'Storm on the Trident' unofficial planning thread
Well, I suppose I should get a thread like this up since Pontifex has one for his planned scenario. Wasn't sure if I had the authority to set it up since I haven't been a mod here since 2012, but Trot told me to go ahead, so without further ado - here I go:
Playable Houses
Stormlanders Storm's End (Shipbreaker Bay) - House Durrandon of Storm's End, Storm Kings and (nominal) Kings of the Trident.
- Galemont - Special non-hereditary title granted by House Durrandon. Bearer titled "Knight of Galemont."
- Griffin's Roost - House Connington of Griffin's Roost.
- Adderdell - House Wensington of Adderdell. (Durrandon cadet branch)
- Crow's Nest - House Morrigen of Crow's Nest.
Dornish Marches - No High Lord
- Nightsong- House Caron of Nightsong
- Harvest Hall - House Selmy of Harvest Hall.
- Poddingfield - House Peasebury of Poddingfield.
- Blackhaven - House Dondarrion of Blackhaven.
Summerfield - House Toyne of Summerfield, High Lords of The Summer Field.
- Gallowsgrey - House Trant of Gallowsgrey
- Fawnton - House Cafferen of Fawnton.
- Grandview - House Grandison of Grandview.
Stonehelm (Red Watch) - House Swann of Stonehelm, High Lords of Red Watch.
- Lonmouth - House Lonmouth of Lonmouth.
- Lockport - House Hasty of Lockport Castle.
Estermont (Cape Wrath) - House Estermont of Greenstone, High Lords of Cape Wrath.
- Weeping Tower - House Wagstaff of Weeping Tower.
- Mistwood - House Mertyns of Mistwood.
- Tudbury Hall - House Tudbury of Tudbury Hall.
- Wrathrock - House Bolling of Wrathrock. (Durrandon cadet branch)
Rainhouse - House Wylde of Rain House, High Lords of The Rainwood.
- Broad Arch - House Staedmon of Broad Arch.
- Blue Grove - House Gower of Blue Grove.
- Rainwood - *Special Non hereditary title sworn to Storm's End whos bearer gets the title Warden of the Rainwood.
Tarth (Straits of Tarth) - House Tarth of Evenfall Hall, High Lords of The Straits.
- Drakesgrave - House Horpe of Drakesgrave.
- Haystack Hall - House Errol of Haystack Hall.
- Parchments - House Penrose of Parchments.
Bronzegate - House Buckler of Bronzegate, High Lords of Wendwater.
- Hadlow Keep - House Hasty of Hadlow Keep
- Felwood - House Fell of Felwood.
- Amberly - House Rogers of Amberly.
Bywater (Kingswood) - House Bywater of Bywater, High Lords of The Kingswood.
- Woodmere - House Harte of Woodmere.
- Attadale - House Thorne of Attadale.
- Greensward - House Blount of Greensward.
- Langward Hall - House Langward of Langward Hall.
Massey's Hook (Stonedance) - House Massey of Stonedance, High Lords of Massey's Hook.
- Wendwater - House Wendwater of Wendwater
- Sharp Point - House Bar Emmon of Sharp Point.
Blackwater Hill (might have been King's Landing in another universe) - House Cole of Blackwater Hill, High Lords of Blackwater Bay.
- Stokeworth - House Stokeworth of Stokeworth.
- Rollingford - House Rollingford of Rollingford.
- Bromsfort - House Chelsted of Bromsfort.
- Farring Cross - House Farring of Farring Cross.
- Dalston Keep - House Gaunt of Dalston Keep.
Riverlanders Note: It'd be easier to tell which Riverlander house didn't rule as petty kings once & thus have a claim to kingship (either as independent petty-kings or Kings of the Trident), so that's what I'll be doing. Except for the Hoares and those who are mentioned to have never been kings in their own right, literally every house on this list can be taken a little more seriously if they declare themselves independent River Kings or the King of the Trident/King of Rivers and Hills.
Harrenhal - House Hoare of Harrenhal and Orkmont, Iron Kings and Kings of the Rivers.
- Shoreham - House Shepherd of Shoreham. (Ironborn appointed by Hoare)
- Esgaroth - House Ironmaker of Esgaroth. (Ironborn appointed by Hoare)
- Atranta - House Codd of Atranta. (Ironborn appointed by Hoare)
- Willow Wood - House Humble of Willow Wood. (Ironborn appointed by Hoare)
Riverrun - House Tully of Riverrun, High Lords of Riverrun. (never a king)
- Lolliston - House Lolliston of Lolliston.
- Branston - House Shawney of Branston.
- Turnbridge - House Lychester of Turnbridge.
- Kanet - House Paege, Knights of Kanet.
The Twins - House Frey of the Twins, High Lords of the Crossing. (never a king)
-Cape of Eagles - House Haigh, Knights The of Cape of Eagles.
-Mistlewood - House Charlton of Mistlewood.
-Erenford - House Erenford, Knights of Erenford.
-Freylands - House Nayland, Knights of Hag's Mire.
Seagard - House Mallister of Seagard, High Lords of Ironman's Bay.
- Rushmoor - House Rushmoor of Rushmoor.
- Martlet Bay - House Grell of Martlet Bay.
- Gravesham - House Hawick of Gravesham.
- Oldstones (Ruined: See 'Ruined Holdfasts' Rules). No House.
Stone Hedge (Southstone) - House Bracken of Stone Hedge, High Lords of Southstone.
- Medway - House Deddings of Medway.
- Goodsbrook - House Goodbrook of Goodsbrook.
Wayfarer's Rest - House Vance of Wayfarer's Rest, Highlords of Wayfarers Rest
- High Heart - House Weirhill of High Heart.
- Acorn Hall - House Smallwood of Acorn Hall
Blackwood - House Blackwood of Raventree Hall, High Lords of Blackwood Vale*
- Maidstone - House Perryn of Maidstone.
- Blackrush - House Bigglestone of Blackrush.
- Fairmarket - House Chambers of Fairmarket.
Darry (Bay of Crabs) - House Darry of Darry, High Lords of Trident Mouth.
- Maidenpool - House Mooton of Maidenpool.
- Saltpans - House Cox, Knights of Saltpans.
- Lord Harroway's Town - House Harroway of Lord Harroway's Town.
Pinkmaiden (Acorn's Ridge) - House Piper of Pinkmaiden, High Lords of Acorn's Ridge
- Stoney Sept - House Brydge of Stoney Sept.
- Castlewood - House Harlton of Castlewood.
The Trident - No High Lord
- Stillfen - House Vypren of Stillfen (were kings)
- Green Fork - House Keath of Green Fork.
- Chiltern - House Wayn of Chiltern.
- Wycombe - House Terrick of Wycombe.
- Red Fork - Special non-hereditary title bestowed by House Hoare. Bearer titled "Guardian of the Ruby Ford." Fealty owed directly to Harrenhal.
- Blue Fork. - Special non-hereditary title bestowed by House Hoare. Bearer titled "Lord Warden of The One Trident." Fealty owed directly to Harrenhal.
Rosby - House Rosby of Rosby, High Lords of Rosby. (never a king)
- Hayford - House Hayford of Hayford Castle.
- Edgerton - House Edgerton of Edgerton.
- Sow's Horn - House Hogg, Knights of Sow's Horn.
Duskendale - House Darklyn of Duskendale, High Lords of The Dusk Coast.
- Hollard Hall - House Hollard of Hollard Hall.
- Brindlewood - House Darke, Knights of Brindlewood.
- Antlers - House Buckwell of The Antlers.
- Byrch Hall -House Byrch of Byrch Hall.
Crackclaw Point - No High Lord (Independent)
- Dyre Den - House Brune, petty Kings of The Dyre Den.
- Rook's Rest - House Staunton of Rook's Rest.
- South Crackclaw Point - House Cave, petty Kings of Claw Hollow.
- the Whispers (Ruined: See 'Ruined Holdfasts' Rules). No House.
- North Crackclaw Point - House Brune, petty Kings of Brownhollow.
