House Hightower

## House Information

### Sigil

A white tower crowned with flames on smoke grey*(Cendrée, a tower argent, beacon inflamed gules)*

### Title

Beacon of the SouthDefender of Oldtown

Defender of the Citadel

King of the High Tower (formerly)

Lord of Oldtown

Lord of the Hightower

Lord of the Port

Voice of Oldtown

Lord Paramount of the Honeywine

### Vassals

House AmbroseHouse Beesbury

House Bridges

House Bulwer

House Costayne

House Cuy

House Florent

House Mullendore

House Redwyne

House Woodwright

## Historic Information

### Culture

Reachman | Andal

**House Hightower of the Hightower** is one of the most powerful of the noble houses in the Reach and the Lord Paramount of the Honeywine. Their seat is the Hightower, located in the city of Oldtown. The sigil of House Hightower is a stone white watchtower, with a fire on the top. Their motto is *"We Light the Way"*. They possess a Valyrian steel sword called Vigilance.

The Hightowers are among the oldest and proudest of the Great Houses. They have often preferred trade instead of war, and have also avoided many wars because of their support for the Faith of the Seven. The Hightowers can be legitimately referred to as being either "of Hightower" or "of Oldtown".

Some Hightowers are said to have dabbled in alchemy and necromancy.

## History

### Hightower Kings

The family is ancient, existing since the dawn of days when they were petty-kings. While most scholars believe they descend from the First Men, Maester Yandel posits they descend from the seafarers and traders that settled at the top of the Whispering Sound in an earlier time, men who came to Westeros before the First Men and seem to have founded the original incarnation of Oldtown. Whatever the truth, the Hightowers resided in the ancient black stone fortress of Battle Isle at the mouth of the Honeywine before the "Hightower" of stone was built.

The Hightowers built four successive wooden beacon towers atop the fortress. The legendary King Uthor of the High Tower is said to have commissioned Bran the Builder or his son Brandon to design the fifth tower, one built entirely of stone. Uthor's sons, King Urrigon and Prince Peremore the Twisted, were integral in the foundation of the Citadel.

During these early days Oldtown was threatened and sacked many times, including by ironborn raiders, Dornishmen, and the armies of the Kings of the Reach, House Gardener of Highgarden. The Kings of the High Tower raised strong walls and higher towers to keep any further invaders out. Oldtown was not brought into the realm of the Gardeners by conquest, but by marriage, during the reigns of King Lymond Hightower and King Garland II Gardener. Lymond the Sea Lion wed the daughter of Garland, while Garland put aside his own wives to marry Lymond's daughter.

### Gardener Era

During the Andal invasion, the Hightowers and the Gardeners allied with the newcomers. Thus they were able to keep their wealth, lands and privileges. Protected by the might of Highgarden, the lords of Oldtown turned their eyes to trade and commerce and grew with every generation to become one of the richest and most powerful noble families in Westeros. The Hightowers were also one of the first great lords to accept the Faith of the Seven and thus gave their patronage to the establishment of the office of High Septon and the building of the Starry Sept as the center of the Faith.

Through the centuries of the Kingdom of the Reach, the Peakes and Osgreys boasted about marrying their daughters to Hightowers.

### Targaryen Era

During Aegon's Conquest of the Seven Kingdoms, Lord Manfred Hightower heeded the High Septon and did not join his liege lord, King Mern IX Gardener, on the march to the Field of Fire. Soon, Mern was dead and Highgarden surrendered, with the Tyrells replacing the Gardeners. When Aegon the Conqueror arrived at Oldtown on dragonback, Manfred opened his gates. Aegon spared the city, and the High Septon anointed him and acknowledged House Targaryen's right to rule all Seven Kingdoms.

After the High Septon objected against the suggested match between Prince Maegor Targaryen and Princess Rhaena Targaryen, he suggested instead his own niece as Maegor's bride: Ceryse Hightower, the daughter of Lord Manfred Hightower. Ceryse and Maegor were wed in 25 AC. Maegor took a second bride in 39 AC, claiming that Ceryse was infertile. Lord Manfred objected to Maegor's second wedding. After Maegor had left Westeros in exile, and Septon Murmison had failed to make Ceryse fertile, Ceryse returned to the Hightower.

In 41 AC, Lord Martyn Hightower succeeded his father Manfred. In 43 AC, Martyn's brother Morgan was the sole Warrior's Son pardonned by Maegor, following the mysterious death of the High Septon and the yielding of Oldtown by Martyn to the Targaryens. That same year, Maegor and Ceryse were reunited, and Ceryse eventually returned to King's Landing with her husband, where she remained until her death in 45 AC.

