House Ryswell rules over the extensive lands of the Rills that lie between the Barrowlands and the Stoney Shore. The lands include the rather flat lands to the south and a large part of the mountainrange known as the Rills.
The house has never ruled as first man kings. Instead the house known as Ryder once ruled these lands and even submitted under the Kings of Winter. After a rebelion several milenia ago by the Ryder's the house was extingueshed and the lands granted to the Ryswell's. The Ryswell's are often thought of as a branch family to the Ryders that stayed loyal to the Starks and as such was granted the lands for this deed. Others think the house was founded by a second son Bolton married to the last Ryder woman being granted these lands and as such founding a new family to distance themselves or be distanced to their original family. No family in the north knows the truth on the matter and the family itself quoted different lord of their house saying different thinks depending in the needed puplicity. In any case the family became the uncontested ruler of these lands and rules with a firm hand.
The members of this house often marry with the Boltons and have sometimes supported them in rebelion against their overlords. No Stark that had not married a Ryswell himself or has a sister in the other family with children would take the houses loyalty for granted and suspect deciet and falsehood in their actions. Originally this is believed to come from the close ties they hold to the Boltons but even they are sometimes warry of the house and will question their plans. As such most view them with initial mistrust and even while shaking their hands with them will have a hand on their sword in case something happens.
Even with all of this mistrust placed in them the house has many strong supporters for the Wall and as such is one of the biggest supporters the Nights Watch has in the north. Much of the weath they could have is used to help the men at the Wall protect the north. There is even a legendary tale in the north where a Ryswells son fled from the wall for sanctuary at home only to be personally delivered to the wall by his father to end his watch by being placed inside the frozen wall forever. When it concerns the Wall the family is often instandly taken as trustworthy.
The sigel of the house is a black horse with a shining red mane in a orange background with round edges placed on a black background. Some members of the house take different coloured horses as sigel depending on the relationship to the current lord. Some of these are coloured as grey, brown and gold.
Familie Words: "Swiftly Running"
The words reflect the two aspects of the families descend while also holding an omnious tone when said while going to war. The omnious part comes from the fact that the words promice that the family will come swiftly to fight and destroy the enemy but can also be taken as an admition of using hit and run tactics without shame.
One part of the families word reflect their descand of men living in the Rills. A rill is a swiftly running stream of water. The teritory itself was named after these natural rills that plaster the entirety of the lands in these parts. These rills allow much of their lands to be triwing with wild life and animals for water is in aboundance.
The second part lies in their probable descand of Ryders. The Ryders themselves were known for being exelent horsemen and fielding some of the if not he best northern horses that can often be found running around in their lands wildly. The horses of the house certainly run swiftly and are one of the things anyone would associate with them.
Hold/Keep:
The keep of the family lies where locals would say the plains gate is located. From the start of this keep the mountains of the northern parts of their lands end. Two rivers frame the area where the mountains end and lead the river that rushes down the mountains to the oceans. By these rivers the plains start to open up and right in the middle with equell distance to both rivers by the last of the mountains the keep was build on the side of a mountain. There are none alive that can say why the keep was build on the side and not on the top of the mountain. After all not only is the castle way easier to siege from this laps in judgement but it also opens up the posibility for enemies to build siege equipment on the top of the mountain and shot inside the castle with an ease that is frightening. The castle was build more for looks than defensive abilities some mutter when asked others speculate that there was once a gold mine under the castle and as such needed the defences while most simply agree that the lord that commisioned the castle was simply a simpleton with wast amounts of wealth and none to stear him in a more practical direction.
The castle while not really defensive has another thing that many do wonder about. None know who build the castle. The Ryswell's say that they have simply taken up the castles from the Ryders who lived there before them. Many believe that this is only explained as such because the castle itself is a attrocity against functional castles. Others believe that the builders were the Ryswell's themselves long before their rise in position while some say that the Ryswell's were forced to build it this way by their overlords after they themselfes once rised in rebelion against them. Whatever may have been the case no one will take reposibility for it as it would tarnish the family name with shame.
The castle walls on the mountainside are only 5 meters tall in some places while the ones on the oposite side are more than five times the hight, there are no merticulations by the walls to shoot down on attackers standing close to the wall and a moat even dry never seamed to exist for this castle. Not only this but the castle gates miss a port palice and the walls towers and the main tower and keep are part of the wall for some reason. Visetors often wonder if the castle even has a well or some form of water storrage or if the builders just immagined that the enemy would let them out to fetch some water by the river. To say that this castle would be easy to take is an understatement. Some even wonder if the family truly lives there or just uses it as a front while having a smaler castle to really live in a few miles away.
