The Witch Son
and a swift justice to those that got away with it
The North's Second Chance
- Brooke: Big lake.
- Sigil: White Swan on Blue
- Castle: Brightwater
- Motto: Truth Clear As Water
- Stryder: Lots of forest.
- Sigil: Grey Wolf on Green
- Castle: Greenden
- Motto: Howl Together
- Woodville: Lots of forest.
- Sigil: Purple Griffon on Red
- Castle: Greenperch
- Motto: Fly High
- Day: Family is into Astronomy.
- Sigil: Yellow Sun on Purple
- Castle: Starsight
- Motto: There Is Always Light
- Corbyn: Agriculture hub
- Sigil: White Lion on Black
- Castle: Whitehall
- Motto: Noble Are We
- Stoneway: Mines.
- Sigil: Blue Eagle on Red
- Castle: Deadstone
- Motto: Steady As The Mountain
- Goodwyne: Agriculture hub.
- Sigil: Black Unicorn on Yellow
- Castle: Rosehall
- Motto: Reap What You Sow
- Rowen: Founded by the seventh son of a seventh son. That quality is thought to produce luck.
- Sigil: White Rowan Tree on Grey
- Castle: Seventhson
- Motto: Never Forget
- Grimald: Northernmost House, most land
- Sigil: Black Bear on Blue
- Castle: Mountainkeep
- Motto: Together We Are Warm
- Drakan: Royal family, biggest city in Dorelith located near castle.
- Sigil: Red Dragon on Black
- Castle: Blackgate
- Motto: Pride Honor Justice
- Brooke Bannermen
- Harte
- Mollen
- Reed
- Waynwood
- Westbrook
- Risely
- Appleton
- Stryder Bannermen
- Graves
- Holt
- Jordyn
- Moore
- Mertyn
- Selmy
- Vance
- Woodville Bannermen
- Groves
- Hayford
- Redding
- Sharpe
- Shepherd
- Pryor
- Mooton
- Day Bannermen
- Robinport
- Merway
- Blacktyde
- Cole
- Fenn
- Fisher
- Hardhome
- Corbyn Bannermen
- Flint
- Greenhill
- Haigh
- Hewet
- Knott
- Mandrake
- Penrose
- Stoneway Bannermen
- Brightstone
- Darke
- Fell
- Garlen
- Justman
- Kenning
- Ladybright
- Goodwyne Bannermen
- Sweetwood
- Ambrose
- Briar
- Buckwell
- Cassel
- Caldwell
- Dalton
- Rowen Bannermen
- Hammel
- Hardyng
- Hawthorne
- Thornberry
- Kyndall
- Longhall
- Mallory
- Grimald Bannermen
- Blackfoot
- Warwick
- Bracken
- Thornwell
- Dustin
- Albion
- Oakheart
- Darkwood
- Brune
- Corbray
- Rayne
- Nightsong
- Foxglove
- Gaunt
- Harlaw
- Drakan Bannermen
- Wynn
- Farrow
- Graceford
- Harroway
- Hastings
- Ironsmith
- Keath
Past Timeline That Lady Veora is Aware of
—---idk what happens here but things happen—---
Past Timeline That Lady Veora is Not Aware of
—---------skipping a lot of time
- A coup for the throne happens, House Grimald takes a side. Lord Giles Grimald and House Drakan’s Lord Erasmus become comrades in arms, bonding over being Lords of a house at such a young age. They win, but the newly made Emperor Erasmus hates seeing his brother in arms return to the north after he wins the throne, so he gives him leave to go home reluctantly. The Emperor gives the hand of his sister, Princess Carina, to Lord Grimald to wed before Lord Grimald leaves.
- The marriage is very sweet, but lasts only a few years. Lady Carina gives birth to a son, Rhory, but dies from childbed fever soon after giving birth to her second child, a daughter named Veora. The Emperor himself visits to take his sister's bones back south. He stays for a month to comfort Lord Grimald.
- About another decade passes before Lord Grimald marries again, at the insistence of his bannermen.
