CK2AGOT - Breaker of Chains and Mother of Dragons

[Midnite Duke]

Thank you for the update. I am amazed at how few mercenary captains are great battlefield commanders (M20+). Have you ever seen a person with more than one education? I had a game generated count with a D3, I2 and a M1 education.

 

[Thaiga]

There are apparently a lot more free companies than I thought. All of this is really interesting.

In the mod all of them are called simply "The Hedgeknights" or "Sellsword Infantry" or "Dornish Lances". I wanted more diversity and uniqueness like they have in Essos, so I tied them to places around Westeros, read up on more obscure or just older Lore and based on that named and COAted every single one of them (and some Essosi who lacked names and COAs as well). Assets for their COAs I found in the mod itself (COAs for landless knights, 4 files, I think) as well as in Cripples, Bastards and Broken Things mod (I hope the author won't mind, I'll delete if he does) and just on some galleries with free vectors. I actually did it before I looked at the actual NPCs in charge and to my surprise some of them were eerily perfect.

Perhaps The Forlorn aren't actually knights because they refuse to acknowledge the ability of Westeros's current rulers to knight people and think the current knights are illegitimate?

I like this idea a lot! They did turn out as snobs who would pull some bull like that. Headcanon accepted!

Did I spot an implication that we were about to get an update on the customs of the smallfolk?

I've been in a very dark place a couple of times last year and around Midsummer I might have went a liiitle overboard with my thought about "what kind of holydays would smallfolk of Westeros have"... 60 pages of text overboard as it currently stands and I am not done with it, albeit close to. Literally all of it is a regurgitated folklore and folk festivals of our world that I found interesting, fitting and adaptable for aSoIaF realities, so it's completely non-canon and I don't know if it would be interesting to anyone but me and if I should post it or not, but I definitely can when I'm done with it and if there is an interest.

That description of Robert's Rebellion was priceless.

Thank you ^^'' Both me and my humble maester author here are so done with the undeserved glorification of anyone involved so it kinda spilled out XD

Thank you for the update. I am amazed at how few mercenary captains are great battlefield commanders (M20+).

And thank you for reading it! It surprised me too until I remembered how some of the captains in the books were described or that many of the companies are just a bunch of random dudes that just drifted together, so they might not neccessarily be great at choosing their leaders. Nepotism, bribes, brute force or some other nefarious means brought men to the top all over the place, both in fiction and in life, unfortunately.

Have you ever seen a person with more than one education? I had a game generated count with a D3, I2 and a M1 education.

I did, but usually it's a bug that either goes away by itself somehow (I think the game has some sort of hidden self-check for it), or I just roleplayed as them being Simply That Good XD

 

[Thaiga]

Essos​

Sellswords are more common in Essos than in Westeros, as Westerosi lords are more likely to raise feudal levies. Therefore the sellswords found in the previous part are mostly only known around the Seven Kingdoms (if at all), many companies in the East have a much wider renown.

Great Cities​

The Golden Company​

The Golden Company is considered the finest and most powerful company of the Free Cities, with some also considering them the most honourable. Despite the notorious unreliability of sellswords, the Golden Company is reputed to have never broken a contract. Their motto is "Our word is good as gold", while their war cry, "Beneath the gold, the bitter steel", pays homage to their founder, Aegor Rivers, a Great Bastard known as "Bittersteel".

Up until the Restoration and the subsequent pardon of the Blackfyres and their supporters, the men of the Golden Company preferred to call themselves a free brotherhood of exiles rather than sellswords since their core was still made up of descendants of men who fought for the Blackfyres. However, over the past century a steady trickle of outlaws or men from the losing side of other wars has joined their ranks. It has also been joined by other sellswords simply seeking better opportunities whose ancestors were never from Westeros, so that soldiers from a dozen different lands can now be found in the Golden Company. This trend has only increased since the fifth and last Blackfyre Rebellion, over 40 years ago and came to its natural conclusion with the homecoming of the Blackfyres. After the main bulk of their members with Westerosi origins were invited back into their homeland and settled, even the high-ranking officers of the Company do not descend from Blackfyre supporters.

Their training nonetheless is still highly effective. Unlike most hosts of household knights and feudal levies, the Golden Company are highly disciplined soldiers able to quickly establish orderly camps. In their prime, the Company consisted of ten thousand men. These include five hundred knights, each with three horses, and a similar number of squires, each having one horse, and at least a thousand bows, with a third using crossbows, another third wielding double-curved horn-and-sinew bows common to Essos and the last third armed with a Westerosi-style big yew longbows with an exception of fifty Summer Islanders who use great bows of famed goldenheart.The company also has two dozen elephants.

The high officers display a rude splendour. Like many in their trade they keep their worldly wealth upon their person, including jewelled swords, inlaid armour, heavy torcs, and fine silks. Many wear a lord's ransom in golden arm rings, with each ring signifying one year's service with the Golden Company. The captain-general's tent, made of cloth-of-gold, is surrounded by a ring of pikes topped with the gilded skulls of previous captains-general.

It would seem however that the Company is experiencing a slow, but steady decline. After their last Westerosi leader died from a rotted liver, the golden tent was occupied by Captain-General Moronno, a very fitting name since he was almost comically unfit for the job. Nonetheless, this absolute joke of a Captain stayed in power for four decades before finally dying in his soiled bed. The current Captain-General, a Volantene man by the name of Zyrio Adoryen, seems to be a continuation of this sad trend.

The Second Sons​

In the aftermath of the defeat at the Battle of the Redgrass Field that effectively ended the First Blackfyre Rebellion hundreds of landless lords and knights who had supported Daemon I Blackfyre fled across the narrow sea and joined free companies like the Second Sons, the Ragged Standard, and the Maiden's Men.

Amongst the oldest of the free companies, the Second Sons date back to the Century of Blood. The company was founded by twoscore younger sons of the nobility who lacked prospects. Their banner is a broken sword. The Second Sons do not enjoy the shining reputation of and are not as well equipped as the Golden Company, but they have won some famous victories.

The names of every man to serve with the Second Sons is written in a leather-bound book, as well as when they joined, where they fought, how long they served, and the manner of their deaths. A tradition of the company is to sign in red ink. There was a time when each new man wrote his name in his own blood, but that tradition faded as blood makes poor ink.

The infamous Captain of the Second Sons, Mero, had such a poor reputation that none of the Free Cities hired them for decades and since with the reforming of the Great Cities by the Throne the need for the sellswords diminished as a whole, the Second Sons have to compete for contracts as they never had before.

At the moment they are led by Captain Illonaro Baharis, grandson to the Lords of Mother’s Valley and East Andalos. Not a great commander by any means, he seems to focus his efforts on the company’s perception by the outside world rather than with the company itself, otten leaving them stranded in their camps for years at a time.

