81 replies to this topic

[ᗅᗺᗷᗅ]

There are many parts of the Reach that border Dorne and have a similar culture/climate/etc. Things get fuzzy in borderlands. Maybe that's the lawlessness and banditry.

On the 7th event: If Robert Baratheon suspected involvement in the escape of Daenerys and Viserys, he would have executed each and every last member of the house. Remember, we're talking about a guy who countenanced the brutal murder of children. It might be better to simply say our House fought on the wrong side.

 

My character is actually not a member of the in-game house, but of House Sunderland. He is being fostered by the in-game house, however. But House Sunderland also fought for the Blackfyres, so it ties in nicely. However, House Sunderland fought for Robert Baratheon in Robert's Rebellion. So perhaps my character's being there could be part of an arrangement that kept the in-game house from being destroyed?

 

The 6th event/decline would have had less to do with the Baratheons originally than with the Targaryens. It might make more sense to say that the initial decline was because the in-game house had fought for the Blackfyres. Afterward they had their status reduced and spent the next few decades kissing Targaryen ass to try to make up for it. As a result, when Robert's Rebellion came they were on the wrong side again.

 

Name-wise, I like House Farren or House Merced. But I'm not super picky. Any ideas about a sigil/words?

[Haflinger]

Stets writes:

All of that make sense, perpahs being involved in secreting the dragons out of Westeros is too much.

As for a House name, how about something like House Rune's Watch which would tie in with our support of the Citadel? A sigil would be pretty easy then, we'd just need for it to be a Rune on whatever color field we wanted. I'm drawing a blank on house words though...

[Haflinger]

Margrave writes:

Still a fan of house Blackweir. I like what he said about including the Blackfyre rebellions.

House words: "One with the Land", or "Our Roots Run Deep".

House Blackweir is one of the suggestions Margrave came up with during the IRC session. I think he wants to have the house be originally from somewhere else, probably up north, not in the Reach at all.

[Shokkou]

I'm still fine with Blackweir, and my vote would be for "Our Roots Run Deep."

[Haflinger]

Stets writes:

I like the name and the Words. We could use an image like the tree of Gondor...(wow, LoTR and GoT in the same thought. )
Obviously it wouldn't have to be that image, but something along those lines.

[ᗅᗺᗷᗅ]

"Blackweir" doesn't sound very Westerosi. Family names in Westeros usually have an English or pseudo-English sound. What about something like Blackthorne?

[Haflinger]

It's a reference to weirwood.

Margrave wrote:

I imagine that the sigil should be a bent tree black centered on a white field.

[Haflinger]

Stets wrote:

I did have a thought on the words if we went with Rune's Watch. We could use "Words are Wind".

I'm okay with either one though.

[ᗅᗺᗷᗅ]

It's a reference to weirwood.

Margrave wrote:

I imagine that the sigil should be a bent tree black centered on a white field.

 

OH! Well then comment retracted.

 

If House Blackweir is meant to be a transplant from the North, do they keep the Old Gods?

 

For words, I like "Our Roots Run Deep" better than "One With the Land."

[ᗅᗺᗷᗅ]

Attempt at a sigil:

 

[Haflinger]

Margrave likes Jor's sigil. However, Stets has this.

I do prefer the old gods to the 7, that's for sure.

As for the sigil, the weirwood is a white barked tree with red leaves, I would think the colors should at least be reversed on Jorost's image above.

Just a note - there are no godswoods anywhere in the Reach, or in the South for that matter (apart from the one at King's Landing, planted there for visitors from the north). The Andals destroyed them all. Without a godswood, you can't pray to the old gods. There are weirwoods in the south, but none of them have the faces.

[ᗅᗺᗷᗅ]

I thought this was meant to be a BLACK weir, though. Like maybe the family named themselves after an unusual black weirwood around which they built their first keep in the North, etc.

 

There is a weirwood in the Riverlands, maintained by House Blackwood. In fact there is a LOT about the house we are creating that is like House Blackwood, right down to the name!

 

There is a godswood at Highgarden. 

[Haflinger]

The citation for the godswood at Highgarden is the world of ice and fire, which is a semi-canon source.

 

Actually... I'm not sure I agree with much of the linked article. They don't seem to understand the difference between weirwood (which is a type of tree) and a godswood (which is a carved weirwood, a heart tree).

 

Margrave predictably cites the same article. He also says "The weir is black and leafless because Our godswood was burnt." If you like this idea, I can work it into one of the events. I'm probably going to go with Invasion/Revolt.

 

He also wants an exemption made to have a godswood. I'm considering it, but it'll probably cost double. You guys can easily afford it though, you are quite wealthy and godswoods are a Wealth investment.

