The Vale

The Fingers

Witch Isle

The **Vale of Arryn** or **the Vale** is one of the constituent regions of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros. It was formerly a sovereign nation ruled by the Kings of Mountain and Vale before Aegon's Conquest. The Mountains of the Moon surround the smaller Vale proper, although the valley's name is often applied to all of House Arryn's realm.

The Vale is ruled by the Arryns from the castle known as the Eyrie. Notable houses of this region include Belmore, Corbray, Egen, Grafton, Hersy, Hunter, Melcolm, Redfort, Royce, Templeton, and Waynwood. Bastards of noble origin raised in the Vale are given the surname Stone.

## History

### The Great Council, 300 - 301 AC

Following the death of King Tommen I in a riot, Hand of the King Mace Tyrell called a Great Council, which elected **Myrcella I Baratheon** as the Lady of the Seven Kingdoms. A regency council, made up of Mace Tyrell, Randyll Tarly, Nestor Royce, Petyr Baelish, and Ser Jaime Lannister, was established to rule until Myrcella came of age. **Aegon Targaryen**, claimant to the Iron Throne, who also put his name forward during the council, was forced to call off his conquest and flee to Essos with the remnants of the Golden Company.

### Years of Consolidation, 301 - 309 AC

The Years of Consolidation was the period of time in were the War of the Five King's came to an end and saw the reintegration of Westeros into one realm once more under Queen Myrcella I Baratheon following the Great Council of 301 AC.

With the death of the sickly Lord Robert Arryn in 301 AC, the Eyrie was seized by Yohn Royce and Sansa Stark, who installed Harrold Hardyng as Lord of the Eyrie, taking the name Arryn and taking Sansa as his wife in the process. Though Sansa had previously made promises to Lord Petyr Baelish to provide him with half the Vale’s grain and support at the Great Council, Lord Harrold ended up reneging on both promises, leading to a rivalry between both houses lasting generations.

While Harrold remained concerned mostly with the internal affairs of the Vale, it was Sansa’s efforts that truly saw the Vale reintegrated into the Seven Kingdoms. It was indisputable that Harrold Arryn was Lord of the Eyrie, but his wife was just as respected as he was. Sansa’s marriage to Harrold would also prove to be the foundation to bringing the Starks back under the Iron Throne proper.

### War of the Two Dragons, 309 AC

Coming from the far east, Aegon Targaryen returned to the Seven Kingdoms with his aunt and wife **Daenerys Targaryen** at his side, and they brought dragonfire and twenty-thousand swords to try and reclaim the Iron Throne for their dynasty. The Vale prepared it’s troops when Aegon and Daenaerys began their invasion of Westeros. Lord Harrold entrusted the command of the Vale’s host to Ser Alester Belmore, the Winged Knight of Valor, while he personally travelled to Gulltown to oversee the fleet. Aegon’s second host, however, happened to reach Gulltown before the Vale’s forces were ready, leading to the fleet’s destruction, Lord Harrold dying in the process.

### Regency, 309 - 320 AC

Though the people of Gulltown eventually rose up and drove the invaders out of the Vale, the Lord of the Eyrie was now Harrold’s son, Rickard Arryn, a rather sickly boy of six. Many feared the boy would turn out like Robert Arryn, but Sansa Stark, now Lady Regent for her son, was determined on maintaining both the strength of her family and the Vale.

Under Sansa’s direction, the Vale prospered once more, and the young Lord Rickard learned more every moon that passed, though the boy’s health continued to worsen, culminating in his passing in 316 AC. Up until that point, Rickard’s younger brother of two-and-ten, Uther, had previously been living at Strongsong as a ward of Lord Belmore, but both returned to the Eyrie with haste with after hearing of Rickard’s death, where Uther was named Lord of the Eyrie. Though Lord Belmore tried to secure a spot as co-regent, Sansa’s grip over the regency remained firm.

The next four years passed rather uneventfully, with Sansa’s focus mostly turning away from the rest of the realm and towards the Vale instead. Upon Uther’s sixteenth nameday on the eighth moon of 320 AC, his regency ended and he assumed all the powers and responsibilities of his titles.

### Pitchfork Revolt, 312 - 314 AC

With continued ignorance from the Faith towards poor commoners that were suffering from famine due to the cruel winter, popularity for the worship of R'hllor rises. The High Septon sent missionaries to the Vale, Riverlands and Cracklaw Point to convert the smallfolk back to the Seven, but one zealot supporter of the Faith took matters into his own hands.