In 47 AC, Princess Rhaella Targaryen, the younger daughter of the deceased Prince Aegon Targaryen and Queen Rhaena Targaryen, was sent to Oldtown by King Maegor I Targaryen to be raised as a septa. When her mother Rhaena fled from Maegor in the night the next year, Maegor sent a rider to Oldtown commanding Lord Hightower to behead Rhaella as punishment for her mother's betrayal. Lord Hightower refused, however, and imprisoned the messenger instead. He then declared his support for Prince Jaehaerys Targaryen.

Eustace Hightower's ship was the only one of the three in Alys Westhill's expedition of 56 AC across the Sunset Sea to return.

In 89 AC, the ruling Lord Hightower staged a tourney at Oldtown in honor of King Jaehaerys I Targaryen, who was visiting the city during one of his royal progresses.The Hightowers were strong supporters of the greens against the blacks during the civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons. King Aegon II Targaryen was supported by his mother, the Dowager Queen Alicent Hightower, and his grandfather, the Hand of the King Ser Otto Hightower. Ser Gwayne Hightower served as second-in-command of the City Watch of King's Landing. Lord Ormund Hightower commanded the greens' army from the Reach, which also included the knights Bryndon and Hobert Hightower. Three of the Hightowers' bannerhouses (the Costaynes, Mullendores and Beesburys) fought for the blacks, however.

Lord Ormund was succeeded by his son, Lord Lyonel Hightower, who caused relations to sour when he announced his intent to marry his widowed step-mother, Lady Samantha Tarly, denounced by the High Septon as a form of incest. After the Rogare Bank collapsed in 136 AC, she founded the Bank of Oldtown.

Following the death of her first husband, Lady Rhaena Targaryen married Garmund Hightower and had six daughters by him.

House Hightower gave strong support to neither side during the First Blackfyre Rebellion, keeping a foot in both Targaryen and Blackfyre camps.

Ser Abelar Hightower challenged Prince Valarr Targaryen in the first tilt of the tourney at Ashford Meadow and was defeated.

Prince Oberyn Martell and Princess Elia Martell visited Oldtown on their way to Casterly Rock where their mother was to broker their marriage to the Lannister twins, Cersei and Jaime. While in Oldtown they met Baelor Hightower, whom Elia fancied but Oberyn mocked after he farted in their presence. Lord Tywin Lannister later offered his youngest son, Tyrion, as a match for a Hightower daughter, but Lord Leyton Hightower declined.

### Baratheon Era

During Robert's Rebellion, the Hightowers remained loyal to King Aerys II and the Targaryen dynasty. Ser Gerold Hightower, the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, was killed at the tower of joy. The Hightowers knelt to the new king, Robert I Baratheon, after the defeat of the Targaryens.

Lord Leyton attended the tourney at Lannisport to watch his sons joust. Lynesse accompanied her father, meeting and marrying Jorah Mormont, Lord of Bear Island. Mormont's hall proved underwhelming, however, and Lynesse eventually became the chief concubine of Tregar Ormollen in Lys.

### After The Sundering

With the Hightowers becoming Lords Paramount in their own right, their new demesne spanned the lands of several houses now split from the Reach: Ambrose, Beesbury, Bulwer, Costayne, Cuy, Florent, Mullendore, and even Redwyne and the other houses of the Arbor.

The influence of Oldtown grew ever more now that the Hightowers answered to none but the Iron Throne. Perhaps the most obvious example of this greater importance and the closeness to the rose crown was exhibited between the marriage of Leona Hightower to Alester Tyrell, who would rule as Alester I. Together the two would have four children, with the thirdborn ascending to the throne as Myrcella II.

Oldtown, for all its glory and riches and bounty, was not immune to the ravages of mystery and myth. Over a period of thirty years sightings were reported by fishermen around the Whispering Sound and coastlines of strange creatures in the water - black-skinned, fishlike beings with large yellow eyes. For most of this time those stories were dismissed as the ravings of lunatics or drunkards. Nevertheless the claims persisted and a man calling himself Garth the Gilled came forth, claiming he could speak the language of the Deep Ones and preaching a new religion centered around these mythical creatures.

This cult grew to such a degree that the Starry Septon became alarmed, who declared holy war upon the Covenant of the Great One. Concerned at this news the High Septon traveled from King’s Landing to confer in person with his subordinate. This visit emboldened Garth, who saw it as a golden opportunity. He managed to sneak into the Starry Sept and murder the High Septon, whose death caused a shockwave in the city and throughout the realm. The days that followed led to a severe crackdown from Lord Hightower upon the cult. To this day there are still whispers around the city that Garth was not merely a prophet but a living martyr...