House Bracken

**House Bracken of Stone Hedge** is an old house from Stone Hedge in the riverlands, one of the main families sworn to House Tully of Riverrun. They blazon their arms with a red stallion upon a golden escutcheon on brown. The Bracken lands lie along the Red Fork of the Trident. They rule over wider domains and can field a much larger army than their overlord of House Tully.

## History

### Age of Heroes

The Brackens have the blood of the First Men in their veins and were kings of the riverlands during the Age of Heroes. They have an old and bitter feud against their neighbors, the Blackwoods. According to the Brackens, they were kings who ruled the Red Fork but were usurped by their vassals, the Blackwoods. According to the Blackwoods, however, the Brackens were petty lords and horse breeders who hired sellswords to usurp the Blackwood kings.

### Andal Riverlands

The Brackens and Blackwoods allied together against the coming of the Andals, but the First Men families were defeated in the Battle of the Bitter River. The feud has continued throughout the years, aided by House Bracken's conversion to the Faith of the Seven after the Andal victory. The Blackwoods believe the Brackens poisoned the weirwood at Raventree Hall. Battle Valley and the village of Blackbuckle are part of the disputed land. There have been numerous peaces between the Brackens and Blackwoods, many sealed by marriage, but the feud always restarts. Benedict Rivers was a bastard born from both houses who eventually became King Benedict I Justman.

A Lord Bracken died in the fighting between the Teagues and the Storm King Arlan III Durrandon.

When Lady Agnes Blackwood led the resistance of the river lords to King Harwyn Hoare, Lord Lothar Bracken attacked Agnes's army from behind. It is possible Lothar hoped to become King of the Trident after Harwyn defeated the Storm King Arrec Durrandon, but House Hoare instead took the riverlands for themselves. Harwyn starved Lothar to death when he later rose in rebellion.

### Targaryen Era

House Bracken aided Aegon the Conqueror during the Wars of Conquest and rebelled against Harwyn's grandson, King Harren the Black of Harrenhal. The Brackens and the Blackwoods had been weakened by a private war a decade before Aegon's Conquest, however, and Aegon granted the new title of Lord Paramount of the Trident to Lord Edmyn Tully of Riverrun. Queen Visenya Targaryen negotiated a double wedding between the Brackens and the Blackwoods.

Ser Lyle Bracken was one of the seven knights of the Warrior's Sons who were slain during King Maegor I Targaryen's trial of seven in 42 AC. Ser Olyver Bracken and Ser Raymund Mallery, knights in Maegor's Kingsguard, defected to the cause of Prince Jaehaerys Targaryen in 48 AC. Since they had broken their vows to protect Maegor, King Jaehaerys I allowed them to join the Night's Watch after he gained the Iron Throne. Olyver and Raymund led a rebellion of former Faith Militant among the Watch in 50 AC, with Lord Walton Stark beheading Olyver with Ice at Rimegate.

### The Dance of the Dragons

Amos Bracken fought a duel with Samwell Blackwood over Rhaenyra Targaryen in 112 AC, but the princess eventually wed Ser Laenor Velaryon.

During the Dance of the Dragons, the Brackens declared for Aegon II Targaryen and the greens against Rhaenyra's blacks. Ser Amos killed Samwell during the Battle of the Burning Mill, only to then be slain by an arrow allegedly fired by Alysanne Blackwood. Ser Raylon Rivers led the Bracken survivors back to Stone Hedge, but Lord Humfrey Bracken had already been captured in the meantime by Prince Daemon Targaryen. Since Aegon II began punishing lords who had supported Rhaenyra after her death, Humfrey joined the blacks in support of Rhaenyra's son, the future Aegon III Targaryen, in 131 AC.

### Bittersteel and Bloodraven

Lord Bracken served as Hand of the King to King Aegon IV Targaryen. His elder daughter Barba was the fifth mistress of Aegon IV and the mother of Aegor Rivers, the Great Bastard known as Bittersteel. However, House Bracken fell from favor after Lord Bracken began talking openly of marrying Barba to Aegon IV after Queen Naerys nearly died in childbirth. Lord Bracken's second daughter, Bethany, was deliberately groomed by her father and elder sister to win back the king's favor by displacing Melissa Blackwood, with whom Aegon IV had replaced Barba as mistress.

Bethany succeeded in displacing Melissa, but she found the king's embraces distressing and so sought comfort in Ser Terrence Toyne of the Kingsguard. After the affair was discovered, both Bethany and her father were executed.

According to Ser Eustace Osgrey, Lord Bracken was to sail with Myrish crossbowmen to aid Daemon I Blackfyre and Bittersteel during the First Blackfyre Rebellion, but was delayed by storms.

Ser Otho Bracken slew Lord Quentyn Blackwood at a tourney in King's Landing in 206 AC, reinvigorating the feud. Three years later Otho and some Blackwoods participated in the tourney at Ashford Meadow. Ser Steffon Fossoway considered convincing Otho or the Blackwoods to fight for Ser Duncan the Tall in his trial of seven, but decided it would be impossible to make them both fight on the same side. When Lord Bracken lay dying, Septon Sefton explained that Otho would inherit and the Blackwoods would not suffer him, meaning war. Lord Bracken's eldest son and heir had died in the Great Spring Sickness. Lord Brynden Rivers, the Hand of the King known as Bloodraven, was the son of Melissa Blackwood and thus was considered unlikely to stop it.

### The Great Council (233 AC)

In the Great Council, the Riverlands, as usual, presents much less than a united front. House Blackwood backs Aegon, House Darry backs Aemon, and House Bracken votes for Maegor, though one can imagine they intended to vote for Aenys before his "unfortunate accident." House Tully does not speak one way or another until is is clear the majority is for Aemon, after which they throw their support behind him. This pleases no one.

### The Lords Declarant (308 AC)

It is unknown what had drove Melissa Blackwood to take a ride through Bracken lands with such a small party, except that she was supposedly "on her way to visit a friend". What is known, however, is what befell her thereafter. While travelling through a particularly brambly pass, she was seized from her horse by a group of Red Priests, angered at House Blackwood's execution of one of their comrades earlier that month for little more than examining the castle's silverware. For the sins of her House, it was deemed, she would be sent to the pyre. Her travelling companions, however, were spared such a fate. They were sent back to Lord Blackwood, to warn him of what fate befell those who sought war with R'hllor.

Once the news was spread, however, any reservations House Blackwood may have had about such a war were swept away. He began an ever more fervent (if somewhat quiet) campaign to drive the followers of the Red God from the Riverlands, or at least from Tully's favor. He was joined in his efforts by an unlikely companion: The Lord Bracken. There were many theories about why the ancestral enemies now worked together. Some figured him a friend of Melissa's, others a lover. Many believed he was appalled the priests had committed such crimes on his own land, an insult to either his pride or his people's safety. And some believed they thought the threat posed by R'hllorites and the King's Men truly that great.