Shrike River Rebellion

The Shrike River Rebellion was a war in the Iron Islands some four hundred years before Aegon's Conquest, brought on by the increasing influence of the greenlander customs and the corruption and hedonism of the royalty. It led to the downfall of House Hoare.

## History

In the days of King Harmund Hoare, Third of His Name, known as the Handsome, the Iron Islands were in upheaval. The half-Lannister king followed in the footsteps of his father.

For over a millennium, the hard-scrabble islands of Ironman’s Bay were ruled by the House of Hoare, descendants of Harrag Hardhand. However, amidst all the wealth and exotic pleasures brought by trade, the nobility lost their way and sank into corruption and depravity, forgetting even the teachings of the Drowned God.

It was in these days of unrest that the Ironmen, oppressed by kings that would see their ancient traditions and even their god stripped away, rose up in rebellion and, under the leadership of a man known only as the Shrike, took up arms against King Harmund Hoare. The Hoare army’s counterattack was swift and fierce, but time and time again they were put to flight by the cunning strategies and indomitable will of the Shrike and the Army of the Sharp Hills.

The king, facing defeat, retreated to Hoare Lake and called upon Houses Drumm, Goodbrother, and Harlaw to aid him. Rodrik Drumm refused the call, declaring King Harmund unfit to wear the driftwood crown and a traitor to his people. Harras Goodbrother did not respond. Sigfryd Harlaw rallied his men and sailed towards Hoare Castle, intent on seizing it and making himself king. His ships encountered a much greater fleet at anchor at the mouth of the Shrike River. He saw Drumm, Farwynd, Goodbrother, and Sunderly sails and knew he was outmatched. He diverted south and landed on the shores not far from Hoare Lake.

The motives of Sigfryd Harlaw were unknown to the Shrike, who waylaid the Harlaw troops and fell upon them on the shores of Hoare Lake. King Harmund saw this happen and waited, allowing the two parties to slaughter one another. When the Shrike won, Sigfryd Harlaw dead at the feet of Lorren Sharp, the king advanced, only to find that he had been outplayed. Harras Goodbrother and Ravos Farwynd fell upon his host as it clashed with the Shrike’s battered and wounded men. Adrack Goodbrother killed the king’s bodyguards and captured him, though he would die of his wounds after the battle. The butchery of the Hoare host was so complete that House Goodbrother, which claimed the southern Hoare territories, was fishing corpses from the lake for three moons, giving it the new name Corpse Lake, ruled by the descendants of Adrack Goodbrother.

Victorious, the Shrike and his supporters marched upon Hoare Castle, finding it in the possession of Hagon Hoare, goodson of Rodrik Drumm. The mutilated remains of Harmund Hoare’s supporters dangled from the walls. The Shrike demanded the vipers that had infected the Iron Islands with the Greenlander heresies be drowned. Hagon surrendered those few who had not yet been tortured to death. The Shrike then demanded the queen, Hagon’s own mother. Hagon would not brook her death, for he intended to return her to the Rock, but permitted the Shrike to otherwise do with her what he would.

Hagon Hoare was crowned King of the Iron Islands shortly thereafter, anointed by the Shrike himself in the waters at the foot of Hoare Castle. According to legend, Hagon’s heart stopped for six full minutes while he communed with the Drowned One before returning to the living. With the water of Ironman’s Bay still upon his brow, he ordered his disfigured mother back to Lannisport aboard his personal flagship and set about attempting to restore order.

The Lion of the Rock’s answer came in the form of a massive fleet headed by Ser Aubrey Crakehall. It smashed into the Iron Fleet, under the steady hand of Quellon Saltcliffe, off the coast of Pyke. Three hundred Westermen ship were lost by the time the battle was done, but the Iron Fleet had been broken and scattered. Ser Aubrey stopped in Pyke long enough to burn Lordsport before continuing on to Great Wyk. The Westermen ravaged the island. Pebbleton was the first keep to fall to the Westermen, whereupon Ser Aubrey restored the sept and left a septon and his son behind to administer the keep. He sailed up the west coast of Great Wyk first, ousting Houses Sparr, Goodbrother, and Farwynd from their homes, installing Westermen in their place. But at each turn he made the transition smoothly, for he knew that Harmund III would need these keeps if he were to be restored to his throne.