Rayonet (Blackwater Rush) - House Thorne of Rayonet, High Lords of The Blackwater Rush. (never a king)
- Chyttering Brook - House Chyttering of Chyttering Brook.
- Byford - House Mallery of Byford.
- Mosborough - House Follard of Mosborough.
*Follow the Old Gods.
Ironborn (possibly) *Applies only if the Hoares are made playable, since there wouldn't be any point to having the Iron Isles if they aren't.
Seastone Isles - House Hoare of Harrenhal and Orkmont, Iron Kings & Kings of the Rivers. (may or may not be playable)
- Orkmont - House Hoare.
- Old Wyk - House Drumm of Old Wyk.
- Blacktyde - House Blacktyde of Blacktyde.
Pyke - House Greyjoy of Pyke, High Lords of Pyke and Saltcliffe.
- Lordsport - House Botley of Lordsport.
- Saltcliffe - House Saltcliffe of Saltcliffe.
Harlaw - House Harlaw of Ten Towers, High Lords of Harlaw.
- Volmark - House Volmark of Volmark.
- Stonetree - Special non-hereditary title granted by House Greyjoy. Bearers titled "Lord Reaver of The Grey Garden." Fealty owed directly to Harrenhal.
Hammerhorn (Great Wyk) - House Goodbrother of Hammerhorn, High Lords of Great Wyk.
- Pebbleton - House Merlyn of Pebbleton.
- Sealskin Point - Special non-hereditary title granted by House Greyjoy. Bearers titled "Lord Admiral of The Iron Fleet." Fealty owed directly to Harrenhal.
Lonely Light - House Farwynd of Lonely Light, High Lords of the Western Sea.
Trade All noble Houses start with two trade routes at the beginning of the game and can gain one more trade route through building upgrades and one more by employing a player controlled merchant. In addition some regions will receive an additional trade route as a regional bonus bringing the maximum number of trade routes to five. Trade is conducted between two Houses in the game, whether it be two player controlled Houses or a player an a NPC House. However, trade between a player House an a NPC House will only be allowed after the majority of the player trade routes have been exhausted and it will be up to the moderators to determine when that time comes.
Each region carries a specific trade good which carries a bonus.
Stone. +2 Siege Defence, -10% Building Cost
Iron. +1 to land battles, +250 Land Levy points
Grain. +1,200 Militia Points
Game. +5% Income, +1 to any rolls to convince an AI character to do something (Includes calling your vassals to war)
Perfumes. +2 to any rolls to convince an AI character to do something (Includes calling your vassals to war)
Scented Woods. +10% Income
Fruits. +600 Militia Points, +1 to any rolls to convince an AI character to do something (Includes calling your vassals to war)
Armour. -15% Professional Infantry Hire Cost, -10% Professional Infantry Upkeep Cost, -10% to purchasing weapons and armor
The Upper Trident: Grain
The Lower Trident: Fruits
The Iron Islands: Iron
The Blackwater Shore: Perfumes
The Blackwater Rush: Game
The Rainwood: Scented Wood
The Dornish Marches: Stone
Storm Coast: Armor
The above regions are groupings of High Lords, thusly:
Trade regions Upper Trident: The Crossing, Ironman's Bay, The Trident, Blackwood Vale
Lower Trident: Harrenhal, Riverrun, Trident Mouth, Southstone, Acorn's Ridge, Wayfarer's Rest
Iron Islands: The entire Iron Isles, of course
Blackwater Shore: Dusk Coast, Rosby, Crackclaw Point
Blackwater Rush: Blackwater Bay, Blackwater Rush, The Kingswood, Massey's Hook
Storm Coast: Shipbreaker Bay, The Straits, Northpoint, Wendwater
Dornish Marches: Dornish Marches, Summerfield, Red Watch
Rainwood: The Rainwood, Cape Wrath
Trade income is now worth a standard rate of 10,000 per trade route.
Merchant Trade: Merchants will still function as the outlined in the rules but they will also now have a new role to fulfill. That of freelance contractors who can add additional routes to a lord's trade for a set amount of time. To do this a merchant must be willing to use their caravans or ships or warehouse for a Lord's benefit.
E.g. I have three ships. I use two for my own private ventures (usual income generation) and I hire one out to Lord Serry for trade. This mean the ship will not generate usual profit but 10,000 dragons for the Lord less whatever fees the Merchants charges. This will benefits both parties, but beware, a greedy Lord may try to seize your assets!
Note, in order to prevent abuse, if a merchant character is created solely for the reason to add an additional trade route for a lord or a group of lords and he or she is not consistently played, then the mod team reserve the right to terminate the merchant and his contracts.
Trade Contract Lengths: All NPC trade routes will only last for three years before they must be renegotiated. This includes trade routes for Essos. Trade routes between two players will never expire unless one side wants to intentionally break the agreement.
Trade with the Free Cities and other Kingdoms
Trade with the Free Cities and the other four Kingdoms is permitted, and each kingdom has a unique bonus that it can provide if a trade agreement can be established between your House and that kingdom. Trade with the Free Cities will not be possible until Aegon completes his Conquest on Essos. For Free City trade rules & resources, see the original rules thread. You can only have one active trade route with another Sovereign Kingdom/Free City at a time.
Trade Difficulty for Royal Trade Routes:
Easy: Base 10/20 chance
Medium: Base 5/20 chance
Hard: Base 1/20 chance
Trade Modifiers: In order to represent their positions as a major port, trade center, or influence (like Lord Paramounts or the King), certain cities/provinces will gain a modifier to increase the chance of gaining a trade deal. Any twobonuses can stack.
House of Influence: +1
-- Defined as an LP House or any House that holds a powerful position (Small Council, non-hereditary title held by family member, Marshal of your region, etc) Can only be considered
once so multiple positions do not stack.
Renewal Bonus: +1 from attempting to renew a trade agreement
Center of Trade: +2
Major Port City: +3
-- Defined as being any city/province with a +1 trade lane
Merchant Bonus: +5
In addition, any bonuses from charisma related things like the actual trait or trade resources only grant half of their value rounded down with a minimum of 1. So a +7 combined charisma bonus becomes a +3 modifier while a +1 charisma is still +1 for that minimum.
NPC Kingdom Trade Resources The North:
Trade Income: 100%
Resource: Northern Furs
- +10% Income, +2 to any rolls to convince an AI character to do something (Includes calling your vassals to war)
Abilities Granted: Northmen AOR units become recruitable as sellswords.
Number of Routes Available: 2
Difficulty in Acquiring: High
The Rock:
Trade Income: 200%
Resource and Bonus: Westerman Gold
- +20% income
Abilities Granted: Westermen AOR units become recruitable as sellswords.
Number of Routes Available: 2
Difficulty in Acquiring: High
The Reach:
Trade Income: 150%
Resource: Arbor Wines
- +2,000 Militia Points, +2 to any rolls to convince an AI character to do something (Includes calling your vassals to war)
Abilities Granted: Reachman AOR units become recruitable as sellswords.
Number of Routes Available: 2
Difficulty in Acquiring: Medium
Mountain & Vale:
Trade Income: 150%
Resource: Vale Stone
- +3 Siege Defence, -15% Building Cost
Abilities Granted: Valeman AOR units become recruitable as sellswords.
Number of Routes Available: 2
Difficulty in Acquiring: Easy
Dorne:
Trade Income: 100%
Resource and Bonus: Dornish Sand Steeds
- Grants a 15% discount to recruitment & 10% to upkeep of professional cavalry.
Abilities Granted: Dornish AOR units become recruitable as sellswords.
