Content: 13 short stories (3 set in the Mistland Universe, 1 set in the time of King Arthur), 5 flash fiction (all set in the Mistland Universe), and 2 poems
Price: $3.99 USD (eBook, free on Kindle Unlimited!)/$10.99 USD (Paperback)
Blurb: “Hero and villain. Fugitive and citizen. Irregulars have been all these things over recent years, especially the ones in Mistland, a Neo-Victorian kingdom out of place and time. But beyond that universe lay countless others. A world where dragons terrorize whole nations from the skies, a world where malcontents scheme for power just beyond the Round Table’s reach, and more. So kindle your hearth, sit down, and open the door to a new adventure. You won’t be disappointed.”
Availability: All Amazon marketplaces!
Over ten pieces of B & W and full-color artwork by more than four different artists have been posted here, including the previously shown maps!
Theme song for the protagonist of one short story on YouTube!
Indie comics I've been reading recently, all of which I highly recommend
Alpha Cat
Blood of Atlantis
Bullet Adventures
Countdown to Cobalt Crisis
Dare
Dino Knights
Dungeons & Dimwits
Edgar Allan
Morgana Pendragon
NPCs
Packrat & Thunderbunny
Rat King
Swords of Arthur - Lancelot
The Last Case of Devon & Taylor
That sounds really interesting. Do you have a link to it?
I never finished it. I had worked on it off-and-on, but I always ended up working on other projects. Once Professor Attewell passed on, I guess it just felt...too late I guess.
The basic premise was that this was a cousin of the ruling Queen Arryn, a talented knight and general who had the fortune of fighting for or against most of the petty kings of Westeros at one point or another. Half Arryn, half Durrendon, he was "the picture of knightly courtesy, yet always under him raged the storm, eager to get out." The Worthless War featured prominently, with his legendary rivalry against Prince Joros Stark. He also dealt with a peasant rebellion in the Dornish Marches, fought as a mercenary under Lady Lanna Lannister against the Greyirons, and founded House Arryn of Gulltown.
It was a lot of fun to sketch out, especially the parts where almost all of his victories were undercut out from under him. Victory without satisfaction.
This one's a long recap since the chapter is a veritable grab bag of issues. The sheer scope of what this chapter does is kind of amazing.
The story so far…
Tyrion is settling into his new job as Master of Coin and his married life with Sansa. He’d probably rather be doing anything else, except maybe planning for that upcoming royal wedding.
Child Abuse
Our chapter begins with Tyrion really not having a great day of it. His job’s miserable. His home life is worse. This is because he’s been married to a child hostage bride, and shocker of shockers, she’s not happy about it.
Sansa’s misery was deepening every day. Tyrion would gladly have broken through her courtesy to give her what solace he might, but it was no good. No words would ever make him fair in her eyes. Or any less a Lannister. This was the wife they had given him, for all the rest of his life, and she hated him.
And yeah, this is creepy as fuck, especially when it’s followed by Tyrion’s blunt internal monologue: I want her.
Let’s break this down a bit because there’s a lot going on here.
First, this is a passage about the patriarchy hurting men too. What Tyrion wants is not Sansa in particular - he barely mentions anything about her specifically in that paragraph - but emotional intimacy and romantic love. Sansa just so happens to be the person that Tyrion’s father has handed off to him and Tyrion’s society says is the proper outlet for romantic feelings. And she’s a twelve-year-old hostage, so Tyrion’s running up hard against the fact that he’s not going to get that romantic connection from her.
Second, we cannot have a paragraph about the patriarchy hurting men without the spectre of the patriarchy hurting women in the background. Even as the focus of this bit right here is the effect on Tyrion, critical readers are going to go “well yeah, she’s a twelve-year-old hostage, Tyrion doesn’t deserve those feelings from her and was never entitled to them in the best case scenario.” Critical readers are going to note the fact that Sansa has been treated like an object and that Tyrion doesn’t seem to bat an eye at the fact that Sansa is a literal child. Our PoV character has thoroughly normalised the sexualisation of a pre-teen girl and that is extremely goddamned uncomfortable.
Third, there’s the extent to which ableism comes into play. We can see from the “or any less a Lannister” comment that Tyrion’s intellectually aware of the fact that there’s solid reason for Sansa not to be mad keen on marrying into his family even if he was able-bodied. But his attractiveness is his first thought, and it’s his attractiveness he comes back to, bitterly and ironically wishing to be “as tall as Jaime and as strong as Ser Gregor the Mountain too”. I think it’s fair to say that this is the part that Tyrion really feels. Unlike being a Lannister, his disability is something Tyrion actually hates and would change if he could.