Lord Mooton aggressively cracked down on the worshippers, leading to a brutal revolt in the region that also spread to the Crownlands. The revolt took the lives of a few minor nobles, including Lord Mooton himself. The ringleaders of the rebellion were severely punished and the Crown also forbade the local lords and the Faith from countering the spread of the Red Faith through anything but peaceful means.

### Seeds of Discontent, 320 - 343 AC

Uther’s initial years of freedom from his mother’s regency were tenuous. The work that came with his new responsibilities tired the young lord and he often resorted to wine and women to alleviate the stress, siring multiple bastards in only the span of two years. Sansa continued to maintain the integrity of the Vale, often being the one to meet with House Arryn’s bannermen upon the request of an audience. Despite all her effort, though, she found it difficult to reel in her son’s more wild tendencies, something that would begin to sow seeds of discontent among their vassals.

In 322 AC, Sansa took the liberty of arranging a marriage between Alyssa Templeton and her son, who wasn’t aware until the match had already been arranged. Uther was enraged, but did not break the betrothal after his mother warned him that doing so would reflect poorly on the both of them. One moon later, the two wed at the Gates of the Moon, with the whole of the Vale attending. A daughter, named Aemma, was born of the couple later in the year.

Just as Sansa before her, Alyssa quickly settled into life as Lady of the Vale, taking over many of the duties Sansa performed before and quickly earning the respect of House Arryn’s bannermen. Uther was perfectly content with letting his wife take care of important matters while he spent his time drinking. The two were generally cold with each other, but they still managed to conceive three more children: Osric in 326, Victaria in 329, and Anduin in 334.

Sansa became more and more withdrawn as the years went by, generally being absent of most events, even within her family. By the time of her passing in 343 AC, she stayed in her chambers for weeks at a time, having food and drink brought for her.

### Stagnation, 343 - 362 AC

After Sansa Stark’s death, the Vale became nearly as isolated as it had been during the War of the Five Kings. Though Lord Uther’s daughter was married to the Prince Victor, the Arryns rarely travelled outside of the Vale, only leaving for events of great importance. Even Alyssa could not find the time to leave the Vale with her burdens as Lady Arryn.

Nonetheless, Alyssa still managed to maintain relations with the Lords of the Vale. Surprisingly enough, Uther took the matter of his heir’s betrothal into his own hand after Osric sired a bastard, having him wed to Ysilla Grafton in 352.

To make matters worse, the Vale’s trade with the Free Cities was starting to falter as White Harbor to the North continued to grow. A blight affecting the Vale’s barley and wheat broke out in 353, leading to a harsh famine that lasted for the next two years. Now realizing the gravity of the Vale’s situation, Lord Uther Arryn rode on horseback for King’s Landing, requesting an audience with King Alester I in which he pleaded for the crown’s aid, a request which was granted, with ships of untainted grain being sent to Gulltown immediately.

The famine had ended thanks to the crown’s aid, but the Vale only continued to stagnate, thanks in no small part to the many deaths attributed to the famine. Despite this, Lord Uther finally started to take his duties as lord seriously, much to the relief of his wife and vassals, and attempted to rejuvenate the Vale’s economy by increasing taxes and pumping them into Gulltown. These investments didn’t seem to make a difference, however, and the Vale was struck another hard blow when the mountain clansmen rose in arms.

### The War of the Burned Men, 362 - 363 AC

The various mountain clans had been raiding quite frequently over the past decade, but by 362 AC, the Burned Men felt confident enough to make a first strike, tracking Ser Yohn Arryn, Lord Uther’s brother and the Knight of the Bloody Gate, as he travelled down the high road. In the following ambush, Yohn was captured and his guard was killed.

Now rallying several other clans behind them, the Burned Men took their force to the Bloody Gate, displaying a naked Yohn Arryn who had been cut and burned in several spots. Instead of demanding entry, the Burned Men’s leader, Dakkan, ordered the hostage’s restraints released, only to lodge an axe in his back as he ran towards gate. The Arryn lived only for a few moments longer before succumbing to his wounds. Retreating back into the foothills, the clansmen waited patiently.

Lord Uther Arryn was enraged to hear of his brother’s death, and seeking vengeance, he mustered every man he could gather within a fortnight and marched to the Bloody Gate. Despite insistence from both his heir, Osric, and his advisors that marching out the Bloody Gate to face the clansmen would be almost certain defeat, Uther did so anyways, taking four-thousand men with him.

The Battle of the High Road ended in Uther’s host losing over three quarters of it’s numbers and making a hasty retreat for the Bloody Gate. With the remainder of Lord Arryn’s host shattered and sent running for the time being, the clansmen raided numerous villages and holdfasts along the High Road, putting them to the torch after killing and looting what they could.

