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House Arryn of the Eyrie

“As High As Honour.”

House Description

House Seat
The Eyrie.

Head of House
Lord Artys Arryn, Lord of the Eyrie, Defender of the Vale, Warden of the East and Keeper of the Gates of the Moon.

Recent History
The recent history of House Arryn can be said to begin with Lord Timett Arryn, father of the reigning Lord Artys. Timett was a war chief of the Burned Men, one of the mountain clans of the Vale operating out of the Mountains of the Moon. He was a relative of House Arryn through his mother, Janyce Waynwood, a fiercely strong and independent woman who was believed to have been abducted by the Burned Men. Janyce had actually run off with one of the Burned Men, with whom she had an illicit relationship, to avoid being married off to a lordling against her will. Timett was raised in the custom of the tribe and never told of his mother's ancestry, that he would not be burdened by it and have difficultly becoming accepted by his clansmen.

Timett's lineage became of importance when the young and sickly Robert Arryn, called 'Sweetrobin', passed away of his frailty towards the end of the year 300 AC. Timett became embroiled in a plot between his mother Janyce and Bronze Yohn Royce, a powerful vassal of House Arryn, to name Timett the Lord of the Eyrie ahead of Harrold Hardyng, to take over the Vale in support of Queen Daenarys. Timett was taken by his mother in secret to Runestone, the seat of House Royce, during the initial chaos that followed Robert's passing. There, he was introduced to and made to wed a young woman by the name of Sansa Stark, a lady of the North who had been living in secret with Petyr Baelish, the power behind the throne of both Robert Arryn and Harrold Hardyng. Sansa's betrayal of Petyr to join with Lord Royce had delayed Harrold's ascension; the 'Young Falcon', as he was known, had been meant to be wed to Sansa instead of Timett. Timett and Sansa's marriage occurred in the light of the Seven, a Faith to whom the two were also converted in the same ceremony. The other Vale lords in attendance at Runestone, among them the members of the so-called "Lord's Declarant" who had long opposed the machinations of Petyr Baelish, named Timett 'the Lord Timett Arryn', calling him the rightful Defender of the Vale and pledging to install him as Lord Paramount of the Vale of Arryn, under Queen Daenarys.

The ensuing civil war could have been an enormously bloody and prolonged affair, were it not for Timett's support from both the mountain clans and Queen Daenarys. The fierce warriors of the mountain tribes harried the lands of those houses loyal to Lord Harrold, their constant raids preventing them from amassing much of their potential strength and delaying their efforts to field an army large enough to march on Runestone. The Eyrie itself, a castle entirely impregnable to a conventional army, fell victim once again to the same weakness that had been its downfall in Aegon's Conquest: an aerial attack. The Queen and her dragons made short work of Lord Harrold and his retainers in the Eyrie, burning the would-be Defender of the Vale alive before a single major battle could be fought. Lord Petyr Baelish, the instigator of the Vale's troubles, was dealt with in the earliest days of the war, coming to Runestone shortly after Sansa's flight to attempt to plead his case and join Sansa and Timett's side in the conflict. Timett refused him, and instead gave his new wife justice for her fallen father: the removal of Petyr Baelish's head from his body was the war's first casualty. With Harrold and Petyr fallen, Queen Daenarys and King Aegon triumphant in the south and the loyalists of Lord Timett growing each day, those who had refused to call a mountain clansmen 'my lord' were quickly forced to bite their tongues and swear fealty to the new Lord of the Eyrie, whether they liked it or not.

Predictably, most of them didn't like it. Even those lords that had sided with Timett against Harrold and Petyr did not want an uneducated and uncooth mountain clansman as their overlord, whether he had joined the Faith of the Seven or not. Worse yet, Lord Timett made radical reforms in the Vale following his ascension, working alongside his wife Sansa to reorganize the hill tribes into petty lordships more akin to the better respected mountain clans of the North. The proud Andal lords of the Vale considered the affront a step too far, and within barely a year of his ascension, the Lord Timett was assassinated, his exact killer forever unknown. Thankfully, Timett and Sansa had shared a bed long enough to produce a single infant son: Artys Arryn, named after the legendary founder of House Arryn centuries ago. Sansa Stark would rule the Vale as regent in the young lord's stead, doing her best to keep the peace in her adopted kingdom and prevent the mountain lords and Vale lords from going to open war. Keenly trained in diplomacy and intrigue by the late Lord Baelish, Sansa proved a talented regent, and worked tirelessly to maintain the loyalty of the Andal houses, working in tandem with her stepmother Janyce, who was able to convince her own adopted people, the mountain clans, to assimilate to the feudal system of Westeros and prevent their falling back into the old ways.