Tyrion’s relationship with Sansa comes back at the very end of the chapter, as Tywin admonishes Tyrion for not raping her. Tyrion protests that Sansa is too young (which she is!). There is absolutely no compassion in Tywin’s reply.
“She is old enough to be Lady of Winterfell once her brother is dead. Claim her maidenhood and you will be one step closer to claiming the north. Get her with child, and the prize is all but won. Do I need to remind you that a marriage that has not been consummated can be set aside?”
Aside from being straight repulsive, a) Tywin’s referring to once Robb is dead, as though it were an inevitability, and b) this is here to set up the fact that annulments are available in Westeros, and might be available in Sansa’s specific case.
Fraud
So like I mentioned above, Tyrion’s job is miserable. The other thing going into Tyrion’s ‘black mood’ is the state of the city. Including the bits just outside of it, which Tyrion goes to see in person. Nothing but “mud and ashes and bits of burned bone.” Before the Battle of the Blackwater it was a commercial centre, one of the biggest ports in Westeros, so it’s going to need to be rebuilt. Which means money. Money that the new Master of Coin will have to find someway, somehow. Tyrion’s due to talk to the guild masters.
The people of King’s Landing are none too friendly to Tyrion as he makes this in-person inspection. Tyrion needs Bronn’s protection here, and Tyrion’s mixed attitudes to the people in return is on full display.
“Remind me to tell Ser Addam to post some gold cloaks here,” he told Bronn as they rode between two of the trebuchets. “Some fool boy’s like to fall off and break his back.” There was a shout from above, and a clod of manure exploded on the ground a foot in front of him. Tyrion’s mare reared and almost threw him. “On second thoughts,” he said when he had the horse in hand, “let the poxy brats splatter on the cobbles like overripe melons.”
It’s not that Tyrion’s wrong to be upset. He wasn’t at fault for the battle itself. In this particular incident, potentially being thrown from his horse is dangerous. But instead of blaming those specific children throwing dung at him, Tyrion’s immediately like “no public safety measures for you as a class.” An inherently mixed character, is Tyrion: instinctive compassion for children, which he is capable of withdrawing immediately when his pride is stung.
The results of the field trip are discussed with Tywin later on in the chapter, but I’ll deal with them here. Tyrion ends up with a whole long list of infrastructure repairs need doing. Tywin says:
“You will find whatever gold is required.”
Tyrion pushes back on the idea that money grows on trees, with a second list of the bills the crown needs to pay (seventy-seven bloody courses! A thousand guests!) and though he accept Tywin’s argument that extravagance has its uses, he suggests that if it’s his father’s political needs they’re catering to, the money should come from Tywin. Tywin says:
“Don’t be absurd.”
It turns out that Tywin literally only looked at the ‘income’ section of the balance sheet. Not the expenses. All he knows about the crown’s finances is important number go up. Behind all this is what Tyrion points out: the expenses are up as well, and it’s a real struggle to keep up with the usury on various loans. Why were those loans taken out? How was the usury set? Who knows these things! (Petyr Baelish knows.) And more to the point, Tywin Lannister dos not care.
“I will have the wedding and the waterfront. If you cannot pay for them, say so, and I will find a master of coin who can.”
The prospect of being sacked is too much for Tyrion, and he promises to find the money somehow. The money’s not there to find, though, and Tyrion VI will imply strongly that it was stolen long ago. But that’s a story for Tyrion VI, in conjunction with Eddard IV AGoT - something for readers to piece together bit by bit.
Extortion
Tyrion’s not in town just to check out the harbour. As he rides through the city he starts keeping a closer lookout for Varys’ people. This is because Tyrion’s main purpose in coming down here is some surreptitious business of his own. He heads into a “dismal” wine sink, empty at the morning hour, and goes into a back room where Symon Silver Tongue, bard, is waiting for a payment of thirty dragons.
A fortune, for a man like him.
By implication, fairly small potatoes to Tyrion.
But what’s this about anyway? Symon isn’t exactly subtle in introducing it.
“My sweet lady Shae tells me you are newly wed. Would that you had sent for me earlier. I should have been honoured to sing at your feet.”
“The last thing my wide needs is more songs,” said Tyrion. “As for Shae, we both know she is no lady, and I would thank you never to speak her name aloud.”
