House Kytley

House Kytley
"Fire Hardens. The Hammer Shapes."
Liege: House Frey

Fire hardens iron, and the hammer’s blow shapes it to usefulness. This has long been the motto of House Kytley, and seeing the fires that have ravaged the land and blow after blow to their reputation, they continue to keep faith that the Smith has great plans for them. Like the molten metal fresh from the anvil, they are well heated, and well shaped; they wait only for the quenching moment to be created anew.

Aegon the Conqueror’s wrath with King Harren of the Isles was great, and the burning of Harrenhall created a gap in the rule of the Riverlands. In his need to see the smallfolk cared for, Aegon raised up several new houses from those who served him faithfully. Theobald Kytley, known as Theobald the Smith, forged the weapons that graced a full company of Aegon’s soldiers, and the quality of craftsmanship was so high that Aegon took notice. When the war was over, Aegon raised the Kytley line to nobility in order to watch over the king’s lands in the marshy north of the riverlands. The new king reasoned that with weapons of such quality, no brigand band would cross their territory without having to bleed for it. House Kytley has taken great pride in their mastery of swamp and bog since then, and executed their royal duties with expertise and pride. From its founding, House Kytley has tied its fortunes to the flow of bog iron and the careful tending of its smallfolk. The rich riverland soil proved fertile ground for a young house, and Kytley grew into a house of influence and power that remembered always to bend a knee to the Iron Throne, the Lords of Riverrun, and The Smith above all the seven. Hammerstone, the great seat of House Kytley, was completed early in the house’s rise to glory. Begun by Theobald the Smith, it was his son Lord Osmer Kytley who would improve upon Theobald’s plan and see Hammerstone to fruition.

Smithton, the central jewel of Kytley’s demesne, grew to prominence alongside House Kytley’s fortunes. The furnaces belched forth smoke at all hours, rendering bog iron into ingots ready for casting. The metal, harvested nugget by nugget from the swamps, contained too many impurities, which made it too unpredictable for easy blacksmithing. When the bog iron was used for casting, however, this same flaw created tools and implements that were harder than normal iron, and resistant to rust. Merchants plied the waterways, and made the journey from the Kingsroad to trade in Smithton’s market square. Generations of smallfolk rose and fell, always thankful to have the gentle hand of House Kytley to protect them from fire, famine and war. Grateful, at least, until the rule of Jamys Kytley, known afterwards as Jamys the Sybarite.

After many long years failing to produce an heir, Edric Kytley, the twenty-first Lord of Hammerstone, grieved over the wasting death of his wife. Scandal flared when, less than a fortnight after her death, Lord Edric took one of her ladiesin-waiting as his second wife. Such scandal disappeared quickly when his new wife, Johanna, provided him a son and heir within the year. Johanna would give birth to five other children in the next seven years, though Edric held his firstborn son dear to him and spared no expense in seeing to the child’s happiness. Fear for an unstable future led Lord Edric to follow King Aerys’s banner in the war. The family’s loyalty to the Targaryen line extended beyond the bounds of a single man, to any of their blood.

Lord Edric fell during the Battle of the Trident, an arrow transfixing his throat. King Robert, merciful in victory, called House Kytley’s offense paid upon the death of Lord Edric and the house was preserved. Fortunately, Edric’s death would prevent him from seeing what became of his overlybeloved child and the ruin brought to House Kytley’s name.

Jamys Kytley, called the Sybarite, would remember nothing of his father’s grace and kindness, only that no pleasure, experience, or whim should be denied him. A degenerate, he allowed Smithton’s furnaces to grow cold and the land to go untended while squandering House Kytley’s fortunes on progressively more lavish parties. The excesses at his soirees fueled rumors of Jamys’s depravity—nothing and no one was off-limits.

Jamys found something close to a confidant in the hedonistic Brom Bartheld, and the early part of Lord Jamys’s rule saw a bond form between Hammerstone and Hart House. Like all other things entrusted to The Sybarite, this bond was undervalued and destroyed. When one of House Bartheld’s smallfolk confronted Lord Jamys and demanded dowry for his now-deflowered daughter, the Lord of Hammerstone agreed—of a sort. He demanded a trial by combat, then made certain that the first blood drawn was the farmer’s last. He informed the man’s family that they could keep the sword as dowry—and that he had more in reserve should they wish another payment. While Jamys paid Brom for the loss of revenue, relations between Hart House and Hammerstone soured and have never recovered.

Six years of Jamys’s excesses weighed like a decade upon smallfolk and noble alike. Lavish expense left little money to repair defenses or pay soldiers, and the Kytley lands proved too tempting to resist when Balon proclaimed himself King of the Iron Islands. His reavers put Smithton to the torch, and destroyed farmhouse and smithy alike with little concern for an organized resistance from Hammerstone. Indeed, the Ironmen went so far as to assault the seat of Kytley with torch and ram, and reduced the once-great structure to the ruin it is today.

When the call went out for swords to aid King Robert, Lord Jamys rallied his smallfolk. While historians will call this his sole act of nobility, it is likely that Jamys desired more the wealth of new experiences a war might bring than he did harbor a sense of responsibility. Jamys proved himself incapable of following even the most basic tactics, and notoriously held a wild revel the night before the assault on Lord Balon’s fortress. Whatever his motives for entering the conflict, Lord Jamys was slain by an ironman’s axe and thrown into the sea, ending his rule of Hammerstone.

Despite a number of young bastards presented at Hammerstone, many of whom bore Jamys’s features, the Sybarite left no trueborn sons. The death of Jamys passed the rule of House Kytley to his younger brother Ambrose, the sixth of Edric’s children. Lord Ambrose excelled in books and learning, and had studied in the Citadel in preparation for donning the robe and collar. He was recalled from his studies to serve as Jamys’s Castellan before he could forge his chains, fortunately for House Kytley’s future. Upon accepting the rule of Kytley’s lands, Lord Ambrose took as his wife a daughter of House Frey, and pledged his loyalty as bannerman to that great house.

The last nine years have seen a slow increase in House Kytley’s fortune; Smithton was rebuilt, smallfolk tend the land again, and Lord Ambrose has begun to repair the damage done by Jamys’s nightmarish reign.