Samwell Tarly

Samwell Tarly was the first child of Lord Randyll Tarly and his wife Melessa Florent making him a member of House Tarly through his father, and a member of House Florent through his mother.

Lord Randyll, who was regarded as one of the finest military commanders in the House Starke ranks, did everything in his power to raise his son into what he deemed a proper heir, but Samwell frustrated him at every opportunity. Sam failed miserably at every attempt to change his nature. He was sent to the Arbor as a page, but the Redwyne twins bullied him and Lord Paxter sent him back to Horn Hill. A dozen masters-at-arms failed to toughen him. Attempts such as dressing him in his mother's clothes, forcing him to sleep in chainmail, and even being bathed in aurochs blood by Qartheen warlocks failed to raise his valor. He wept even to see a chicken slaughtered. His life changed dramatically when he became friends with Jon Snow, and he would join Jon Snow as a commander in his force during the War against Gondor, and his intelligence was finally put to good use. His loyalty to Jon meant that he followed Jon during the Campaign in Frostfang, and was one of the survivors that made it back to Lucerne.

Early History
Lord Randyll, who was regarded as one of the finest military commanders in the House Starke ranks, did everything in his power to raise his son into what he deemed a proper heir, but Samwell frustrated him at every opportunity. Sam failed miserably at every attempt to change his nature. He was sent to the Arbor as a page, but the Redwyne twins bullied him and Lord Paxter sent him back to Horn Hill. A dozen masters-at-arms failed to toughen him. Attempts such as dressing him in his mother's clothes, forcing him to sleep in chainmail, and even being bathed in aurochs blood by Qartheen warlocks failed to raise his valor. He wept even to see a chicken slaughtered.

After Lady Melessa bore her husband three girls, Samwell's brother Dickon was born. Dickon showed all of the physical vigor that Samwell lacked, and Randyll's attentions turned to raising his more promising younger son to take his place. For a time Sam was left to enjoy his music, food, and other soft pursuits, though Randyll forbade Samwell from traveling to Oldtown to become a Maester, horrified at the notion of a member of his house wearing a chain.



Conflict with Gondor
Main Article : Gondor War with Stormwind


 * "Bill Lovie forced us to invade a realm we knew next to nothing about militarily, and beyond that they were our most important trading partners."


 * -Eddard Starke

The Stormwind war against Gondor begin after Bill Lovie ordered the forces of House Starke and House Lannister to make conflict with the western side of Gondor. This conflict escaled very quickly when despite the conflicts on the eastern half of their Kingdom the forces of Gondor moved significant forces to the western half against the forces of Stormwind. During this escalation the forces of House Lannister, and House Starke moved increasingly to the front, with both sides employing different strategies. House Lannister and its forces moved against the large Gondor town of Langstrand which they quickly surrounded with forces, and moved a smaller force of more elite irregular troops led by many of their more elite forces to harass the lands around the Gondor town of Adrahil where the main thrust of House Starke was moving against. The strategy of House Starke though was for their forces to thrust against the large town of Adrahil, while there forces then moved against the villages north of Adrahil in an attempt to draw the Gondor soldiers into pitched battles that worked agains them. They would be led by Eddard Starke, and Brandon Starke of which the two brothers would lead the siege of Adrahil. This strategy worked with both the forces assisted by a small detatchment sent from House Ordos. House Ordos sent an elite force of siege experts that assisted with both the siege of Langstrand, and Adrahil with both logistics and leadership for goals of the sieges. On the other side of the conflict was the defenders of Gondor of whom were led by Eldarion Elessar, his brother Ildarion, and their uncle Halbaard Elessar. The forces of Gondor were obviously relying mainly on defenders made up of the forces of the two major towns Adrahil, and Langstrand and because of this they were in a lot of troulbe when it came to the massive forces being brought to bear by Stormwind, and House Ordos. The northern town of Adrahil was led by the two sons of the King, while Lanstrand was held by Halbaard Elessar making for serious leadership in the two towns.

House Lannister



 * "I looked at the conflict in two different lenses. The first was my belief that Bill Lovie was increasingly moving in the direction of a mad King and this decision wreaked of a lack of foresight. On the other hand control of Lanstrand would be a great addition to the power of House Lannister."


 * -Tywin Lannister

House Lannister moved their main army straight out of Lannistane alongside all of their vassals, and other houses and moved directly towards Langstrand. The Lannisters were led by Tywin Lannister of whom took complete charge of the siege of Langstrand, and then he sent his family members to take control of the various villages, and castles nearbye. When he was given word that Ildarion Elessar had fled Adrahil and was moving north he sent his most trusted commander in his son Jaime Lannister north to chase him down with most of the heavy cavalry and the entire force of House Brent that had come with House Lannister. Jaime Lannister would move quickly north, but was very careful to move his large force out of sight of any force that they saw and through this strategy he moved undetected through Gondor and begin stalking Ildarion Elessar and his force so that he could capture the prince before the Starke's got him. Jaime got close to Ildarion Elessar twice but both times Ildarion was able to meneaver himself away from the forces of Jaime Lannister, and escape. Either way the forces of Ildarion were basically reduced to running around for nearly a month as they were chased by Jaime Lannister and this left them unable to take part in any actual fighting.