Symon here knows about Tyrion’s relationship with Shae. Now Tyrion’s here to negotiate prices. He mentally upbraids himself for not being harsher, sooner: I threatened him before, but nothing ever came of the threat, so now he believes me toothless.
Tyrion starts with an offer, however. Escort to Duskendale to take ship to the Free Cities. Symon’s counter-offer is a song - and getting the song in is arguably the point of this entire interaction. On a political level, it is clearly about Tyrion’s affair with Shae and tantamount to a threat to expose it if Tyrion doesn’t up the offer. On a literary level it’s here to tell us about one of Tyrion’s core issues:
And a chain and a keep are nothing
Compared to a woman’s kiss.
Recall that Tywin threatened to hang Tyrion’s next illicit sexual partner (back in Tyrion I, ASoS). That on top of the fact Symon’s hit on a major emotional vulnerability.
Tyrion slid his fingers from his cloak, empty.
Tyrion had thirty dragons in a pocket of his cloak. So we can read this as: Tyrion is no longer prepared to offer anything.
Symon is oblivious to this. He insinuates that he’ll go to Cersei or Tywin with this information - but if Tyrion should land him a gig at Joffrey’s wedding, he’ll hold his tongue. This is a freaking ridiculous demand. Sure, Tyrion will get Symon the gig at the biggest venue in the land, that’s something he a) can achieve without comment (which Tyrion points out) and b) does not open him up to further extortion in future. Symon’s unbothered and suggests that Tyrion makes a slot open up, suggesting as a close that should Symon be called up to sing in the meantime, he has an absolute banger he might want to test drive in front of the court.
“That will not be necessary,” said Tyrion. “You have my word as a Lannister, Bronn will call upon you soon.”
Alas, Symon does not understand that he will soon be murdered. Tyrion gives those orders to Bronn almost as soon as they’re out of earshot. And that's the end of that subplot.
Public Sector Corruption
I know! There’s barely a public sector in Westeros at all, and most of it is just a way to spread out the corruption a bit further! But ater all that with the harbour, Tyrion’s work day isn’t done yet. Whatever his flaws, sloth is not amongst them.
Tyrion walks in on his father in the middle of dealing with some stolen goods. Cherrywood scabbard, lion’s-head studs in pure gold (enjoy fixing those when they get scratched), rubies for the eyes. There are some things money can’t buy and damned if taste isn’t one of them. Tyrion approaches at Tywin’s invitation to see that the sword is made of Valyrian steel. Which is strange:
Valyrian steel blades were scarce and costly, yet thousands remained in the world, perhaps two hundred in the Seven Kingdoms alone. It had always irked his father that none belonged to House Lannister.
[…]
Thrice at least Lord Tywin had offered to buy Valyrian longswords from impoverished lesser houses, but his advances had been firmly rebuffed.
What we know and Tyrion doesn’t is that Tywin got the steel by melting down the Stark ancestral sword. And something in the sword itself appears to remember. Though Tywin ordered the armourer to work Lannister crimson into the blade, the steel would not take the dye. The swords made from Ice now have blades like “night and blood upon some steely shore”. Literal lumps of metal have better taste than Tywin.
No sooner than Tyrion says “there is no other sword like it in all the world, I should think” than the armourer reveals a second sword, “if not twins, the two were at least close cousins.” Naturally, the sword Tywin intends to give to Jaime is bigger, I.e. Uses more of the valuable Valyrian steel.
Speaking of, Tywin says to Tyrion’s face:
“It is meant for my son.”
As if Tyrion’s not also Tywin’s son. Again: you cannot buy class. When Tyrion calls him on it, Tywin says “if you have need of a dagger, take one from the armoury.” Another rebuff, as Tywin resists the idea that he would ever gift Tyrion anything
There’s also a throwaway bit of Red Wedding foreshadowing in this chapter too, all slowly but inevitably building up to the main event.
Tyrion placed Jaime’s sword back on the table beside Joffrey’s, wondering if Robb Stark would let his brother live long enough to wield it. Our father must think so, else why have this blade forged?
With that bit of misappropriation of goods unjustly seized by the state done, Tyrion’s actually here to talk about the budget, like I discussed above. After that, we move on to the other political affairs of the realm: Tywin’s unsuccesful attempt to arrange a Tyrell marriage for Cersei, for one. Mace was initially all in before Olenna “unmercifully” bullied him out of it, an interesting insight into Tyrell family dynamics and when and how Olenna’s voice is listened to. It’s clear that the only tie the Tyrells want with the Lannisters goes through the throne. Otherwise they’d prefer to stay disentangled.
