House Locke of Oldcastle

House Talmon of Copperwood

House Ryelocke of Ryefield

Various other retainers and landless vassals

House Locke is a noble house from Oldcastle, in the Kingdom of Winter. The Lockes lord over Oldcastle and its surrounding lands, and are vassals of House Manderly of White Harbor.

## History

House Locke was founded some time after the Long Night, perhaps late in the Age of Heroes. For centuries, the Lockes were First Men Kings ruling a modest realm along the south-eastern coasts of the North. After the extinction of House Greystark, House Locke ousted the Flints and controlled the Wolf's Den for two centuries. Eventually, the Lockes were subjugated by the Kings of Winter, becoming Lordly vassals of Winterfell, and later White Harbor.

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## Family Lore

The earliest tale in the family's long and storied past is that of the origins of House Locke's sigil, namely the two bronze keys. During the reign of King Rickard I, the northern coasts of the Bite were terrorized constantly by vast fleets of corsairs. The greatest of these fleets, whose origins are lost to history, had the audacity to claim for themselves a 'Kingdom' within the North, seizing and holding several harbor villages between Oldcastle and Widow's Watch. King Rickard made a common cause with many other petty kings along the coasts to march to destroy this Corsair Kingdom, taking his hosts from Oldcastle and heading east to join his swords to those of Ramsgate among others. At this time, Oldcastle's keep was a modest wooden tower seated upon a motte, with a vast bailey at its feet. The keep had but one door, to which only two keys had been forged. King Rickard, before leaving, entrusted one to his Queen, Sansa, while the other was entrusted to his steward, Barros, for fear that carrying a key himself could lead to its falling into corsair hands if he fell in battle.

However, the Steward Barros proved to be easily corruptible, and while the King was away he was approached by another, lesser band of corsairs. In exchange for granting the use of his key to open Oldcastle to them, the corsairs promised him a generous share of the loot and his pick of the women - of whom there were many, as the corsair threat had forced hundreds of folk, noble and common, to take refuge in the vast bailey. At dawn on a cold autumn day, the corsairs arrived in force. At a tavern outside the walls of Oldcastle, they were joined by Barros who had abandoned the castle and brought along his key to the keep. Before they could begin their assault - which would have been against a garrison of women, children, the sick and the old - King Rickard's vast host suddenly appeared over the horizon and fell upon the corsairs, showing no quarter and sending them reeling.

It so happened that Queen Sansa, clever as she was, had rightfully suspected treason from Barros (some say that one of the Queen's ladies had come to sharing the steward's bed, and that Barros often spoke in his sleep). A letter had been dispatched to the King in secret, who arrived back home just in time to prevent tragedy. Barros was slain by a corsair, or may have slain himself to avoid a death by torment, and his body was impaled on a pike and displayed outside the castle gates, with two keys stuck in his eyes. After this, King Rickard was filled with shame to have trusted such a man, and swore henceforth that he would trust only himself and his beloved Queen with the keys to Oldcastle, a custom that continued through the rest of the royal era of House Locke, and is still often practiced today. These 'two keys' became the symbol of the ancient house, emblazoned upon its heraldry. It is unclear whether the name "Locke" originated from this tale, or if it is mere coincidence.