House Sarwyck

This is a noble house for a roleplaying game.

There are three notable colonies in the Source Lands at this time, the Estonian colony, the Orlesian Colony and the ancient Nordmarian colony.

These three colonies were originally Imperial colonies, but when the Empire collapses, the vast majority of them broke off into separate Kingdoms out of necessity.

The noble culture within them, as well as the laws and the general aristocracy is still largely themed towards the Westerland Kingdom that they originally belonged to.

House Sarwyck is found in the Kingdom of Kaerenth, which was part of the Orlesian colonies.

House Sarwyck has become one of the most important baronies in the Kingdom when they built the Spear-Point Castle.

Holdings
The ancestral home of the Sarwycks is Spear-Point Castle. Spear-Point Castle started as collection of buildings on a mountain top and a palisade. It served as an inn and trading post for those who traveled from between Kaerenth and Haegvia, which was a frequently traveled road because of the many farms in Haegvia and Kaerenth being the quickest access to the ocean, through the rivers.

Back then, the road to Haegvia was plagued with wolves and native tribal barbarians who made it very dangerous to travel. The Sarwycks made it their business to protect the travelers by hunting the wolves and working out arrangements with some of the tribes, and driving others off.

In time, the Dead-Horse Valley was often used by shepherds and cattle-drivers. The Sarwycks became an invaluable support for the local settlers. Soon after, Redmont village was formed by cattle farmers by the foot of the Spear-Point mountain.

Spear-Point
When Aethur Mithlander uplifted the family to Landed Knights, he funded the construction of an actual castle there, and while Spear-Point Castle is a simple castle in it's construction, it's location and surroundings make it not only almost impregnable, but also practically impossible to bypass because archers at the castle have an excellent shot at anyone passing by for quite a while, and the terrain is too rough that one can just ride past.

Spear-Point Castle is located on two twin peaks of the mountain that is called Spear-Point and it's slightly lower neighbor that remains unnamed. The keep is located on Spear-Point and connected by a solid stone bridge to the rest of the castle (referred to as the "walled-keep"), where a collection of merchants, craftsmen and artisans live, along with the men-at-arms and there's also the stables and a chapel.

The walled-keep connects by a stone bridge, south to the western most of the two guardians (the two mountains that form the pass of Dead-Horse Valley Pass are referred to as the Guardians), which is a very wide mountain.

A river runs between the two peaks, and Redmont is found on the south side of the peaks. While there is a way to access the castle from the North Side, it's through a hidden gate, only accessibly through tunnels underground into the mountain itself.

Redmont
Redmont was named after the redness of the clay-like river soil it was built on. Redmont has always made a great living being a pit-stop and a minor trade post between Kaerenth and Haegvia. Redmont consists of twelve households.

North-Shore
North-Shore isn't a real village. There's a lot of shacks that are owned by villagers of Redmont, who use it to sleep over there when they have time to fish. The most distinguished feature of North-Shore is it's rather well made stone piers, where trade boats unload and use the local warehouses to store their goods. There's also a mansions there that is for rent as well as an inn. Very few people live full-time in North-Shore, as it is only a few hours from Redmont.

Relations
House Sarwyck was the talk of Kaerenth a few hundred years ago, because they flatly refused to marry into other noble houses, or even take squires or make any form of alliances with anyone but the King or their count or their duke. For over 200 years, the Sarwycks married only the gentry and the commoners, and got all their knights from them as well.

That did change recently when Bowen Sarwyck (Torrhen's father) died alongside his wife when his sons were very young. With no Lord at the helm, the King appointed a regent, who did not honor the old ways.

Customs
House Sarwych has a lot of unique customs due to originally being a Nordmarian family and for other reasons as well.

Religion
The family is known to be of the Imperial Faith. They converted from the Nordmarian faith to the Imperial Faith when they were uplifted by Aethur Mithlander. Considering that the two religions are almost identical, it's doubtful that the Sarwyck's really thought of it as a conversion, but more as an exchange of religious customs.

Spear-Point has a Nordmarian chapel, but the decorations inside it are definitely themed towards the Imperial Faith.

Spear-Point Rangers
The incredibly harsh terrain surrounding Spear-Point always meant that conventional men-at-arms were no real use. Spear-Point has always employed a very small number of very capable men-at-arms known as the Spear-Point Rangers.

