Eddard Karstark II. is the son of Rickard, and Janice Karstark making him a member of House Karstark.
History[]
Early History[]
First Bolten-Lucerne War[]
Main Article : First Bolten-Lucerne War
| Fall of Jeutenburg Jeutenburg was the first act of a truly insane man. Instead of offering quarter and hoping for any kind of assistence in the Divine Lands he butchered the first city he found and expected the rest to what...give in to him peacefully. Madness, and stupidity. | ||
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Fall of Jeutenburg[]Main Article : Bolten Capture of Jeutenburg  
The city of Jeutenburg with the promise of Lucerne to defend it should the worst come stood tall as the army of Bolten came to its door, and House Banner blocked there entry. At first the Boltens sent in emissaries of whom promised peace and they simply wished to pass peacefully so they could get to Koenisburg in order to stop Lucerne from taking Koenisburg. Nikolas refused this offer as he was now aligned with Koenisburg and told the Boltens they would not peacefully be passing by the city, and when this happened to his shock the Bolten emissaries said they would do this the following day. Despite these promises during the night spies, and mercenaries scaled the walls of Jeutenburg infiltrating the main gatehouse and once they got inside the walls they showed hidden weapons and overpowered the outnumbered guards they had before occupying the gatehouse. The forces of Jeutenburg were somewhat unprepared for this sudden attack and despite attempting to resist the taking of the gatehouse the Bolten forces held out for nearly twenty minutes while the army of Bolten reached the gate. With the gatehouse in their control they filled into the city overwhelming every point of resistance with their vastly superior numbers and for nearly an hour the sacking of the city went on before Domeric Bolten, and Daryn Hornwood were able to control the palace and large enough segments of the city that they slowed the killing. One spot where the Jeutenburg defences held was the estate of House Chandyll where under the leadership of Calrin Chandyll they held the gaps between the estate buildings killing dozens and forcing a coordinated assault on the estate. This assault would be led by the Stoney Shore forces of House Haryen, and House Rurwell who led by Lucas Rurwell launched a ferocious attack on the estate which by this point was simply buying time to get there people out of the city. While after nearly a half an hour of assault the estate fell the leadership of House Chandyll retreated in good order and had bought time for there members and vassals to escape out of the city, and alongside this Daman Haryen would be badly injured during the fighting and fell into a coma due to his injuries and then died several days after.
During the sacking of the city Jeutenburg was given very little quarter with nearly half the city killed, and the survivors forced to live under the occupation of House Urnet of whom spent their time ransacking the city of its ancient wealth and history. As the army of Bolten did this their was division as the forces under the command of Domeric Bolten, and House Hornwood would protect several areas within the city, and were the main reason the entire city wasn't massacred. With conflict between this force, and the more chaotic forces of Ramsey Bolten looking likely a raven arrived from Roose Bolten who tasked them with quickly moving towards Koenisburg before the Lucernians could react. A meeting was held in the old Jeutenburg palace where Ramsey Bolten commanded the entire army leave Jeutenburg except for House Urnet of whom would hold the town alongside two companies of mercenaries. Domeric was able to trick Ramsey into allowing House Hornwood under Daryn to stay behind as well after he convinced everyone that Daryn was about to capture the Banner family. Following this meeting Ramsey would lead the army outside of Jeutenburg alongside Domeric of whom went along with him but during the first night of the march he abandoned the army and returned to Jeutenburg to meet with Daryn. Behind Enemy Lines[] 
Daryn Hornwood would be leading his forces alongside Orsen Stout and others in his personal council, and during his searching for nobles of Jeutenburg he captured Nikolas Banner and his family bringing them back to the Hornwood quarters in Jeutenburg which were once the Banner home. Daryn Hornwood would send word of the capture but by this point Ramsey and most of the other leaders had already left for Koenisburg and thus he was sent a raven saying he should kill all members of House Banner he had before taking House Hornwood, and his vassals towards Koenisburg. While an honorable young man he was also driven by duty, and thus when he first received this command he planned on following through but Daryn would have a change of heart after he spent the night talking to Nikolas's daughter Corina Banner. Originally meeting her by mistake when he was planning on going to tell Nikolas about the execution he found her crying and without thinking consoled her. Corina would see quickly that Daryn was a good young man and someone that didn't want to do what he told her had been commanded to do by the raven sent to him from Ramsey Bolten. The two spent the entire night talking and as he prepared to leave she would steal a kiss, and from the second that happened the already conflicted Daryn Hornwood didn't know what he would do when he raised the sword to kill Nikolas.