The Bright Banners​

Four hundred years ago, the Second Sons and the Bright Banners were hired to help the guards of Qohor against the khalasar of Khal Temmo. The Qohorik were defeated and the sellsword companies fled the battlefield, but the battle against Temmo's Dothraki was then won by the Three Thousand of Qohor. If the Second Sons managed to salvage their reputation in the following centuries (only to have it shattered again by their Captain Mero and having to rebuild it all over again), the Bright Banners were and are quite an obscure Company that since their embarrassment at Qohor had not distinguished itself in any particularly notable way, neither good nor bad. Their current leader, Captain Conicho, embodies that very well since he too does not stand out in any aspect of life.

The Windblown​

The Windblown are a mercenary company of two thousand mounted horse and foot soldiers. Their standards are fork-tailed blue-and-white banners, with streamers of pale blue silk on their lances. Their command tent is a great grey sailcloth pavilion, their “canvas castle”. It can take the Windblown less than an hour to strike camp.

The Windblown were established around 270 AC. At the age of twenty-three, a nobleman, now known only as the Tattered Prince, had been selected by the magisters of Pentos to become the new Prince of Pentos in 262 AC, only hours after the previous one had been beheaded. The Tattered Prince refused their offer, however, and fled to the Disputed Lands. He never returned to Pentos again, but has continued to long for the city. The Tattered Prince fought in the Disputed Lands as a member of the Second Sons, and later the Iron Shields and the Maiden's Men. Next, together with five brothers-in-arms, the Tattered Prince founded the Windblown. By 300 AC, he was the only one of the founding members still alive.

The Tattered Prince, also known as Rags or Tatters, kept his true name to himself. This later became a tradition for the whole Company and now the men of the Windblown chose their own names, and can change them as they wish. The Prince was a sad-eyed and soft-spoken man with silver-grey hair and in a mail of matching colour. His ragged cloak (which became somewhat of a relic passed from Captain to Captain) is made of different coloured twists of cloths, blue and grey and purple, red and gold and green, magenta and vermilion and cerulean, all faded by the sun. The strips are torn and bloodstained, torn from the surcoats of men a Captain had slain. When the Prince travelled incognito, he wore a brown wool traveller's cloak and often stated that his appearance is so ordinary that all he had to do was remove his "tatters" and become inconspicuous. The Tattered Prince rode a huge grey warhorse. The stallion's spotted hindquarters were covered with the same multi-colored torn rags as his master's cloak. The Tattered Prince sat straight and tall in the high saddle, and his voice was strong enough to carry to every corner of a battlefield. He spoke classic High Valyrian and it is still the closest thing the Windblown have to a company tongue. The Tattered Prince took a dim view of deserters and the Company still deals with them harshly by sending hunters after them. If the deserters are caught, a foot might be chopped off to make sure the deserter in question can never run again. The unlucky ones are given to the company’s torturer.

When in the year 308 AC the Tattered Prince quietly died, the Queen was approached by her Master of Whispers, Varys Blackfyre. He confided in her that the Tattered Prince was in fact his own father. Now that the man was dead and the secret he wanted to keep could no longer harm him, Varys felt it safe to make his true heritage known. And this is how we know that the Tattered Prince was, in fact, the only son of Maelys Blackfyre, better known as Maelys the Monstrous, the last of the Blackfyre Pretenders and the last member of the male line of House Blackfyre. Moreover, Maelys’ wife, Barba Bittersteel, was the only child of Captain-General Aegor Bittersteel of The Golden Company and his wife, Calla Blackfyre, the eldest daughter of Daemon I Blackfyre, the first of the five Blackfyre Pretenders. In short, the Tattered Prince is the great-grandsire of your humble author.

There had been three captains of the Windblown since then, all surprisingly decent men, even if not the best of commanders. Their second one, the benign Captain Denzo D’han, started as their treasurer. His grandfather and his brother both were once chosen as Princes of Pentos (the actual ruling ones, not the ceremonial one that the Tattered Prince once escaped). The next Captain was the learned Captain Donaro, once the Company’s healer.

The current Captain of the Windblown is Gyleno D’han, Denzo’s son. Unfortunately he does not have any particular talents and seems to have been chosen solely due to the respect his father had in his time.

The Ragged Standard​

The aforementioned Windblown are not to be confused with The Ragged Standard, an unremarkable Company whose standard has a similar composition to the Windblown’s signature cloak since both are made from mismatched pieces of rags. Their current tenacious Captain is the one-legged Zenio who lost a leg some time ago, but does not let it keep him from leading his man. He is aided in this by his beloved wife and company’s treasurer Ushanora, sister to the current Lord of Vilibosh.

The Iron Shields​

The Iron Shields is another otherwise unremarkable company that is mostly known only for the fact that the Tattered Prince was once a member of it. In the recent years they started to gather a peculiar reputation of their own however because of their indolent Captain Lothorio. Not only does he allegedly use magic to do even the most basic of tasks, he also managed to find a moonsinger drunk enough to officiate Lothorio’s marriage with his lover, lady Melala Zalyne, who was (or still is, judging by her preferred choice of attire) a red priestess.

The Maiden's Men​

The Maiden's Men were allegedly formed by a Westerosi called Spotted Tom the Butcher who became one of the infamous Band of Nine, the instigators of the War of the Ninepenny Kings. This company has long been known for its unsavoury reputation, but nevertheless did not struggle to find employment due to the undeniable strategic brilliance of most of its previous Captains.

Rather embarrassing to admit, but this streak came to a halt with the bold Ser Wendel of House Doggett who somehow managed to get elected as the Company’s Captain in the year 347 AC, but got thrown out ten years later for murder of one of their own.

The current Captain Syricho, son of one of the previous captains, is a man in his prime who seems to try and improve the Company reputation with a method rather unconventional for a sellsword, namely that of his words. Interestingly enough, his mother Lynelle came from a Westerosi House Tarbeck, making Syricho a grandson to the late Lord Harys of Bramhope.

The Gallant Men​

In addition to the unsavoury Maiden’s Men, there are also two groups of sellswords keen to make sure everyone knows they are, indeed, men, although their reputation is so unremarkable that we do not even know if they are unsavoury or not.

The Gallant Men are led by Captain Illadhor Vollymion, son of one of their previous captains. Captain Illadhor seems to actually be quite gallant and despite his rather short temper he is known for his honest and trusting nature.

The Men of Valor​

Another manly group of men, the Men of Valor, do not live up to their name at all. Their previous captain Nakodos the Brute came into power after orchestrating the death of his predecessor, captain Yaqeo.

After Nakodos’ own death the company is led by their new Captain Tregillo Aneris who seems to be much more interested in being hosted by their prospective employers rather than actually fighting for them. He also recently took a wife who is almost young enough to be his granddaughter. Fortunately for her Captain Tregillo seems like a kind man and Lady Nilora, daughter of Lord Adarano of Vilibosh near Tyrosh, is actually quite fond of her “hubby grandpa”.

The Long Lances​

Another group of sellswords, the eight hundred riders strong Long Lances, is either really unimaginative with their name, or is trying to compensate for something. Their current Captain, Adarys Robiras, is married to the company’s spymistress, Lady Aenela Nogarys, sister to the current Lord of the Death Swamps at the Volantene-Essarian border.

