Harrenhall (City)

Harrenhall (City)
The Keep of Harrenhall
Vital statistics
Type of Goverment	Dictator Historically. Devided City following the Siege of Harrenhall
Allegiance	House Strong, House Tarth, and House Seaworth have devided the town between themselves.
Ruling House	House Strong, House Tarth, and House Seaworth have nearly identical levels of power within the city.
Population	Placeholder
Location	Northern shore of the Iron Lake.
Language	Germanic
Religion	Dragon Worship
Races, and Ethnicity	Gothic Germans

Harrenhall is a large castle/city that rules over a piece of land on the north end of Iron Lake in Westros. The city is named after the region/Kingdom that exists in this land also called Harrenhall, of which has become the home of one of the most civilized of the kingdoms of the Iron Lake's northern section.

Harrenhall for the vast majority of its history was ruled over by the members of House Strong who ruled it in a sort of fake triumverate where they pretended alongside the other houses of Harrenhall that they were sharing power. This dictator like powers led them to be by far the most powerful of the houses, but left their leadership open to resentment which happened when House Seaworth felt slighted and their action was to rebel against House Strong. The leadership of the city would be changed immesurably following the Siege of Harrenhall as House Strong was brutalized, House Seaworth filled the void alongside House Tarth and thus in the midst of the death and destruction the city faces its first true Triumverate leadership.

Harrenhall was in its earliest times religiously following the founding of the religion of Dragonoph the city of Harrenhall would follow this religion and built several temples in the city and it was unquestionably a region dominated by Dragonoph. Several generations before the Dolish War the Lord of House Strong converted to the religion of R'hllor following a trip to the Riverlands and following this the R'hllor religion would spread somewhat to Harrenhall but is something of a minority behind the dominant Dragonoph religion.

Harrenhall is a huge center of the Gothic people, and it is ranked amongst the largest of the Gothic Towns in the entire region, and perhaps continent. Harrenhall was once nothing, and unlike many of the other cities that the Goths dominate this city is special because they built it from scratch and didn't simply build over the ruins of the Atlantians. Harrenhall is not completely homogeneuous as there are members of the Alans that live within the city who have come to live their after emmigration from the nearbye kingdoms of either Stor, or Undren.

The city of Harrenhall itself would be a new construct of the Goths, and the land it now inhabits would be nothing more then the grazing lands of the nearbye Dolish for centuries until the arrival of the Goths. The city of Harrenhall was constructed by the members of House Strong, who built the castle to protect their people from the raids of the Ironborn, who at the time were devided and simply raided whatever they felt like. The City of Harrenhall would become the centerpiece of the independant city state of Harrenhall which would never become a Kingdom as the members of House Strong who were the dominant house never felt inclined to become Kings of men. Despite its independance it became embroiled in a very brutal conflict with the Dole nearbye and the conflict would basicaly destroy the soul of the Dolish people and leave the city to its own dominance without external threat in the region of Harrenhall. The city of Harrenhall has been the site of many substancial battles in the history of Westros but until recently has never been pierced during a siege. It was finally pierced during the Siege of Harrenhall when Balon Greyjoy overwhelmed its walls and was able to take over the east side of the castle. The two sides are now locked into a bitter fight over the contested center of the city, and by extension the entire city.

History

Construction

The city of Harrenhall was constructed by the members of House Strong, who built the castle to protect their people from the raids of the Ironborn, who at the time were devided and simply raided whatever they felt like. From the city they would be able to dominate the regions of southern Dole, and this allowed the leadership of House Strong to grow their powerbase to levels they had never believed possible. The city itself started off as nothing more then a walled in city with only a few thousand people but as the powerbase, and wealth grew of House Strong so to did their ability to grow the city, and this became true as over the next several generations they added onto the city, until it reached the levels it was during the War of the Harp, and the days preceding the Invasion of Harrenhall.

War of the Harp

Main Article : The war of the Harp

"We followed the words of a mysterious man, and yet the people wondered why we gained nothing from that quest except for death and misery."

-Renley Strong

House Strong leadership was met by amysterious man during a council meeting, and during this meeting the mysterious man offered House Strong, and by extension Harrenhall the oppurtunity to gain control over the Dragon Harp which was a device that could call dragons to the one who played the harp. There was little debate amongst the leadership, as everyone understood that the Dragon Harp was an item of the greatest importance and that if they were to gain control of it then noone would dare resist them ever again. Unfortunatly for House Strong, and Harrenhall they were not the only ones offered this deal as the mysterious man was a servent of Malekor, and was attempting to cause the destruction of Westros through the destruction of Pontus, which would weaken the entire region. Following his meeting with House Targaryan he used other servents to offer the same deal to the leadership of Harrenhall, Iron Islands, Kingdom of Bolten, and the Easterlings. With all these parties now obsessed with the hope of getting the "Harp" from Pontus the armies of these nations headed towards Pontus. House Strong would join forces with the rest of the Harrenhall army, and would land southwest of the Crater of Pontus where they had been advised to go by the mysterious man. 

