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 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. 

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

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.

House Strong

Main Article : Stannis Strong

Stannis Strong is the son of Deny, and Jortician Strong making him a member of House Strong of Harrenhall. Stannis has three siblings in the form of Renley, Katelyn and Robert Strong who he maintains close contact with due to their existence on the lords council of Harrenhall. His brother Renley was deemed a failure but he left the city and when he returned he appeared to have completely changed himself into someone talented and now the two are close, his brother Robert is the most popular and powerful man in Harrenhall and a brutal fighter, while his sister Katelyn was murdered along with much of her family during the Invasion of Harrenhall. Stannis is married to his long time wife Selsey Strong with whome he has one child with. The birth of his lone child was a painful birth and left his wife unable to give birth again, a fact that has caused a great amount of conflict between Selsey, and Stannis.

Stannis has gained a reputation far and away worse then his slightly younger brother Robert. Where Robert is decorated as a hero of the war with Dole, Stannis is remembered for the terrible brutatility that he used in order to achieve his victories. Where a village needed getting by most generals simply raided through but Stannis left nothing alive in the areas he passed through. Where captives were normally taken, Stannis left whole armies with their heads on pikes. These acts of brutality eventually led to his command being reigned back, and he was only reinvolved when the Dolish started to turn the tide of war following his absence. Despite this fact everyone around him understands that he was an instrumental part of the Dolish campaign. When the Invasion of Harrenhall came to pass there was a group of soldiers from House Seaworth that were meant to assasinate Stannis so that he couldn't take part in the campaign, but these soldiers were killed before they could kill Stannis. Following the assasination attempt Stannis would lead the House Strong forces and as he led them he would devise the defences of the Market, and several other areas. He took personal leadership over the Market Gate and would put many of his best commanders in this area, and he would personally defend the Opera House which was the largest opening in the Market Gate. His defence of the opera house would lead to the deaths of hundreds of his enemies in a series of massacres, as they were without any sort of siege machine and were cut down as the attempted to cross the streets. Following the initial invasion he has come to lead the forces of House Stong in their campaign to take back the docks, and despite the massive numerical superiority of the Seaworth, Greyjoy forces he has succeded in pushing them back several blocks.

Main Article : Robert Strong

Robert Strong is the middle child of Deny, and Jortician Strong making him a major member of House Strong. Robert has three siblings in the form of Stannis, Katelyn and Renley Strong of which Stannis and he are not close but he silently accepts how brilliant his brothers mind for strategy is, while his other brother Renley was deemed early a complete failure but after he left Harrenhall and trained alone he has returned to the city a changed and talented young man, while his sister Katelyn was killed along with much of her family during the Invasion of Harrenhall a fact which pained Robert severly. Robert is married to Meagen Strong with whome he has two children. He also has a bastard child with Jordan Greener a women he captured during the war with Dole, and pitied enough to keep her child.

Robert Strong has always been known as the most popular of the three strong boys and in this position he has taken the public face of House Strong instead of his brother Stannis who is a more military man without the personality to be truly loved, and his younger brother Renley who was deemed to be a feminem man without skill at leading. During the War with Dole he became infamous amongst the Dolish after he and his riders burned dozens of villages, and left thousands dead during the course of the war. While this sparked the war during the actual armed conflict he was responsible for the implementation of his brother Stannis's strategy during the Battle of Mentis where he and the force of Harrenhall utterly defeated the forces of Dole. When his brother Renley Strong would return from his exile from Harrenhall it was Robert Strong that made it very clear that he was an honored member of House Strong, and then would defend his brother after he killed Heer Strong in a duel. It was the sudden attack by House Greyjoy, and House Seaworth that would change so much of Robert's life.

Main Article : Renley Strong

Renley Strong is the son of Deny and Jortician Strong making him a member of House Strong, and one of the three House Strong leaders of the city of Harrenhall. Renley has two siblings in the form of Robert, and Stannis of which Robert is perhaps the most popular and powerful man in Harrenhall, while his other brother Stannis is perhaps the most intelligent general and it was his strategy that led to the massacre at the market during the Invasion of Harrenhall.

Renley Strong was a weak willed child, and for this reason his cousin was deemed to be the one that would use the vast wealth of House Strong to precure a leadership position in the city of Harrenhall. In an effort to change this, Renley worked very hard on increasing his abilities in war. Renley knew that in the spotlight of Harrenhall he would be constantly critiqued and it would hurt his training, so he decided to head north and stay at one of the House Strong estates north of the city. Renley remained in the estate for years and worked on his strategies and he trained with his bow and sword, until he felt ready to make his presence once again known. With his preperation turning him into a skilled fighter he returned to Harrenhall a completely changed man from the young ten year old that had left the city. He was met with open arms by his older brother Robert, but with extreme hostility from his cousin Heer Strong who had basically taken over the life that Renley was going to have taken.