When Lord Artys Arryn began to rule in his own name, at the young age of 14, he continued Sansa and Janyce's policies of reconciliation. The son and heir of a hated lord who divided his people, Lord Artys saw his destiny as being to unite the Vale as his namesake had done in ages past: but through diplomacy, rather than war. Artys became a seasoned diplomat, settling land disputes between the mountain lords and the Vale lords and even managing to arrange a few marriages between the two, helping to assimilate and to bond by blood the tribal societies of the Vale's fringes into mainstream politics and culture. Both the more barbaric practices of the mountain lords and the most discriminatory policies of the Vale lords were put an end to, and peace and understanding gradually came to rule the day. The divide between the Vale's two societies continues on to the present day, however, and tensions still exist between those most uppity of the Andal lords and those of the First Men most stuck in their old, war-like ways. Lord Artys, ever the pacifist, is weary of the potential for war to once against sunder the Seven Kingdoms, fearing that it might tear open old wounds in his native Vale that he has spent the whole of his adult life attempting to mend.

House Relations
House Targaryen - House Arryn under Lord Artys has been careful to avoid becoming involved in the dispute between Rhaegon and Jon, cautioning peace and reconciliation between the two rival brothers. Having no blood ties to either claimant, House Arryn is set to be a neutral power in the coming war, unless the prospect of a tantalizing marriage and an assurance of the unity of the Vale can be given to the cautious Lord Artys to sway him from his pacifism.

House Stark - Lord Artys is the son of a lady of Winterfell, Lady Sansa, who was also the woman who personally raised him from the day of his birth until her unfortunate passing a mere two years ago. Lord Artys has nothing but positive opinions of the Starks, and seeks to emulate both their fair-handed dispensation of justice and the deftness with which they have managed to keep their culturally disparate kingdom in one piece.

House Melcolm - Loyal bannermen of Lord Artys, with whom House Arryn has forged a close alliance via the marriage of Artys' eldest daughter, Aemma, to the ruling lord of House Melcom, Eustace. In exchange for this generous match, Eustace's own eldest sister was married to the son and heir of a mountain lord: one of very few marriages yet arranged between the lords of the Vale and the newly ennobled petty lords of the mountains. Artys considers the pair of matches to be among his greatest successes as lord.

Conceptualization
The kingdom's politics have been dominated by distrust and disdain between two solitudes since the last great war. The reigning lord seeks to put the divisions of the old days in the past, while his heir is aggravating them with calls for purity and the revocation of the rival peoples' powers and privileges. Meanwhile, another great war awaits on a rapidly approaching horizon, with the potential to further inflame old passions—or, maybe, to help assuage them.

Point-of-View Characters

A r t y s   A r r y n

Defender of the Vale
Lord of the Eyrie, Warden of the East and Keeper of the Gates of the Moon

Age
39.

Appearance
Lord Artys is half Northman and the other half a descendant of the mountain tribes, and so is naturally prone to a gruff, dark appearance—which he takes care not to accentuate. His hair is dark black and he is prone to a thick beard, which he keeps closely shaved to avoid appearing too much like the unwashed barbarian from whom he is descended. His one decidedly Andal feature is his Arryn blue eyes, which keep a loose and inviting gaze. A somewhat neurotic man, Artys has a resting frown, but is capable of warm and even goofy smiles in the right company and circumstance. He stands at an average height, and is of a lithe and decidedly gentlemanly, rather than knightly, build.