 Daryn Hornwood for the first time in his life saw a reason that he should ignore duty and do what was right. On top of that he had no illusions in his mind over the fact that he would without a doubt be unable to kill Corina.
Daryn returned to the top level of the castle to find Lorant, Jonas and Ser Rafford talking to Gunthor Urnet of whom was accompanied by many of his men including several Karstark men led by Atolf Karstark. Gunthor revealed he knew they had not killed the Lord of Jeutenburg yet and was here to make sure the deed was done to the satisfaction of those above and heavily threatened death to the Hornwood hostages in the Dreadfort if the task was not done to their satisfaction as well. Daryn to the surprise of his council would tell Gunthor that they were fine to do it now, and that he would summon the family right away, and Gunthor could witness it himself. Rafford, and Lorant went to gather the Banner family, and while they did this Atolf Karstark begin bragging about the number of young girls he had been with during the sacking of Jeutenburg to the point that Jonas nearly attacked him before Daryn commanded him to stand down.  
When Rafford, and Lorant returned with the Banner family Nikolas kneeled before Daryn and closed his eyes as Daryn prepared to execute the man. Daryn would raise the sword once before putting it down briefly when Atolf Karstark begin rubbing the hair of Corina's younger sister Cersei and taunted Nikolas about what he was going to do to the young before she died too. Gunthor Urnet would then taunt Daryn calling him a coward and this led him to raise his sword once more, but this time as he did he felt Corina's presence behind him, and as he turned to look at her she gave him a sad smile before closing her eyes. Daryn knew in that moment that he couldn't do it and smashed his sword against a block of wood nearby. Gunthor would push his way past Jonas screaming about the commands of the Boltens and calling Daryn a coward and a traitor. As Gunther Urnet stepped forward to try and kill Nikolas it was Jonas Intris that stepped forward and slit the throat of Gunther before he could kill Nikolas.
The several Urnet, and Karstark men in the room tried to fight back, but were overwhelmed by the more numerous Hornwood forces and killed leaving only Atolf Karstark of whom begged for mercy, but without a word Daryn dragged him out of the courtyard and away from the Banners and once out of sight decapitated Atolf. Nikolas was set free from his bonds along with his family and Daryn would assist him in locating the loyalist members of his vassals along with his sister and her family. Following this he would set his men to helping Nikolas in exiting the city and as they left he stole his own kiss from Corina Banner before she was rushed from the burning town. Nikolas would thus be able to escape with much of his family and a significant force of his most loyal banner men. Staying behind under orders from Nikolas was his step-brother Otto Dragoon the bastard husband of his sister of whom led the rebels within the city while Nikolas rallied the Divine Lands to retake Jeutenburg. Daryn Hornwood would leave behind his knightly house in House Intris in order to better assist Nikolas Banner, and to make sure that his actions were not discovered by House Karstarke and Urnet who remained in the town with several influential family members. |
| Siege of Koenisburg If they take Koenisburg it will prolong with this war for so much longer then it needs to be. Hold the city and we can break them now. Hold the city and we can end this before it begins. | ||||
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Siege of Koenisburg[]Main Article : Siege of Koenisburg  
When Jeutenburg came under siege this was a huge indicator that the diplomatic message wasn't going to be enough so William ordered House Starke under Jon Snow, House Lannister under Tyrion Lannister, as well as House Clegane under Hedrik Clegane III. to send their forces to assist in the defense of Koenisburg as the city was now completely under threat. Word was sent to Koenisburg that this was happening and Britt Lancave would prepare herself for the ultimate defense of the city she loved so dearly. Word was also sent northward to Kul Tiras of whom was to send a large force of ships to Fairmaket in order to send the forces incoming to the Divine Lands. Kul Tiras would send two ships to Koenisburg under different purposes led by Wilheim Caellin, Dilon Borrell, and Tandred Proudmoore of whom would land in Koenisburg planting there house flags on two of the towers of the city making it appear once more there were more forces present then there would actually be. At the same time as this was going to happen William sent one of his greatest generals in Jamie Lannister to the small town of Grandlen where if the Boltens besieged the city of Koenisburg Jamie was to move southwards from Grandlen and hit them from behind and destroy the Boltens before this got out of hand. Jamie Lannister joined heavily by forces of House Reyne, House Brax, and other vassals of Castamere would arrive two weeks after leaving in Grandlen alongside a force of some two thousand cavalry, and they would make camp a days march east of Grandlen and await word from Koenisburg. 
