House Slate is like house Cerwyn in many ways. Their keep is also rellatively close to Winterfell and as such they can travel and visit their liege lords easier than most other northern lords. Much like the Cerwyns this house once ruled as first man kings but lost against House Stark. The diference is that unlike them they didn't lose as much land. They managed to keep their ancestral keep on the tip of a river but lost most of their lands in the Wolfswood when they were subjugated. Furtunately a good part of the Wolf's Wood stretches south of this border river.

Like nearly all northern houses they follow the faith of the old gods and have a weirwood tree located in the center of their keep. Thought most lords have stopped holding executions by a weirwood tree as sacrafices for it House Slate has been continuing this tradition. It is said that members of this house can receive green dreams and are often fanatics in their believe in the old gods. As such, even if they are rare in other territories, their lands hold not a single sept but instead a good number of godswoods. Members of this house often marry members of house Reed because of their supposed relation to the children of the forest.

House Slate is one of the few houses that can claim to have a valyrian steel weapon. Even if it only is a hunting knife it is often proudly presented to other lords as even if it is not good for combat it shows a certain amount of wealt and furtune. Many members of the house have hoped to gain some other tidbits of valyrian steel to have the knife reforged into a sword.

The house has been administrated by some of the best lords that the north had to offer in the last centuries. The leaders of the house have often made decisions that in the long term have heavily benefitted their lands. Territories under their control have flourished in more than one way and the house has implemented a form of training to see to it that any member of the house is capable of governing. This includes the female portion of the house that is seen as great advisers to the current lords and sometimes have better access to local rumers. This wise leadership has lead the house to become more of a prominent power among northern houses even thought they hold a rather small lordship. Some even wisper that the Starks may grant them more land from their neighbours if the house continous to raise in power.

Among the many projects that the house has started in these years are the forming of a new town that one day may become as large as White Harbour, a network of roads that quickly seam to become as important as the Kingsroad and have the same quality as well. Then there is the quickly growing library in their new town that allows for those of the north to gain knowledge. The house hates the maesters and as such only hires those that were sponsored by themselves. This project is their hope to become more independent from the maesters. Not to mention the political power they would gain if they could produce a from of northern maester that could be trained in their lands. All these plans for the future are to be looked upon for the house is quickly rising.

The Sigil of their house is a pale grey with a double tressure on it.

Family Words: "Let's start the Hunt"
As they have once held a great deal of lands in the Wolfswood and their keep is still in the forest the family is often known to produce good hunters. The words were apperently created when they were at war with the Blackwoods and they just routed the enemy troupes. The head of the house said these words and ordered the enemy trouped to be hunted down. Since then these were the house words that are as frightening as any other houses. To stay true to their words many members of the house learn how to track in forests at a young age.

Hold/Keep:
Castle Blackpool is one of the more impresive northern castles. Not only is it build completely from stone its position in the middle of the water source that turns into a river makes for both a hindrance for enemys but also supplies save clean water in case of a siege. In fact because of its position it is only attackable from the entrance or if the enemy is dedicated from some sort of newly build bridge for a siege or by trying to fill the river with dirt. Both are rather diffecult when you get harrased by archers and a flowing water washing away a god deal of material used for filling normal moats. In fact the castle is known to be cabable of withstanding enemy sieges with only 20 to 40 men for prolonged periods of time. With the ever present tread of winter sieges on this castle have often been lifted by the weather and not a reinforcing army. The hardest part of living in this castle is said to be when it storms and the water can't properly flow of into the river. Such cases are rare but are known to exist.

Historycally the castle has been build with stone mined in the northern mountains and shipped along the White Knife to be used on the construction side. While there are viable local sources of stone that could have been used in the building a marriage to a clan in the northern mountains meant easy and cheap access to better quality stone cut by men with a great deal of expertise in it. Because of this there is still an inscribtion in the castles stone about the hope that both families will forever be allies to one another. The clan in questions has been wiped out in a particularry harsh winter but the inscribtion stayed as a memmory to their old allies.

