Houses of the North

by Saber Shishika

There are many houses in the north yet not much is known about many of them. In this book written by a southern master is a short overview about many of the northern houses, the land under their control and the people living upon it as well as their vassals. It was written so that southern lords can read up about their northern neighboors in a few minute time.

2. House Stark of Winterfell

Just a little recomidation for anyone that hasn't seen it yet. Watch Shadiversitys video on Winterfell. He build the entire thing in Sketch Up and it looks stunning.

The Starks are one of the oldest families of Westeros. They claim descendance from the high king Garth Greenhand who allegedly lead the first man into Westeros. After the extinction of house Gardener and the usurpation of the Durrandon's the house can claim to be the oldest still existing family in Westeros. This claim brings much honour to the house as it speaks well about their military, political and economic power even if the south often tends to ignore the North and their claims.

Over the centuries of their rule there have been many famous members of this house. Brandon „The Bloody Blade" Stark is claimed to be Garths son and killed so many monsters/people that a lake in the Reach had to be renamed as the red lake. The first Stark who was mentioned as a king was Brandon „The Builder" who had built the Wall, Storm's End as well as the Hightower of Oldtown. There were many lord Starks who accomplished great deeds and are remembered till today by their descendance. Men, such as Brandon „The Breaker" , Theon „The Hungry Wolf" and Walton „The Moon King" are remembered as great kings and conquerors while kings such as Torrhen „The King who Knelt" were remembered as the rather poor kings. Yet even they still managed to hold the North under their control. Over many wars they managed to gain the allegiance of the entire North and have often married the daughters of defeated enemies to form bonds with them. In this time, they were called the Kings of Winter or King of the North. These were exchanged to Warden of the North after the Targaryen conquest of Westeros.

While it is no longer known how or when the house received the sword, they have one of the rare Valyrian steel swords in their ownership. The blade was named Ice and has replaced the previous ancestral sword of the same name. A great sword that fits the image of the brute northerner is the form of the sword. It is undecorated with any direwolf symbols missing and meticulously taken care of by the household leaders.

The house follows the faith of the old god's and holds the custom of burying dead members in their crypts. Lords of the house receive a statue in their likeliness while other members of the family rarely receive this honour. The statues will have statues of direwolfs lying at their feet and a sword is put on their lap to let the spirits rest.

Starks are known to have long faces, grey eyes as well as brown hair. They are known for either their melancholy and iciness or their wildness that is also known as „Wolf's Blood". By having married wargs some Starks have magical abilities hidden in them. The wildness of the Wolf's Blood is often attributed to their founder and his rather bloody tale but also held responsible for the Starks managing to conquer the entire North.

The Sigel of House Stark knows many renditions though the direwolfs form always stays the same in any of them. In the one chosen for this book the direwolf head is looking to the right and is portrayed in shades of grey, black and white. It is sitting on a background that is split in two. The top half is in beige and the bottom half is in a mat green.

Family Words: "Winter is Coming"
Many meanings can be taken from the words often spoken like a mantra. A more common interpretation is the linking of it with the wetter itself. As such it is often said as a reminder that one must always prepare for the uninventable, the winter that is sure to come. Because of this it is often credited as one of the few words that are not a thread or a boast of might.
Yet it can also be taken in a more unusual way by saying it as a thread. After all the Starks were once the Kings of Winter and as such Winter is Coming can be said as a real thread because the king will come with his armies to fight. This interpretation became more uncommon because the title of Kings of Winter had to be given up after the conquest.

Hold/Keep:
Winterfell is the ancestral castle and seat of power used by House Stark and is considered to be the capital of the North. It is located in the centre of the northernmost province of the Seven Kingdoms. The Kingsroad passes by to the east of the castle but has a road coming of it that would take one to Winterfell should one desire so. The Kingsroad from Winterfell will either go north to the Wall or go south to Kings Landing and continue on to Storms End. It lies by the eastern edge of the Wolfswood and a river creatively named the Wolf Blade goes up right to the castle and would lead one to the White Knife if sailed long enough. The forest provides the wood for heating and the river the fresh source of water for the castle and its inhabitants. It lies to the south of the northern mountains and southwest of the Long Lake. The rough distance to Deepwood Motte would be around 500 kilometres if there existed a straight road between them.

Winterfell is a huge castle complex spanning several acres and protected by two massive walls. Both walls have a moat before them even if there is no water flowing through it. There exist four gates into these walls. They are known as the only direct entrances to the complex and are always well guarded or even simply closed off to anyone.