As the castle is in such horrid conditions the lords of the house tend to have a smaler garrison in a fortefied camp on top of the mountain to at least not be as woulnerable. Even thought the castle is a joke as big as it can get the family refuses to move from it as thought there was something there that warranted protection with their presence. Thought none know what it could be that would force them be there.
While the castle is not defensive and its rather rugged northern build made it at least not a looker for the eyes to anyone passing it certainly is one of the most compfertable castles to visit. Not only has the castle a build in heating system that keeps is at least bearable in winter by burning wood in the cellar, but it also has some of the best rooms a visitor of sufficient rank could immagine. The rooms are painted with breathtaking beautifull murrals and the chairs, tables and beeds have been carved into rather pretty musters. Eye Candy Castle is what most would describe the castle as and as such it is known in the north.
Geography:
The lands of the Ryswell are divided in three distinct areas with onether fourth interwined in another area. This area is a blend of the two and as such can't be clearly defined by any one of the two for larger swaths of land. Adding to this the natural boundaries of the coast and the mostly river based borders and you find yourself in the lands belonging to this house.
Coastlands make up a large part of the border. In fact the Ryswell's have one of the biggest coastal areas in the North. This is one of the destinctive territories of their land. The coast lies on parts in the waters of the Salt Spear but has more lands on the sea known as the Blazewater Bay. The coastal areas are not to well defended and the ironborn use this as a chance to often raide lands in this area, The sparse population in these parts added by the poor defenses mean that these lands are a favourit target of these raiders. The constand danger by this coast means that unlike their eastern neighbours there is no extensive salt producing populace here. Raided villages are a more common sight to see here than the lords wish to admit. Even the fishing vessels are often sunk and can lead to shortages of food while new once are build. The coast itself holds some of the longest continous northern sand beaches. They hold more coarse sand compared to the dornish deserts with fine sand. The lands right by the coast are arable and often the only reason why the people survive by the coast.
The grasslands that could remind one of a more frozen brother of the dothraki sea hold many of the wild heards of horses the lands are known for. Not uncommon for the north is that the lands in this part are neighter fertile nor easily farmable. The ground here is often hard and has many stones in it that can hinder people plowing fiels. The lands are rather lushly decorated with grasslands. Some places have grasses as high as a man while others are more normal to the avarage person. In any case the lands do allow for great grazing grounds for animals and the wild horses make for fine steads once they are tamed. As such the major industry in this part of the land are the horses that can live of the grass. Loads of food is in turn bought in this part of the land because nothing much is grown locally. This is no problem however because even in the south the horses are highly acclaimed and the Reach happily buys the horses and exchanges them for food.
The third and fouth territory are interwined and make up the northern mountains under their controle. This area combines the rills for which the lordship is known for and the mountains holding preciuos metals. The rills often lead to destroyed farms because they carry away the good soil from farmlands. Yet the rills also benefit the land because of the water they carry. The farmes in these parts often have to relocate their fields because of the suddenly forming rills and often lose part of their harvest. This is made up however by the silver that is mined from the mountains. These mountains hold many mines where the metal is found. The imense wealth from this is the reason for a great deal of jelousy.
While mot a teritory by itselv it is woth mentioning that exept for the short land pass to the Tallhart's the lordship is entirely surrounded by water in the form of rivers, lakes and the sea.
Lesser Lords:
To start the list one needs to mention the Destiers. They are one of the most prominent families in the lands because of their large horse breeding farms. They are often said to be a branch family to the Ryders that stayed loyal to them but didn't face extinction after the rebelion. The house breeds some of the largest horses in Westeros that while not the fastest are known for their hardiness and stamina. The houses loyalty has been often secured by marriages of second daughters to them. The house fields some of the norths best cavalry and many of them could match a well trained knight should they meet in a tourney.
The richest of the minor houses are the Adalharts. They own and opereate the largest of the silver mines of the rills. Their wealth can match many of the less wealthy lordships and they are thought to be a silver edition of the Lanisters with more northern routes. Needless to say the house is one of the proudest because of their wealth and one can often see the lords of the house bost with their silver. Because of the silver mines they hold and the production it has they sometimes have marriage ties with the Manderly's that have some of the few northern silversmiths in their city. The lords while proud are not idiots and take great care to secure their livelyhood and lands from bandists and ironborn. It is worth mentioning that the family is far from being the only lords in the rills that mine for silver. They are merrrily the most succesfull and biggest miners in these lands and surpass many of the other lordships in the amount mined several times. Even the mines under Ryswell control have not reached an output close to theirs. This doesn't matter however because the Ryswell's recieves part of the mined silver per law.
