Join me as we walk through the noble Houses of Westeros in a Game of Thrones and the Song of Ice and Fire, region by region.
House StarkSeated in Winterfell, House Stark is the principle house of the northern lands of Westeros. House Stark ruled as Kings in the North for thousands of years before the Targaryens came to power and conquered the Seven Kingdoms. The Starks were then made Lords of Winterfell and Wardens of the North. Its motto is “Winter Is Coming,” and its coat of arms is a gray direwolf on a white background. House Stark is known for its honorable devotion to duty.Character s:.Eddard (Ned) Stark (Patriarch, Lord of Winterfell, Warden of the North).Catelyn Stark (Ned’s wife).Robb Stark (Ned and Catelyn’s oldest son, heir to Winterfell).Benjen Stark (Ned’s younger brother, First Ranger of the Night’s Watch)House LannisterHouse Lannister is seated at Casterly Rock in the Westerlands, where it ruled the West until the Targaryens invaded and conquered the Seven Kingdoms. The Lannisters were made Wardens of the West afterward. The Lannisters are the richest family in Westeros because of the gold mines located on their lands.
Tywin Lannister, head of the house, served as Hand of the King under King Aerys II Targaryen, until Robert Baratheon deposed the Targaryens. House Lannister’s coat of arms is a gold lion on a red background, and its motto is “Hear Me Roar!”Characters:.Tywin Lannister (Patriarch, Lord of Casterly Rock, Warden of the West).Cersei Lannister (Tywin’s daughter, Queen of the Seven Kingdoms, Jaime’s twin sister).
Download windows 7 ultimate 64 bits com ativador. House BaratheonHouse Baratheon is the principle house of the Stormlands and is the youngest of the noble houses. King Robert is head of the house, though he lives in King’s Landing. The official seat of the house is in Storm’s End, and the youngest of the Baratheon brothers, Renly, is Lord of Storm’s End. The middle Baratheon brother, Stannis, is Lord of Dragonstone, which is a secondary seat for the house. House Baratheon’s coat of arms is a black stag on a bright yellow background, and its motto is “Ours Is the Fury.”Characters:.Robert Baratheon (Patriarch, King of the Seven Kingdoms).Stannis Baratheon (Robert’s younger brother, Renley’s older brother, Lord of Dragonstone).Renly Baratheon (Youngest of the Baratheon brothers, Lord of Storm’s End)House TargaryenOriginally from Valyria on the continent of Essos, House Targaryen conquered the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros and ruled for 300 years through the use of dragons. Its coat of arms is a red three-headed dragon on black, and its motto is “Fire and Blood.” The rule of the Targaryens ended when Robert Baratheon and Ned Stark led a rebellion to depose King Aerys, during which the king was slain by Jaime Lannister. Afterward, Robert took the Iron Throne, and Aerys’s surviving two children (Daenerys and Viserys) were exiled to Essos.Characters:.(Matriarch).Viserys Targaryen (Daenerys’s brother).Aerys II Targaryen (Daenerys’s father, former King of the Seven Kingdoms, deceased).House GreyjoySeated in Pyke in the Iron Islands, House Greyjoy became Lords Paramount of the Iron Islands after the Targaryens conquered Westeros.
Ten years before Game of Thrones begins, Lord Balon Greyjoy led a failed rebellion against King Robert, after which Lord Balon had to give his youngest son, Theon, to the Starks as a hostage to live in Winterfell in order to retain control of the Iron Islands. House Greyjoy’s coat of arms is a golden kraken on black, and its motto is “We Do Not Sow.”Characters:.Balon Greyjoy (Patriarch, Lord of the Iron Islands).Theon Greyjoy (Balon’s first-born son, heir apparent to the Iron Islands).Asha Greyjoy (Balon’s only daughter and oldest child).House ArrynHouse Arryn is the principle house in the Vale and is seated in a small castle called the Eyrie, which is located at the top of a mountain. Jon Arryn, the head of the house, served King Robert as Hand of the King; Jon was poisoned shortly before Game of Thrones begins, which prompts Robert to ask Ned Stark to become Hand of the King. Now, Jon’s only son Robert is Lord of the Eyrie, with his mother Lysa acting as regent. House Arryn’s coat of arms is white moon and falcon on blue, and its motto is “As High as Honor.”Characters:.Jon Arryn (Patriarch, former Hand of the King, deceased),.Lysa Arryn (Catelyn’s younger sister),.Robert Arryn (Lysa’s son, Lord of the Eyrie).House MartellSeated at Sunspear Castle in Dorne, House Martell resisted conquest by the Targaryens and was allowed to remain sovereign; in fact, Dorne was the only kingdom that maintained its independence during the Targaryen conquest. House Martell supported the Targaryens during Robert Baratheon’s rebellion, but ended up swearing fealty to Robert after he took the Iron Throne.
