House Ryswell

House Ryswell of the Rills is a noble house in The North ruling the Rills, the extensive area between the barrowlands and the Stony Shore in the north.

Their sigil is a black horse's head, eyes and mane red, on bronze within a black engrailed border. Members of the house have been known to personalize their arms with horseheads of different colors - notable in recent history with Brandon Ryswell and his family using white.

300-301 AC - The Second War of Conquest
After the dramatic change in fortune that the Red Wedding brought, House Ryswell is quick to support the Boltons as Warden of the North due to grievances with House Stark over the failed marriage attempts for Barbrey Ryswell.

During the Battle of Winterfell, the deep winter snows neutralized any advantage the Ryswell cavalry hoped for. The fighting is fever-pitched, with the Northmen attempting to repel the southern invaders. House Manderly's presence within the ranks of Stannis Baratheon was a curious sight to Lord Ryswell, but the battle was too intense to truly consider the circumstances. When the war horns of the newly arrived Vale forces sounded, the weary forces under Roose Bolton attempted to reorganize, but their efforts were in vain. The combined forces severed the Bolton battle lines, quickly ending the battle, and the lives of Rickard ad Roose Ryswell.

After the battle, Lord Ryswell was quick to reaffirm fealty to Jon Stark. Long remembering the rumors of Ramsay Bolton poisoning of his aunt Bethany, Roger Ryswell and nearly one-hundred cavalrymen join in the pursuit of the Bastard of Bolton. Battle was joined under the horrific sight of the flayed bodies of Rickon Stark and Davos Seaworth. Ramsay's tactic to provoking the pursuing army worked, but so to did it cause them to fight with greater fury. After the decisive victory, Roger personally witnessed the just execution of Ramsay Bolton by Jon Stark, but so to did he see the White Wolf's fury as his sentence extended to the rest of the Bolton males. Only recently back under the Stark banner, Roger looked on with horror as Jon set about eradicating all remaining trace of the Boltons.

326-329 AC - The Winter of the Wolves
The winter that gripped the land was harsh even by Northern standards. The Rills weren't spared from the wave of banditry that gripping the region. Inspired by The Thorns of Winter, desperate peasants and hopeless soldiers flocked to the hills in greater numbers than ever before. It took the better part of two years of dedicated effort for the Ryswell forces to end the bandit threat.

327-332 AC - The Third War of the Kraken
There was barely any warning of the coming wave of pillage and slaughter that would envelop the North - it was only a raven from House Flint that gave the houses on the Blazewater Bay any time to prepare. Lord Harwin Ryswell gathered his troops while the meager fleets of Flint and Dustin were sent to bottom of the sea. Fearing an invasion of their neighbor through the now defenseless bay, he took a large part of the army east to assist House Dustin. After arriving to the entirely peaceful Barrowlands, the Lord of the Rills received word that the Ironborn had turned north to raiding the lands he had just left. Marching back through the deep snows of winter was an exhausting affair, but the army eventually returned home only to find find looted villages and burnt corpses. Worse still, the Ryswell heir was slain in a desperate attempt to fend off the seaborn raiders.

Furious over the death of his son and his inability to catch up to the Ironborn, Lord Ryswell wrote Lord Stark seeking an organized response. Being told to wait for the end of winter enraged the Lord as he was eager for revenge, but wait he did - instead taking his fury out on the bandits continuing to plague his lands. So brutal were his attacks that banditry was nearly unheard of in the Rills for the next seventy years.

Once the winds of winter abated, Harwin was one of the first bannermen to answer the rallying call of Lord Stark. Waiting for the rest of the Houses to gather was a restless affair for the Lord of the Rills, but once the host set out he rode proudly near the front, uncaring of the slowly melting snow drifts slowing the pace. However, at the Battle of the Ironshod's Anvil, Lord Harwin Ryswell met his end in the midst of the Northern charge that ultimately broke the Ironborn defenses. Leaderless and weakened, the remaining Ryswell troops followed along with the Starks for the remainder of the war. Ultimately victorious, the survivors worked out their grief by dismantling the very symbol of the King of the Northern Seas at Nagga's Point.