- A coastal Great House, House Day, rebels against the rule of the Emperor Erasmus. The Great House Grimald is tasked with crushing the rebellion. They do, and take House Day’s only son as a ward (a nice way of saying hostage) to keep the peace.
- 10 years of peace pass. A letter arrives with the Emperor's seal, notifying the steward of the north Lord Giles Grimald that House Day has rebelled once more. It is now Lord Grimald’s duty to behead his ward from House Day, making good on the threat that should House Day rebel again they will lose their heir. The family, Lord Grimald included, is extremely upset. But Lord Grimald does his duty.
- Lord Grimald sends a letter to House Day to let them know it is done. House Day responds, enraged, that they had not rebelled at all. As they had promised they would keep the peace 10 years ago. But now, in revenge, the north would suffer a war from them in retaliation.
- A war ensues, House Day is less strong than they were 10 years ago and do not stand a chance. It is short, only two years, nonetheless they weaken the north. Burning a lot of cropland and destroying a castle or two.
- The Emperor summons Lord Grimald to discuss what transpired and why down in the south in person. Lord Grimald takes his 3 daughters to court with him, and reveals the sealed letter he received in person. The Emperor is shocked, as he never had such a letter sent. But Lord Grimald should stay awhile and investigate in secret with his help.
- The eldest daughter of Lord Grimald, Lady Veora, is popular in court and the Emperor's son, the Prince Tristan, takes a liking to her. They become engaged to be married.
- On Lady Veora’s wedding day the Emperor Erasmus is assassinated and Lord Giles Grimald is framed for it. Lord Giles is given little warning, but just enough to act before it's too late. He tries to flee with his daughters. His youngest daughter, Gyda, is accidentally killed during the arrest. The next youngest, Dhara, escapes with the help of a few men. And the eldest, the new Princess Veora, is arrested after it's all over. Princess Veora had refused to flee and stayed behind with Prince Tristan, her husband, tattling on her father in the process. (Yes, she would always hate and blame herself for this grave mistake.)
- Lord Grimald is to be beheaded for treason, and asks for pardon of Princess Veora’s life in exchange for the full (false) confession of his crimes. Which is better than Lord Grimald shouting some conspiracy about being framed, and is why the Lord Chancellor had Princess Veora arrested in the first place. To use as leverage against Lord Grimald. Princess Veora is pardoned but her marriage is dissolved and she becomes a prisoner of war as the north declares rebellion. Prince Tristan, now made Emperor Tristan, goes along with all of this, leaning on the Lord Chancellor’s council. He fights in the war himself and brings his former wife, Lady Veora, with him. She is kept in his tent and made to serve him hand and foot. Lady Veora is silent and submissive during her prisonership. But She listens intently to everything going on around her.
- The north is united under House Grimald and its new Lord, but what the south didn't expect was for Lord Rhory Grimald to declare himself a King and begin uniting the midland Great Houses against the south too. King Grimald is a brilliant military strategist and wins every battle he fights. If only politics were half so easy as battle were.
- In particular, an allyship is made with the Great House (up to you, your main female character hails from here possibly), which holds a geographical advantage between the north and south. It is to be sealed with marriage.
- The night before the wedding, Lady (up to you) escapes with a number of her sisters into the forest. She takes with her horses, supplies, and weaponry. Nobody is able to retrieve them, they cover their tracks too well and the forest hides them effectively. They become a rogue band of bandits that allies with commoners and uses guerilla tactics to fight both the south and north armies that encroach upon their territory.
- The allyship between House (up to you) and King Grimald dissolves as Lord (up to you) decides to ally himself with the south instead. King Grimald finds this out after a betrayal on the battlefield earns him his first loss.
- King Grimald, using a white flag to show surrender, attempts to ally with the rogue bandits. But her father sets fire to the forest with them both in it and they both die a fiery death.
—---idk what happens here but things happen—---
- Emperor Tristan dies in battle, The Lord Chancellor takes over the front lines and Princess Alegra is declared Empress.