"How could we have known that we were being tricked. How could we have known that the man wanted to see us all dead? In hindsight we should have ignored the carrot and stayed at home."

-Renley Strong

When House Strong, and the other elements of Harrenhall arrived on the shores they quickly noticed two large armies nearbye. Messengers from the three armies would meet, and the forces of the Iron Islands, Bolten and Harrenhall would discuss a mutual agreement, but while this was happeneing the forces of House Targaryan were already gaining possession of the Dragon Harp. Aryes Targaryan and several of their company had infiltrated the dungeon that contained the Dragon Harp before the other armies had realized anyone was inside, and while the three armies discussed a solution Aryes Targaryan would gain control of the Harp and sneak his men back out of the dungeon and southward towards the House Targaryan forces. When the messengers and the armies noticed that a small force fled southward from the dungeon they all blamed eachother and there was a great fight between the messengers which led to the three armies converging on eachother. 

The First Harrenhall-Dole War

Main Article : First Harrenhall-Dole War

The Destruction of Dole Hundreds of Thousands would perish in the fighting. In the end though Katniss Everdeen my family died out there, and the reason they died...the reason all of them died was because your father was a coward. You will pay for his crimes. I will make you pay for his crimes.

“The The Dolish were a people that represented in the beggining everything that was an honorable member of society. As they fought we marveled at the honor they fought with, and the determination that they died with, and as time went on a small sliver of fear ran up my back that they would fight to the last. When we burned down their villages, massdacred their armies, and took their women for slaves there attitude changed very quickly.” — Robert Strong Dole was always an enemy of House Strong, since the first days of House Strong entering Westros the Dolish people had for whatever reason come to absolutely hate the members of Harrenhall who they believed looked down on the Dolish and their way of living. Dole and Harrenhall having had a long and dirty history between eachother and this usually ignites into war over some meaningless town between the two or some stupid insult leveled at the other Houses. In this case the leader of Dole at the time ordered the murder of several Harrenhall tradesmen in an attempt to control trade in the center of the Dolish Peninsula. Robert Strong the leader of the Harrenhall city and kingdom demanded revenge, but was calmed by his best friend Davos Seaworth, and instead sent diplomats to the Dolish to try and discuss how to end the conflict peacefully. Instead of talking the Dolish would execute the diplomats and send their bodies in pieces back to the capital. These murders were too much for even Davos to argue against and Robert was finally able to rouse enough support to lead a revenge killing in which Robert Strong rode with two thousand horses and burned down an entire Dole village. The killing would be hundreds, as the Dolish were unspuspecting, and Robert burned several more villages, before they finally stopped and returned to Harrenhall. “The The Dolish were a people that represented in the beggining everything that was an honorable member of society. As they fought we marveled at the honor they fought with, and the determination that they died with, and as time went on a small sliver of fear ran up my back that they would fight to the last. When we burned down their villages, massdacred their armies, and took their women for slaves there attitude changed very quickly.” — Robert Strong With this act the two went to war, and the war was at first heavily favored by the Dolish who enjoyed a massive superiority in numbers but as time went on the superior skills, and equipment of Harrenhall coupled with brilliant maneuvers by Stannis Strong led the Dolish to begin to lose the war. In one particular battle the forces of House Strong were led by Robert Strong with some three thousand cavalry while his brother Stannis, and Davos Seaworth led another two thousand cavalry and three thousand infantry around the side, and during this battle the two forces defeated an army of some thirty thousand Dolish. Following this defeat the Strong forces would move against the cultural capital of Kingsgrave where they would easily enter the un-walled city and they took cultural artifacts and basically burned the capital of the Dolish people to the ground. This series of defeats led to the Dolish besieging the House Strong town of Wurzberg where they besieged it with well over one hundred thousand men against fewer then thirty thousand on the defenders side. The siege went on for well over a year with the Dolish unable to properly besiege the town and taking increasingly large casualties to both the battle and even larger to desertions as the clan leaders returned to their homes for the winter. As the Dolish retreated from the siege the large forces of Harrenhall who were barely even damaged moved themselves and begin harassing the much larger force as it made its way back to Dole. Every time the Dolish attempted to battle the forces of Harrenhall they retreated and since the command of the Dolish was weaker many clans walked in wrong directions and were massacred as they drifted from the main force. This continued for weeks until completely exhausted and nearly at the point of breaking the forces of Dole stood their ground and a large land battle took place which led the destruction of much of the Dolish forces and minimal casualties to the Harrenhall forces. Treaty of Kingsgrave The massacres of the retreating Dolish forces were seen differently by many among the armies, but either way the leader of the Dolish was dead during the battle, and the remaining clan leaders sent out word to the Harrenhall army that they wished to parlay, and with the cavalry army of Stannis Strong still running rampant in northern Dole the meeting was to be held at Kingsgrave. With no bargaining power left and a well organized army on its doorstep the Dolish leadership would surrender unconditionally to the forces of Harrenhall. With the surrender they gave two major concessions to the forces of Harrenhall including the independence of two large regions west of Harrenhall in the form of the Realm of Dolentia, and the Republic of Karrenhall of which both were led by puppets for the forces of Harrenhall.

