a loud roar coming from the darkness, I commanded my Zombie Knight to guard Tywin.
{REANIMATED LION, LARGE UNDEAD}
It was incredible.
The only thing preventing me from controlling this undead lion alongside my Zombie Knight was that it would be much harder to explain having it around.
Even if I hid it under an illusion of a regular lion it would be too inconvenient to have it follow me around.
It rushed with another roar before pouncing at me in a vicious attack.
I copied it’s strategy and met it in the air, Wild Shaping into a Hrakkar, a breed of White Lion native to the Dothraki sea.
Even though I could easily finish it with Eldritch Blast or Smite, I wanted to test how well my stats translated to my Wild Shape.
I was much stronger, faster and my endurance was very high, but its nature as an undead made it immune to pain and regular preservation instincts.
I had better coordination and balance, not to mention that fighting wasn’t just a contest of speed and power.
When I fought the undead predator I didn’t attempt to bite at its neck, like it did to mine.
The reason a male Lion had a mane was for defense in fighting.
I knew how to ‘box’ with my claws, using and closing distance, quite the amazing clash to watch if I may so myself.
And so I clawed its eyes out before pinning it against the wall with a strong push and broke its skull with a nasty bite.
Although it wasn’t nastier than the taste it left in my mouth, that I can ȧssure you.
Thankfully my resistance to Necrotic and poison damage translated to this form as well.
Shaping back into my human form, with my armor still protecting my body, I signaled for both Tywin and my Zombie Knight to follow.
The former was developing a tolerance for my weird stunts fast enough to prevent him from getting outright frightened, though not to the point of having him take me lightly.
Which suited my need for now.
Regardless, as we walked past the empty tunnel, I started to test my Zombie lackey.
Its undead nature meant that it didn’t require air, food, drink, or sleep for sustenance.
And thanks to my Message cantrip being basically a free pass to telepathy, I could mentally issue commands to the undead Knight, which it followed to the best of its ability.
If no commands were given, it would defend itself against hostile creatures.
It could even reply with its gruff voice in simple sentences like ‘Yes, master.’ or ‘Will do.’
Though whenever it spoke, it felt as if it was screeching in either pain or anger.
Perhaps both.
Tywin was somewhat unnerved at the Undead’s intelligence, but he knew better than to antagonize me.
At least he had to see similarities between me commanding a Zombie Knight with him having the Cleganes as his beasts.
Nevertheless, the three of us proceeded ahead as I disarmed several traps along the way, thanks to my Observe skill and Alert perk.
“Stop.” I ordered while raising my hand, prompting both of my companions to halt their movement.
Despite his age, Tywin actually showed some semblance of appreciation for our little adventure.
Sure he didn’t say anything, but he wasn’t straight away complaining about this being a waste of his time.
“Another trap?” The old Lion questioned, still impressed how I dealt with the previous dart trap.
Since my Inventory window is invisible to him, it was as if the poisonous projectiles vanished right before hurting me.
“Indeed.” I informed him before walking forwards, preparing to cast another new spell. “A dangerous one.”
As I threw a pebble inside the bȧrėly noticeable ring of metallic tubes embedded on the golden surface of the tunnel, and immediately after a whooshing sound was heard as flames shot out at the small rock.
Despite my heat resistance, I wasn’t anywhere near the level of tanking Fire as if it was nothing.
Thankfully I had gained another spell out of my Abjuration studies, which allowed me to stay far enough to not get burned.
{ABSORB ELEMENTS Lv- 3 (67%)}
{FIRST LEVEL ABJURATION SPELL: The spell captures some of the incoming energy, lessening its effect on you and storing it for you to use on an attack. You also gain resistance to the triggering damage type for a minute.}
CASTING TIME/DURATION: 6 SECONDS (which you take while absorbing acid, cold, fire, lightning, or thunder)
RANGE: SELF
COMPONENTS: SOMATIC
{-100 MP}
It basically allowed my Inventory to store up non-physical attacks and potentially mitigate the damage I would take if it was aimed directly at me.
