House Redden

### Coat of arms

red mountain on a green field, with a gray tower on a smaller black mountain inside the red mountain

### Marital house

Rouxbourge

**House Redden** is a powerful house in the Redlands and considered to be the *de facto* ruling house of the region. Current patriarch of the house is infamous Lord Eric Redden, who rules from the ancestral seat of his family, Redfort. Other notable Reddens beside Eric are his sister Erica and her son Arold. Eric and Erica are both wed to Rouxbourges of Bastia.

## History

### Origins

Like many other noble houses of Haegrilon, Reddens have been keen to establish a legend of their origins. A common story told in taverns is that the first Redden was a hedge knight banished from Björneborg. He is told have built the now-ruined castle of Redpass. Over time he gained control of the lands west of Björneborg and east of his castle.

### Before the Great East

In the 9th century Before the Great East, Redpass was the sole seat of Reddens. The century was a turbulent time for the Central Continent, with small kingdoms east of God's Back fighting each other. Oborf Redden, then-lord of his house, saw an opportunity to extend his power to Björneborg. Dragnavik was but a small, crumbling wooden fortress on a tiny hill. Oborf called his banners and rode into a great conquest, crowning himself the King of Mountains.

For Oborf's and his family's demise, the plan was soon discovered by arising kingdoms in the Sunset Plains. They rode eastward through their fields and forests and after crossing the river called Blue Tuckel, laid siege on Redpass. The castle had been left with a garrison of only few men and it fell quickly. The kings who had sieged it found Redlands to be much worse ground for farming and decided to put the castle to torch. Since then Redpass has been known as haunted and cursed ruins.

Oborf's conquest was successful, but he couldn't hold the lands he had conquered. After learning that his castle had been destroyed, he decided to rob Björneborg of its wealth and material to build a new, greater castle. The construction of Redfort fully began in the 8th century by the command of his son. Reddens lived in Bastia with Rouxbourges until then.

Redfort was built in stages. The oldest parts of the castle were built in the 8th and 7th century BGE. It was originally just a tall keep with large grounds around it guarded by tall curtain walls. With Björneborg and Plains growing in power during the following centuries, Reddens decided to build a second keep next to the old one. Thus Redfort is known for its two separate keeps, surrounded by the original curtain wall.

### Conflicts with the Great East

Björneborg was just a name for the region between the mountain ranges of God's Back and God's Walls, before the emergence of the Great East. Highfort was the first considerably large castle near the region and its ruling house of Crowners was growing in power. They sailed south to the Bay of Dragnavik and took over the wooden fortress that was built close to it. They eventually started building the castle of Dragnavik, but in quite small scale. Over time House Trudeker of Björneborg forged an alliance with Crowners and took over building Dragnavik, which became the largest and strongest castle in the known world along with Highfort. Björneborg and Plains of Highfort became known as the Great East.

Reddens had become aware of the Great East and began building towers on their Eastern border. Crowners started to show interest with Bastia and proposed a marriage pact between them and Rouxbourges, who denied. This started the first conflict betwen the Great East and Redlands, with armies of Highfort sieging Bastia. The small castle was strong to resist sieges, being built on a steep cliff, but its people were starving. Crowners retreated once they heard of an approaching Redden army, fearing that they would loose.

The second major conflict between the Great East was with Trudekers. Their cadet branch ruling from Lågby had found ores of gold on the cliffs of God's Back. Reddens sent their heir to Dragnavik to warn Trudekers of mining in the mountains, claiming them to be part of Redlands. Lord Gunthar Crowner-Trudeker decided to behead the Redden heir and send his head back to Redfort as a warning. Furiously angered, Reddens called their banners and surprise attacked Highfort, Gunthar's second home. They didn't bother to try and siege Highfort, instead they just burned the surrounding farmland and killed all peasants without remorse.

The second conflict turned to be the downfall of Great East. Crowners went after the retreating Reddens and killed them on the way. To Reddens' surprise, House Tuckel of Tuckelworth betrayed them and assisted Crowners in taking Bastia. With Rouxbourges taken captive and Redfort threatened, Lord Arwold Redden surrendered and rode to Highfort to swear fealty, with one condition: Reddens would not be vassals to Dragnavik. Crowners accepted the condition, angering their sister-house Trudeker. After skirmishes near Fjällberg, it was decided that Crowners would rule Redlands and Plains as their own kingdom and Trudekers would rule Björneborg as their own. This ended the unified kingdom of Great East and ended the royal line of Crowner-Trudeker.

### Recent years

The defeat to Highfort happened a hundred years ago. At first, Crowners held power tightly and had several Rouxbourges wed to their family. House Tuckel was granted Redpass and Witefall. Reddens were left with nothing but Redfort and the surrounding lands, which led to a grudge between them and Crowners. Over time Highfort lost interest in the rather rough region of Redlands and Reddens regained their status as a powerful house. Tuckels were forced to give up Redpass after a series of unfortunate deaths in the castle, rumoured to be caused by the wrath of ancient Reddens. Bastia also swore fealty to Redfort.