Emboldened by their recent success, the Burned Men lead the clansmen gathered behind them to the vulnerable Bloody Gate, breaching it for the first time in centuries in what would later be known as the Fall of the Bloody Gate. Upon seeing the gate breached, many of the defenders lost any morale left, but Osric and Harrold Arryn rallied the remaining defenders. When Harrold was killed by Dakkan in battle, though, Uther and Osric called for a retreat to the Gates of the Moon.

Though most of their host was gone, Uther was relieved to find eight-thousand men gathered at the Gates of the Moon. With his reinforcements, Uther once more marched out, making a stand against the oncoming clansmen in the Battle of the Black Hills, defeating the Burned Men and chasing them back down the High Road.

With both a brother and a son lost, Uther wasn’t content to leave it at that, and intended on making his retribution harsh. Gathering three-thosuand more men and marching out the Bloody Gate once more, Uther went on to massacre the Burned Men, leaving very few survivors and virtually wiping them out, while also killing several of any clans he happened to come across while hunting the Burned Men. The massacre took several months, extending into 363 AC before Uther felt satisfied and returned to the Gates of the Moon.

### The Falcon's Gambit, 364 - 366 AC

* **364 AC:** Lord Uther Arryn struck a deal with pirates in the Narrow Sea, promising to turn a blind eye to their plundering of merchant ships bound for White Harbor so long as naval trade in the Vale was left undisrupted.
* **365 AC:** House Manderly invaded and occupied the Three Sisters. Still weak from the war with the Burned Men, the Vale's force failed to take the Sisters back.

* **366 AC:** The crown settled the conflict in the North’s favor, transferring the vassalage of House Sunderland from Arryn to Stark.

### Resurgence, 366 - 378 AC

Lord Uther died in his sleep while travelling back to the Eyrie following the Crown’s ruling that saw the Sisters granted to the North. Though a few whispered he was assassinated, such rumors were unfounded. Uther’s fourty year old heir, Osric, assumed lordship of the Eyrie, left with the nearly insurmountable task of healing the multiple wounds inflicted on both the Vale’s prosperity and honor.

As it turned out though, a delegation from Pentos arrived in Gulltown in 366 AC, seeking a new relationship with the Vale’s new lord. With an effective trading partnership forming between them, the Vale’s economy saw a resurgence, much to Osric’s relief.

Under the new Lord of the Eyrie’s steady and shrewd leadership, the Vale’s stagnation had truly ended, though Osric still remained in the Vale much of the time, focusing on internal matters. Nonetheless, he had sent his second son, Alaric, to Storm’s End to be a ward and squire of Lord Arlan Baratheon, in a show of goodwill and in an attempt to make eventual allies with the Stormlands.

In the early moons of 376 AC, the Tourney at Gulltown was held, hosted by House Grafton and sponsored by House Arryn to celebrate his tenth year as Lord of the Eyrie and to showcase how much progress had been made since his ascension. The entire realm was invited, with the notable exception of the northern houses. The houses that lorded over the Sisters, however, were invited. The joust was won by Ser Manfred Lannister, who had been warded with the Arryns for several years, in the final tilts against Ser Willum Caron, naming [placeholder] as the queen of love and beauty. Alaric Seaworth won the melee, and Brynden Tully won the archery contest.

The grand tourney is marked as the start of Osric’s efforts to shed the Vale of it’s isolationism. When Lady Alyssa Templeton, Lord Osric’s mother, died in 377, Osric took an extended period of mourning lasting five moons, even declining to attend King Garlan's coronation, though nonetheless, it would be interrupted by a threat that shook the Seven Kingdoms.

### War of the Last Dragon, 378 - 381 AC

Following her conquests in Essos, **Daena Targaryen**, Queen of the Narrow Sea, invaded Westeros with her army of sellsails and mercenaries to once again bring the Seven Kingdoms under the banner of the dragon. No invading force landed in the Vale, however, and though Lord Arryn had raised his banners, he refused to leave the Vale, for he had something else in mind.

Sending a significant force under the command of his heir, Ser Ronnel Arryn, the Knights of the Vale invaded and occupied the Sisters as the Northmen had done twelve years prior, now that they were occupied with the war. King Garlan, desperate for the Knights of the Vale, agreed to restore House Arryn's suzerainty over the Sisters in exchange for their military support, which Lord Arryn honored.

Daena Targaryen would fail in her conquest, being killed by Alaric Seaworth, but not before the Heir to the Eyrie fell to her blade.