This thread is to post terms related to the play group, this information is only player knowledge not common knowledge for the characters. The people, places, and information is a reference to go back to if you should forget as we play.

 I hold the player to be honest about what their character knowns and remember you can always roll a skill to ask a question.

 Please check and read the bottom of each post as this thread will be “Edited" as we play and new posts will only happen with a new chapters in the storyline.

Westeros: Located in the far west of the known world, Westeros extends southwards from the northern polar icecap for approximately 3,000 miles. The Wall, a colossal fortification which stretches for 300 miles, separates the lands north of the Wall from the Seven Kingdoms, a political entity that unifies the rest of the continent. It is divided into nine constituent regions.

Essos: Separated from Westeros by the narrow sea, Essos extends eastwards for many thousands of miles. It is larger than Westeros but less densely populated. The western edge of the continent is controlled by the nine Free Cities, whilst the city-states of Slaver's Bay are located in the south-central region. Much of the continental interior known as the Dothraki Sea is ruled by the tribal warriors known as the Dothraki. Further east is Qarth and the fabled Jade Sea. Western and eastern Essos are separated by the Bone Mountains, east of which are Yi Ti, legendary Asshai and the forbidding Shadow Lands.

Sothoryos: Relatively little known, Sothoryos is located south of Essos, on the far side of the Summer Sea. It is a large continent consisting of deserts and jungles. It is said to be a haven for plagues and dangerous animals, and has not been explored much beyond the northern coastal regions and the Basilisk Isles.


Important Terms

Ability
One of the defining game traits of a character. Abilities are measure by rank.

 * See link to a message in this game  msg #6 for more information on this when creating your character.

Ability test (or simply test)
Using an ability to attempt an action when the outcome is in doubt. A test involves rolling a number of six-sided dice (the test dice) equal to the tested ability’s rank and adding them together.

Bonus die
A bonus die is an extra die rolled during an ability test, but then a number of low dice equal to the number of bonus dice rolled is dropped from the test before the remaining dice are added to determine the result.

Character (or simply PC)
A player’s assumed persona in the context of the game.

Damage
Imaginary points used to track how close a character is to defeat in combat.

Degree (of successes or failure)
A measure of how successful an ability test is, beyond mere success or failure.

Destiny Points
A measure of a character’s potential, used by players during the game to influence fate and outcomes where that character is concerned.

Dice
Randomizers used to determine the outcomes of uncertain events in the game. SIFRP uses six-sided dice, sometimes abbreviated “d6.”

Difficulty
A numerical value used to measure the chances of achieving a particular outcome in a test of ability. Difficulties range from Automatic (0) to Heroic (21 and higher).

Drawback
A character quality with a negative effect on the character, such as a disability.

Frustration
A minor social difficulty suffered by a character to stave off influence (and therefore defeat) during an intrigue.

Influence
Imaginary points used to track how close a character is to defeat in a social intrigue.

Injury
A minor wound or lasting damage suffered by a character to stave off damage (and therefore defeat) in combat.

Modifier
A bonus or penalty applies to the result of an ability test.

Penalty die
A die subtracted from the test dice (starting with the lowest first) after any bonus dice have been discarded but before the dice are summed to determine the result.

Quality
A positive character quality, providing a particular defined game advantage.

Rank
A measure of a character’s ability, ranging from 1 (impaired) to 7 (legendary). Abilities have an average rank of 2 by default.

Result
The value arrived at by adding up all of the test dice rolled for an ability test.

SIFRP
An abbreviation for A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying. Refers to the game, as opposed to the Song of Ice and Fire novel series.

Test Die
A die that is rolled and added as part of an ability test.

Wound
A serious, lasting injury suffered by a character to help stave off damage (and therefore defeat) in combat.


Game Terms

Smallfolk
The common people of Westeros, akin to peasants. They are at the bottom of the social ladder. Most have to obey their local lord, even though they may never catch a glimpse of him during their life. The nobility of Westeros have great power over the smallfolk.

The Faith
The Faith of the Seven is the dominant religion of the Seven Kingdoms, and is often simply referred to as the Faith. The only parts of Westeros where the Faith is not widespread are the North and the Iron Islands, where the practice of the old gods and of the Drowned God respectively are still strong. The gods of the Faith are sometimes known as the new gods to differentiate them from the old gods.

This message was last edited by the GM at 18:15, Fri 18 July 2014.

Knighthood & Hedge Knights

Knighthood is an honorable position, both martial and religious. It is limited to men but not to noble men, as it is possible for the baseborn to become knights. Bastards, however, are forbidden from being knighted by law. A man becomes a knight on his merits, not by birth. Knights are skilled at arms, courteous and honorable, clean and graceful, elegant and enduring, and they are referred to with the title “Ser” before their names.

That is the theory. The practice is, naturally, slightly different but more in the sense that some knights fail to live up to the ideals than in the sense that the whole institution is morally bankrupt.

In reality, skill at arms is the most important aspect of knighthood. All knights are at least competent in battle, and a nobleman with no martial interest or ability would neither seek nor be granted knighthood. In principle, there is no dishonor for a noble not to become a knight, though some families have fixed ideas about the sorts of sons they should have. Martial ability is not, by itself, enough; sellswords cannot become knights just for the asking.

The religious aspect is also of some importance. Although the ceremony of knighting can be very simple, it is intimately bound up with the Faith, involving, at the very least, an invocation of the Seven. The standard ceremony involves a night-long vigil in a sept—with the knight normally dressed in simple clothes—before being dubbed by another knight and anointed by a septon. Deep piety is not required, but men who hold to other religions, in particular the worship of the old gods, do not become knights.

However, a man of noble birth with skill at arms who is willing to take part in the ceremonies of the Faith can become a knight if he wants to. While any knight can dub a knight, it is prestigious to be knighted by someone of high status, the most prestigious being the king. A knight who granted the title to those who were obviously unworthy would quickly become an object of ridicule and probably a target for duels by knights who care about such things, so such appointments are rare. If the candidate is of noble birth, the qualifications are primarily martial, but for base-born candidates, the standards are much stiffer. Indeed, a knight who grants that status to someone who is not noble had better be sure the candidate will be a fine addition to the ranks of chivalry. As a result, the lower a knight’s birth, the more likely he is to act as a knight “should,” though there are knights of impeccably noble lineage who also uphold its requirements.

The other requirements of a knight are somewhat nebulous, but there is agreement on the core principles. Knights should be brave and loyal and not resort to trickery in battle. They should defend the weak and innocent, particularly the young, and be respectful to all women. They are courteous to all, possess cleanly manners, and fight mounted and armored in metal. The sword and lance are the classic weapons of the knight, but more flexibility is allowed here.

Some interpret the rest quite broadly as well. “Cleanliness” can mean “a bath every year, whether I need it or not.” Loyalty, particularly for hedge knights, may be a fleeting thing, lasting only until the outcome of a battle is no longer in doubt. Trickery is a matter of opinion, as one man’s trickery is another’s tactical masterstroke. The line between cowardice and discretion, or bravery and suicidal recklessness, is also up for debate. The thing about the weak and innocent is that they cannot actually do anything if you attack them, and a distressingly large number of knights take advantage of that. Similarly, respect for women often limits itself to noble women with knightly husbands, fathers, or brothers.

Hedge Knights are the lowest level of chivalry. They are called such because of their habit of sleeping under hedges, along with peddlers, wandering minstrels, and the keepers of trained bears. Many other knights feel hedge knights are little different from their traveling companions. Many hedge knights feel the same but from a rather different perspective.

The key feature of a hedge knight is that he is poor, for a knight. Almost all own a horse, a suit of metal armor (though it may be merely chain, ring, or scale), and a sword. These possessions are enough to make them rich by many standards. However, since they cannot sell these, almost all of their wealth is tied up, leaving them little to spend on such fripperies as food and lodging at an inn. Hence, the importance of sleeping under hedges.

Thus, a hedge knight needs employment. Some seek employment from passersby, offering to guard them as they cross a bridge. However, since the hedge knight is the only danger present, most people regard this act as robbery, and other knights are likely to set out to deal with the blemish on their honor. Other knights seek to reclaim their rightful inheritance from the usurpers who have taken it. Such an incident is often characterized as raiding and banditry, at least until the hedge knight re-establishes his claim and, again, provokes retaliation.

The most common form of employment for a hedge knight is employment by a nobleman who finds himself in need of an extra sword or two for a short time. As soon as the hedge knight has outlived his usefulness, he is sent on his way; this dismissal is what distinguishes him from a sworn sword, who has at least some security. As a result, most hedge knights wander a great deal.

While a hedge knight has low status, his position is far from hopeless. If he has skill, virtue, and a good dose of luck, he stands a good chance of turning into a sworn sword, retainer, or even a landed knight at some point. The most dangerous hedge knights are those who have held a higher position but lost it through incompetence or villainy. They are unlikely to climb once more and often feel they have nothing to lose.

Knighting Ceremony

A man being knighted - The ceremony to create a knight can be simple or complex, however, it always involves the man kneeling before a knight and being tapped on the shoulders with a sword. Ceremonies usually have religious overtones involving the Faith of the Seven. When knighted, men are often charged in the name of the Seven to be just and honorable. More elaborate knighthood ceremonies involve the prospective knight sitting a night's vigil at a sept, before the figure of the Warrior. He may lay his sword before or upon the figure, and his armor is piled at its base. It is followed by walking barefoot from the sept to the knighting place to prove his humble heart. He wear a shift of undyed wool to receive his knighthood, which is marked by the putting on of the swordbelt after dubbing. Newly-knighted men are also sometimes anointed with seven oils by a septon. It is considered a great honor for the recipient when individuals of high status or fame perform the ceremony.