Number of Routes Available: 2
Difficulty in Acquiring: Medium
The Great Lore Infodump - The Stormlands
Meet the Durrandons What we know: They were originally a house of the First Men, founded by Durran Godsgrief circa 8000 years ago. He married Elenei, daughter of the sea-god and the goddess of the wind, and built several keeps that failed to resist her parents' wrath at their wedding until finally, Bran the Builder and/or the Children of the Forest helped him raise Storm's End: Durran's son and immediate successor, also named Durran, gave the Rainwood back to the Children, so it might have been as a reward for aid in constructing Storm's End. The Godsgrief himself was said to have ruled for a thousand years, but it's more likely that the Storm Kings who reigned for the first thousand years of the Storm Kingdom's existence were just named Durran over & over. We do know that there have been at least 24 Durrans, likely hundreds or thousands more if the latter theory is true. There are certainly several unnumbered Storm Kings who were named Durran, as well. Their heraldry depicted a crowned black stag on gold and their words were 'Ours Is The Fury', both of which were taken up by the Baratheons that came after them.
The Durrandons do not appear to have unified the entire Stormlands until some time during or after the Andal Invasion. Their original domain seems to have been limited to Shipbreaker Bay & maybe the Dornish Marches, and it took quite a while for the First Man Storm Kings to expand the Storm Kingdom to the modern borders of the Stormlands:
- The Rainwood remained in the hands of the CotF until Durran Bronze-Axe conquered it for good.
- The tenth Durran was the one who expanded the Storm Kingdom's northern border to the Blackwater while his son Monfryd the Mighty conquered Duskendale and Maidenpool. Monfryd's son and grandson lost all of these lands, though.
- The Masseys were founded by a sworn bannerman to Storm's End, but later seceded from the Storm Kingdom in the time of Durwald the Fat, a weak Storm King who also lost the Rainwood to a woods-witch (think the Ghost of High Heart) called the Green Queen. Many generations later, they were finally defeated and brought back in line by Qarlton the Conqueror, only to regain independence a short while later as puppets of the first Bar Emmon: an Andal adventurer who had made himself petty-king on Sharp Point and married one of the previous Massey king's daughters.
- The Bar Emmon incursion into Massey's Hook appears to have been the first time House Durrandon faced the Andals. The Bar Emmon kingdom & its Massey pawn were both permanently annexed into the Storm Kingdom under unknown circumstances some time later.
- Tarth and Estermont were independent until the reign of Durran the Fair, who married the daughter of King Edwyn Evenstar to get him to bend the knee, and Durran + the Tarth daughter's grandson Erich 'the Sailmaker', who militarily conquered Estermont.
When the Andal Invasion came a-knockin', the Andals were unable to militarily conquer the Stormlands, but the Durrandons did eventually assimilate into Andal culture through intermarriage and conversion to the Seven. This period likely started 6-5,000 years ago, and lasted many generations: I'd say 2,000 years or so.
- Erich the Unready ruled just before the Andals came and as his nickname suggests, failed to take any preparations to defend against them due to being busy fighting other First Men kings.
- His grandson Qarlton (who conquered Massey's Hook above) was the first to face them in battle, and lost his conquests to them.
- His son, also named Qarlton, fought the Andals for all his life
- Qarlton III's son Monfryd V managed to halt the Holy Brotherhood, a coalition of seven Andal kings and warlords who were working together to carve out domains for themselves similar to the Ninepenny Kings, at Bronzegate, but died in the process.
- Baldric the Cunning manipulated various Andal warlords against one another to keep the Stormlands safe.
- The 21st Durran teamed up with the remaining CotF of the Stormlands to fend off the Andals. Their 'Weirwood Alliance' won several important battles with the invaders, including that of Black Bog.
- Cleoden I allied with three Dornish petty-kings to defeat the Andal warlord Drox the Corpse-Maker (possibly related to the Westerman House Drox, who are mentioned as being of Andal descent) on the River Slayne.
- Maldon IV appears to have given up on fighting the Andals and married one of their princesses for peace.
- Durran Half-Blood was Maldon's son, and continued his policy of intermarriage & appeasement towards the Andals. Many Andal knights & warlords swore allegiance to him in exchange for estates within the Stormlands. Durran also appears to have encouraged the native First Men nobles to marry their sons and daughters to Andals, and the Andal newcomers to do the same with the existing First Men.
- Durran Half-Blood's descendant Ormund III completed the Andal assimilation of the Stormlands by being the first Storm King to cast aside the Old Gods in favor of the Faith of the Seven.
The Storm Kingdom appears to have reached its zenith at least one millennium after the Andal Invasion, under several Storm Kings whose names started with 'Ar-'.
- Arlan the Avenger, first of his name, claimed the Blackwater Rush and the headwaters of the Mander in the eastern Reach. The latter was a new conquest, but the former appears to have been lost by the Storm Kingdom well before Arlan's time (perhaps it was conquered by Andals during the Invasion, or else by the Justmans or the Teagues).
- Arlan III, great-grandson of the above, was the guy who expanded the Storm Kingdom to its maximum extent about 350 years ago. Due to his marriage ties to the Blackwoods, he interfered in the war between the last Teague King and his vassals and destroyed the Teague line at the Battle of Six Kings (to be further detailed in the Riverlands infodump). Arlan, instead of giving the Riverlands to his underage Blackwood brother-in-law or his of-age but obviously female (and thus, under Andal law, unfit so long as male heirs are around) sister-in-law, claimed the Kingdom of the Trident for himself. Thus, by the time of his death the prancing black stag on gold of Durrandon would have been flown from the Twins to Estermont and from Riverrun to Tarth, a truly mighty realm.
- The Storm Kings had serious problems maintaining their control over such a huge territory, though. Many rebellions flared up (I'll further detail their leaders in the Riverlands section since there are so damn many of them) to challenge their rule, and while each of these revolts were eventually smacked down, they weakened Stormlander control to the point that the Ironborn were able to eventually wrest the region from the Stag's grip.
- Arrec, Argilac's grandpa, was the Storm King who finally lost the Riverlands. At the Battle of Fairmarket he was defeated by the Hoares and several rebel Riverlords who had thrown their lot in with Harwyn Hardhand, shattering Durrandon control north of the Blackwater. Arrec lost two brothers in the battle and spent the rest of his life trying to reclaim the Trident, failing each time.
- Arlan V, Arrec's son, also chose to attempt reclaiming the Riverlands or die trying. He died trying.
- Which finally brings us to Argilac in 1 BC.
What do we know about Argilac? Well:
- He's in at least his fifties by 1 BC. He is mentioned as having grown old and not being quite as badass as he used to be, although still strong enough to give Orys Baratheon the fight of his life during the Conquest.
- He was still 'a boy' when he inherited the throne from his father Arlan V, and immediately smote a Dornish invasion. (extrapolation: Dorne was opportunistically attacking the Stormlands in the wake of Arlan V's death at Hoare hands)
- He fought against Volantis alongside Aegon, Tyrosh and Pentos. He must have gained at least a passing familiarity with dragons from his time fighting beside Aegon, since at the Last Storm he chose to attack the Targaryen army in the middle of a storm - in other words, at a time in which the Targ dragons would have been grounded.
- He killed the previous King of the Reach, Garse VII, at the Battle of Summerfield when Garse invaded his domains.
- He really freaking hated Black Harren, and tried to construct a marriage alliance with Aegon to counter him. He promised Aegon the hand of his daughter Argella and lands north of the Blackwater that were controlled by Harren at the time, but was rebuffed. Aegon, who was already married to his sisters, offered to marry Orys to Argella instead; Argilac was less than pleased, and the rest is history.
- Personality-wise he seems to have been a composite of of his descendants, the Baratheon brothers. He had Robert's battlefield prowess, bloodthirst and tendency to fight on the front lines (killing Dornishmen while still a boy, seeking out Garse VII for single combat at Summerfield); Stannis' insane stubbornness, fierce love of his daughter (to the point of fighting dragons for her) and some measure of tactical acumen (fighting the Targaryens in a storm so their dragons couldn't fly); and Renly's arrogance, hence the nickname he's remembered by nowadays.
What's known about Argilac's daughter and brief successor, Argella?
- She was her father's only child. She was also likely in her late teens or early 20s when she became the last Storm Queen, since she was unmarried but didn't have a regent.
- She succeeded Argilac after the Last Storm, so he must have named her his heir.
