House Florent

Lord of Brightwater Keep

House Inchfield

House Graves

House Florent is one of many houses claiming descent from the First Men in general and Gwayne Gardener in particular, along with many houses of the Reach. They claim to be the descendants of Florys the Fox through her first husband, giving a historically far stronger claim to Highgarden than House Tyrell, despite their relative obscurity.

### War for the Dawn

Following the fall of House Florent for supporting the pretender Stannis Baratheon in the War of the Five Kings, Lord Alekyne Florent fled to Oldtown and the safety of his family, his sister Rhea being married to Lord Hightower. With most of his family bar his married sisters vanished or destroyed throwing himself at the mercy of the Hightower was the only option available and so with great reluctance he did so.

The impenetrable fortress that was the Hightower would not remain a safe haven for long, as Euron Greyjoy molested the coasts of the Reach, finally sacking Oldtown later in the year. While the tower itself held and Alekyne lived the city beneath was torn apart by the ironborn raiders, along with rumours from superstitious smallfolk of otherworldly horrors.

When at last Oldtown was liberated he was considered but a lowly knight, him and his young family exiled within the Hightower. However following the destruction across the Reach combined with the defeat of the Tyrell-Lannister alliance in the east, Hightower influence was enough for Alekyne to be sworn in as Lord of Brightwater keep mid-way through 302, in exchange for his son being warded to Highgarden as a hostage.

When the Others came House Florent’s forces would march north with the rest of the kingdom, the countryside scoured clean of any available men and women strong enough to fight and willing to journey north. When the great battle was joined it was nothing more than a brutal slaughter, the dead and the living fighting in flashes of flame and steel. While Lord Alekyne would survive the battle, his death still came that day.

### The Second Targaryen Reign

While the fight claimed many in the battles, many more would return forever broken. The wounds the Others inflicted had a fatal tendency to never fully heal and so it was for Alekyne Florent. While the Seven blessed him with rule over Brightwater Keep once more, the slash in his left leg would leave him lame for the rest of his life, the lord passing in a shivering fever during the summer of 315. He would leave behind three children; Beric (born 296), Ophelia (298) and Alysanne (304).

Following his death his eldest son Beric would become Lord of Brightwater Keep, for the first time in almost two decades secure in his seat. After a childhood spanning seven years of war there was finally peace and the nineteen year old lord and his young wife Cassandra were acclaimed to much fanfare. This happiness would be sadly short-lived, their line destined not to be the ones ruling Brightwater Keep into the future.

While the Lady Cassandra was considered by all to be fair Lord Beric showed little interest in her feminine charms, though he applied himself to the task of ruling most assiduously. Instead he insisted on his eldest sister Ophelia having a matrilineal marriage to Ser Landon Meadows, and appointed her as his formal heir. While Lord Beric ruled with a degree of competence his father had not had the chance to demonstrate the core issue of his rule would remain unresolved and he would die childless in 331 AC of the plague.

Lady Ophelia was a capable ruler throughout the plague and reasonably comely, though her most important asset was her progeny, and the fact that they existed. She had four (Wilhelmina (317), Alaric (320), Rodrik (322) and Sabitha (326), one to bring salvation and one to almost bring ruin.

Wilhelmina was her oldest, a stunning beauty with hair that seemed almost alive with flame and a seemingly flawless body. And yet Mina as she was always known was never content, as if she forever saw her calling to be elsewhere. From a young age she enjoyed exploration, climbing the trees near Brightwater’s creek higher than any of the other children. By comparison Alaric was two years her younger, oft silent and usually sullen, though with an intelligence to rival his wayward sister’s.

When Mina was nineteen she began to take trips to Oldtown to see a stranger, more and more frequently throughout the next two years. A week before her twenty-first birthday she vanished entirely, the flame-haired girl leaving only a short note for her siblings and mother. There would be scattered reports for the next thirteen years, a woman of noble standing with a meteoric rise through the turbulent politics of the Free Cities, a beauty beyond compare with flaming locks of auburn hair. Tales would grow but in the end the adventures of Wilhelmina Florent would be forgotten by most, Brightwater Keep a long way from the exotics of the East.