Part of the knighting ceremony starts with the person's name and House (if he has one), then:

   {a touch on the right shoulder with the blade. "In the name of the Warrior I charge you to be brave."}

   {The sword moves from right shoulder to left. "In the name of the Father I charge you to be just."}

   {Right shoulder. "In the name of the Mother I charge you to defend the young and innocent."}

   {The left. "In the name of the Maid I charge you to protect all women....}


Game Terms

knight:
is a rank and honor given to warriors who perform exemplary service for a lord or the realm in the Seven Kingdoms. Its members are known as "knights" and use the title "Ser"

hedge knight:
are typically commoners who have risen to knighthood. they are wandering knights without a master, many are quite poor. Hedge knights travel the length and breadth of the Seven Kingdoms looking for gainful employment or a cause to fight.

landed knight:
are knights who have been rewarded for their service by a lord with land, typically a smallholding, large farm or small manor with servants

true knight:
is considered to embody all that a knight should be, that is, a perfect knight exemplifying all the qualities of what knighthood stands for and fully follows oath of knighthood.

sellsword:
are professional mercenary soldiers. They usually fight on foot, though they can actually also own horses and fight as mounted warriors

mercenary:
is an independent soldier who has no official allegiance to any lord or country, but who instead hires out his services for payment

freeriders:
mounted sellswords are sometimes called "freeriders", strictly speaking they are not the same thing. The difference is that true freeriders do not fight for payment, receiving only a share of the food supplies to sustain them and the promise of a share of the plunder

sworn sword:
are knights sworn to a particular lord. Sometimes this is permanent, but mainly it is temporary, with hedge knights joining a lord for a particular purpose and then being released from his service afterwards

sellsail:
is a mercenary sailor who engages in naval battles for pay. Sellsails may work as pirates or smugglers when not employed

northern cavalry:
because few northerners worship the Seven, they rarely choose to become knights. However, the warrior (if not cultural) tradition of the North is similar to that of knighthood. Heavy cavalrymen in the North serve a nearly identical function to knights in the south, and are considered knights in all but name. Most anointed northern knights live in the southern regions of the North.

castellan:
is a occupation and title granted by a lord. It confers responsibility for defense of a castle, fort or city and is therefore often given to warriors that are trusted by their lord.

Sometimes a castellan has combined duties of both the responsible for a castle's domestic staff and as a military administrator, with responsible for maintaining defenses and protecting the castle's lands. This was particularly the case if there was no lord in resident at the castle, or if the resident lord was frequently absent.
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:36, Sun 11 Jan 2015.

Becoming a Knight

The traditional process to becoming a knight has three stages.

Page
A boy that becomes a page is attached to a knight, who becomes the boy's master. The sons of many knights and lords are sent to foster with relatives or allies, while other pages serve their own fathers. The page performs simple errands for the knight, who in turn begins to train the boy in vital skills, such as jousting and swordsmanship. Typical training involves sparring with blunted weapons and tilting at rings.

Squire
When a boy reaches adolescence, he graduates to being a squire. Squires learn how to properly care for and use weapons, armor, and horses as well as learning about Chivalry. In time of war Squires join their masters in war, assisting them with their equipment and fighting by their side in battles. Some squires choose to never become a full knight, and live the rest of their lives as squires. This may be because the individual does not have the inclination to live a knight's martial lifestyle, or does not have the funds to properly equip himself

Knighthood
Any knight can proclaim another man a knight for whatever reason he chooses. This usually happens when a squire reaches adulthood and his master judges him worthy of accepting the responsibilities of a knight. A man who has not been raised in the knightly tradition can also be made a knight as a reward for service. This is often granted to soldiers or other smallfolk who have shown bravery or performed a great feat. Knighthood is considered valuable to smallfolk, as it raises a commoner's social standing. Knighthood is seen as primarily a martial position, so even the sons of powerful lords are not necessarily knighted if they are incapable of fulfilling the requirements. Doing otherwise would lose honor rather than gain it, and would make a lord and his family be held up to ridicule, this social pressure generally prevents knights from giving out knighthoods for petty or selfish reasons.
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:36, Sun 11 Jan 2015.

The Old Way

The Old Way is a term used by the ironborn when discussing their ancient tradition of reaving and plunder. Acquiring items through battle instead of purchase is referred to as paying the iron price.

Before the War of Conquest, the ironborn would use lightning raids from the sea to carry away women and plunder and burn what they left behind. When attacking castles, ironborn are not to fling rocks or starve out a foe, but rather they should storm the fortress with grapnel and ladder. Using this method they carved a great kingdom out of the riverlands, though their ships were known from the Free Cities to the southern coasts of Westeros near Oldtown.

During the War of Conquest, Aegon the Conqueror pacified the ironborn and outlawed the custom, at least within Westeros, as the ironmen were allowed to prey on the shipping and settlements of the Free Cities and far away places. Those that continue to act in such a manner are said to be keeping to the Old Way.

Another aspect of the Old Way is that ironborn are not expected to farm, work the land, or toll in mines; such tasks are reserved for thralls: men and women captured in raids and forced into servitude. If a woman is considered attractive, she's made into a salt wife, a bound concubine.

Game Terms

The Seastone Chair:
is the ancient throne of the Iron Islands, used as the throne by Kings of the Iron Islands.

The throne is located on a dais, in the Great Hall of the Great Keep on Pyke. It is made of a block of oily black stone carved into the shape of a kraken. The legend says that it was found by the First Men on the shores of Old Wyk when they came to the Iron Islands.

Green Lands:
is the term mainly used by the Ironborn to refer to the lands of Westeros that lie outside of the Iron Islands.

The Iron Price:
in ironborn culture refers to warriors acquiring possessions by taking them from defeated adversaries, rather than purchasing items with currency, which is referred to as the gold price.

Thrall:
is an indentured servant in the Iron Islands. Thrall may only be obtained by paying the "iron price" (capturing them by raiding) under the Old Way. They are not slaves since they may not be sold and they may not be obtained by paying the "gold price." Their children may be free if they are drowned to the Drowned God.

Drowned Men:
are priests of the Drowned God in the Iron Islands.

Salt Wife:
is a concubine. They are the women kidnapped by the ironmnen during raids. An ironborn may keep several salt wives, but only one ironborn "rock wife".

Rock Wife:
is an ironman's true spouse. A rock wife is ironborn. An ironman is allowed only one ironborn rock wife however he may keep several salt wives, non-ironborn women who have been captured on raids.

Kingsmoot:
is a traditional ceremony held by the inhabitants of the Iron Islands where all longship captains choose their new Iron King by casting votes.

King of the Iron Islands:
is the title claimed by the rulers of the Iron Islands, when they have historically been independent. The monarch of the ironborn has also been known as the High King, the King of the Isles, and the Iron King.

Iron Fleet:
is the largest grouping of longships from the Iron Islands. They number one hundred, and unlike other ironborn ships they belong to the Seastone Chair. Each ship is captained and crewed by people of various islands. Its commander holds the title Lord Captain of the Iron Fleet


This message was last edited by the GM at 23:07, Sat 06 Dec 2014.

Game Terms


Smallfolk
The common people of Westeros, akin to peasants. They are at the bottom of the social ladder. Most have to obey their local lord, even though they may never catch a glimpse of him during their life. The nobility of Westeros have great power over the smallfolk.

The Faith
The Faith of the Seven is the dominant religion of the Seven Kingdoms, and is often simply referred to as the Faith. The only parts of Westeros where the Faith is not widespread are the North and the Iron Islands, where the practice of the old gods and of the Drowned God respectively are still strong. The gods of the Faith are sometimes known as the new gods to differentiate them from the old gods.

Gelding
a gelding is a castrated horse, of any breed or purpose. Castration is useful for making the horse less hormonal and supposedly easier to deal with.

Mare
a mare is a female horse, of any breed or purpose. A young mare is known as filly.

Stallion
a stallion is a non-castrated horse, of any breed or purpose. The presence of testosterone may make stallions more physically impressive than otherwise comparable mares or geldings, but it also makes their behavior more aggressive.

Nameday
is a custom in the society of the Seven Kingdoms. It is an annual celebration commemorating the naming of a person and serves to calculate his or her age. Babies are named the same day they are born. People receive presents from friends and family on their nameday.

Regent
is the title held by a noble who rules in name of a King or Lord because the ruler is a child or incapacitated. A regent's rule ends when a child heir reaches their sixteenth nameday, as sixteen years old is considered the legal age of adulthood in the Seven Kingdoms.

If the Regent rules in the name of the King of the Andals and the First Men, he or she also hold the title of Protector of the Realm. A royal Regent also holds a seat in the small council, taking the place of the young monarch.
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:32, Thu 20 Aug 2015.

House Baratheon is the youngest of the original great houses, tracing its descent from Orys Baratheon, one of Aegon I Targaryen's fiercest generals, and rumored to be his bastard brother. Through the female line, the Baratheons are descended from the Storm Kings, as Orys slew Argilac the Arrogant, last of the Storm Kings, and married his daughter Argella Durrandon. Orys adopted the sigil and words of his wife's ancestral line. The line of the Storm Kings dates back to the Age of Heroes when their kingdom was founded by King Durran I "Godsgrief", a legendary hero.

Baratheon support for the Targaryens was initially strong. A knight of the House was elevated to the Kingsguard, saving the life of King Aenys I during the Faith Militant uprising.

During the Dance of the Dragons, Lord Borros Baratheon sided the House with Aegon II Targaryen and the greens despite his late father Boremund's support of the blacks and relation to Rhaenys Targaryen (through Jocelyn Baratheon). There was talk of one of Borros's daughters wedding Aemond One-Eye, a green prince, but it is unknown if this occurred before the prince's death.

---

The Greyjoys of Pyke claim descent from the Grey King of the Age of Heroes. Legend says the Grey King ruled not only the western isles but the sea itself, and took a mermaid to wife.

For thousands of years, raiders from the Iron Islands—called "ironmen" by those they plundered—were the terrors of the seas, sailing as far as the Port of Ibben and the Summer Isles. They prided themselves on their fierceness in battle and their sacred freedoms. Each island had its own "salt king" and "rock king". The High King of the Isles was chosen from among their number during the kingsmoot. In ancient times The Old Kraken was chosen as the King of the Iron Islands. He was said to be a member of House Greyjoy.

The Iron Kings extended their rule far beyond the isles themselves, carving kingdoms out of the mainland with fire and sword. King Qhored could truthfully boast that his writ ran "wherever men can smell salt water or hear the crash of waves". In later centuries, Qhored's descendents lost the Arbor, Oldtown, Bear Island, and much of the western shore. Still, come the Wars of Conquest, King Harren the Black ruled all the lands between the mountains, from the Neck to the Blackwater Rush. When Harren and his sons perished in the fall of Harrenhal, Aegon Targaryen granted the riverlands to Edmyn Tully of House Tully, and allowed the surviving lords of the Iron Islands to revive their ancient custom and chose who should have the primacy among them. They chose Lord Vickon Greyjoy of Pyke. Thus relegated to their dismal homeland and constrained by the king's peace, the Greyjoys have kept themselves distant from the other Great Houses, rarely taking part in events on the mainland (which they call the "green lands"), even when asked.