Jon Snow would arrive alongside Tyrion Lannister and a small force of House Starke and House Baratheon into Koenisburg, and were met with great applause by the scared locals of Koenisburg. Jon Snow and Tyrion were shown to rooms by Britt Lancave and when they were both situated Britt met with them to discuss what was happening in the theater. She told them that the Boltens appeared led by Ramsey Bolten, and were massing a large army outside of Karhold in a direct threat to Jeutenburg, and while the armies of the Divine Lands were large they were not even close to capable of defeating the amassed army of Bolten. The three would talk some more before Tyrion left leaving just Britt and Jon Snow alone, and she would ask him about how his situation in the north was going. Shocked that she remembered from briefly telling her years ago he told her about the letters and told her that it was taking all of his strength to stay himself from leaving for the north. Britt would explain to him the way Bastards worked in the Divine Lands, and told him how sad she was for him feeling so unloved just because of the manner in which he was born. Feeling comforted by this he was shocked when Britt suggested they marry, and despite finding her very attractive he still longed to see Ygritte again, and was forced to reject her offer. Things continued in a spin mode for many days until as they were meeting in the keep news reached them that Hedrik Clegane III. had arrived in Koenisburg and they went to the docks to meet him. Meeting with Hedrik Clegane III. he would give Jon Snow a letter passed onto him from a Maester from Stormwind, and labelled from Jeor Mormont he excused himself to read it, and digest what it would mean.
Hours after the arrival of Hedrik Clegane III. the city was alerted to the sudden arrival of more Lucernians as they were further joined by Sawyer Shephard of whom brought nearly a hundred Order of the Red Dragon men and flags with him as well in order to help. Using these flags and honor guard they mounted themselves all along the walls of Koenisburg, and alongside the earlier arrival of the Kul Tiras forces the walls were arrayed with different sigils and gave a very clear impression that House Starke, House Clegane, the Kul Tirasi Houses, and House Lannister had arrived in force. Tandred Proudmoore would also have his highly trained Kul Tirasi marines captain nearly every ship in Koenisburg to the point that the port looked filled to the brim furthering the idea that there was large force present. By this point the Lucernians, and Divine Lands had learned the extent of the destruction of Jeutenburg of which pushed basically the entire Divine Lands into the Lucernian camp including Grandlens large forces. Devision and Failure[] 
The moment the flags went up on the walls of Koenisburg their was a severe amount of panic among the leadership of House Bolten after Ramsey Bolten went on a screaming spree as he believed his commanders had failed him and brought them all into a trap. Following his ranting Ramsey Bolten would call the commanders together and go on another mad rant inside the command tent about the need for the army to retreat before they were overwhelmed by what he believed was a massive Lucernian army. In this moment Domeric would step forward and heavily push that they should attack the city right away as he argued their was no way that the Lucernians could have massed enough troops in the city to stop them. As he was almost finished talking Ramsey would take a knife out and lunge at Domeric attempting to kill him. Domeric was the more skilled warrior and dodged the knife before wrestling Ramsey to the ground, and only the interference of the other commanders stopped Ramsey from being killed right there. With Ramsey losing his mind in the tent it was Rickard Karstark that would suggest that they meet with the Lucernians and at least gauge the forces of the Lucernians from the meeting. Ramsey would reluctantly agree to this plan, and with that a messenger was sent to the wall making it known that they wanted a meeting.
