House Darry

House Darry is one of the principal houses of the Riverlands, sworn to House Tully, and founded during the Age of Heroes before the Andal Invasion. While never kings, they were always influential vassals renowned for their loyalty.

Their sigil is a plowman in black on brown, representing their duty to all of their subjects. Their words are Loyal Above All.

Prior to 300 AC
(All information taken from awoiaf.westeros.org and written in my own words. All credit for research goes to them.)

House Darry was created thousands of years ago, before the Andal conquest of the Riverlands. They were one of just five first men kingdoms to survive the Invasion, despite losing their entire male line against House Vypren. For thousands of years they served whoever ruled their land loyally, be they a Mudd, a Teague, a Justman or even a Durrandon or Hoare.

After the Conquest, they served the Targaryens, steadily gaining power and influence, acquiring most of House Harroway's lands. During the Dance they had their castle burned, and lost two Lords within a year. However their loyalty gained Darry more than it lost; by the reign of the Mad King there was a Darry in the Kingsguard, and another as Master of Arms in the Red Keep.

During Robert's Rebellion, they lost all they gained and more, as Lord Darry, three of his sons and their Kingsguard were slain on the Trident, with Ser Willem Darry escorting the remaining royals into exile. They lost half their lands, as well as their lordship, and nearly all of their power. With the deaths of Ser Raymun Darry and his son during the War of the Five Kings, House Darry was extinguished in the male line, with his sisters Mariya and Jeyne the only surviving members of the house; both over thirty and both married to minor Freys, with inexperienced children.

After the Red Wedding, the Darry lands were given to the pious Lancel Lannister, and he was married to the wanton Amerei "Gatehouse Ami" Frey, eldest daughter of Mariya Darry, in order to secure local support. Their marriage was annulled within months, leaving Mariya as the de facto holder of the lordship. After Lancel's departure laws were changed enabling greater smallfolk representation, as well as punishment for knights and vassals that abused their smallfolk. To further assist in governing the region, Amerei and Marissa began to be educated as heirs, including in use of arms and military tactics. Following Aegon's landing in the Stormlands, every member of the community from farmers to Mariya herself were required to train in weapons several times a week, resulting in a relatively skilled and large peasant levy.

The Second War of Conquest (300-302 AC)
Following the rescue of Edmure Tully from capture, House Darry was one of the many houses to swear them fealty. While claiming that they were being loyal to the true ruler of the Riverlands, it was rumoured that the support was given due to their treatment by House Frey, with Lady Mariya's abusive and unlamented husband, and Amerei's two forced weddings and public humiliation via annulment. To secure the alliance, all members of the household signed a declaration of war in blood, as well as a condemnation of the Red Wedding. To further prevent any treachery against House Tully, Marissa was wed to Patrek Mallister, one of Lord Edmure's closest friends, and heir to Seagard. In exchange, Lady Mariya was given the lordship, and her two daughters at Darry given her name. The area suffered harshly during the War of Conquest; Darry was situated on the Crossroads, and too open and vulnerable for the Brotherhood to defend adequately, and while the peasantry became more and more loyal throughout the war, they were ill trained and unequipped to deal with their foes, despite the benefits offered by the House in return for loyalty. In addition, Tristan Rivers of the Golden Company also claimed Darry decent as a bastard of Ser Willem, and had his own claim. While the two claims supporting Aegon were reunited (with Tristan marrying Amerei Darry and gaining Golden Company support), much of the countryside was set alight by pro-Lannister forces attempting to force Jeyne Darry's claim on the lordship.

The darkest day of the war was the final day of the second moon, in 301 AC. The main army defending Darry was lured over the Trident by a small diversionary force, leaving only a small force to hold the castle itself. The main Lannister army of two thousand men then torched anything that could be set alight, before sieging Castle Darry itself. Desperate fighting ensued, but the castle fell in less than a day, and the was garrison killed to a man, as a lesson to those who would go against their family, and support the Tully claim. Most of the twenty Freys brought to Darry after Lancel was given the lordship were hanged off the castle walls or fed to dogs, with the servants and defenders forced into the Plowman's Keep and then burned alive. Lady Mariya Darry was tortured and beheaded by her own sister, and the rest of the castle set alight.