House Seaworth

Main Article : Davos Seaworth

Davos Seaworth is the son of Dale, and Kataryn Seaworth making him a member of House Seaworth, and upon the death of his father he became the Lord of House Seaworth. Davos Seaworth is married to Marya Seaworth who has birthed him seven children: Matthos, Maric, Dale, Allard, Devan, Steffon and Stannis Seaworth. Under the rule of Davos Seaworth, the members of House Seaworth have turned their loyalties towards the Harrenhall ancient enemies of the Iron Islands and were primarily responsible for the failure of Harrenhall during the Siege of Harrenhall.

Davos Seaworth was born the first son of his father Dale Seaworth, and during his youth he grew very close to Stannis Strong of the allied House Strong. During their time together though Davos appeared openly to be very subservient to his friend Stannis, and while on the surface he appeared to accept this openly he was inside very bitter about this course of actions. When his father died he became one of the Lords of Harrenhall, and it was during the celebration for his gain in power that the final straw would pull loose for him. While he was being crowned he discovered to his horror that Stannis Strong sat at the same table as he did, and this caused him to stop the ceremony and demand to know why his friend had broken tradition and not sat at a lower table. Before Stannis could anwser his brother Robert would jump in and insult Davos as the serent of Stannis causing a fight to break out between Robert and Davos. Following this disaster Davos lost all love for his friend Stannis and begin to communicate with members of House Greyjoy of the Iron Islands. His communications would culminate in the massie betrayal of his own city in the Siege of Harrenhall. Since the siege of Harrenhall he has courted himself as King of Harrenhall under the loyalty to the Iron Islands. This has made him extremely unpopular in the city but he is supported by massive resources from the Iron Islands so he is able to move past this.

House Tarth

Main Article : House Tarth

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.

Houses

As a massive city the fortress of Harrenhall contains many houses of which the most important houses are called Lord Houses.

The list of Lord Houses of Harrenhall :

House Strong

Main Article : House Strong

House Strong is the ancestoral, and longtime ruler of the large Westros city of Harrenhall. For centuries the members of House Strong have ruled over the city of Harrenhall along with its surrounding region. They have always done this through the system they call the "Rule of Three", where in three powerful members of the House rule over their specific areas of the city, and must coexist or the House roots them out.

House Strong is led by a triumverate style of leadership that was created in order to control the vassals of the house.

House Strong would become first powerful as they moved into Westros alongside much of the other Goths at the time. During this immigration they were resisted heavily by Dole of whom the Dolish people were Germanic but they were extremely nationalistic in an almost Teutonic way and thus were not willing to exchange land. House Strong would gather the Goths with them and would lead them southward where they would establish the city of Harrenhall. The Dolish would continue to attack the Goths of Harrenhall for many years leading to the Goths and Dolish to engage in the War of the Broken Tree. The conflict would ravage the Dolish and lead to their extreme decline in power in the region, and on the other side the forces of House Strong were more powerful then they had ever been before.The rule of House Strong has been damaged recently with the city of Harrenhall coming under siege from the former vassal house in House Seaworth who are supported heavily by the Iron Islands.

House Seaworth

Main Article : House Seaworth

House Seaworth is a large gothic house from the Westros city of Harrenhall. For nearly their entire history they have been one of the banner houses of the ruling House Strong, but after a series of decisions that appeared to weaken House Seaworth the leadership of House Seaworth turned against House Strong, and through their lot in with the Iron Islands. This change in loyalty led to the disasterous, and painful Siege of Harrenhall, and subsequent to that the nearly constant battle of Harrenhall for control. House Seaworth has been involved in the port of Harrenhall for nearly their entire history and this led to their culture being somewhat different then the majority of Harrenhall, which led to their being more closely resembling the houses of theIron Islands.

House Seaworth arrived in the region of Westros during the first incoming wave of the Goths and became situated in the Iron Islands briefly before they left there and moved north where they settled in the area that is now Harrenhall. There time there as an independant group was slight as they were constantly attacked and vassalized by different elements of the northern Dolish people of whom had little respect for the Goths. They would join with the incoming House Strong when they attacked through the Dolish lands, and for their assistence they would be named one of the Lords of Harrenhall after it was created as a massive fortress.

House Tarth

Main Article : House Tarth

House Tarth is one of the larger Gothic Houses in the Westros city of Harrenhall. House Tarth was always aligned with House Strong but following the early events of the siege of Harrenhall they changed sides and gave control of the factory district to House Seaworth which proved devestating to the siege. House Tarth is perhaps the fourth largest house in Harrenhall falling only behind House Seaworth, House Strong, and House Peach.

House Tarth was alongside House Strong one of the main clans that moved south threw Dole during the Great Migration, and during this trip they became extremely valuable to the leadership in House Strong, and this relationship continued during the rise of Harrenhall. As Harrenhall begin to grow in strength the members of House Tarth found themselves pushed into more and more of a role of being the manuphactures of the town, and there control was stamped all over the northeastern district of the city which became known as the factory district. In the years preceding the War withDole they founded the small town of Tabor where they begin to pour a lot of their energy into. This town meant that there center of influence moved somewhat out of Harrenhall into the bergouning western section of the Harrenhall region. When House Seaworth begin plans to betray House Strong they were not consulted as it was believed correctly that they would simply ride the winner to the end with no real moral standing point.

House Peach

Main Article : House Peach