Siege of Harrenhall

Main Article : Siege of Harrenhall

The Siege of Harrenhall was a sneak attack against the city of Harrenhall led by the rebellion House Seaworth and supported by the Iron Islands against the rulers in House Strong.

The Siege started badly for House Strong when Stephon Strong was killed in the opening moments by his own gaurd. Following this murder the supposed mercenary army of House Seaworth - which was in fact simply soilders from the Iron Islands - landed in a fleet inside the port, and attempted to take control of the city. The siege ultimately failed after Kyle Strong along with a brigade of his men held the road to the Keep for long enough for reinforcements under Robert Strong to arrive.

Goverment

Main Article : Republic of Harrenhall

See Also : Kingdom of Harrenhall

Harrenhall for the vast majority of its history was ruled over by the members of House Strong who ruled it in a sort of fake triumverate where they pretended alongside the other houses of Harrenhall that they were sharing power. This dictator like powers led them to be by far the most powerful of the houses, but left their leadership open to resentment which happened when House Seaworth felt slighted and their action was to rebel against House Strong. The leadership of the city would be changed immesurably following the Siege of Harrenhall as House Strong was brutalized, House Seaworth filled the void alongside House Tarth and thus in the midst of the death and destruction the city faces its first true Triumverate leadership.

Following the Invasion of Harrenhall the leadership of House Seaworth formed the Kingdom of Harrenhall and became an absolute monarchy, and this caused a split of the city.

Senate of Harrenhall

Beyond this theoretical leadership structure lies the true title system which enables noble families to gain certain titles with the most powerful houses taking the title of Lord Houses spanning downwards to Baron Houses. Following the siege of Harrenhall this system was more carefully controlled when under the direction of Renley Strong the Senate of Harrenhall was put into place giving all houses in Harrenhall a vote at the senate on major decisions with the higher your title indicating an increase in votes.

Name	Title	Votes
House Strong	Lord House	6
House Tarth	Lord House	6
House Peach	Lord House	6
House Wensington	Duke House	3
House Deach	Duke House	3
House Bolling	Duke House	3

Demographics

Harrenhall is a huge center of the Gothic people, and it is ranked amongst the largest of the Gothic Towns in the entire region, and perhaps continent. Harrenhall was once nothing, and unlike many of the other cities that the Goths dominate this city is special because they built it from scratch and didn't simply build over the ruins of the Atlantians. Harrenhall is not completely homogeneuous as there are members of the Alans that live within the city who have come to live their after emmigration from the nearbye kingdoms of either Stor, or Undren.

Religion

Harrenhall was in its earliest times religiously following the founding of the religion of Dragonoph the city of Harrenhall would follow this religion and built several temples in the city and it was unquestionably a region dominated by Dragonoph. Several generations before the Dolish War the Lord of House Strong converted to the religion of R'hllor following a trip to the Riverlands and following this the R'hllor religion would spread somewhat to Harrenhall but is something of a minority behind the dominant Dragonoph religion.

Religion	Share of Population
Dragonoph	82%
R'hllor	11%
Tribal	7%

Houses of Harrenhall

As a massive city the fortress of Harrenhall contains many houses of which the most important houses are called Lord Houses. Beneath the Lord's Houses stand the Duke Houses of which are the secondary level of power with only the Noble Houses being below the Duke Houses.

Name	Title	Lord	Heir
House Strong	Lord House	Robert Strong
House Seaworth	Lord House	Davos Seaworth
House Tarth	Lord House
House Peach	Lord House		Dontis Peach
House Deach	Duke House