It was almost a week until Tristan Rivers returned with his army, to a ruined castle and a lordship that had no wealth or castle attached. Even so, he took the title of Lord Tristan Darry, and gathered up the remaining peasantry for an assault on the Lannister forces, as well as sending ravens to Marissa at Seagard and Edmure at Riverrun, asking for aid and informing them of the terrible crime. The slowest half of the force was left with Lady Amerei at the ruined castle to begin rebuilding, while the faster infantry and all the cavalry sped north, catching the slow-moving Lannister army just before they forded the Trident. A bloodbath ensued for both sides; the Lannisters were completely unprepared for an assault, but Lord Tristan had brought barely seven hundred men against eighteen hundred survivors of the Darry campaign.

The Lannister army was engaged immediately and forced against the river, unable to use their superior numbers to break out against the more maneuverable cavalry. The battle lasted almost a day, with neither side giving quarter, with over two thousand men on both sides either dead, dying or drowned. The Lannister army had been slaughtered almost to a man, with less than a hundred escaping, and over half the Golden Company men were dead on the field, but the battle was won. The highborn captives were taken to Darry, where Jeyne Darry was hanged by her niece outside the ruined walls, and her sons gelded and sent to the Wall, though it is said that it was only Amerei's personal intervention that saved them from being sold into slavery.

The battles in the area continued throughout the year, with higher and higher casualties. After the Bleeding of the Twins concluded, the attacks grew more unified and numerous. More than once, the lands up to Castle Darry itself were taken, and the castle was little more than a ruin by the time that the first dragon appeared in the sky above the Riverlands. At the end of the war, thousands lay dead, with even women and children taking up arms in the latter stages of the conflict, fighting together regardless of prior loyalty or status. Out of the twenty-two highborn living at Darry at the start of the conflict, four remained alive. Lady Amerei had lost her right arm at the elbow, and Lord Tristan had been crippled by a wound to his back. But House Darry, against the odds, had survived the war.

Dual Lordship (302-305 AC)
"Two hearts beat as one."

After the war, the couple were given the lordship in the ruined castle, both inheriting equal rights to forestall any future conflict; Ami had the (relative) loyalty of the smallfolk levies and riverlords, as well as the superior claim, but Tristan was male, in addition to having a small portion of the Golden Company, and Crown support. Their first objective was to help Darry recover from the Second Conquest; while the harvest of 300 AC was able to be collected in full, 301's harvest had burned in the fields and the populace was starving through the harshest winter in memory. Despite Ami and Tristan's attempts to remedy the situation, both were woefully under prepared for the scale of the disaster, and the smallfolk were dying in the streets of hunger, even as Darry nearly bankrupted itself trying to feed them.

However, over the next few years the situation markedly improved. The harvests of 303 and 304 were a bumper crop, though there were barely enough hands to bring in the harvest, saving Darry from complete starvation. A small keep was built out of earth and stone to defend the hovels that had grown up around the remnants of Castle Darry, still known today as Tristan's Keep. The rebuilding continued through the next few years, although even with assistance from less decimated riverlords Darry remained in crippling debt.

In 305 AC, after years of trying and countless rumours of infertility, Ami and Tristan welcomed their first child, a healthy baby boy named Edmure. While the keep rejoiced at the birth, it was becoming increasingly clear that Tristan's health, always frail after the Second Conquest, was failing. Despite many attempts to purge his body of the mysterious sickness, he grew unable to do his duties for more than a couple of hours a day.

The two heads of house had both recovered House Darry from the brink of destruction, but their days together were drawing to an end. Both had grown, no longer Gatehouse Ami the whore or Tristan Rivers the sellsword but Ami and Tristan Darry, true rulers of their ancestral home. During the seventh month of 305 AC, Lord Tristan Darry breathed his last, and Lady Ami Darry took sole command of her home.

Final Marriage and Rebuilding (306-314 AC)
"I can sell you lies, you can't get enough. Make a true believer, anyone, anyone, anyone."

Following Tristan's death House Darry was in sore need of money, and the weary and scattered smallfolk would not endure any more taxation. In addition, many still distrusted her, as the daughter of a Frey involved in the Red Wedding, and a Darry only on her mother's side. To quell the issues, Lady Ami requested all the major villages and the township to send a representative to Tristan's Keep, where she declared that she would marry a wealthy merchant, in order to finance the recovery that Darry desperately needed, as well as produce children; at the age of twenty-five she still only had the baby Edmure to inherit after her.

