[hider=House Estermont wip] [center][img]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/440731408412049491/490046783850938388/estermont.png[/img] [i]"Rest Upon Us"[/i] [hr][/center] [b]Synopsis [color=MediumSeaGreen]▔▔▔▔▔[/color][/b] House Estermont is a noble family in the Stormlands, and is one of the principal vassals sworn to House Baratheon of Storm's End. They rule over the small, mountainous island of Estermont east of Cape Wrath, with the castle of Greenstone as their ancestral seat. The Estermonts have a long and tested relationship with their liege lords, and the two families often intermarried. With the ascent of the Baratheon line to royal status, the Estermonts' wealth and influence has only grown. Due to Lord Edam's expertise in naval affairs, they have now taken on the role of patrolling the waters around Cape Wrath and the Stepstones to protect merchants from corsairs. With those functions came the military position granted to them by their liege - Wardens of the Stepstones. [b]Realm [color=MediumSeaGreen]▔▔▔▔▔[/color][/b] House Estermont is one of the largest vassal houses sworn to the Storm's End branch of House Baratheon - and has the closest geographic proximity to the Stepstones, making it an important player and conductor in the regional naval operations. It can muster two hundred knights, one thousand and two hundred men-at-arms and six hundred bowmen. Under his rule, House Estermont's minor fleet swelled to twenty ships total, and his appointment as the Master of Ships on King Galladon's small council marked his position as one of Westeros' most seasoned naval commanders. He captains his flag ship Seashell, a heavy dromond crewed by his hardy veterans, while his trusted bannermen fly the sails of the galleons Waterdancer, Turquoise Arrow, Stepstone Spear, Lady's Prank, Reefshadow, Storm's Whore, and Lord Aemon's Lance. There are three swan ships captured from Summer Islander corsairs, and the other nine are made up of smaller longships and carracks. The Estermonts' subjects live off fishing, as well as trading corals and shells and plying other trades. However, the ruling family exacts tolls on passing merchants, and is thus able to maintain the aforementioned fleet and retinue. [b]Important Members [color=MediumSeaGreen]▔▔▔▔▔[/color][/b] For the prominent members of your household. [hider=Lord Estermont] [center][img]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/440731408412049491/485514152979333121/edam_estermont.png[/img][/center] [b]Name/Age [color=MediumSeaGreen]▔▔▔▔▔[/color][/b] Edam Estermont / 48 [b]Reputation [color=MediumSeaGreen]▔▔▔▔▔[/color][/b] Lord Edam Estermont is considered to be somewhat of an eccentric figure among the stormlander nobility. Not one for jousts or archery competitions, he has a natural affinity for water. Ever since he was a child, he always joined supper with matted, salty hair and wrinkly fingers. Even though he was the heir, his tendency to daydream and obsess over trivial activities like cyvasse or shell-gathering earned him the ire of most educators and servants on Greenstone. These patterns were only reinforced when he became the page and squire to Ser Aurane, and, in some ways, he has taken after him in his lifestyle and philosophy - a rather cynical outlook for the common Westerosi ideals of chivalry and honor, one shaped by instances of duplicity and malice he witnessed from knights and nobles alike. A travelled man, he has met people from all walks of life, and always tried to perceive everything with an open mind, never rooting himself staunchly in one position or view, and instead easily absorbing the best that his aides and friends come with, irrespective of their political leanings. He is a highly perceptive and quick learner, with a very open and tactical mind - his ability to emphasize with high lords and the worst dregs of society has allowed him to make friends in the most unexpected of places; from the alleyways of Flea Bottom to the the highborn villas of Tyrosh. [b]Appearance [color=MediumSeaGreen]▔▔▔▔▔[/color][/b] Edam is a slight man, thin and hard as a bone. With brown eyes and a sharp, angular face weathered by the elements, his beard and thinning brown hair are peppered with gray. He's just got one of those faces that burns itself into your memory. Its sharp lines contort readily into a devilish, toothy smile - though he's aware that such full smiles always give him an air of a madman, and uses this feature of his physionomy sparingly. He wears soft leather boots, a wide with nuggets of silver, a wool doublet, and a pale green, woolen cloak. On campaign, Edam wears black oiled ringmail over boiled leather, a round steel halfhelm with a noseguard, and a mail coif. Edam wields a shortspear and a kite shield, with a flanged mace and dirk hanging from his belt and used as secondary weapons. [b]History [color=MediumSeaGreen]▔▔▔▔▔[/color][/b] Lord Alyn Estermont was a prominent nobleman and Stormlander who took part in invading the Stepstones together with Ser Aurane Velaryon in 310, two years after his first wife, Lady Jayna Bywater, was captured and held ransom by pirates. In captivity, she was