Geography:
The lands under the family have tree different farcets. For one there is the part of the Wolfswood that is stretching into their lands. It is mostly a pine forest and gives a great deal of protection from snow to its inhabitants. Because of this the villages in the forest can even in winter travel between each other and exchange materials that they are in desperate need of. This part of the forrest holds a great deal of small game that can be caught with traps. Some of the bigger game such as deers can also be found thought bears are rather rare and so are hogs as well. Between the riverbanks and the forest are not only good farming lands but also hold fish and eels. A great deal of wood cutting takes place there as well. As such these parts of the forest are bursting with live. A common dish in these parts is fish backed in a slew of local herbs with a side of bread and a paste of wild berries. This region is pretty wealthy and some smalfolk even buy spices from White Harbor for a little luxery in their lives.

The second facet can be found between the western tributary of the White Knife and the King' Road. These lands are much like the Cerwyn and Stark lands and are rather fertile. Because the regions close by already produce more than needed these lands have taken to not sell overproduction of wheat but instead refine it into beer. The beer from this region is then sold all allong the White Knife and its tributaries. While not the biggest or the best producer of alcoholic bewerages in the north the local production is still a major industrie of the area.

The last area are the flatlands not along the river on the other side of the King's Road. While certainly fertile these lands also hold a great deal of animals that can be left outside to graze. It is not uncommon for the people in these parts to have several cows, sheep, goats and chickens. What makes these lands and the territory really special and wealthy is the well maintained paved road between the river that empties in the great lake inside the Tallhart lands and the Kingsroad. A great deal of goods that instead would need to be taken around Westeros by ship can be transported over this road and arrive faster in White Harbor than on ship. Along this road, that is as rare as a sept in the north, much gold changes hands. While the village by the river has not yet become a town like Barrowton it is well underway to grow as big as it in the next few years. Some even jokingly said it should be named Black Harbor if it keeps growing like this.

Lesser Lords:
House Azul has a castle at the most southern point of Slate lands. The keep they have there is an essential defence that protects large tracks of land behind it. Often it is said to be one of the two most important castle in house Slate lands. After all any army coming from the south needs to take this castle first to secure supply lines. The house as such has a rather marshally touched nature and produces some of the territories more capable commanders.

House Crown has the other important castle. It is build along the Kingsroad and is to the eastern parts what house Azul's castle is to the south. In addition the road going through the territory to the river merges with the King's Road by this castle. House Crown was named as such because they were evelated by house Slate when they retrieved the Slates crown from an enemy king that stole it.

Another important house is a branch of the Slate family named Woodslate. The branch of the family functions as the stewards of the quickly growing city. While not formelary named as the owners of these lands they have been its stewards for close to a hundred years. It is not heditary but still there was not one steward not of this family.

People:
The population under house Slate is actually nearly equally divided among their lands. As such there are no parts that remain unsettled or have a overpopulation compared to other parts. While the diet warries depending where you live the rather good road network that is in place allows for a great deal of goods passing into all parts of their lands. As such fish from the larger rivers is easy to get even in more inland regions and wood from the northern forest is processed even in the rather plain like south. The population is certainly wealthy comparetd to their counterparts in other northern or even southern areas. Low taxes even make people move from other lords lands into theirs. When living in the north the lands around Blackpool are certainly one of the best places to live. Getting lands in that part of the territorie is rather contested. With around 190.000 people their lands are rather thickly settled and are even still growing in number.

Army:
House Slate can raise about more men than house Cerwyn with around 2500 troupes. Unlike the lands under Cerwyn they have less of a martial culture in these parts and as such less men jump at the chance to fight. Still these numbers are rather impressive if you consider that they pick up the slack of house Cerwyn and actually have about 1000 Horsemen among these soldiers. The horsemen are even rather good armored and in peace times patrol the land and are because of this even rather well trained and experienced in charging agains living targets.

Another preciality of them is their mace infantry. These men are often mixed among the other northern soldiers to deal with heavy armoured oponents that meet the line in combat. Sometimes these men will be used as a shock infantry that circles around their own line to charge in the sides of their enemies.

Economy:
The economy on these lands is based mostly on the production of food, wood, processed varients of these two, to a lesser part hides and in front of all others the use as a major trade center that can easily link trade coming from the west to the east in White Harbor. As such people here are rather good haglers, have a good number of ins and brothels as well as many market places where goods passing through are bought and traders take with them local produce. This makes the region into one of the few places where a large amount of coin can be found instead of goods that are then exchanged. Being among the wealthiest in the north makes many of the other lords into possible allies because they seek to gain this coin and the trade with their help.