Within four months of Lord Tristan's death, Lady Amerei was bethrothed to Yohn of Duskendale, the scion of the most wealthy merchants in Duskendale. Though the marriage was considered controversial even by Amerei's standards, it went ahead a month later in a ceremony in Duskendale's Sept. It is said that the dower paid to Lady Amerei for the marriage was enough to fill a room with gold twice over though most consider this to be but a rumour from the smallfolk. However much it was, it paid off the debts that House Darry owed as well as providing enough money to rebuild Castle Darry itself, still a blackened shell from the Conquest.

The marriage was an unhappy one from the wedding night. During the wedding it was clear that Yohn was wedding for power and Amerei for money, with the groom taking a far greater interest in boasting of his beautiful and powerful bride than actually talking with her, and the bride much more interest in her baby son than her new husband. The bedding itself ended abruptly and violently with Amerei decking one of the groom's friends after he attempted to tear her dress off before the bedding, and the couple slept in separate rooms. Despite this, Lady Amerei was pregnant a year after the ceremony and in 307 AC gave birth to a girl, named Mariya after her grandmother.

During the first year of the marriage the old Castle Darry's remnants were finally cleared away, making place for a new castle where the old once stood. While digging in the foundations remnants of several earlier castles were found, culminating in a priceless weirwood bow being found in the remains of a First Men variant of the castle. The bow was presented to the couple in the partially built new castle, and ever since has become the ancestral weapon of House Darry, handed to the most able candidate to use.

Despite the birth of Mariya, the marriage was widely known as falling apart. Yohn's family were furious, believing that their daughter in-law had deceived them with the marriage, while Lady Amerei herself was even angrier, seeing her husband as attempting to take her birthright despite the marriage being matrilineal. The two grew stormier and stormier, culminating in Lady Amerei banishing her husband's family in 310 AC, which lead to a confrontation that left her castellan Ser Arwood lying dead on the ground, as well as Yohn's father and uncle.

That night, both Lady Amerei and Yohn were seen to be talking loudly in their main hall, with a large flagon of wine that was later found empty. The two were then seen to head up to the Plowman's Keep, where the talking and yelling continued, before becoming screaming and a final piercing yell, before a thump and silence. Lady Amerei was found unconscious with her dress torn to shreds, and Yohn was found sixty feet below, with his blood pooling out onto the snow. While the circumstances are unknown, it was rumoured that foul play was involved; Lady Amerei had three inches on her husband as well as forty pounds and was known to hold her drink as well as any of the men, while Yohn was known for being a relative lightweight although far more physically powerful.

Widowed four times at the age of twenty-nine, she would never remarry, with her son Edmure formally made her heir soon after above any future lover. Though she would have on and off affairs with dozens of men over the next few decades, all would be with far more restrained and less powerful lovers than previously, as well as far more covertly.

The years from 310-314 AC were spent with Darry's first dabbles in diplomacy since their dispossession decades ago. While Darry would always be loyal to House Tully above even their King, this loyalty would never be as ironclad as before Robert's Rebellion. Instead, Lady Amerei secured their alliances through trade and marriage (and rumours of something more, particularly with the younger lords), with Mariya's betrothal to Gareth Piper and reduced taxation enabling Darry to grow in size and influence. By 314 AC Castle Darry was rebuilt not as a castle for defence but for livability, with Tristan's Keep adapted into a barracks for the men and the rest of the town paved and enclosed by a stone wall. While many in the Riverlands still saw her as a half-Frey whore and kinslayer, many more began to see her more positively as a true successor to the Darry name in her policies, if far more underhanded and forceful as a politician than her predecessors.

The Year(s)of the False Banners (315-318 AC)
"Never again, is what you swore, the time before."

Throughout 315 AC the threat of outlaws grew and grew. House Darry initially faced little threat from the outlaws, with their pro-smallfolk policies paying dividends as well as the outlaws curiously choosing to spend less forces on the region. In addition, it was rumoured that Lady Amerei feared the outlaws enough that she refused to confront them; after all, unlamented as he was, her father had been hanged by outlaws and the smallfolk were agitated after a low crop yield.