For at the beginning of the Dance of the Dragons, the Lord Reaper of Pyke, Dalton Greyjoy , known as the "Red Kraken", was offered the position of Master of Ships to replace Ser Tyland Lannister, who had been made Master of Coin. Due to his absence in The Princess and The Queen it can be assumed that he refused both offers and chose not to take part in the civil war.

At various times the Greyjoys have tried to return to their ancient practices of raiding the western coastlines, such as under Lord Dagon. Dagon and the ironmen raided the coastal areas of Westeros, sacking the town of Little Dosk. Lord Beron Stark was gathering swords and House Lannister was building ships in an effort to drive Lord Dagon and his ironmen back to the Iron Islands.

---

The Tyrells trace their line of descent, through the female line, to the legendary Garth Greenhand, the first King of the Reach, in the Age of Heroes (indicating their origin among the Andal invaders thousands of years before). The Tyrells were stewards to House Gardener, the ancient ruling line of Kings of the Reach, who periodically intermarried with lower ranking houses of the Reach such as House Tyrell or House Florent. Following the defeat and death of King Mern IX, at the Field of Fire, Lord Harlen Tyrell, hereditary high steward of the Reach, surrendered Highgarden and was granted the castle along with dominion of the Reach by Aegon the Conqueror. As Wardens of the South they frequently warred with the Dornishmen, who remained independent.

As the Dance of the Dragons began, the Lord of Highgarden was an infant, and his regent mother was judged likely to align the Reach with the House's "overmighty" bannermen, the Hightowers, and the greens. As the war progressed, the Tyrell bannermen were split, with men of the Reach fighting on both sides. Later Ser Ulf the White would attempt to claim Highgarden for himself, as House Tyrell had taken no part in the Dance and he believed they should be considered traitors.

When Daeron I Targaryen, the Young Dragon, attempted the conquest of Dorne, the Lord of Highgarden commanded the army that invaded via Prince's Pass. After the initial victory, Daeron appointed Lord Tyrell as governor of Dorne. Lord Tyrell liked Dornish women and one night he pulled the rope that would signal for a wench to come to his bed, and a hundred scorpions fell from the canopy instead. His death sparked new revolts, and the conquest was undone in a fortnight.

Lord Leo "Longthorn" Tyrell participated in the Ashford Tourney, beginning the tourney as one of the champions. Both Egg and Dunk recognized him as a formidable opponent, one that Dunk would better avoid.

---

House Martell defended against Aegon the Conqueror as he waged his Wars of Conquest, he eventually came to Dorne. Here his army was bled dry by guerrilla warfare in the desert, a situation in which his dragons were of little use. Deciding that conquering Dorne would be too costly, the Conqueror opted to leave the Martells as sovereign princes. House Martell kept Dorne independent from the Targaryens for two centuries, the only one of the Seven Kingdoms to manage such a feat.

In 110AC the Martells joined The Triarchy in the war against Prince Daemon Targaryen in the Stepstones. Daemon's brother King Viserys I spoke of wedding his daughter Rhaenyra to the Prince of Dorne as a way of finally uniting the Seven Kingdoms, though ultimately this did not occur.

After repeated failed attempts at conquest (most notably under Daeron I), Dorne did eventually join the fold through marriage between the two houses. The alliance is a dual one, with the future King Daeron II marrying Princess Myriah Martell and Prince Maron Martell to marry Daeron's sister Daenerys.

---

This message was last edited by the GM at 23:09, Sat 06 Dec 2014.

In Westeros, barter is common and expected amongst the smallfolk, with coins and money a privilege of the merchant and noble classes. Of course, this rule is not hard and fast. In rural areas, minor lords may find it more convenient to barter with far-traveled visitors, while in major city centers, such as King’s Landing, Oldtown, or White Harbor, copper pennies and silver stags are used daily.

Smallfolk tend to work in copper and silver stags, while gold dragons fill the purses of noble lords and ladies. The “exchange rate” is set by the king’s master of coin, who describes the official weights and compositions for each type of coin, ensuring consistent value. “Clipped coins” are those that have been shaved by shysters and con men, who shape forged coins with the remnants. Seasoned merchants
keep an eye out for these thin coins and will adjust rates or refuse trade accordingly.

The king’s master of coin rates laid out in the table below: Coinage represents a rule of thumb. Rates may change across different regions, time periods, and so forth.



This message was last edited by the GM at 23:38, Sun 11 Jan 2015.

Guest Right

Guest Right also known as The Nobles Call south of the Dorne Marches, is an ancient and sacred tradition that goes back thousands of years in Westeros to the First Men. When a guest, be he common born or noble, eats the food and drinks the drink off a host's table beneath the host's roof, the guest right is invoked. Bread and salt are the traditional provisions.

The Sacred Law of Hospitality

Once invoked, neither the guest can harm his host nor the host harm his guest for the length of the guest's stay. For either to do so would be to break a sacred covenant that is believed to invoke the wrath of the Gods both old and new.

Guest right is considered one of the most basic social rules of all civilized men. Every major religion in Westeros - the Old Gods of the Forest, the Faith of the Seven, even the Drowned God of the Iron Islands - holds guest right to be one of the most sacred and inviolable social rules. Every lordship or kingdom since the dawn of civilization has had secular laws protecting guest right. Even robber lords and wreckers are bound by the ancient laws of hospitality.

Violations

For either a guest or a host to break the promised protection of guest right is considered to be an utterly heinous crime, breaking all the laws of gods and men. Indeed, that any lord might break the bond of guest right is not only thought to be extremely reprehensible (as Kinslaying or Regicide are), but almost unfathomable.

There are Several infamous examples of violation of guest right include, but the most well known by almost all is the Rat Cook:

The Rat Cook was an infamous member of the Night's Watch. History has forgotten his real name. Its the subject of legends and myths in the Seven Kingdoms.

According to these legends, a Andal King, identified either as King Tywell II of the Rock or King Oswell I of the Valeonce, paid a visit to the Nightfort. Due to some offense by the king, the cook killed the prince. A pie that was made of bacon and, unknown to the king, the prince's flesh was in the pie. The unaware king however, ate and praised the taste, enjoying the pie so much he asked for a second helping.

The gods, angry because the cook had slain a guest beneath his roof, cursed the cook and transformed him into a massive fat rat who was doomed to be unable to eat anything but his own young. He was condemned to run the halls of the Nightfort, eating his own offspring. The gods were not offended by the murder, nor even by cooking the son and feeding him to his own father, for a man has a right to vengeance. What the gods could not forgive and cursed the cook for was that he broke the laws of hospitality and protection, which are held to be sacred above all others.

According to the story, the Rat Cook is an enormous white rat and all the other rats that inhabit the Nightfort are his descendants.

This message was last edited by the GM at 20:04, Sun 11 Jan 2015.

Baelor Targaryen

Appearance and Character

Baelor is a peaceful, devoted and pious man. He is very thin and frail looking from his repeated fasts. He wears a long beard and hair of typical Targaryen silver-gold color. His crown is made of flowers and vines.

Many see Baelor as a great and holy man, given to deep prayer and fasting to experience religious visions, and honor him for his contributions to the Faith, including the construction of the Great Sept in King's Landing. Others regard him as a weak, simpering fool, prone to hallucinations and bad decisions brought about by excessive zealotry.


Biography & Recent Events

Baelor is quiet, bookish, and strong in the Faith of the Seven. He has always wanted to be a septon, but his father refused to indulge this whim, instead insisting that he marry his sister Daena in the traditional Targaryen manner. Baelor obeyed, but extremely reluctantly and refused to consummate the marriage and put her aside as soon as he was crowned.

Upon his brother King Daeron's death, Baelor is said to have begun his reign by walking the Boneway barefoot to make peace with Dorne. It is also said that he saved his cousin Aemon the Dragonknight from a snake pit, where he was bitten many times by the vipers whose venom could not kill him because of his faith in the Seven; this tale may be simply a metaphorical version of his visit to Dorne, referring to Dorne itself as a "snake pit," and the Dornish, "vipers."

Whatever the truth, Baelor returned home having negotiated the marriage of his cousin Daeron to Myriah Martell as a means of making peace with Dorne after Daeron I's failed conquest.

Baelor's reign is mostly spent in prayer and piety. He is known to fast to the point of fainting to tame the lusts that shamed him. His uncle Viserys continued to order and run the realm as the King's Hand.

This message was last edited by the GM at 23:39, Sun 11 Jan 2015.

WORK IN PROGRESS

"Only a Dornishman can ever truly know Dorne"

Archmaester Brude, who was born and raised in the shadow city that huddles beneath the walls of Sunspear, wrote the articles called 'DORNE: A List of Lies and Truths'.

Vast deserts of red and white sand, with forbidding mountains and treacherous passes, guarded by an untrustworthy peoples. A land filled with scorpions, poisons, and castles made of mud, a sweltering heat with sandstorms, the only good thing they have are dates, figs and blood oranges - these things are what most of Westros think of and know of about Dorne. And all these things exist, to be sure, but there is far more to this ancient principality than that, for it has a history that stretches back to the Dawn Age.

- The coast of Dorne is as inhospitable as the desert, being just rocky shores ridden with reefs.

- The seas around Dorne are very dangerous, filled with whirlpools and sea-monsters many lay claim to seeing krakens and other large beasts of the sea.

- Sunspear is apparently appears to be just a small town, not a city. The town is built of mud and straw.

- Planky Town is actually built from ships and barges all lashed together, floating on the river Greenblood, though surely some of it is actually on land.

Dorne has more in common with the North than either the rest of the realms that lie between them. One is hot, one is cold, yet these ancient kingdoms of sand and snow are apart from the rest of Westeros by history, culture, and tradition. Both are thinly peopled, compared to the lands between. Both cling stubbornly to their own laws and their own traditions. Neither was ever truly been conquered by the dragons. The King in the North accepted Aegon Targaryen as his overlord peaceably, whilst Dorne resisted the might of the Targaryens valiantly for over a hundred fifty years, before finally submitting to the Iron throne through marriage. Dornishmen and Northmen alike are derided as savages by the ignorant of the five 'civilized' kingdoms, and celebrated for their valor by those who have crossed swords with them.

Dorne, according to written history is the oldest kingdom in Westeros.

The Children of the Forest called Dorne "The Empty Land"

Eastern Dorne is just shrubs and rocks; West Dorne is just endless sand dunes, with sandstorms that can rip a man's flesh off in minutes.

Dorne is the only place where legends of Garth Greenhand are not told.