"My father may not have noticed but while Jaime was running about chasing around Ildarion Elessar, I was taking control of an entire province of Gondor."

-Tyrion Lannister

While Jaime was searching for Ildarion Elessar his brother in Tyrion Lannister moved throughout the region between Adrahil, and Langstrand with a largely weakly equipped ground force and begin capturing the various castles, and forts that dotted this region. These forts, and castles were far weaker then they had ever been because the west was seen by Gondor as the area that they least needed to be worried about. Despite this though Tyrion had to deal with each of these defences of which the largest was the fort of Amon Hen of which was defended by six hundred men of Gondor and was perched on a cliff overlooking the valley around it. Tyrion would use great skill in traversing the valley around the fort which allowed him to sneak his forces to the depths surrounding the fort.



House Starke

 * "I knew I had to take control of the situation before the Lannisters got their brand of victory. The only problem was that I knew Halbaard very well and I didn't have any violent quarrel with the city."


 * -Eddard Starke

Theon Greyjoy joined Robb Starke in a raiding party that was basically meant to harass, and capture large tracts of land in the hopes of getting the Gondorians to leave their fortifications and walk into traps north of Adrahil. While they did this Jon Snow led a smaller group of heavy cavalry against the villages of this area, and he slowly but surely became a sort of vangaurd for the larger cavalry force of Theon, and Robb. At this point with fighting breaking out all over the region the main army of Eddard Starke supported by House Blackwood and some logistics sent by House Ordos moved against the town of Adrahil and put the town completely under siege. Before they could get the entire town under siege though one of the brothers in Ildarion left the city from the west with a large force of heavy, and light cavalry and made his way north to defend the villages. With Adrahil under siege and the objective of starving the town out until it surrendered Eddard gave the command to begin the heavy harrasment in the north.




 * "My father gave me strict orders that I wasn't to die."


 * -Robb Starke

Theon and Robb worked this brilliantly and after raiding the village of Meadow's Grove they noticed a rather large group of Gondor soilders marching eastward and they immediatly begin following the group. After a full day of marching the Gondor forces set up camp inside a forest and they believed they had the night to rest before marching again. This was a large mistake, and the forces of Theon and Robb moved quickly to surround the camp. While they surrounded the camp the forces of Jon Snow moved against the only real chance of the Gondor force to be saved when they moved against a cavalry force led by one of the local commanders.

Raid on Groiline



 * "My success in the capture of Groiline would allow me to get out of the shadow of being a bastard son of the Lord of Stormwind, but it also sent me to the north."


 * -Jon Snow

During the days of the war with Gondor, Jon Snow was tasked with a small unit of troops that he was tasked with raiding the northern farmlands in order to draw out the outstretched Gondor forces into the trap of the army of House Lannister, and House Starke. In Jon's role he would become aware of how outstretched the Gondor forces were when he chased a force of Gondor cavalry through the night and as he passed by the village of Groiline his scouts reported no defenders. Seeing this as an oppurtunity he would stop chasing the cavalry and would instead move his force to Groiline and capture the village.



Going to the land of the Arnor

 * "I was sending my son to a land I had never heard of, to defend a people I didn't know existed. His life was in the hands of the dragons."


 * -Eddard Starke

In this task he performed very well alongside his best friend Tucker Jurny who was a noble born boy of House Jurny. Due to the importance and skill he had shown during the brief War with Gondor he was noticed by the leadership of Lucerne of whom sent a letter to Eddard Starke which detailed a mission that they needed the Starke's to do, and they wanted him to send Jon Snow as he was the last in the line of succession. Eddard Starke rejected this asurtion that Jon Snow was somehow not important to his family, but the letter was clearly not asking for permission, and thus Jon Snow at the young age of seventeen was going to be heading north to Arnor. The letter itself was sent by Catherine Lovie and she kept this completely a secret from her brother Bill Lovie as by this point it was only two years away from the Journey and thus the kingdom was smack dab in the middle of Bill Lovie's madness. The letter detailed that south of the Arnor central town of Galheim was a cold land sheltered between mountains called Frostfang, and it was in this sheltered land that he would travel and make connections with. The land was important long term in order for the Kingdom of Lucerne to assist the Kingdom of Arnor, and it would also allow them to stop any expansion from Galheim into the lands south of Frostfang.


 * Eddard_Starke1.jpg"My father entered my brother's room while me Robb, and Brann were horsing around, and the moment I saw his face I knew something terrible was coming."