House Martell isolated itself from the other houses because of their anger and resentment of the Lannisters. Its coat of arms is a gold spear piercing a red sun on a gold background, and its motto is “Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken.”Characters:.Doran Martell (Patriarch, Prince of Dorne).Oberyn Martell (Doran’s youngest brother).House TullyHouse Tully is seated at Riverrun in the Riverlands. Catelyn Stark and Lysa Arryn are the daughters of Hoster Tully, the Lord of Riverrun. House Tully’s coat of arms is a silver trout on blue and red stripes, and its motto is “Family, Duty, Honor.”Characters:.Hoster Tully (Patriarch, Lord of Riverrun, Catelyn and Lysa’s father).Edmure Tully (Hoster’s only son and heir to Riverrun).House TyrellHouse Tyrell is the principle house in the Reach and is seated in Highgarden. The Targaryens made the Tyrells Lords of Highgarden after the king of the Reach was killed.
The women of House Tyrell are known to be clever leaders, which is apparent in Margaery Tyrell’s rise to become Renly Baratheon’s wife, then betrothed to Joffrey after Renly’s death. House Tyrell’s coat of arms is a golden rose on a green background, and its motto is “Growing Strong.”Characters:.Mace Tyrell (Patriarch, Lord of Highgarden).Olenna Tyrell (Mace’s mother).Margaery Tyrell (Mace’s daughter, wife of Renly Baratheon).Loras Tyrell (Mace’s son, heir to House Tyrell).
This thread will be dedicated to facts and estimations regarding the military strength of the many houses in Westeros. Books, TV shows, games and even personal estimations (if based on confirmed information; see my House Manderly estimate for example) are valid. This opening post will be consistently updated if new numbers that seem correct are added by other forum members. I want to point out that information about Forrester and Whitehill come from GoT Telltale which is part of show canon but not part of the book canon. In the books Forresters are a humble clan sworn to the Glovers of Deepwood Motte.Apart from that your calculations seem to be OK.To clarify, all canon and semi-canon sources are valid, unless they contradict one another. If any contradictions arise.
This is the descending order of what is 'more' canon than the other:.Books.Semi-canon material related to the books, such as The World of Ice and Fire.Statements by George R. Martin.The TV show.Statements by the producers of the TV show.Any games.The numbers listed for the houses Forrester and Whitehill are not contradicted (or even mentioned) in any other source, and thus they are acceptable for this thread.
To clarify, all canon and semi-canon sources are valid, unless they contradict one another. If any contradictions arise. This is the descending order of what is 'more' canon than the other:.Books.Semi-canon material related to the books, such as The World of Ice and Fire.Statements by George R. Martin.The TV show.Statements by the producers of the TV show.Any games.The numbers listed for the houses Forrester and Whitehill are not contradicted (or even mentioned) in any other source, and thus they are acceptable for this thread.Don't you think that one source saying that they are a humble clan and other saying that they are a House sworn to Winterfell with nearly 700 men is a clear contradiction? Don't you think that one source saying that they are a humble clan and other saying that they are a House sworn to Winterfell with nearly 700 men is a clear contradiction?I agree with you that the game made them a bit too impressive for a House barely mentioned in the books, but I still don't think there are any clear contradictions against their power. They were obviously rivals with House Whitehill (with a confirmed strength of 500 men at the Siege of Ironrath) and implied to be more powerful at their peak, something that is never denied in any canon material.
While far below the Boltons, the Karstarks and the Manderlys in strength and influence, they should still have been a noteworthy House given that they were to lead the vanguard in the charge for Casterly Rock (something never contradicted in any canon material). A clear contradiction would be if any higher canon source said something specific like 'The Greatjon was to lead the vanguard in the assault on Casterly Rock' or 'Only a hundred Forresters joined Robb Stark's army in the march south'. Until something like that is published, I believe we can keep them in the list. It's good that you're attentive on these details, though. I don't understand how the Mallisters would have less than 1000 men. They're a major house in the Riverlands, they guard against the Ironborn, and if every noble house in the North can muster a force of more than 1000 men, I find it really hard to believe that the Mallisters are so weak.The problem is simple: Those are minimum numbers, explicitly mentioned somewhere on page.