The two forces would meet with Ramsey and Domeric Bolten followed by Rickard Karstark, and John Cole on the Bolten side and on the Lucernian side it was Jon Snow, Tyrion Lannister, and Hedrik Clegane III. alongside Britt Lancave. As the two forces rode out it was a quiet moment for both sides as both believed the other side was going to break the honorable truce of a white flag meeting. Meeting together they would barely be starting to discuss the issues when Ramsey Bolten would intervene and begin insulting Tyrion Lannister for being a dwarf, and Jon Snow for his bastardy birth.
With these insults the meeting begin to fall apart and it nearly came to violence when Ramsey took out a knife from his side and only the quick movement of Domeric Bolten stopped the situation from completely falling apart. Despite this Ramsey and Domeric would nearly come to blows but only Ramsey's knowledge that he couldn't defeat Domeric stopped him from attacking him right there. Ramsey would spit in his face before leaving with everyone else in the party outside of Domeric who remained behind. Britt Lancave would attempt to convinse him to come back with them, but he was loyal to a fault and returned to the Bolten lines. The Retreat[] 
Following the fight between Domeric and Ramsey Bolten and the collapse of the meeting with the Lucernians it was Ramsey's hatred and madness that led him him to decide to put nearly the entire Bolten army into a full retreat back to Karhold. Ramsey was at this point beyond any sort of rational thought and noone dared resist him despite the fact that many believed that Koenisburg was there's for the taking and Roose Bolten wanted the city taken at all costs. While he planned to have nearly the entire army do this he would force his brother Domeric to return to Karhold from a different direction with only House Hornwood and its loyal vassals. As the armies made their retreat back to Karkhold, it was Ramsey that put into work his real plan when he split from the main army and moved north with a large force of cavalry and planned to burn the town of Pomlet to the ground and thus force Domeric to come to its aid, where he would then say he was responsible for the act and ambush his brother's force. After hearing Ramsey talking about his plan to Reek it was Jordin Bolten that snuck into the force of Ramsey as it split off from the main army, and he would send a Raven to Grandlen telling Jamie Lannister of the change.
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| The Siege of Karhold Surrender now. Everything west of here is gone to your kingdom, and we have this city surrounded. Save thousands of lives and surrender yourselves to the justice of Lucerne. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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Siege of Karhold[]Main Article : Siege of Karhold   The forces of House Starke and the Kingdom of Lucerne already vastly outnumbered the defending forces and this was only made worse for the defenders as long time only slightly aligned forces around Karhold turned against their House Karstark masters.
