The Hightower Affair

The Hightower Affair was a series of arrests, trials, and consequent executions that occurred from mid 433 A.C. to late 433 A.C. Such an event occurred beneath the diligent eye of Lord Arthur Hightower soon after his return to Oldtown from the Capital, and saw the wholesale removal of what was coined "the Cult of Oldtown".

The series of consecutive trials that came to form a large and important stage in the Hightower Affair did so find the accused guilty of the many heinous crimes brought against them so, even if they were rather swift moving trials.

Discovery of Betrayal
When at first Lord Athur Hightower returned to Oldtown in 432 A.C., he did not expect little more than issues revolving around the presence, be it a fading presence, of the Warsmiths and those treacherous vassals and subjects of the Hightower. But alas, such was not to be, and when the time did come for Arthur to raise his men to arms and march out the gates of Oldtown to cleanse his lands of all remaining traitors, much more than was expected to be found, was so unveiled.

Amidst the scouring of his lands for any remaining Warsmiths, and the routing out of the treacherous elements of the Houses of Bulwer, Cuy, and Costayne, which had so fallen from place of trust and prominence in the eyes of the Hightower, was a discovery unexpected made.

A man-servant, one named Barris, to his late Lord Father, Leyton Hightower, was discovered fleeing along the banks of the Whispering Sound near to Blackcrown, the seat of House Bulwer. Soon was the man recognised by the Knights riding with Arthur as one who had aided the Warsmiths during their illegal rule over Oldtown, and so, the man's fate was decided; death. But alas, before the man's head could be removed from his shoulders then and there, he began to spill forth a barrage of words, words that at the time made no sense, but sounded as if they might amount to something. And so, Barris the Babbler was born, and the beginning of the end for the Cult of Oldtown was alive.

Arrests at Twilight
With the capture of Barris the Babbler, the puzzle gradually, piece by piece, began to come together. So forming the treasons and acts committed by those whom had betrayed goodness and religion and justice on a wholesale level, with seemingly no regard for anything other than the sinister motives and goals of this 'cult'.

Once statement was sworn by the all the Seven, Arthur gave the City Watch of Oldtown and those Knights his mother trusted most the order to make the necessary arrests. And so, at twilight one night during the ninth moon of 433 A.C., doors were kicked in, men were pulled from their marriage beds and brothels alike, false Septons and Septas were torn from their false chastity and purity, and Maesters of sinister design were pulled from the Citadel, whether they had been amidst tomes or sheets, it mattered not. By the conclusion of the night, and the rise of the dawn, Arthur Hightower had succssfully filled the cells of the Hightower with some twenty-seven accused cultists, and with all his will, he would work to prove it so.

The Hightower Trials
And so, when the day of the trials soon came to pass, with the necessary number of seats prepared for judges, and seating for the court of Oldtown, did Lord Arthur Hightower take the High Seat in the centre of the seven present, and proceed to sit. As this trial was to determine crimes innumerable, many of which were against the Faith by the very nature of the organisation that was now referred to in hush tones as a "cult", seven judges would preside, each representing an aspect of the Seven.

Lord Arthur Hightower, would stand for the Father.

Lady Aelora Hightower, to the Lord's right, would stand for the Mother.

Ser Osmund Mullendore to the Lord's left, would rise for the Warrior.

Elwood the Eager, from the Mason's Guild, for the Smith.

A Septa of the Most Devout named Selyse, in place of the Maiden.

Lady Janna Cupps, a distant and aged scion, to represent the Crone.

And a Eunuch named Tregar, for the Stranger, as the eunuch could be named neither male nor female.

Essentially, the judges selected, excluding the Lady Aelora, and the distant Cupps scion, were all but a veritable cacophany installed to service the Lord's decisions. The trials were an arduous process, spanning three weeks of words, speeches, evidence, and accusations thrust before the judges and the accused. While the opening evidence were the words of Barris the Babbler, the man Arthur and his Knights had earlier taken into their custody, all evidence after such proved far less reliable.

Each new day it seemed, would a Knight, or a lesser noble, or even a member of the smallfolk on occassion claim they were aware of some dastardly detail, only to either realise on the stand they had not thoroughly thought on their false evidence, or their contrived hopes of gaining recognition in the Lord of the Hightower's eye, or would simply withdraw minutes before they were to take the witness stand, leaving the court ashambles.

Yet, a little more than two weeks in, luck struck. Olyvar Hightower, son of Ser Dorian Hightower, who at the time had been little more than a recent addition to this cult, brought forth both evidence and collaborating speech to Barris' own. For those who had already stuck through the two weeks previous of near naught progress, this was more than a welcome gift.

Alas, while Olyvar's words aided Arthur in his goal of eradicating this sect, this cult, these heretics and extremists, they ultimately failed to serve the purpose that had been intended of them. Olyvar had been of a hope that as repayment for his confession, his father may be spared, allowed to live out his live somewhere else, but alas, once already had Arthur assumed the position of passing off justice to another, and the Hightower had been wildly disappointed in the overall lack of punishment for the guilty parties. This time, he would not make that mistake. One by one, he sentenced the convicted.

Yet, notably amongst the convicted, was the assumed aunt of the Lord Hightower himself, Rhea Hightower. Alas, the crimes of the Cult of Oldtown seemed not limited to the murder of Leyla Hightower, or that of the conspiracy to see an end to the power of the Targaryens, or that of undermining the Seven, and their ever faithful orders of Septons and Septas, as well as that of the Maesters, for the accusation was lain against the now long passed Lady Lynora Hightower, wife of the exiled Lord Lucifer Hightower, that her thirdborn child was indeed no Hightower, and was instead a bastard. The evidence was clear in the hair and eyes of the product of such adultry, and while Arthur Hightower did not seek to bring execution to Rhea, for her part in this Cult as it had been portrayed was minimal at most, in an unexpected turn of events, the other judges ruled in favour of execution, and so the one named Rhea Flowers would meet her end along with the others.

Oddly though, while Arthur Hightower had been present for the sentencing of each of the accused previously, when time came to sentence those bearing the name Hightower, Arthur was absent, and in his place sat Ser Osmund Mullendore. And so went the sentencing, all the same as that come before it, one by one, they were sentenced to execution. Yet, there would be one piece of mercy, and that was placed upon Olyvar Hightower. Osmund Mullendore proclaimed that he was to remain in the free custody of the Hightower, even with his confession implicating himself by its very nature.

When the trials were complete, some twenty-seven individuals, eight of which were Hightowers, had been sentenced to execution.

Fire for Folly
When came time for the pyres to be lit, all of Oldtown were in attendance. From from begars to bakers to merchants to nobles, but alas, within the city walls would not this event that would come to light the calendars as the  'Day of Flame' take place.

Outside the walls, and commencing with the last of the sunset light, the pyres were lit, and all twenty-seven individuals set to fire. In mismatched unison, their screams and cries filled the air, while all watched on. It was a most morbid of scenes for sure, and the pyres were ordered to be left until they burnt themselves completely to ash, and then left to be blown away, as ash to the wind.

The day would come to burn a black mark into the history of the Hightower, but alas, Arthur Hightower felt accomplished in his task and goal, and confident in the destruction of the Cult of Oldtown, and its banishment from his city and lands.

Aftermath
While none would come to bring arms or violence against Lord Arthur Hightower, or the Hightowers themselves, there would ever remain whisperings amidst closed circles of "kinslayer" and "traitor". Yet, so many more would loudly praise in shouts with the monikers of "Defender of Oldtown", "the Zealous", and so many more.