Heirs of Harren

"Yield now and you may remain as Lord of the Iron Islands. Yield now, and your sons will live to rule after you. I have eight thousand men outside your walls."

"What is outside my walls is of no concern to me. Those walls are strong and thick."

"But not so high as to keep out dragons. Dragons fly."

"I built in stone. Stone does not burn."

"When the sun sets, your line shall end."

The Dragon's Triumph: Aegon's Conquest and the Birth of the Seven Kingdoms

Aegon was wrong. Two sons of Harren Hoare had died at the battle of Wailing Willows while another two had died at Harrenhal. But there remained another son who managed to sneak off. Unable to take over as heir to his father, he married the unwed daughter of a loyal vassal with no heir, and claimed his land on his death. There, on the island of Wyk in the farthest point to the east lay the lordship of Blackblood, and with it, the remains of Hoare Castle. Which was burned by the Lannisters as revenge many years before.

The son abstained in the Kingsmoot that elected the Greyjoys and remained unwavering in his conviction of restoring his house, and that conviction had remained until the present day. It can't be said that there was any man of note descending from the new "House Salt", adopted from the earlier said vassal. The single county controlled hasn't seen much development in terms of economy with just a couple of forts having been built in the land in preparations for anyone to learn of their true origin, and probable desire to remove the once great house, once and for all.

Their destiny is not over though, not in the slightest bit. By 282 AC, House Salt only has eleven members remaining. Lord Steffarion. who is the current count of Blackblood has six children, with two of them being girls and four being boys. His sister has two sons while his brother has two daughters. The thirdborn son of Lord Steffarion was named Qhored, his namesake being Qhored the Cruel.

And he had always been a bit different compared to the rest of his siblings, with intellect unheard of from a Ironborn in a very long time, perhaps since the last kingsmoot, and with that he had a great curiosity that was insatiable. His sadistic and cruel tendencies had been revealed to his family at a young age, but due to their nature as barbaric Ironborn, rather than be concerned by a child being this deranged. They had instead reveled in it and encouraged it.

A bad idea it seems though, as just a couple days after Roberts Rebellion had sparked off, the 16 year old Qhored decided to go and gain some experience in war and pillaging with the permission of his father. He had decided to raid the Riverlands, not daring to attack the Westerlands yet. But that wasn't what he truly planned for.

He left with three of his brothers, two of his cousins, and their father, his uncle. As they set sail with four longships with each holding fifty men. They landed in the lands of House Blackwood, who had joined up with the royalists leaving a small garrison in their territories.

In the land of the Blackwoods, Qhored had started to act. It was simply impossible to live a good life as a thirdborn son if your older brothers stay in the line of succession. Qhored decided to remove them. He also decided that the less males there are in his family the better, as well as deciding that even the woman shouldn't remain. His house must be cleansed if he wishes to return his family's name to Hoare.

Qhored sent some of his trusted men as turncoats and provided the castellan of Raventree Hall much information on the locations of his little raiding party, hoping for a simple way to allow for the execution of his relatives. His wish ended up being granted, the raiding party had moved inland too much and ended up being ambushed around the city of Lushton.

200 levies led by Qhored's uncle Urzen, against 1,400 levies with a force of 250 cavalryman. It was simply a bloodbath and the Ironborn were slaughtered. Qhored simply ran from the battle and was almost caught by a cavalryman on the chase trying to get him. Luckily though, the horse tripped on a pebble and the man fell on his neck, instantly dying. Qhored had set sail with a fishing boat that he had prepared and in a short couple of days reached the Blackblood with news for his father.

All that remained was for his father to suffer a accident, and Qhored would be the next lord. There is not much to do but to fake his fathers suicide. As the night fell over in Blackblood, Qhored made his way through the castle. His heart had started to pound from the anticipation, and he had moved swiftly. Akin to a ghost haunting the castle, with rumors claiming his ancestor Harren the Black doing the same in Harrenhal.

