House Redwater

**House Redwater** is a principal house located in the Riverlands sworn to House Brightflame. The house has significantly seen a rise in power since the Brightflame Conquest, holding notable positions such as Hand of the King to House Brightflame. The current head of House Redwater is Jory Redwater.

## History

### The Founding

House Redwater, unlike many of its peers, has no claim to fame through its ancestors. Lord Jory doesn't descend from the First Men, nor any great Andal Warlord or Rhoynish Prince. He was the son of a Blacksmith, who was the son of a Blacksmith, who was the son of a Blacksmith, and so on for as far back as anyone cared to remember, which wasn't very far, given their low birth.

The one benefit of being from a long line of Blacksmith's is that you're typically very strong. This was true for Jory, and it was that strength that compelled, Ser Myles Shawney one of Lord Tytos Blackwood's Knights, to take him as his Squire. At the Battle of the Trident, both Myles and Jory fought. The former was slain by Ser Byron Rosby, and the latter was Knighted by Robert Baratheon himself, for slaying Byron shortly after, followed by four other Royalist Knights from Noble Houses; A Stokeworth, a Harlton, a Mooton, and a Dalt. Named for the bloody water in which Jory kneeled before Lord, soon to be King, Robert to recieve his Knighthood, House Redwater was founded.

The newly Knighted Ser Jory Redwater returned to his family's home, in Raventree Hall, where his father served as Lord Tytos' Blacksmith, to inform them that they were nobility, if just the lowest of Landed Knights. They were landed, however; Ser Sarmion Thunder, the last of his House, had died on the Trident, slain by Ser Jasper Stone, the Bastard of Duskstone. His Keep, Tempest Keep, located between the Red and Blue Forks of the Trident, had reverted to Lord Hoster Tully, who had, in turn, granted it to Ser Jory, who renamed it Ruby Keep, in honor of the so called "Ruby Ford", which was what the smallfolk had named the site of the Battle of the Trident.

### The Early Years

Jory's family, consisting of his father Alyn, his mother Lyra, his sister Jannia, his uncle Hosteen, and his cousin Robin, moved into his new Keep, such as it was. In truth, it was little more than an oversized watchtower, but to the Redwaters, it may have well been the grandest castle in the Seven Kingdoms. As Ser Jory settled into his new role as Knight of Ruby Keep, he strived to imrpove his family's prosperity and happiness. His sister, Jannia, fell in love with a Sisterman Lord's heir, who visited Ruby Keep on a coming-of-age tour, and the two were married. His uncle, Hosteen, was named Steward of Ruby Keep, and Jory took his cousin Robin as his personal Squire.

All was well for House Redwater for some time, until about seven years into Jory's rule. Neighboring Lords, who had been friends with Ser Sarmion Thunder, and deemed Jory, a lowborn, being granted his Keep as an insult to his memory, attempted to conquer his lands and split them between them. The combined forces of House Cowl and House Whittle numbered almost a thousand, House Redwater's, only four hundred. Jory, however, was prepared. He had suspected, almost since the day he was first landed, that his neighbors would attack him. He new that he couldn't beat the combined forces of his enemies man-for-man, and that his Sunderland allies wouldn't get there nearly in time, so, he reasoned that the only way to beat a larger force, was to have better quality troops.

He selected a group of 100 promising peasants, and trained them. He trained them in the way of sword and bow, how to fight both ahorse and afoot, how to camouflage themselves in practically any environment, how to read and write, how to infiltrate and steal, and most importantly, to remain unfailably loyal to Jory and House Redwater. These soldiers became the first generation of Redstars, and were almost entirely responsible for winning the Battle of the Grey Mill, the first and only battle of the "Thunder War" as it was called. In the ensuing peace treaty, Lords Cowl and Whittle agreed to foster their heirs at Ruby Keep, as well as hand over a few hundred acres of land each.

