Chapter 11

AN: please note that I will assume the gold in 1 golden dragon is worth 800 dollars, or 661 euros.

When Jon made his way out of the hall, Partick took one last look at his wolf. The zoos and biologists on Earth would be thrilled to learn that direwolves are not extinct here, and would likely offer the Stark children a significant amount of money to study or display them. Patrick wondered whether there would be other animals on this planet that went extinct or had never even existed on earth. He had heard about giants, dragons and the so-called Children of the Forest from the Stony Shore villagers, but they were likely myths.

As the hall emptied, the atmosphere turned more serious. Only the Lords who were going to negotiate were left, in addition to the guards and one old man who was probably some kind of scribe. Patrick was surprised that the small man remained here, but reasoned that he would probably represent his father who was apparently also a Lord Paramount. Lord Stark also kept his oldest son at the negociations. Jon had told Patrick that he and Robb were ordered to read their gifted books, so Robb remaining here was likely because he knew more about their background than Lord Stark himself.

So far, it had seemed that giving the natives information had been a good idea. They had not been attacked on sight by their guards and, if his talk with Jon Snow had been a good indication, they seemed interested in developing relations with the EU. Of course, everything could change it they became outraged by certain proposals of the European Union, but for now everything appeared to go smoothly.

As the King had declared during the initial meeting, Lord Stark would be leading the negotiations, although he would likely defer to the King for the more important decisions. He opened the negotiations by asking the Europeans to state their intentions.

Mr. Heisenberg answered him "Lord Stark, King Baratheon, our main goal of this diplomatic mission is to open communications between our nations and clear up any misunderstandings you might have of us. We hope to facilitate it by building an embassy for multiple European Union member states in Kings Landing and a Consulate in Winterfell, and perhaps more consulates in the larger cities of other Lords Paramount. As a secondary goal, we have a proposal considering the lands around the portal that we would like to discuss, as well as a proposal considering companies originating from our lands. Finally, we hope to discuss future trade agreements."

Lord Stark took a moment to process what Mr. Heisenberg said. He then asked: "Could you explain what you imply with consulates and embassies?"

"Certainly, an embassy is a permanent diplomatic mission of one country in another country. These protect the interests of the sending nation and its nationals within the other countries borders. They promote trade and diplomatic talks between the two nations and can issue visas to people of the other nation, which allows them to enter the nation from which the embassy originates. A consulate is a smaller mission that is based within another city in the same country which provides most of the same services, but focusses more on trade."

"That seems reasonable. In that case, is the North or the whole of the Seven Kingdoms also allowed to send an embassy towards your nations?"

"Certainly, although you would need to send embassies to the capitals of the individual member states instead of one to the European Union in general. You are also allowed to send an embassy to a certain country and let that embassy also handle the diplomatic duties of other nearby countries, which is what almost every European country does for remote smaller countries. Any EU member state would also provide you with a building for your embassy to reside in, if you decide to send one to them."

"As your proposition seems reasonable, I will allow you to have a consulate in Wintertown. I can provide you with either land to build one or an empty house near the keep for the consulate to reside in. However, the King should decide whether he will allow an embassy in King's Landing, as well as whether and where he wants to send his own diplomatic mission."

King Baratheon then declared: "I already have so many schemers and flatterers in the capital, some new foreigners joining them should not make a difference. Besides, you lot have been more honest today than most of my court in a whole year. You can buy one of the larger merchant houses in the city for your embassy, those should be near enough to the Red Keep. My small council can decide later whether they would want to send an embassy themselves, I don't see a need for it as we can already reach you through your own embassies."

Mr. Heisenberg replied: "Thank you, King Baratheon. This brings us to our second proposal. The portal appeared in your world on a plateau in the Stony Shore, around 10 miles from the Sunset Sea. The surroundings are very sparsely populated, with the nearest reasonably sized village being the Fishing Village 40 miles to the north and the nearest town being Barrowton at 500 miles from the portal. In contrast, on our side of the portal, there are at least a hundred villages larger than the Fishing Village and multiple cities within a 40 mile radius. Both the German economic heartland and the capital of the Netherlands are located within a hundred miles of the portal. Both to ensure the security of our citizens, and to acquire a port to help trade between our nations, we hope to buy the area surrounding the portal, including the nearby bay. We will compensate all of your citizens that live in the area handsomely and will allow them to stay and become citizens of our countries, if they want to. In addition, we will help patrol the North's west coast for pirates as we heard that there have been attacks by so-called Ironborn pirates in the past. We could also build roads between the Portal, Winterfell and other nearby towns like Barrowton."