 * -Jon Snow

Eddard Starke would go to find his son following him reading the letter, and he found him spending time with his two other sons Brann, and Robb and it killed him to have to send him on what would most likely be his dying mission. He would send Brann away but Robb accompanied him and Jon into the hall where Brandon, and Benjen Starke waited alongside many other nobles of House Starke to plan the mission sent forth by Catherine Lovie. During the meeting it was made clear that the little information they had been given left them nearly completely in the dark but they obviously couldn't get more without risking making Bill Lovie aware of the fact that Catherine Lovie was no longer in his corner. Eddard Starke gave Jon command of the forces he had used during the Gondor War, and let him know that he could take whatever other men he needed but he had to travel with a relatively small foce. Jon would gather together a few extra men that he had come to know, and then after saying goodbye to his family he would travel northward to the Riverlands to take a boat to Storhold which was the port closest to Frostfang.



The Road

 * "A long boat ride followed saying goodbye to my family, and it was during that boat ride that I for the first time sat back and accepted that I was going down a possibly dangerous road I might not return from."


 * -Jon Snow

The trip to Storhold was completely uneventful but their arrival their was greeted by two men clothed in the armor of House Highmore, and one in the colors of House Martell or whom without saying a word passed a note to Jon Snow that said to meet them east of the town in the town of Stor. The town of Stor was the capital of the Kingdom of Stor, and thus was heavily populated by the Storr. Jon would follow the notes command and travelled east to Stor where two days from the town they were greeted at their camp by the two men of House Lovie. The men introduced themselves as Harven Moore, Cotter Highmore, and Othell Highmore of whom had been sent to Storhold to make Jon Snow more aware of the mission they were sent north to accomplish. Cotter Highmore told them that northward of them was the land of Frostfang which they knew but they didn't know that the land held a massive wall which was controlled by a group called the Thenn, and for centuries the Thenn had placed a toll on those wanting to travel south, and north but they had never chosen a side. He explained that things were changing and the Thenn were engaged in a massive civil conflict pitting the forces of Styr Thenn of whom wanted to side silently with Arnor but continue making the road neutral against the forces of Magmar Thenn who wanted to side with The Empire and allow them free reign into Westros. Jon Snow and the rest of his force wanted to know how they had come by this information and Cotter HIghmore said that it had come from players inside the goverment of the Thenn who wanted to end the conflict that was destroying Thenn from the inside.


 * "We travelled northward our little band of soldiers bent on ending a civil war inside a kingdom that had known nothing of the outside world for centuries. It was said by the Thenn we met that those travelling the road south from the northern wall to the southern wall were escorted by the blinded ones, of whom were men and women fighters that had their ears and toungs cut off so that they could not hear or speak to outsiders. It was these blinded ones that kept the obsurity of the land."


 * -Othell Highmore

Travelling through the lands of the Storr was uneventfull until they arrived at the Long Lake where they were blocked on the road by a group of soldiers clothed in Black Robes. The soldiers said that they were men of the Nights Watch and that they were being lied to about what was happening on the other side of the Wall. When asked what was actually happening the men were evasive but said that they would only allow the Lucernians to enter if they wore the cloth of the Nights Watch and promised that whatever happened inside they would not bring the Thenn southward. Being surrounded by these dangerous men made him quickly agree to their proposal and thus the entire part would don the robes, and markings of the Nights Watch while still maintaining their own house colors. Now escorted by the Nights Watcht they entered what the Nights Watch called the Gift. The gift they said was land given to the NIghts Watch by the King of ancient Stor so that they could provide for their mission protecting the Storr against the dangers of the North.



Castle Black

 * "The Night's watch that escorted us to the castle had made the wall sound impressive but when you actually saw the wall it was breathtaking. Taller then most mountains the wall was something out of a dream. When my shock at seeing its size wore off I remember immediatly thinking what threat could possibly warrent building that kind of defence."


 * -Jon Snow

As they entered Castle Black they were met by the Nights Watch Commander in the form of Joer Mormont of whom told them more about the inner workings of the Night's watch but continued to be evasive about what the great danger north of the wall actually was. Joer did tell Jon that he was going to accompany him north as he understood that the mission Jon was on had a greater consequence then anything in the entire world. At this kind of statement Jon once again attempted to force Jeor to explain himself but all he said was that their were dangers in the cold of the north that noone should ever have to be afraid of.


 * "The world that exists beyond the walls is one of great danger, and darkness. The world was young once, and during this time a great evil was awoken, and the best the good of the world could do was hide them in the dark. Frostfang is one of these prisons."


 * -Jeor Mormont

The group would rest for a few days while the Nights Watch prepared a large force to accompany the Lucernians as they travelled north, and during this time Jon Snow came to understand that Jeor Mormont was once a great noble of Stor but had travelled north as punishment for the failure of his son. When the force travelled north through they headed towards the lands of Craster which from the power Jeor described this man having he assumed was a tiny little kingdom. When they arrived he discovered that it was nothing more then a wooden hovel controlled by an old man named Craster. The plan is to stay at Craster's keep for a day until it is more calm weather so that they can travel to the town of Hardhome where they would meet with the Thenn leadership. During their time there Jon's friend Sam would fall in love with a young Thenn girl of whom begin to unravel some of the mystery of the land for them when she told them that the Thenn were fleeing the lands they had always lived and were travelling to the capital and other hiding places to escape the White Walkers.