- She was proud and likely close to her dad, since she refused to bend the knee to Aegon even after Argilac had died and the army of the Storm Kingdom was shattered by Orys & Rhaenys. She declared that even if Aegon took Storm's End, all he'd win were bones and blood and ashes.
- Yeah, that really didn't end well for her. Turned out her fury was just her own, her men wound up delivering her to Orys naked and in chains. Not that she has to worry about that in a world where Aegon doesn't go west, though.
Durrandon cadet branches The Durrandons had two likely cadet branches, the Bollings and Wensingtons. Both houses' heraldry features the stag in Durrandon/Baratheon colors, with their own twists on it of course. I theorize that the Bollings and Wensingtons are both fairly recent additions to the greater Durrandon family tree. Consider the following: when Arrec was defeated at the Battle of Fairmarket, it is mentioned that although he survived, he had two brothers who did not. Those dead brothers were possibly the progenitors of Bolling and Wensington and here's why:
- House Bolling's arms prominently displayed the Durrandon stag, but with its colors reversed and a line put through it - a sign of bastardy. Perhaps their founder was the bastard middle brother of Arrec, an illegitimate Stannis (oh the irony!) to the Wensington founder's trueborn Renly if you will.
- House Wensington's arms display three stags, the sign of a third son (for example, Loras Tyrell's personal arms depicted three roses on green, not one or two like his brother Garlan's). Their founder may have been Arrec and the Bolling founder's youngest brother.
Since Argilac at this point is likely to die without a son, both houses could use their male-line descent from Arrec's father to contest Argella's succession, as women have less of a claim than men do under Andal law. Under my theory, the Bollings would have a stronger claim by primogeniture (their founder was the older brother to Wensington's) which is offset by the bastardy of their progenitor. The Wensingtons' claim is more legitimate if you take the Bollings' bastard origins into account, since they would be descended from a younger son who was born in wedlock.
Other Stormlands houses There are only two lesser Stormlanders known by name around this time: Dickon Morrigen, who led Argilac's vanguard at the Last Storm (if his descendant Guyard's any indication, it seems the Morrigens have a tradition of serving at the fore of Stormlander armies), and the Bastard of Blackhaven, a Dondarrion who would've had the surname 'Storm' on account of his birth. Both fought at Argilac's side and were BBQ'd by Meraxes at the Last Storm.
Many of the great Stormlands houses are mentioned as being founded by the First Men, while the Andal-descended ones are likelier to be the lesser houses serving them. However, we do know some Andals posed a serious threat to the Storm Kingdom and thus likely have greater houses descended from them. In addition, we also know the Andal presence was strongest on Westeros' eastern coast, so it's possible that Tarth, Estermont and the Rainwood might have been conquered by Andals (and their ruling houses are descended from said Andals) before being retaken by the Storm Kings. I think, as a general rule, it's safe to assume that the further inland a house is, the less likely they are to be of Andal origin.
The likely First Men-founded houses of the Stormlands are:
- Buckler, as their heraldry depicts bronze buckles and their seat is called Bronzegate: bronze is, of course, a metal typically associated with First Men. Bronzegate also appears to have been the furthest Andals invading from the north got into the Stormlands, as they were stopped there by Monfryd V.
- Caron, which is said to have originated in the Age of Heroes, whose nightingale banner was flown in 1,000 battles and who supposedly had been sworn to Storm's End since 'time immemorial'. They claim to be the oldest house in the Stormlands besides the Durrandons, a claim also made by the Swanns.
- Swann, which was also said to have originated in the Age of Heroes and has ruled Stonehelm as far as anyone remembers. They claim to be the oldest house in the Stormlands besides the Durrandons, a claim also made by the Carons.
- Massey, who were raised to lordship by Durran the Ravenfriend.
And the likely Andal-founded houses are:
- Bar Emmon, known to have been founded by the Andal adventurer turned petty-king Togarion the Terrible.
- Estermont, whose origins are unclear in canon. However, Estermont itself is an island in the eastern Stormlands which means that it could've been taken by the Andals at some point, and it was known to have escaped the Storm King's grip a few times - perhaps the house's founder was an Andal conqueror.
- Hasty, a house strongly associated with the Faith.
- Morrigen, another house associated with the Faith and with known anti-Targaryen leanings. Bonus: they live on the eastern coast of the Stormlands, a region long vulnerable to seafaring Andals.
- Tarth, owing to their and their island's strong association with the great Andal hero Galladon of Morne, who may even have been their founder. Both the Tarths and Galladon were claimed to have been around in the pre-Andal Age of Heroes, which Maester Hubert notes was likely the result of bards embellishing the historical record; Galladon's own seat is known to be of Andal construction, not First Man.
The Andal/First Man divide isn't as strong as it was in the Stormlands, as pretty much everyone has adopted Andal culture & religion there and the long policy of intermarriage encouraged by the middle Storm Kings means that there's almost certainly no house of 'pure' First Man or Andal blood left. However, this list could be useful if anyone's interested in not just recording their house's history but also getting into fights over who's greater due to their house's age/superior faith/being badass conquerors some time ago/whatever
The Great Lore Infodump - The Riverlands
Meet the Riverland Hoares For this section I'll stick to just the Hoare history after they took the Riverlands. Two reasons: 1. It'd be more appropriate to cover their full history over in the Iron Isles section, and 2. If I were to try covering their full history here I'd be stuck writing this post all night
What we know: The Hoares took over the Riverlands 150-100 years before 1 BL during the reign of Harwyn Hardhand. So, what's known about this guy?
- Harwyn wasn't just a formidable warrior and sailor, but also a veteran of land wars thanks to his days in the Second Sons, so he actually knew what he was doing when it came to fighting an extended campaign on land.
- Soon after the convenient death of his older brother Harlan either just as or immediately before their father Qhorwyn also passed, he inherited the Seastone Chair and promptly capitalized on the constant troubles plaguing House Durrandon's weak grip on the Riverlands to mount an attack in the time of the Storm King Arrec.
- He landed 100 longships south of Seagard and having his men drag them inland to the forks of the Trident. After bypassing the Mallisters, the Hoare army went on to smash a much smaller smattering of Riverlander levies under Ser Samwell Rivers (whose corpse Harwyn chopped in half, so that his parents could each receive a piece of their son).
- Next he raced to engage the real army of Riverlanders loyal to House Durrandon, led by Agnes Blackwood and Samwell's father Tommen Tully. However, Lothar Bracken aided Harwyn and attacked the pro-Durrandon Riverlanders from behind, resulting in their defeat and the death of Agnes & her two eldest sons at Harwyn's hand after she refused to become his salt-wife.
- The combined army of the Ironborn & rebel Riverlords went on to defeat Arrec at Fairmarket, causing Durrandon rule over the Riverlands to implode entirely. The Riverlords were at first ecstatic and thought Harwyn would restore their freedom. Harwyn, of course, instead channeled John Matrix and declared himself the first 'King of the Rivers', binding the Riverlands within the iron chains of House Hoare. He proved to be an even harsher master than the Durrandons ever were, to put it mildly.
- Hardhand spent the rest of his life fending off Stormlander attempts to retake what they had lost in addition to putting down one rebellion after another in the ever-restive Riverlands. He tried to stabilize Hoare rule by playing divide-and-conquer, pitting one Riverlord against another. One of the many revolts that broke out was that of Lothar Bracken himself, who was peeved that he didn't get to be King of the Trident or even an independent petty River King. Almost needless to say, it didn't end well unless you were Harwyn: a pitifully short six months after the stallion banner of House Bracken had been raised in rebellion, the Ironborn sacked Stone Hedge and Lothar was condemned to death by being left to starve in a gibbet. Harwyn himself died at age 64 with a salt wife in his bed.
Harwyn's son and successor was Halleck Hoare, of whom little is known in comparison to his storied father and son. Here's what canon tells us about much-neglected Halleck:
- He seemed to be pretty similar to the early Angevin Kings of England, neglecting the poor and isolated Iron Isles in favor of his much vaster & wealthier continental holdings. Halleck visited the Iron Isles three times and in total stayed there for two years out of what appears to have been a decently long reign.