The Lion’s roar was heard a second time beneath the walls of Hoare Castle. Ser Aubrey led the Westermen against the Ironmen, slaying Rodrik Drumm in personal combat and wounding King Hagon Hoare. Ser Hallas Swift ran Harras Goodbrother through with his lance and cut down Alvyn Sunderly before falling to Ravos Farwynd’s axe. Ser Aubrey matched his sword against King Hagon’s axe, wounding the Hoare king. Before he could deliver a fatal blow, however, Ravos Farwynd threw himself into the furious melee, matching his axe against Ser Aubrey’s sword. The Westerman wounded him and drove him back, capturing his royal prize. The Shrike saw this and sounded the retreat. Ser Aubrey won the battle at the mouth of the river even as his ships, under the able command of Ser Reginald Farman, drove off the second assault by the Iron Fleet.

Having successfully defeated Quellon Saltcliffe twice, and driven the Shrike back into the hills, Ser Aubrey led an assault on the walls of Hoare Castle. The castle had been emptied to fight him in the field and, held only by doddering old men and Drowned Priests, put up precious little resistance. He was the first man up the ladder, killing three Ironmen on the ramparts as his bodyguards swarmed up after him. The castle fell in short order. Ser Aubrey found his ultimate prize, King Harmund III, in a cell.

This dethroned king was a gibbering lunatic, gone mad from his brother’s tortures. Ser Aubrey had longed to restore Queen Lelia Lannister, even if only by proxy, but this man would never be king again. And so he gave the man the gift of mercy. His plans dashed against the rocks, Ser Aubrey had King Hagon tortured and hanged, then ordered Hoare Castle razed.

The Iron Fleet attacked again in the night. Quellon Saltcliffe died of injuries received in the last clash between the fleets, though none could explain how an arrow with Ironborn fletchings had lodged itself in his side. Lorren Sharp, having succeeded Quellon Saltcliffe as the captain of the Iron Fleet, waited for the small hours of the morning and fell upon the Westermen ships. He lit a dozen of his own vessels on fire and rammed them into the Westermen, canisters of Farwynd whale oil rupturing like grapes, further spreading the flames. The Westerman fleet burned at anchor, sailors abandoning their ships and making for land, desperate to avoid the spreading conflagration. The flames of the Westerman fleet mirrored those of Hoare Castle.

Ser Aubrey knew he would not escape Great Wyk without reinforcements and thanked the Seven for giving him the foresight to capture the coastal keeps of the island. He began a march overland towards Pebbleton, where he had left his son in command. The knight found his host under assault day and night by men loyal to Harras Goodbrother, motivated by their desire for vengeance and the preachings of the Shrike. Ser Aubrey cut his way through a small host that had assembled at Corpse Lake, shedding yet more blood on that rocky shoreline, and fell upon a Drumm contingent of the Iron Fleet that had stopped in Ralf’s Cove to take on fresh water.

He reached the eastern half of the island and found Sharp Keep barring his way. Sharp River ran fast and deep; it was impossible to ford. One of Harmund Hoare’s men informed him that they could circle around the river, but it would require two weeks and detouring through lands sworn to House Goodbrother. Ser Aubrey weighed his options and decided on an assault.

Sharp Keep was nestled on the only piece of rocky ground at the center of a river delta, the river crashing against the walls of the keep and splitting apart. The land surrounding it was soft and mushy, ill-suited to siege engines, and the keep itself was well-built. Ser Jon Brax advised they take the longer route instead, but Ser Aubrey knew the Ironborn would keep coming for him. If knew that if he balked in the face of this obstacle, imposing though it was, he would die on this land. And so he decided upon an assault.