Jory took the young boys as his Squires, and began looking into training additional Redstars; The first generation, despite winning the Battle of the Grey Mill, had taken heavy losses, and only a few dozen were left. As such, Jory again went to his villages and picked out promising peasants to train. Over the next decade, House Redwater prospered. Robin completed his training as Jory's squire, and was Knighted by him. Elderly Alyn Redwater, Jory's father, passed away, and Jory ordered a crypt created in which to bury him, and all future members of House Redwater, when their time came.

### The Sack of Ruby Keep

In the year 299 AC, though, House Redwater's luck turned around. Jory, and around two score of his closest friends among the Household of Ruby Keep, had gone on a hunt. When they left, all was well in Ruby Keep. Elderly Hosteen had offered to teach his son Robin the ins and outs of stewardship, so that House Redwater would still have a competent Steward when he died. As such, neither were present in the Hunting Party. It only consisted of Jory, his two Squires, a handful of Redstars, and a couple of other Hunters and Sworn Shields.

When the party returned, Ruby Keep was in flames. The small town, dubbed "Rubytown" by its inhabitants, was nothing but a series of burnt out husks and corpses. Jory recognized several of his Redstars among them. Racing into the Keep proper through the battered down gates, he was greeted with the site of his uncle Hosteen almost cleaved vertically in half, and his mother, having apparently shot herself with a crossbow to avoid capture. Noticably absent, however, was Robin, either dead or alive. He and his men searched the entire Keep, and found no trace of him. Jory kept hope that he had survived, but those hopes faded with what was discovered in the Keep.

A young serving boy, not yet old enough to shave, had hid and somehow survived in the Crypts of Ruby Keep. He described shouts suddenly arising from Rubytown in the night, and Robin taking most of the Veteran Redstars and sallying out to protect the Smallfolk. He described a giant of a man, eight feet tall at least, cleaving through the tired and unprepared defenders. He described watching from the battlements as Robin faced down the giant, and was slowly forced back towards the river, until he slipped up and was disarmed, his greatsword flying into the water behind him. He then described watching the giant pick up Robin with one hand, stab him in the stomach, and fling him into the water like a ragdoll.

After that, the boy said, it was all over. Hosteen had roused the trainee Redstars, but they hadn't stood a chance as the steel-clad raiders battered down the gates and stormed in. Hosteen himself had made a final stand protecting the Hall, where the women and children were hiding, from the raiders, but his hands were more accompanied to holding an account book than a sword. The giant was soon upon him, and he killed the father as he had the son. Lyra, Jory's mother, had then snatched up a fallen guardsman's crossbow, advised the other women follow her lead to avoid rape and torture, and took her own life. Some did follow her lead, and others attempted to flee. The boy, however, a young lad named Patrek, was the only survivor, having thought to hide in the Crypts, behind the statue of the late Alyn Redwater.

Jory was distraught, but determined. He ordered Hosteen and Lyra laid to rest in the Crypts, the rest buried in the local cemetary, and then set out. He went to all of the villages in his lands, and had them evacuated. Eventually, his party, consisting of every man, woman, and child under Redwater rule, numbered around two hundred. The band made their way to Raventree Hall, along the way learning that the Lords Cowl and Whittle's lands had suffered similar attacks, the young Squires now being the last members of their respective Houses, and then to Riverrun when they find it empty. There, Jory would get wrapped up in something that would forever change him.

### The Clash of Kings

Following Lord Eddard Stark's imprisonment by the new King Joffrey, supposed son of the late King Robert, Robb Stark, his son and heir, had rode North with twenty thousand swords, to free him. Joined by the family of Eddard's wife, Robb's father, Catelyn Tully, and, subsequently, the entirety of the Riverlands. Following Eddard's execution, Robb had been declared the King in the North, and, by the Riverlords, King of the Trident, too. The raiders that had sacked Ruby Keep were supposedly lead by Gregor Clegane, the Mountain That Rides, as Tywin's way of retaliating against the North's insurgence. Jory didn't know, nor particularly care, about the Young Wolf and what kind of man he was, nor the independence he offered, but if this war offered him the chance to strike back against his family's killers, he would gladly follow him into battle.

