#black harren

[ironbornsource]

Ironborn Character Bracket

Welcome to the Ironborn Character Bracket where your ironborn faves face off against each other and you get to vote to pick the winner!

Quick FAQ under the Read More

How will this work?

Characters will face off against each other in a poll in pairs as shown in the bracket above. The winner of each pair will progress to the next round, until there is a final winner. Basically, like a regular single-elimination bracket. Voting will start on September 22, 2023 and each poll will run for one week. Once all round of 16 polls close, the quarter final polls will open within 24 hours and each of those will also run for one week. Rinse and repeat for the semifinal and final rounds. We encourage you to follow the blog to not miss any new polls!

Where are Theon and Asha?

We decided to leave them out for the sake of making this a little more interesting/exciting and less predictable. Let’s see who else y’all stan ❤

Only 16 contestants? Such a small bracket!

Yes, unfortunately there are not a lot of significant ironbron characters. We wanted a bracket that would break down nicely and evenly. So for one more round we’d need to go up to 32 characters, and while we could find 32 named ironborn characters, at some point it becomes a little arbitrary which name-only/single mention characters would be picked vs. not picked. We’re sorry if we’ve excluded your minor fave! Feel free to tell us who they are in an ask so we can take that into consideration next time.

Can I send in propaganda and such?

We won’t be posting propaganda under the polls, BUT feel free to send asks with propaganda, comments, thoughts, whatever, and we’ll publish them here for everyone to see! 

[witchthewriter]

𝐇𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐓𝐮𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝑜𝑓 𝑅𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑟𝑢𝑛

𝑴𝒐𝒕𝒕𝒐: "Family, Duty, Honor" 𝑺𝒊𝒈𝒊𝒍: A leaping trout, silver, over a wavy white-blue-white fess on per fess mud red and blue. 𝑻𝒓𝒂𝒊𝒕𝒔: Tend to have fair skin and blue eyes, including deep blue. Tullys have had auburn (red-brown), red, and brown hair.

House Tully is one of the Great Houses of Westeros. Their lands are the central part of the continent. Their seat is Riverrun, a castle at the confluence of the Red Fork of the Trident with the Tumblestone. They rule over the Riverlands from the castle and the head of the house is the Lord of Riverrun.

House Tully rose to prominence during Aegon's Conquest. Lord Edmyn Tully rebelled against the King of the Iron Islands, Harren the Black, to support the invading House Targaryen.

Edmyn's fellow Riverlords followed his lead. When Aegon Targaryen established his rule from the Iron Throne he rewarded Edmyn, elevating the Tullys to Lords Paramount of the Trident.

House Tully fought on the side of the Iron Throne during the War of the Ninepenny Kings. Hoster Tully and Brynden Tully fought during the conflict.

The two brothers later parted on acrimonious terms after Brynden rejected his older brother's command that he marry Bethany Redwyne in order to seal a marriage pact with House Redwyne.

Brynden broke ties with Hoster, earning the name "Blackfish", which also became his personal sigil. Hoster later married Lady Minisa of House Whent and they produced three children: two daughters Catelyn, Lysa, and a son named Edmure.

[august-diehl]

KINGS OF WESTEROS DURING AEGON'S CONQUEST

Aegon's Conquest, also called the Conquest, was the campaign in which Aegon I Targaryen conquered most of Westeros. Aegon subdued six of the Seven Kingdoms, successfully resisted only by Dorne.

[neutron669]

Acquaman by James Harren

[atopvisenyashill]

Harrenhal will be the new seat of what’s left of the Seven Kingdoms at the ending.

I know a few people have already said bits and pieces of this but I wanted to get everything in one post for my own sanity lmao. There’s three kind of main branches to this theory: geographical reasons, historical reasons, and reasons specific to King Bran theories.

Geography surrounding Harrenhal

It’s the center of everything! Let me show you on the map because i’m a visual learner:

Ignore the North and Dorne and probably the Iron Islands too, bc the first two are not gonna be part of The Seven Kingdoms anymore and the Iron Islands is…gonna be a fucking mess lmao. Lemme zoom in:

It’s a very centralized point in the Riverlands but it’s also fairly centralized to the Crownlands (which will probably get absorbed into the others), the Stormlands, the Eyrie, the Reach, and the Westerlands. It makes sense, from a geographical standpoint, that if the lords need to choose a new ruling seat - and they will no matter what, because King’s Landing is gonna go boom - that a more centralized location for easier access to the capital would be their decision.