Lord Stark had to think longer on this proposal, as he clearly did not like the idea of selling land of the North. However, he did not burst into outrage, leaving Patrick thinking that he did see the benefits of such an exchange. Meanwhile, the King also didn't seem to like the proposal much, but as this was almost solely a proposal for the North, he let Lord Stark decide what to do with the proposal.

Wanting more information before making his decision, Lord Stark asked Maester Luwin to bring him a map of the Stony Shore. Mr. Heisenberg, however, interrupted him. "That is not necessary, Lord Stark, we have a map of that area at hand." An assistant then placed a surprisingly detailed map on the table, made possible by the surveying of the drones. All villages that had been spotted were marked on it, as well as rivers, mountains, forests, swamps and farmlands.

Patrick had seen the map earlier and noted the surprisingly low amount of farmland and villages in the region. There were many fertile river valleys empty of any civilization, which could have been used to feed a significant portion of the North. The enormous amount of fish living near the coast would only have helped that. From the locals, he had heard that the winters in this area were much milder compared to most of the North, so he would have expected this to be one of the most populous and civilized areas in that part of the continent.

Lord Stark, clearly surprised by what was likely by far the most detailed map of his territory he had ever seen asked "How did you manage to create such a map within a fortnight? I have never seen a map of this territory that was even half as detailed. There are even some villages on this map that I have never seen on any map of this territory before."

"We made this map using the images provided by our drones. They have surveyed the Stony Shore and allowed us to map the whole area. At the moment, we are doing the same with the rest of the North and when that is finished we will proceed with the rest of the seven Kingdoms and the unclaimed lands to the north of them. We can provide you with copies of these maps if you are interested."

"Very well, I will take you up on that offer. Some of my duties will become a lot easier with such detailed maps of the North. Now, which part of this region did you want to purchace?"

Mr. Heisenberg then pointed to the portal on the map and some circles which corresponded to different distances to the portal. "We hope to at least purchase the land within a 20 mile radius of the portal, which includes a bay suited for making a port. However, if you will allow us, we would like to buy the whole southern half of the Stony Shore peninsula. The northern border would be the river that flows into the bay of the Fishing Village, and the eastern border the hills stretching from the Twin Lakes River delta to the proposed northern border. Once we buy it, half of the area will become part of the Federal Republic of Germany and the other half will become part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Aside from our offer to patrol for piracy and build a road connecting to Winterfell, Deepwood Motte, Torren's Square and Barrowton, we would compensate you with 20 billion Euro's in the second option and 500 million Euro's in the first option. These prices are equivalent to the value of respectively 11 million ounces of gold and 270.000 ounces of gold."

Lord Stark seemed shocked at hearing these numbers. This was because the Europeans were offering the equivalent of 30 million Golden Dragons for some sparsely populated, undeveloped region. This implied that those nations had to be even richer than Braavos to offer such a sum so casually, and they were even offering to build roads and patrol for future Ironborn reavers on top of that sum. Before Lord Stark could respond however, he was interrupted by King Baratheon.

"Ned, you should accept this offer. If they want to pay so much money for worthless land, who are we to stop them? Besides, with the Iron Throne's cut, I can finally get the small council off my back by paying the debts we owe. As long as they swear to respect those borders and not try to invade the Seven Kingdoms, I don't see a problem."

This was new information for Patrick, the other Europeans and, judging from his reaction, also Lord Stark. Apparently, the Seven Kingdoms were in significant debt.

In the end, Lord Stark answered "Very well, I am inclined to accept the second offer, but there are some details I want to clarify."

A very long discussion followed on the finer points of the agreement. The few thousand people living within the area would each receive 10 golden dragons or 6600 Euro's, depending on whether they wanted to stay or not, plus the value of the assets they would leave behind in case they were leaving. Lord Stark was shocked when he heard the amount the Europeans were willing to pay as compensation, but it was a drop in the bucket for the Germans and Dutch. Those countries would also build a simple road network of asphalt roads in the western half of the North. These roads would connect the Fishing Village to Deepwood Motte in the north, as well as Barrowton and Torrhen's square in the south, and would connect Barrowton to Winterfell through the Barrowlands. A direct road to Winterfell was deemed rather impractical due to the mountain chain that ran through the Wolfswood.

After they came to an agreement, they moved on towards the next proposal, which was of more interest for the other European ministers, as the first proposal only directly affected Germany and the Netherlands.

"Lord Stark, King Baratheon, coming back to our second proposal, we would hope to gain permission for some of our companies to operate in your lands. One group of those companies produces clothing, toys and other products which are in demand in our world. We would like to build those in factories on your world and employ your people. This will both enrich and educate the citizens who would work in the factories and provide you and the local Lords with taxes. This has been done before in multiple countries in a region called South-East Asia and led to great economic boom in those countries. Those companies would like to settle in larger towns and cities on the western coast, as those can easily be reached by cargo ships originating from our future naval port.