- Halleck moved the seat of House Hoare from Orkmont to Fairmarket, where he built a modest tower house to serve as his keep, so that he could better keep an eye on the Riverlands.
- Halleck spent his life fighting rebellions and his neighbors. In this he was less successful than his dad, as he was repeatedly beaten by the Kingdom of the Rock (Lannister), the Kingdom of Mountain & Vale (Arryn), and the Storm Kingdom (Durrandon). He did however succeed in extending his rule to the eastern shore of the continent by overrunning Duskendale & Rosby and also repelled Arlan V's efforts to reconquer the Trident, culminating in Arlan's own death.
And that's about it for Halleck, who it seems got to die a peaceful death in relative obscurity. Now comes to reign of his son, the infamous Black Harren:
- Like his nemesis Argilac, Harren was an old man past his prime by this time, in fact they're probably around the same age (50s-early 60s). Unlike Argilac he doesn't seem to have been an especially great warrior, as canonically he sent his sons to lead his armies in the field while he turtled up in Harrenhal during Aegon's Conquest, but he must've been a solid administrator & architect as demonstrated by him actually building Harrenhal.
- Like his dad Halleck, Harren neglected the Iron Isles in favor of concentrating all his major efforts on the Riverlands. He spent forty years building Harrenhal up to be a mighty replacement for the comparatively puny tower-house overlooking Fairmarket that Halleck had built.
- Even while he was still alive, Harren became legendary for his cruelty. He drained both the Riverlands & the Iron Isles of manpower and resources to build Harrenhal, and when they weren't enough, he had a habit of raiding all his neighbors for thralls. Many thousands died chained to sledges in his quarries or constructing his towers over the 40 years it took for him to finish this massive undertaking. He also hacked down many weirwoods to turn into rafters and beams for Harrenhal.
- Harren was also a ruthless tyrant to his subjects in non-Harrenhal regards. When the Brackens & Blackwoods got into one of their usual bloody spats, instead of staying out & letting them kill each other as his grandfather had done, Harren put them both down with so much force that the Tullys wound up eclipsing both Stone Hedge and Blackwood Vale in power for the first time in history after he was done.
- Obviously, none of this endeared Harren to his subjects. When Aegon attacked, basically all of his Riverlander vassals either left him to die or actively went over to the Dragonlord's side. Harren attempted to mount a resistance in the field (although as mentioned, he himself stayed put in Harrenhal) with his Ironborn banners, but they were defeated at the Reeds and the Wailing Willows, with two of his sons dying in the latter despite managing to inflict high losses on the Targaryens & rebel Riverlanders. Upon reaching Harrenhal, Aegon offered Harren a final chance to surrender, an offer which Harren more or less spat on; and the rest is history.
- As of a 1 BL no-Aegon start, Harren would still be a hated tyrant with little to no support outside of his home-base in the Iron Isles who weren't totally free from his deprivations either - he's already spent 40 years cultivating that reputation with his actions. He'd at least have more than two sons (even after the oldest two had died at the Willows, he's mentioned as having others who burned with him in Harrenhal) and possibly even grandsons to continue his line though, and they're not in any danger of being BBQ'd now. And of course, Harrenhal itself won't be easy pickings for an enemy armed with strictly conventional weapons.
Now, on to the other Kings of Rivers & Hills/Kings of the Trident who came before Houses Durrandon & Hoare.
A Dead Catfish - House Fisher of Misty Isle The Fishers were the first house to rule over the entire Riverlands, and the most obscure - we don't even know where the Misty Isle was, though I'd theorize it was located on the meeting point of the Red, Blue and Green Forks, a good central location that'd have let them project power in many directions. Some in-universe sources argue they were the third dynasty, but I think that's unlikely considering the dearth of information available on them. Really, all that's known about them is that they were First Men, their arms depicted a crowned grey catfish on blue, and they were destroyed in wars with the Stormlanders and/or Ironborn long (maybe even millennia, there's a 2000-year gap between the Age of Heroes and the Andal Invasion after all) before the Andal Invasion.
A Lymond Fisher rebelled against the Durrandons many thousands of years after the Fishers had originally fallen, though whether he just made his dynastic connection up or he really was some long-lost descendant of the last Fisher King of Rivers & Hills remains a mystery for the ages.
Everything Returns To Mud - House Mudd of Oldstones The Mudds were the second dynasty to rule the Riverlands, and the most famous - and last - of the First Men to do so. Like the Fishers before them, they styled themselves 'King of Rivers and Hills', a title which appears to have been chiefly used by the First Men Kings of the Riverlands. They've got two famous members, both named Tristifer:
- Tristifer IV, the Hammer of Justice. He was a badass who expanded the River Kingdom to the Blackwater Rush, smashed the Valemen when they tried to conquer the Riverlands and killed Roland II Arryn after giving chase to his shattered army, and fought ninety-eight other victorious battles against the Andals throughout his lifetime. However, he finally met his end in the face of an alliance of seven Andal petty-kings led by Armistead Vance.
- Tristifer V, son and immediate successor of the above. He was not an equal of his father's, and it showed: his remaining allies & bannermen, such as the Tullys, deserted him, he was rapidly defeated by the Andals, and his ancestral seat of Oldstones was ruined. The Kingdom of Hills and Rivers completely collapsed into a patchwork of Andal-dominated petty kingdoms not long into his inglorious reign, and it's said his line ended with him, implying that he either died childless or his kids were killed before/with him by the Andals.
However, some people claiming the Mudd lineage survived well after the Andal Invasion of the Riverlands: Marq Mudd the 'Mad Bard', who led a rebellion against the Storm Kings millennia after the time of the Tristifers, and two living Mudds who served with the Golden Company at the time of the books. They might've just made their connection up, but it's also possible that Tristifer V had a brother or cousin who could've carried on the Mudd line even after losing their throne.
The Mudds were said to have come after the Fishers, to have been around for quite a while before the last two Tristifers, and that Tristifer IV was the first of their line to become King of Rivers & Hills: he's stated as having started out with only the northern Riverlands from the Trident to the Neck when he inherited his father's crown. Based on this, I theorize that they ruled at least a thousand years as petty kings before getting their short-lived upgrade to kings of the entire Riverlands under Tris IV and then being eliminated, say 6-5,000 BC. (keep in mind, the Andals had to overcome the Vale before moving on to the Riverlands, and quite a bit of time passed between Corwyn Corbray becoming the first Andal king in the Vale and Artys Arryn's final victory over the First Men at Seven Stars)
Scales Weighed Down By Chains - House Justman The Justmans were the third dynasty to rule all of the Riverlands, and apparently the most peaceful & benign of the four. They were founded by Benedict Justman, the first man to bring order and unity to the whole Riverlands centuries after the fall of House Mudd, and they ruled for 300 years. We know three of their monarchs:
- Benedict the Just, the family's founder. He was born Benedict Rivers to a Bracken and a Blackwood, and though initially despised by everyone around him, he managed to gain the confidence of both his parents' houses, spent the next thirty years uniting the Riverlands with their support - the first time since the Andal invasion that they agreed to ally for a greater cause - and allowed himself to be crowned only after the entire region, from what is now the Crossing to Stony Sept and from Seagard to Maidenpool, had been secured. Although a First Man by blood (both the Brackens & Blackwoods were First Men), Benedict's mentioned as the first Andal ruler of the Riverlands and was the first to use the Andal title 'King of the Trident', implying that he took after the Bracken side of his family and followed the Seven (though, as half-Blackwood, he was likely quite tolerant towards the Old Gods too). He is fondly remembered as a compassionate, just and wise King, possibly the best the Riverlands ever had: the smallfolk celebrated him as 'Benedict the Just', which touched him so greatly that he took Justman as his surname.
- Benedict II, son and heir of the above, who unlike Tristifer V proved to be a worthy successor to his grand old man. He added Duskendale, Rosby and the Blackwater Rush to his dominion.