The Riverlands is also an excellent choice in general because geographically, they are always getting screwed due to being right in the middle of everyone. They get fucked during the Dance, the Blackfyre Rebellions, Robert’s Rebellion, AND the War of the Five Kings. The only area that really gets screwed over more during the various wars is probably the Dornish Marches, because of the conflicts between the stony Dornishmen and the Storm and Reacher Lords but you can’t really set up there because it’s too far from the Eyrie and Riverlands.

And the thing about the Riverlands is that part of why it gets fucked up is that it’s right in the middle of everything and has no natural defenses. The Eyrie has the mountains, the North has their snow, the Dornish has their desert. The Reach manages to stay out of a lot of fighting because that’s where the food is (although the Iron Islands are about to screw them, but that’s because the war has spiraled out of control) and while both the Stormlands and the Westerlands have seen big battles, they have some protection in their coasts, which gives them ships that the Riverlands just can’t quite access. Having the King set up in the Riverlands gives the smallfolk of the Riverlands some much needed protection and potentially, a break from all the fighting.

So the Riverlands is a good place to set up shop, but Harrenhal specifically? Well, that’s because it’s huge:

Every child of the Trident knew the tales told of Harrenhal, the vast fortress that King Harren the Black had raised beside the waters of Gods Eye three hundred years past, when the Seven Kingdoms had been seven kingdoms, and the riverlands were ruled by the ironmen from the islands. In his pride, Harren had desired the highest hall and tallest towers in all Westeros. Forty years it had taken, rising like a great shadow on the shore of the lake while Harren's armies plundered his neighbors for stone, lumber, gold, and workers. Thousands of captives died in his quarries, chained to his sledges, or laboring on his five colossal towers. Men froze by winter and sweltered in summer. Weirwoods that had stood three thousand years were cut down for beams and rafters. Harren had beggared the riverlands and the Iron Islands alike to ornament his dream. And when at last Harrenhal stood complete, on the very day King Harren took up residence, Aegon the Conqueror had come ashore at King's Landing.

If it’s going to be the capital, it has to be somewhere that can hold a whole lot of people and Harrenhal is ginormous and perfect for holding lots of people. It’s even happened before; part of why Lord Whent stages his big tourney where Lyanna is crowned queen of love and beauty is because likely because Ser Oswell Whent, his brother on the Kingsguard, asked him to stage an excuse to get all the Lords together so Rhaegar could discuss with them what to do about his father and Harrenhal is the biggest castle they can do that in outside of King’s Landing. From The Kingbreaker chapter:

Old Lord Whent had announced the tourney shortly after a visit from his brother, Ser Oswell Whent of the Kingsguard. With Varys whispering in his ear, King Aerys became convinced that his son was conspiring to depose him, that Whent's tourney was but a ploy to give Rhaegar a pretext for meeting with as many great lords as could be brought together.

It’s also built up to be sturdier than King’s Landing. Whereas King’s Landing was kind of haphazardly thrown together as it built up over the years, Harren the Black had always meant for a lot of people to be housed there. We see how many people can live in it during Arya’s chapters as she runs around inside of it and Harrentown and this is with a ruler who has no interest in keeping a lot of people in it. With a King or Queen living there, it opens itself up to growing in a much more easily defensible way than King’s Landing.

Historical Reasons Harrenhal is Significant

As you can see on the map, it’s built right on the edge of a very important place: The Isle of Faces and the lake that surrounds it, called the Gods Eye.

It’s a key place for the history of Westeros because it’s where the First Men and the Children of the Forest made peace:

Inexorably, the war ground on across generations, until at last the children understood that they could not win. The First Men, perhaps tired of war, also wished to see an end to the fighting. The wisest of both races prevailed, and the chief heroes and rulers of both sides met upon the isle in the Gods Eye to form the Pact…

It’s also notable for being the only place the Andals never managed to conquer:

It is possible that a few [Children of the Forest] survived on the Isle of Faces, as some have written, under the protection of the green men, whom the Andals never succeeded in destroying.

It’s a place associated with peace and negotiations between people, a place to stand strong against war and untouched by its horrors. A monument to what could be, if you will. And Harrenhal sits on its shore; it would add a very rich layer to setting up King’s Landing in a place associated with peace. And this isn’t the only time a succession crisis of sorts is settled there. The Great Council of 101 AC was held there.