And as such utterly useless. Because it's never mentioned whether that would be one or one hundred percent of a house's given strength. Roose says his men are the majority of the 3500 men he brings to the Twins. So probably around 2000 at least then, to make that an easily observable fact if one looks at the host at a glance.That is further clarified in Dance, when Theon says that the majority of the 4000 Northmen returning through the Neck are Dreadfort men. So again, if that is easily observable to Theon at a glance, then it probably needs to be significantly more than half of the host.
So I would move the minimum number of Dreadfort men up to 2500 out of the 4000. Now, it could certainly be more, but that becomes problematic if one tries to fit that into the 12000 men originally assembled at Winterfell. The more Bolton men there are, the less there are to allocate to the other major Houses there.So in short, I think a number of around 2500 is probably a reasonable middle ground, making them the largest single contributor to the Stark host, meeting the requirement of being the majority of the 4000 northmen marching past Moat Cailin in Dance, while still not bringing the other contributors to the Winterfell host down too much.To that we have to add Ramsay's 600 cream of the crop soldiers from Roose's personal garrison. And for the record, from the description of the Battle of Winterfell it seems a large component - perhaps all of this host - appears to have been mounted.In any case, this still does not give us the maximum Bolton host. Only the ones that we have been shown so far, because unlike the likes of the Karstarks or Umbers, we are not told that the Boltons are down to green boys or old men.
So we have seen around 3100 crack troops from the Dreadfort, without necessarily seeing their full potential.As for the Manderlys, from a lot of evidence in the books, they almost surely exceed the Boltons in strength by a significant margin. Even after losing their entire southern force, and after losing the Battle of Winterfell under Ser Rodrik's command, they still have more heavy cavalry than the Boltons. Again, this does not give us a maximum number for their cavalry.
Game Of Thrones House Manderly Park
Only a minimum, which is at least 200 or so more heavy cavalry than the Boltons. Now, if the Boltons had the standard 25% heavy cavalry (northern knights) component to their forces, then the Dreadfort likely can raise around 1000 armoured lances.
Similar to House Frey, therefore.That means that at a minimum the Manderlys could likely have raised around 1200 mounted lances at the start of the series. But there is no reason why it could not be 1500 or even more.
They have more than House Bolton, even now, after their losses. We don't know how many more. Their full strength is almost certainly around 6000 men, at the least. Of which around 4000 would still be remaining today. And this is before you add the men Davos saw them recruiting in White Harbor - where they are taking in any able bodied male taller than 5 feet, who can hold a spear, or something to that effect.As for House Dustin. It is highly likely that they are more powerful than House Karstark.
Their lands are far warmer, and they have a far larger settlement as their capital. The second largest settlement in the North, in fact. And lands that are twice as large as that of the Karstarks.The Dustins would be more wealthy, and most likely more populous, than the Karstarks. So I would give them at least 3000 men.
If not more.I guess that's the extent of what we know for a fact of the Northern Houses. Other than the Mountain Clans. Who are not really Houses as such. The Telltale video games are part of the TV show canon, not the book canon, and that is made explicitly clear in the games themselves (they use the TV music, logo and voice actors).
Nothing in the Telltale video games should be considered to have anything whatsoever to do with the books.The earlier Cyanide RPG isn't really canon either (since it draws on book lore but uses some of the TV actors and music), although GRRM played a larger, hands-on role for that game (he checked the script, which to my knowledge he never did for the Telltale game). I don't understand how the Mallisters would have less than 1000 men. They're a major house in the Riverlands, they guard against the Ironborn, and if every noble house in the North can muster a force of more than 1000 men, I find it really hard to believe that the Mallisters are so weak.Agreed.