 

There are several godswoods around the Riverlands. House Reed has one too I think.

 

I have a few ideas. Tomorrow I'm going to post a suggested detailed history for comments. I have to finish writing it first though. Hopefully you guys like most of it, and hopefully you can agree about the parts you don't like.

[Haflinger]

House Blackweir

1st Event - Glory: After the death of Garth X Gardener, there was a succession crisis in the Reach. Garth X had died without a male heir, and his two daughters had married the Lords of House Manderly and House Peake. Manderly was a Reach lord then (this is long before White Harbor), but Peake was a Marcher lord. What's more interesting, House Peake is a house of First Men, they predate the Andal invasion. The conflict between Manderly and Peake led to open warfare. The war became deadlocked until Ser Osmund Tyrell, then High Steward of Highgarden, raised an army and defeated both houses. The end result was that a distant cousin of Garth X was placed on the throne.

A young captain, Bryon Snow of White Harbor, distinguished himself in service to House Peake, and was granted a small fort near White Harbor. Many said that his true father was Lord Peake, but he was never acknowledged. Perhaps this was the reason why, when Ser Tyrell raised his force, he came over to fight his former allies. He continued to distinguish himself in battle; near the end of the war he collected several bent knees from men who knew him only by reputation. When the war was over and Mern VI Gardener safely on the throne of The Reach, he was legitimized, and asked what name he would like to be known by. He said Blackweir. He was also granted a small holding in the Reach, one that had formerly belonged to House Peake.

Nobody now admits to knowing why he picked this name. Your characters may know some stories, depending on their backgrounds. Some say he had a gift of prophecy, given later events.

2nd Event - Decline: Under the reign of King Perceon III Gardener, House Manderly was exiled from the Reach. This was bad news for the young House Blackweir, which still had holdings near White Harbor. These were wiped out by the Starks as a part of their welcoming gifts to House Manderly, who brought much wealth north to them. House Blackweir was now strictly a house of the Reach.

3rd Event - Madness: Like many other houses of the Reach pledged to the Gardeners, House Blackweir had its forces at the Field of Fire during Aegon's Conquest. Lord Duncan Blackweir was killed on the Field. His son Jonas, the new Lord Blackweir, then sixteen years old, was also burned dramatically on the field. His life was saved when his mother sent for a maegi, who performed an unknown ritual that returned the boy to a semblance of health.

Jonas' rule was characterized by a reliance on the maegi who had saved his life. This was controversial at the time, but historians have judged her fairly well. However, her influence has left one permanent mark on the House: The godswood inside Blackweir Castle turned black. This event is why some have said that Lord Bryon must have had a prophetic vision when the Gardeners asked him for his house's name.

4th Event - Victory: During the Conquest of Dorne, the marcher lords played a significant role in fighting alongside the Young Dragon. Now allied with House Peake, House Blackweir fought, securing territory for itself in northern Dorne and once again bolstering its reputation as a military force.

5th Event - Invasion/Revolt: The revolt of the Dornish after the Conquest was vicious, and House Blackweir were driven back to the Reach.

6th Event - Decline: A significant portion of our house joins in the Blackfyre Rebellion, joining House Peake. We hold out but it's bloody.

7th Event - Scandal: Jesse Blackweir, third brother of Lord Blackweir, seduced Genessa Hightower, one of Gerold Hightower's younger sisters (an aunt to Leyton Hightower, the Old Man of Oldtown). Genessa favored the Blackweirs, and convinced them to set up an estate in Oldtown, but when the truth of their relationship became clear in the form of a Flowers child Jesse was executed on the order of Lord Devryn Hightower (Leyton's father). Genessa committed suicide, but before that happened, she poisoned her brother in revenge and Leyton became Lord Hightower. House Blackweir was punished by having a significant amount of its lands outside Oldtown seized by the Hightowers.

There. What do you think? I tried to use as many ideas as I could from the stuff Stets, Jor and Margrave have posted.

[ᗅᗺᗷᗅ]

I like it.

[Haflinger]

Yah alright. Everyone who's posted seems to like it, I'm still waiting on Margrave who's been playing IRC tag with me for several days now to give his opinion.

[ᗅᗺᗷᗅ]

I doubt it's mentioned in the source material, but for the purposes of our game I'd like to assume that House Sunderland also keeps the Old Gods. The trees remember.

[Haflinger]

That only affects your character directly, Jor. We'll talk about the stuff that's character-specific in PM once I get the house history approved.

 

The house history is really important to get everyone's input on, because it's going to affect the whole storyline.

[Haflinger]

I met with Margrave on IRC. He had been planning on writing something up, but decided he liked my history better. So it's official.

