House of the wolf

Waiting by the exit is Rodrick Cassel “There are some men who have come to see you, my lord”

“Sigh, take me to them” Rodrick nods as he briskly leads me to two men and I walk over to see an unlikely duo talking to each other.

Hunter Greg, the man who taught me most of what I know about hunting, skinning, and tracking, and Tobho Mott the blacksmith I met in King´s Landing, having learned his craft in the free cities even knowing how to work valyrian steel.

I offered to hire him back when I was in King´s Landing but the chaos broke out before I could seal the deal so I never knew what happened to him or his apprentice Gendry who signed up for the Night´s Watch.

“Hunter Greg” I greet the man who taught me first.

“Ed, It´s good that your alive” The gruff man responds warming my heart a little.

“I came to tell you about some of the developments you asked me to oversee before you left for King´s Landing,” He tells me reminding me of the old projects I was working on to help the North prepare for Winter.

The memories of my past life are murky, but I know I was no genius or carrying intricate knowledge that could enable me to build brand-new technology from scratch.

But I wanted to do something to help the people in the North survive the harsh Winters that regularly kill a good percentage of the population with every season.  

I pondered often on how I could help but found that these winters are no normal winters like in my old life. They might even be influenced by magic or something else I do not know of. They can last for years or even decades and can bring with them famine, plagues, or desperate raiders who cannibalize just to get a fresh meal.

Trying to solve this problem truly humbled my younger self as I had to realize that I had no great answer that could solve this. These problems even with all my advantages, there was little I could do about it. I realized it is not only the smallfolk that will struggle to survive the winter but so will I.

The only thing that I could think of that can help everyone is freezers. In my old world, every house had a freezer. It is a big part of why people in big cities rarely went hungry no matter what their circumstance. And ice in the North is underutilized.

The most dangerous things in such a long winter are famine and the plagues that can infect livestock. But freezers can store meat indefinitely and all you need to make freezers are blocks of ice.

So a couple of years ago I asked Father to make the winter towns across the North install ice cellars to store fresh carcasses in.

While it is already a practice to leave frozen carcasses in unheated houses in the winter, the little adjustment of the ice cellar and a couple more sophisticated ways to store food indefinitely has allowed for much more food to be preserved in advance.

Also after I went ice fishing a couple of times around Winterfell with Greg he told me that the population of sturgeon in the lakes was decreasing lately.

Looking at the ice rivers and lakes reminded me of an invasive species of king crabs in Norway that dominated sea life under the ice on the sea bed.

So the second thing I did was to help, both with procuring delicious meat and at the same time allowing for more life to prosper in the waters. 

I made crab traps, we were mostly unaware that there were so many king crabs on the bottom of the frozen lake beds as usually divers hunt for crabs but in the frigid waters in the North that is not an option.

So the already bountiful lakes have opened up to new game.  

Greg is telling me how the developments are going, the crab traps are being put in use all over but I made sure to tell Greg and the hunters to make sure the crabs are not overhunted and all crabs carrying fertilized eggs are to be thrown back in the waters.

I will not be so foolish as to deprive my future self of delicious giant crab meat… or the food for the future generation regardless if a couple of people have to starve, we must ensure the crab meat survives!

I also tasked Greg and a few experienced hunters loyal to our house to find the ideal way to farm and process the sturgeon eggs in our lakes.

My idea is to make black caviar, first because I want to eat delicacies and enjoy being a boujee lord when I can, and second, to make something in the North that can attract people to come here and trade with the North, nothing attracts the rich types like rare delicacies sold for ridiculous prices.

It will take years for this to come to fruition but fortune favors the prepared I say. One thing the North is behind on in all aspects is trade.  

Even houses like Umber, which have plenty of oak and pine trees in their lands to cut and export but they have to sell at low prices because everyone knows we don´t have a fleet to export our wares so the foreign buyers control the price.

But that will change soon, among the letters I read, one detailed how Bran paid for and authorized the Manderly and Umber to work together to create a new fleet for the North.

The first proper fleet since Brandon the Burner burned all the ships on our ports when his father Brandon the Shipwright got lost at sea.

…When my children are born I will make sure none of them is named Brandon, we Starks have overused the quota for that name.