The Rangers were capable hunters, trackers, scouts, foragers and guerilla combatants who could as easily ride into combat as they could climb or swim.

The rangers were known to employ a wide array of weaponry and favor lighter armor for the sake of mobility.

Rangers are very effective warriors who are good archers, good fencers and even good cavalry and excel at spear-combat, but they are very poorly trained (on par with a ramshackle militia) when it comes to formation combat. Normally armed with an arming sword, a dagger, a spear, a cavalry bow and using light armor, consisting of a brigandine, an archers bascinet, a leather bracer and padding.

There used to be a stockpile of chainmail that the rangers could don in times of war, but they were lost in the battle of Dead-Horse Valley.

The five shields of Spear-Point
Spear-Point traditionally has 5 knights employed.

A Bailiff (tax collector), a Marshal (roaming law-officer), a Castellan (in charge of castle defences), a Knight-Commander (leader of the rangers) and the Knight-Captain (law officer in Redmont).

Each of these Knights carried a Silverwood shield as symbol of their office.

Today, 4 of those 5 shields are lost, only the Castellan's shield remains, as the Castellan never leaves Spear-Point.

Where the silverwood for the shields came from is unknown, but it is speculated that Jon Sarwyck brought back more than one seed, and planted Silverwood trees around Redmont, all of which are now cut down.

Silverwood weapons
Occasionally when a member of the family makes themselves noticed in a positive way, the House of Spear-Point rewards them with a bow or spear of Silverwood, made from strong branches from the tree in the courtyard. Silverwood is one of few tree-sorts capable of regrowing lost branches, so this is a sustainable custom.

Wolf-fang
Wolf-fang is the name of the ancestral sword of house Sarwyck. It is an Orlesian broad-sword made from, or perhaps only coated in Dark Steel (probably impossible to find out which). The sword was specially made for house Sarwyck by the Orlesian Viceroy, and it features imitations of Nordmarian design decorations, though it is very obvious to anyone with moderate knowledge of Nordmar that they are mere imitations meant to make the sword look more Nordmarian, and that the sword is very obviously of Orlesian design.

The sword features small wolf-heads at the tip of the guards. It has a Nordmarian holy symbol carved into the pommel and at the middle of the guard.

Wolf-fang is carried by the head of the family as a reminder not to meddle in politics.

Members
Notable members, both dead and alive.

Jorah of the Sarvig (Deceased)
The founding member of your family, who settled the trading post that became the basis for your noble house.

Not much is known about Jorah, except that he was a great and famous hunter and trapper. He could supposedly wrestle a bear and was of impressive size and strength, said to have once driven his spear entirely through a fully grown boar in one strike.

Jorah's reputation as a hunter was what the entire family was built on, and he was supposedly also a great warrior who commanded a small group of men who defended his lands.

Rodrik Sarvig (Deceased)
Rodrik Sarvig was the man who married Arianna Mithlander, and was uplifted to be a Landed Knight of the Empire, the first of house Sarwyck to recieve such an honor.

The books do not say much about Rodrik, except that he was a great warrior for his time and that he fought many battles. Though who his enemies were is unknown.

Rodrik is depicted in a portrait that hangs in Mithgard (the King's palace), and a copy of the painting was commissioned by one of Rodrik's many ancestors, and hangs in Spear-Point, though studies suggest that the painting is not authentic, and that the likeness of Rodrik is likely based on guesswork.

Jon Sarwyck (Deceased)
Jon Sarwyck was the first Baron of house Sarwyck.

From the records he started keeping, due to his appointment as a Baron, later Sarwycks have been granted insight into their past that would otherwise have been lost. Jon is often mentioned as a mysterious character who had some sort of ability that he referred to as the "gift". He is presumed to be the last person in his family to have this unknown ability, but his writings suggest that he was not the only Sarwyck to manifest them.

Jon Sarwyck was the man who planted the Silverwood tree in courtyard of Spear-Point castle. His writings mention that he acquired the seed from a grove of Silverwood trees in Dead-Horse Valley, but no Sarwyck has been able to find the grove since, though it has been a fascination of many to come.

Bowen Sarwyck (Deceased)
Bowen and his wife had two sons, Torrhen and Haran, but neither of them were adults at the time their father and mother died in a bandit attack while away on business. Bowen was an only child, and there were no other Sarwycks at the time, excepting his children. He had recently turned 30 when he died.