Neither he nor I like the proposed house words. Also, the words of House Oakheart, which is a Reach house, are Our Roots Go Deep which is rather close to the one you guys liked. (Those of you who've read the books may remember Arys Oakheart, a Kingsguard member. That's his house.)

Thus I have come up with some proposals which take into account the decidedly martial flavour of your house's history, and tie that to the Old Gods.

In The Silence
(silence being a reflection both of the godswood and also of military tactics.)
Beware Oblivion
(oblivion means both death and forgetfulness)
Iron Roots
Unseen We Advance
In Dreams We See
(reference to prophetic visions, and greendreams)
Forever

There. Any favourites?

Margrave and I worked out a proposal for the house's holdings as well. Resources aren't just numbers, they can be invested in particular features, which give your house defined holdings which your characters can use. Invested land gives your house territory, power gives you military units, influence gives you heirs, wealth gives you facilities of various sorts, and defense gives you fortifications.

Resource points do not all have to be invested. Resources can sometimes fluctuate downward as well as up, and if they fluctuate down below the level required for the investment, then you lose the investment. Therefore it's a good idea to have a few spare points in each section.

Influence is the easy one. Your Lord's Status is 4. That means that his first-born son has a Status of 3, and anyone else in the family has a Status of 2. Status 2 heirs do not need investment points spent. A first-born son costs 20 Influence for the investment. Therefore, Lord Blackweir has a first-born son, and the House has 16 spare Influence points. Influence points can sometimes be used during gameplay to influence events; doing so burns the points and reduces the House's Influence but can be worth it, depending on the situation.

In a way, Power is pretty easy too. You guys have almost no military. You do have money though. (Power investments can also be used to acquire banner houses. The first banner house costs 20 power, almost double what you have. You don't have any banner houses.) Thus, I suggest having two military units. The first military units is a trained quality mercenary unit, which costs 4 Power points and 3 Wealth points. The second unit is a green quality infantry unit, which costs 5 Power points. That leaves you with 2 Power points spare. You could technically afford a trained quality infantry unit, but that would leave you with no Power to spare.

Land is next. Your house's land resource, never that enormous, got demolished by historical events. Land is broken down into domains. For each domain, there's a base cost for the type of terrain used, and then you add the costs of features found in the domain.

The proposal is to have one domain. All domains in The Reach have plains as their terrain type, which costs 5 Land. Putting the land domain on the coast costs +3 Land, giving you a hamlet (a small village) costs +10, and putting some ruins in costs +3. That rates the total cost of the domain at 21 Land, leaving you with two land points to spare.

Next, Defense.

You only have one domain, and it's pretty important. 30 points gets you a small castle to protect your village with, and leaves you with 9 points to spare. You could split your defenses up into smaller fortifications, but given that you have just the one domain and if you lose it, your House is homeless, it seems sensible to protect it as best you can.

Finally, Wealth investments.

Godswoods normally cost 5 Wealth, but they also normally require the House to be in the North. Therefore, I'm doubling the cost. 10 Wealth.

Artisans cost 10 points. There are various effects that they can have; the one I'm suggesting is the blacksmith. If you have a blacksmith, then weapons made in the castle count as castle-forged, which means they're much better quality.

Since you have a Coastline domain, you can have a Port. Ports cost you 10 points and tend to help you grow your house's fortunes faster.

The mercs cost you 3 points. Your Wealth is 34, and that totals 33. You have one spare point.

What that gives you is a fortified port, with a village there to support the port. There's no road out of town, so it's a minor port that supports the area. Probably it is mostly used to export farm produce, and bring in Arbor gold and other supplies for the castle. The castle is garrisoned by a combination of mercenary soldiers and less-experienced local troops. However, they are at least real soldiers, if inexperienced; they aren't peasant levies.

Margrave has expressed an interest in playing the captain of the mercenaries.

Names...

The castle is Castle Blackweir in the history. Margrave suggested this for the ruin: Peake's Eyre; it was a large castle with tall towers. Now it's simply the Pyre, a large area filled with tumbledown building stones and the ruins of a keep, fire blackened.

I suggested making the ruin one of the ancient castles of House Peake that Bryon Snow originally captured back when he changed sides in the war between Tyrell, Peake and Manderly. So that name fits that history.

A name for the hamlet would be good. Black Harbor is one possibility; perhaps Landfall? Oh, I dunno.

[Haflinger]

Man those are some good house words.

In the Silence was sexy, as was Unseen, We Advance and Forever

I would personally rather not have a godswood if we can apply those points more appropriately. I know it will be a burden not being able to pray but I think the idea that there's not a weirwood with face carved on it would pre-suppose us having one anyway. Perhaps we just have a very old weirwood in the ruins on our land that doesn't have a face?

For words, I think something like "Eternal Vigilance" would be good.