Before Adarys, Lady Aenela was married to the company’s previous Captain Lothorio Rhegan, who’s father Gylo Rhegan was also a captain before him.

The Free Company​

If the Long Lances at least might have tried to make some kind of wordplay or a tongue-in-cheek joke with their name, the Free Company is without a doubt a sellsword company with a singular lack of imagination. They are currently led by Captain Vareo Narratysbray, called the Bastard of Myr despite the fact that he is actually the bastard of the late (ceremonial) Prince of Pentos (and by extension a grandson of one of Pentos’ previous Magisters). Before Vareo the group was led by Captain Esyrno who is still quite famous for his absolute inability to give a single thought of concern while simultaneously constantly being on the very brink of a meltdown. He once saw (or imagined) his rival and his posse in an empty alley in Myr. Despite standing at just about 6 '10 tall Esyrno inexplicably decided to flee. In full speed he collided head first with a sign of “The Sultry Stiletto” pillowhouse which took his nose clean off his face. It was said that the man became aware of this fact only after being told about it by the Company’s bewildered healer and just shrugged it off.

The Brave Companions​

The Brave Companions are a sellsword company of considerably ill repute. Unlike most soldiers, the vile and violent Brave Companions are considered to be malignantly cruel; their reputation is even worse than that of the Second Sons was under Mero. The company comprises criminals and outcasts from many nations. Their diverse ranks are said to include copper men with bells in their braids, lancers astride black-and-white zorses, bowmen with powdered cheeks, squat hairy men with shaggy shields, brown-skinned men in feathered cloaks, swordsmen with fantastic forked beards dyed green and purple and silver, spearmen with coloured scars that cover their cheeks, Myrish crossbowmen, pale Lyseni and dark Dornishmen. This pile of scum gained its notoriety under Vargo Hoat of Qohor who started the group's now signature practice of cutting off the hands and feet of prisoners. For that the Companions are also sometimes called the Footmen or the Toes of the Goat (for their standard which depicts a black goat with bloody horns, symbolising the Black Goat of Qohor).

Currently they are led by Vargo’s son, Captain Casporio. His men are convinced that the man had been bewitched, but he might simply genuinely love his wife. It is unclear however how does his wife feel about him after he had sacrificed their only son to the Goat of Qohor. Since Casporio was born when Vargo was already quite old, two other men led the company after the Old Goat had died. Captain Aryrio Ostar was infamous for his pastime of mutilating any and all priests he could find, regardless of their choice of gods. Captain Rapho that came after him (and who actually raised Vargo’s son Casporio) was a surprisingly gentle man who tried to steer his fellow Companions onto another path and even somewhat succeeded since there were much less reports of atrocities committed by the group in the recent years.

The Jolly Fellows​

While the Brave Companions, who are often also called the Bloody Mummers for their brutality and outlandish appearance, find this name insulting, the (possibly pirate) sellsword company of Jolly Fellows seem to wholly embrace their aesthetic. They were formed in 258 AC, right before the War of the Ninepenny Kings, by Mero Nine Eyes (also known as Rogo the Red Jester), member of the Band of Nine. Currently they are led by Captain Lyrazo the Silent, a man of a few words and even fewer accomplishments.

The Stormcrows​

The Stormcrows, a sellsword company a company of freed men numbering five hundred horses, already was briefly mentioned in this humble chronicle due to their former Captain Daario Naharys, a flamboyant Tyroshi who was inexplicably chosen and invited by the Queen to serve the Crown as the first Lord Paramount of the newly liberated Tyrosh. Since then the Stormcrows were largely irrelevant. At the moment they are led by Captain Aro, a peculiar man of unclear ethnicity who allegedly was an urchin in Volantis before joining the band. Despite his alleged upbringing in Volantis he speaks in a fashion of Lorathi people while worshipping the Harpy of Ghis.

The Stormbreakers​

Not to be confused with the Stormcrows, the Stormbreakers were founded by Ser Oscar Tully in the aftermath of the Dance of the Dragons and the collapse of the Triarchy. At the time, the free company consisted of men from throughout the Seven Kingdoms. The company may have been named after the victory of the rivermen against the stormlanders in the battle of the Kingsroad, during which Kermit Tully, Lord of Riverrun and Oscar's brother, killed Borros Baratheon, Lord of Storm's End. The victory was all the more important for Oscar as he was knighted on the battlefield. Ironically, in more recent years this company was led by stormlanders of mediocre military talent and practically nonexistent note.

Currently however the Stormbreakers seem to be on the rise due to their absolutely brilliant young Captain Urrigon, a bastard of House Stormhaven through his father, Ser Endrew of Storm’s Call, making him a direct descendant of the Usurper whom he strongly resembles in appearance (but fortunately not in character).

Captain Urrigon won his captaincy from the company’s previous captain, Ser Glendon the Tormentor, when the latter’s tyranny and cruelty became too much to bear even for his own fellow sellswords. An honourable and gracious young man, Captain Urrigon then let his rival stay with the company, although that was most probably done as a courtesy to Glendon’s family and not to the man himself.

The Wolf Pack​

Another company formed along with the Stormbreakers in the Wolf Pack that was founded by Hallis Hornwood and Timotty Snow. At the time, the free company consisted only of northmen which are often dubbed "wolves" on account of the sigil of the rulers of the North, House Stark. Currently they are also led by a northman, Captain Harlon Warrick, for his unpredictability and uncontrollable temper known as the Rash. Harlon’s father Duncan actually served as the Captain of another company, the Harborigens that operate in the North in Westeros. When Duncan inexplicably died, the Warrick family left Westeros altogether and ended up in service of the Wolf Pack that in time decided to elect Harlon as their leader for some reason. However, now all were happy with that development. Surprisingly, Harlon’s own wife, Lady Belissa of House Musgood of Drakesgrave, and their only Royce were among the discontented. They left the Wolf Pack and returned to the North where Royce was eventually granted command of Gatehouse Tower of Moat Cailin. Interestingly enough, Harlon’s eldest daughter Lysa stayed with her father and seems to be poised to lead the company after her father’s inevitable end.

The Company of the Rose​

The Company of the Rose is another sellsword company operating in Essos that hails from the North. It was founded by men, and according to some accounts also women, of the North who rejected Torrhen Stark's submission to Aegon the Conqueror and thus chose exile over bending the knee. They are currently led by Captain Karlon who is actively aided by his much more talented wife, Lady Ryella of House Blackwood, once known as the Young Raven, daughter of late Lord Brynden and sister of the current Lord Larys, the King of the Woods.

The Company of the Cat​

The last, but not least of the sellsword companies operating in the Western part of Essos is another three thousand strong clowder of apparent animal-lovers known as the Company of the Cat, or simply the Cats. After the death of their infamously savage Captain Bloodbeard, the group was led by three rather peculiar men. Bloodbeard’s successor, Captain Essalos, shunned any and all physical contact. After him came the monstrous Captain Jalaquo, a renowned healer that found his delight in conducting his allegedly medical experiments on living people, both slaves, captives and his own underlings alike. When one of those underlings turned to be burlier than his captain and managed to not only defend himself, but also break Jalaquo’s hand so bad it had to be cut off by the company’s healer, Jalaquo was devastated and finally died at the age of seven-and-fifty. He was succeed by the aforementioned healer, a eunuch by the name of Daario.

