The The Three hundred years ago, before the start of the books,

Torren Stark knelt to Egon the Conqueror rather than face his

dragons. This decision was made after seeing those dragons, and after seeing what Balarian in particular

did to Heron Hall. The North joined the Seven Kingdoms, the fledgling Seven Kingdoms, as it was in

those days. Yet, despite the seven kingdoms growing closer

to one another under one banner, under one crown, the North has remained fairly separate in many ways.

Different religion, culture, history, even values. There's some overlap, of course, but there's

substantial differences. One major thing

is there's much less influence from the Andalls, even in day-to-day living and long-term philosophy.

Yet the north is large. It's not a monolith. Though the north remains northern, certain areas are arguably less northern than others. White Harbor in

particular has a lot of the South in it and a lot of Southerners coming through and back and forth,

people from other places. Barotin is large, it's not a city, but it is urban or semi-urban.

The Kranigmen of the neck are northerners, but they're not at all

like those city dwellers or the ones to the extreme north. Even Winterfell has changed over the

years given its dealings with the South, things like that. But the houses farthest north,

closest to the wall, closest to winter. These are the houses that most firmly

keep the old ways, the ones that are still the most northern. Sometimes they have to do these

things in secret, though, given how the ancient rights and beliefs are seen in current times.

You can be proudly northern, but some of the old ways are not things you can really be proud of,

even if you still practice them. Now, if we accept the wall and beyond and Skagos, which has no

castles at all, Last hearth seat of House Umber is the farthest northern castle. Everything about

the region speaks to extremes. Last hearth gives

...