500 men is the minimum number of men they have dedicated to their fleet, and they likely have several thousands on land. I didn't mean to include them in the top list in the first place, but I've left that information as a note at the bottom. Where did these foot to horse ratios come from?There was a well-written article on the Game of Thrones wiki which listed the manpower and foot-horse ratios of each region in Westeros, but the article has since then been removed (or possibly just renamed). I believe that the source of the information was the A Game of Thrones d20-based Open Gaming RPG, but I cannot say for certain as I do not have it. The information was canon, or at least semi-canon, given by George R. Martin himself. The information fortunately remains on some other locations on the Internet:Dorne: 50,000 men with an unknown but good foot to horse ratio.The Iron Islands: 20,000 men, all foot.The North: 45,000 men with a 4-1 foot to horse ratio.The Reach: 100,000 men with a 2-1 or 3-1 foot to horse ratio.The Riverlands: 45,000 men with a 3-1 foot to horse ratio.The Stormlands: 30,000 men with an unknown but poor foot to horse ratio.The Vale: 45,000 men with a 3-1 foot to horse ratio.The Westerlands: 60,000 men with a 2-1 foot to horse ratio.
House Manderly Words
Roose says his men are the majority of the 3500 men he brings to the Twins. So probably around 2000 at least then, to make that an easily observable fact if one looks at the host at a glance.That is further clarified in Dance, when Theon says that the majority of the 4000 Northmen returning through the Neck are Dreadfort men. So again, if that is easily observable to Theon at a glance, then it probably needs to be significantly more than half of the host. So I would move the minimum number of Dreadfort men up to 2500 out of the 4000. Now, it could certainly be more, but that becomes problematic if one tries to fit that into the 12000 men originally assembled at Winterfell. The more Bolton men there are, the less there are to allocate to the other major Houses there.So in short, I think a number of around 2500 is probably a reasonable middle ground, making them the largest single contributor to the Stark host, meeting the requirement of being the majority of the 4000 northmen marching past Moat Cailin in Dance, while still not bringing the other contributors to the Winterfell host down too much.To that we have to add Ramsay's 600 cream of the crop soldiers from Roose's personal garrison. And for the record, from the description of the Battle of Winterfell it seems a large component - perhaps all of this host - appears to have been mounted.In any case, this still does not give us the maximum Bolton host.
Only the ones that we have been shown so far, because unlike the likes of the Karstarks or Umbers, we are not told that the Boltons are down to green boys or old men. So we have seen around 3100 crack troops from the Dreadfort, without necessarily seeing their full potential.As for the Manderlys, from a lot of evidence in the books, they almost surely exceed the Boltons in strength by a significant margin. Even after losing their entire southern force, and after losing the Battle of Winterfell under Ser Rodrik's command, they still have more heavy cavalry than the Boltons. Again, this does not give us a maximum number for their cavalry. Only a minimum, which is at least 200 or so more heavy cavalry than the Boltons. Now, if the Boltons had the standard 25% heavy cavalry (northern knights) component to their forces, then the Dreadfort likely can raise around 1000 armoured lances. Similar to House Frey, therefore.That means that at a minimum the Manderlys could likely have raised around 1200 mounted lances at the start of the series.
But there is no reason why it could not be 1500 or even more. They have more than House Bolton, even now, after their losses. We don't know how many more. Their full strength is almost certainly around 6000 men, at the least. Of which around 4000 would still be remaining today. And this is before you add the men Davos saw them recruiting in White Harbor - where they are taking in any able bodied male taller than 5 feet, who can hold a spear, or something to that effect.As for House Dustin.
It is highly likely that they are more powerful than House Karstark. Their lands are far warmer, and they have a far larger settlement as their capital. The second largest settlement in the North, in fact.
And lands that are twice as large as that of the Karstarks.The Dustins would be more wealthy, and most likely more populous, than the Karstarks. So I would give them at least 3000 men. If not more.I guess that's the extent of what we know for a fact of the Northern Houses. Other than the Mountain Clans. Who are not really Houses as such.Thank you for this informative post. I'm glad I'm not the only one on here who cares about the military power of minor houses. All your estimations and calculations seem correct.
I will add House Dustin to the list as having 3,000+ men, which I believe is an indisputable minimum. In fact, they may very well have more men than House Bolton, given their control of Barrowton - which, as you said, is the second largest town in the North.
If White Harbor is any comparison, they should definitely have a larger army than most Northern Houses, as the Manderlys can (according to my calculations) field as many as 7,500 men. 500 men is the minimum number of men they have dedicated to their fleet, and they likely have several thousands on land. I didn't mean to include them in the top list in the first place, but I've left that information as a note at the bottom.There was a well-written article on the Game of Thrones wiki which listed the manpower and foot-horse ratios of each region in Westeros, but the article has since then been removed (or possibly just renamed). I believe that the source of the information was the A Game of Thrones d20-based Open Gaming RPG, but I cannot say for certain as I do not have it.