To resolve the matter of his heir once and for all, Jaehaerys called the first Great Council in the year 101 AC, to put the matter before the lords of the realm. And from all corners of the realm the lords came. No castle could hold so many save for Harrenhal, so it was there that they gathered. The lords, great and small, came with their trains of bannermen, knights, squires, grooms, and servants. And behind them came yet more—the camp followers and washerwomen, the hawkers and smiths and carters. Thousands of tents sprang up over the moons, until the castle town of Harrenton was accounted the fourth largest city of the Realm.

Once again, we have Harrenhal associated with peace and negotiation in its history. However, that’s not all it’s associated with; there are several very significant battles that take place near the Gods Eye - again, it is in the middle of everything. It’s a place with lots of history and lots of ties to everyone in Westeros. There’s the Battle Beneath the Gods Eye between Maegor and Aegon the Uncrowned, The Battle of the Lake Shore and The Battle Over the Gods Eye during the Dance, as well as the story of Addam Velaryon landing Seasmoke on the Isle of Faces to take counsel from the green men after being accused of treason. It is, all in all, a very significant place in Westeros.

But that’s not the only reason Harrenhal is talked about. Basically every single time Harrenhal is brought up, someone will mention that it’s haunted. This belief comes because of Aegon the Conquerer and Harren the Black. While Orys Baratheon and Rhaenys march for the Stormlands & Daemon Velaryon and Visenya left for the Vale, Aegon himself first turns towards Harren the Black and the Riverlands. All three face opposition but Aegon conquers the Riverlands first because Harren is so ill loved:

So now the riverlands rose against him, led by Lord Edmyn Tully of Riverrun. Summoned to the defense of Harrenhal, Tully declared for House Targaryen instead, raised the dragon banner over his castle, and rode forth with his knights and archers to join his strength to Aegon’s. His defiance gave heart to the other riverlords. One by one, the lords of the Trident renounced Harren and declared for Aegon the Dragon. Blackwoods, Mallisters, Vances, Brackens, Pipers, Freys, Strongs … summoning their levies, they descended on Harrenhal.

And he makes very quick work of Harrenhal, making it the first Kingdom to become part of the Seven Kingdoms:

The riverlords outside the castle walls said later that the towers of Harrenhal glowed red against the night, like five great candles … and like candles, they began to twist and melt, as runnels of molten stone ran down their sides.

Ever since the burning of Harrenhal, no House has been able to hold it without going extinct soon after. For House Targaryen’s rule in Westeros to start with Harren the Black’s hubris and the fall of Harrenhal, and end with Harrenhal becoming the new seat of the King of the Four (??) Kingdoms is a really neat connection.

Reasons Why It Works With King Bran

But wait! you say. Didn’t you just say that Harrenhal is cursed??

Why yes I did. HOWEVER. There is one family that the Curse of Harrenhal supposedly never touched: The Whents.

You see, from Harren the Black up until the Whents, every other House in charge of it has gone extinct.

House Hoare? That’s Harren’s house and we all know what happened there - they don’t call him Balerion the Black Dread for no reason.

House Qoherys? Dead less than three decades later.

House Harroway? Wiped out a decade later.

House Towers? died out within two decades, ending with sickly Maegor Towers and then old and tired Rhaena Targaryen, until the two odd friends died and the holdings were free again.

House Strong? Well…between the fire that kills Harwin and Lyonel, Larys’ shenanigans getting him merced by Cregan, and Aemond just straight committing a minor genocide in the Riverlands, they all died out (except maybe Alys Rivers’ baby but we don’t have any info there).

House Lothston? Interestingly, they hold the castle for several decades, but they too went completely extinct under King Maekar.

So we come to House Whent. They’ve held it for about 6 ish decades and though they’ve also had some bad luck, they’ve had their people grow old - Walter Whent who threw the tourney is called “Old Lord Whent” by Barristan, and Shella Whent is old when she dies. But the most interesting thing is Minisa Whent.

We don’t know a lot about the Whent line, only that Shella refused to bend the knee to Joffrey, fled Harrenhal when it was attacked, and later died. You could say the curse still got them but in every other case, the whole line dies, not just the main line! Even Janos Slynt has no descendants and Littlefinger will have none to inherit either. But the Whents do: they have House Tully. Minisa Whent married Hoster Tully and had Catelyn and Edmure. The Whents are known for their sharp cheekbones and both Catelyn and Sansa, funny enough, are described as having sharp cheekbones. This very close relation could mean that the Starklings have a claim to Harrenhal through their mother.