Many have often speculated that their death was actually an an assassination, and that it was all staged to gain temporary control over house Sarwyck, by creating a good reason to instate a regent.

This caused the long standing tradition of the Sarwycks, to only marry commoners and gentry from their own land or marring above their own station.

Torrhen Sarwyck (Deceased)
The most recent holder of the Lordship of Sarwyck. He died in combat at the battle of Dead-Horse Valley.

Torrhen reigned over the house in a time mostly known for peace, but was respected and honored as being a "typical Sarwyck" in that he was very bound by honor and heeded any call for war from his allies.

Some may even have suggested that Torrhen was a warmonger who was only comfortable on the battlefield, but this is entirely a ridiculous proposition, as he could easily have been engaged in more conflicts than he was.

Torrhen fought mostly Goblinoids and a few bandits and a minor rebellion in the neighboring county, and at one point marched off to war in a neighboring Kingdom in a meaningless war over a minor border dispute.

Eleana Sarwyck
Eleana is the aunt of the current Lord of house Dronton. She began the alliance between house Dronton and Sarwyck, by binding them to each other through blood, namely the blood of her sons.

Eleana can best be described as a passionate and wise woman, but also a compassionate woman. She was very much, in her demeanor, a very strong opposite of her husband, Torrhen, who was stoic and harsh.

When Torrhen was ordered by the regent of his house, to take a wife of noble status, and break the house's long tradition of not doing so, he said that he would take no other wife but Eleana, who he had apparently fallen in love with at a feast.

She was actually promised to house Moldon, but the regent (appointed by the king) somehow sorted the situation out. Ironically, she now holds the Moldons responsible for the death of her husband and her youngest son, Robard.

Eleana was always compassionate, but her heart has grown cold towards the Moldons, and she has many times been heard telling her son that he "has no time to going around being a cripple" and that he needs to go soil the ground with the blood of the Moldons.

Robard Sarwyck (Deceased)
The former heir of the Lordship of Sarwyck. He died alongside his father at the battle of Dead-Horse Valley.

Robard was the third son of Torrhen, but seeing as both Thayne and Edrik har gone off to join prestigious Knighthood orders, Torrhen had been able to declare Robard his heir, something he was always a bit wary of, because he believed Robard a bit too reckless and taken with glory.

Robard was a Knight-Errant of moderate renown who traveled around the Barony attending tournaments and feasts alike. Robard was also known to be a great swordsman and described as being rather dashing.

Robard seduced the daughter of a distant Count in the Kingdom at a tournament, but she unfortunately died in the initial conflict that arose, while pregnant. She was traveling to visit her parents when she was attacked by the initial skirmishing forces, sent to test the defenses.

She never bore Robard any children, and Edrik seems to believe that it was because of her death that Robard became reckless enough to get himself killed in the battle.

Mira Sarwyck (Deceased)
Mira was the wife of Robard, she was the daughter of the Duke of Highever, a strong alliance for house Sarwyck. She was carrying Robard's unborn child when her carriage was ambushed by Haegvanien Knights who launched a surprise attack, skirmishing through Kaerenth to scout the military forces and supply levels of the Kingdom.

She was remembered as a lovely girl, and very young at her time of death, being only 19. She was somewhat timid and shy but she was good-natured and quite clever. Especially Eleana was quite taken with her daughter in law.

Edrik Sarwyck
Edrik is the current Lord of House Sarwyck.

Edrik is the oldest son of Torrhen, and essentially the rightful heir to Spear-Point, but he joined the King's Guard - an elite order of Knights instead, and because his younger brother did the same, the heir apparent at the time, became their youngest brother, Robard.

Membership in the King's Guard is normally for life. Once a member reaches their 40th year of life, they retire from active duty and serve in other roles, and are allowed to marry and sire children if they still can, but at no point are they allowed to hold titles.

Edrik was severely maimed in the battle of Dead-Horse Valley and can no longer serve the King's Guard in any real respect, so he was honorably discharged from his duty to the King's Guard and personally instated as Lord of Sarwyck by the King who was desperately trying to salvage what was left of his Kingdom.

Edrik would have been the heir of house Sarwyck regardless, if he had not been a King's Guard member, but the King did not want the title to pass to someone inexperienced with other attachments, and his list of candidates was short.

Talia Sawryck (Deceased)
Talia Sarwyck was originally Talia White-Water, of White-Water county. She was married to Edrik Sarwyck for a few busy years, and they had three children together - however the last pregnancy was the death of Talia.