The information was canon, or at least semi-canon, given by George R. Martin himself. The information fortunately remains on some other locations on the Internet:Dorne: 50,000 men with an unknown but good foot to horse ratio.The Iron Islands: 20,000 men, all foot.The North: 45,000 men with a 4-1 foot to horse ratio.The Reach: 100,000 men with a 2-1 or 3-1 foot to horse ratio.The Riverlands: 45,000 men with a 3-1 foot to horse ratio.The Stormlands: 30,000 men with an unknown but poor foot to horse ratio.The Vale: 45,000 men with a 3-1 foot to horse ratio.The Westerlands: 60,000 men with a 2-1 foot to horse ratio.Thank you for this informative post. I'm glad I'm not the only one on here who cares about the military power of minor houses. All your estimations and calculations seem correct.
I will add House Dustin to the list as having 3,000+ men, which I believe is an indisputable minimum. In fact, they may very well have more men than House Bolton, given their control of Barrowton - which, as you said, is the second largest town in the North. If White Harbor is any comparison, they should definitely have a larger army than most Northern Houses, as the Manderlys can (according to my calculations) field as many as 7,500 men.Dorne only has 15K menHave you not seen Arianne and Areos chapters?! There was a well-written article on the Game of Thrones wiki which listed the manpower and foot-horse ratios of each region in Westeros, but the article has since then been removed (or possibly just renamed). I believe that the source of the information was the A Game of Thrones d20-based Open Gaming RPG, but I cannot say for certain as I do not have it.
The information was canon, or at least semi-canon, given by George R. Martin himself. 500 men is the minimum number of men they have dedicated to their fleet, and they likely have several thousands on land. I didn't mean to include them in the top list in the first place, but I've left that information as a note at the bottom.There was a well-written article on the Game of Thrones wiki which listed the manpower and foot-horse ratios of each region in Westeros, but the article has since then been removed (or possibly just renamed).
I believe that the source of the information was the A Game of Thrones d20-based Open Gaming RPG, but I cannot say for certain as I do not have it. The information was canon, or at least semi-canon, given by George R. Martin himself. The information fortunately remains on some other locations on the Internet:Dorne: 50,000 men with an unknown but good foot to horse ratio.The Iron Islands: 20,000 men, all foot.The North: 45,000 men with a 4-1 foot to horse ratio.The Reach: 100,000 men with a 2-1 or 3-1 foot to horse ratio.The Riverlands: 45,000 men with a 3-1 foot to horse ratio.The Stormlands: 30,000 men with an unknown but poor foot to horse ratio.The Vale: 45,000 men with a 3-1 foot to horse ratio.The Westerlands: 60,000 men with a 2-1 foot to horse ratio.Thank you for this informative post. I'm glad I'm not the only one on here who cares about the military power of minor houses. All your estimations and calculations seem correct.
I will add House Dustin to the list as having 3,000+ men, which I believe is an indisputable minimum. In fact, they may very well have more men than House Bolton, given their control of Barrowton - which, as you said, is the second largest town in the North. If White Harbor is any comparison, they should definitely have a larger army than most Northern Houses, as the Manderlys can (according to my calculations) field as many as 7,500 men.The reason the artikel was removed is because the rpg data is not canon, GRRM never looked at the rpg beyond the main outline, the figures for the regions strenght and foot to horse ratio did not come from him. A little bit more on the Umber strength. Based on the Wiki, which has proven to be of a hit and miss nature when it comes to figures - Hother and Mors split the remaining Umber forces in half in Dance.
Hother is stated to march 300 spearmen and 100 archers to Moat Cailin. That's been soundly disproven even before t was actually published in the first place, much less three primary books and a bunch of secondary ones later.Note that no kingdom would ever be willing nor capable of amassing their entire available manpower simultaneously, nor equip them properly. For example, Robb Stark marched south with 20,000 Northmen and not 45,000, because the latter would mean every single House in the North gathered every single soldier they had, including raw recruits and old veterans. No House would realistically send everything they had to an offensive war and leave the home front undefended, nor would any but the absolutely wealthiest of Houses be able to supply and equip large armies of men. The Reach was (claimed but not proven) capable of sending 100,000 men to Renly's aid in the (very short) march to King's Landing, but I've heard estimations saying their total manpower could be closer to 200,000.
Besides, a medieval society with its limited means of communication, its poor infrastructure and greatly decentralized government would not be able to accurately predetermine their fighting strength until they actually tried amassing their armies. However, I have an obsession with numbers, statistics and comparisons like these, so even if we have to use semi-canon material or even personal estimation I want to improve this thread further with more information. The reason the artikel was removed is because the rpg data is not canon, GRRM never looked at the rpg beyond the main outline, the figures for the regions strenght and foot to horse ratio did not come from him.Of course, the numbers are not written in stone, but I still think it's worth mentioning in this thread so we will have some idea of the comparative strength of the regions of Westeros. As I said before, it would not be possible to give an accurate number to the fighting strength of each kingdom. A little bit more on the Umber strength.
Based on the Wiki, which has proven to be of a hit and miss nature when it comes to figures - Hother and Mors split the remaining Umber forces in half in Dance. Hother is stated to march 300 spearmen and 100 archers to Moat Cailin.
Game Of Thrones House Manderly
15,000 seems like an awfully small number compared to the other regions, though 50,000 is implied to be an overestimation which Doran Martell agrees to in order to make his kingdom appear stronger. They are likely closer to 25,000, though we don't really have a specific number.Note that no kingdom would ever be willing nor capable of amassing their entire available manpower simultaneously, nor equip them properly.
For example, Robb Stark marched south with 20,000 Northmen and not 45,000, because the latter would mean every single House in the North gathered every single soldier they had, including raw recruits and old veterans. No House would realistically send everything they had to an offensive war and leave the home front undefended, nor would any but the absolutely wealthiest of Houses be able to supply and equip large armies of men. The Reach was (claimed but not proven) capable of sending 100,000 men to Renly's aid in the (very short) march to King's Landing, but I've heard estimations saying their total manpower could be closer to 200,000.
Besides, a medieval society with its limited means of communication, its poor infrastructure and greatly decentralized government would not be able to accurately predetermine their fighting strength until they actually tried amassing their armies. However, I have an obsession with numbers, statistics and comparisons like these, so even if we have to use semi-canon material or even personal estimation I want to improve this thread further with more information.Of course, the numbers are not written in stone, but I still think it's worth mentioning in this thread so we will have some idea of the comparative strength of the regions of Westeros. As I said before, it would not be possible to give an accurate number to the fighting strength of each kingdom.Indeed, House Umber had 800 men left in their home army, mostly green boys and old veterans, and it is confirmed that most of their forces had gone south - indicating that 1,600 is an absolute minimum for their total manpower, though the home army is likely not even a third of their total force.As you said, 1,900 may be more accurate if we want to estimate them as equal to House Karstark. But no statements are ever made that those two houses are of comparable strength.However, since House Umber has a home army twice the size of House Karstark, this could mean they have twice as many men in general - roughly 5,500, which I think is a too high number.And then we have Ramsay Bolton's claim in S06E02, that the Umbers, Manderlys, Karstarks and Boltons together have more men than the rest of the North combined (excluding House Stark). We can make several estimations from this:- The Northern army that marched south numbered 18,000 Northmen, including 3,500 Boltons, 2,300 Karstarks, 1,500 Manderlys and an unknown number of Stark men. Ignoring the Starks, the Umbers should thus have contributed 1,700 men in order for the listed houses to make up half the Northern force.
However, if we include the Starks, no matter what number we estimate for them, it would reduce the Umber strength greatly.- The RPG guide states that the North can raise up to 45,000 fighting men. These would include 4,100 Boltons, 2,752 Karstarks, 7,500 Manderlys and an unknown number of Stark men (let's assume the same strength as the Boltons). This means the Umbers should have a maximum fighting strength of 4,048 men. I think this is the most accurate estimation I've made so far.Any thoughts on this?
House Umber's strength has always eluded me, because all the estimations I've made have so vastly different conclusions. 1,600 to 5,500, as you see here, and even greater numbers in some other calculations.A few problems there. The Show numbers are wrong. They cannot be used for substantiating the size of Book armies.As for Robb's army.
It seems that he actually marched South with 19500 men. Robb refers to 18000 men when he meets with Catelyn, who was riding at the head of the Manderly host, before the Manderlys 1500 men had joined with Robb's gathered host yet. This interpretation is supported by 3 more references that I can recall.First, Robb says that he outnumbers Walder Frey's 4000 troops 5-1 at the Twins. This equates to 20000 men. Secondly, Renly tells Catelyn that his information is that Robb crossed the Neck with 20000 men.