The second group of companies that would like to operate in your world are mining corporations. Those companies would prospect your lands and later mine for metals which are in demand in our world. They would also employ your people and pay taxes to the local Lords. With our technology, those companies will be able to mine recourses that would have been inaccessible otherwise. Additionally, they will be able to do that cheaper and more efficient compared to the mines you have now. There are also some companies that would do mostly the same, except that they would search for oil and natural gas instead of metals."

Lord Stark again had to think about this proposal. Before he could answer, he was interrupted by Tyrion Lannister who saw a great opportunity for his house. He had read the world history book and saw how fast the economy in South-East Asia developed after the European and American companies settled there.

"Lord Heisenberg, I would like to take you up on your first offer in the name of House Lannister. I first have to ask my Lord father Tywin Lannister for permission, but once I have it, I will allow you to settle those companies in the city of Lannisport. This is one of the largest cities in Westeros, with hundreds of thousands of inhabitants, and is situated on the western coast. There is no better place in Westeros to settle those companies as all other cities of reasonable size are further away."

Patrick was surprised that the proposal was accepted so quickly, and by the son of a Lord that governed the perfect city for the proposal nonetheless. This would allow European companies to move some of their industry to here instead of South-East Asia. In a few years, this would make transport costs significantly lower and shipping faster while improving the local economy. Another major advantage was that all Westerosi could speak English fluently, which would ease communication. Once the necessary infrastructure was constructed, call centers could even be constructed here as an alternative to India.

Tyrion then went into a more detailed discussion with the European ministers, preparing a detailed proposal to send to his father via raven. King Baratheon in the meantime gave permission to the Europeans to approach individual lords with these proposals.

Once Tyrion was done with his discussion, Lord Stark declared that he send a message to his banner man a few days ago, inviting them here to discuss matters pertaining the Europeans. They would discuss these offers amongst themselves at that moment.

Finally, they arrived at the last point of discussion brought up by the Europeans, this being the possible trade agreements.

Mr. Heisenberg stated: "As our nations are technologically more advanced, we have many products that are either rare in your world or have yet to be invented. We are willing to sell many of those products, which include glass, advanced farming tools, crop seeds, books with our scientific knowledge and more. Once we have established an embassy, some of our companies may also propose offers on their own. If the Seven Kingdoms is in need of a certain product, we can almost certainly procure it, although we will not sell weapons. However, we will need some time to build a port before we can deliver significant amounts of goods beyond the border of our lands."

King Baratheon was visibly unhappy when he heard that the Europeans were not willing to sell their ranged weapons or flying machines, and quickly became bored by this discussion. Lord Stark and Lord Lannister, however, were very interested in the European products. Upon hearing the price for which the Europeans were willing to sell glass, he exclaimed disbelievingly:

"How are you able to produce glass for such a low price? The Myrich ask at least 100 times as much money for it. Or is the quality of your glass so low that you can barely see through it."

"I can assure you, Lord Stark, that all our glass is perfectly clear without impurities, just like the Whisky bottle we gifted you. We mass-produce it efficiently in factories, which allows us to sell it at such a low price. In our world, every house has glass windows and may of our drinks are bottled up in glass bottles."

After hearing this, Lord Stark immediately ordered enough glass panes to build several new glass gardens in Winterfell, barely making a dent in the money the Germans and Dutch owed him. Tyrion was also interested in the, from his perspective, ridiculously cheap clear glass. However, he would wait until he had permission from his father to act in his name before he ordered anything.

Lord Stark, knowing from the enormous population sizes of the European countries that they were likely very effective, also ordered a small batch of the farming equipment. The tools he ordered were primitive from an European perspective, but were incredibly advanced for Westeros. These were the type of tools that kick started the first agricultural revolution, which allowed the massive increase in the European populations.

Lord Stark was also interested in seeds of some of the cold weather crops that were grown in Northern Europe, although he had never heard about some of those crops, like potatoes, strawberries and spinach, before. He also mentioned that one of his bannerman would be very interested in rice seeds, which could be grown in wetlands. Even Tyrion was interested in the cold-weather crops, as he reasoned that parts of the Westerlands might be warm enough to grown them in winters.

As it had become quite late, the negotiators decided to continue the discussions tomorrow. As today was mostly used to address the European proposals, tomorrow would start with questions by the Westerosi themselves. Patrick was happy to know that the main objectives of Germany and the rest of the Union have already been accomplished today, regardless of what tomorrow might bring.


AN: Sorry guys for the late update. As always thanks everyone who left a review, followed or favourited my story!

Some more details about why Lord Stark would sell his own land to the foreigners will be given in chapter 13 (which is from his POV)