"Tywin Lannister," Maximus called out, meeting the eyes of the once famed lion, who now looked like a whipped dog. "Do you have anything to say for yourself?" Tywin kept his mouth clenched as his eyes stared angrily at Maximus.
The Imperial Guard standing behind Tywin grabbed him by the neck and shoved his face into the ground. Maximus motioned for the guard to raise Tywin's head as he waited for him to speak. Tywin, with his face bruised from hitting the ground, spit to the side, blood and dirt splattering across the grass. "You can kill me. That is all you have, foreigner. Death for my failure, death for not taking you out before you grew too powerful. If I could do it all again, I would take you out as soon as you started making noise across the sea."
Maximus stared at him for a moment, neither smiling nor frowning. "Death would be mercy for you. Instead, you will live out your final days, imprisoned within the ruins of Harrenhall. You will be stripped of your name and titles and will be only known as the Lion of Ashes from this moment on. House Lannister will be erased from history and the Westerlands will be ruled by one of my Generals, Dáin II Ironfoot when he returns from his expedition in Sothoryos. Now please get this trash out of my sight."
The Lords watched as the Lion of Ashes was carried away by the Imperial Guards. Once this day was over, he would be taken to Harrenhall and live out his final days as a prisoner, alone, and without family. The appointment of Dáin II was also a spite in Tywin's face as he hated his dwarf son, Tyrion, so Maximus could only imagine what this would do to his head.
The next person that was brought up was Cersei and Joffrey who both had different expressions than Tywin did. They were more fearful and scared of their future rather than angry about what was to come. "Cersei Lannister, Joffrey Baratheon," Maximus started. "The blood of your House has been the curse of the realm. From this day onward, you are stripped of all claims, all titles, all holdings.
For Cersei, since she likes seducing people to get what she wants, A brothel will be constructed where she will be the main attraction. The Whore Queen will be her name, and she will live out her days there until she shrivels up and die." This announcement was a shock for all present.
Sentencing somebody to be the main whore in a brothel, especially somebody who was once the wife of the former King of the Seven Kingdoms, was something unheard of before. But considering the current apparatus, something like this was probably better then beheading her, which is what most people expected.
"For Joffrey, he will be forced into servitude in the dungeons and kitchens of cities, under the very common folk he often looked down on. The commonfolk will ridicule him, call him names, and shame him for as long as he lives." Joffrey, hearing this wanted to say something in protest, but remembering what happened to his grandfather, he didn't say anything.
The Imperial Guards dragged the two away, with Cersei shouting her cries of protests to her punishment. She was largely ignored as Maximus went on with the rest of the day.
Jaime Lannister was stripped of all his titles and sentenced to labor as a builder to assist in the reconstruction of the roads and bridges his family helped destroy with their ambitions. Jaime made a joke, calling it "honest work" causing several in the crowd to laugh at his remark. Jaime felt he was lucky as his punishment was harsh, but nowhere near what many had suffered in Kingslanding.
However, what he didn't know was that this punishment was quite harsh. Maximus knew that death was too merciful for people like this. The best way to punish them was for them to be judged by the common people for years to come. Over time, the insults, physical abuse, and other things will seep into the heads and slowly create a sense of depression and loneliness which will cause them long term suffering until their death. It was a truly fitting punishment for them.
The remaining members of the Lannister household suffered a similar fate and were punished harshly and stripped of their titles. The remaining members of the Baratheon family, Myrcella and Tommen were granted mercy compared to the others. Unlike their mother (Cersei) and father (Jaime) they weren't involved in the family affairs and were only there because of the actions of adults.
As a result, Myrcella and Tommen were split up and sent to different houses where they would become wards and grow up with different parents. The two had no say in the matter and simply accepted their fate.
After this, Maximus moved on to Renly who had been a captive for the past few years. He was sentenced to spend the rest of his life as a commoner in the Reach, forced to count grains while all memories of his power faded. "You wanted to be loved, Renly," Maximus said. "Now you'll see how long love lasts for men who have nothing." The rest of the proceedings followed in the same way.