- Idk who but SOMEBODY rallies the northern forces and retreats but holds the border in the midlands successfully. The Lord Chancellor is unsuccessful in getting that border to budge.
- An entire year of volcanic winter over the continent blackens out the skies, and crops suffer because of it.
- In a surprise attack, the Lord Chancellor's camp is attacked and he is slain. Lady Veora is rescued and she is crowned Queen. She marries her rescuer since he has been the default leader of the north since her brother's passing. He dies in a border skirmish at some point, but Empress Alegra and Queen Veora come to a peace treaty. As neither can afford a war while famine affects the entire continent.
- Queen Veora is sent back in time after being approached in a dream by a northern god, Odin. Which she finds strange given that due to her mother’s heritage, she’d always practiced the southern religion. In exchange for strengthening the worship of his pantheon she will get a chance to change the past. She's sent back in time, before the ward of House Day is beheaded.
Past Timeline That Lady Veora is Not Aware of
- The Emperor Erasmus and Lord Giles Grimald were “greek comrades”. As in they were banging but not in a way that was considered gay and submissive by people back then. Apparently so long as you were not being penetrated it wasn't considered shameful or even odd. They don't really have a concept of gay in medieval times, and mostly you were considered to “prefer the company of men” over women sometimes. Which we now know is code for gay. The Emperor Erasmus is very gay. Lord Giles Grimald is not really (maybe situationally bi) but he looked up to The older Drakan heir when they were fighting a war together and if they were a little too close during, well oops. Emperor Erasmus gave Lord Grimald his sister to marry so that they would be related by blood. It was the Emperor’s way of holding onto Lord Grimald even though he must go live on the opposite end of the continent now.
- The Emperor became very depressed after Lord Grimald left, and even more so after hearing that the marriage was going well and his sister, Princess Carina, was pregnant. He spends a lot of time drinking, jousting and whoring. The Empress, his wife, is unable to cheer him up. And she resents that, but maintains her dignity and is widely considered a good and wise Empress.
- Princess Carina dying actually cheered Emperor Erasmus up because it gave him an excuse to go north (a selfish dick I know). Where he stayed way longer than he should've or was appropriate. But it's not like Lord Grimald minded. He needed comfort at the time because he really loved his wife, her passing affected him deeply.
—---------skipping a lot of time
- The Lord Chancellor and Princess Alegra (the Emperor's daughter) are in love. And very ambitious people by nature. The Lord Chancellor is a self made man who rose from a position of peasantry to where he is now, the first man in history to do so. Princess Alegra is smarter than Prince Tristan, and she's always resented that she's a pawn while he is heir to the throne. She resents her destiny to be married off and plots with the Lord Chancellor to put herself on the throne, later to crown him as her consort. But this plan requires both her father and brother to be dead, and for the Lord Chancellor to be seen as worthy of marrying her. As it stands now, though powerful, the nobility resent the low birth of the Lord Chancellor.
- They decide upon a course of action, the Lord Chancellor will lead a war against northern rebellion to raise his reputation. First though, they want to weaken the northern forces to ensure victory and a good way to kickstart a rebellion and get Lord Grimald in the southern court to frame him is to trick him into conflict with Lord Day. They steal the Emperor's seal and use it to send the letter to Lord Grimald that House Day has rebelled. It works. And once the Day rebellion is quelled Lord Grimald is summoned south as predicted.
- The Lord Chancellor and Princess Alegra frame Lord Grimald. However Lord Grimald has more proof than either of them wanted him to have of their treachery. Lord Grimald also knows they are an item. To shut him up Princess Veora, Lord Grimald’s eldest daughter, is arrested too. They threaten her life to Lord Grimald and he agrees to recite a script they write for him in exchange for sparing her life.
- The Lord Chancellor convinces the Emperor Tristan he needs to be on the front lines when war with the north breaks out. Emperor Tristan agrees of course, his death on the front lines is not an honest one.
In the Empire of Dorelith, you live and die by your House name.
Last edited: