House Starke

House Starke is a major Vandal house located inside the Kingdom of Lucerne, and dominating the town of Stormwind. They hold one of the permanent spots on the Kings Council, due to being co-lord of Stormwind alongside House Lannister. As a Arch Lord House the ranks of House Starke's vassals inluding a huge amount of land northwest of Stormwind, and it is from these lands that a large portion of their wealth arrives from.

House Stark's sigil is a direwolf on a white field, sometimes white and green. Their family motto is "Winter is Coming", which is a token send off to the old ways of their ancient homeland of Norway.

House Starke was once the masters of Karhold in Westros but after the two leading men of House Starke at the time came to conflict the house split in two with the loyalists to Jordin Starke heading west towards the Valley of Lucerne, and the members following Josin Starke stayed in Karhold and became the leading power. Since their arrival in Stormwind they have grown to one of the most powerful houses in the entire Kingdom of Lucerne, and only their conflict with House Lannister could be made into perhaps a problem for them.

Karhold
See Also : Karhold

The earliest members of House Starke as they begin leaving the Empire found their way past Arnor into the region of Westros. When they arrived in Westros they kept moving south until they arrived in the Bolten region. When they arrived in Bolten they begin setting up roots, and quickly became the leading House in the region.

As the region surrounding them became known as Karhold the House became leaders in their own right, and came to be known as the King of Karhold. During this time the House was led by Jordin Starke, and he was silently facing resistence from his brother Josin Starke, who wanted to rule on his own without his brother.



Civil War in Karhold
Main Article : House Starke Civil War

The conflict between Brenten Starke the patriarch of House Starke and his younger brother Josin Starke reached such a point that they devided the House into those immediatly related to each of the men, and in this way the devision of House Starke was started.

Josin Starke promised his loyalty to the House but in actuality he was working behind the scenes at creating an alliance with House Bolten which would allow for his half of the House to remain in control of Karhold but remove his older brother that he believed was holding back House Starke.

Stormwind
See Also : Stormwind

Conflict with Lannisters
See Also : House Lannister



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.



Ambush at Meadow's Grove

 * "The culmination of everything over the past months was finally coming together, and the closeness of it gave me slight pause. I moved into that camp with the belief that I would either be sealing his coffin, or walking into the trap that sealed mine."


 * -Robb Starke

Before Jon Snow had moved against the village of Goiline he had sent a raven scout northwest towards where he believed his brother to be with the information that he had Ildarion surrounded from the north, while Jaime Lannister was in the south blocking that route, and a force of cavalry was coming from the west to alert the Ildarion force of their predicament. Realizing they had to stop the cavalry force Robb Starke ordered a bold move when he moved his entire force south west into the path of the cavalry. His force would get off their horses and quickly prepare and ambush for the force of maybe fifteen cavalry, and when the force arrived they quickly saw they were in a lot of trouble so they surrendered with only two casualties of whom had attempted to flee. Robb's force would quickly gain the information from the cavalry about where the prince was precisley located, and with this information they were sent to the rear lines by some of the men, and the rest of the force moved towards the force of Ildarion. With no hope of relief, or any new information they knew they had Ildarion this night if they worked this well. Theon, and Robb's forces moved silently in the night and proceeded to take out the scouts that had been posted to watch for just this event. With the scouts taken out the forces moved into the camp, and went tent to tent killing the nearly 300 strong Gondor force. Quickly into the attack the Gondorians woke up on mass after a large death scream, and combat raged across the camp with the House Starke force vastly outnumbering the Gondorians and completely surrounded and without their equipment on. After only a few minutes the Gondorians begin to surrender, and it was during this end of the fighting that Robb Starke noticed that one of the fighters who had remained fighting was Ildarion Elessar the son of the King of Gondor.


 * Robb_Starke_Greywind_Gif.jpg"Seeing him like this was exactly what I thought it would look like. He was unarmored due to the fact that he was probably catching the first true sleep he'd had in over a month, and this was how it turned out for him. He killed two of my men before I was able to intervene, and fighting him made me realize how much training I still needed to do. If he wasn't half asleep, and ragged from being worn down for two months I would have never won that fight, but he was and I won."