The Greenblood is the soul of Dorne. The First Men settled along it, using it to try and irrigate the land. Others lived by the Narrow Sea, where seafood sustained human life. There is fertility at the base of the Red Mountains, called the Greenbelt; there is also some greenery in the Red Mountains themselves; this is because the Stormlands send storms with water southwards through the Boneway. Those who were mad enough to venture into the sandy deserts sometimes survived by living off of water wells they dug. "For every man who stumbled upon a well, a hundred must surely have died of thirst beneath the blazing Dornish sun."


First Men Era

- House Dayne legendarily founded their lands on the Torrentine river by following a falling star, and his descendants were known as the Kings of the Torrentine.

- Fowlers called themselves Kings of Stone and Sky.

- House Yronwood found fertile land in the Boneway and considered themselves High Kings of Dorne. They had plentiful wood and minerals and other resources, unlike the rest of Dorne.

- Rivaling House Yronwood's High Kingdom, another High Kingdom was in the east; Its king was always chosen by election from all the settlements along the Greenblood and along the eastern shore; Houses: Wades, Shells, Holts, Brooks, Hulls, Lakes, Brownhills, and Briars.

- These kings ruled from a moat-and-bailey castle near the Lemonwood. Eventually the kingdom broke up from infighting, as expected, and it was replaced with multiple petty kingdoms and 3 of the old houses were wiped out.

- House Dayne, House Fowler, and House Yronwood were the most powerful in Dorne before the Andal Invasion.

Andal Invasion Era

- Few Andals actually wanted to go to Dorne; the seafaring Andals considered it useless and filled with terrible things like snakes.

- Uller was an Andal who decided to live next to the sulphurous Brimstone River; the castle has always smelled terrible

- Qorgyle was an Andal went deep into the desert and took over the only well in a fifty-league radius, and fortified it.

- The Vaiths (more Andals) came and setup themselves up at the junction of the Vaith and Greenblood rivers; their castle is white and tall.

- Allyrions, Jordaynes, and Santagars are also Andals, but not much else is said besides that they too carved out their own lands.

Morgan Martell (Andal) and his kin descended on lands loosely held by House Wade and House Shell, defeated them in battle, seized their villages, burned their castles, and established dominion over a strip of stony coastlands fifty leagues long and ten leagues wide. House Martell has always been cautious, and they only expanded slowly, and they were never considered powerful until Nymeria arrived. They never called themselves kings, despite being surrounded by them, and they even bent the knee to Jordaynes, "pious" Allyrions, the many petty kings of the Greenblood, and even Yronwood, at many different points in their history.

Coming of the Rhoynar

- Hundreds of years passed since Martell setup in eastern Dorne;

- Rhoynar had many beautiful cities, water magic, and gender equality they style their rulers as Princes and Princesses

- Princess Nymeria of Ny Sar gathered every ship that remained on the Rhoyne river, filled them with as many women and children as they could carry, (for most of the men died in battle); the fleet sailed downriver, passing all the ruins of their civilization and sad battlefields, through the Rhoyne which was covered in blood.

- An older channel was taken to avoid the Valryian city of Volantis and they ended up in the Summer Sea.

- The Ten Thousand Ships she had then took to sea in search of a new home

- They went south the Basilisk Isles, north of Sothoryos; The Corsair Kings there attacked them, took many slaves, and then said they could settle on the Isle of Toads if they provided endless tribute of thirty virgins and pretty boys for each king every year. Nymeria refused, of course, and took heir fleet to sea again.

- To Sothoryos now; Many settled there for a time along the shores, even Nymeria. Golds, gems, rare woods, exotic pelts, queer fruits, and strange spices - many treasures were found.

- But the Rhoynar did not thrive here. Sullen wet heat, swarms of stinging flies that brought blood-boiling diseases. Even to jump in the river was to court death, where carnivorous fish and infesting worms lived. Slavers came too, and inside Sothoryos there are "ghouls". After a year, Nymeria took all her people and left Sothoryos.

- For three years, the Rhoynar wandered at sea. The Naathi welcomed them peacefully, but their strange god stuck down Rhoynar with a mortal illness.

- In the Summer Isles, they settled on an uninhabited rock off the eastern coast of Walano, which became known as the Isle of Women, but it yielded little food and many starved.

- Many eventually abandoned Nymeria for a priestess named Druselka who took her followers back to their old cities on the Rhoyne and were then slaughtered.

- The battered, tattered remains of the Ten Thousand Ships led by Nymeria sailed for Westeros now. Many sank in storms.

- The remaining ships landed on the Greenblood's estuary, not far from the ancient sandstone walls of the Sandship (seat of the Martells).

- Dorne was thinly peopled and hugely divided, and people warred over every little stream and tributary river, and every oasis and well and tiny forest.

- Most Dornish lords viewed the Rhoynar as unwelcome interlopers, invaders with queer ways and strange gods, who should be driven back to the sea.

- Lord Mors Martell, however, saw opportunity and supposedly fell in love with Nymeria.

- Eight of every ten Rhoynar newcomers were women, but a quarter of those were warriors, and even those who were not warriors were hardened by the odyssey. As well, thousands who had been young boys in the destruction of Rhoynar civilization were now grown men and had taken up the spear.

- By joining the Rhoynar, Martell would increase his power tenfold.

- When Lord Mors took Nymeria as wife, his vassals and knights also did so with Rhoynar women, and even those already wed took them as paramours.

- Thus were two people joined by blood. Much wealth was brought, and many artistry skills from the Rhoynar civilization, and all its many, colorful customs.

- This put the eastern Dornish way ahead of the rest of Westeros in sophistication and technology.

- Their armor and weaponry was soon matched by no one in Westeros.

- It is said Rhoynish water witches knew secret spells that made dry streams flow again and deserts bloom.

- Nymeria burned her ships so that this would not change and that her people would never leave.

- Some however mourned the loss of the ships and became the Greenblood orphans, forever worshiping the Mother Rhoyne still.

 - Nymeria named Mors as the Prince of Dorne, asserting his dominion over "the red sands and the white, and all the lands and rivers from the mountains to the great salt sea."

- The Martells and their Rhoynish partners met and subdued each petty king after the last, and no fewer than six kings were sent to the Wall in golden fetters by Nymeria and Mors;

- Only Yorick Yronwood remained, the Bloodroyal, Fifth of His Name, Lord of Yronwood, Warden of the Stone Way, Knight of the Wells, King of Redmarch, King of the Greenbelt, and King of the Dornish.
 - Nine years war was fought between two sides: Martell (including Fowler, Toland, Dayne, and Uller) vs Yronwood (including Jordayne, Wyl, Blackmont, Qorgyle, and many more).

Many battles, too many to count. Mors Martell fell to Yorick's sword in the Third Battle of the Boneway, and Nymeria assumed command of his force. Two more years of battle came, and in the end, Yorick Yronwood bent the knee to Nymeria.

- Nymeria thereafter ruled in Sunspear, which was built up by her arrival and reign.

She married twice more, to a Lord Uller and then to a Sword of the Morning, but remained the true ruler of Dorne with her husbands only being advisors and loyal generals.

She survived a dozen attempts on her life, put down two rebellions, and threw back two invasions by the Storm King Durran the Third and one by King Greydon of the Reach.

- When she died, it was her eldest daughter by Mors Martell, not her son by Dayne, who succeeded her, for by then the Dornish had come to adopt many of the laws and customs of the Rhoynar, though the memories of Mother Rhoyne and the Ten Thousand Ships were fading into legend..

- Kings sent to the Wall by Nymeria: Yorick of House Yronwood, Vorian of House Dayne (greatest swordsman of Dorne), Garrison of House Fowler (blind), Lucifer of House Dryland (last of his family), Benedict of House Blackmont (who was said to be able to turn into a vulture), and Albin of House Manwoody (a troublesome madman).

- In songs, Nymeria is said to have been a witch and a warrior, but neither is true. She did not bear arms, but led her soldiers in battle through intelligence.


Seven hundred years has House Martell since ruled Dorne without even one successful rebellion against them.

Queer Customs of the South

- Though the Stone Dornish of the Red Mountains have more in common with Stormlanders and sometimes Reachmen than the rest of Dorne, they still hate the Reach and Stormlanders with a burning passion, for they warred endlessly with each for their entire history.

The Stone Dornish have been almost as brutal as the Mountain Clansmen of the Vale in their history, fighting amongst themselves and endlessly raiding and pillaging their Reach and Stormlands neighbors.

- The Sand Dornish are more Rhoynish than the Stone Dornish, and often live by wandering from oasis to well and back again, raising their children alongside their goats and livestock.

The Sand Dornish are the breeders of the famous Sand Steeds. The Dornish love their sandsteeds so much that a Knight of Santagar even stabled his in his own hall.

- The Salt Dornish, scions of the Rhoynar, lost their mother tongue over time, though that tongue still marks the way the Dornish speak the Common Tongue - stretching some sounds, rolling others, and lilting still others in odd places. Dornish speech has been described as charming by some, and by others (the marchers, chiefly and unfairly) as incomprehensible.

But more than that, the Rhoynar brought their customs and their laws which the Martells then spread throughout Dorne. Gender Equality, etc

- Dornish do not care if a child is born in or out of wedlock, but will enforce legitimacy for inheritance usually (unless there are no legitimate heirs). They do this still today without interference from the Iron Throne.

- As we all know, the oldest child inherits, regardless of gender.

- Sexuality is likewise not tabooed, for people of the same sex or opposite sex can do whatever they please.

- Septons have tried to change the Dornish, but they never have any effect whatsoever, and so give up, and even assimilate.

- Fashions are different in Dorne, with loose layered robes, as we know;

- food is spiced with "dragons peppers" and "drops of snake venom".

- The Greenblood Orphans still speak a variant of Rhoynish, though some early Martells attempted to forbid it.


- The Three Successors after Nymeria were known as the Red Princes (though two of them were Princesses), and their reigns were ridden with wars in and out of Dorne.

- Planky Town was built by the above rulers by lashing together boats; They built a citadel nearby eventually to protect it once it became a popular stop for ships from Essos.

- a Dornish whore named Sylvenna Sand convinced her King to try and make the whole of Westeros adopt gender equality and even a socialist setup for injured war veterans and homeless folk, but obviously it was repelled by the lords of Westeros like it was a pile of dogshit

Dorne Against the Dragons

- The Dornish were smart. When the Targaryens attempted to conquer it, they would just flee and disappear, and harry and ambush armies while hiding from the dragons.

Armies would die of thirst and heat, and the dragon-riding tyrants would leave each time, finding it a pointless conquest.