The assault was bloody. Sers Jon Brax and Hallas Swift were slain. But Ser Aubrey won the walls, taking three arrows for his trouble, and fought Alton Sharp in the great hall. Westerman legends tell of how Ser Aubrey, bleeding from the arrows he ripped out of his armor and disarmed by the Ironman, responded by dis-arming the Ironman and throwing him head-first into wall until he stopped moving.

The ferocity of the display cowed the handful of remaining defenders, who were immediately put to death anyway.

Ser Aubrey left part of his host in the keep and continued the march to Pebbleton. No further attacks were forthcoming. When he reached that distant keep, he crowned himself King of the Iron Islands and set about recovering from his grievous injuries.

But while King Aubrey recuperated, the Shrike was busy plotting his vengeance. He drove the smallfolk to rebellion, arming them with driftwood cudgels fashioned from the wreckage of the Westerman fleet, and collected the wrathful kin of those Ironmen slain by the invaders. For five moons he built up his rebellion, attracting smallfolk from across Great Wyk and bringing in reinforcements from Saltcliffe, Old Wyk, and Pyke. Blacktyde and Harlaw, having benefited so greatly from Harmund III’s policies, did not join the Shrike’s rebellion. He gathered his army at Crow Spike Keep and in the shadow of Hoare Castle and then marched to war. Vickon Goodbrother took up his father’s axe and led the vast Goodbrother clan to war, meeting the Shrike at Corpse Lake. Qalen Sparr, eager to retake his home, joined up in the Sparr hinterlands. Cotter Farwynd brought reinforcements from the most distant Ironmen holdings, Last Light and Cape Kraken, and Ragnor Drumm came to finish what his father started. Lorren Sharp, having deftly defended his captaincy against a challenge from Maron Harlaw by stabbing the other man in the eye and throwing him overboard, resupplied and reinforced the Shrike’s army as it advanced.

The host continued to gain strength until it came upon Sharp Keep. The Shrike consulted with his captains, faced with the same dilemma that had so complicated King Aubrey’s campaign, and ultimately took Lorren Sharp’s advice: he dammed the river for seven days and nights, fighting off the Westermen that tried to sabotage his efforts, and then let the dam break. The wrath of the river smashed through the keep, scattering massive stones across the delta and leaving the river impossible to navigate for even the shallow-hulled vessels of the Ironmen.

King Aubrey met this news with shocked surprise, then mustered his men and led them to battle. The surviving Westermen and the Faithful from Pebbleton marched to war. In the forests of eastern Great Wyk, beneath a full moon, the Ironmen and Westermen clashed one last time. King Aubrey Crakehall slew Qalen Sparr in single combat. He cornered the Shrike and swung his sword to deliver the fatal blow but Ragnor Drumm leapt between them. The two men fought, trading blows, until Ragnor Drumm fell. As King Aubrey prepared to deliver the fatal blow, Ravos Farwynd drove a spear into a gap in his armor.

Fatally wounded, the last royal descendant of Crake the Boarkiller fought on, severing Ravos Farwynd’s arm. Ravos Farwynd fell and now it was his turn to be rescued. Ragnor Drumm drove his axe into King Aubrey’s back and at last the great Westerman fell. His host saw this happen and dissolved, the Pebbleton men abruptly turning their cloaks and massacring their erstwhile comrades. The Shrike’s army massacred every Westerman, regardless of how many times they attempted to surrender. When he went to inspect King Aubrey’s corpse, he found the man still alive. And so the victorious Ironmen dragged him to the sea and the Shrike sacrificed him to the Drowned God as the Iron Fleet looked on.

In the weeks that followed, the Shrike led his army to recapture all those keeps the Westermen had taken, butchering every Westerman he found and drowning every septon and septa. For two years he traveled the island, rooting out the heresy of the Faith of the Seven and killing its worshippers. The ruins of Hoare Castle were entrusted to the line of Lorren Sharp, who had seen his own keep destroyed to defeat the Westermen host. House Farwynd earned much fame and recognition for the efforts of Ravos Farwynd and so they were entitled to most of the Hoare lands north of the Shrike River Valley. House Goodbrother took much of the land south of it as compensation for their losses.

The Shrike disappeared from the historical record a few short years later.