Talia never actually lived at Spear-Point during her life, she lived in the Capital of Kaerenth, as her husband was commander of the King's Guard, having retired at age 35 from active duty to a leadership position - though herself, and many others found the council's interpretation of retirement quite odd, as he instated Edrik as leader of his guard rather than giving him a cushy job as an instructor or a glorified Castellan at one of the King's many properties, as is the usual custom.

Talia only visited Spear-Point Castle once in her life, despite being from the same county. Her and Edrik were married for 5 years, having apparently been courting up until Edrik was allowed to marry. She was 15 years younger than him. She died in childbirth shortly after the battle of Dead-Horse Valley.

Gared Sarwyck
Gared is the 15 years old heir to house Sarwyck who is currently squiring under the Castellan of house Dronton.

Gared is a pained young man, who worries over the future of his family and struggles with the loss of his beloved mother.

He is often said to resemble a younger and more stoic version of the Crown Prince, much to his dismay considering his unspoken dislike of the King.

Gared is said to take after his grandfather, though perhaps as a rebellious act from people telling him this, he has declared that he will not marry a highborn woman, and intends to reinstate the old ways of House Sarwyck again.

In response to this act that would no doubt have provoked the King greatly, he was almost immediately engaged by his grandmother, who would have none of his nonsense.

Lyanna and Rickard Sarwyck
Lyanna and Rickard are the two younger children of Edrik Sarwyck. Rickard is only five, and Lyanna is 7. Both of them live at Spear-Point and are generally nice children, though especially Rickard is prone to brooding moods due to missing his mother. Lyanna seems to be setting aside her own feelings of loss to deal with her brother. They are quite inseparable, as they seem afraid of losing each other.

Rickard's moods are a strong motivation for Edrik to consider remarriage, but he is a bit old for that, and also not currently in a state to woo women or participate in courting.

Geography
The Sarwyck family own a castle found on the mountain known as the Spear-point. Spear-Point is now ambiguously used about both the castle, the village outside the castle and the mountain itself, but the village is actually named Redmont, named as such due to the reddish stones found in the area.

The North Source Lands are more or less geographically based on America, and your Barony would be found within Wisconsin, geographically speaking. Though the region has considerably more mountains.

The Barony is located in the Kingdom of Kaerenth.

History
House Sarwyck can trace their lineage very far back, but as a noble house, their history starts with the colonization of the North Source Lands by the Orlesian Imperial Province.

Founding
The Sarwyck family was originally a clan of Nordmarians who came down from the old Nordmarian Colony to make money from peddling their talents to the Orlesian settlers.

Jorah of the Sarvig was the leader of the clan. Sarvig was the old Nordmarian word for "Spear-Point", which is what the local Orlesians called the the mountain that Jorah built his hall upon.

Jorah was a hunter and trapper, known personally to be the greatest bear- and boar hunter in the region, capable of wrestling bears and driving his spear right through a boar in a single strike.

The clan were known as the best wolf-hunters in the region though, and that is how the clan initially made their fortune, protecting the settlers and their life-stock from the local predators.

They traded their pelts, smoked and dried meats and other goods from their hall, and it was more or less a glorified inn for those that wished to travel through the mountain pass, which was the only way to cross on foot, across the mountain range that closed the area off.

Ascension
The Sarvig family, as they were known at the time, were noticed by the local Governor, Aethur Mithlander, a distant relative of the Imperial royal family who more or less had fled the Empire when they converted to the faith of Helios.

Aethur made the Sarvig's the Imperial equivalent of Landed Knights, granting them the funding to build a castle at the Spear-Spoint, recognizing it as potentially becoming of strategic importance.

He also married his daughter, Arianna to the heir of the Sarvig household at the time, Rodrik. This formally made every subsequent member of house Sarvig a relative of the Imperial royal family, the Mithlanders.

Becoming a Barony
When the Empire collapsed, the local Governors largely decided to form independent city states, but most of them eventually became Kingdoms. The Orlesian-Imperial colony of Kaerenth was no different, and the governor, a descendant of Aethur Mithlander, became the first King of Kaerenth.

When this happened, a large influx of colonists from the Westerlands eventually started migrating away from the war torn Empire where Kingdoms were knocking each other over on a daily basis. Many of these were Free-Marches, and a significant amount of them settled in Kaerenth, to the point where they soon made up the majority of the population.