For their efforts in the war, House Rywell was awarded five of the captured longships. It was a bittersweet prize to present to the new Lord of the Rills, who was still a young boy.

342-344 AC - The Northern Intercession
Though many in the North were grumbling about the building of the Winter Palace, House Ryswell voiced support for peaceful relations with the Targaryens. Lord Domeric Ryswell had become head of house in the midst of war, and he wasn't keen to rekindle those flames. Likewise, the taint of destruction was everywhere as he researched his House's history. Feeling strongly that the other lords were all too eager to spill blood, he made sure to speak his mind at the Dragon's Court in Winterfell.

It was much to Domeric's surprise the interest Helaena Targaryen showed in Northern culture. As she toured the various holdfasts, he laid out every pleasantry for her at Castle Ryswell. He was as enraptured by her as she was in the detailed history he gave her on House Ryswell. He made sure to tell the full story, especially the parts he was ashamed by - such as his House's actions after the Red Wedding. Their time together was all too short for Domeric's liking, but the memories of her stuck with Domeric for the rest of his life. It was a bittersweet feeling for him attending the banquet to celebrate her pregnancy. While he was happy that she was in a loving marriage, he secretly fantasized about her becoming thick with his own child. He made sure to wish her well before she left the North, never to return.

It was of little surprise to Domeric when Brandon the Black raided the Winter Palace, he knew it was only a matter of time before somebody tried to make an example. While he expected the raid, the assassination attempt took things to a level he never predicted. After Brandon's flight, Domeric led a host of Ryswell cavalrymen to answer his liege lord's summons. He had seen the awesome form of Starfyre when Helaena made her tour, but the sight of Viserion leading the force was something else entirely.

As the two Stark armies faced each other, it came as a great surprise when Brandon surrendered himself. Domeric was certain the great winged terror's presence was the deciding factor. He knew the Black Wolf would be executed, but the sight of dragon fire boiling the man's flesh was one that would haunt his dreams for years to come. He had experienced both the heavenly beauty of the dragon, as well as the raw ferocity.

392-394 AC - The Great Famine
The North hadn't seen a food shortage this intense since the time of The Winter of the Wolves, and memories of that period great unrest did little to calm the nerves of starving peasants. The Rills had been free of the threat of banditry for years due to the brutality of Harwin Ryswell seventy years prior, but the desperation of The Great Famine drove many to a life of crime - anything for a chance to eat.

It was a critical time for the new Lord, Cleyton Ryswell. He had assumed leadership of his House only two years prior and the bandits in the hills were proving to be far more formidable than anticipated. Despite his best efforts, he was unable to drive them from his lands. Worse still, the bandits to the east did the unthinkable and murdered Lord Stark. Faced with such fierce resistance, Cleyton held on as best he could. If not for several mistakes made by the local bandits, such as the Battle of the Bloody Ravine, House Ryswell would have been in a poor position to answer the Stark's call to clear the greatest pockets of resistance in the Barrowlands.

The fighting that gripped the land was the sort that no songs would be sung about, or the kind that was told in noble tales. By the time the Northern host reached its target, the most hardened of outlaws had already fled. What followed was more massacre than battle, as the organized Northern armies made swift work of the starving peasants.

Despite eventually overcoming the hardships, House Ryswell itself felt the effects of the Great Famine. Not only had a newborn daughter died due to lack of food, but Erena Ryswell fell ill due to malnourishment, eventually dying in 395 AC. Not even the well-trained Maesters in White Harbor could bring her back.

396-402 AC The War of the Three Thieves
News of King Aenar's fall spread like wildfire in the North. Hearing the call to raise the banners from Lord Stark, Rodrik Ryswell, the heir of the Rills led a force of Ryswell soldiers to join the gathering armada at White Harbor. Once there, he joined his uncle Brandon who was the Master-at-Arms for White Harbor. The two barely knew each other, if not for the funeral of Erena Ryswell it would have been fifteen years since their meeting. Though they were uncle and nephew, the two became brothers in arms enduring the same horrors of war.