The remaining punishments were dished out with those Houses who refused to bend the knee being punished with their Houses destroyed and titles revoked as Maximus said he would do.
When all was done, the lords of Westeros knelt as one before Maximus. The banners of ancient houses hung across the field among the tents with the ruins of Kingslanding in the background. Maximus dismissed the assembly with a final oath: "From this day, Westeros is united under the law and protection of the Imperial Union. All men will be free to worship as they please. All children will be educated. All hunger will be met with harvest. And all new ambitions will be welcomed, but never at the cost of peace again." The lords took his words with them as they left.
———
Flying over the mountains beyond the wall, two of the Wyvern riders were performing his daily patrol, monitoring the movements of the dead army and the White Walkers. They had yet to see the Night King amongst the army, but they still had to keep watch and monitor its progress. They flew high in the sky, above the clouds to avoid being spotted and attacks getting launched at them.
However, the one person who could launch attacks at them from the ground had spotted them. On the ground, the Night King created an ice spear filled with magic and aimed it at the sky, tracking the path of one of the Wyverns as it flew above the clouds. A few seconds later, the Night King released the spear and watched it fly to its intended target.
In the sky, one of the Wyvern riders was unaware of what was about to happen. He looked down observing the army, writing down things in his notebook. As he was doing this, the ice spear struck the heart of the Wyvern, piercing the armor instantly. The Wyvern had lost its strength and started falling to the ground, while the rider tried to figure out what was going on.
He dropped his notebook and held on tight as the Wyvern spiraled to the ground. The other Wyvern rider swooped down beside them, seeing the ice spear lodged into the Wyvern's side. The other rider jumped from his Wyvern and onto the falling Wyvern and tried to pull the spear out. However, as soon as he touched it, his hands froze instantly, not allowing him to let go.
"I can't get off." he shouted as he was stuck.
"We're about to hit the ground." Shouted the other as a few seconds later, they landed in the cold forest. The other Wyvern had already pulled up and started attacking the Night King's Army to protect its rider. It managed to tear apart a portion of the army, turning the wights to powder. But a single Wyvern against tens of thousands was not enough.
As the Wyvern looped back around, the Night King threw another spear, impaling the Wyvern's heart and bringing it crashing down. The two riders who had fallen with the other Wyvern had survived thanks to the inches of snow beneath them and the Wyvern who tried its best to protect the two. The one who'd tried to remove the spear was now fused to the shaft, his hands nothing but hoarfrost up to the elbows, his skin blue-veined and covered with flakes.
The Night King came toward them atop a pale horse made not of flesh but shadowy, chilling fog. His aura was so cold, the forest itself froze as he walked through it. He stared at the wyvern and its attached rider, tilting his head.
The Night King reached out and removed the spear, taking both the wyvern's heart and the rider's hands, and with the same motion, impaled the still-living rider to a dead, standing tree. The man gasped, frost bursting from his lips like white dust. The Night King looked at the gasping man, curious as to where he had come from and what he was wearing. Then, he pressed his palm to the rider's forehead.
The rider's eyes went wide. For a moment he screamed, uttering a sound that was not natural for a human. Then the Night King pulled his hand back, and the man went rigid, eyes frozen, blue as winter. Moments later, the rider's eyes came back alive, except this time they were blue. He was turned into a wight.
The Night King turned to the Wyvern on the ground, stroking its corpse as if it were a lost child. The dead host began to move again, drawn by the silent will of their master. But at the edge of the frozen, the other fallen rider had somehow crawled behind a tree, dazed but alive. He saw everything, embedding every horror in his memory.
He didn't notice the White Walker standing behind him as he was watching the Night King turn the Wyvern into its servant.
In the end, he too was turned into a wight. The two Wyverns who were impaled by the spears were turned into servants under the Night King and had become more monstrous and vicious than they were before. The army of the dead, now joined by these two monstrous allies, pressed forward towards the wall.
On the wall, the Imperial Army was unaware of what had just transpired. It would take several hours when the Wyvern's miss their check in time that the Army knows that something has happened.