Outside of the walls some way down the hill there lies Winter Town. This town is often only truly inhabited when winter is coming and the smallfolk need a truly warm place to hole up in for winter. Often large groups of people will travel to Winterfell for this chance to survive winter. Under Winterfell are warm springs that even in summer produce warm mist from the wells. The Starks in a move of unprecedented engineering ability and ingenuity have managed to get the water pumped throughout the castle walls and as such secured a pleasantly warm keep even in the coldest of winters.

This has often helped the family because they lost less members of their house than any other with the pleasant temperature of their castle. This was even used to produce one of the biggest wonders of the north. The glass gardens call Winterfell their home and are one of the few if not only existing glass houses in the world. Warm Water is pumped into the glass garden that in turn can even in winter produce fruits that would normally not survive in the cold north. This constant source of food even in winter has often led to other houses receiving some food from house Stark in winter to help them survive. These houses often grateful for such action in turn would often stay more loyal to the house in turn for their generosity.

The castle grounds include a three-acre forest with the local heath tree that the lords can use to practise their religious practices. The forest has some wild life in it and even a pond right by the hearth tree. This place can often be used as a recreational space by the lords and a little place to gather some peace and quit before once again doing their duties.

Inside the walls, the complex is composed of dozens of courtyards and small open spaces. Weapons training and practice take place in those yards. The inner ward is a second, much older open space in the castle where archery practice takes place. It is located next to the broken tower. Inside Winterfell stands the inner castle, which contains the Great Keep and the Great Hall.

The outer wall is eighty feet high, while the inner is one hundred feet high, with a wide moat between them. There are guard turrets on the outer wall and more than thirty watch turrets on the crenelated inner walls. The great main gates have a gatehouse made of two huge crenelated bulwarks which flank the arched gate and a drawbridge that opens into the market square of the winter town.

There is a narrow tunnel inside of the inner wall stretching halfway around the castle, allowing travel from the south gate all the way to the north gate without interruption. This tunnel often reminds the world of the age of the castle and the secrets it holds and even the denizens of the castle could have forgotten over the ages.

Geography:
While Winterfell lies in the centre of the north along the Kingsroad its lands are more spread out. Beginning in the west at Sea Dragon Point, and the three islands of its coast, ending in the east at the White Knife. The lands under them spread nearly through half the north. The spread of north to south is significantly smaller as the southernmost tip is several kilometres up the White Knife from its biggest tributary. To the north their lands' end at the end of the Long Lake and snakes through the woods lying west of it to the hills going south from the northern mountains.

The lands from Winterfell to the lands of the Cerwyn's and the First Knife up to the forest that lies by the Long Lake is considered the most fertile land under direct Stark control and produces most of the food consumed by Winterfell and Winter Town. The lands yield good harvests of beans, wheat, barley and several types of corn. It is also one of the few lands capable of growing fruits and produces a great deal of northern plumps and peaches. A great deal of trading takes place in this area as it lies on the First Knife and on parts on the White Knife. Both are shippable rivers that play a major role in northern trade. Add to that the Kingsroad as one of the rare good northern roads and many traders pass through these lands to the north of Winterfell including the Winter Hills and the lands to the edge of the Long Lake Forest are still considered arable but have lower yields than those of the south and instead of fruits grow a large fields of vegetables. Instead of farming many families in these parts have a greater deal of animals such as pigs that they graze on the more bountiful growing grasses of the area and use the manure to help offset some of the disadvantages of settling here. The Winter Hills are known to produce a good yield of iron as well as a rather meagre amount of salt that is used to preserve the pig meat that in addition to beans is used to survive the long winters. The iron of these mines is used to forge some of the swords, armour and horseshoes that the Stark troops need but most of it is used as iron for a rather mundane purpose such as nail and tools for working the land.

The largest part of the east is part of the Wolfswood. These lands don't provide any large or good farmlands or even grazing lands to the Starks but are one of their more valuable territories. At least if the ruling Stark is a clever and capable one. These forests are full of wildlife from wild fowls, foxes, beavers, bears, wolfs, bears, moose's, rabbits to boars and squirrels. Thought it is considered slightly dangerous, mostly because of the wolfs and bears, hunting in these woods is highly profitable as the hides and leathers sell for good coin and the red meat is favoured by many from smallfolk to lords and even if none want to buy it makes for a good food source. If you add to that the wild berries and mushrooms as well as eatable roots and bark of trees the forest provides and many rather small villages can form in these woods and life rather well. It is also important for the Starks as these forests not only provide wood that can be sold to the south but also because the wood cut here is used to heat homes in the cold climate. As the southern lands hold only smaller forest much of the cut wood is sold to them and keeps them close to the Starks influence.