Reputation
Raised in the Eyrie by Sansa Stark and Bronze Yohn Royce, both of whom helped instill the young lordling with good moral character and the importance of keeping to his duties and responsibilities as lord. Artys took from Sansa more effectively than from Lord Royce, finding himself a much better administrator than warrior.
Took up ruling in his own right at a younger age than most, 14, and proved proficient at it. Artys came to be known as a consultative ruler, unafraid to lean on the advice of those more experienced than him, without becoming a puppet to their whims. With no siblings and with adult responsibilities from a young age, he grew up very quickly—never having an opportunity to experience a real childhood.
Naturally a calm and quiet man, Lord Artys nonetheless took to diplomacy with great tact. He is able to seem at once professional and genial, a friend and an overlord both to many of his vassals. Despite this, still rather socially reclusive outside of dealings with lords and administrators; he hasn't ever really had so much as an acquaintance for whom his relationship wasn't primarily as lord.
Married Gwayne Grafton, a tall and hawkish woman, at age 17. The two had met in person exactly once before they were engaged to be wed; they each found each other tolerable but uninteresting. The couple's matrimonial union was wholly practical and political, used to assure the Vale lords that Artys would not neglect them as his interest as a Lord began to narrow in on assimilating the mountain lords. Theirs was and is a grey marriage, with neither love nor scorn. A huntress and fabled archer, Gwayne is content for her husband to keep the books in the Eyrie while she prowls the Vale of Arryn for fearsome beasts to slay. Artys is mostly indifferent to his wife's affairs, but does hold some regret that her hobby is so dangerous, preferring that his children not lose their mother so early.
As he grew into adulthood, Artys came to see it as his destiny to unite the Vale under a common identity and to create a lasting peace between all noble families and all peoples under his suzerainty. He had grown up in a Vale acutely divided, and wished to make a lasting and positive impression on it. To this end, he has made it his life's work to mend the rift between the mountain lords and Vale lords in his kingdom, and usher all the peoples of the Vale of Arryn into a new era of unity. His successes in this mission thus far have not been trivial, but neither have they been splendorous.
Knowing it to be the most effective manner to end feuds and bind together peoples, Artys' main method of achieving peace between the mountain lords and Vale lords, and the method for which his efforts have been most noticed, has been the arrangement of intercultural marriages. He has played matchmaker for various half-civilized warriors of the mountains to marry noble ladies of the Vale, and vice versa. This marriages are often entered into more easily by the mountain lords, with the Vale lords requiring much cajoling. Most notably, the stubborn House Melcolm, though undyingly loyal to Lord Artys, required their lord to wed the Defender of the Vale's own daughter before the Lord Melcolm's eldest sister would wed a mountain lord's son. An example of his dedication, Lord Artys obliged, marrying his daughter Aemma to Eustace Melcolm and securing a high-profile marriage with a mountain clansmen from even as proudly pure an Andal household as the Melcolms.

Relations
Ser Osric Arryn, Son and Heir - Artys' ambitions to unite the Vale have long been the source of a sour relationship between him and his ambitious first-born son and heir, Osric. The heir to the Eyrie grew to resent the mountain clansmen as a young man, seeing them as the cause of the disunity that stole Artys' attention and prevented the boy's father from forming a close relationship with him. Artys ultimately blames himself for this—he does not see himself as a good father, and is ashamed to have failed to instill the same virtues in his first-born that were instilled in him at a young age by his mother.

Lady Gwayne Arryn (née Grafton), Wife - A fine woman, perfectly fine. Artys holds her no ill will. They have their differences in temperament, and so be it. She is, by all accounts, a capable mother, investing more time in her children than most noble ladies would. Her frequent hunting outings do phase the Lord of the Eyrie, though; he worries sometimes how his children, especially the younger ones, Olyva and Creighton, would deal with the demise of their dear, fearless mother. Still, the two do not fight at all publicly, and less often than most couples even in private. Artys and Gwayne both seem to accept the nature of their marriage, and both seem to respect their vows to one another. That is more than enough for Artys.

Lady Aemma Melcolm (née Arryn), Daughter - Proving herself as dutiful as she is beautiful, Artys was overjoyed (and somewhat relieved) when his daughter Aemma consented to be matched with the Lord Eustace Melcolm—even given the transactional nature of the marriage. Always a good daughter, Aemma had been well-behaved throughout her childhood, seeming to remain affectionate towards her father even despite his unending business. From what he has hard and seen of her, his eldest girl seems bright and sweet as ever, genuinely happy in her new life in the Melcolm seat of Old Anchor. If Artys is not sure where he went wrong with Osric, he is not sure where he went right with Aemma.