Last on our list of important lesser lords in these parts are the Odavacar. The family can trace their ancestry back to the first men and often boast that one of their ancesters married a daughter of the legendary Garth Greenhand. While many would normally laugh at this claim the Meaesters of the citadel could comfirm the claim through some ancient tomes. As such while they are only a minor family their claim of ancestrie has seen them receive political power. Some claim that had the house been still in the Reach they might even rival the famous families there like the Florent's and Redwyne's. Today there are still jokes that the Tyrell's have less noble blood in their veins than a family of northern savages. Needless to say the Tyrell's developed a kind of hate towards them for this.
People:
The lands under Ryswell control count 320.000 people. These live well spread out among their lands and no one region can really claim to have much more people in it than the others. This means that there is no one area where there will be more benefits in living. It is worth mentioning that the foodproduction could not support this many people. Because of this there is a massiv amount of imports from the south in that sense.
The coast while the smales of the named areas still holds about 30.000 people. The coast is massiv and even with the constant tread of the ironborn hold not only fertile fishing grounds but also some of the best farmlands under Ryswell control. The people flock to this area for the independence they can gain from southern imports. Raiders may often cause the people to go hungry for a while but the lands quickly jump back into normal production levels. The diet in this area follows more the traditional northern ways because they have no exports of southern food that dedicated their diet. The more common northern crobs are consumed with the occasional lobsters and clams found with the fishes.
Grasslands make up the biggest of the ares and as such hold some more smalfolk than the other lands. This is merelly the case bacause as mentioned they hold most of the land and the people are equally spread out. This means that there live about 155.000 smallfolk in this part of the land. The diet in these part consist of the meats, cheese and ocassional local grown crob in addition to the southern imports. Bought food means that more southern crobs are brought north for consumption. These crobs often are bigger and have a slightely different taste. As such the cuisine in this part produces a mix between northern hearty food and more elegant southern preperations. As the people here specialise in horse breeding there was once the thought to copy some of the dothraki traditions. From this idea came the tradition to eat horsemeat and prepare it for winter by drying it. Even thought the people here buy much of their food their wealth is nothing to scoff at. After all a well bread horse has a rather high price attached to it.
Lastly there are the mountains and rills. Smaler than the grassland and yet by southern standarts still a massiv piece of land. The smallfolk here has the same density as the other areas but because of its size only has 135.000 peole living there. The men and women here are either living half a nomadic life or have found a save haven where the rills don't erode their lands and continues farming is possible. Either way the farmers here do not produce enough to sustain themselv or the miners that also require food. Because of this the area is hevealy dependent on food imports. Some of the grain brought to their lands comes from as far as the Disputed Lands. The lack of dense forest also means that a good deal of firewood needs to be bought. This need however can be easily dealt with through the Wolfswood and the rivers leading from there to their mountains. Let no one fool you however. The people working in the mine make up the wealthies of these lands and as such the craft of the miner is highly acclaimed in these lands. There were even songs written about the honor there is in mining the earth and freeing its tressures.
Army:
The Ryswells can call on an army of around 3500 thousand men-at-arms. At least this number is often quotet to be their full force. Through all the text about the family it should be clear that the family is often not trusted by any and as such their force is often thought to be better and more numerous than the one they show. With how large the north is many claim the house keeps another force of at least a thousand as a standing army. This force is claimed to be hidden deep in the mountains. After all who would be able to tell how much food is truly bought only for the smallfolk and how much could be spirited away. The house denies these claims thought the silver and its wealth would make it a posibility for sure.
The regular army as some say is composed of some of the norths best horsemen and horses. The riders cetainly are a trained bunch riding through the rills and being used as a fast response unit against ironborn raids on the costal hamlets. The men are equiped with good armour and better weapons bought with the wealth of silver. The other soldiers while not bad aren't worth mentioning as their skill or equipment is in no way exeptional.
Economy:
Imports severely outnumber the exports of the territory. This however is not bad because the worth of the exported goods more than make up for the lack of quantity. There is a great amount of silver and horses floiwing out of the lands. In exchange most of their other needs be they iron, salt, copper, crobs, hides, wool, wood or fish are bought from the other northern lordships and various southern lords. Their biggest trading partners are several reachlords proxy of the Glenmores, the free cities Lys, Myr and Tyrosh as well as the Blackwoods from the riverlands and the Glovers, Slates and Manderlys in the north. While more dependent on other lands than most other lordship they can make a claim to be one of the most connected as well. Something noteworthy is the amount of wealth and goods that flow from the lordship to the Wall. Not only do they buy goods for the Nights Watch but they also make them gifts of castle forged steel and many of the brother that are there and came of their free have come from these lands. For these men their families also send goods from home to make their lives easier on them.