Better yet, this led me to attempt mixing it with my Eldritch Blast cantrip.
Sadly no Fire bolt came out of it.
But… something else.
{*REQUIREMENTS MET (Achieve at least two types of damage when casting an Evocation spell)}
{CHROMATIC ORB Lv- 1(0%)}
{FIRST LEVEL EVOCATION SPELL: You hurl a 4-inch-diameter sphere of energy at a creature that you can see within range. If you have the element contained, choose acid, cold, fire, lightning, poison, or thunder for the type of orb you create, and then make a ranged spell attack against the target. If the attack hits, the creature takes damage of the type you chose.}
CASTING TIME: 6 SECONDS
DURATION: INSTANTANEOUS
RANGE: 30 METERS
COMPONENTS: VOCAL, SOMATIC AND MATERIAL (a jewel worth of 50 gold coins or all the damage type essence stored)
Sure, it would be a bitch to grind, but it was a good progress in my book.
Acid and poison were a no-brainer, only this time I would have them raining nearby me before storing them without flasks.
Fire was somewhat situational, like traps with fire throwers, but still not that extremely rare.
Lighting and thunder would require some absurd luck while standing close to a lighting rod amidst a storm without getting zapped myself, but still not impossible.
The actual problem would be Cold damage.
Storing actual blocks of ice didn’t seem to work, so I believe neither would snow or hailstones.
Perhaps I should continue to work on my attempt to reverse the effects of Wildfire.
After comprehending basic Alchemy and deconstructing the concept of enchantments, one discovers that, at their heart, they were actually simple fields of study that dealt with ingredient recipes and inscription patterns.
So the opposite of the process to produce Wildfire should result in something very cold and dark.
Some sort of magical liquid nitrogen equivalent that would be just as messy as the jars of the substance I had stored in my inventory.
Perhaps even give some way to obtain Necrotic damage.
Come to think of it, having one of my Gladius shining bright with Radiant enchantment as the other emanated some grim dark aura with Necrotic enchantment would be really epic.
Food for thought.
“Let’s proceed.” I said after making sure the trap had been completely disarmed.
Soon enough, we finally reached the end of the tunnel.
Activating the small opening in the wall before us, a passageway came to be, leading us to the Treasure Room.
The chamber itself was larger than the one under the Red Keep, but small if compared to the one under Harrenhal.
I noticed the upper silver ring lighting up a small signal to inform me I had unlocked Casterly Rock, ignoring it and the mosaic tiles on the ceiling for now, I focused on something else.
Just as I had expected, no ċhėst could be found in the center of the Treasure Room.
But the walls were completely covered with pure blocks of gold.
It reminded me of Fort Knox’s depository of gold.
But since the entire tunnel leading here was covered in gold, to say that I’ve struck a gold mine was a massive understatement.
And Tywin Lannister knew about it.
This simply made me want to acquire the Mining skill as soon as possible and began exploring the Westerlands.
Though I should keep in mind to watch out for the value of gold with so much available.
“This way will lead you back to Casterly Rock.” I pointed at the passage that had just appeared on the wall.
“I appreciate the adventure…” The old man bowed in respect before asking. “But would you mind telling me what will be done with all of this?”
“Since I know you have no use for it, I will be using it to fund the creation and maintenance of my forces.” I replied, not leaving space for him to argue.
“Your forces… my prince?” He questioned a little confused, before correcting his tone.
“The Royal Army.” I told him.
—————————————————————
The Royal Army.
One of the two times Joffrey was right.
Second being his initial worry about Daenerys and her dragons.
I guess a broken clock is right twice a day.
Saying that Westeros needed one army instead of each lord having private armies was a pretty good idea.
And interesting enough, something that even Robert Baratheon agreed to, given his speech about one army united behind one leader.
