By the year 125 of the Conqueror's Calendar, almost all of Westeros had been covered in ice and snow. Only Holy Flame Island, Dorne, and the lands around Oldtown could still grow crops.
Despite Danyla's warning and the grain reserves stored throughout the land, commoners had begun to starve and freeze to death, and the situation was only growing worse.
The same was true in Essos. Bitter winds and blizzards now swept across the vast, flat Dothraki Sea. The Dothraki, who had never been producers to begin with, devoured all their livestock, then led their tribes toward Slaver's Bay, plundering everything in their path.
Over those years, the blood of men and the wails of women and children became the defining sounds of south-central Essos.
Winter had also settled over the entire Kingdom of Reclea, apart from Lys and Volantis. Fortunately, nearly a million square kilometers of farmland along both shores of the Sea of Sighs had been brought under cultivation over the years.
Those fertile lands not only fed the Kingdom of Reclea, Andas, and the Kingdom of the Rhoynar, but also kept Westeros supplied.
As a result, the gold coins held by Westeros's lords, great and small, flowed back into the Kingdom of Reclea's hands.
Of course, the bitter winter was not without its benefits. Those who could no longer work could devote themselves to studying, allowing the new continental Common Tongue to spread rapidly.
Eating grain shipped from Reclea and learning a shared language gave the generation that endured the winter a common memory and a sense of belonging.
While the bitter winter was a disaster for most nations, it was an opportunity for the hellishly hot Red Waste.
Leading the Third Legion, Daemon conquered Qarth in little more than a year. Intimidated by the dragons, the