Hugor 'the Septon', Son - Hugor had always been quite close to Artys' mother and the boy's own grandmother, Sansa Stark. Even entering his teenage years, Hugor spent most of his time with her, constantly enthralled by his grandmother's stories and charm. For this reason, Lord Artys was not surprised when Hugor took Sansa's death very hard. Yet, he was not expecting what his second born son would do in response. Seeming to take inspiration from his namesake, Hugor threw himself into his worship, constantly reading the Seven Pointed Star and discussing matters of faith and clergy with the local septon. When the time came for Hugor to plead with his father for permission to join the faith as a septon, Artys felt it wrong to refuse him. At least, he supposes, mother shall have plenty of prayers made in her name.

Lady Olyva Arryn, Daughter - Half the joy and half the looks, is what the other children had said of Aemma Arryn's younger sister. Knowing her to be constantly living in the shadow of her elder counterpart, Artys did learn from his mistakes with his sons and make some effort to ensure Olyva did not find herself isolated and secluded, but his efforts bore limited success. Olyva seemed content, even happy, to be away from her coevals, and from most everyone, in fact. Quiet and with a morose way about her, Olyva is perhaps just as dutiful a young lady to her father's plans as Aemma, but with her the acquiescence seems to come entirely from apathy. She is without a match quite yet, Artys still trying to find the best strategic candidate for his remaining daughter's cold hand. He hopes that perhaps he can find a man who could make it warm.

Creighton Arryn, Son - Artys paid the most attention with Creighton. Upset with himself that he did not take enough personal care of his older children, he devoted more time than perhaps he should have to the young third born son, his administration even suffering sometimes as a result. Yet, where a lack of fatherly attention harmed his older children, Artys might have given a bit too much to young Creighton. Still childish, even at the adult age of 15, Creighton has what Artys identifies to be all the benchmarks of a boy confused. He pursues the sword and the pen and everything in between, all of it with middling success, and each attempt eagerly cheered on by Artys. In recent months, though, the boy has been growing more distant from Artys. Osric has been stealing him away, insisting her spend more time learning to ply the sword and even taking the boy as his quire. Artys has mostly accepted this, but he does still make a point of ensuring Creighton observes his business as lord often enough to appreciate the humanity of the mountain lords and the necessity of their welcoming into the Vale, lest Osric turn the boy towards prejudice and hate.

O s r i c   A r r y n

Ser
Heir to the Eyrie

Age
22.

Appearance
Like his father, the heir to the Eyrie has the natural appearance most common among the First Men of Westeros, with dark, thick hair and a generally gruff and quintessentially 'Northern' build. Whereas Osric's father simply keeps himself looking civilized, however, Osric actively attempts to hide his 'impure' ancestry. Most notably, his naturally black hair is dyed blond, the colour more common among the Andals with whom Osric identifies. His posture and gait, too, are meant to give off the opposite impression of a rowdy barbarian: every aspect of Ser Osric's manner exudes refinement and propriety, a far cry from the styles of the up-jumped petty lords of the mountains whom Osric reviles.

Reputation
Osric was raised in the Eyrie, the first born son of the reigning lord. It has been impressed upon him all his life that he is the heir to the Vale, the man destined to succeed his father as the rightful lord of the Eyrie. His dynasty has an illustrious and powerful past dating back to ancient days, and he always understood himself to be the only latest in a long line of strong and able rulers. Many boys raised in such circumstances become enormously confident of themselves, perhaps even arrogant, the stories of their ancestors and their supremacy over the common folk ensuring them of their ability to succeed in life. Osric's perspective could not be any more different.

Though Osric exudes an aura of strength and of smug confidence, this is largely a lie. In truth, he is enormously insecure, intimidated by the height of his office—he finds the stories of the ancient Arryn warrior-kings of old more foreboding than encouraging, an impossible standard which he shall be measured against, rather than a reassuring symbol of determination. MORE TBA

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17.

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C r e i g h t o n   A r r y n

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15.

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