THE WOLVES HAVE COME AGAIN

♛ THE WOLVES HAVE COME AGAIN

When Princess Sansa of House Stark returned to her home in Winterfell, more than a little southron art and vibrancy came with her. A poet, dancer, and lover of music since her earliest years, she brought King Brandon’s court to life by filling the castle with artists of every kind. Bards, traveling mummer troupes, poets, and puppeteers would find in Sansa a generous patroness. Such was her reputation in championing the very best artists that her fashionable circle in Winterfell became famous around Westeros.

While she loved the arts for their own sake, Sansa had also learned to wield the power those pretty distractions could offer. The princess did not merely enjoy the songs and sonnets of others. She wrote her own poems and performed songs of her own making. Alongside her sister, Princess Arya, she even entertained the guests at many a harvest feast with a play she wrote herself. Sansa could weave words together in such a way as to bring even the strongest to tears and create an image in their mind of the truth she wanted them to see.

When singers and mummers left her company, they carried her songs and stories with them, as well as ones created in her honor. Through them, Sansa could reach from the North all the way down to the southern most reaches of Dorne and through all the lands in between. Her singers and mummers would recount the glories of Winterfell and the might of House Stark.

AESTHETICS MEME » jon snow & sansa stark

All around was empty air and sky, the ground falling away sharply to either side. There was ice underfoot, and broken stones just waiting to turn an ankle, and the wind was howling fiercely. It sounds like a wolf, thought Sansa. A ghost wolf, big as mountains. (for anonymous)

moodboard: sansa stark + christmas for @snowingsansa

The snow drifted down and down, all in ghostly silence, and lay thick and unbroken on the ground. It was a place of whites and blacks and greys. White towers and white snow and white statues, black shadows and black trees, the dark grey sky above. A pure world, Sansa thought. I do not belong here. Yet she stepped out all the same.

Post-Canon!AU: The Kings and Queens of Winter

Their father once said that in winter, they must protect one another, keep each other warm, share their strengths.  So they shared their strength, and their crown as well.

King Brandon the Divine ↳ It was said that King Brandon knew the magic of the gods–when he spoke, mountains trembled, and when he smiled birds sang.  King Brandon and his siblings certainly did little to quell the rumors that the old gods had given him powers the likes of which no living man or beast could match.  Though perhaps not the most vocal of his siblings, King Brandon’s word was often the one that ended any dispute among them, and it was said that he knew of trouble long before news reached Winterfell.  How he knew what he knew–whether it was truly the magic of the gods–none can say. But that his knowledge allowed for strong rule in the North was undeniable.

Queen Sansa the Gracious ↳ When the Lords and Kings beyond the Broken Neck called upon the North, it was Queen Sansa who treated with them, and when invitations made their way to Winterfell, of the royal siblings, it was Queen Sansa who went–though it is said she was never so happy as when she saw Winterfell in the distance after a journey away from home.  She was regarded as instrumental to the goodwill between the Kingdom of the North and those to the South, for she had come to know the Lords of the South well during her time in captivity.  A patron of the arts, there were never singers far from Queen Sansa, and at her bidding, the North came to know tourneys and festivals in the summers to celebrate the longer, warmer days.  

Queen Arya the Open-Hearted ↳ Queen Arya gave her heart to her people.  Of the Kings and Queens, Queen Arya was the one who left Winterfell the most frequently, though never for very long and never going very far.  She often spoke of knowing that, though it saddened her to leave the halls of her forbears, it was her duty to do so, for she rode throughout the kingdom, ensuring that the Lords of the North did not abuse their smallfolk.  When Queen Arya came to a holdfast, there was no one too lowly to meet with her, and if there was any sign of corruption, Queen Arya brought an end to it with practiced dexterity.  All of the North knew her love, and in return gave her theirs as well.

King Rickon the Peacebringer ↳ As a babe, King Rickon was loath to leave the castle that was his home, for whenever those he loved left, he feared they would not come back.  As a man grown, King Rickon was also loath to leave his brother’s side, for the two relied upon one another dearly.  But when King Rickon did leave the stronghold of Stark, it was said that peace was sure to follow, for King Rickon only ever left at the head of an army to bring an end to whatever troubled the realm, and it was King Rickon who oversaw the King’s Justice and took the heads of traitors to the North.  The youngest of his siblings, King Rickon never remembered their youth together in Winterfell.  To him, it was living a dream, and he was determined that this dream would not become a nightmare again.

— She is just as comely as the Tyrell girl. Her hair was a rich autumn auburn, her eyes a deep Tully blue. Grief had given her a haunted, vulnerable look; if anything, it had only made her more beautiful. He wanted to reach her, to break through the armor of her courtesy.

modern asoiaf: Sansa Stark

“ Is it all lies, forever and ever, everyone and everything?”