This fits with King Bran because we know the lords are perfectly fine fudging things and going through the female line if it fits their needs. They did the same thing with Robert and his grandmother Rhaelle Targaryen, who married Ormund Targaryen, Steffon’s mother. Renly says here:

Oh, there was talk of the blood ties between Baratheon and Targaryen, of weddings a hundred years past, of second sons and elder daughters. No one but the maesters care about any of it.

The maesters love a loophole inheritance.

And remember that the odds of surviving the books for the Baratheons and Targaryens is very, very low. It’s pretty much just bastards all the way down (on both sides lmao, because I do not think either Young Griff or Dany are gonna survive). And whenever the inheritance isn’t clear, a Great Council is called. Catelyn even suggested it while parlying with the Baratheons:

Let the three of you call for a Great Council, such as the realm has not seen for a hundred years. We will send to Winterfell, so Bran may tell his tale and all men may know the Lannisters for the true usurpers. Let the assembled lords of the Seven Kingdoms choose who shall rule them.

Mentioning Bran, of course. A lot of people think it’s far fetched and while I do think him being so young is gonna be a hard sell now that the time jump is gone, I don’t think it’s that far fetched that the lords of the Stormlands, The Reach, the Eyrie, and The Westerlands would be convinced to choose Hoster Tully’s grandson and Ned Stark’s baby boy to rule over them.

And finally, Robb wasn’t called “Robb Stark, King in the North” he was also explicitly called “King of the Trident.” All the talk about who is Robb’s heir but look at how they all think of themselves - “as brave as Robb” “as strong as Robb” or they’ll have sons and name them Robb. Whereas Who Rules The North is all tied up in Robb’s legacy, the Iron Throne isn’t! If King Bran rules from the Riverlands, however, it gives Bran that tie to Robb; he gets to protect and rule from the lands Robb swore to protect, the lands he ultimately fought and died in. For Bran, he still gets to be Robb’s heir, at least in spirit, and I think that would be, to Bran, something very bittersweet.

[daenystheedreamer]

harren hoare had a religious revelation/aliens contacted him like in contact that gave him the technological schematics for harrenhal. there's wires and wifi in there

[marchosias01]

What if the writing hadn't gone downhill for Tyrion post S4?

A nice little luncheon between friends.

I rewrote (or just wrote) Dany and Tyrion's first convo

Tyrion: "Pardon the look, Your Grace. I came to Essos in a little crate, followed by my sister's agents."

Daenerys: "Your sister's?"

Tyrion: "She blames me for my nephew's and my father's deaths, Your Grace." 

Daenerys: "You ran." 

Tyrion: "All the way to Meereen, to pledge my wisdom and advice to a younger, more ferocious queen. To be your Hand, if it please Your Grace." 

Daenerys: "And did you?"

Tyrion: "Did I?" 

Daenerys: "Cause the deaths of your father and nephew?" 

Tyrion: "I did not murder King Joffrey, much as I wanted to, Your Grace. He was an irate, puerile lackwit who took his pleasures mocking me my every waking hour. And my father... He was much the same, only in private, and my sire ever directed his ire towards me. Him I did murder." 

Daenerys: "I see. And your name, my lord?" 

Tyrion: "Tyrion Lannister, son of Tywin. If it please Your—" 

Daenerys: "Lannister?" 

Tyrion: "Oh, apologies... You may recall the name from Ser Jaime Lannister of the Kingsguard, my brother. He sliced your sire's throat." 

Daenerys: "You... presume to serve under me with such... an incontinent mouth and shameful lineage?"

Tyrion: "I presume nothing, Your Grace, only what you would have of me. I am a Lannister, that is true enough. And I shall never escape the actions of my brother Jaime, nor my own. The kingslayer and the kinslayer. Had I been born tall and handsome, us two would've been the true twins." 

Daenerys: "The stain of kinslaying has alighted upon you, and the taint of regicide runs through your veins. So why... why would I take you, Lord Tyrion?" 

Tyrion: "If I may be so bold..." 

Daenerys: "Go on."

Tyrion: "The Targaryen carry the taint of kinslaying and regicide as well, Your Grace.