 * -Robb Starke

Robb immediatly engaged him in combat and on his own velition was able to defeat him only because he could tell that Ildarion was half dead from fatigue, and being unequipped with armor, or a shield. When Ildarion fell defeated the rest of the Gondor force was swiftly throwing down their weapons and surrendering leaving the full Starke force with a nearly complete victory. With Ildarion defeated Robb was egged on by Theon to kill him, and for a moment Robb contimplated listening to his friend but he then thought strategically and realized that if they had the prince they could basically ransom whatever they wanted from the Gondorians. With this in mind Robb decided instead of killing him he would instead take him in as a prisoner, and ordered the force to pull back to their original position with their now sixty prisoners along with the prince of Gondor.



Prisoner

 * "The King was coming to kill the prisoner that stood between me and a lot of power. I couldn't let his stupidity and blatent attempts at war to stand between me and all that. Luckily for me Eddard Starke was able to ignore his honor for a second and do exactly what had to be done."


 * -Tywin Lannister

Robb Starke would pull his force back behind the lines, and there would set up a camp for all the prisoners they had captured and then sent word to his father about the capture of Ildarion, which would then spread like wildfire. When Eddard heard of this news he sent word to Eldarion in Adrahil of whom then sent word to Aragorn of this change in events. Aragorn had two options in front of him. The first option was to engage the Lucernians in a full pitched battle which he might lose, and if he didn't lose he would most likely lose on the east because of all the causualites. Or he surrendered most of the Gondor lands west of the River Rhine. In the end he would send word to Eldarion that their forces were going to surrender under the terms that all Gondor citizens, and forces be allowed free pass into Gondor, along with the return of Ildarion, and all prisoners. Bill Lovie would send word to Eddard that he was incoming to the camp that Eddard and Tywin Lannister were meeting, but when the letter came the servent that brought it told them that Bill planned to execute Ildarion on the spot. Both commanders understood that if they did this it would mean all out war which was stupid since they could have all of this land with no bloodshed. Because of this they hid the note, and told the scout that the prisoners were already in transfer back to Gondor. With this information Bill Lovie would return to Lucerne instead of seeing the two Lords, and they both knew they had made an enemy that day. When this happened Ildarion was given word by Robb Starke that he was to be released along with all of his men. The two would discuss the coming world that they both lived in, and Robb Starke would gain a lot of respect for Ildarion, and the same would be true of Ildarion for Robb Starke.

Invasion of Westbridge
Main Article : Invasion of Westbridge




 * "This would be the first time that we would be asked to work together since the War against Gondor. During that conflict both sides had not worked together at all and had basically moved however they wanted in order to take as much land for their respective house. This time we were being shuttled by the new Order of the Red Dragon and thus we would be landing where the commanders had decided it was best to land."


 * -Robb Starke

Eddard Starke was the leader of the Starke forces that were assembled to take part in the Invasion, and he along with House Lannister was tasked with using the ships that had been constructed to land on the two islands that existed in Westbridge. On the lead up to the campaign it was members of the Kreigs Marine that were brought in as mediators for the two sides that despised eachother and basically tasked with making sure that they worked together for the good of the invasion. Eddard and his council met with Tywin, and his council at the Port of Stormwind where there armies were camped west of and together over the course of two days they decided on the best course of action. They decided to land the majority of their troops on the main island, while they split their vassals, and banner houses into attacking the individual islands that dotted Westbridge city so that there would be no holdouts left. On the day of the invasion Eddard relunctantly led his forces along with House Lannister on to the boats of the Kreigs Marine fleet, and they sailed up the river Rhine to coincide with arrival during the night.


 * Boralus.jpg"When we stopped for the night at Kul Tiras you knew there was going to be trouble if everyone wasn't seperated so sadly enough the fleet split into the two sides with the Starke's landing in Boralus, and the Lannisters landing in Drisburg."