Also important is that Tywin promptly throws the entire affair down the memory hole:
“It is better for all of us if the offer was never made. See that you remember that, Tyrion. The offer was never made.”
Someone can’t handle rejection and failure. There are no lessons learned here on Tywin’s part. He’s just editing it out of his personal universe, never to be mentioned again, the reasons never to be considered and factored into future plans. It just didn’t happen. And we know it’s that, and not concern for Cersei’s feelings, because in Jaime VII he’s plotting to marry Jaime to Margaery as if this little incident really didn’t happen.
There’s one last issue for Tyrion to watch Tywin deal with today - the Night’s Watch. Pycelle interrupts, bringing a message from Castle Black. It’s not the first message, either, but it might be the last. It’s one reporting that Jeor Mormont and all his men are missing beyond the Wall. But Bowen Marsh has made a critical mistake: he has addressed his plea to all five kings.
[Tywin] was annoyed. “There is one king in Westeros. Those fools in black might try and remember that if they wish His Grace to heed them. When you reply, tell him Renly is dead and the others are traitors and pretenders.”
He wrote the name on the address wrong. That’s far more significant than, you know, the northern defences of the realm going missing, possibly its entire strength destroyed. No, once this faux pas is cleared up, what the Night’s Watch is going to need is a new leader! Tyrion isn’t pleased when Pycelle suggests Janos Slynt (and Pycelle knows Tyrion will be pissed, too).
“Lord Slynt is new to the Wall. I should know, I sent him there. Why should [the Night’s Watch] pick him over a dozen more senior men?”
“Because,” his father said, in a tone that suggested Tyrion was quite the simpleton, “if they do not vote as they are told, their Wall will melt before it sees another man.”
An entirely reasonable approach to the northern defences. Install this toady or we will starve your organisation.
Tyrion’s anger flashed. “Lord Janos is a hollow suit of armour who will sell himself to the highest bidder.”
“I count that as a point in his favour. Who is like to bid higher than us?”
It’s just flat out corruption. Terrible governance.
And it’s not some small scale NGO, it’s the northern defences. Even if you don’t believe in White Walkers, the Free Folk are real enough. As is the fact that the previous Lord Commander apparently went missing, with all the men he’d taken, in hostile territory. Hello? Is anyone in command here listening? Or prioritising? Do they think Jeor Mormont got lost on a walk in the woods?
Even Tyrion gets sucked in, unfortunately, and his last thought of the chapter is that he should have had Slynt killed too.
Chapter Function
After experiencing the wedding itself from Sansa’s PoV - a choice that is very much GRRM putting Sansa’s fears and vulnerabilities centre stage - we get Tyrion’s PoV to show the secondary effects. Just this short part of this chapter goes a long way to showing Tyrion’s deep-seated issues with romantic love, the lack he feels, how that manifests in how he thinks about and interacts with women (and girls, in Sansa’s case). It also gives us a sense of the raw emotional pain that will eventually lead to Tyrion dropping his brother like a stone after Jaime reveals the truth about what happened with Tysha and to murdering his own father.
This is also one of the reasons the subplot with Symon is here. Symon isn’t all that important in and of himself. What the incident does show us, directly, is that Shae is a serious political liability for Tyrion. Unexamined by Tyrion himself in the moment is the fact that Symon apparently learned of Tyrion’s arrangement with Symon from Shae herself. I doubt it’s malicious on her part - more likely that Shae, who’s about nineteen at this point, just said a little too much in casual conversation - but it’s certainly demonstrating the fact that Shae’s not keeping as quiet about her relationship with Tyrion as Tyrion might want or need.
That, and Symon’s song is outright telling us about Tyrion’s emotional vulnerabilities. You can’t do that with an ordinary extortionist - it would be way too blunt and telling-not-showing to have someone go “hey Tyrion, I know you’re actually in love with Shae despite your better judgement, what’s it worth to you to keep it quiet”. This preserves a tasteful artistic distance.
Alas, we cannot be sure whether the song actually is any good.
Other political plots advance by crucial inches. Littlefinger’s efforts as Master of Coin lurk in the background. There's some Red Wedding foreshadowing. Purple Wedding planning is in full swing. Ice reappears in a different form. The Lannisters and Tyrells continue a tug of war over power. The Night’s Watch is in trouble. All of these things will come back later, bigger, and badder.