Yet a scion cannot vanish in isolation, let alone one that turned heads through beauty or personality wherever she went. Lady Ophelia had been seen to be competent, but with the harshest winter Westeros had seen since the Others and the status of House Florent still in the balance, even her admirable skill alone was not enough to halt the whispers about how the Tyrells had been right all along, that House Florent was not worthy of a keep. Indeed it would be Alaric who quietened those rumours and when Lady Ophelia died at the age of sixty-one in 359 it would be Alaric that ruled in her stead.

While Ophelia’s rule was filled with scandal, slowly clawing back lost ground and not a moment of peace Lord Alaric would be the opposite, with a firm and unapologetic ruling style and a no-nonsense nature that caused little to be on the surface improved, but much of House Florent’s reputation and assets to be consolidated. By his death in 380 the question of their rights and place in Reach nobility was finally settled, his stable leadership ensuring House Florent’s return to power would be permanent

### War of the Four Daughters

Alaric would have three children; Alon (353), Alicent (359) and Darnold (366). Upon his death Lord Alon would succeed him, ruling through two decades of stability and then the greatest war that the Reach had found itself in for a hundred years. During the time of stability he would have four children, Rylene (383), Aladore (385), Rhea (393) and Elinor (394). During her teens Rylene would first meet Rowan Tyrell, heir to Highgarden. Their romance would be sung about by bards around the realm and the couple were wed almost as soon as Rylene was of age, the Morning Rose and the Black Rose united in their love.

In the year 408 the decision was made to invade the Free Cities, the first real flexing of Westeros’ military muscle since the Conquest. While the aged lord did not send himself, he *did* send his heir Aladore along with his brother Darnold. Both were considered talented if not exceptional fighters, and as the only males of fighting age Lord Alon was left with little choice.

The campaign would be brutal, and in the end an utter failure for the Reach. Aladore would come back a changed man, the kindness he had shown his wife Desmera in their long youth all eaten up by war. Darnold would not come back at all, dying in his nephew’s arm at the hands of a Lyseni spearman

### A Ballad in Blood

In the waning days of 412, Lord Alon would pass from the land of the living peacefully in his sleep, joining his wife Samantha in the afterlife. His son would be invested as Lord Aladore of Brightwater Keep along with Desmera and his children (Alester (408), Moryn (411) and Maia (413)) in a somber ceremony, where even the weather conspired to fill the normally blue skies with a whirlwind of grey.

## Traits

Members of House Florent are known for two particular traits. These are flaming red hair as well as unfortunately large ears, which thankfully the first trait at least for women can often be used to hide.

## Seat

Brightwater Keep is a large keep on the banks of a bubbling brook, an ancient castle made of solid stone. Thanks to the Reach’s relative peace since the first Conquest the castle has remained intact for centuries, and most of the exterior walls are now covered in a thick green layer of vines, which sprout colors of a hundred different colors during the long spring and summer.

Outside of Brightwater Keep’s formidable walls there is a farming village scattered around the riverbank, with the castle being the center of commerce in Florent-controlled lands.

## Family Tree

Lord Alekyne Florent (born 278, ruled 300-315), m. Lady Talla Fossoway (274-339)

Lord Beric Florent (born 296, ruled 315-331), m. Lady Cassandra Tarly (295-342)

Lady Ophelia Florent (born 298, ruled 331-359), m. Ser Landon Meadows (299-340)

Lord Alaric Florent (born 320, ruled 359-380), m. Lady Alyx Peake (334-379)

Lord Alon Florent (born 353, ruled 380-412), m. Lady Samantha Caswell (364-399)

Lord Aladore Florent (born 385, ruled 412-), m. Lady Desmera Norcross (387-)