Disputes would’ve been settled more quickly and life would’ve been much better for the common folk, who after all just wanted peace and a good harvest, had the Targaryens made use of their dragons before their civil war took place.
But how exactly should one make this idea into reality?
A major problem of Middle Age armies was that most commanders could only field about 2-5000 well trained men.
The rest were farmhands and other feudal tenants who had to be taken away from the land in order to fight.
They were badly trained, not very well fed and didn’t have standardised weaponry.
Standing armies should change that.
A decently sized standing army could beat a much larger force of… well, rabble, simply because they are well disciplined and carry actual weapons, and not farming tools.
If I were to offer pay, training, and food to any man across the seven kingdoms who wanted to join the Royal Army, I could quickly get myself a standing force of say, 10000.
If I were to then pay for the upkeep of this army the normal ways states normally do, then this army would, eventually, be subservient to me instead of to the other lords owners of the lands they lived in.
In the event of a civil war, some would desert obviously, but it’s not unreasonable to ȧssume that most would have married women in the capital city, and made friends with people from other places, and would be loyal to the Iron Throne instead of to the individual Kingdoms.
The flip side of this is that standing armies were expensive, and they had a tendency to initiate coup attempts.
The way the best kingdoms paid for their standing armies, and ensured their loyalty, was through conquest.
A king would march to another country, loot the hell out of it, and his army would be loyal to him because they’d see him as a brother-in-arms who had shared their trial by fire.
This made them a lot more willing to fight in civil wars, like Julius and Augustus Caesar.
Which led me to the perfect example to follow, in my opinion.
The Roman army was remembered as one of the most effective fighting forces in history.
In its own time, the Legions proved their strength on the battlefield time after time against all who oppose them.
This raised the question, if the Roman army was so powerful, why didn’t anyone simply just copy it?
To answer this question, I will first dissect the specimen of the Roman Legions.
This will allow me to better comprehend what were the key features worth copying, what would be required to achieve these same features and to what extent others before me had succeeded in creating their very own imitation Legions.
Right off the bat I will admit that it’s actually quite hard to find a representative specimen for the Roman army since it evolved over the course of almost a thousand years.
But with my understanding I can make some pretty valid general observations.
Starting from the low level analysis of the soldier, slowly zoom out to the unit analysis and finally the overall army analysis.
At the lowest level of the soldier, we can look at things like personal equipment skill and discipline.
In terms of equipment for instance, we’re talking about providing gear for a primarily heavy infantry base force.
Again, it’s specific incarnation might vary, but for much of the Roman Army’s history that meant equipping soldiers with a short stabbing sword, a throwing javelin, a large oval or rectangular shield, chainmail armor and a helmet.
Perhaps even slings (or light crossbows).
In terms of personal skill, members of the Legion were initially just former soldiers called to action as a levy.
At first they had a fairly low skill level and it would be the responsibility of the general to prepare the troops for war at the start of a campaign.
However, there was often just a brief window for such activities and most training was done on the job.
The more fighting an army did, the more skilled its troops became.
Thus, periods of prolonged high intensity campaigning could transform even the greenest of troops into battle hardened veterans, such that they might even be considered semi-professionals.
I believe having a mercenary free company in the future would be optimal for that.
However attrition and the inevitable disbanding of forces in times of peace meant that the army skills could also quickly dull when not wetted by war.
Especially since no way in the seven hells I will be risking adding them to my party.
This problem however, changed by the end of the Republican period and into the empire when Roman Legionaries became professional soldiers.
At that time, they would be enlisted to serve careers of around 25 years that involve physical fitness, weapons training, tactical drills and more activities to ensure they kept their edge.
The historian Josephus, noted that it would not be wrong to call their drills bloodless battles, and their battles bloody drills.
As a result, the overall skill of the Roman army was raised to even higher levels and could be counted on to remain so over the generations.
Another benefit of this fact was that the army could then also begin to specialize in all sorts of skills, like engineering, siege work, logistics and more.