 * -Daelin Proudmoore

The fleet would stop for a night in Kul Tiras where they were forced to split in half so that there wouldn't be any trouble. While there Eddard Starke would meet with Daelin Proudmoore who took him throughout the capital of Kul Tiras and told him of the lands, while in Drisburg the Lannisters made little contact with the Kul Tiras people and stayed mainly on the boats. As they left it would be the next day that they would land on the islands once they got the sign that the city was under siege by the flags that House Lovie would plant on the towers of the southern gate, as well as a message arriving from a griffon of the Luftwaffe. On a normal occasion their boats would have been discovered by the Westbridge lighthouses that were located throughout the islands, and this would have led to the fleet of Westbridge ships launching to stop them, but the lighthouses were taken out of commision by the work of the Order of the Violet Dragon and thus Westbridge was blind to the ships movements. This would be the first time that the fleets of the Kreigs Marine would be used in this manner, and the hundreds of ships litterly packed themselves on the River with many ships litterly bumping into eachother because of their close proximity. The Fleet would plant anchor within range of the island, and all throughout the night the men on board waited for the flags to be raised and the griffon to arrive. When the Griffon arrived and the flags were raised the Kreigs Marine moved its ships to land on the main island.

The North Islands

 * House_Baratheon1.jpg"It was the first time many of my men had seen real combat since the conflict with Gondor, and there was some worry that they would panic under the pressure that was surely going to come our way."


 * -Robert Baratheon

The attack on the northern islands was mainly an attack on the small wall estate that controlled the largest island, and its walls were small enough that the ships dropping them off would only need to make a few small holes in the wall in order for the troops to be able to spill into the estate and quickly take control of the island. The defenders were controlled by House Brand who controlled several vassals on the northern islands and was well fortified in the estate, but its vassals had been silenced by the Order of the Violet Dragon greatly weakening their defences. The troops landed on the islands without much problems but a gaurd on the wall noticed their arrival as they spilled into the homes of the people of the northern island, and when this happened the bells went off, and the estate became aware of the attack. As Randyll Tarly led his forces into the breaches created by the ships the combined vassals of House Starke made simple work of the few defenders that had managed to wake themselves up in the middle of the night. As they broke the ranks of the defenders it was Dickon Tarly that dueled Ryan Brand the heir of House Brand and defeated him but spared his life, and this caused a general surrender of the House Brand forces and the northern islands with it.

The Main Island

 * Jamie_Lannister2.jpg"So many things can go wrong when you attack a fortress using suprise. Maybe they were all aware we were coming, and the moment we got off the boats we would be met by a hail of arrows. Maybe the siege machines would fail and we wouldn't be able to get past the walls. So much could have gone wrong, but when we landed aside from a few strong points they fell without much of a fight."


 * -Jamie Lannister

While the attacks on the northern, and then southern islands were more easily accomplished it was the main attack on the largest island that would be the most interesting. It was here that the House Malfoy forces led by House Labeouf, and their vassals were the strongest, but it was also here that the forces of the Order of the Violet Dragon had become the most intermingled in the attack. When the forces of House Lannister, and House Starke made their way onto the island carefully planned rebels forces attacked Malfoy forces all across the island, and this was followed by the loyalist vassal houses openly turning against House Malfoy, and thus chaos was brewing behind the main lines as the forces of House Starke, and House Lannister engaged the forces of House Malfoy in the streets. House Malfoy was barely mobile at this point but its commanders were able to atleast launch a defence of the streets, but they were cut down as they were defending against a very well prepared and more numerous oponenet. With the death of several commanders of the defenders the defence collapsed and they begin retreating into the attackers hoping they would be able to surrender, and they were as this was part of the attackers mandate.



House Karstark
The members of House Karstark and their old House members in House Starke are now mortal enemies due to the betrayal the members of the now House Karstark did against their former House in House Starke. This has led to numerous clashes between the members during trades, and other chance meetings.

There is great conflict amongst the fact that House Karstark continues to use the Stark in their name, and the motto of House Karstark continues to be the same as the one held by House Starke.

Family Members

 * Jordin Starke. Leader of House Starke during the House Starke Civil War.
 * Jorin Starke III. Led House Starke to Stormwind after Jordin was killed.
 * Wilham Starke II.
 * Rickard Starke
 * Eddard Starke
 * Catelyn Starke
 * Robb Starke
 * Arya Starke
 * Bran Starke
 * Rickon Starke
 * Sansa Starke
 * James Vander-beek
 * Unknown Women
 * Jon Snow
 * Benjen Starke
 * Julia Starke
 * Rodrik Starke
 * Maron Starke
 * Melenie Starke
 * Lyanna Starke
 * Brandon Starke
 * Barbery Starke
 * Brandon Starke II.
 * Margaery Starke
 * Rodrick Starke
 * Aleyn Starke (Aleyn Estermont)
 * Mary Starke. Child Childless
 * Jorin Starke IV.
 * Wilham Starke III.
 * Karolin Starke. Married Broderick Lovejoy
 * Hedrik Lovejoy
 * Balon Lovejoy
 * Yara Lovejoy
 * Yara Lovejoy II.
 * Josin Starke. Became known as Josin Karstark
 * Josin Karstark II.
 * Hertial Karstark
 * Arnolf Karstark
 * Rickard Karstark
 * Janise Karstark
 * Harrion Karstark
 * Eddard Karstark
 * Alys Karstark
 * Arnolf Karstark II.
 * Marja Karstark
 * Cregan Karstark
 * Arthor Karstark

Other Noteables

 * Luwin

House Ambry
See Also : House Ambry

House Ambry is a large Vandal House located within the Kingdom of Lucerne and making their home inside Stormwind. House Ambry has been one of the longer serving vassals of House Starke, and in this position they retain a position similar to House Baratheon in terms of power and respect.

House Ambry entered the Valley of Lucerne early in the time of the Great Migration, and in this position they founded their hall many days march north of what is now Stormwind at the town of Harlaw. Their hall would be taken over by the increasingly powerful House Harlaw who took their name after the town of Harlaw that they took control of. Under the rule of House Harlaw House Ambry would lose much of their wealth and prestige as the rulers of House Harlaw were notoriously cruel rulers, and thus when House Starke took over in Stormwind it was the decision of House Ambry to abandon their holdings in Harlaw and expand themselves in Stormwind.

House Baratheon
See Also : House Baratheon



House Baratheon is a large Gothic House located within the city of Stormwind inside the Kingdom of Lucerne. House Baratheon controlled the small village of Tenade before they were invaded by House Starke and became their vassal shortly after, and since then House Baratheon has been the closest house to House Starke in trust.

During the events of the Plague Nedrick Baratheon who was the Patriarch of the house at the time went to Lucerne with his daughter Sarah and his son Edward and hoped to make the point of the rebels known to Bill Lovie. His arrival though was misunderstood by Bill Lovie and instead of seeing it as the peace offering that it was he saw the coming of Nedrick and his children as a hostile act, and had the three executed in the main square of Lucerne.

House Tarly
See Also : House Tarly



House Tarly of Horn Hill is a large, and powerful noble house of the Kingdom of Lucerne where they dominate the Reach which is northwest of Stormwind. Their lands are located in the foothills of the Red Mountains of Forne, and it is here where their main powerbase lies in their capital of Horn Hill. House Tarly is one of the larger Vassal Houses of House Starke and they provide ample military power if little economic benefit to the House Starke powerbase.

Their sigil is the striding huntsman on green. Their motto is not revealed in the books, but according to semi-canon sources it is "First in Battle".

House Tarly's early history before their arrival in the valley of Lucerne is unknown but at some point they arrived in the Reach where they would found Horn Hill. Horn Hill would dominate the Reach for some time before they were annexxed by House Starke during House Starke's expansion. As a member of House Starke's Vassal Houses they would join House Starke during all their fights including the war against Gondor where its Patriarch at the time Randyll Tarly became known for his excellent skills in leading men to war.