Reaching his father's chambers, Qhored listened at the door to check if his father was awake, and with the knowledge that he wasn't entered. In the room, his father lays asleep, unknowing of what is to come. He had long dreamed of this day and gathered his courage, this was still his father and if word gets out that he was a kinslayer his future was most definitely at stake. But he couldn't back out now, not with all his siblings dead.

He reached for the vial of sweetsleep and stared at it, and with his resolve uncorked it and poured it into his father's wine goblet. The poison quickly dissolved and with a small stir completely mixed in completely unnoticable. He felt a sense of exhiliration at the knowledge that he will be lord by the morning. Offering a quick prayer to the Drowned God, Qhored placed the vial under his father's desk aswell as his "suicide note".

In any other scenario leaving these objects out and letting the chance of his father go through them before taking a sip would be too high to risk, it is a very good thing that his father was a raging alcoholic. Qhored couldn't help but smile as he made his way to his chambers seeing his destiny unfold. 

Qhored was awakened before the roosters caw by a servant that ran into his room and announced that his father was dead. He immediately got up and got dressed before walking to his father's chambers acting completely oblivious to what had occurred the other night. The maester was already waiting inside and told him of the poison, and that it seems to just be a suicide based off of the note and the fact that the sweetsleep poison was already known to be used for suicides. They both agreed that it was most likely due to his grieving of the death of his favorite son alongside others and that his heart couldn't bear it, leading to him ending his life.

The funeral was arranged pretty quickly, the remaining females in the family alongside a couple of trusted servants that have been employed for generations attended alongside Lord Erik of Seagrave of house Ironmaker, his grandfather. His father's body was cleaned and laid down into a ship alongside personal objects and items, as well as offerings from all the attendees. Things such as coins, swords, and the like. The ship was pushed into the sea and left to sink to the bottom to the Drowned God.

Qhored had 3 goals he wanted to achieve quickly by the time the rebellion ends. The first is to get married with a good alliance, the second is to professionalize the army, and the third is to improve the economy to maintain a miniature surplus even with the army raised. While the Ironborn will take what they need through the iron price, it is useless when the men rebel or mutiny due to no pay. The first goal would be very simple to fulfill, with his liege lord Gerold Goodbrother having 12 daughters. While it is clear that by the time he weds all his daughters off his blood will be in every house in the Iron Islands, it is still a good idea to make sure he can't be called into any war against Qhored.

Qhored wrote a letter to Gerold speaking about his intention to wed one of his daughters, with Gerold giving his assent and offering his eldest unwed daughter. While Gwin Goodbrother was not that much of a looker, that will be covered by Qhored's future salt wives. The marriage was decided to be a small affair as their were already plans to spend all the gold in the treasury. With the first goal having been completed in just a matter of days, the second and third could quickly be started. The construction of a trade port has started in the county of Blackblood with plans to then build some barracks and warrior lodges after to improve the quality of the army.

On that note though, Qhored drained all of the remaining gold in the treasury ordering mangonels from Lord Quellon Greyjoy, with it also being his first correspondence with said man. Not only were mangonels being added to the army, but it was decided to slowly replace the peasant levies with veteran reavers to be a major part of the army to serve as shock troops, with plans of a future contingent of the army being pikemen, as Qhored's memories of the ambush at Lushton still remain strong. It remains a necessity to be prepared against the cavalry of the greenlanders.

Obviously though, by the time the marriage ceremony is finished and the troops are ready Qhored will start to raid the coast of the greenlanders to take the iron price, as he does need some extra wives to bear many children. The trade port by all calculations will seemingly take about two years, but for now, all there is to do is set up a good council and to wait. For his master at arms, Qhored appointed Waldon, a native lowborn of the isles but with a mind built for war, no means a genius but his skills are something to be proud of.

As his admiral, he chose another lowborn, Theon. Theon is the same man that he had trusted as a turncoat to the Blackwoods, and his loyalty was rewarded with his position. Qhored proceeded to replace his sister as his spymaster to a woman called Morna, who's skills are a bit worse but still a better option if Qhored is trying to get rid of his family.