- Bernarr II, the last Justman King of the Trident. He was defeated by the Iron King Qhored the Cruel, who took his sons as hostages to force him to pay tribute. When Bernarr didn't pay up on time, Qhored killed the Justman boys in Pyke's Bloody Keep. A livid Bernarr went to war with the Hoares but was defeated, taken prisoner and drowned, ending House Justman.
Another claimant with the Justman name, Lucifer the Liar, rose up to claim the Kingdom of the Trident in the days of Durrandon occupation. He may have been a liar as his nickname suggests, but it's also possible that Bernarr had brothers, cousins or even daughters to continue the Justman line in obscurity even after their kingdom collapsed.
The exact date of the Justmans' ascension isn't known, only that they ruled 300 years and that the Teagues came around 100 years after their end. TWOIAF does mention that at least 'centuries' of anarchy passed after the end of the Mudds before Benedict the Just managed to pull off his reunification campaign. Knowing what we do about the Justmans and Teagues, I'd theorize that the Justmans emerged around 2,5/400 BC and ruled to 2,2/100 BC.
The Broken Trident - House Teague The Teagues were the fourth & last native River Kings to rule the region, although their reign was a bitterly troubled one. As the most recent dynasty of Kings of the Trident, they're also the best known of the four. Their reign began a century after the Justmans and lasted until 350 years ago.
- Torrence was the house's founder and first King of the Trident. He was a common sellsword who was either super lucky or enough of a military genius to steal a ton of gold from the Westerlands in a daring raid, so much gold in fact that he could hire more sellswords from Essos to conquer the Riverlands in six years and have himself coronated in Maidenpool - basically, picture a Riverlander mega-Bronn or mega-Davos. Canon states that he was of 'uncertain birth', but I theorize that there are two plausible backstories here, knowing what we do about him & his descendants: on account of his family's strong association with the Faith, he was almost certainly an Andal, and judging from how they were hated by their bannermen he was probably lowborn, if not a total outsider to Westeros. Extrapolation: he was likely either born to a family of Riverlander peasants in the Andal-dominated east or he was born in Essos to an Andal and non-Andal parent (maybe his mother was an Andal bed-slave in the Valyrian Freehold) and was among the last wave of Andals to land in Westeros, c. 2,000 years ago.
- Theo was the fourth Teague King of the Trident. Like most Teagues, he had to suppress rebellions and hang hostages left & right, and for spending his reign riding from one troubled place to another he was nicknamed 'Theo the Saddle-sore'.
- Humfrey I, the last Teague King of the Trident who ruled for more than a few minutes or hours. He was a fanatical Sevener who at first didn't seem too bad, as his zeal was limited to peacefully building septs and motherhouses across the Riverlands, but eventually moved on to outlawing worship of the Old Gods. The Blackwoods, Tullys and Vances led a rebellion against him (though strangely, the Blackwoods were the only Old God followers in that list) and since he had few loyal houses left to him, he called in the Faith Militant. With their help, Humfrey almost won the war, but he was undone when the rebel leader Lord Roderick Blackwood called in his Durrandon in-laws to help. At the war's final battle he was the first Teague to die and his line would end the same day, though not without putting up one hell of a fight in their own right - the Teagues took Lord Roderick, Lord Elston Tully and Lords Bracken, Darry, Smallwood & both Vances to the grave with them.
- Humfrey II, Humfrey I's oldest son, who picked up his father's crown immediately after his death in the Battle of Six Kings. He spent his reign, which spanned the next few minutes to few hours, commanding the Teague loyalists & Faith Militant still on the battlefield before also dying.
- Hollis, Humfrey I's middle son, who was crowned immediately after his elder brother's demise. He too didn't reign more than a few minutes or hours before dying and being succeeded by his youngest brother.
- Tyler, the last and youngest of Humfrey I's sons. He was coronated after the death of his second brother and didn't rule long before dying in the same battle.
- Damon, Humfrey I's younger brother and the last Teague King. He was his brother's champion on the battlefield and became King of the Trident following the slaughter of his three nephews, but didn't rule beyond the end of that same day before falling as well.
The Teagues officially died out with Damon, after which House Durrandon took over the Riverlands. Under Durrandon rule, the Teague name was conspicuously missing from the various claimants who rebelled against Storm's End. However, it's possible that some members of the house survived - cousins of Humfrey and Damon, or one (or more) posthumously-born child of one of Humfrey's sons - and just knew better than to stick their neck out in the miserable chaos of Durrandon and later Hoare governance.
Torrence Teague's coronation is mentioned as having come a century and six years after the end of the Justmans. I'd place it towards the tail end of the Andal Invasion (hell, maybe he caused that last great burst of Andal migration by hiring a ton of them as his sellswords with the stolen Westerman gold), say 2,2/100 BC. The Teagues ruled until approximately 350 BC, a lengthy if perpetually troubled run that's almost or a little over three times that of their Justman predecessors - ironic that the Kings of the Trident who had the most difficulty hanging on to their crown would wind up being the ones who actually held it longest.
And finally:
Other Riverlands houses The Riverlands seems to be dominated mostly by First Men genetics, although Andal culture and the Seven are dominant outside of Blackwood Vale. Most of the region's houses ruled as petty-kings long before the Andals' coming, and were only briefly united by the First Man Kings of Rivers & Hills from Houses Fisher and Mudd. Even after being defeated by the Andals time and again, the First Man Riverlanders as a rule don't seem to have been exterminated outside of the case of House Mudd, instead preferring to bend the knee and gradually assimilate/intermarry with the new big dogs in town. They may have also picked up a few Ironborn customs under the Hoare occupation, as shown by Hoster Tully's Viking-style funeral (being sent down-river in a boat with some personal effects which is then set on fire) in both the books and show.
The region's always been pretty politically fractured, and incessant infighting between the various Riverlords was the #1 reason for their fall to foreign powers over & over. The Bracken/Blackwood feud is far from the only one of its kind, although it is the most famous - history always notes those times these two houses set aside their bickering to unite against a greater threat, like their fight against the Andal invaders which ended poorly for both anyway - and TWOIAF states that there was rarely any time period when any given Riverlander petty king/lord wasn't at war with at least one of his neighbors.
Known Riverlander houses of First Man descent:
- Blackwood, the greatest champions of the Old Gods in the Riverlands. They aren't actually native to the region, having ruled as petty-kings in the North's Wolfswood before fleeing a Stark offensive. Out of all the Riverlander houses, they alone held to their old faith and appear to have intermarried the least with the Andals. They claim to have been petty-kings in the Age of Heroes before their Bracken archenemies, who they believe to have started out as lowly horse-traders in Blackwood service that eventually made enough money to hire sellswords & challenge their rightful rule.
- Bracken, who unlike their Blackwood rivals, seem to have actually been native to the Riverlands. In the stories Brackens tell, they were the first petty-kings in the 'hood starting in the Age of Heroes and had generously welcomed the exiled Blackwoods, making them their vassals, only to be repaid with treachery & usurpation by the ungrateful Ravens. Their rivalry with their neighbors only deepened after they chose to follow the Seven after the Andals came, while the Blackwoods held fast to the Old Gods.
- Darry, whose last king's three sons lost their lives in an ultimately futile attempt to check the Andals under House Vypren's progenitor at the Widow's Ford during the Invasion.
- Mooton, whose last king Florian the Brave died in an Andal siege of Maidenpool while still young enough to be considered a 'boy-king'. Maidenpool later became a site of mythical significance to the Andals who believed Florian, a literal fool and a knight, spied the maiden Jonquil bathing there...long before the Andals had brought knighthood to Westeros.
- Smallwood, whose seat of Acorn Hall is close to High Heart, a site of religious significance to the First Men as home of the last Children of the Forest in the Riverlands & numerous weirwood trees. They were likely among the First Men who stood with the Children against the Andal invader Erreg the Kinslayer when he came for High Heart, but were defeated, and later supported Blackwood's rising against the zealously pro-Seven Humfrey I Teague.