Captain Daario was succeeded by the company’s current Captain, Sallo the Trickster, late Captain Bloodbeard’s only child who seems to take a lot after his infamous sire.

 

[Midnite Duke]

Thank you for the update. Most of the leaders have military education.

 

[lone_wolf7660]

https://agotcitadel.boards.net/thread/4323/agot-cripples-broken-1-4
which ones PO Versions: u download

 

[HistoryDude]

There's the Golden Company. Hopefully the fact that the Blackfyre supporters aren't in high positions anymore means that Westeros isn't under threat of a potential takeover...

Did Varys have ulterior motives in becoming Westeros's spymaster here, especially since he was a Blackfyre?

 

[Thaiga]

Thank you for the update. Most of the leaders have military education.

<3 I guess the East has more conflicts to actually fight in so they still might need at least some idea about warfare.

which ones PO Versions: u download

Unfortunately I couldn't make the mod itself work with my save so I only used some assets from it. I still hope to later try to make it work with my modpack so that it might be played together in a New Game, but I already failed once so I don't know when I'll try it again cause I don't really know what went wrong.

There's the Golden Company. Hopefully the fact that the Blackfyre supporters aren't in high positions anymore means that Westeros isn't under threat of a potential takeover...

Well, their former supporters in Westeros don't really suffer either, the Blackfyres themselves are thriving and are actively integrated into the main Targaryen bloodstream, so there is not that much of a reason to take anything over. For now.

Did Varys have ulterior motives in becoming Westeros's spymaster here, especially since he was a Blackfyre?

This time his motives might actually be not only actually purely pure, but also completely in the open. fAegon Blackfyre is Varys' nephew in this universe, so he might've just been genuinely looking out for Serra's boy.

 

[Thaiga]

Far East​

Naturally, people willing to sell their swords for gold and glory can be found beyond the Realm’s borders as well. Unfortunately not much is known about them however, with one very distinct exception.

The Unsullied​

The Unsullied are eunuch slave soldiers, trained from a young age in Astapor to unquestioning obedience and martial prowess. The Unsullied are inspired by the lockstep legions of the Old Empire of Ghis, who were free men. They fight in formation as light infantry, equipped with spears, swords, shields, and distinctive spiked caps. Unsullied uniforms are plain and without ornament, quilted tunic, a short sword, three spears and spiked bronze caps. One spike indicates a low rank, while three spikes going from front to back represent an officer. Their elite, highly specialised training makes them most effective in their phalanx formation. They do not ride horses.

They also supposedly make excellent guards that do not loot and will never rape. The Good Masters, the slavers of Astapor, used to sell Unsullied in groups of ten for household guards, but that proved unsound since they mingle with others, and forget who they are. Now they are sold only in groups of a century or thousand. The only vice left for the Unsullied is food, so Unsullied serving as household guards often grow fat.

Unsullied begin as young male slaves chosen for their size, speed, and strength. Every day they choose new names at random by drawing tokens from a bucket, each consisting of a colour and a type of vermin, such as "Grey Worm". The eunuchs are fully castrated, with their penis and testicles cut, and their manhoods are burned at the altar of the Lady of Spears. This means that they cannot be as strong as whole men, but this is more than made up for by discipline. On the day a boy is cut, he is given a puppy to take care of. At the end of the first year, the boy is made to strangle the puppy. Should he fail to do so, he is killed and fed to the surviving dogs. Their training starts at the age of five and does not stop from dawn to dusk. It is brutal, designed not only to teach them how to fight, but to strip away all individuality, empathy, and self-worth. During training boys are culled whenever they fail a task, be it running all day in full pack, scaling a mountain at night or walking across a bed of coals. To win their spiked cap they must take a silver mark, go to the slave markets, buy a newborn slave child, kill it before its mother and pay the slave's owner for his loss. Only a third of the slaves to enter training survive to become Unsullied. The slaves regularly consume an elixir called the wine of courage to deaden their sensitivity to pain. They drink it with every meal, and every year feel less and less pain.The Unsullied worship a goddess of their own whose true name is kept in secret among them. The slave soldiers refer to her to others as the Lady of Spears, the Bride of Battle, and the Mother of Hosts.

The most famous Unsullied were the Three Thousand of Qohor, who held back a Dothraki khalasar over fifty thousand strong. Only six hundred Unsullied survived, having killed twelve thousand of the Dothraki. To honour the Unsullied, the surviving Dothraki rode in front of the Unsullied line, throwing their cut braids down in front of them. Unsullied have since made up, or at least been supported by, the city watch of Qohor.

Unsullied were used all over the Free Cities until that vile practice was forbidden in the aftermath of the Liberation Wars. Unfortunately it is still very much alive in and around the Slaver’s Bay. We are also getting some worrisome reports that Astapor has greatly increased their “production” of Unsullied, but unfortunately we do not yet know to what end.

The Lost Legion​

The Lost Legion operating in the same region is an enigmatic company of sellswords that boast their alleged descent from Old Valyria and strong Valyrian blood. Several of their members reportedly do actually have the purple-coloured irises common among Valyrians, so there may be some truth to their claims, although it is much more possible that they are younger sons of aristocratic families of Volantis and Lys that set out to seek their fortunes. Between contracts this group seems to mostly keep to themselves. According to some vague reports, they are currently led by Captain Daarilos who got his position on account of his marriage to one of the daughters of the previous Captain Conos. That would explain why he did absolutely nothing about his wife’s very open affair some years prior.

The Shades, The Undying and The Servitors​

Spoiler: Author's Note

I had to briefly switch to the YiTish ruler so I could see merc for hire in that region more easily, so please disregard the left corner

In Qarth there are three main groups sometimes available for hire.

The Shades is an ancient company of men who claim to be warlocks, but in more recent years they are mostly just a bunch of sorry-looking shade-of-the-evening addicts.

The Undying claim many things from actually being unable to die to serving The Real Undying Ones, whatever that might mean. According to pretty easily verifiable reports they can be killed quite easily.

The Servitors is the only actually still competent company in the blue-lipped city. They allegedly started as a company of more sturdy dwarves than those found serving in the House of the Undying, but now there are no dwarves left in their ranks.

The Dirtborn, The Stone Herd, The Cinnamon Rolls and The Paraders​

Four more companies operate on the islands south of Qarth. The Dirtborn seems to be drifting from island to island, while the Stone Herd of Faros, the Cinnamon Rolls of Cinnamon isle and the Paraders of Elephant isle seem to station on their preferred islands in between deployments.