It has been decided that within the span of 5 years, Qhored is to conquer his neighboring lord, Lord Waldon of House Merlyn, the lords of Pebbleton. Continuing with the appointing of his council, he had taken Ravos as his priest, the Drowned Man being a life long friend as well as a great orator and schemer.

They decided to fabricate a claim on Waldon's lands through some sort of centuries past marriage between their houses, and just with the claim, the Ironborn are fine with the war. It is simply just the Iron Price. Qhored had noticed in his preparations that there truly aren't many competent officers, and with that note, had decided to quickly marry off many of his female courtiers to promising men aswell as handing them a sizeable dowry.

The first man that was hired was actually a Bravosi man named Terrelo. The man was a brilliant strategist and was a unbelievable genius at war, coming close to Qhored's talents. The only issue was that the man worshipped the Three-Headed Trios. With enough time in the Iron Islands though, it probably won't be a issue to have him convert.

The only actual issue was that the second man to be hired was a native of the land, issue being he was a zealot. Fanaticism is a good tool if it can be used but to have internal conflicts is a issue, so the issue of Terrelo's religion might have to be forced.

Obviously, it is expected that with a marriage comes a dowry. And rather than offer a simple dowry such as gold or arms, the Lord Gorold had instead appointed Qhored as his steward, which he readily accepted. His new position in his Lord's council offers him a massive salary, a increase in the amount of taxes he can keep, as well as a decrease in construction costs, making the planned trade port come to profit much sooner.

And with his new position, Qhored felt it was time to discuss with his liege lord the terms of their contract. While their contract initially had started at lower than average taxes for more levies sent, Qhored felt the need to reverse whatever prior change his father had arranged with the man. With his planned wars and raids, what point is there to not pay more taxes for more men?

Certain issues had caused a slight negative in the treasury, so a small loan was taken from Lord Gorold with promises of swift repayment. At the same time though, Qhored kept looking for better stewards as the one he has currently employed is not much to be proud of.

A raven came by with information about Robert's Rebellion, the first stronghold has fell to a siege and it was won by the rebels at Gulltown. Even then, information available to Qhored shows that the royalists have roughly forty thousand more men then the rebels.

Two months had passed since the taking of Gulltown and still nothing has occurred. Only two things of note had really occurred and it was all within the lands of Qhored. He had found a passable steward and had sent for a new maester, believing that it would be a waste of time to keep the decrepit maester that had served his father since before he could shave. The new one came by the name of Nymos, and it is clear that it wasn't the wrong decision as he had saved the life of a guard injured during training in a way that the old one couldn't. 

Another two months had passed and the first major battle of the war occurred in Wind Coast, a hill by the coast roughly half a days ride from Storms End. Actions have consequences though, due to the initial raid roughly 6 months ago by Qhored at Raventree, the rivermen were prepared for more raids and left a much larger garrison. It seems that Lord Gorold had went to hook bay to make some quick money, and if the raven is to be believed, is about to engage in a battle of six thousand to five thousand and seven hundred.

The bigger issue is that even if he manages to win that fight, a army of sixteen thousand is marching up there to wipe him out. All that can be done is to quietly watch while the build up is occuring. Two thousand men had perished and Lord Gorold seems relucant to set off on a second raid in the Riverlands.

With his power now consolidated for the most part, Qhored has started to increase his authority, removing the autonomous privileges his vassals had enjoyed since his fathers death. Qhored has started to regret marrying his lieges daughter seeing his most recent action. Rather than go back to his land to recuperate the losses of a third of his army, he moves down to the Westerlands, into the already mobilized thirty five thousand man strong army of Tywin Lannister. It seems like theres still a chance for him to escape but Qhored doesn't expect him to run. And run he didn't. Gorolds entire army was slaughtered at Birch Keep with only three hundred men out of his four thousand able to return home alive.