There will again be another war before the coming of the white walkers
But instead of a war of 5 kings, instead it will be called the great civil war, where all the houses tear each other apart. So that instead of clean house vs house, realm vs realm combat, the entire realm will shatter with the houses turning on each other with old grievances, prejudices and ambitions tearing them all apart.- At the center will of course be house Targaeryn. Which will be the cleanest in terms of separations (at first), but will have Viserys be the big dissident for there.
- House Baratheon will split between Robert and Stannis, and with Stannis alongside to Lyneese Hightower, this will also create another conflict between House Tyrell and House Hightower.
- There will also be a breaking of the "great bastards", with no easy distinctions between them all, especially for Mya Stone.
- House Tyrell will have Garlan, Melissa, Olenna and presumably Loras and Margaery together, while the reach tears itself apart otherwise with the florents, Hightower proper, the Fossoways and others rebelling. Though with the added wrinkle of where the Peakes will fall.
- It might also lead to House Tarly stepping up as they've been mostly on the periphery right now, but they might yet have a hand in what's to come.
- House Martell will have Doran and Quentin vs most of the rest of the family, though Arianne will be a Wild Card.
- There might also be an interesting case where houses Yronwood and Dayne form a power/prestige block that tip the balance around Dorne.
- House Lannister will be mostly united, though Tywin might drive the rest away for one reason or another, with Tyrion, Cersei and Gerion standing united, and Jamie taking a Crown or Nothing stance to break away from his father's will.
- House Tully will split with Brynden getting swept up against Hoster, Edmure and Lysa.
- And there's going to be a big mess with the brackens, blackwoods and others trying to muscle their way up. Especially for House Frey, who've been playing it very safe through the story but must have an angle planned in the future.
- The Vale will be a mess with Elbert struggling to hold things together (perhaps with Baelish egging them on), but thrust into conflict with his wife, his courtier, and maybe even the powerful House Royce.
- The Iron Islands will have a very The Generation Gap split in what happens there. Asha and Theon will of course have their own difficulties in seeing if they can have the Iron Way reformed, while Balon and Euron will be preparing for their own last desperate bids. With Aeron being their mix-up question with family, legacy, the will of the drowned god and the last request of his father all making him The Kingmaker for where the Ironborn will go from here.
- And the North will become an utter mess, with the personal loyalty to the power couple of Ned and Cersei vs the ideological and personal issues that houses Karstark, Glover or Bolton have.
Tyrion will become the head of the Fire Bank
Lyanna and Elia already have some ideas to reform Westeros, and with Tyrion already getting some administrative learning back in the day, giving him a chance to carve out his own legacy in the same way Cersei and Jamie are already set to have legacies of power and battle. Asha and Theon will have different perspectives returning to the Iron Islands, but be closer to each other in attitude
- With Cersei drip feeding Theon so that he had to work to earn respect in the household, he might be somewhat more bitter about his time there, but also have the respect of the Ironborn for having seized his place up north. Thus living the iron way in his own way by earning his worth.
- Asha meanwhile has gotten a more loving treatment, though her pride always kept things closer to how Theon was in the books, in having Iron Pride. But she might even get some symbols of the islands like the Valarian Steel weapon Rhaegar took during the Greyjoy Rebellion. Yet even though she's more emotionally healthy, she'll command less respect due to not taking as much in her time at King's Landing.
- However, one thing they'll agree on is that the Starks and Targaryens were better family than the squids ever were, and resolve to live up to grandpa Quellon rather than the dry ambitions of Baelon.
The story is building up to the replacement of House Tully as a great house
The house there isn't nearly as well off by comparison due to Cat's death and Brynden's induction into the Crownlands, and with words about Hoster having issues holding things together, there's a chance that Edmure might end up being last of the Tullys before long.