Torrhen Roote

Lord of Harroway

Torrhen Roote is the **Lord of Harroway.**

## Early Life

House Roote descends from **Ser Richard Roote,** one of the first landed knights of the newly conquered Seven Kingdoms. After the extinction of House Harroway in 44 AC, King Maegor I Targaryen decreed that the strongest of his knights could win Harroway. Ser Walton Towers was the victor of twenty-three household knights who fought in the streets of Harroway for the honor. However, Lord Harroway's Town was given to Lord Alton Roote. Torrhen would come to learn that this appointment was more a slight to Towers and less of an admiration to Alton Roote.

Torrhen Roote was born in year 105 AC in Harroway, a town in the Riverlands situated on the Trident just south of the Inn at the Crossroads. He was the fifth child born to Alan and Lyra Roote, though only his older brother, Corrin, 6, and sister, Eliza, 4, were still living. When Torrhen was two years old, his mother gave birth to another son, Wylon.

As the second son, his education tended more toward academic studies and less toward martial expertise. At the age of four it started to become clear that Torrhen was a gifted young boy, often outwitting children three or four years his elder in games and puzzles. Ayron, Maester to the Rootes at the time of Torrhens childhood, wrote in a letter to the Citadel that "the second son of Lord Roote exhibits learning and thought many years ahead of his time".

For his seventh nameday, Torrhen received a special made pair of boots that exceeded supreme quality in almost every aspect. The artist of these shoes went only by the name Marq the Cobbler, a moniker he was destined to remember.

## The Slaughter at Harroway

At just nine years old, Torrhen was thrown into chaos. In 114 AC, The Cobbler Rebellion had risen up in the Riverlands, and the main host of the rabble was headed straight for Harroway. Reports had reached Lord Alan that Marq the Cobbler was their leader, a revelation that didn't seem to sit well with the Lord of Harroway. In an attempt to quell the uprising, Lord Alan opened the gates to Marq under the pretense of a parlay. Years of business rapport developed into a friendship between Marq and Alan, and he believed that he could persuade the cobbler into leaving peacefully. Torrhen would later claim that these talks were indeed successful, but the unsatisfied rabble unleashed blood and fury within the keep.

Torrhen watched as his father and brother were cut down right before him. The talks had devolved into mindless violence and men on both sides were reduced into savages, attacking and killing anything in their path. Amidst the madness, Marq the Cobbler helped Torrhen, his mother and younger brother escape the keep out a secret back entrance.

## Life away from Harroway

Torrhen fled to Harrenhal, where he would live for the next six months. During this period of time, his mother developed a severe fever and eventually succumbed to the illness. In just a matter of a half a year, Torrhen went from being the affluent son of loving parents to the exiled orphan with his future hanging in uncertainty. Torrhen and his younger brother were placed under the protection of Lord Tully once it became known that Lord Roote and his heir had been killed in the attack on Harroway.

In name, Torrhen was now the Lord of Harroway, though he could not rule in his own right for at least another five years. In the meantime, the administration of Harroway fell under Lord Tully, who appointed a Seneschal to rule as a protector until the young Torrhen would come of age. This new aristocrat, named Aric, would come to be the most profound influence on Torrhen's education and philosophy moving forward.

## Adolescence to Adult Life

At ten years old, Torrhen began extensive reading into Westerosi Law & History. He poured over maps that had been brought over from Riverrun with Aric. He consumed volumes upon volumes of military history and theory. He took to writing in a journal that Aric gifted him, and frequently visited the Maester's lodgings to have discussions on treatises and mundane legal documents drafted by men generations gone.

One of his favorite topics was commerce through the Riverlands. He would sit on the docks near the Trident for hours at a time couting the trading barges as they moved up and down the river.

During his thirteenth year, his education took a threefold approach. Aric, who now had full belief in Torrhens brilliance, put him in charge of a small trading venture that moved grain, cattle, and fish up the Trident and through the Riverlands. This River Company had stockholds in several locations in the area, and Torrhen was responsible for keeping them stocked and fresh. (Logistics) Furthermore, he had to keep keen knowledge of the Bay of Crabs and those that went in and out. In just three years, he more than doubled the profits provided by the River Company and developed an innate understanding of the Riverland geography. At just sixteen, he had hundreds of people in his employ and they all deferred to his commercial abilities. (Commerce/Leadership)

## Lordship

On his seventeenth nameday, Lord Tully officially passed the title of Lord of Harroway to Torrhen. Almost immediately, he faced ever increasing bands of Poor Fellows, a radical religious movement dedicated to spreading the High Septon's message. In a shocking decree, Lord Torrhen forbade any of his guardsmen to cause harm to the Poor Fellows. Furthermore, any such missionary that was captured would be set free the following morning. Over the course of the next few years, Torrhen would secretly house and feed the Poor Fellows.

In a letter to his brother, who took over the River Company after Torrhen's ascension, he noted that "the flocks of zealots are not to seek blood in Harroway" and that "their crusade will be short lived and without fruit to bear". It was evident that Torrhen did not side with the Poor Fellows ideologically, but rather sought their peace for more economic reasons. In another letter, Torrhen cited "the Poor Fellows often carry more wealth than those they protest, though I know not where that wealth has been acquired".

In the five years since the Poor Fellows first arrived, Torrhen has kept relatively quiet publically on matters regarding the monarchy, though he writes substantially about his inner thoughts.

## Present Day

Torrhen did not attend the coronation of Baelor Targaryen, citing personal reasons for his decsions. Aric, his former protector, took the journey in his stead.