Midway through the year, a raven was recieved from The Twins, which caused this inaction to cease.

Lady Amerei vanished into her room for a day and a night, before emerging to publicly burn the letter, as well as summon her son Edmure from House Heddle, where he was squiring. The letter's contents have never been known, although when prompted her only response was "as a teenager I had awful taste in men". The banners were called against the rebels, and within weeks House Darry and their vassal had levied their men against the threat.

The Year of the False Banners was the last war that Lady Amerei would personally fight in. At thirty-four, over two hundred pounds and missing half her right arm her role was largely restricted to command, while her son squired for Lord Heddle. He acquitted himself well, gaining valuable combat experience, although he never fought personally.

The campaign itself was more a political campaign than a military one, with the key to victory lying in winning the smallfolk's allegiance, in order to discover the location of the mercenary companies. The only pitched battle of the war was a complete rout, with the combined forces of the Riverlands eliminating many of the bandits in a single charge.

In the latter stages of the conflict, the bandits attempted to enter Castle Darry itself; as a small, lightly manned castle not designed for defence it was ostensibly the easiest target out of the major Riverlands houses. The attempt was thwarted quickly, with the intruders quickly recognized, accosted and hanged off the castle walls as a warning to any future outlaws.

The Plow(wo)man's Heirs (318-326 AC)
Immediately following the conflict Edmure began his formal education, being recalled to Castle Darry. At the age of thirteen he was the perfect blend of his parents being tall, attractive and willful from his mother, with his father's face, intelligence and talent at both commanding and combat itself. Despite his parents lack of education themselves, he was adept at both war and peace, sitting with his half-sister on all of his mother's councils.

At the age of seventeen he was knighted by his namesake, Lord Paramount Edmure Tully in a political move specifically designed to show House Darry's legitimacy as well as Edmure's, being the son of two people with tenuous claims on their lands. That same year, he officially represented his House for the first time in the yearly council, while his mother was bed-bound following the complicated birth of her second natural child. The council showed his diplomatic skill, Edmure having to negotiate members elected from each village, many of whom were in opposition to each other and even his House on occasion.

Many girls desired the handsome Darry heir, but he fell in love young while squiring with House Heddle. Though he would occasionally stray like most men his age, he fell for Lady Kyra Heddle young. Both houses approved of the match with Lord Heddle gaining a powerful new in-law, and Lady Darry allowing both her children to marry for love, within reason. Within a year they had a son, named Lyman and second in line to House Darry.

Lady Amerei continued her attempts at recovering House Darry's political and economic prospects throughout the 320's. By 326 AC her policies had finally borne fruit with a quiet countryside finally recovered from the two wars the fiefdom had faced, as well as having more political power than any time since Robert's Rebellion. However, her own reputation had not fared so well. Despite being over forty, she was still notorious for extramarital affairs; though she had thickened over the years, she still looked a woman of thirty, with an even curvier build than before.

Her first tryst was with a Westerlands hedge knight of some minor renown, that lead to her son Tybolt Rivers being born in 319. Strong but temperamental he always envied his legitimate siblings, and over the years grew bitter and angry towards them. He himself had a son named Walder, born in 337 AC. Her second natural child was from a Vale stonemason, a girl named Alayne Rivers that was born in 321. She was a demure child, who would eventually choose to live in the Vale with her father.

Lady Amerei's final children were born in 324 AC from a Volantene merchant that claimed the blood to venture past the Black Walls. The two children were twins named Aurelia "Lia" and Dontos "Don" Rivers, who from the start had completely different personalities. Lia inherited her father's Valyrian features and her mother's political acumen. Combined these made her one of the most talented women of the age, eventually marrying a minor lord despite her bastard status. By comparison Don looked almost a peasant with Lady Amerei's tall and physical build and the usual Darry brown hair, though he had his father's baby blue eyes. Eventually he would become a knight of renown as well as being the only one of Lady Amerei's bastards to be legitimized, by royal decree following the tourney of 352 AC.