With an influx of settlers, Redmont Village was formed at the foot of Spear-Point.

The local Free-Marchers called the family that held Spear-Point by their modern name, Sarwyck, which was simply the Free-March way of pronouncing it.

Eventually, House Sarwyck was made into a Barony, and vassalized under the County of Water Dale, which was ruled by the Lord of White-Water Hall, where many more Free-Marchers lived.

Jon Sarwyck was the first appointed Baron of Spear-Point, and it is from his records and logs that he was required to keep as a Baron, that most of the Sarwyck history has been gleaned from.

Vassalized by Orlais
Geographically very close to the remaining Orlesian colony in the North Source Lands, it was a matter of time before the Viceroy of the Orlesian Colony forced your King to bend the knee and swear fealty as a vassal state.

For many generations House Sarwyck remained the stoic and silent watchers of Spear-Point, who never meddled in political affairs, and always answered their calls for war.

The Sarwyck's have a long and proud history of marching off to fight in the wars of their country men, but never concern themselves with the politics of the Kingdom, nor even their own county.

The Orlesian's could invade from two angles if the Kingdom had not accepted the request for submission, and that would be via the great lake, or via the pass of Dead-Horse Valley. The King asked the Sarwyck's for the opinion, an the Sarwyck's firmly replied that no army of any size would ever breach the Dead-Horse Valley while they lived. Unfortunately, the same could not be said of the great lake, and the Orlesians had a lot of river boats.

It was this advice that officially made up the King's mind, and he bent the knee. The Orlesian Viceroy was very pleased that it didn't come to bloodshed, and when they learned that it was the Sarwyck's council that had stayed the hand of the King, they rewarded them with an Orlesian broad sword made of dark steel.

The Lord of House Sarwyck was not honored by this gift however, and in his own words, the house as since worn it as a badge of shame, though most of their country men do not agree with this decision, or even remember the Sarwyck's importance in the conflict.

War for Independence
Eventually however, the Sarwyck's were called in to fight for their independence, when the Kingdom declared independence.

At the time, Torrhen Sarwyck was lord of the house.

Not 6 months had passed since the King had declared independence before the neighboring Kingdom of Haegvia, also a Vassal state of the Orlesian Colony, launched a surprise attack.

Torrhen's oldest son, Edrik, served in the King's Guard and had given up his claim to the Barony. Thayne was talking about making the same choices, and as such, Torrhen had already unofficially declared his youngest son Robard, the heir of his house.

Robard's wife, Cecilia, was of House Glamring who held the neighboring county was one of the first casualties of the surprise attack, and was traveling to visit her parents when she was waylaid by skirmishing Haegvaenian Knights. She was pregnant with their first child when she died there.

The war was definitely personal for the Sarwyck's at this point, but also costly.

After a few months of border conflicts, the entire war escalated when the entire armies of both countries met in the very mountain pass that Spar-Point is located by - Now known as Dead-Horse Valley, named for the fact that the screams of the dying horses could be heard for weeks after the battle had ended, and the valley is still littered with skeletal remains of horses and their riders alike.

The armies charged at each other, and practically no one walked away alive.

Torrhen and Robard both died there, and Edrik was maimed to the point where he had to retire from the King's Guard.

The war was definitely over, but the hatred between the two Kingdoms was not.

The king survived the battle, and named Edrik was named the new Lord of House Sarwyck.

Thayne, but a squire at the time, no longer desired service in the King's Guard like his brother, due to events that he had witnessed during that particular battle, and left the Kingdom to join the Lion's Guard, a Helionite Templar Order.

King Vallenheim II, the current king of Kaerenth, was a recent convert to the church of Cosmos from the Imperial faith. He was guided by a priest who had a firm grasp of him, and he was counciled not to enter the fray with his King's Guard, because it was not Kingly to swing a sword.

This decision meant that Edrik had to get the King drunk to the point where he, as commander of the King's Guard at the time, could make the decision to attack.

Unfortunately, the delay is by most people believed to be the reason why Kaerenth didn't win a decisive victory at the Dead-Horse Valley. And also the reason why Torrhen and Robard are now dead.

When Edrik charged in with the King's Guard, it ensured that the enemy also walked away from the war without any forces to continue waging war with, but it cost the majority of the King's Guard their lives.