House Forthrite

"For those who cannot."

“*A knight is charged to defend the weak and to serve their king. Just as a king cannot fight an army alone, a man cannot sow fields dawn till dusk and still learn to joust and scour rust from mail and learn all the land's laws to render just judgements. These are what a knight is for.*”
―Sir Jon Forthrite
**House Forthrite** is a noble house of landed knights of Kaedwen. Hailed as the Knights of Winterbourne Fastness, their seat is in the country's southeast near the border with Aedirn and the mountain passes leading to Loc Muinne.

## History

The founder of House Forthrite was born Jon of House Ritter, the illegitimate fourth-born son of Lord Ritter. Though a source of shame for Lord Ritter as evidence of his adultery, Ritter nonetheless recognized him and saw to his welfare and education. Though trained as a squire, he had yet to be knighted by his first taste of battle in one of the many spats between Kaedwen and its southern neighbor, Aedirn. Left to mind a unit of Kaedwen's siege engineers in fortifying their camp as the army rode out, Jon's post would become unexpectedly vital as an Aedirnian force slipped past their army and attacked. Taking charge of the defense, Jon led the Kaedweni siege engineers in holding off the Aedirnian knights until help arrived, and after was hailed a hero of the battle.

For his actions, King Benda raised Jon to knighthood. As Lord Ritter was reticent to accept him formally into House Ritter, Benda decreed Jon would be given a manor holding of his own in the foothills of the Blue Mountains. Though it earned him the ire of Lord Ritter's other sons, Jon accepted and was given leave to found his own house, taking the quarterly brown and yellow of Kaedwen's siege engineer uniforms with their spades for his knightly arms. For his seat, Jon was granted the distant and meager watchtower of Winterbourne Fastness on the Bourne River, a stream flowing out of the Blue Mountains in southeast Kaedwen which ran dry during the summer. Though a paltry holding, the first Lord Forthrite set diligently to the task of improving his land and the lot of its inhabitant serfs. His expertise in developing earthworks led to better irrigation and more than doubled the land's harvests.

Though he was encouraged to court a noble heiress to expand his own influence, Jon fell in love with a merchant's daughter, Aeliren. Their union eventually begot them a son, William, but after Aeliren's death in childbirth, Jon never remarried. Jon passed away of an illness in 1244, leaving Sir William Forthrite to take up the role of Winterbourne Fastness' knight in his stead. William earned glory as a knight of the Dun Banner and would marry a daughter of the Redanian House of Dambors soon after, one of many marriages arranged by his liege lord as part of a short-lived peace pact between nations. While they were blessed with a comely daughter and three strong sons, William was often called away as part of the aggressive new King Henselt's campaigns, leaving their marriage loveless after a time.

In 1272, William was called upon to serve his king once again as Henselt marched on Upper Aedirn in the Third War of Lormark, bringing with him his two eldest sons. Unfortunately, all three perished in the fighting, burned alive in boiling oil by dwarven defenses during the assault on Vergen. This would leave the youngest son, Wesley, to inherit his land and titles. Word soon reached Winterbourne Fastness of King Henselt's death, while both Nilfgaard and Redania marched against them. With Kaedwen in desperate need to recoup its fighting strength, Wesley was knighted in the winter of 1272 at just age twenty to serve in the campaigns to come.