The Winter of Wolves (326-329 AC)
After several years of summer, the Winter of Wolves was the coldest winter since the Conquest, with many near starvation after three years of meager harvest and banditry. The early winter was no more difficult for the smallfolk than any other; there were stocks of food to last years in each town and Lady Amerei responded much more violently against banditry than before, with perpetrators often losing a finger in addition to any fine.

After the Thorns of Winter retreated south, the situation grew more serious. No longer could stealing for food be kept at a controllable level with normal amounts of force, and after a firm request from Lord Tully, Darry agreed to work with Lord Frey in repelling the rampaging bandits as well as to send a small detachment to assist in their destruction in the field. While a satisfactory force was committed to the overall cause, the cavalry detachment was given little support apart from trackers, a decision that Lady Amerei would bitterly rue.

Decisive battle was engaged within sight of the Twins, where the last roving bandits were struck down with just a few charges of heavy cavalry, their few remaining men and horses being completely ill-equipped to face some of the strongest soldiers in the Riverlands. However during the battle tragedy struck with Ser Edmure Darry, the twenty-four year old heir to his House, being struck by a bandit's scythe in between his armour plates, and bleeding out on the field of battle. His wife would throw herself from the top of Castle Darry a week later, leaving his son Lyman as heir. Both husband and wife would be interned alongside each other in the crypt, together in death as they had been in life.

The new heir was Mariya Darry, nineteen years old and engaged to Lord Piper's third son Gareth. Mariya was ever her mother's daughter; quiet, kind and with her namesake's Darry appearance she was Lady Amerei's darling, and as such was married matrilinially to the third Piper son at her mother's firm request following her eldest's death. Their marriage was initially an alliance, but the two would bond over the coming years, eventually falling in love. Their first child was Raymun Darry, born in the months following the end of the incursions.

Peace in Our Time (329-338 AC)
House Darry experienced rarely before seen prosperity during the next decade, having the good fortune to survive much of the conflicts of the decade unscathed. The War of the Narrows barely affected the House at all, having no adult males to send to defend the east coast, and no ships to send them with. Indeed, it was noted that the financial damage from a lack of trade was more costly to House Darry than any losses of men.

The Red God revival was far more of an issue. The amount of worshipers was already far above the national average from the days of the Brotherhood and would only increase further following the revival, particularly with Darry being on the kingsroad and therefore well connected to other parts of the realm. These worshipers were barely tolerated; Lady Amerei herself was only nominally a follower of the Faith but the followers of the Red God were perceived as having the potential to unite against the lords like the Brotherhood once had. The followers eventually had no action taken against them (and remain a significant minority on House Darry's lands to this day) but it was a close-run thing, and the lack of intervention for either side damaged Lady Amerei's reputation, if you could call it that, significantly.

During this time period it was also rumoured that Lady Amerei took a lover that she would keep almost until the end of her life; at fifty-four she was far too old for children in any case, but the near-constant rumours surrounding her love life abated, never to return. Many candidates were suggested, but beyond the man being too lowborn for even Lady Amerei to have an open relationship with and his constant presence at Castle Darry during those times, nothing is known about this mysterious lover.

- At some point do a lore doc covering the events of the Second Conquest, although jesus that's going to be dark

Lords/Ladies of Darry

 * Lady Mariya Darry (259-301, Lady Darry 300-301)


 * Lord Tristan Rivers (274-303, dual rule 301-305)
 * Lady Amerei "Gatehouse Ami" Darry (281-364, dual rule 301-305, Lady Darry 305-364)
 * Lady Mariya Darry (307-379, Lady Darry 364-379)
 * Lord Raymun Darry (329-388, Lord Darry 379-388)
 * Lord Davos Darry (347-405, Lord Darry 388-405)
 * Lord Harrold Darry (366-, Lord Darry 405-)

Current Members of House

 * Lord Harrold Darry (366-)
 * Lady Rhea Darry nee Royce (369-), his wife
 * Lady Amerei Darry (388-), his daughter and heir
 * Alyssa Darry (389-), his second daughter
 * Mina Darry (394-), his third daughter
 * Eleyna Darry (397-), his fourth daughter
 * Lady Shiera Darry (363-), his sister
 * Ser Addam Darry (371-), his brother, married Bellena Blackwood

Household Staff

 * Walder Rivers, Castellan (337-)