With the fall of Jeutenburg the route into Karhold was completely open to the forces of Lucerne and they would take advantage of the shock caused on the Bolten forces by the destruction of the army at Green Creek. Moving eastward the forces of House Karstark would be fed bad information from the retreating forces who told them that the main goal was the castle west of Karhold in the form of Saltwood Castle. In this way believing they would hit Saltwood first Arnolf who was in command of Karhold would send a significant portion of the Karstark forces to Saltwood under the command of the Bastard and already turned to the Lucernians Wellen Flayed of whom knew that House Saltwood had already defected to the Lucernians and was thus further feeding bad information. As the Bolten forces were going towards Saltwood Castle in order to meet the forces of House Starke head on the true Starke force was now heading directly towards Karhold from the north where due to misinformation and much of the Karstark forces turning to the Lucernians it found basically no resistance. Battle of Saltwood Castle[]Main Article : Battle of Saltwood Castle  
The Secondary force from House Starke would arrive at Saltwood Castle before the forces of Bolten and would menaeuver themselves into the forests south of the castle while the Bolten forces could be devided into two distinct sections. The first section of the Bolten forces had remained loyal to House Bolten and the Karstarkes either out of honor or had not been told of other options and thus moved towards Saltwood without knowledge that most had switched sides. The second group were led by House Johanston of whom commanded a force made up of the houses of the area and from elsewhere that had switched sides to the Lucernians and these forces were prepared for the ambush as they marched. Marching forward the Lucernian loyalists would remain outside the castle while the Bolten loyalists split in a further half with one side entering the castle, and the other side heading towards the forest where the Lucernians awaited them. Once out of range of the castle the Saltwoods would reject the call to call for surrenders when they opened fire on the Bolten troops entering the castle, and nearly the entire force was massacred. Trying to flee the Lucernians turncoats that had waited outside the castle hit them from the rear and these forces were more willing to accept prisoners but the Bolten troops were destroyed or captured in their entirety. The other force led by Cregan Karstark II., and Eddard Karstark II. would find themselves moving towards the forest and seeing a now fully deployed and larger force of Lucernian troops awaiting them. Deploying into position they watched the arrival of the other forces but these forces stopped behind them with weapons drawn clearly indicating a trap. Moving forward towards these troops Jaden Ambry, and Trevor Baratheon would bid them surrender and seeing the hopelessness of their position they would surrender themselves as well. The Attack Begins[] 
Robb Starke and the main Starke force would hit the northern edge of Karhold during the night, and would spy very few sentries on the wall due to the late night and the fact that noone thought Karhold was even threatened. Robb would send Theon Greyjoy, and Gregory Estermont with a small team of troops carring ropes who would ascend the northern wall and open the gatehouse for their troops. Theon, and Gregory would be able to get onto the wall but the alarm was raised as they were opening the gates thus alerting the city to the attack. The army of the Starkes entered the northern gate either way and was able to quickly capture a large swathe of the northern section as most of the defenders were just waking up, and those that were up were either killed or disarmed by the attacking forces. Arriving at the western gate Robb Starke alongside Wilheim Martell would get inside the gatehouse, and open the gate allowing the monsterous Grey Wind to enter as well and Grey Wind would massacre Cregan Karstark and several other men before finally being restrained by Robb and together they left men at the gatehouse before moving to the Keep.  
The fighting in the eastern gatehouse was particularrly stiff as Craig Karstark, Urmen Stone, and Douglas Tisler waking to the alarm and heading to the eastern gatehouse in order to try and defend it. Urmen Stone would be struck by an arrow as the Stark men had taken the tower that overlooked the gatehouse and fired shots down at them. Retreating from view of the tower Craig would hold the inner gatehouse and fought off several men before finally Gregory Estermont got into the courtyard and would kill Craig. With the gate opening Douglas Tisler would jump from the wall into the water beneath and while badly injuring his leg he was able to swim to the Karstark side of the river to safety. The Karstarks would resist greatly in the marketplace of southern Karhold, but the main reason for the resistence being able to hold them off was the fact that Robb Starke had ordered a slow and safe conquest of the town believing he had increasingly large amounts of reinforcements incoming and didnt need to risk his forces in a battle he was already going to win.
The Karstarks had been devestated by the fighting with nearly ten of their number either captured or dead on the field, and without much hope that they could hold the keep for long. The sheer number of Karstarks that they had prisoner meant that they were forced to house them all in the walled keep in the northern part of the city, and from there they made Arnolf very much aware of how many were prisoners. Arnolf himself was sickly and was unable to move but in an act of blind arrogance refused to hand command over to his grandson Harnolf Karstark believing that his brother Rickard was laughing at him for failing to hold the city, and thus he would die before he gave it up. Outside of the Karstarks there allies in House Urnet, and House Tisler also lost several members with only Heshen Urnet able to flee out of the city, and returning to the forces of House Urnet. With the fighting intensifying in the southern half of the city the Karstarks awaited reinforcements, but this would be a hopeless wait as well as while the fighting was dying down in Karhold the news begin filtering in that Hornwood was under siege from House Locke and House Hornwood was abandoning the area east of Karhold in order return home, and they were taking all their men with them. |
Death of Roose Bolten[]
- “It was the final move for Ramsey. He had always wanted to be alone in this family, and he would finally have his wish.”