The next few months were easily the worst of Jory's life. Marching in the Stark-Tully column, he found himself in a constant uphill battle. For every minor skirmish the Northerners would win, the Lannisters would win a proper field battle. For every Ironborn raid they repelled, a dozen more would go off without a hitch, leaving lives ruined and vilalges destroyed. Every time they took a keep, it was promptly taken back and then some. Slowly, the Riverlands were crumbling, and the man Jory was with it.

The Autumn rain was constant, barely ever fully receeding. Jory could go weeks without seeing the sun, and the water had turned the fields of the Riverlands into swamps and marshes. He was lucky if he got a piece of stale bread or a strip of beef a day, and more often than not, he found himself down on his luck. The worst part by far, though, was watching his friends die one by one. Every fighting man from the Redwater lands had been conscripted into the Young Wolf's army, and more and more of them died every day. Some would simply be unlucky and fall in battle, some would find themselves to weak to properly fight from lack of food, some would simply die from an infected wound or sickness, and some would die taking an arrow for their liege.

Those deaths hurt worst of all, the ones Jory knew he was responsible for. In one of many losing battles, he had sighted the man responsible for the sack of Ruby Keep, Gregor Clegane, and angrily charged him. The ensuing fight resulted in the deaths of eight of his Redstars and twenty of his men-at-arms, as well as giving him a nasty scar across the chest. He had known all of those men personally, and it dug at him deeper than anything, knowing that, had he kept his emotions in check, they'd have still been there.

Everything about the campaign dug at him, bit by bit, until the person Jory once was, a jovial, kind, optimistic man, was broken, shattered into a thousand pieces and burnt to ash. From those ashes rose a changed man. The "new Jory" was cynical and sullen, almost apathetic. He would've turned to drink to forget his fallen comrades, but the Young Wolf's army didn't have much of that, either.

### Recovery & Moving On

When the Riverlands finally fell, and the Young Wolf ordered his armies to retreat above the Neck and hunker down, Jory, though he once would've defended his homeland to his last breath, was grateful to leave the hellish Riverlands behind him. He had lost enough friends to this pointless war already, and the remainder of the group, Jory included, were already struggling enough to mentally support eachother.

Jory married the young Beth Cassel, daughter of Winterfell's Master-at-Arms, Ser Rodrik. He had hardly paid his bride any attention, determined to never get attached to anyone else, but her seemingly unlimited patience and determination to get him to open up to her eventually wore him down, and he did. He spilled his heart to her, rambling about everything. His cousin, his uncle, his mother. All of his friends who had died at Ruby Keep, and those who had died on Campaign. The hellish Campaign itself, and his folly attempt at revenge against Gregor Clegane.

Throughout it all, Beth listened intently and paitently, and when Jory was finally done, she told her own tale. She spoke of how her friends, Sansa and Jeyne, as well as her Septa, Mordane, and cousin, Jory, had all gone south with Lord Eddard, and never came back. All had been her friends, and several other acquaintances had also gone south. She mourned all of their losses, but knew that they wouldn't have wanted her to destroy her future reminiscing on the past. They'd want her to move on, to make new friends, and to live her life like they were never able to.

Jory listened to her just as intently as she had him, and thought deeply after she had finished. He thought back to those he had lost, to wise Hosteen and hopeful Robin and his sweet mother, to all of his friends lost in the Riverlands campaign, and to what they'd say if they could see the state he was in, and came to a similar conclusion as Beth.