Behind this incremental progress is an underlying character dynamic that is also incredibly important for the end of the novel. The back half of the chapter is Tyrion and Tywin interacting. And Tywin is a prick. Even when he has what he wants, his belittling of Tyrion is awful to witness. That “my son” line, just a terrible thing to say. Tywin calls Tyrion’s (good) ideas absurd and treats him like an idiot for his (reasonable) suggestions. Tywin is not just an abusive father but an abusive boss. We see Tyrion try to make himself heard and then back down in the face of Tywin’s unrelenting personal awfulness. This is just not sustainable. One way or another, Tyrion’s got to break. Tywin wants Tyrion to break in the direction of just doing whatever Tywin wants. The readers know Tyrion will go in another direction.
This personal awfulness is, not coincidentally, a big part of why these problems will all come back later. We’re seeing Tywin at work for the realm here, and his priority is the Lannisters. That prioritisation directly results in him ignoring the realm’s dire financial straits and pushing an unqualified toady for a vital Night’s Watch position.
We also get to see the conditions of the common people in King’s Landing, however briefly. The harbour is destroyed (and with it a lot of livelihoods and trade) and won’t be rebuilt anytime soon. Prices are “shockingly high”. Tyrion notes various people described as “gaunt”, “haggard” and “ragged”. This isn’t just about setting up Tyrion’s general unpopularity, but setting up the popular hatred of the Lannisters that will start to become extremely relevant in future books.
Miscellany (and jaywalking)
Worth noting that Kevan’s prioritisation of his own family is evident here, as he’s been wiped out by the news of one son’s murder, in a situation where another son is also a hostage and his eldest son is still recovering from his Blackwater/Cersei-related wounds.
This chapter contains some excellent posthumous characterisation of Robert Baratheon. As Tywin tells us, Robert received sword after sword and dagger after dagger as gifts during his reign - but the only blade Robert ever used was a hunting knife Jon Arryn gave him as a boy. Tossed offhandedly to us by Tywin, it nevertheless shows us that key sentimentality of Robert’s.
Clothing Porn
Bronn wears oiled black mail. In a rare example of describing the clothing of commoners, Symon Silver Tongue wears a doeskin jerkin with bone buttons.
An oddly specific question admittedly but what would the High Valyrian equivalent of Titulus Regius be? (For fanfic purposes.) Thanks and hope you have a wonderful day.
Titulus Regius (Latin for "royal title") was the act by which Parliament confirmed Richard III as King of England at the tail-end of the Wars of the Roses.
Hey everyone, Modern Tordesillas is out for TNO. This latest version gives the Iberian Union a much-needed facelift, adds skeleton content for the Caribbean, and offers plenty of proxy conflicts across the islands.
In the Crow and the Bull, I was brought on to help with Lacerda. This isn't the case this time - my work is all over the mod both as a writer and an editor. The first piece of text you read in the mod is mine, I've written much of the amendments for the new Iberian legislation system, many of the police and news reports during the terrorism minigame, and a great deal for both the CD and the AP paths of Iberian democracy. This represents a lot of my creative energy this past year and I hope you all enjoy!
#giving it a pass for the moment#the saving system + combat system doesn't fill me with enthusiasm#and i'm worried about what they say about losses being permanent#BUT the stylization is gorgeous and I'm sure that plenty of people will love it
I am also waiting till discounts. I asked the developers a few questions through twitter mainly, and never got answers on certain things (or any things lol). Also one of the reviews saying that the characters are basically interchangable.... (ex. you can do the green knight quest with any knight, nothing changes...)
#asking them if there were any queer characters and never ever receiving any answer
OOF. And, look...I'm a medievalist. We know I'm a medievalist. I don't LIKE constantly having to criticize medieval games, because it should be a match in heaven for me, combining two things I love. I don't like it when other historians go into video games and assume bad faith everywhere. BUT...there's. Um. A reason why I have a very difficult time trusting game studios, and a big part of it is the massive cultural baggage around the Middle Ages and what it means to be "authentic" to the Middle Ages. I do see, from the pictures that have been posted, that we have one (1) knight of color, which I'm taking as a positive sign because usually the same people whining about "historical accuracy" also can't stand seeing black people...but I'm still nervous. What does it mean when we talk about being "true" or "authentic" to the Arthurian legends, you know? My definition of that is going to be different from, say...the dev behind another very popular medieval game that is made by Gamergaters, and my take on that's going to be different from a tenured medievalist whose ideas haven't been refreshed since the 1980s (...a tragic number of such cases). Like, we're here, consuming medievalist content in 2026, and that is invariably going to be politically charged, no matter what, you know? Even if you're retelling Malory word by word, you're going to be making adaptational choices that align with your view of the Middle Ages. I'm also nervous when I see the response that negative reviews get on Steam from its existing userbase -- while I think it's natural to be defensive of your favorite game, particularly when people aren't going in with good faith...I get very worried when a game is seen as being above criticism, especially with the above.
