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Noble House Scenario - Crownlands


James Steller

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Imagine you're the head of a Noble House in the Crownlands (assume it's been around since the Targaryens landed). Your family has always been closely linked with the Targaryens, and have served them loyally. However, the Blackfyre Rebellion broke your family apart. Your uncles supported the Black Dragon and rode with his hosts. Your father, meanwhile, sent you and your elder brothers to lead your soldiers to fight the rebels in the name of Daeron II Targaryen. Your elder brothers were killed on the Redgrass Field while you merely lost your left hand, in exchange for a knighthood. After being gone from your home for nearly a year, however, you return to find your father and mother died of sickness in the time you were gone, leaving you as the leader of your family, which at this point only includes yourself and your younger sister, Malora (15).

Your estates are intact due to the lack of fighting in the Crownlands, though your smallfolk have been much depleted due to the war. Representatives from the villages admit that only half the usual tax amount can be hoped to be collected this year, and maybe for the next few years as well due to a lack of manpower. Worse, your family's personal fortunes are also gone due to the cost of weapons, armour, food for your soldiers, etc. 

In the meantime, you must find yourself a bride, which is helped by the renown you won in the fighting, and hindered by your lack of fortune. Three potential candidates wait on your response:

  • Lord Darklyn's youngest sister was widowed when her husband was killed at Redgrass Field, leaving her a widow with two half-grown sons. Lord Darklyn offers a generous dowry if you marry her, though it means taking temporary custody of her children as well (her oldest boy is 13, only six years younger than you). While her elder son will inherit his father's estate, the younger son will need accommodations, especially after you produce heirs of your own with your new wife. Lord Darklyn's sister, meanwhile, is almost ten years older than you, and while it is still very soon after her husband's death, you can tell that she and her sons still grieve him, and may not be easy with you stepping into his position in their family. 
  • Ser Boris Hardy, like yourself, earned his knighthood at the Redgrass Field. He is set to inherit his father's modest holdings, and he wishes to make an ally out of you. He offers his unwed cousin to be your wife. While his household is poor and cannot afford a good dowry, he offers to make up for it by wedding Malora, asking for no dowry in return. This will not provide your family with much advancement, but it would be a good financial investment, while also strengthening ties to another House in the Crownlands.
  • Lord Harald Stokeworth is disgraced; his father fought for the Black Dragon and he lost half his lands by the ruling of King Daeron II. Harald himself did not fight due to his having broken his legs in a tourney (and while he can walk again, it is rumoured that the tourney injury has rendered him impotent), but he and his family are still viewed with scorn by those who fought against the Blackfyres. He offers you to become engaged to his only child, a daughter, who will inherit the seat of Stokeworth if the rumours are true. He states that your second son will become Lord Stokeworth after he dies, and he hopes to be able to call you, a hero of the Redgrass Field, a friend. You are sure your own reputation will be soiled if you marry into the Stokeworth name, but your children will inherit two titles instead of just one.

In the meantime, Malora was supposed to marry Lord Lucas Massey's heir, but both the elder and younger Masseys were killed while fighting against Blackfyre supporters in the Stormlands, and a married cousin became Lord of Stonedance in their stead. Two other marriage proposals have come forward, one from Ser Bylo Thorne, second son of Lord Thorne, and one from Ser Vortimer Carax, the new head of a knightly house. Ser Vortimer is a jumped-up hedge knight who was granted an estate which belonged to a Blackfyre supporter who was executed for treason, while Ser Bylo will not inherit House Thorne but currently serves in the garrison on Dragonstone, the seat of Baelor Breakspear. However, both men have heard of Lord Stokeworth's proposal to you, and both have separately made it clear that they will rescind their offers if you marry into a traitor's family. 

If all that wasn't enough, one of your uncles returns to your home during the hour of the wolf, travelling with a price on his head. He has managed to elude capture, and wishes for assistance to flee eastward to where Bittersteel is gathering the Blackfyre loyalists still willing to fight. There is a generous reward for your uncle's head, though this is also the man with whom you were closest as a boy growing up and the knight for whom you squired for two years before he rode to the Blackfyre cause. His training kept you alive during the war, and he swears that he never fought his family, even when they supported the Red Dragon. You can turn in your own kin to be executed, or you can assist him to flee eastward, and be branded a traitor yourself if anyone discovers you helped him.

What do you do, and how do you run this household?

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So, I can choose money, allies, or land. Tough choice. Money is in short supply, but allies and land are always important. 

Frankly, given my poverty for the next while, it's going to be hard to find the money to give Malora a decent dowry, and I fought alongside the Hardy boy (heh). I'll marry his cousin and give Malora to him. Gods know she'll be looked after and I can focus on my own estate.

As for my uncle, I owe him a lot, and no man is accursed as a kinslayer. I arrange to have him smuggled to the coast and wash my hands of him for good. 

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My sister can do better than a garrison soldier and a promoted hedge knight, especially if they’re so petty that they’ll withdraw their proposals based on who I marry. I’ll take the Stokeworth daughter so my children benefit. If Ser Boris still wants to marry my sister, I’ll provide a proper dowry. Otherwise I’ll find another prospect for her.

The money for the dowry would come from the reward money I get for turning my uncle in. He was willing to fight on the side that killed my brothers and cut off my hand. He’ll have no mercy from me.

 

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  • 1 month later...

I Accept the offer of Ser Hardy, having him marry my sister and marrying his cousin instead. While this won't make me rich, it will be a good move for a stable future, and a strong alliance between our houses.

My uncles have brought shame and the tanit of treason upon our family. I turn him in for the reward.

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Although the Stokeworth offer is tempting, I'll have to decline - because of Brynden Rivers. This is a man who was willing to use his nephews to essentially trap his brother on the battlefield, killing all three in the name of his brother King Daeron II. With a man like that in Daeron's council, I'd be wary of possibly being seen as embittered by the loss of my hand and family fortunes, which would be an understandable interpretation should I marry into Blackfyre supporters, especially considering my uncles supported them. 

And, as I'm aware that Brynden Rivers was willing to take on the stain of being a kinslayer in service to his king, I cannot possibly assist my uncle. Although it would pain me to hand him over to the Crown, I know it's no less than what my king and his council would do themselves, and thus it is only right it is expected of me. 

Ser Boris Hardy is known to be as a noble knight, so I'll accept the offer to align our two houses. Given our family losses - emotionally and financially - I'll at least know my sister will be wed to a good and just man. Although I have declined Lord Darklyn's betrothal offer, I would do so politely and offer to squire his younger grandson. (Should he accept this it could lead to good relations between the two families. If he declines this offer, there's no harm done.)

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