Chapter 169: Stop the thousand-year-old king selection meeting

Iron Islands, Westeros.

The Iron Islands are a region of the Seven Kingdoms, located in the Ironmen Bay in the West Sea of ​​Westeros. Before the Conquest, it was an independent sovereign country, ruled successively by the King of the Iron Islands and the King of the Rivers and Hills.

The Iron Islands are the home of a cruel seafaring nation, who call themselves the Ironborn. Some say that the Iron Islands are named after the rich iron ore on the island.

But the Ironborn say that the islands are named after the tough and unyielding nature of their islanders. The islanders often say that the captain of each ship is a king, so the Iron Islands are also called "the land of all kings".

During the War of the Nine Copperplate Kings, the Iron Islands stood on the side of the Iron Throne. Lord Chron Greyjoy was a peace-loving man. He outlawed slavery and worked hard to promote the integration of the Iron Islands with the other seven kingdoms.

But his son, Balon Greyjoy, overturned his father's policies and dreamed of returning to the old ways and paying iron money again. After forming a huge iron fleet, Balon openly challenged the Iron Throne in 289 Aegon and sought independence.

But then it was suppressed by Robert Baratheon I. The only surviving son of Balon, Theon Greyjoy, was sent to Winterfell as a hostage of Eddard Stark.

Due to the lack of green land in the Iron Islands, the Ironmen can only get some cheap iron ore after working all day, and the lack of blacksmiths on the island has caused the price of iron ore to fall further.

They live in the harsh natural environment of the islands and disdain the weak way of survival in the green land, but in fact the Ironmen will try to occupy the inland territory if they have the opportunity. In the heyday of the Ironmen, the Riverlands were included in the rule.

Before the arrival of the Andals, the Iron Islands chose the king through the Kingsmoot.

The Kingsmoot is a traditional ceremony held by the residents of the Iron Islands. At the Kingsmoot, the captains of the Iron Islands longships vote to elect the new Iron King. Traditionally, the Kingsmoot is held at the Rib of Nagga on Old Wyk.

The founder of the Kingsmoot was a great Drowned God priest, Garon the Whitestaff. He formulated a series of rules for the Iron Islands, including that the Ironmen could not go to war with each other, and consolidated the Iron Islands from scattered and scattered sand into a whole.

He summoned all the captains and the Rock Kings and Salt Kings from all over the world, calling on everyone to elect a supreme king to rule the entire Iron Islands.

But human greed is uncontrollable. After hundreds of kings were elected, the eldest son inheritance system lasted for nearly a thousand years.

Until the arrival of the Andals, the Hall family became the ruling family of the Iron Islands, and the Greyjoy family was a prominent noble family in the Iron Islands at that time.

However, in the subsequent Aegon Conquest War, the Hall family was eliminated, and Aegon allowed the Ironmen to elect the rulers of the Iron Islands themselves, so the Greyjoy family officially entered the stage of history.

King Viken was cautious and pragmatic, and did not offend the Targaryen family who owned dragons.

After King Viken died, his politically skilled successor, King Goron Greyjoy, quelled several plots or rebellions that attempted to overthrow the Greyjoy family, and completely expelled the Seven Gods from the islands, consolidating the family's ruling position.

Since then, the Kingsmoot of the Iron Islands has completely disappeared from historical occasions.

It should have been like this, but accidents always come suddenly. Euron Greyjoy, who was expelled by Balon Greyjoy many years ago, came back and asked for a kingsmoot.

Balon ordered the expulsion of Euron, and as long as he was alive, Euron was not allowed to return to the Iron Islands.

As a result, one day after Balon fell to his death, Euron immediately returned to the Iron Islands.

This made everyone on the Iron Islands suspect that it was Euron who hired someone to assassinate Balon Greyjoy.

However, no one accused Euron because there was no evidence, and Euron's fleet was not vegetarian.

A full 5,000 pirate sailors who are good at fighting are more powerful than the current Iron Fleet, so no noble dares to take the initiative to touch Euron's tiger whiskers.

