War of Red and Gold

The War of Red and Gold, also known as The Wine Wars, was a revolt that occurred in the aftermath of Staedmon's Folly over the trade of wine and the influence of Dorne in the realm.

“A drink to our youth, to days dead and gone, for now the streets run red with wine and blood.” - A popular drinking song during the war.

Prelude to War
To most smallfolk the addition of Dorne into the realm was hardly noticed; certainly their lords bickered about their new fellow vassals and the occasional doomsaying scourge bemoaned that the foreigners with their silks and luxuries would see the moral decay of all they knew, but what did the peasant care of such frivolities? For many years and even decades, this status quo of commoner apathy would hold up, yet slowly even the ignorant masses would feel the impact of their new brethren in the one place all held dear: drink!

Dornish red had always existed as a trade commodity even as far north of the Red Mountains as King’s Landing, yet it was only after the integration of the Dornish into the Seven Kingdoms that the sour drink from the deserts of Dorne took a life on its own. Barrels of the wine were first shipped en masse for the enjoyment of Dornish representatives at the royal court, who promptly shared it with their fellow lords and ladies, some of which came to favour the drink and began requesting it at their chosen taverns. From there, the upper class establishments of the city began ordering large quantities of the product - much to the chagrin of the Reachmen and Riverlander merchants - though Gold would always remain the favourite. However, the wine diffused into the ranks of the lower classes, who found the much cheaper alcohol to be of a superior brew than the Riverlanders' own, while also far more affordable than Gold. It wouldn’t be long until the cheaper, yet still potent, Dornish Red became popular to commoner and lesser nobility alike.

With the influx of wine (and Dornish culture in general) the voices of the moralizers became louder and their increasingly bankrupt merchant competition became all the more angry. Tensions would only rise further as Staedom’s Folly (sometimes propagandised as the Dornish Wars) unveiled. At first came petitions to tariff the Dornish importants, then came feuds at the marketplaces, finally the infamous storming of the Green Lady as Riverlander and Reachmen merchants alike dumped barrels of Red into the Blackwater. A confrontation the following day led to a mass riot which left multiple dead. Fanning the flames of what was increasingly becoming a xenophobic war against all things Dornish, the Anti-Dornish factions in court encourged further acts of retaliation, even catching the attention of the wine lords who saw their dividends fall as their merchants failed. All it would take was a spark to set off the tinderbox that was King’s Landing, and that spark would soon maifest.

Sitting just off the harbor of the city was one of the most famous sails to grace the skyline, that of the Golden Winds, owned by one of the wealthiest dealers in Arbor Gold in the city. Yet when morning came, the graceful Arbor cog was blown to pieces before the very eyes of all present, killing several crewmen, dockmen, and sinking an untold value of Arbor Gold into the fiery seas below. What followed was sheer madness as a mass riot broke out that saw multiple warehouses and businesses torched, fights in the streets, and public ceremonies where barrel after barrel of wine both Gold and Red were destroyed in the streets. Though a tragedy of public fury, this would be but a prelude of the destruction to come as the fleets of the Arbor and Dorne prepared for war.

The Privateer’s Reign
The war began as fleets of privateers hired by the Dornish on one side and the Riverlander-Arbor merchant alliance on the other raided each other's shipping; capturing a fleet here and there or holding a notable merchant hostage for ransom. Though it wreaked havoc on the economy and engendered the breakdowns of law and order in King’s Landing, the so called “war between merchants” was seen as beneath the notice for royal authority proper, especially considering said royal authority was still reeling after the previous rebellion. This would prove to be an error as the war continued unimpeded  growing more and more deadly each day.

The War Spreads
Both sides found the continued privateer war unsustainable as the Arbor faction found themselves unable to crack the Dornish controlled Stepstones, while the Dornish were unable to match the sheer funding of the Arborites. Such a wide spanning conflict would end up bringing more sides in; first the Lannisport Lannisters took the opportunity to edge into Reachmen trade, sailors from Gulltown took it among themselves to capture as many privateers as they could for ever growing bounties, and the Manderly in White Harbor sought southern allies lest they be isolated as the seas grew ever more dangerous.

Sack of the Coasts
The war would enter its next phase as a group of privateers, emboldened by war and finding easy targets on the sea ever rarer, began launching raids on coastal towns and villages, with one notable attack by a group Dornish and Western privateers going so far as to raid the Mermaid's Palace and Isle of Pigs off the coast of the Arbor (Sacking of Mermaid's Palace), with witnesses reporting that the isles acted as great bonfires in the night. In response, an especially bold captain in the payroll of the Arbor sailed up the Torrentine, and though the raid did little damage to the fleet, it was celebrated in songs and stories, as the Burning of the Torrentine. In the east, the efforts of House Grafton to cull privateering had been successful, inspiring a group to seek revenge on their city, burning the suburbs around it in a surprise attack known as the Smiting of Gulltown, damaging the fleet moored at the harbour. Afterwards, the full force of the Grafton fleet sailed out and caught the raiding force by surprise, learning that they had been in the payroll of Dragonstone (though if they had been ordered to raid the Gulltown shores was unclear). After the incident, the other navies of the Realm would sail out banners blazing, with total war seemingly on the horizon.

War On The High Seas
Having enough of the conflict the sides of the war would seek to end it once and for all. The forces of Gulltown would ambush the Dragonstone fleet at harbor, with Dragonstone being caught entirely unaware, not even realizing that their privateers had so angered the Graftons (Battle of Dragonstone). Maelor was finally roused by the battle so close off his own shores, and personally commanded that all fighting cease at once so that a council could be held. However, the decree would arrive in the midst of the preparations for the final battle. Off the stormy shores of the Torrentine, the joint fleet of Dornish and West faced the Arbor head on. Though setting up to be a grand conflict of several hundred ships dueling, the choice of a battlefield would see nature be the true mistress of the tides. The already rough seas would be turned over in colossal storms that saw the clashing ships involuntarily crash against each other, sometimes washing entire crews into the cold depths below. Often friendly fire incidents occurred, as vessels were thrown across the waters hopelessly, attacking anything in sight. By the end of the five hour torrent, dozens of ships wound up wrecked against the Dornish coast, several lifeless hulks floated in the seas as their crews had been washed away, and nearly every hull had been damaged in nature's fury. The battle was indecisive and a complete waste, with some going as far as declaring it to be the Seven's punishment for a war fought solely in the name of avarice. So, the Battle of the Storm ended with only the Gods' being triumphant.

The King’s Intervention
After such a senseless battle that left the Dornish-Westerner and Arbor fleets scarred, Maelor’s demands could not be ignored, with the ringleaders of the war assembling to negotiate - or so they thought. Rather having been infuriated both by the wasteful war and the seeming ignoring of his first commands, Maelor punished them with harsh tariffs and a demand to assist in the rebuilding of the Gulltown suburbs. The Wine Wars would thus end indecisively, but the scars left by the unsatisfactory peace would boil over in conflicts to come