I want to emphasize: I'm not saying that the game IS x, y, or z. I'm not saying that I consider it IRREDEEMABLE, because I barely know anything about it beyond the Steam page. I'm also not saying that, if it does have those biases, they were intentionally put it by the devs. I don't see how you could have, hypothetically, Galahad doing the Green Knight, but I'm willing to give a lot of goodwill and hope that they've put in provisions for that...even if some of the reviews don't indicate that. I'm not willing to write it off yet, because I don't have that much to write off. It could be the game of my dreams, I could play it and it will be love at first sight. What I'm saying is that I'll need a bit of time and distance (...and a very nice Steam sale) before I'm going to give it my professional stamp of approval...or my money. I'll be curious to see whether Kevin Harty finds out about this or does anything with it, because he's someone I do trust with these things.
On the record as well, since I still hate to be the medievalist spoilsport on these things, again, when it's just come out: If you think the game is what you're looking for and you want to give it a go, then please do, since it DOES look very visually stunning! It's really exciting to see a break from the standard "the Middle Ages were dull and brown and gray." It's exciting to hear the reproduction instruments. A LOT of thought and care went into this. It's clear a lot of people are already really passionate about it, and it could just me being paranoid due to....um. Other bad experiences. I don't want someone who really wanted to buy it to NOT buy it on my account, and I definitely don't want an Indie studio to fail because of a snap judgement on my part. Part of why I'm reblogging all this IS so that people who would want to connect to it can. But...I do feel nervous.
They have an active and very friendly server on Discord if you'd like to ask them about anything. As for LGBTQ+ characters, they did include Silence from Le Roman de Silence. As for non-white characters, there's Sir Palamedes and Sir Sagramor at the very least. Hope that helps.
What philosophies/ideologies styles would AKOTSK men be interested in or be similar too? I assume it’ll have to be that time period so E.g stoicism, humanism, Plato, logic, astronomy, astrology, and I guess the religious theories of the seven? Like what would maeker think in contrast to aerion, or baelor (save the innocents when arguing with blood raven but also Qoutes sept is) in contrast to lynoel (many men in a man)
The late (and great) Steven Attewell addressed this better than I could ever hope to: https://racefortheironthrone.tumblr.com/post/714218454112157696/if-the-maesters-had-different-scholars-and
Why weren’t any of markers sons warded? Who would’ve aerion and Daeron have squired for if they didn’t leave summerhall?
Same reason there's a lack of cadet branches, remarriages, etc. GRRM both oversimplifies and exaggerates while hyperfocusing on what he likes (sex, battles, food, clothes, heraldry, etc.) at the expense of other equally important aspects of worldbuilding (such as law, culture, language, religion, etc.).
As for who Daeron and Aerion might have squired for, off the top of my head I could see the Martells, the Velaryons, the Arryns, the Carons, or the Swanns being given the honor.
if westros had the books of Arthurian tales patroness by their own queen or whoever did in mediaeval times. Where do you think it would be set and do you think it would resonate with westros like it has in our world? Do you think King Arthur would be portrayed differently? Or anything would be seen as more scandalous than our history did or more virtuous than our history did?
And out of all our folklore what do you think westros would’ve loved as their own folklore or books or sonnets about? I can’t see lords or ladies or royalty like Robin Hood.
There's absolutely no way Arthuriana would not be massively popular in the Reach (and probably get its start there too). As for Robin Hood, I think he'd be quite popular in the Riverlands and the Stormlands, albeit for different reasons.
After Aegon IV passed away and did his spiteful legitimization of all his children born out of wedlock, what do you think life for the girls like Mya, Gwenys, and Shiera looked like? Mya & Gwenys would’ve been just entering young teen years, old enough to be or have ladies in waiting. How decent would their marriage prospects have shot up?
Setting aside the fact GRRM's treatment of bastards is profoundly ahistorical, I don't doubt that as daughters of a Targaryen king and his most popular mistress both would have made fine matches (assuming they didn't simply die in infancy or childhood).