And thirdly, Theon says in Dance that 20000 Northmen 'or near enough to make no matter', marched South, but only 1 in 5 was returning.So we have three references to 20000 men, which would tie in with Robb's reference to 18000 men if he had not yet included the recently arrived Manderlys' 1500 men when he made that comment. 19500 is therefore the likely strength of Robb's Northern host.As for the Umbers. The main problem is the original 12000 men gathered at Winterfell. A number I'm convinced Martin didn't think through properly. Because if the Umbers brought a similar number of men as the Karstarks did, and if the Boltons brought significantly more than half of 4000 men, as we know they did, then that leaves very little men for the other assembled lords to have contributed.
Particularly if you consider that House Stark on their own should surely be able to contribute more than anyone else, given that their men don't have to march any great distance to get to Winterfell, but are drawn from the surrounding countryside.So that screws around with giving any Houses other than the Boltons more men than the Karstarks in Robb's original host.Regarding Dorne, I honestly don't know where the figures of 15k or even 25k come from. All we know is that 50k was a significant overstatement of their strength, and that they in fact have the lowest numbers of the mainland kingdoms.If, as we suspect, the Stormlands can raise in the region of 30k men - based on their estimated contribution to Renly's host - then I guess we know that Dorne must be lower than that, so 25k becomes a reasonable upper limit. But if the Stormlands can actually raise 35k men - which is not beyond the realm of possibility - then Dorne could well be as high as 30k.15k seems way too low for Dorne, in my view. Note that no kingdom would ever be willing nor capable of amassing their entire available manpower simultaneously, nor equip them properly. For example, Robb Stark marched south with 20,000 Northmen and not 45,000, because the latter would mean every single House in the North gathered every single soldier they had, including raw recruits and old veterans. No House would realistically send everything they had to an offensive war and leave the home front undefended, nor would any but the absolutely wealthiest of Houses be able to supply and equip large armies of men.
The Reach was (claimed but not proven) capable of sending 100,000 men to Renly's aid in the (very short) march to King's Landing, but I've heard estimations saying their total manpower could be closer to 200,000. Besides, a medieval society with its limited means of communication, its poor infrastructure and greatly decentralized government would not be able to accurately predetermine their fighting strength until they actually tried amassing their armies.
However, I have an obsession with numbers, statistics and comparisons like these, so even if we have to use semi-canon material or even personal estimation I want to improve this thread further with more information.Of course, the numbers are not written in stone, but I still think it's worth mentioning in this thread so we will have some idea of the comparative strength of the regions of Westeros. As I said before, it would not be possible to give an accurate number to the fighting strength of each kingdom.You don't need to tell that to me, I've been preaching it since 2011The problem lies elsewhere:45,000 as an estimate for the North is too low. Robb's initial host, the hosts being marched around by four out 15 houses in Dance and the Manderly estimates already make up 45,000 and more, while leaving more than two third of the major houses with no soldiers at all. That may be an result of GRRM scrapping the 5-year-gap, retconjuring 20,000 additional men into the North instead of having Robb's lost host replaced naturally, but it's a given nevertheless.The Westerlands 60,000 are actually the ones proving those numbers wrong as early as the second book. Tywin got 20,000. Jaime got 15,000, 4,000 of whom retreated to the Westerlands and formed the core of Stafford's army at Oxcross (about 10,000 in total), which already relied heavily upon nonprofessionals. So, about 35,000 professionals, maybe up to 41,000 while scraping the barrel, recruiting for almost two years.
Including a whole bunch of mercenaries.No, the Westerlands don't have 60,000. They are hardpressed to achieve 40,000 and that was proven as early as the Battle of Oxcross.Dorne has been proven wrong by Doran's own statements in Feast.40% proven utterly wrong, and the rest lacking information one way or another. Those numbers are useless.
Contents Biography BackgroundLord Wyman Manderly fought in the for, the Young Wolf. However, after his son and heir, was slain at the, he withdrew his forces from the conflict and remained at to ensure no more lives would be at risk.plays no role in the, having refused summons from both and to keep his house and vassals from suffering more deaths from the. After Jon takes, Wyman and the other Northern lords arrive to treat with him, and get berated by Lady for not upholding their oaths of allegiance to House Stark despite the crimes committed against them and their families at the.
Wyman is consequently the first lord to declare the new and the first to call him the 'White Wolf'.
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