In terms of discipline the Roman army did not mess around.
Even early on, they employed a wide range of carrots and sticks to instill a high level of order and control.
Both Tywin Lannister and Randyl Tarly would’ve been impressed.
For instance, there were rules against lying, thievery, unmanly acts and dereliction of duty.
Minor offenses might be met with lashings or a fine, while major offenses could result in execution, sometimes administered by one’s own peers as would occur with the decimation.
On the other hand, soldiers could also expect to be rewarded for acts of exceptional bravery and competence.
This involved special military decorations, financial payments and promotion.
Thus discipline was quite high, among the rank-and-file Roman soldiers, especially as the army became highly professionalized in its later years.
Now that I’ve covered the individual level of the Roman Legion, let’s zoom out to talk about the unit.
Specifically its organization and leadership.
In terms of organization, the Romans at first followed the Greek manner by arranging their forces into a rigid Phalanx, before later adopting the more flexible Maniple system in response to increased fighting in the rough terrain of Samian.
Which makes me realize how useful the Westerlands’ layout will be to mimic that effort.
In similar terrains, soldiers were grouped together into units of 60 men (centuries), pairs of which formed a Maniple, 10 Maniples then formed a battle line of which there were now three.
The main advantage with it was that each Maniple could function independently, giving the army as a whole much more flexibility.
This had huge benefits when it came to advancing, fighting, reinforcing, exploiting opportunities in combat and overall just widening the range of tactics available to the Legions.
When the Roman army professionalized, it would maintain this concept by joining together six centuries into a cohort of around 480 men, ten of which formed a Legion.
In this way, the smaller elements of a Legion could still operate independently while boasting more manpower than the previous Maniples, which gave the army greater tactical and strategic flexibility.
The Roman leadership structure was closely linked to the system of flexible modular units.
Basically the way this worked was that each century had a commanding officer known as a Centurion.
As centuries were grouped together, their Centurions would be ranked into a hierarchical chain of command, out ranking them would be Tribunes and above them the general.
The higher levels of an army were typically members of the upper class, who joined over the course of their political careers.
The centurions on the other hand, were often
military professionals who might spend decades in the army.
And possibly prime candidates for Knighthood.
Their embedment at all levels ensured that no matter who was in charge at the very top the army as a whole always had the institutional
knowledge necessary to operate effectively.
Their presence on the frontlines also helped with discipline and morale.
It also meant that the flexible roman units were empowered to make their own decisions on the fly, which could ultimately turn the tide of battle.
Their opponents on the other hand were basically forced to face the chaos of war wearing a tactical straightjacket.
Now, we can finally zoom out to the overall army level, talking about matters of resources and logistics.
In terms of resources this had to do with Rome’s ability to devote massive amounts of manpower and money towards its military efforts.
Such was the level of effort expended that they could often just overwhelm or outlast an opponent who might otherwise beat them in the short term.
I’m sure I can find great uses for each Kingdom.
Resources were after all key.
We see this really first take place during Rome’s clashes with Pyrrhus of Epirus.
Pyrrhus won multiple battles, but emerged each time bloodier and bloodier, leading him to declare: “Another victory like that and I am done for!”
And eventually withdrawing completely.
The same phenomenon occurred during the Punic Wars, when huge armies and fleets were raised time and again by Rome in the face of repeated devastating losses.
This ability to deploy such resources could be traced to a variety of factors, including Rome’s large pool of citizens, its strong network of allies, its stable political system and it’s hard to quantify cultural bullheadedness.
As Republic turned to Empire, Rome gained even more manpower and wealth to pour into its military efforts, which made it yet more formidable.
The leveraging of resources goes hand in hand with my next topic of logistics.
At first Rome was quite inexperienced, but gradually built up its skills over the course of
its foreign expeditions.
Eventually the Legions were able to operate with the whole supply chain behind them, making sure they had adequate supplies of food and equipment.