The Serpent’s Fangs and The Serpent’s Eyes​

The Bone Mountains region hosts its own and pretty unique companies since in this part of the world it is believed that only those who give birth are permitted to take life at will, and it is the daughters, not the sons, who are raised from an early age to be warriors. They ride horses and are trained with bow, knife, sling, and spear. These warrior maids wear iron rings in their nipples and rubies in their cheeks and often fight bare-breasted.

The sister-companies of Serpent’s Fangs and Serpent’s Eyes (specialising in vicious surprise attacks and meticulous reconnaissance respectively) mostly operate near the city of Bayasabhad, the City of Serpents, to which they owe their names.

The Ruby Light and The Iron Gates​

The Ruby Light and the Iron Gates are mostly active near the city of Samyriana and along the Stone Road that goes through that carved city.

The Pincers and The Hammers​

The Pincers of Kayakayanaya on the Steel Road is the only company led by a man. In Hyrkoony culture, only the most promising males, one out of a hundred, are permitted to mature, breed, and become Great Fathers. The rest are gelded when they reach the age of manhood and usually serve as cooks, craftsmen, farmers, priests, scholars, scribes, and servants. Captain Ilma’s father Pitkapaa, known as the Big Halberd (himself the natural-born son of the not-so-great Great Father Hyrno), was big in all the right places. His places were big enough to break free from his culture’s restraints and successfully lead a group of warrior maids. Unfortunately for Pitkapaa’s son Ilma, his places were unremarkable, same as the rest of him. So when Pitkapaa died, Ilma was raised until an appropriate age and promptly castrated. The maids however liked their token leader boy so they keep him as their “adorable little Captain”. It is unclear what will become of Ilma when he ages some more. Chechama, the current leader of the Hammers, the Pincers’ neighbour in the region, reportedly has some ideas, but Ilma will probably not like most of them at all.

The Unicorns, The Maroons, The Lions of Night, and the Carcosa Raiders​

Further east in the land of Yi Ti another three sellsword companies can be found, with one other being a bit weird.

The newly-formed Unicorns of Tradertown are a colourful tapestry of all sorts of misfits that decided to try their luck as independent contractors now that their beloved Unicorn Empress sits steady on her throne. They are led by Captain Ran, an old YiTish man who unexpectedly worships the Stone Cow of Faros.

Three other groups that operate in the area all openly worship the Lion of Night. According to tales told by the priestly scribes of Yin, the Lion of Night fathered a son on the Maiden-Made-of-Light. This son was the God-on-Earth, who ruled the Great Empire of the Dawn for ten thousand years, before ascending to the heavens. The descendants of the God-on-Earth ruled the empire after him, each ruling a shorter time than the previous one, until the brother of the Amethyst Empress usurped her in the Blood Betrayal and crowned himself as the Bloodstone Emperor, ushering in the Long Night. The Maiden-Made-of-Light turned her back upon the world, and the Lion of Night came forth in all his wroth to punish the wickedness of man. The Five Forts, which predate the Golden Empire of Yi Ti, are claimed by some to have been raised by the Pearl Emperor of the Great Empire of the Dawn to keep the Lion of Night and his demons away from the realms of men.

The bloody Maroons of Jinqi seem to be very keen about that whole bloody vengeance thing. Their standard is allegedly painted with blood of their enemies, and their claims may in fact be true, unlike those of one other group with a similar story (more on that later). The Maroons' Captain Gai Xan is surprisingly revered among his followers who call him their Great Captain despite his peculiar diet of actual people. Allegedly he also likes to make those aspiring to become his commanders eats chinks of his own flesh in some form of a twisted communion.

Another company of Lion-worshippers operating in the vicinity of Yin worship the Lion so much that they actively try to emulate him. They are active only at night, making them renowned for their daring attacks in the dark. Their current leader is Captain Gai Xai (not related to Gai Xan of the Maroons). His father, the previous Captain Zu, once killed a great black-and-white bear only to find her cub clinging to his leg. Much like Captain Xai, Zu was not a cruel man. He took the cub with him and raised the bear alongside his son, with whom they are now inseparable.

The last group that is sometimes seen in the region allegedly comes from the legendary city of Carcosa. They do not come very often however and seem to strike smaller settlements or merchant caravans travelling along the Mountains of the Morn.

The Shadows and the Men of Leng​

At the very fringes of the Known World there are Shadows. As in literal shadows cast by the mountains in the Shadow Lands, but also in the form of sellswords led by Captain Gai Poq (not related to any previous Gais), a man of YiTish origins and yet another Lion’s worshipper. He is married to a Lengi woman, Thanaroa Turrani, sister of Captain Ibn Turrani of the Men of Leng.

While almost nothing is known about the Shadows except their famed ability to masterfully blend with their surroundings, there are some disturbing tales about the Men of Leng that roam the Jade Sea on their black galleys and sometimes trade in rubies. Allegedly they can “leap as though they have hooves instead of feet, and seem to wear a sort of wig or headpiece with small horns. Of other clothing they have none, but most of them are quite furry. Behind they have dwarfish tails and their mouths are of excessive width”. Contrary to all of that, their current Captain Ibn is a handsome young man with a chiselled jawline and not a single hair on his body (at least not on the parts that are not covered by his elegant tunic of black silk).

 

[Midnite Duke]

Thank you for the update. Another wonderful job of spinning a tale from traits.

 

[Thaiga]

The High Seas​

Sellsails are hired sailors who engage in naval battles for pay. When not employed they may work as pirates or smugglers. Before the Liberation most fleets were based in the Stepstones, but now that the Stoneborn dominate the region most other fleets either moved closer to the Great Cities or simply drift between them.

The Snail Sails: Bleeding and Dyed​

Tyroshi and their fabled unique variety of sea snail dyes are responsible for much confusion on the seas caused by two sellsail companies that operate in this region.

The first one is the Bleeding Sails fleet. Their sails have the colour of dried blood and bleed it when they are wet. The company claims that it is exactly what it looks like - the blood of their enemies. Reliable sources in Tyroshi shipyards however report that it is actually a rather cheap type of dye that the sellsails buy in bulk and then apply to their sails themselves without proper knowledge or techniques for sealing of the dye. Whether they do it on purpose or just make a sloppy job and simply roll with it is unclear. Heavily stuttering Captain Ezzlyso Caharis is currently at the helm. Other than his name however he has no relation to one of the fleets most well-known previous captains, Vargorno the Rash, who steered the fleet for most of his life and even managed to conceal his deteriorating eyesight until one fateful night when he, already almost completely blind, fell into the sea, got his lung inflamed and died shortly after.

In contrast with the aforementioned Bleeding Sails, the Dyed Sails sails do not bleed. This fleet is much more responsible with their assets and honour their Tyroshi heritage by dying their sails a beautiful Tyroshi purple. They also claim that the Bleeding Sails were once part of their fleet, but expelled when a couple of captains tried to embezzle fleet’s gold intended for the dye, bought a cheap one instead and ruined their ships’ sails with it. To back this claim, the Dyed Sails point out that they have somewhat of a tradition for the Captains to take the last name of Caharis after their election. True enough, it was indeed used as a last name by at least two of this fleet’s previous captains, Ezzaloro and Nakaario.