“In the Conquest, Aegon Targaryen, Visenya Targaryen and Rhaenys Targaryen did for Harren the Black, King of the Isles and the Rivers, whom they cooked to death inside Harrenhal with dragonfire, together with all his sons; Argilac Durrandon, last of the Storm Kings, who refused to marry his daughter Argella to Aegon's bastard brother Orys Baratheon; and Mern IX, last of the Gardener Kings of the Reach, together with Prince Edmund Gardener, his son and heir. 

“As to kinslaying, Your Grace need look no further back than the Dance of the Dragons... We are all attainted, it would seem to me. What is truly of import... is how we deal with said taint." 

Daenerys: "You are... indeed a wise man, my lord." 

Tyrion: "I am neither a tall man nor a handsome one, Your Grace. My cunning is my sole strength, and books are how I sharpen it." 

So, how did you think I did? 😊😊😊 All feedback and thoughts are welcome!

[lilbit32]

the vibe of harrenhal is so dreary and spot on to what I imagined it would be. I just want to watch an entire show dedicated to it

[polysucks]

Except Otto/Rhaenys I believe in show!daemalys supremacy (Daemon x Alys) 😤😤😤

me thinking of all the sexy sexy torture Alys can put fuckboy daemon thru with the power of god and anime on her side (harrenhal fuckery).

that's evil witch riverlands mommy right there. i mean with just a few weeks of alys's fuckery daemon got dogwalked by a fuckin tully sooooooo what else can she accomplish :)?????????

[thesunwillshineonusagain757]

𝗧𝗢𝗨𝗥𝗜𝗦𝗧 𝗔𝗨- 𝗔 𝗦𝗢𝗡𝗚 𝗢𝗙 𝗜𝗖𝗘 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗙𝗜𝗥𝗘

Have you ever asked yourself what a book for tourist traveling to Westeros would look like ? Well, my intrusive thoughts and lack of sleep helped me come up with this idea. It's just the first part of 9 I'll do one for each region of the land of Westeros, but I already have plan to do it to the region's of Westeros too. I based myself not just on the cultures of the real world but also Westeros, and what they would look like in a modern setting, so yeah enjoy my crazy shit because I sure did when I woke up today and decided to do this.

NORTH. VALE. RIVERLANDS. STORMLANDS. WESTERLANDS. CROWNLANDS. REACH. DORNE

[tylands]

ASOIAF LIVES SERIES

THE LIFE OF: HARREN THE BLACK

"Though House Hoare had ruled the Riverlands for three generations, the men of the Trident had no love for their ironborn overlords. Harren the Black had driven thousands to their deaths in the building of his great castle of Harrenhal." Fire & Blood pg 13.

"Stone does not burn, Harren had boasted, but his castle was not made of stone alone. Wood and wool, hemp and straw, bread and salted beef and grain all took fire. Nor were Harren's ironmen made of stone. Smoking, screaming, shrouded in flames, they ran across the yard and tumbled down the wallwalks to die upon the ground below. The riverlords outside the castle said later that the towers of Harrenhal glowed red against the night like five great candles... and like candles, they began to twist and melt. Harren and his last sons died in the fires that engulfed his monstrous fortress that night. House Hoare died with him, and so too did the Iron Islands' hold on the Riverlands." Fire & Blood pg 14.

[ironbornsource]

Ironborn Bracket - Sweet 16

Harren by The Mico

Euron for Fantasy Flight Games

[extraordinary-heroes]

B.P.R.D.: Hell on Earth—The Reign of the Black Flame #3 (Cover art by James Harren)

[kingcunny]

now hold up………… lets let them cook…….

[iheartbookbran]

On the one hand, of course, I despise the idea of the Conquest being adapted for television (or worse, a movie) because to me this is yet another example of how the character of Daenerys is and will continue to be the franchise’s biggest and most profitable asset and HBO will not hesitate to keep on making money off of her image and House Targaryen’s popularity as a whole while at the same time refusing to acknowledge the terrible treatment she received during the last season of the original show.

But on the other hand I think it will be super funny to see how Targ antis will keep on crying about their erroneous conceptions of imperialism and white supremacy while simultaneously tuning in every week to watch each new episode of the Evil Targaryen Show as if Casey Bloys is paying them personally and also latching onto the most conservative, reactionary characters at their disposal just for the sake of it.

[alphacomicsvol2]

Black Science #32 Cover Art (James Harren Variant)