This not only allowed the army to operate at peak capacity, but also gave it the strategic capability to campaign for longer amounts of time and over greater distances than its enemies.
From everyday moments, supply lines and logistics, to how wartime affected it.
Suffice to say, Rome’s massive resources coupled with an incredibly efficient logistical system provided a huge force multiplier to an
army that was already incredibly powerful.
Honestly, there’s a ton more to be said about all the intricacies of the Roman army, but for now that should do it.
Now we can consider why others didn’t just copy the Roman army.
I will do so by going through each element in the same order as before.
So as a would-be copycat I’d probably start by trying to replicate the individual Roman soldier.
In terms of equipment, this should actually be fairly easy.
The type of gear the Legions carried wasn’t that exceptional.
Most of their kit could be found in the other major armies of the Known World, who also fielded heavy infantry.
In fact, the Romans themselves are believed to have actually been the ones who copied from others.
For instance, the famed Gladius sword came from the Iberians, and their large rounded scutum shield came from other Italian tribes.
Over time however, Roman manufacturing developed to the point where its forces were able to turn out large quantities of high-quality gear.
This allowed a greater proportion of the Roman army to be suitably equipped, as compared to other forces.
It also allowed for the development of sophisticated novel armor sets like the Lorica Segmentata.
This would be quite hard for others to copy without significant investment.
But failure to produce such items shouldn’t necessarily be counted against would-be copycats.
After all, the Lorica Segmentata fell into disuse by the Romans themselves due to it’s high production and maintenance costs.
And even if it hadn’t, minor differences in equipment during that age wasn’t a huge differentiator in the outcome of battles.
But thankfully my brief time at Lannisport showed me there wouldn’t be a shortage of blacksmiths and material resources.
After my soldiers are equipped with gear comparable to the Legions, then what about matching their skill?
Well, again this shouldn’t have been that
difficult.
As I stated, during the Republican period, Roman troops were initially just levy soldiers with relatively little training.
As such, their individual skills could be easily matched by soldiers from other warrior societies across the Mediterranean, often the question of who was better had come down to simply who had more combat experience.
In these matters Rome didn’t necessarily have the edge, as they were not a uniquely martial
power.
Many of their peers in the Hellenistic Gallic Punic and Persian world’s for instance frequently engage in warfare that produced hardened veterans who could go toe-to-toe with the Romans.
Admittedly, this equation began to change as the Roman army professionalized and raised the overall skill of its soldiers.
But that’s more of a long term goal for me.
So why didn’t other armies do the same?
Well, in many ways… they had.
Professional soldiers were nothing new, even for Westerosi standards, and many other nations had their own full-time soldiers, like the Persian Immortals and the Unsullied for instance.
Even so-called barbarian armies had elite troops who made up the retinue of powerful chieftains, like the Thenns beyond the Wall.
Oftentimes however, these made up just a small part of the overall army, thus to match the Romans one would have to greatly increase the amount of professionals in their army.
This would take a lot of money and power, but
it could be done.
I will achieve it.
Philip II of Macedon for example, famously leveraged the vast mineral wealth of the Balkans and his own political position to reform the Macedonian army into a full-time professional force.
It was this army that then marched to victory after victory under his son Alexander the Great.
Yet opportunities for such sweeping reforms
were relatively rare, this was especially true as Rome’s rise to power often came at the expense of its rivals, which meant that they were less and less able to pour in the financial and political capital necessary to keep up.
Now, let’s talk about copying the Roman units
organization and leadership.
This is arguably more important, since as I’ve said, most of the time, the quality of the rank-and-file troops was pretty comparable across different armies.
In terms of organization, we were left to ask why didn’t anyone else break up the rigid Phalanx into something more flexible like the Roman Maniple.
Again, the answer was that… well… they did.
Militaries of antiquity always faced evolutionary pressures from war and had long identified the potential weaknesses in the Phalanx style of fighting.