- House Toland even fooled Aegon the Conqueror: They left the castle and left their ghost banner flying above the walls, and left their fool to fight as "champion".

Aegon killed the "champion" to find the castle empty and that he had just killed a fool. The Tolands later changed their banner to a dragon biting its tail, mocking the Targaryens and honoring the fool's sacrifice.

- Orys Baratheon got trapped and captured in the Boneway and was ransomed back by the Iron Throne after several years.

He and all his knights and followers returned with their sword hands cut off, so that they would never raise weapons against Dorne again.
 -
 The Dornish endlessly refused to bend to anyone but the Martells.

- When Sunspear was captured, the Targaryen thought themselves victorious, and placed Lord Rosby in Sunspear and Lord Tyrell to quell revolts. Targaryens returned to KL.

- Dorne rebelled immediately, and all garrisons and armies were put to the sword by the Dornish. It became a game by the Dornish to see which captive knight would last the longest in torture.

- Lord Harlan Tyrell set out from Hellholt to retake Vaith and Sunspear, but vanished into the sands, never to be heard of again. Supposedly sometimes bones and pieces of armor sometimes reveal themselves in the desert, but the Dornish say Dorne has had a thousand battles, so they could be from any time.

- Aegon was intent on revenge after Orys (now called One-hand) was returned to him. The dragons burned castles again and again. The Dornish responded by sending a fleet to the Stormlands and setting half of Cape Wrath on fire and sacking half a dozen towns and villages. More castle burned by dragonfire. The Dornish responded this time by sending a host under Fowler that seized and burned the marcher castle of Nightsong and carried off its lords and defenders as hostages, whilst another army under Dayne marched to Oldtown and burned all its fields and villages. Dragons again razed castles in Dorne.

- Queen Rhaenys died at Hellholt, when a scorpion struck the eye of her dragon, and both of them died. Her body was never returned to King's Landing.
 Some say she fell and died, others say she was crushed by her dragon, and still some say the Ullers tortured her to death. All we know is that she perished at Hellholt in the Tenth year after the Conquest.

 - Two years afterwards are called the Dragon's Wroth. Grief-stricken Aegon and Visenya set ablaze every castle, keep, and holdfast in Dorne at least once .. save for Sunspear and the shadow city. In Dorne, they say that the Targaryens suspected Meria Martell had a cunning way to kill dragons, something she had purchased from Lys. Likelier is that the Targaryens hoped to turn the rest of Dorne against Martell for being so unscathed. Letters were sent to lesser houses claiming that the Martells had betrayed them. This doesn't seem to have worked.

- The last phase of this war: The Targaryens placed prices on the heads of every Dornish lord, and half a dozen and more were killed by assassins - though only two ever lived to collect their reward. The Dornish responded by assassinating lords as well, killing many even in King's Landing. King Aegon was attacked on three occasions, and Visenya almost died if she had not had Darksister with her. Lords all over the Reach and Stormlands and King's Landing died, outweighing the 6 deaths in Dorne by manyfold.

- Dorne was a blighted, burning ruin by this time, and still the Dornish fought and hid in the shadows, refusing to surrender. Even the smallfolk refused. The toll of lives was innumerable.

When Princess Meria Martell died in 13 AL, her throne passed to her son, the aged and failing Prince Nymor. He sent a delegation by his daughter Deria to King's Landing.

This delegation carried the skull of Meraxes, Rhaenys' dragon, and most considered it an insult and wanted to put Deria in a brothel to service any man for a low price.

But Aegon listened instead, and received a private letter from the Prince of Dorne. He held it so hard as he read it that his hand bled.

He left for Dragonstone that night and returned the next morning, and accepted peace with Dorne.

- What the letter contained, no one can know. Did Nymor reveal the Rhaenys still lived, broken and mutilated, and that he would end her suffering if Aegon ended hostilities? Was the letter ensorceled? Did he threaten to take all the wealth of Dorne to hire Faceless Men to kill Aegon's son and heir, Aenys? These questions will never be answered, it seems.

 - The result was however a peace that lasted a great amount of time. Of course, raiders from Dorne and from without Dorne still attacked each other, and many other wars occurred, but never anything huge.

- In the Dance of Dragons, Dorne refused to take part, saying "I would rather sleep with scorpions than dance with dragons again."


 - When King Daeron I came to power, the peace ended, as we all know.
 But his conquest lasted only a summer, and cost many thousands of lives, including the king himself. It was left to Baelor the Blessed to make peace, and even that was grievously costly.

Aegon IV attempted to take Dorne with "dragons" of his own make, but that is a madman's folly and ended in humiliation.

- It was Aegon's son, Daeron II the Good who brought Dorne under the Iron Throne with soft words, smiles, and a pair of well-considered marriages, and a solemn treaty that granted the Dornish princes their style and their privileges and guaranteed that their own laws and customs should always prevail in Dorne.

- Dorne continued to ally closely with House Targaryen from thence on, as we all know.

Sunspear

- It used to just have been the Sunship, a squat ugly keep. But when the Rhoynish came, beautiful towers popped up and the location became known as Sunspear.

- Sunspear sits on a small peninsula, surrounded on three sides by water, and on the fourth and only land side, the shadow city.

- Though the Dornish call it a city, it is no more than a town, and a queer, dusty, ugly town at that. The Dornish built up against the walls of Sunspear, then built up against the walls of the neighbors' homes, and so on out, until the shadow city took on its current form. Today, it is a warren of narrow alleys, bazaars filled with the spices of Dorne and the east, and the homes of the Dornish built of mud brick that remains cool even in the height of the burning summer.

- The Winding Walls were raised some seven hundred years ago, built to be strange and serpentine to confuse and deter attackers.
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:23, Fri 13 Mar 2015.

House Greyjoy of Pyke is one of the Great Houses of Westeros. It rules over the Iron Islands, a harsh and bleak collection of forbidding islands off the west coast of Westeros, from the castle of Pyke on the island of the same name. Members of the family tend to be attractive and well-built, with black hair.

Their sigil is a golden kraken on a black field, and their house motto is "We Do Not Sow."


This message was last edited by the GM at 20:42, Fri 11 July 2014.

Feudalism describes the society structure of the Seven Kingdoms, as it is largely resembles the feudal system of medieval Europe.

Feudalism was introduced to Westeros by the Andal traditions and is practiced within the borders of the Seven Kingdoms. This society is based on a rigid social structure and government consisted of kings, lords, and the peasants. Nobles rule over the smallfolk within their territory through a system of fealty and sworn oaths. In this system each man owes military service to his lord in return for protection, a grant of land, and the peasants to work it.
Social hierarchy

The feudal system has rigid structure of social classes. Those who are born commoners can expect to die as commoners. There are no provisions for the advancement of individuals from a lower class into the higher classes. This is not to say that it is impossible, only that it is very difficult, usually bestowed by lords to those who have done a great service to them, or knights bestow the rank and title of Knighthood on any individual who has proven himself worthy.

King

The King on the Iron Throne, the Lord of the Seven Kingdoms, is at the top of the pyramid; beneath him are the various lords and knights, with peasants, also known as smallfolk, at the bottom. The king sits on the Iron Throne, claims ownership of the land, has the final political authority and holds the ultimate power in all matters. Although in practice the king is constrained by political realities, and while no individual command is likely to be countermanded, he could still lose his position to intrigue if he were to offend the wrong people. Of course, as kings do not retire, this loss of position would involve his death.

Kings in turn have vassals, the high lords of great houses. These high lords control the major regions of the Seven Kingdoms, and in turn employ vassals of their own; even these lords might have vassal lords sworn to them. This system terminates with the lowest level subordinate knights or minor land owners.

Nobility

Lord
In Westeros there are only lords, some greater and some lessor, some sworn to others, but still all with the same title - save for the Lords of Sunspear, who still hold the title "Prince of Dorne." Nobility is a hereditary title, that it is expressed through the bonds of vassalage which connect between them the various owners of strongholds. Each lord has vassals; sometimes the vassals themselves have vassals, and this may continue onward down the line.

The lords of the great house are at the top of the societal order, holding dominion over one of the nine regions of the seven kingdoms, second only to the king. There are petty lords at the bottom, entrusted with only a few villages. It is the Lord's responsibility to see to the affairs of his lands, keep the King's peace, judge on local matters, and ensure that taxes due to the king are collected in a timely manner.

Some lords have extra titles which belong only to their houses: House Greyjoy, for example, has the title of "Lord Reaper of Pyke", House Lannister has "Shield of Lannisport", and House Manderly has several flowery titles, many of which relate to their past life in the Reach and make no sense in the north, but are preserved as tradition. These titles do not elevate a lord above others, they serve as markers of a house's history.

A steward is a man responsible for running the day-to-day affairs of the castle and acting on the lord's behalf. He may be entrusted with the castle in the lord's absence.

Knights

Knight, and Landed knight
Knights are the lowest rank of the nobility. This class is made of landed knights, who have been given a keep and grant of land to administer. They have their own peasants and men-at-arms, and may even take sworn swords. Landed knights are sworn to fight for the lord who holds dominion over their land. While the wealthiest knights manage more land than the poorest lords, landed knights do not have the authority to deliver law and justice in their land. Rather, they must appeal to their liege lord.

Landed knight is a rare rank in the north and is almost nonexistent on the Iron Islands, because knighthood is culturally linked with the Faith of the Seven, which is not widely practiced in those lands.

Commoners

Smallfolk
Commoners or smallfolk are the bottom of the social structure. They do not own lands or titles; they work the land of their lords, and do not have a say in their own governing. While this may seem similar to slavery, the difference is that commoners own themselves, and can make appeals to their local lord regarding violations of the law or general disagreements between parties; they are recognized as having a right to fair and just treatment by the nobility and society in general. Most Houses have laws protecting the local population from abuse or mistreatment, even by members of the nobility. However, those laws differ and are enforced in varying degrees, mostly depending on the disposition of the local lord.

Many of the tradesmen and craftsmen belong to guilds, such as the Alchemists' Guild.

There is little social mobility; odds are that if you are born a commoner, you will never be able to rise above commoner status. However, it does happen, and there several examples of people who have managed it.

Game Terms

Warden, commanders who exercise military functions for the north, east, south, and west of the Seven Kingdoms. There are also wardens for smaller geographic locations, such as the Lord Manderly being Warden of the White Knife.

Liege, the primary lord of a vassal who holds by military tenure. The liege lord and vassal each have responsibilities to one another; the vassal must remain loyal to the liege lord above any other lords, while the liege is the vassal's principal protector.