- — Roose Bolten
Following his succesful trip to the Iron Islands and then Mordor Ramsey would return to the port of Dreadfort with the knowledge that he had won the power of two massive armies, and the survival of his rule might now be possible. Deciding that his father was no longer worthy of living he would brag nearly the last few days of the trip that he was going to murder his father, and since most of "Ramsey's Bastards" were loyal to Roose they would send a raven ahead of the ship which told Roose that Ramsey planned to kill him, and asking Roose what they should do. Realizing that he could easily stop the assasination he would instead send no word back, and ordered House Marsh and their vassals to not resist his landing.
- “Everyone in this entire kingdom knew exactly the person that Ramsey was. So while some may be just hateful towards Roose it is a clear distinction. Roose while twisted in the mind wants a genuinly peaceful realm. Ramsey while twisted in the mind cares nothing for the kingdom and just wants to see things burn for no reason more then watching everything die.”
- — Daryn Hornwood
At this point with Ramsey entering the port, and along with his men making their way towards the Dreadfort it was Roose that begin to plot the final moments of what he knew to be his life. Roose firstly met with his kingsgard and one by one moved them away from him so that they would not die trying to protect him when Ramsey arrived. Three of the five kingsgard he placted this way by sending them southward to Castle Horgut where they would defend the castle alongside the commanders there. The other two in the form of Sandor Dregane, and Urren Sliten he would send to find Misha Bolten in order to get her out of the city. Wondering where they would go after that Roose told them that they were to go to Hayford and surrender themselves to the Lucernians, and from their swear oaths to Lucerne as protectors of Misha. It was around this point that Ramsey was within a few hours of the city, and thus Roose visited several nobles in the city, and commanded them to leave as well sending many on specific routes that would lead them to be captured by the Lucernian forces. In his final hours waiting for Roose to get to the city he would do these things before he finally sat alone in his throne room having dismissed all of his gaurds and sent away everyone loyal to him.
The Act[]
- “What he did in his final moments cannot make good what he had done before he came to his moral understanding but...but atleast he attempted to make his life somewhat less of a travesty.”
- — Daryn Hornwood
Ramsey entered the city to no celebration, and besides the opening of gates, and the stomping of his men beside him the entire city was filled with the sounds of nothing but fear and silence. Ramsey would enter the keep where he found all the gates, and doors ungarded and was in this moment discusted by what he believed was the complete failure in his father. Entering the throne room of his father he would confront him, and make it very clear from the first moment he entered that Roose was going to die. Roose begged him to make him understand why Domeric had to die, and that infuriated Ramsey who couldn't take that Domeric was till being mentioned while in his own mind he had just went on a trip that would save Bolten. Warning his father to stop speaking of Domeric unless he wished to die sooner, his father would move closer grap him by the shoulders and say that his time was over and now he was ready to see his true son again. Upon hearing that Ramsey would murder him, and so filled with rage was he that he obliterated much of his body leaving nothing but tattered remains. Ramsey from this point would crown himself and parade throughout the Dreadfort with his Bastards controlling the resistence that might have been created in the city. As this was going on Sandor Dregane, and Urren Sliten would be forced to hide as they had yet to find Misha Bolten, and because of this they were nearly caught by brigands now swarming to join Ramsey's court. Ramsey at this point attempted to find the Roose loyalists in the city, but discovered that the day he was arriving his father had sent away hundreds of nobles, while sending away his own kingsgard. Naming five of his bastards to the kingsgard he would return to the throne room, and begin ruling over the kingdom he had now stolen from his brother, and then his father.
Family Members[]