raped and beaten so severely that she was a shell of a person by the time she came back to Greenstone. Suffering from depression and illness, she died six months later. Having spent a considerable fortune on her release, the aged Lord Estermont saw this as the greatest humiliation his family suffered in decades, and when Ser Aurane gathered an expedition to rid the Stepstones of its' petty bandit-kings, he devoted the entire manpower of Greenstone to help quash the corsairs. Having met and made friends with Lord Jordayne during the conflict, he later visited their ancestral seat, The Tor, and, after some initial reluctance, arranged a betrothal between him and one of the Jordayne daughters, Alara, a beautiful girl in her teens. When she came of age in 321, Lord Alyn married her in a quiet ceremony off the Sea of Dorne. Stormlanders do not generally mingle with Dornishmen, so the marriage was not held in high esteem by the neighboring nobility or the children from Lord Alyn's first marriage. In 322, Edam Estermont was born, and was named heir to all of his father's lands and titles. This led to much resentment Edam's eldest sister, Bancey, who's son from a marriage with a Blount stood poised to inherit. Other sisters regarded him with indifference and rarely sent ravens from their husbands' keeps, except Ireyne Estermont, who never married, and became his close friend and supporter throughout his life. His early upbringing and education were marked by heated arguments between his mother and father. Alara resented her life in Greenstone and never felt herself at home, always trying to bring Edam with her to Dorne and play in the Water Gardens instead of swimming in hazardous waters surrounding the Estermont isle. Alyn ultimately decided to keep the boy out of the pesky Dornish woman's reach, and sent Edam to page and squire for Ser Aurane Velaryon, a nigh-legendary naval commander and strategician. Alara could never forgive her husband for sending her son away to learn from a weathered soldier and old killer, and when Lord Alyn passed from a chill in 334, she moved back to the Tor immediately. For the next six years, right up until Ser Aurane's death, Edam learned all he could from his mentor; taking part in negotiations with nobles and sellsails, scuttling corsair ships and arresting smugglers, all while Ireyne governed Greenstone in his absence. Aged eighteen, he was captaining his own ship and increasingly taking on the role of the Narrow Sea's coastguard - even though no one asked him to. Considered half-mad by his peers for playing with ships and leaving the day-to-day running of his estate to his sister, he undertook longer and riskier voyages hoping to catch bigger fish. When he, along with the aid of Tyroshi sellsails, managed to capture four Summer Islander swanships, he briefly stopped at Sunspear to buy crateloads of incense, fruits and wine, and then sailed up to Stonehelm, the seat of House Swann. Arriving with a gift; a magnificient, swift swanship for, crewed by colorful and cheery Tyroshi, and sharing exotic produce with both smallfolk and nobles alike, Lord Swann already considered him as a son after he asked for his daughter's hand. Within several months, Lady Sofina Swann and Lord Edam Estermont were wife and husband. Having wed into another powerful vassal family of the Stormlands, local lords and peasants alike began to respect his name. As the closest to the Stepstones among the Baratheon bannermen, he petitioned his liege lord to assume responsibility and rule in his name over the troubled region, ensuring the king's peace throughout the islands. In exchange for this service, he would take a cut of the tolls from passing merchants, and keep the pirates' loot for himself, with the exception of slaves - who were offered a chance at freedom and serving the Stormlands, either as oarsmen in the Estermont fleet or as men-at-arms on the mainland. For years he held the post of Warden of the Stepstones, only leaving it to assume the office of master of ships in King Galladon's small council. The title was then bestowed to his eldest son, Bryen, by Lord Baratheon. [/hider] [b]Background [color=MediumSeaGreen]▔▔▔▔▔[/color][/b] Edam Estermont is the current Lord of Greenstone, having succeeded the late Alyn Estermont, a man who fathered four daughters and only one son. Edam was the youngest child and born when Alyn was already aged. He was twelve at the time his father died, and serving Ser Aurane Velaryon as a squire, although he spent most of his time on a dromond navigating the Narrow Sea with his friend and mentor, instead of jousting in mainland tourneys - an activity Edam considers too dubious to partake in. For the next five years after Alyn's passing, he'd seldom stay at Greenstone, and his sister, Ireyne Estermont, assumed the duties of castellan during his absence. His few visits over the course of these years were mostly to check up on the condition of his lands, review the quarterly incomes and repair his flagship before going back to sea. In that time he has fought corsairs and slavers in the Stepstones and Narrow Sea, and scuttled dozens of vessels; he also expanded the Estermont's fleet with galleons captured from Summer Islander pirates, and constructed six new warships with fifty oars each. Although most of his life was spent at sea and he rarely devoted his time to the day-to-day running of his lands, he has taken great care to monitor the condition of his keep and treasury, and so far has not been disappointed in the work done by Lady Ireyne, and later by his wife, Lady Sofina Swann. [b]Relations [color=MediumSeaGreen]▔▔▔▔▔[/color][/b] [b]House Baratheon[/b] [indent]Example information about relations between House TBC and TBC 2 here.