Vassal, a person granted the use of land, in return for rendering homage, fealty, and usually military service or its equivalent to a lord or other superior. They are frequently referred to as "bannermen".
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:33, Thu 20 Aug 2015.

Work In Progress
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:07, Sat 06 Dec 2014.

Iron Islands forms one of the nine constituent regions of Westeros. They are a group of seven small rocky islands clustered far off the western coast of the mainland of the continent, in Ironman's Bay.

They are the smallest and among the least-populous of the regions of Westeros, but the naval skills of their population are unmatched and they enjoy great mobility due to their ships. The people of the Iron Islands, the ironborn, have a unique culture centered on maritime raiding and pillaging other peoples. However, they were forced to stop these practices when they were conquered by the Targaryens, or at least, to stop raiding shipping around Westeros itself.

Location
Westeros

Geography
Wind-swept islands, rocky poor soil, cold and stormy.

Population
The inhabitants of these harsh isles are known as ironmen, especially by the rest of Westeros, but they also call themselves the ironborn. They are men of the sea, and their naval supremacy was once unmatched. They are considered independent, fierce and sometimes cruel. They live in a harsh land and they hold no love for the peoples of the mainland and their soft green ways. The Faith of the Seven of the Andals and the old gods find small favor with the ironborn, as their allegiance is given to their native Drowned God. Many ironborn believe in returning to the Old Way of reaving and paying the iron price.

Rulers
House Greyjoy
Ruled from the ancient fortress Pyke which juts out of the sea.

link to a message in this game (post #16)

Religion
The Drowned God (majority)
The Faith of the Seven (minority)

Culture
The Iron Islands are home to a fierce people who are called the 'Ironmen', they call themselves 'Ironborn'.
Bastards born in the Iron Islands are given the surname Pyke.

Age
5,000 years

Founder
Urron Greyiron known as Urron Redhand, was a member of House Greyiron and was the first King of the Iron Islands to make the throne hereditary


This message was last edited by the GM at 20:43, Tue 15 July 2014.

The Iron Islands History Continued

House Greyjoy of Pyke traces its bloodline back to the legendary king of the first men, the Grey King of the Age of Heroes. He fought Nagga the sea dragon, built his hall and throne from her bones, married a mermaid, and ruled for a thousand years.

The Iron Islands is one of the constituent regions of the Seven Kingdoms, and it was formerly a sovereign nation under the same name, until the War of Conquest.

The Iron Islands were settled by the First Men many thousands of years ago. Legends claim that the First Men discovered what would be called the Seastone Chair upon the shores of Old Wyk. For much of their history, each island was its own kingdom and had its own two kings: a rock king (who ruled the land) and a salt king (who commanded at sea), with a High King chosen at kingsmoot by these petty kings. This changed when King Urron Redhand slaughtered the assembled kings and established a hereditary throne. His dynasty, House Greyiron, lasted a thousand years, until the Andals swept over the Iron Islands.

Under the rule of House Hoare, the ironborn managed to bring much of the western coast of Westeros under the rule of the Iron Island, including lands as far as Bear Island, the Arbor, and Oldtown. Although those lands were eventually lost, Harwyn Hardhand conquered the Trident from the Storm King Arrec.

The Hoare line ended with the death of King Harren the Black and his sons at Harrenhal, the monstrous castle he had built on the shores of the Gods Eye. During his War of Conquest, Aegon I Targaryen came to Harrenhal intending to make Harren bend the knee. Harren refused to yield and the castle was too strong to storm, so Aegon rode his dragon Balerion over the walls and roasted King Harren and his sons in their tower. With Harren's death the Riverlands, led by House Tully, rose in rebellion and threw the ironborn back to their islands. Submitting to Aegon and the Iron Throne, the ironborn elected House Greyjoy of Pyke to rule as Aegon's vassal.

During the reign of King Aerys I Targaryen, Lord Dagon Greyjoy led the ironborn in raiding the western coast of Westeros.
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:41, Tue 15 July 2014.

The Neck is a swamp and marsh-filled region of Westeros, located where the waters of the Bite, an inlet of the Shivering Sea, and Blazewater Bay, an inlet of the Sunset Sea, draw relatively close to one another, making it the narrowest part of the continent. The Neck is the southernmost part of the North, on the border with the Riverlands.

Climate

The swamplands of the Neck are by far the largest in all of Westeros, making it a rather unique biome. It is the only place on the continent inhabited by a species of crocodilians, known as "Lizard-lions" (apparently so-named because they are reptiles the size of lions).

Geography

The northern end of the Neck is a strategic choke point controlled by the formidable, but usually empty, ruined castle of Moat Cailin. At this point the swamps are so overgrown and flooded to the east and west that large armies can only pass north or south by narrowly following the path of the Kingsroad (which was built over a more ancient road). Moat Cailin's position completely dominates the path of this only route, making any attempt to invade the North from the southern land route futile.

The crannogmen have a hostile relationship with the inhabitants of the Twins to the south. The Freys and their servants call the crannogmen '"frog-eaters" and are disparaging of their martial skills.

History

Background

In ancient times, the Neck was ruled by the Marsh King of the crannogmen. They submitted to House Stark when Rickard Stark, King in the North, defeated the Marsh King and took his daughter as wife. The crannogmen maintained their ancient allegiance to House Stark.

The Neck presents a formidable tactical obstacle to anyone planning to invade the North and was instrumental in holding off the Andals during their invasion of Westeros six thousand years ago. However, it was not effective against airborne dragons, leading King Torrhen Stark, the last King in the North, to his decision to bend the knee to Aegon the Conqueror during the Targaryen Conquest.

Culture

The Neck is inhabited by a unique offshoot of the First Men known as the crannogmen, whose culture has adapted to their swampy environment. The other modern Northerners are also descended from the First Men, but their crannogmen cousins are distinct in several ways. The crannogmen are short of stature, and survive by hunting the numerous animals who live in the swamps. They build their villages on floating artificial islands made of wood (known as crannogs). Like the rest of the North, however, the crannogmen worship the Old Gods of the Forest.

The rulers of the Neck and its crannogmen are House Reed, staunch vassals of House Stark. The seat of House Reed is Greywater Watch, which controls the interior of the swamps. The Neck is bordered to the south by the parts of the northern Riverlands ruled by House Frey from the Twins - which has led to a longstanding feud between the Reeds and Freys over border disputes.

This message was last edited by the GM at 23:36, Thu 20 Aug 2015.

The Neck Continued, .....

Crannogmen

The crannogmen are a reclusive people who dwell in the swamps of the Neck. They are ruled by House Reed from Greywater Watch.

History

At the end of the Wars of the First Men and the Children of the Forest, some 12,000 years ago according to legend, the Children of the Forest used their magic to call down the Hammer of Waters on the Neck. They hoped to stop the advance of the First Men who were invading the continent by drowning the isthmus and breaking Westeros in two, as they had previously broken the land bridge from Essos to Dorne (the remnants of which are an island chain known as the Stepstones. The Children only partially succeeded, flooding the Neck and turning its territories into a massive swamp but not submerging it entirely. Nonetheless, this display of strength encouraged the First Men to negotiate a peace with the Children. Afterwards, some of the First Men settled in the bogs of the Neck, and became the crannogmen.

The crannogmen consider themselves to be a unique subdivision of the "Northmen" instead of an entirely separate branch from the First Men. Like the other First Men they formed their own petty kingdoms which gradually aggregated into larger territories. When the Andals invaded Westeros six thousand years ago the crannogmen were able to successfully resist their advance (along with the rest of the North), aided by the ancient fortress of Moat Cailin. The crannogmen were eventually unified by one ruler known as the Marsh King.

Many centuries later, this tiny independent kingdom was conquered by the rising power of House Stark of Winterfell, the Kings of Winter, who were determined to unite the entire North as one realm, though the crannogmen put up determined resistance. Ultimately the Starks defeated the last Marsh King, and married his daughter to secure control of the Neck. House Reed of Greywater Watch came to rule over all of the other crannogmen, and have served as loyal vassals under the Starks for centuries.

Culture

The crannogmen are so-called because they live in small villages in the deep swamps, formed of thatch and woven reeds which sit atop artificial floating islands made out of logs, which are known as crannogs (mire). Thus the villages of the crannogmen actually move around throughout the swamps and bogs of the Neck, and do not have a set physical location. Even Greywater Watch, the seat of House Reed, is built on a large crannog which can actually be moved deeper into the swamps to avoid invaders. Because their locations continually change, it is impossible to train messenger-ravens to deliver messages to them, and thus no Maesters are assigned to them.

Hardy and reclusive swamp-dwellers, the crannogmen are derisively referred to by outsiders as "mudmen" and "frog-eaters". They are a poor people, mostly subsisting on fishing and frogging, as well as eating any game they can hunt. By the standards of some of their neighbors their culture is somewhat primitive, but they are very woodcrafty, with great knowledge of their terrain as well as of poisons made by local plants and animals in the swamps, which they often coat their weapons with.

Due to their self-imposed isolation, the crannogmen culture remains mostly unchanged since the time of the First Men, before the Andal Invasion six thousand years ago (though they have learned the Common Tongue imposed on the continent by the Andals). Like their Northmen cousins, they still worship the Old Gods of the Forest, maintain a close connection to nature, and were rumored to be close to the Children of the Forest in past millennia.

In other respects, the crannogmen are something of a unique hybrid culture between what is normally found in the North and the kingdoms of southern Westeros. As the southernmost region of the North, the climate of their home is not as cold and desolate as most of the rest of the North, but is instead humid, swampy, and overgrown with fish and game. The surroundings of their home thus shaped their way of life to be quite different from that of their cousins in the main parts the North.

The crannogmen do not march into open battle, and if invaded rely on retreating their crannogs deeper into the swamps. The crannogmen will then use guerrilla tactics, poisoned weapons, and their superior knowledge of the difficult swampy terrain to bleed the invaders through attrition. For ten thousand years, the crannogmen have proven to be very difficult to conquer, though otherwise they usually seclude themselves in their swamps and do not trouble outsiders. They are embroiled in a centuries-old feud with House Frey, whose lands border the southern limits of the North, and who often try to encroach on the lands of the crannogmen.

This message was last edited by the GM at 23:42, Sun 11 Jan 2015.