- Tully, whose founder Ser Edmure was a close companion of Tristifer IV Mudd but went over to the Andals (and evidently converted to the Seven, as he was later knighted) after his defeat & death. The Andal conquerors gave him land at the juncture of the red Fork & Tumblestone, where he raised Riverrun.
- Fisher, Mudd and Justman, as mentioned in their own sections. The Justmans were technically First Men by blood due to their combined Blackwood-Bracken heritage, but adhered to Andal customs & followed the Seven.
And known Andal-blooded houses:
- Frey, which was raised up around three centuries ago (they were mentioned as being around 600 years old as of 298-9 AC). This means they must have gotten the Twins under the Teagues (in which case they were probably one of the few Riverlander houses to stay loyal to Humfrey I) or the Durrandons.
- Mallister, mentioned as having come after the Andal Invasion to evict the Ironborn occupying Ironman's Bay. They were sworn to the Justmans until said Justmans fell, after which they became petty-kings before being subdued by the Teagues, Durrandons (who one of their ancestors rebelled against) and Hoares.
- The Vances, whose founder & common ancestor Armistead was the man responsible for casting down the Mudds and raising the Tullys to lordship, but who then failed to consolidate control over the Riverlands. They ruled as petty-kings until they were defeated and absorbed by the Justmans, and one of them later tried claiming the throne of the Trident in Durrandon times. It's not entirely clear which was the main branch, though the fact that Wayfarer's Rest is stronger than Atranta implies that the former's Vances are indeed the senior line of Armistead's descendants.
- Vypren, whose founder Vorian may have been the first Andal to cross into the Riverlands: he was the guy who led the Andals against the last Darry king's three sons for three bloody days at the Widow's Ford before eventually prevailing.
- Teague, as mentioned in their own section.
The following characters are the known Riverlanders of this time period: Edmyn Tully, the Lord of Riverrun who joined House Targaryen against the Hoares; Jon Mooton, brother & heir to Lord Mooton who went over to Aegon's side after Aegon's first battle; and a Lord Darklyn and Lord Mooton who both died fighting Aegon in his first battle on the continent.
The Great Lore Infodump - The Iron Isles
Meet the Hoares What we know: The Hoares were hereditary Iron Kings who took over around 4700 BC from the Greyirons, (much like the last few Greyirons) never bothered to hold Kingsmoots - instead, each Hoare passed the throne directly to their oldest surviving son upon their death - and were wiped out in Aegon's Conquest. They appear to have been of original Ironborn blood, instead of being Ironborn-ized Andals: at least one Hoare was elected Iron King in a Kingsmoot, which must have been before the Greyirons made the Seastone Chair hereditary. The Hoares did, however, definitely count on the support of the Andals to take the Chair from the Greyirons for good and extensively intermarried & traded with Andals for at least the first third of their hereditary rulership, which grievously undermined their support among the more conservative Ironborn and particularly the Drowned Men, the priests of the Drowned God.
The Hoares are popularly known as the 'Black Line' and it's not just because of their family's hereditary black hair & eyes (both noted to be common physical traits of the Hoares, think the Lannister blond hair + green eyes, Baratheon/Durrandon black hair + blue eyes or Tully red hair + blue eyes combinations) - they have a reputation for monstrous cruelty & depravity, both at home and abroad. Ironically, the first few post-Andal Hoares appear to be have been the nicest and most reasonable Iron Kings, ever: they had a policy of seeking peaceful trade with the Andal kingdoms on the mainland, marrying Andal princesses, trying to suppress reaving or at least redirect it away from Westeros (as the later Targaryen kings did), and protecting the Faith of the Seven from Drowned God zealots. Men like Othgar 'Demon-Lover', Othgar 'the Soulless' and Horgan 'Priestkiller' were given their monikers by fanatical Drowned Men who thought they were getting too friendly with the Andals and straying too far from the Old Way. Unfortunately for the rest of the continent, these benevolent Hoares came to an end with Harmund the Handsome, and pretty much all of the known Hoare Kings since then have been the archetypical adherents of the Old Way: sadistic reavers at best, merciless conquerors of and tyrants over the 'soft greenlands' at worst.
The non-hereditary Hoares known to us are:
- Harrag Hoare, who conquered Bear Island & the Stony Shore from the North during the reign of King Theon 'the Hungry Wolf' Stark. Extrapolation: Since Theon ruled during the Andal Invasion, likely in its middle phase after the Andals took over the Vale and were on the verge of doing the same in the Riverlands, he probably lived & ruled in the 5000s BC.
- Ravos the Raper, son of the above. He was a reaver who operated out of Bear Island under his father's direction until he was caught & killed by the Hungry Wolf insingle combat.
- Erich the Eagle, a grandson of Harrag through one of his other sons. He tried to retake Bear Island from the North, but failed. (the honor of reclaiming Bear Island for the Ironborn would go to a non-Hoare Iron King, Loron the Old Kraken)
The post-Andal Invasion but pre-Harmund Hoares known to us are:
- Harras Stump-Hand, who led a coalition of rebellious Iron Lords and friendly Andals to victory over Rognar II Greyiron, last of the Greyiron Kings of Salt & Rock. Harras went on to win a finger-dance competition for the Seastone Chair, hence his nickname. He may have married the daughter of an Andal king or warlord to earn their support.
- Wulfgar the Widowmaker, who allowed the construction of the first sept in the Iron Isles.
- Horgan Priestkiller, Wulfgar's great-grandson. He's best known for allowing the Faith to build a sept on Old Wyk, the holiest site of the Ironborn: in response, a Drowned Man mounted a rebellion that involved sacking the aforementioned sept & lynching the septon. In Horgan's crackdown, he executed that Drowned Man as well as many others like him.
- Fergon the Fierce, Othgar the Soulless, Othgar the Demonlover and Craghorn of the Red Smile: all were Iron Kings who promoted trade and cracked down on reaving. Extrapolation: as far as the Drowned Men were concerned the Seven were foreign demons whose septons' teachings threatened the Ironborn way of life, so the two Othgars got their nicknames from defending the new Faith more aggressively than Fergon and Craghorn.
- Harmund the Host, the first Iron King who knew how to read & write. He strengthened commercial ties to the mainland kingdoms and protected the Faith's missionaries from reactionary Drowned God zealots.
- Harmund the Haggler, the Host's son. He was a ward of the Lannister King of the Rock in his childhood and married Princess Lelia Lannister, the 'fairest flower in the West', as an adult. The Haggler expanded trade with the Reach, hence his nickname, and also tried to merge the Drowned God and the Seven: according to him, the Drowned God was an avatar of the Stranger.
- Harmund the Handsome, the Haggler's eldest son. He was raised in the Faith of the Seven and faithfully followed the New Gods all his life, making him the first and last Iron King who didn't worship the Drowned God. He tried to outlaw reaving, thralldom and the taking of salt wives. This resulted in a reactionary rebellion led by a zealous Drowned Man called the Shrike, who deposed Harmund prior to personally torturing and mutilating him & his mother Lelia in Orkmont's dungeon. Harmund was later put out of his misery by the Westerman Aubrey Crakehall.
- Hagon the Heartless, the Haggler's younger son. He was made Iron King by the Shrike, who tortured his mother Lelia with Hagon's consent. The Kingdom of the Rock, at the time ruled by Lelia's nephew, retaliated by invading the Iron Isles with a great host under Aubrey Crakehall. Crakehall obliterated the Ironborn forces arrayed to meet him, captured Hagon, tortured him to death by inflicting the same mutilations he had allowed the Shrike to inflict on his mother, and leveled the Hoares' ancestral castle on Orkmont.
- Aubrey Crakehall, the commander of the Westerman army sent to avenge Lelia Lannister. After defeating Hagon the Heartless, he didn't restore Harmund the (no-longer-quite) Handsome to the Seastone Chair (instead putting the man out of his misery), but took it from himself. The Lannisters were not amused by their bannerman's ambitious usurpation and recalled their forces, resulting in Aubrey being overthrown and drowned by the Shrike in less than half a year.