[/indent] [b]House Swann[/b] [indent]Example information about relations between House TBC and TBC 2 here.[/indent] [b]House Velaryon[/b] [indent]Example information about relations between House TBC and TBC 2 here.[/indent] [b]House Martell[/b] [indent]Example information about relations between House TBC and TBC 2 here.[/indent] [/hider] [hider=Ser Pate of Sow's Horn] [center][img]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/440731408412049491/490861838930673664/pate_hogg.png[/img] [i]"Bugger off, I'm not a bloody Crakehall."[/i][/center] [b]Name [color=#999898]▔▔▔▔▔[/color][/b] Ser Pate Hogg [b]Age [color=#999898]▔▔▔▔▔[/color][/b] 40+ [b]Reputation [color=#999898]▔▔▔▔▔[/color][/b] Tough and heavyset like his kin, Pate is only a rung better than a hedge knight. With his family's keep little more than an old stone tower, the Hogg family has always lived in dirt and squalor, vassals of a vassal's vassal. Having abandoned his settled life twenty years afore, Ser Pate is considered by some to be one of the sturdiest men in the realm, with tourney heralds often mistaking him to be that of a Crakehall - an occasional nuisance that's he's beginning to despise. Pate has admittedly often overstayed his welcome in more than a few towns and castles after maiming local troublemakers in mad, drunken bar fights. [b]History [color=#999898]▔▔▔▔▔[/color][/b] Born in Sow's Horn a second son of Ryger Hogg, a poor, landed knight. Whilst his brother Olyvar learned [i]books[/i] with the Hayford children and their maester, he spent his early years in and around the family estate, helping their few peasants toil the land and look after their humble flock of sheep and pigs. A fortnight after his ninth nameday, Pate's uncle returned from the Disputed Lands after finishing his contract with the Gallant Men. Although he knew fighting on an instinctive level, he was a master at employing dirty tricks and moves, and in battle he moved much akin to a panther. He took to training his nephew as his squire, and by the time Pate was sixteen he was already brawling and battling for coin in the seedy pits of Flea Bottom, spending all his winnings on booze and women. When Ser Ryger died, Olyvar inherited their humble stead. Even then he tried to cheat Pate out of a horse writ for him. Or so he says. He beat the devil out of his eldest brother, and only three heavy knights could pull him off the fellow before he'd become a kinslayer. He left home, never to return. For the next twenty years, he was travelling far and wide. Guarding caravans, rich men on business trips, hunting outlaws. Rarely he'd take up stationary jobs as part of a keep's garrison, but would find himself at odds with some of the serjeants and courtiers for his blunt manner. He was encouraged by one of the soldiers to sail over the Narrow Sea and carve out some glory. During a brief contract job with a Lysene sellsail, he met a vile Dornishman by the name of Morgan Sand. They became fast friends through their shared love of booze, whoring and fighting. [center][b]Family Tree [color=#999898]▔▔▔▔▔[/color][/b] [img]https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9f/DEU_Eberbach_COA.svg/220px-DEU_Eberbach_COA.svg.png[/img] [i]"You wouldn't know him."[/i][/center] [/hider] [hider=Ser Morgan Longspear] [center][img]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/440731408412049491/490861252076109824/morgan_sand.png[/img][/center] [b]Name [color=#999898]▔▔▔▔▔[/color][/b] Ser Morgan Sand [b]Age [color=#999898]▔▔▔▔▔[/color][/b] 40+ [b]Reputation [color=#999898]▔▔▔▔▔[/color][/b] A heavyhanded and hot-blooded Sandy Dornishman, he has earned himself many enemies in Dorne and cannot come back. This circumstance angers him greatly, so he swaggers about with a southern pomp and arrogance that makes many hate him as soon as they meet him. Nevertheless, no one can deny his skills as a fighter. Some soldiers have taken to calling him by the moniker of [i]'Longspear'[/i], with a bit of irony. [b]History [color=#999898]▔▔▔▔▔[/color][/b] Baseborn son of a Qorqyle knight, he grew up near Sandstone until he was sent as a page to Sunspear. There, he befriended Dyron Martell and they both squired under the same knight - learning to ride a horse and fight with swords, spears and shields. Over time they'd begin to visit the different tourneys and competitions held around the realm. [center][b]Family Tree [color=#999898]▔▔▔▔▔[/color][/b] [img]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/440731408412049491/490937629949427712/imageedit_19_5041015349.png[/img][/center] [/hider]