Their current Captain Tagganaro uses it as his own last name as well. None of the men have any blood relations to each other nor to the Bleeding Sails’ Caharises.

The Chequy Sails​

The next fleet of dye-hard sailors is the Chequi Sails. They hail from Braavos and with their colours of choice pay homage to their port of call and its Chequy Port. Their current Captain, Aerio Gasparyon, is a decent, but otherwise rather unremarkable man. Their previous one, late captain Essario Gasparyon, was much more noteworthy simply on account of his love for vegetables that he managed to cultivate aboard his flagship. Unfortunately Essario died from inflamed lungs. If only he cultivated some medicinal herbs as well.

The Rags​

Another fleet that lurks near Braavos looks much less sophisticated. For their sails the Rags have exactly that - a mismatched assortment of sails sewn together with bright white threads. Somewhat akin to the Bleeding Sails of Tyrosh, the Rags claim that their sails are made from the leftovers taken from their enemies, but much like the Bleeders they are more likely just stingy. Currently the Rags are dragged by their Captain Irricho Gasparyon, an old and bitter man who is nonetheless highly respected for his honesty and patience.

It is also worth noting that Irricho is not related to either of the aforementioned captains Aerio and Essario, nor are they related to each other as well, so it would seem that the Braavosi might also have a tradition similar to the Tyroshi.

The Tapestries​

On the complete opposite side from the Rags are the Tapestries. While three out of four previously mentioned fleets exhibit some degree of pomp, no other fleet before this point in our tale nor after can truly compete with the absolute braggadocio of this fleet that uses the whole actual Myrish tapestries as their sails. Their current Captain Mero Bahyl is inexplicably known as Captain Hollow despite his very enjoyable personality. Even though his education is rather basic, he more that makes up for it with his natural talent, surpassing even the fleet’s most famous previous captain Yaaro.

The Myrish Eyes​

Captain Mero of the Tapestries shares his last name of Bahyl not only with his own predecessor, a thoroughly forgettable captain Brombo, but also with two captains of the Myrish Eyes, another sellsword fleet operation out of Myr that has the lens of the famous Myrish eye depicted on their sails. Unfortunately your humble author is not that knowledgeable about the maritime customs of Essos and seems to have made a fool of himself by not knowing about this apparently very common thing among the sellsails.

The Flaming Sails​

The next sellsail fleet that likes to play with dyes is found in Volantis. Their sails are coloured in different hues of orange mixed together, giving them the illusion of being on fire, especially on a windy and bright sunny day. Their current Captain Illen Nardaeyris is a proud Lyseni man whose clear Valyrian heritage is unfortunately quite literally overshadowed by his enormous brow ridge that hangs over his dark eyes and constitutes most of his otherwise short forehead. Making this unfortunate feature even more prominent, a thick caterpillar of coarse black hair spreads in one unbroken line between his temples.

The Menagerie​

Another Lys-born Captain Nardaeyris, naturally not related to the previous one, stands at the helm of the Menagerie, the other fleet now stationed in Volantis. They once had another name, but everyone just called them the Menagerie for their elaborately painted sails depicting a tiger and an elephant holding between them a shield with flames and dragons.

The Cormorants​

In Lys more Captain Nardaeyrises can be found among the Cormorants, a relatively new fleet that first set sail under its first Captain Jaereo (who did not call himself Nardaeyeris). While later in life Jaereo became known among his crew as the Wise Captain, for most of his life he was called a Cormorant for his distinct voice and a manner of speech that was often impaired by deep, guttural grunts that sounded a bit like an oinking pig. Apparently the man was well aware and content with this peculiarity of his and fully embraced it without shame. In time it became a calling card for his whole crew. They still are very fond of it which makes for a rather terrifying sight during both hostile boarding and the crew’s disembarkation for shore leave.

The Golden Girls​

Last but definitely not least, the Golden Girls fleet is one of the oldest on the high seas. They also seem to be one of the few fleets that consistently do not follow that last name custom that I just happened to find out about, although in contrast with all other fleets this company’s current Mild Captain Jysono is in fact a son of one of their previous captains, the Elegant Captain Alios.

In between these two, the Golden Girls were chaperones by Captain Zollo the Moaner, a rumoured bastard of a (ceremonial) Pentoshi Prince. He is mostly remembered for his nightly moans. Most of those he made in lamentation for the tragic and unfathomable loss of his stunning young wife Sereah and their two small children, Alia and Gyleno, who all were found together inexplicably dead. Sometimes however Captain Zollo moaned from other reasons that eventually led him to a brothel disease that not only left him with sores, but also seems to eat away the last bits of his body’s fighting resolve, culminating in his death from an acute inflammation of the lungs.

 

[Thaiga]

Whew! I think that's all for the mercs. Really proud of how they turned out, it was a blast to dig up lore or other justification for those nameless and CoAtless ones. Now it's the mountain clans, the wildling raiders, some words on the Citadel and that's it. Might even finally finish this thing by the time of its third (whaaat) anniversary in April XD

 

[HistoryDude]

I liked these updates! The sellsword companies in the east were much weirder than the ones on the sea...

Also, the Unsullied have their own religion? That's fascinating...

I'm still worried about Carcosa. What eldritch things dwell in that legendary city?

 

[Midnite Duke]

Thank you for the update. The sea-borne mercs seem to have better commanders than the land-based. Have you seen a group of unpaid mercs take over land management?

 

[streaker77]

An assassin only accepts an assignment if they are unfamiliar with the target. As the Faceless Men forsake their identities for the service of the Many-Faced God,

Interesting, in order to abide by this rule, assassins still have to recognize who ''they'' are and who ''they'' know


Glad to be caught up again, really enjoyed the individual backstories on all the merc companies great and small, and as always the artwork for the statues of the House of Black and White was amazing. Thank you for the nomination as well!

 

[Thaiga]

The sellsword companies in the east were much weirder than the ones on the sea...

The more I read about the East, the more I think that everything is just exponentially weirder there, and I love it. Also, the Unsullied have their own religion? That's fascinating...
I knooow, right?! The show did my bois dirty, they seem much more interesting than just a bunch of pouty cannon fodder.

I'm still worried about Carcosa. What eldritch things dwell in that legendary city?

Adding to my previous statement about the East, I definitely wouldn't mind a nice juicy horror set somewhere on the border of YiTi and Asshai, riiight at that passage from Carcosa... Bring it on, GRRM!

The sea-borne mercs seem to have better commanders than the land-based

I noticed that too. The sea seems to be a more demanding mistress. As she should be. The sea does not forgive (my dad was a sea captain all his life and I've lived on a three mast ship (literally this one) for a year when I was little, the sea definitely demands).

Have you seen a group of unpaid mercs take over land management?