As you follow the Wolfswood up to Seadragon Point the forests grows less dense and the ground rockier. Because of this these lands are not as well protected from the cold winds coming south from the lands of always winter and these lands lose much of the rather small harvest that one grows in these lands. Because of this the people living here are mostly known for raising sheep and goats. The wool from the sheep is used to produce thick clothing to protect from the winds and the goats give milk to the people that make a large amount of butter and cheese from these and exchange them for crops or pay with them as tax. The meats of these animals are one of the main dietaries produces for the people living here. The waters around Sea Dragon Point are rich in lobsters, eels, clams and several types of fish but the number of fishing villages is rather small because of repeated Ironborn raids. These lands are favoured by Ironborn raiders because the hidden coves give easy access to the land and hide the ships while the largest part of the men-at-arms is located closer to Winterfell and can't protect the smallfolk.

The lands south of Seadragon Point are one of the thinnest settled in the north because these lands are not only plagued by Ironborn but also because much of it is considered a wet region that is often partially under water after the winter snow melts. As such only few people make a living here by cutting up some peat and producing pottery from it. As these lands don't provide much in the way of arable fields the smallfolk here is often forced to migrate to Winter Town to survive the Winter and is all in all rather poor compared to even less wealthy regions such as bear isle. The only lands even less well of are the three isles under Stark control of the coast. The southernmost isle isn't even settled and sometimes the Ironborn use it as a base of operation to raid along the coast. The other two islands receive as much cold wind as the lands of Seadragon Point but have no trees to protect them. Because of this these islanders are considered as not even worthy to raid by the Ironborn. A small boon to the islanders to be sure and the only reason why any manage to live here.

Lesser Lords:
No noble can truly administrate his holdings on his own. Because of this the lords of Winterfell have minor nobles that have smaller holdings with keeps inside of their lands. These are different from bannerman in the sense that they have no real power over their domains. While a lord Bolton might decide to not honour a call to arms the same can't be done by lesser lords. These men have often a small castle and are tasked with collecting tax, keep the king's peace and if the lord calls for it raise man for the armies. These positions are often held by knights in the southern lands but the north gives these positions to their most trusted or man who have distinguished themselves in the times of war. They are lesser masters and as such are referred to as master. The Starks have, because of the size of their territory, several such lesser or minor lords. Some of the more well-known and their locations will be listed below.

The most well-known lesser lord bears the family name Cassel and has been a trustworthy vassal for centuries. Many Starks have trusted Cassels with their lives. The Cassels have traditionally held the position of master-at-arms in Winterfell itself, while younger members work their way up by being the captains of the guard. Because of the need to have them close by the keep of Kassel is only half a day's ride north of Winterfell. The Cassels have specialised in the production of a local type of processed pig meat often enjoyed with bread when breaking the fast.

Another House that is similar to this are the Poole's. They unlike the other houses are more specialised in being stewards and administrators. They claim descendance from a former merchant that once helped the Starks and was rewarded lands for this. As such knowing their numbers and keeping a clean register are skills learned by most if not all in the family. They own a small keep along the river that goes up to Winterfell with a rather large village for the north through which much of Winterfell's river trade comes. As such even for such a small family they have a rather sizable income and as administrators to the Starks hold their good will and ear as much as the local Maester has. Their political influence is rather sizable because of this.

House Ironsmith is as the name nearly says a house uplifted from former smiths. An ancestor of them was one of the if not the first northern ironsmith when the Andals came with the technology. For this they were granted this boon. The house controls lands in the Winter Hills and produces a big number of ironworkers in their lands. Members of the family are known to still be teached the old craft by their fathers as they believe it helps build character and strengthens the body as well as mind. Often, they will be at the front with their man-at-arms in any battle.

House Condon is a prominent family of lesser lords located in the Wolfswood and is neither known for their martial strength nor their quick brains but rather because a member of the family once sat on the small council as the lord commander of the king's guard. Living in past glories has been all they did for a long time afterwards and even still some do today. Thought some of the house have tried to lake up the sword to be like their ancestor.

The last prominent house worth mentioning is House Peston that lives at the Sea Dragon Point. Unlike other lesser lords these have only a minute amount of contact with their overlords and acts rather independent compared to others. They are also one of the few northern houses that places a great deal of worth on sailing and it is known that they more so than others trade with House Mormont and attack Ironborn raiders coming north.

