DRAGONS REBORN: The Era After SI (GOT story)

Part 22

Chapter 22

Mance Rayder, The King Beyond the Wall, was quite an interesting character. Born by the union of a Free Folk woman and a man of the Night's Watch, the man's origins were quite complex. After the Night's Watch killed a wildling village, they took the young boy with them and raised him at the wall where he would grow up and join the Watch, donning its Black Cloak.

Yet the nature of his duties and a personal incident with a wildling woman would leave him questioning his identity and his oaths, prompting his eventual escape from the Wall as he joined the Free Folk.

He would obtain considerable influence amongst their ranks and would go on to become a prominent leader amongst them. When King Aerys sent an entourage to the North of the Wall, they were said to have made contact with Mance Rayder and offered him a chance to trade with the capital.

What the wildlings gave in return is still a mystery, but it is documented that the King gave them food and weapons, especially those made out of dragon glass, and this helped Mance Rayder begin repairs at the broken castle of Hardhome.

Mance would receive support from various Free Fold tribes, who would stop trying to venture past the Wall and would join him in forming a settlement at Hardhome, giving Mance the title of the King Beyond the Wall. A title in name only for the man would hold no castles and wear no crown on his head.

The castle of Hardhome would provide respite to the free folk, yet the Free folk were more than a few tribes. They were a culture, and despite the repaired castle, many would continue to live out in their wandering ways.

The lands beyond the North were rife with magic, with the lands filled with creatures of myth and legends, like the dire wolves and the giants. Remnants of these creatures have been found, and their presence can be confirmed through various texts of histories and they would go on to play quite an important role in the war to come.

0000

MANCE RAYDER

What made a man a king? A crown. A sigil. A castle. His sword. Or a fine garb made of silk and cotton.

None of the above could be true for Mance had none of these things yet was called a King by many in the land. And so he decided that it was men and their dream of a better future that made someone a King.

And a King must have the cunning and the daring to do things that regular men would never dream of doing. And it had been this sentiment that had made Mance parley with the men who had come to the North all those years ago.

Men from the crown who accompanied the Lord Commander of the Crows and asked for a parley bringing with them a letter from the Crown itself. His people had thought it ploy, to kill the man who had united the free folks. They had advised him to ignore the call to parley, yet Mance had ignored their concerns and had trusted his gut, agreeing to the parley.

And that decision had changed his life. And the life of the free folks.

With the Northern winds eating up their lands the Free folk had been suffering greatly from a lack of food and other resources with the whites expanding uncontrollably, their shields and swords providing little assistance in the battle against the monsters of the legends.

The King's offer had been a blessing for them, a chance to obtain a steady supply of food and materials to make Hardhome liveable again, all at the cost of cessation of raids across the wall and the murder of one exiled and disgraced crow. The King had wanted more, offering gold and knighthoods to those among them blessed with gifts of warging, yet few trusted such an offer at first.