It’s for this reason that the Phalanx was often accompanied by light troops and cavalry, to cover up for its deficiencies.
During the Wars of the Diadochi for instance, changes to unit organization were seen with the increasing deployment of a new type of medium infantry, to fit between the heavy Pike Phalanxes and the light skirmishers.
These units, known as Thureophoroi, filled a similar role to the Maniples and that they could be used in a far more flexible manner on the battlefield.
But unlike the Maniples, they were never really deployed on a large scale and remained as more of a support role.
But why not?
Well, part of the answer is that the Phalanx still worked, and could prove devastating when properly supported.
Another reason is that switching your whole army over to the Maniple system would also require a switch to your command and control system.
This now brings us to the question of copying the Roman leadership.
All armies have a hierarchy of command, but the depth to which they extend into an army vary greatly in time.
Sometimes the lowest level officer controlled hundreds of men, while other times that might just control dozens.
For instance, during the Peloponnesian War, we see that the Athenian system (Strategos> Teaxiarchos-1000 > Lochagos-100) was not as robust as the Spartan one (King > Polemarch-600 > Lochagos-150 > Pentekostyes-80 > Enomotarchos-40), which extended down to the Enomotarchos in charge of around 40 men, a group smaller than even the roman century.
This helped give the Spartans their edge when it came to tactical flexibility and discipline in battle.
Thus, we see that other armies were capable of having officers with similar command scopes to the Roman centurions.
The difference however was that the Roman Centurions had the freedom to independently move their units about.
Thus, you see how both leadership and organization were interlinked and it would require quite the overhaul for someone to copy the roman unit system.
Standing in the way would not only be the technical knowledge or resources, but also the institutional barriers of the current army model.
Oftentimes this was a reflection of the society it came from, with special roles and privileges for the nobility, which would generally not want to have their boat rocked.
Now we can finally turn to the idea of copying the Roman Army’s resources and logistics.
At this point it’s a pretty tall order to try and copy something on such a macro level.
Getting more resources in terms of manpower and money for example was far easier said than done, with only the major empires of history being able to contend with Rome in these matters.
As for logistics, that’s also closely tied to the economy and infrastructure of a particular society.
Many of Rome’s contemporaries already had a logistical system in place, with some being rather sophisticated and robust.
But ultimately they had no hope of competing with Rome without controlling an equivalently large amount of territory from which to draw supplies, and without control of the same
Mediterranean sea lanes, with which to
efficiently link these to an army.
So, where does that leave us?
Well basically, the Roman army had a lot going for it, with much on the unit and army level that was hard to replicate.
But that didn’t stop some from trying, the longtime enemy of Rome, Mithridates of Pontus for instance, apparently reorganized his forces after initial confrontation with the Legions.
According to Plutarch: “He had swords forged in the Roman fashion, heavy shields welded and 120,000 footmen drilled in the Roman formation.”
This was all done under the instruction of turncoat Legionaries and Centurions recruited by the general.
In this way, it appears that Mithridates had created an imitation Legion with the equipment, organization and leadership to match.
Unfortunately there were few records of this incident and little with which to judge its performance.
Ultimately however, Mithridates did lose to Rome, so it seems that the experiment was a failure.
And therein lies the problem, it was an experiment at best.
The Roman military system was successful as a package deal.
All of its elements worked together, such that its whole was greater than the sum of its parts.
Therefore just copying bits and pieces wouldn’t get me the same results.
Yeah, my own Legions might look and even feel like the real thing on the training field, but it wouldn’t hold up in the rigors of war without great investment.
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(30/10/2021)
*Hope this chapter is of your liking.
Anything you wish to ask, feel free to do so.
Check out my auxiliary chapter if you still haven’t.
Thanks as always for your attention and please be safe.
Any problems with my writing, just point them out and I will correct them as soon as possible.
** Allow me to recommend the YouTube channel “Invicta”, it was really insightful in helping me visualize how I could mimic the Roman Legion.