People:
The lands of the lord of Winterfell total to about 715.000 smallfolk. The exact number is not known to them since many villages are left abandoned after winter and a continuous tracking of citizens is impossible in these lands. The rough estimate should be smaller than the real number because the Starks as they are made rather conservative estimates about their populace. The citizens are roughly divided between five territories.

The fertile lands in Winterfell's south are the most densely populated under the Starks. There live around 250.000 people from the smallest of the four territories. This is because the most farmlands are located in these parts. The people here are often said to be not only the wealthiest of the north but also have the easiest lives of any. After all, even the least well of have no problem with food or firewood and the trade as well as closeness to the Starks has a whole range of advantages.

To the north in the hills and grasslands the population reaches 180.000 but compared to the southern territory it is nearly double the size. Most smallfolk here live from pigs and the less fertile land and if it were not for the lucrative work in the Winter Hills and the trade passing there because of the Winter Bridge and the town across the river. Much the same can be said about the people living here as the ones in the one before.

The Wolfswood is the largest territory and the thinnest settled at the same time. While the lands are lucrative and population could be higher it is difficult to amass any significant number of man close together if your livelihood depends on hunting and gathering. So, while many would love to life here the number that can be supported by the land is too small to support to many more, or at least that is what the Starks believe and because of this limit more settling on the land. There are around 200.000 smallfolk living there.

The territory with the second least man living in it is the territory of Sea Dragon Point. Only about 70.000 people live on lands that could easily support trice times the number if a big fleet would protect fishing vessels and the right animals were kept. The people in the end have no protection from these raiders but developed a deep hate for them as a result. The people here are prouder than most other in the north for they survive in harsh lands and make it work for them.

The least settled lands are the wetlands with just 15.000 people living in lands larger than the first mentioned territory. They also are the poorest of all the Starks smallfolk.

Armies:
The Starks would be able to call for 7000 men-at-arms were it not for the spread-out nature of their lands and the need to call for man fast and march in the time frame of a few days. Usually they will only be able to call up 4000 man and take them south in the time frame given to them. These men are often conscribing from the southern farmlands and equipped by steel from the north that add a small amount of man as well.

While the north usually has an army composition of one horseman to four man-at-arms the Starks have one horseman to three men-at-arms. The soldiers themselves often wear mail or leather armour and either use a shield sword combination or a one-handed axe with a shield. Some man is known to instead carry a one-handed Warhammer to better deal with heavy armoured knights. Stark man usually wears mail armour under a thick leather armour. They have for the most part a round shield with swords or an axe in the other. The horseman wears the same armour as the infantry with a polearm to use in a charge as the only real change up for them. Bowman from the Stark territories are known to be rather useless unless used in greater number together with cavalry.

Economy:
The economy of house Stark is one of the best in the entire North. Their centre position in the lands mean that lots of trade in the North naturally goes their way. As the centre of the political power the lordship itself has the best conditions for development. The lord's paramount is often more able to sway the king in their favour and gain support for developing their lands. In addition, there are the taxes from the other territories that naturally flow into the land and add to the wealth of the lord that can then spend it to build more or better infrastructure.

The position from the geographical point of view is important as well. Having build their centre of power in the heart of the North means that there are no raiders that would be able to easily get to their most valuable lands. The White Knife and its shippable tributaries are a blessing to the house as well as most of the northern trade does follow this river and as such does fill their coffers. Then there is the best road that the north has in form of the Kingsroad. This road is the most travelled of the north and its parts under Stark control are often used with great care. As such their geography protects them but also allows for superb access to trade. In addition to this their control over a large part of Westeros largest forest gives them more lumber than they could ever need. This means that the house has a great deal of the most sought after good from the North as well as the means for easy transport and thanks to the rivers even the possibility to make more easily transportable planks from them.

Aside from all these advantages one cannot simply ignore the most glaring advantage the house has over others in the economic sense. They have one of the few territories that produces more food than the people need and can sell any overproduction to their neighbours that otherwise would buy their foodstuff from the southern kingdoms. This means less spending on a basic need and more money that can be spend on other goods that in turn better spread their wealth around.

The house has as such one of the highest trade benefits of the north as they export more that they import and because of this are better able to keep and amass wealth in form of coin, metals and goods such as spices. The house while even extremely wealthy by southern standard has been mostly administrated by cautious spenders and has as such one of the fullest treasuries of any kingdom.