So no noble mentioned this matter, and Theon Greyjoy's life and death are unknown now. Although Asha Greyjoy is quite prestigious, she is also a woman.

Of course, the most important thing is that Aeron Greyjoy convened the Kingsmoot to avoid war between the Ironmen.

Not only Euron Greyjoy has the opportunity to compete for the King of the Iron Islands, but the rest of the nobles also have this opportunity.

So most people ignored Asha Greyjoy in silence.

So the Kingsmoot, which had not been held for a thousand years, was held again at the "Naga's Rib" on Old Wyke Island.

Naga Hill, also known as the Naga's Rib, is located on Old Wyke Island in the Iron Islands.

Here is the Grey King's Hall, where the Ironmen have held the Kingsmoot to decide their monarch since ancient times.

The whole area is a mountain range covered with wild grass, standing on the mountain overlooking the Cradle Bay of Naga.

The forty-four ribs of Naga emerged from the ground, like a huge white tree trunk, as thick as the mast of a large sailing ship, and twice as high as the mast.

When the kingsmoot begins, any captain can report his name and become a candidate - the proverb says "every captain is the king of his own ship"

Then appoint three assistants, or give an impassioned speech and present gifts to show his generosity to gain the support of the ironborn.

Once most people shout out the name of a candidate at the same time and are willing to support him as king, the kingsmoot ends.

Asha Greyjoy waits for Euron Greyjoy on the hill with three designated assistants.

Euron Greyjoy's delay caused dissatisfaction among many people. This obvious act of showing off will only make people feel disgusted.

Asha was a little nervous at this time. Asha had heard many absurd rumors about her uncle Euron.

Euron was crazy and cunning, unpredictable, and often enjoyed destroying other people's souls.

It is said that Asha's uncle, Aeron Greyjoy, was once violated by Euron Greyjoy when he was young.

In the end, after Euron seduced the concubine of his third brother Victarion, he was exiled by Balon.

Just as everyone was waiting, Euron came slowly, and his assistant followed him carrying a box.

After everyone arrived, Aeron Greyjoy, as a priest, officially announced the convening of the Kingsmoot.

Under Aeron's presidency, all the captains looked forward to the gifts brought by the six candidates.

After all, this is the election to attract people. Impassioned speeches will certainly make people excited, but everyone will prepare the manuscript of the speech in advance, and everyone's speech will be inspiring.

At this time, gifts are particularly important. The more and more valuable your gifts are, the more you can win people's hearts. If you can't even take out good gifts, who will believe that you can lead everyone to prosperity and wealth?

The kingsmoot system has continued since then, and famous iron kings such as Uras Greyiron, Flat-nosed Silas, Haraj Hall and "Old Sea Monster" have been elected. It is said that there are as many as 111 kings who wear driftwood crowns because of the kingsmoot.

When an applicant walks up the hill, whether he becomes king or not will be decided by the kingsmoot, and there has only been one kingsmoot in history that was declared illegal. It was the time of Torgon, the son of the Iron King who was late. After the death of the Iron King, his brother held a kingsmoot while Torgon was out at sea to plunder, hoping to choose himself in the absence of the king's son. But the kingsmoot eventually chose Errathon Guber. The first thing the new king did was to kill all the relatives of the old king who were present.

Two years later, Torgon returned to the Iron Islands and claimed that the kingsmoot was illegal because the old king's son failed to become a candidate according to his rights. In addition, Urgen's bloodthirsty and brutal character made too many enemies, which led to the condemnation of the priests and the iron race. Torgon was eventually supported as the new Iron King.

However, this was not the only time in his life that Torgon threatened the kingsmoot system. In Torgon's later years, he kept his son Urgen by his side at all times and became his de facto heir and successor. When he died, Urgen naturally took over the throne and became Urgen Greyiron IV. No one dared to stand up like Garon the White Staff to protect the kingsmoot system.