The Court in Sunspear


The Prince's Household

Seneschal - The seneschal's role involves managing the household for the Prince, overseeing a wide number of aspects and drawing from the Prince's personal household funds to see it take place. He oversees the servants, he helps arrange the Prince's daily schedule of audiences and meetings, he helps arrange the logistical aspects when the Prince chooses to travel outside of Sunspear. The seneschal is a closely-trusted aide who alleviates many of the day-to-day tasks the Prince would otherwise have to see to. This a Major Office. •Under-seneschal - One of several assistants to the Prince's seneschal, their duties divided among the three main keeps of Sunspear. Because of this, they work closely with the keepers of each keep. This is a Minor Office.

Master of Horse - The master of horse maintains the Prince's stables and studs. This includes all the horses that the Princes's household needs, from the horses used to cart goods to the hunters and destriers of knights, squires, and so on. In a military campaign, the master of horse may have a significant role in overseeing the process of cataloging and valuing all horses knights and soldiers in the Prince's army bring with them, to properly record how much the king must pay in case of loss. This is a Minor Office.

Master-at-arms - The master-at-arms oversees training of the castle's pages and squires, and makes sure that the Prince's household knights are maintaining their readiness. A secondary role of the master-at-arms is managing and overseeing the king's armory in the Red Keep. This is a Minor Office.

Royal Huntsman - The royal huntsman oversees and arranges hunts for the Prince. This includes hiring huntsmen, and interacting with the king's falconers and kennelkeepers. They receieve funds to carry out these tasks, as well as a limited license to hunt for their own pleasure in the Prince's domains, or to sell these licenses to others who wish to hunt there. This is a Lesser Office.

Captain of the Guard - The captain of the palace guards, generally a knight of high standing and generally wide experience. This is a Minor Office. •Palace Guard - Knights accepted into the Prince's household and part of his retinue. This is a Lesser Office.


Other Royal Household Members

Chatelaine - Acting as a sort of seneschal for the princesses, the various chatelaines arrange their households and help to manage their funds and their daily activities. This is a Minor Office. •Ladies-in-waiting - Ladies in the service of the princesses, they act as body servants and companions. It is a coveted position for young ladies, especially those unbetrothed or unwed, as it provides them the opportunity to experience court life to the fullest, and to show themselves to best advantage. Ladies-in-waiting have the ear of a princess, and are privy to the inner workings of the court. Many great ladies at court had their beginnings as ladies-in-waiting. This is a Court Position.

Seneschal - Acting as a sort of steward for the royal princes, the household seneschals arrange their households and help to manage their funds and their daily activities. This is a Minor Office. •Companions - Gentlemen in the service of the princes, they act as both body servants and companions. It is a coveted position for young knights and lords, especially those unbetrothed or unwed, as it provides them the opportunity to experience court life to the fullest, to show themselves to best advantage, and to develop a connection with a prince. Companions have the prince's ear, and are privy to the inner workings of the court. Many of the chief courtiers had their beginnings as a royal companion. This is a Court Position.


The Prince's Advisors

Keeper of the Sandship - The prince's chief military advisor. In the past, holders of this office have commanded armies on the Prince's behalf. They help to oversee the defenses of Sunspear and the shadow city, and the general readiness of key castles throughout Dorne. This is a Greater Office.

Keeper of the Spear Tower - The Keeper of the Spear Tower arranges much of the logistical matter concerning both the palace and the shadow city. In particular, the Keeper works in close association with the Lord Shariff to make sure that the shariffs are properly maintained and able to carry out their duties. This is a Greater Office.

Keeper of the Tower of the Sun - The Keeper of the Tower of the Sun holds a position traditionally associated with the arrangement of feasts, games, and frolics. The role goes deeper than this, however, at least notionally; they are in charge of hospitality for guests at the Prince's court. This extends, in particular, to foreign emissaries, in essence making them Dorne's official emissary in turn. This is a Greater Office.

Lord Admiral - Head of the Prince's war fleet, such as it is. This is a Major Office.

Lord Treasurer - The Prince's treasurer, the lord treasurer has a great role in the raising of and disbursement of the Martell funds in Dorne. They oversee a bureaucratic apparatus, ranging from direct assistants to harbormasters, wine and olive factors, customs sergeants, tax farmers and tax collectors, and more. This is a Greater Office.

Harbormaster of Planky Town - Chief of Dorne's busiest port, they oversee customs sergeants and others. They have a role in seeing who gets what berths, who has access to the shipyards, and help to arrange transport of freight from ships to the dock warehouses. This is a Minor Office.

Lord Bailiff - Chief of the baillifs, he oversees the collection of customs and duties at Dorne's ports. This is a Minor Office.

Bailiff - Officers in charge of assessing the value of cargos to be transferred through the port of the Planky Town, and determining what customs duties are required. This is a Lesser Office.

Tax Assessors - Individuals tasked with assessing royal taxes and seeing to their collection. Licenses to carry out this task are often sold, with those purchasing the license allowed to keep what they collect, in which case they are called tax farmers and are not direct subordinates of anyone. This is a Lesser Office.

Factors - The various factors under the Lord Treasurer range in levels of importance. However, the chief factors help to sell various goods produced by the royal lands -- wool from the king's flocks, wine from the king's few vineyards, and so on. They also purchase such goods for the king's household, particularly spices, which is almost entirely imported. This is a Minor Office.

Officers of the Mint - The officer oversees the minting of money, and arrange the shipment and protection of specie. This is a Minor Office.

Lord Justiciar - The lord justiciar oversees the law of the realm, committing any changes to the records and maintaining the codices. They also carry the task of overseeing the specific legal apparatus of Sunspear and the shadow city, reducing the work the Prince himself must carry out in hearing petitions. This is a Greater Office.

Justiciar - A judge tasked with trying cases in the shadow city on the Prince's behalf. This is a Minor Office.

Chief Gaoler - Directly supervising the gaols, they hire undergaloers and keep track of the prisoners. This is a Lesser Office.


Other Offices

Lord Shariff - Head of the city watch, the commander maintains a force of 2,000 men to police the city and maintain the peace. This is a Major Office.

Officer of the Threefold Gate - One of the three senior officers in command of the Threefold Gate of the city, they oversee policing in the quarters of the city adjoining their gate. This is a Minor Office.

Shariff - One of a few score officers. This is a Lesser Office.

Warden of the Broken Arm - An officer of the Prince in charge of the defenses of the Broken Arm, and the readiness of its inhabitants to raise their banners if the Prince calls for them. One chief task that belongs to them is dealing with piracy and smuggling on the coast, due to the proximity of the Stepstones. This is a Major Office. •Deputy Warden of the Broken Arm - Immediate subordinates of the warden, they often travel through the Broken Arm at his behest. This is a Minor Office.

Warden of the Prince's Pass - A lord paid out of the royal treasury to maintain the defenses of the Prince's Pass, and ready and able to raise forces to oppose any enemies seeking to attack Dorne via the pass. This is a Major Office. This office is traditionally held by the Fowlers.

Warden of the Stone Way - A lord paid out of the royal treasury to maintain the defenses of the Stone Way (which includes the Boneway), and ready and able to raise forces to oppose any enemies seeking to attack Dorne via the pass. This is a Major Office. This office is traditionally held by the Yronwoods.

This message was last edited by the GM at 17:42, Mon 02 Mar 2015.

Order of Maesters

Maesters, are an order of scholars, healers, postmen, scientists and learned men in the Seven Kingdoms. They are trained at a school called the Citadel, and are known as the 'Order of Maesters'. Due to their scientific and intellectual pursuits, they are sometimes referred to as "the knights of the mind". House Hightower was essential in the Citadel's foundation, and continues to patronize the order.

Maesters serve as advisers to the Westerosi nobility, the maesters have largely supplanted the Alchemists' Guild. Focusing on scientific knowledge and disdaining belief in magic, in the present day the Order of Maesters has largely eclipsed the older Alchemists' Guild, which claims to possess arcane magical knowledge, but whose number, power, and abilities have waned over the centuries.


Organization

The maesters are a secular organization, not a religious order, though they do swear sacred oaths to follow the duties and restrictions of their office. A master is a scholar, scientist, learned advisor to the nobility, and occasionally pseudo-religious researcher in the occult. Males of any age may begin training as a maester; females are not permitted to study or join the order. Noble families in Westeros sometimes send their younger sons to the Citadel. A bastard may study at the Citadel and become a maester. The maesters, are considered to be servants of Westeros and all its people and in theory have no political allegiance. After finishing his course of study, a maester is assigned to a castle, keep or other holding, and is loyal to the people of that place as a mentor, healer and adviser, regardless of changes in control of that holding. To this end a man who earns his chain is stripped of his family name and from that time on is known only by his title and first name. In practice, some maesters hold over old allegiances and loyalties.


The Citadel

The Citadel is an impressive structure in the city of Oldtown, and is considered the home of all maesters. Here they undergo all of their training from the time they arrive as novices until they have achieved the status of maester. At the entrance of the Citadel are green marble sphinxes.


Function and Duties

Almost every castle and noble family in Westeros, no matter how small, has a maester on hand to teach the lord's children, give him counsel, and attend to medical and educational needs. The lords of the Seven Kingdoms are also reliant on their ability to send long distance communiques using trained messenger ravens, which they are responsible for tending in a castle's rookery. Maesters also serve as the resident medical expert at a castle, responsible for everything from setting broken bones, assisting childbirth, and knowledge of medicinal herbs and potions to aid fevers and internal illnesses. In addition, maesters also observe changes in the weather to watch for shifting of the seasons.

Maesters are expected to eschew their familial background and political allegiances. They drop their family name when they join the order. They are assigned to serve at castles and holdfasts throughout the Seven Kingdoms and are bound by their vows to serve whoever holds the castle in which they reside, regardless of changes in lordship. It is not considered a breach of their vows if a maester advises the current lord of their castle in military matters to defeat their enemies, but if their lord is defeated by his enemies and possession of the castle officially changes hands, the maester is expected to serve his new lord.

The Order of Maesters is an egalitarian institution whose members must ignore their past family and political ties, give up their right to inheritance, and take an oath of celibacy. Thus, younger sons or bastard sons are often made to join the maesters, so as not to interfere with the inheritance of firstborn and/or legitimate sons.

The maesters are considered to be servants of the realm. It is possible to be both a maester and a member of the Night's Watch, due to the similar restrictions of their vows and because the castles along the Wall each need a maester. This has always been something of a rarity, however, as even during its prime the Night's Watch only maintained nineteen castles along the Wall. Should the need arise at the Wall, it is also permissible for a member of the Night's Watch to be trained as a maester at the Citadel, then return to the Wall to serve as the maester of one of its castles.