Following the fall of Hagon the Heartless and Aubrey Crakehall in rapid succession, the Iron Isles appear to have reached the nadir of its power, though ironically the Shrike (who was responsible for all of it) seems to have lived through the disasters he caused just fine. The Westermen completely devastated the Isles in their vengeful wrath, enough to cripple it for a generation (extrapolation: picture what Tywin's forces did to the Riverlands, x100 and done to a poorer & smaller region of Westeros). As if that weren't bad enough, a long winter hit immediately afterward and killed three times as many Ironborn as the Lannisters just had. The Iron Kingdom appears to have experienced a bit of an interregnum in this time period, as TWOIAF mentions that the Hoares who ruled in this time were puppets of their lords or the Drowned Men and their authority was basically nonexistent outside of Orkmont. It took a very long time, possibly millennia, for the Iron Isles to recover from these calamities. Extrapolation: these guys on this list ruled between 4700 BC and 3000 BC, and the resulting interregnum lasted from 3000 or the early 2000s BC to the late 2000s when Qhored I took over.
- Qhored the Cruel, who put the Iron Isles back on the map of Westeros in the most dynamic manner possible. He subjugated much of Westeros' western coastline from Bear Island to the Arbor & forced the kings with a western shoreline to pay tribute to him. He's also responsible for destroying House Justman, having carried off the heirs of Bernarr II after a victorious war with the King of the Trident, then murdering them in Pyke's Bloody Keep when Bernarr failed to pay tribute in time before defeating and drowning Bernarr himself. However, Qhored's gains were undone under his less capable successors. Extrapolation: since as I theorized in the Riverlander section the Justmans likely ruled between the 25/400s BC to 22/100s BC, Qhored probably ruled in the late 2200s or 2100s BC.
- Qhorwyn the Cunning, the Iron King immediately preceding Harwyn Hardhand. He built up the Iron Isles' fleet and army for defensive purposes, although Harwyn would use his work offensively instead. He had at least two other sons: an eldest son who died from greyscale and a middle son, Harlan, who 'mysteriously' died in a fall from his horse just in time for Harwyn to take the Seastone Chair.
For the last three generations of Iron Kings from Harwyn to Harren, see their Riverlands entry.
Other Iron Isles Houses The Ironborn appear to have been First Men whose culture evolved in a completely different direction from those who still lived on the mainland. Where the other First Men were terrestrial powers, the Ironmen's power lay in the sea; where the First Men considered bravery in pitched battles to be a cardinal virtue, the Ironborn were primarily reavers who targeted civilian settlements when their men were away & saw little shame in retreating from a larger force since they were after all just raiders; while the First Men's kings passed their thrones within their families, the Ironborn elected their rulers in kingsmoots for thousands of years, a practice that stopped only near and after the Andal Invasion; and where the First Men eventually replaced their ancient gods (ex. the wind goddess & sea god who were Elenei's parents in Stormlands mythology) with the Old Gods of the Forest under the influence of the Children, the Ironborn continued to worship the Drowned God, who appears to be completely unrelated to both the Old Gods & the later Seven (extrapolation: he really is one of those ancient gods of the original First Men). The Ironborn apparently experienced an influx of Andal migrants after the final war between the Greyirons and Hoares, but these Andals were few enough in number that they were assimilated into the Ironborn culture and religion rather than the other way around. A minority of Seveners, protected by the early Hoares, seems to have been decimated by Drowned God fanatics following the Shrike's coup & the complete breakdown of Ironborn society after the double whammy of the Lannister invasion & the Famine Winter; the Faith isn't really mentioned in the Ironborn history between those points in time and some years after Aegon's conquest. Point being, there seems to be no distinction of ethnicities on the islands: basically everyone's Ironborn and a Drowned God follower at this point.
Most of the Ironborn nobility and royalty claim descent from the Grey King, a mythical figure from the Age of Heroes who more or less founded the Iron Isles as we know them today. Besides killing the great sea-dragon Nagga and turning her bones into his hall, the Grey King was famous for ruling for over a thousand years and having a hundred sons by his mermaid wife; when he basically got bored of life and committed suicide by walking into the sea so that he may sit at the Drowned God's side, those sons warred against each other and the sixteen who survived their bouts founded sixteen of the Ironborn Great Houses including Greyiron, Greyjoy and Harlaw.
The Iron Islands houses known to have been elected to rule as Iron King in the past were:
- House Blacktyde, who produced Joron Maidensbane: a guy infamous for butchering the Reachman King Gyles II and carrying off most of the Arbor's young women in another raid.
- House Drumm, who are one of the most conservative houses of the Iron Isles due to their possession of the holy island of Old Wyk & adherence to tradition. Their most famous kingly representative was Regnar Raven-feeder, who together with the Drowned Men forced Erich Greyiron to desist his efforts to succeed his father as Iron King without a kingsmoot and was rewarded for his faith by being crowned Iron King at the kingsmoot that was eventually held.
- House Goodbrother, who are the only Great House of the Iron Isles to not claim descent from the mythical Grey King - instead they claim to be descended from his elder brother - and who produced more elected Iron Kings than any other house save the Greyirons. Their most (in)famous representative is Urrathon Badbrother, who executed all of his predecessor's sons save one; that lone survivor returned two years later and seized the Seastone Chair with the support of Badbrother's enemies, of which there were many due to his cruelty.
- House Greyjoy, who produced the third-highest number of elected Iron Kings after only the Greyirons & Goodbrothers, and certainly the most Iron Kings whose names we actually know after the Hoares. Said known kings include Loron the Old Kraken who conquered Bear Island & Cape Kraken, Theon III who was defeated by the Hightowers of Oldtown and Balon Coldwind who destroyed the North's fleets.
- House Harlaw, masters of the eastern Iron Isles. At this time their seat would still be Harlaw Hall, as Ten Towers wasn't constructed yet. They can count two named elective Iron Kings: Erich V, who conquered & lost Fair Isle in his lifetime, and his son Harron who killed King Gareth the Grim of the Reach in single combat under the walls of Oldtown.
Other famous Iron Isles houses from this time period include:
- House Codd, who are mostly infamous for being a house descended from thralls & salt-wives. They have an ill reputation as incestuous thieves, cowards and wantons.
- House Farwynd, who rule the westernmost island in the archipelago and were famed as skinchangers who could become sea lions, walruses & whales.
- House Volmark, which had the closest blood ties to the Hoares, something they used to periodically claim leadership over all Ironborn as late as 300 AC.
Some famous non-Hoare Ironborn known to have existed at this time period include Vickon Greyjoy, who was canonically elected the first Lord Paramount of the Iron Isles by his peers after Aegon's Conquest; Qhorin Volmark, Black Harren's cousin (his grandma was Harwyn Hardhand's sister) and the rightful heir-by-blood to the Seastone Chair if all the Hoares were to die; and Lodos, a Drowned Man who was crowned Iron King by his fellow zealots post-Harrenhal but accidentally committed suicide with thousands of his followers in an attempt to seek the Drowned God when Aegon counterattacked.
Iron Isles income Very Rich Provinces (70,000 Golden Dragons):
Harlaw
Lordsport
Rich Provinces = (60,000 Golden Dragons):
Pyke
Great Wyk (Hammerhorn)
Very Prosperous Provinces (50,000 Golden Dragons):
Blacktyde
Orkmont
Volmark
Lonely Light
Prosperous Provinces (40,000 Golden Dragons):
Old Wyk
Saltcliffe
Stonetree
Poor Provinces (30,000 Golden Dragons):
Sealskin Point
Pebbleton
Other changes
- There are no Goldcloaks.
- There's no Kingsguard.
- Both the Iron King and the Storm King (as well as any hypothetical River King) can name their own Small Councils.
- The Faith Militant exists but is presently based in the Reach, which is obviously unplayable. To make use of their services, a Sevener lord would have to travel to Oldtown to negotiate with an NPC High Septon.
If I haven't listed any rule changes here, you can safely assume that those rules remain unchanged from the vanilla ruleset.
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Originally Posted by Gandalf.