Their first engagement was in The Battle of the Gulf, a fight so intense that both Ryswell's were already sick of war by its end - though it was only the first in a long string of destructive horrors. The Kindling, The Battle of the Broken Arm, Ormollen's Pyre; each battle further scaring the Ryswell men with the myriad of atrocities committed by man and dragon alike.

When the royal fleet reach Grey Gallows, the hope for the Ryswell soldiers was that the fighting was nearly over. Compared to the grand battles past, the siege of the island was a limited affair with unopposed success from the Westerosi forces. That was until the blue demon Arranax appeared. It was pure luck that the dragon's path of carnage avoided the Ryswells, but many that day weren't as lucky. Rodrik and Brandon watched with horror as scores of men suffered the same fate Brandon the Black had suffered fifty years earlier, but that day they learned that no story could ever do the sight justice. Even though Maekar heroically defeated the blue demon, the men of House Ryswell could never look at dragons the same way again.

On the return home neither man spoke about the troubles on their mind. Each had much to say, but no way to say it.

402 AC - The Defiance at Long Lake
No sooner than the disembarking in White Harbor were the Ryswells faced with their next conflict. While in the past Lord Stark had taken time to call his banners to him before acting, in this instance they were already there - albeit weary.

The march was miserable, the men wanted nothing more than to head home. They had grown accustomed to the warmth of the Stepstones, and the air in the North was frigid. The battle was little more than a slaughter, with the battle-hardened men making quick work of those who defied the Starks. The return home proved deadlier than the battle, with newly descending snows blanketing the land and those to weak to continue.

A Tale of Tragedy
One of the harshest winters on record began with tragedy for the House. Seeing his father disembark only to immediately leave again, young Rickon Ryswell escaped the grasp of his mother, Lyra to chase after the man. In the confusion of the departing army, Rickon was able to pass out of White Harbor unnoticed. So to was his panicked mother unable to get assistance in her desperate search, opting to follow her son instead of waiting to find help.

As she followed the footsteps laid in the quickly falling, she was horrified to find that he fallen down a steep river bank, badly breaking his leg during the fall. Acting on instinct, Lyra needed to get down to him immediately. Descending down the bank proved too difficult though, and she lost her footing. While Rickon had slid down the bank attempting to slow his fall, his mother's momentum caused her to tumble uncontrollably instead. Whether due to simple bad fortune, or a cruel sense of humor on the part of the Gods, Lyra's fall was broken not by her legs, but by her neck - instantly killing her. As the winter winds howled, Rickon's final screams were lost to history.

Brandon Ryswell was looking forward to spending as much time as he could with his family, returning home from not only the brutality at Long Lake, but also six long years of war. It had been nearly ten years since his daughter Barbrey died in the cradle, and he was eager to make up for it with his son Rickon. Though when he got home, only his teenage son Jon was there. He searched all day around town with the wildness of a stallion, his muscled ached from years of burden but he paid it no heed. It took a trio of guards to calm him enough to convince him that searching at night would accomplish nothing with the blizzard that was rolling in. The next day they began their seearch, but it wasn't until nearly a week later when the corpses were found - Rickon frozen to his mother in an ghastly embrace.

The Champion of Glass
After Rodrik's return home, he became closer than ever with his horse. He found the stoic demeanor of the beast comforting when the dark thoughts from the war returned - which they often did. Despite the harshness of The Scarlet Winter he did his best to ride everyday. Riding through the thick snows and icy roads was a challenge, but he was fortunate to have a solid steed to support his efforts.

Several months later, word reached him of the White Knife freezing over and that House Manderly was hosting great tournaments and races on the frozen waters. Rodrik took his chances and entered. The time he had spent clearing his mind on his horse had payed off, as he handled the icy race better than any other competitor. He performed well in the other horsing events, but his triumph in the race was the news that stuck.