The Five Forts
By Shella Longclaw
Many maesters like to compare the Five Forts to the Wall in the North. There are some similarities. Both places were built to protect their kingdoms. However, this is where the similarities halt. The Wall has magically elements in its construction. Despite the use of the black stone and being made by the legendary Pearl Emperor, the Five Forts involved no magic or magical creatures in its construction. The black stone was actually gathered from the nearby Bleeding Sea according to Yi Tish scribes. This is backed by the fact that you can still acquire the black stone from the Bleeding Sea. While criminals are sent to the Wall as punishment, the Five Forts are all paid soldiers. This is probably the reason for the Five Fort still having fifty thousand men manning it, unlike the Wall.
This is not to say that the Five Forts has always had fifty thousand men. During the reign of the Bloodstone Emperor, he reduced the number of soldiers and the taxes given to fund the forts. It got as low as ten thousand men serving at the Five Forts. The Bloodstone Emperor did this to fund his own reign and since most of his allies were east of the Wall. Why restrict access? The Five Forts would again lose funding during the corrupt Jade Green emperors dynasty and lose some soldiers for the campaigns of the Sea Green emperors. Though, it was never nearly as bad as it had been for Bloodstone Emperor.
The Five Forts are widely known for training fine soldiers. Many Yi Tish cities have their men train and serve for there for a period time. They are highly regarded in most aspects. They don’t view all beyond their boundaries as savages. They have even made treaties and established trade with kingdoms from the Further East. During the reign of the Sea Green emperors, foreign slaves were permitted. Sadly, the Five Forts became one of the foremost in the Yi Ti slave trade. They sold captured prisoners from the Further East. The wealth from the slave trade made the small village connected to the Five Forts into a large city. Once the fifth Yellow emperor outlawed slavery, the city was reduced to a large town. It still earned money by training soldiers all over Yi Ti.
There are still mysteries surrounding the Five Forts. I’ve been told at the Wall that Castle Black has an impressive library. The Five Forts also has a library with even more restricted access than the Great Library of Yin. The Five Forts only allows for royalty and scribes with a rank of at least Second Advisors. There are rumors of scrolls from the Fisher Queens, translations of Ifequevron songs, and records of before Asshai wasn’t cased in endless darkness stored in the library. Yi Tish scholars are trying to uncover the great mysterious reason of the Jogos Nhai never attacking the Five Forts. Hopefully in time, more information can be gathered about this remarkable place.
This headcanon was inspired by my latest fanfiction “Captives” on Archive of Our Own. Thanks for reading.