Not in this save, suprisingly. And unfortunately. That would make a heck of a plotline! I remember in one of my non-modded games the Pope! couldn't pay and it was hillarious, they actually managed to throw him out of Rome and took the whole place for themselves, madlads! I might try not paying them ,yself in this game at some point, just for the excrement and excitement XD

Interesting, in order to abide by this rule, assassins still have to recognize who ''they'' are and who ''they'' know

As I understand it, there is still someone under all those faces, so they are they, but also they might steal memories or traces of identities along with the faces, so it might also play some role. But I must admit, from a plot/worldbuilding point of view the FM are a bit... dare I say, raw. Damn, now GRRM will definitely cease and desist us all...

really enjoyed the individual backstories on all the merc companies great and small

I was actually thinking about packing them all up in a small sub-mod for anyone to use as they please, I personally think that having them all have different COAs and names really adds it's little flair to the game instead of the 10 generic infantries and hedgeknights (I probably should start to take Proud when I make myself in CK games now... XD)

the artwork for the statues of the House of Black and White was amazing

Midjourney definitely delivered there! Feeding it reference pics definitely makes it go above and beyound.

---

Thank you all for still being here! I'm always so happy to see comment, community alive is a precious thing!
Now for some quick personal stuff. I am alive! And even relatively well! And hopefully back for good cause I'm itching to unpause the damn thing XD And that is all for now, please enjoy these delightfully deranged individuals ->

 

[Thaiga]

The Mountain Clans​

Halfman's Horde by Tomasz Jedruszek​

The Mountains of the Moon in the Vale of Arryn are home to a population of people who have rejected the authority of the Eyrie and are independent from the rest of the Seven Kingdoms and its feudal society. The mountain clans or hill tribes are a culture, divided into clans of varying size and strength. They should not be confused with the northern mountain clans who dwell in the mountains north of Winterfell and in their foothills along the shore of the Bay of Ice; the northmen are more respected and their clan chiefs are regarded as petty lords.

During the coming of the Andals to Westeros, some First Men submitted to and intermarried with Andals in the aftermath of the Battle of Seven Stars, but others refused to kneel. The First Men who fled from the fertile Vale proper into the Mountains of the Moon are the ancestors of the modern clansmen.

Even after the Targaryen Conquest, the mountain clans have remained a persistent problem for House Arryn, the Lords of the Eyrie. In 54 AC, Lord Darnold Arryn and his brother, Ser Rymond, were slain when they pursued raiders from the mountain clans into the Mountains of the Moon. Lord Arryn and his sons were killed by the Stone Crows in 97 AC, after which his young daughter Jeyne Arryn became Lady of the Eyrie. In 132 AC, starved by winter, raiders from the Mountains of the Moon descended upon the Vale in large numbers to raid and plunder. Lady Jeyne Arryn, a regent of King Aegon III Targaryen, was forced to leave her office in King's Landing to see to the Vale's defences. Her cousin, Ser Joffrey Arryn, frequently defended the Vale against the clansmen as the Knight of the Gate. When Lady Arryn passed away, Ser Robert Rowan led a royal host to enforce Joffrey as her chosen heir, though his army was attacked nightly by clansmen. His baggage train was frequently attacked by the mountain clans, and eventually Robert and many of his men were killed by falling boulders when the clansmen toppled half a mountainside upon his host. Lord Benjicot Blackwood, who took over Robert's host, later remarked about the tenacity of the starving clansmen.

Due to their First Men blood, the Vale's clans are sometimes called wildlings like the free folk who live beyond the Wall. Akin to many of the free folk, the clansmen also have an egalitarian society, believing that every person's voice, regardless of gender, should be heard during councils. Despite this, clansmen still identify themselves with a first name and the name of their father. Clansmen are fiercely loyal to each other, while some clans share close bonds. Conflicts between the clans are often resolved by payment of blood money and clansmen are quick to settle personal grievances through violence.

There is fierce enmity between the mountain clans and the knights of the Vale, and the clans do not trust the “lowlanders” (the name given by Vale mountain clansmen to people living outside of the Mountains of the Moon). Most of those lowlanders, including some prominent members of the Citadel such as Archmaester Gyldayn, consider the clans primitive and crude. The clansmen live short and savage lives as bandits and outlaws. They are a poor people with poor quality of weapons and armour, wielding stone axes and wooden clubs. They subsist by raiding local villages, small groups of travellers, and still will attack even the Lord of the Eyrie if he is not properly protected. The clansmen ride small horses that are suited to the narrow mountain paths. They take all weapons, grain, and armour they can find, as well as all women, whether they are wedded or not. Some of their women participate in raids. There are now at least three thousand warriors among the clans. However, it has been hundreds of years since the clansmen have threatened the lowlands of the Vale with anything more serious than raids.

Archmaester Arnel listed the most notorious mountain clans in his work Mountain and Vale. These include:

Painted Dogs, one of the oldest clans Burned Men, an offshoot of the Painted Dogs Black Ears Moon Brothers Stone Crows

Milk Snakes Howlers Redsmiths Sons of the Mist Sons of the Tree

There are also smaller clans, usually formed after splitting off from one of the major ones in various feuds, but they rarely last very long before being either re-assimilated back into larger clans or destroyed by the knights of the Vale.

The Painted Dogs​

The Painted Dogs are apparently one of the older clans: according to legend, King Roland I Arryn - grandson of the first Andal High King of the Vale - was slain by the Painted Dogs, which would make their clan thousands of years old. Despite that, still not much is known about their everyday customs. According to some sources, during raids they apparently paint their faces black from chin to eyebrows and ochre on the outer lines and temples. Some even claimed that they also donned caps made from actual dogs’ scalps, with the biggest ears they could possibly find, but that seems a bit too far fetched.

In recent years this particular clan is living through some unprecedented changes. It all started with their previous leader, brave and ambitious man with potentially the most epic name that ever graced these humble pages - Bubdbag the Careless (named so posthumously for the only undeniably poor job he ever did that turned out to be the most important one - raising his sons). Man of notable strategic brilliance and a stubborn nature, Bubdbag was not content with just his slopes near the lands of House Templeton of Ninestars, so he roamed all over the Vale and made meticulous drawings of his surroundings, effectively creating the first officially known map of the Vale produced by one of the clansmen. Upon his return, Bubdbag proclaimed that due to their descent from the First Men of the Vale it was long overdue for the clansmen to be seen as the true Valemen and therefore equal to the lowlanders. Bubdbag opened negotiations and trade with very confused smallfolk of the region and personally invited a couple of especially brave septons to teach him and his family about the customs of “their esteemed neighbours”. He even went so far as to declare himself a Lord. Unfortunately with Lord Bubdbag’s death the fragile equilibrium he miraculously built is once again hanging by a thread. Lord Bubdbag’s son and successor, “Lord” Ronnel, abruptly died just two years after his father.

The current top dog of the clan is Lord Bubdbag’s youngest son, the reclusive “Lord” Mathos. Although he is admittedly respected by his peers, his ruthless and cruel nature is unfortunately a far cry from Lord Bubdbag’s gregarious and equitable disposition and the local population worry that this boy of just eight and ten years will undo everything his dare I say noble father Bubdbag has built.