The headquarters of the Order of Maesters is the Citadel, a complex devoted to higher learning, which is located in the city of Oldtown in the southwest of the Reach. New initiates are trained at the Citadel, and upon finishing their studies, gain the title of "maester" and are assigned to serve at a castle or town in Westeros. The entire order is ruled over by the Conclave, the council of archmaesters, who reside in the Citadel.


Organization

The Grand Maester is considered the most senior member of the order, and is its personal representative to the king on the Iron Throne. The Grand Maester is elected by the Conclave, but resides in the Red Keep in King's Landing, to personally advise the king and serve on the Small Council. Only the Conclave may select the Grand Maester and while the King or Hand may dismiss the Grand Maester from the council, they cannot strip him of his title.


Traditions and Culture

Maesters begin their training as initiates for their first year, then become novices in the Citadel. Once they begin their second year of study and have been seen as proficient in a particular course of study they are tested and awarded a link of a certain metal to reflect their skill and knowledge. A student with a link is known as an acolyte until he has a full chain; it is not until he has completed extensive study in various subjects and has earned enough links to form a chain (to be worn around the neck) that he is considered worthy of advancement to the title of Maester, no longer a student but a peer. The night before the acolytes swear their vows to become maesters, they must stand a vigil in a vault with a black Glass candle. He is allowed no lantern or any other source of light. Unless he can light the candle, he will spend the night in total darkness. There have been whispers that the maesters have held much more power and sway than they are ready to admit. Some consider most maesters to be categorically opposed to magic and its influence on Westeros.


The Collar

The collar sometime called the 'Maester's chain' signifies that maesters do not serve themselves, but are instead servants of all of Westeros. The collar consists of several links of different types of metal. Maesters wear this chain around their necks to also signify their personal expertise. These chains are formed from every metal known to man, but almost no maester will ever wear them all. Many Maesters personally forge each link themselves. Each link indicates a different field of study. There are sixteen recognized fields each with a different representative metal. Maesters are expected to wear their chains at all times, even when sleeping Maesters do not remove the chain ever, not even when sleeping. It is possible to earn multiple links of the same metal.

Known metals and corresponding fields of study include:
 ◾ Gold - money and accounting
 ◾ Silver - medicine and healing
 ◾ Iron - warcraft
 ◾ Black iron - ravenry
 ◾ Lead - Poison
 ◾ Copper - history
 ◾ Bronze - astronomy
 ◾ Steel - construction
 ◾ Electrum - astrology
 ◾ Pale steel - smithing
 ◾ Valyrian steel * - magic and the occult

Known metals with unknown corresponding fields of study include:
 ◾ Brass
 ◾ Pewter
 ◾ Platinum
 ◾ Red gold
 ◾ Tin

* "the higher mysteries" - Only one in one hundred holds a link of Valyrian steel; the study of magic is looked down upon by most maesters.
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:17, Thu 20 Aug 2015.

Daena Targaryen

Character and Appearance

Daena was wild almost from birth. A Targaryen to the bone, she is strong, beautiful, and wilful and like the rest of her siblings had Valyrian looks. Her long silver-gold hair was thick and curly, an untamed mane that framed her heart-shaped face and her sparling purple eyes. To top it off, she is fearless "I'll dare anything" smile. Daena is lithe and athletic. She is an expert horsewoman and also a hunter and a fine archer with her short recurved bow.

She always wears the golden three-headed dragon pendant she had inherited from her father. At court she wears it on a fine golden chain, supposedly she even wears it when bathing.

Biography & Recent Events

Daena Targaryen is also known as Daena the Defiant and is the eldest daughter of King Aegon III the Dragonbane. She is the sister-wife of King Baelor I.

At a early age, Daena was married to her brother Baelor, by her father, in the Targaryen tradition. Daena and Baelor’s marriage was an unhappy one, with her brother obsessed by the Faith of the Seven. Baelor has refused to consummate their marriage and later dissolved it when he ascended the Iron Throne, after Daena’s elder brother King Daeron I died in Dorne. After Baelor’s ascension, Daena and her sisters were confined to their own apartments in the Red Keep (known as the Maidenvault), so the sight of them would not tempt Baelor or others in his court to mortal lusts.

Daena has always worshipped her father and idolized her brother Daeron. Daena's dress was often as dramatic as she is. As a child, she always wore black in emulation of her father. After her brother Baelor failed to consummate their marriage, she changed to all white, and vowed to wear nothing else until she had been properly bedded, in hopes of shaming him - this has not worked. Baelor likes her in white, feeling that it makes her look more innocent. Now, a pampered prisoner in her brother's court.

This message was last edited by the GM at 23:41, Sun 11 Jan 2015.

Game Terms


Smallfolk
The common people of Westeros, akin to peasants. They are at the bottom of the social ladder. Most have to obey their local lord, even though they may never catch a glimpse of him during their life. The nobility of Westeros have great power over the smallfolk.

The Faith
The Faith of the Seven is the dominant religion of the Seven Kingdoms, and is often simply referred to as the Faith. The only parts of Westeros where the Faith is not widespread are the North and the Iron Islands, where the practice of the old gods and of the Drowned God respectively are still strong. The gods of the Faith are sometimes known as the new gods to differentiate them from the old gods.

Gelding
a gelding is a castrated horse, of any breed or purpose. Castration is useful for making the horse less hormonal and supposedly easier to deal with.

Mare
a mare is a female horse, of any breed or purpose. A young mare is known as filly.

Stallion
a stallion is a non-castrated horse, of any breed or purpose. The presence of testosterone may make stallions more physically impressive than otherwise comparable mares or geldings, but it also makes their behavior more aggressive.

Nameday
is a custom in the society of the Seven Kingdoms. It is an annual celebration commemorating the naming of a person and serves to calculate his or her age. Babies are named the same day they are born. People receive presents from friends and family on their nameday.

Regent
is the title held by a noble who rules in name of a King or Lord because the ruler is a child or incapacitated. A regent's rule ends when a child heir reaches their sixteenth nameday, as sixteen years old is considered the legal age of adulthood in the Seven Kingdoms.

If the Regent rules in the name of the King of the Andals and the First Men, he or she also hold the title of Protector of the Realm. A royal Regent also holds a seat in the small council, taking the place of the young monarch.
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:37, Thu 20 Aug 2015.

Targaryen History

The origins of House Targaryen lie in ancient Valyria. Now in ruins, Valyria was once a powerful nation that ruled much of the eastern continent. Valyrian kings counted dragons among their forces and commanded wizards who were able to use their magic to work stone as if it were clay. This mighty nation built roads and cities that have survived to modern times, even though Valyria itself was destroyed by a Doom of which few details exist.

Dragonstone, home of the Targaryens, was the westernmost outpost of the Valyrians. After the fall of Valyria, it was their home for two centuries before Aegon the Conqueror, founder of the modern Targaryen dynasty, invaded Westeros and established his rule. Much of the Targaryen’s traditions and beliefs come from their heritage—either from Valyria or as exemplified by Aegon.

As the progenitor of the line, Aegon is regarded with great reverence, and his life was seen as a blueprint to many of the Targaryens who followed in his footsteps as kings and conquerors. Since it was common in ancient Valyria for brother and sister to wed, Aegon adopted, or most likely continued, the custom in order to keep the bloodline pure and uncorrupted by unworthiness. Because of this practice, the Targaryens have a distinctive appearance, indigo, lilac, or violet eyes and silver-gold or platinum hair. In addition, this inbreeding gives family members an unpredictable nature. Some Targaryens are good and powerful leaders, whereas others are mad, driven to commit insane acts or embrace outrageous beliefs that eventually lead to a spectacular downfall.

Aegon’s legend really began when he took his two sisters, Rhaenys and Visenya, to be his wives and started the line of the Targaryens. In fact, the house symbol of a three-headed dragon represents Aegon and his two sister-wives. With his sisters at his side, Aegon led his forces out from Dragonstone to claim most of Westeros and unite it under the banner of the Dragonlords. The old kings of the Seven Kingdoms fell before the onslaught. They might have had a chance against traditional forces, but Aegon and his brides rode dragons they’d named after the old gods of Valyria: Balerion, Vhaghar, and Meraxes. By the time the war was over, Aegon ruled from the Wall in the Far North to the Dornish Marches in the south, and from Dragonstone in the east all the way to the islands along the west coast. The only people to escape the conquest were the Dornishmen in the far south of the continent.

The first city Aegon established was King’s Landing, which became the traditional seat of power in the Seven Kingdoms. Aegon had Balerion the Black Dread, one of his dragons, melt down the swords of the defeated kings to build his throne. It took fifty-nine days to hammer together the Iron Throne, and all the kings of the Seven Kingdoms have used it since. It is an uncomfortable monstrosity covered with spikes, jagged edges, and twisted blades that make sitting back in it impossible. Aegon purposely had it made that way because he believed a king should never sit easy on a throne.

After Aegon and his sisters came a long line of great and mad leaders, all of whom held the nation together, though some were more successful than others.



This message was last edited by the GM at 00:40, Fri 29 Aug 2014.

Armor signifies a warrior’s status, wealth, and prowess, but even though armor serves to reinforce or diminish a warrior’s reputation, armor is fundamentally protection.

Armor Rating
Armor offers some amount of protection, represented by its Armor Rating. When you take damage in combat, you reduce the damage taken by your Armor Rating. Damage can be reduced to 0 but not below 0.

Armor Penalty
Armor can turn aside killing blows, but it does so at a cost. Heavier forms of armor can interfere with your Movement, making you slower to react to opponents and maintain your balance. Many forms of armor impose a penalty that you apply to the results of all Agility tests (including passive Agility tests) and to your Combat Defense.

Bulk
Wearing heavy armor confers bulk just as does carrying unwieldy equipment. To determining the effects of bulky armor, sum the armor’s Bulk and any Bulk from other sources. For every 2 full points of Bulk, reduce your movement (after modifications from the Run specialty) by 1 yard.


This message was last edited by the GM at 01:48, Wed 31 Dec 2014.

The easiest way to get started in our game is to select an archetype to play. An archetype is a ready-to-play character with all the mechanical decisions handled for you. Each archetype represents a different role or character type found in the novels and presents statistics for anointed knights, maesters, septons, nobles, wards, and more. As you familiarize yourself with the system, you will undoubtedly want to create your own character, as described in the Charcter Creation thread, but if you’re itching to play, and want to enter IC as fast as possible it's recommend to pick an NC that's open to players.