With newfound determination and perspective, Jory rose the next day and set about rebuilding his life. He shared the sage advice to his surviving friends, and began having more and more conversations in which the fallen were hardly brought up. They still remembered them, their voices and faces and personalities, but they didn't let their lives revolve around those who were no longer there. In addition, Jory also began spending more time with his wife. He had viewed her as just a child, and had only married her to inherit her father's lands, but she had proven to have wisdom far beyond her years, and, as Jory began to discover, was far more emotionally mature than he would expect from anyone her age. Soon enough, love began to blossom between the two.

### Deflection to House Brightflame

Then, however, talks in the North took a change, from "Hunker down and hold the line." to "Take back the Riverlands and push the Lannisters and Greyjoys back.". Upon first hearing of this, Jory closed his grey eyes, relived the entirety of that hellish campaign in a few short seconds, opened his eyes, and immediately began making plans to abandon, a plan supported wholeheartedly by his Household and even his wife.

One might have expected Jory to flee for neutral ground; One of the Free Cities, or some other far off land, to be done with war for the rest of his life, but he knew that, deep in his blood, the longer Westeros stood divided, the more people would die, and the more of their friends would suffer the guilt as he himself had. The only way to stop it was to install a good person upon the Iron Throne, and unite Westeros under their banner. The violence that this would inevitably entail would be worth it, had to be worth it, if it meant a future of peace and prosperity.

Of the many Kings in Westeros, King Baelor II was the most promising candidate. Jory had initially considered Renly Baratheon, the King in Highgarden, but after hearing about how little he cared for the lives of his men, demanding ridiculous peace terms despite fighting a losing battle, he reconsidered, and eventually went with House Brightflame.

When the time came, he and his Household took a ship from White Harbor to Sunderland, where Jory visited his sister Jannia. They then sailed to Dragonstone, to swear fealty to King Baelor. He quickly proved himself a capable warrior and commander, being appointed as Commander of the Dragon's Claw, the Royal Infantry Force, and later Wartime Hand of the King.

### Under Brightflame Rule

During his time in Baelor, and later Daeron's, service, Ser Jory's life would take a turn for the better. His cousin, Robin would be discovered alive, and granted great swathes of land in the Riverlands. He himself would set about restoring Ruby Keep, turning it into a formidable fortress, with a prosperous trading town surrounding it. He would vassalize his old rival Houses of Cowl and Whittle, through his faithful Squires. He would make many new friends among House Brightflame's followers, and begin training of a third generation of Redstars. He would even be granted the famous castle of the Crossing. Best of all, without a doubt, however, was the birth of his children.

Twins, a boy and a girl, named Alyn and Lyra respectively, for their grandparents, were born to him and Beth. Over the last few years, Jory has raised them well, watching them grow into fine young people, and instilling in them the values of House Redwater; Personal actions over heritage and birth, peace and stability above all else, and protection and safety of all people, man or woman, highborn or lowborn, old or young.

House Redwater may not be descended from any great bloodline, but that doesn't matter to them. In a single generation, Lord Jory has made several great accomplishments, preforming admirably in many decisive battles, being the first on the walls of many noteworthy sieges, and ultimately, making decisions that would impact the Realm, hopefully for the better. It remains to be seen what kind of people his children will be, and what accomplishments they will make themselves, but Jory is confident that, whatever they may be, they will ultimately be to serve the Realm, and ensure peace and stability.

## Relationships

### Household

#### Principal Members

* Ser Marq Mallery
* Ser Qyle Brawne
* Maester Allevar
* Ser William Rivers
* Ser Walder "Black Walder" Frey

#### Sworn Swords/Shields and Commanders

* Ser Harlen Strict
* Ser Criston Silverbliss
* Ser Chewyn Stormfyre
* Ser Pykewood Dunstable
* Ser Ambrose Pitt

### Family Members

* Alyn Redwater, (*deceased*)
	+ m. Lyra Redwater, (*deceased*)
		- Jory Redwater, (*Head*)
			* m. Beth Cassel, (*Lady of the House*)
				+ Alyn Redwater, (*Heir*)
				+ Lyra Redwater
				+ Abby Redwater