The Burned Men​

According to some maesters, the Burned Men are seemingly an offshoot of the Painted Dogs that branched off in the years after the Dance of the Dragons. They were said to have worshipped a fire-witch, sending their boys to bring her gifts and risk the flames of her dragon to prove their manhood. Gyldayn suggested this was Nettles and Sheepstealer, his theory later unexpectedly strengthened when the egg was found by Lord Benedict of Strongsong and the dragon Nuqir (ridden by Princess Rhaella) hatched from it.

Whatever their origin, the current Burned Men derive their name from their coming-of-age ceremony in which they mutilate themselves by burning off a body part of their choosing, usually a finger or nipple. The more important the body part burned, the more prestige the warrior gains. They are feared by the other clans because of this practice and mostly tend to live in relative isolation from the other clans.

Red Hands are the war chiefs of the Burned Men. The current Red Hand of the clan is the appropriately fiery-haired man named Kudr. According to the unpleasant reports, in one of the more recent raids he abducted a young woman from the Vale and forced her into marriage.

Since this despicable “union” is yet childless, Kudr’s heirs are his brothers, Skarn the dwarf and Holger the stutter, both yet unmarried.

The Milk Snakes​

The Milk Snakes, a relatively small and obscure clan, was the only clan to briefly tie itself with the Burned Men. This was not to last however and the fledgling union of clans ended with the short-lived marital union of the Snakes’ unfortunately-faced Chief Ardomor and Ferny, daughter of coincidentally another Ardomor, sister of Red Hand Kudr of the Burning Men).

Ugly Chief Ardomor remains unmarried and without an apparent heir since his brother Krammar was implicated in the murder of their father, the previous Chief Gnet the Black. The late Black Chief Gnet was married thrice. His poor first wife Fhella of the Moon Brothers desperately tried to give him a child and perished along with the unborn. Chief Gnet’s hastily acquired second wife Tsori, sister of Lord Bubdbag of the Painted Dogs, gave him two sons (and unfortunately gave her unfortunate face to one of them). When she too had left this mortal plane, the Black Chief raided the lowlands and brought with him two sisters. Perianne, the younger, soon became his wife, while her older sister Jeyne was either made his bedwarmer or her sister’s servant (or both). It is unclear what exactly happened next, but if those sparse accounts that we have are true, then it would seem that Jeyne, not at all content with her position, murdered her captor/brother-in-law in cold blood.

Some sources claim either that she was doing so on behalf of Black Chief’s own son who allegedly had a soft spot for the older woman, or that it was Krammag who was the aid in this plot. However the case may be, it is clear that they both were involved and Krammag even managed to help Jeyne escape from the clan’s lands (possibly abetted by Jeyne’s sister Perianne who apparently knows the land pretty well and even serves her stepson as his chief scout). For his role in patricide and Jeyne’s escape Krammag was gelded and thrown out only to be captured by the Knights of the Vale and sent to the Wall. When the Night’s Watch was disbanded, Krammag managed to slip away in the confusion and is now reportedly raiding with the wildlings that refused to bend the knee even to one of their own.

The Black Ears​

The Black Ears take their name from their custom of taking the ears of men they defeat in battle as trophies, but leave them alive as a sign of shame. For some reason this custom is not seen by other clans as horrendous as those of the Burning Men though so the Black Ears are not isolated. On the contrary, they seem to have close relations with other clans. For example, the current chief of the Ears, Timett the Tolerant, was married to Fechi, daughter of Tolf, the sister of Lord Bubdbag of the Painted Dogs. Unfortunately, their family life was full of tragedy. Both of their sons were not destined to live and poor Fechi took her own life soon after the stillbirth of her second boy. Chief Timett later remarried to a woman from the Vale. Surprisingly, his new wife Oryne did not come into the marriage by force and not even after a raid, but on her own volition. The pair’s union compelled Chief Timett to learn more about and come to terms with the lowlander’s customs and produced two healthy children.

Sadly, the last remnant of Chief Timett’s first marriage, his elder daughter Caga, died in a raid gone horribly wrong (or right, if looked at from the perspective of those being raided). Her uncle-husband (brother of her father, Chief Timett), Ser Stamm, did not remarry, but surprisingly got more into the lifestyle of his wife’s killers. By now he (along with his other brother, Ser Grolf) even got knighted by his new sister-in-law’s father, the last thing the old hedgeknight did before he died.

Ser Grolf himself is also married to a Painted Dog, a woman named Carina, Lord Bubdbag’s daughter.

According to Archmaester Arnel, the Black Ears have long had close ties with the Moon Brothers, but (for some probably long-forgotten reason) refused to share meat and food with the Stone Crows. Some recent developments seriously complicated that situation.

The Moon Crows and the Stone Brothers​

For most of their history, the Moon Brothers and the Stone Crows were two separate clans. Although most of their history is obscure, we know that the Stone Crows are quite an old clan given the fact that in 97 AC they killed the father and brothers of Jeyne Arryn, leaving her to become Lady of the Eyrie.

Two clans became one after the deaths of the Distrustful Chief Helgard of the Moon Brothers and his wife, the Just Chieftess Gnila. Despite being almost complete opposites of one another and Chief Helgard’s extramarital incursions that resulted in a brothel disease that eventually cost him his life (and possibly that of his wife too), the pair stayed together for decades, had three sons together and died less than two years apart.

Instead of splitting the clans between the sons, both groups chose Rhis, the oldest son of the pair, as their joint leader, no doubt driven by his proven physical prowess (much lamented by the nearby lowlanders) and close ties with the strong clan of the Painted Dogs (through his wife Rhea, daughter of Lord Bubdbag and Thesha, latter also being Chief Rhis’ own aunt).

Since the pair does not yet have children, Chief Rhis’ heirs are his younger brothers. Thol, the middle brother, is an acclaimed and formidable fighter. Despite that, he did not get knighted by the hedgeknight he tried to squire in his youth, either because the knight refused due to Thol’s lack of fervour or because the old knight died before he could knight his squire. In one of the clan’s later raids Thol’s younger brother found another drunken hedgeknight dying near the cart he was supposed to protect. In exchange for a quick and clean death the much less talented swordsman acquired the right to style himself as Ser Izgac, much to the annoyance of his older brothers.

The Vanished Clans​

According to Archmaester Arnel, there supposedly must be four more clans somewhere in those Mountains, but our sources could not find even a trace or a whisper about any clansmen that belonged to the Howlers, the Redsmiths, the Sons of the Mist or the Sons of the Tree. It would seem that all four clans were either assimilated into other clans or wiped out by their peers of the Knights of the Vale.

 

[Midnite Duke]

The mountain life is tough. Transportation limits and isolates mountain people. The land is usually less fertile for farming. Thanks for updating

 

[HistoryDude]

It is nice to know more about the Mountain Clans...

The fact that The Painted Dogs are now led by a lord is interesting. Do they control territory on the map? If so, where? Just the Mountains of the Moon?

Will other clans follow The Painted Dogs's example and create a more... settled society?