Post by illuminosity on Feb 14, 2018 1:58:44 GMT
Corwen the Mild
On the first month of the year 7998, Aegon the Just of House Targaryen landed in Blackwater Bay, demanding the loyalty of the surrounding lords. Lord Corwen Northwood was one of those lords, reigning over the Kingswood in the northern Stormlands. Corwen gave his loyalty over to the Dragonrider King, knowing that his lands and people would fair better without war against impossible odds.
Soon after his initial landing, King Aegon turned his attention to the Stormlands and launched an invasion. Quickly, he and his sister-wives overtook the Storm King, Argilac the Arrogant, capturing him in the midst of battle. However, before a sentence could be passed and relations cooled, Argilac called for a trial by combat under the Gods. Aegon granted him the right and sought to face the Storm King himself. King Argilac and King Aegon pit their steel against one another in Aegonfort. Both were formidable fighters but eventually, it was Argilac who won, slaying King Aegon and ending the Dragon King’s short rule in mid-8002. Argilac was released and the fledgling empire of Westeros hesitantly mourned a king it barely knew.
The young son of Aegon, Aerion took up the throne of Westeros at the tender age of seven. There was a great deal of backlash amongst the lords under the throne, who did not want to be ruled by a foreign king, let alone a child. Aerion’s advisors and regent forced the young king to abdicate his throne to his older sister, Valaena the Quiet, who ruled from then on.
Valaena took the throne in late-8003. Once she came up age, she married a man of Westerosi Valyrian heritage to acclimate her family further into Westerosi culture, but no one was fooled. Valaena, while shy and content with life, was a skilled fighter who rode the dragon Morghon. Though nicknamed ‘the Quiet’ later in her rule, her first few years as queen were consumed in furthering her father’s conquest. She declared war on the Reach and conquered it in a matter of years. Her eyes lay on the Rock to the east but due to her lacking administration skill and relations with her vassals, she found her armies defending the territory she just conquered from angry lords.
Lord Corwen was not one of those vassals. In fact, Corwen was still amiable to the Targaryens and accepted Valaena’s offer of the position of commander. Corwen led the Queen’s Armies to victory against his Westerosi fellows and brought a great deal of favor for his house from Queen Valaena. The relationship, while temporarily fruitful, eventually wavered.
Corwen, while otherwise a kind, diligent, and just man, grew ambitious following the deaths his third child and later his wife, Lady Alyssane Hightower. Dutiful as he was, he knew that despite his deepening depression, he could not allow his house to falter. He had to secure his sons’ and house’s place in history. While he only sought to solidify his family’s hold on his own lands, he found himself unable to execute the monstrosities Valaena asked of him.
When the Stormlands (then led by Storm Queen Argella Durandon) declared a war of independence, Corwen joined the fray. The war was unfortunately lost and Lord Corwen was at the mercy of Dragon Queen Valaena. Valaena, perhaps remembering all that Corwen had done for her, spared him, trading his independence and securing his loyalty by taking his firstborn son Armond as a hostage. Forced to bend to the will of Valaena, Corwen’s depression grew deeper still but his stalwart want to keep his family prestigious drove him on.
For years, Corwen acted as one of Valaena’s acting commanders and even served as her advisor on the Small Council for a short time. As he served, though, he grew to resent Valaena. The resentment grew to the point where he gave up his seat as her advisor and only answered the call to war when it was given. The relationship between Valaena and Corwen continued to dissipate until she turned her conquering gaze on the Kingswood. Corwen received a letter demanding he give his lands over to Valaena and relinquish his title as Lord over them. Immediately, he penned a letter to reject said command. He knew full well it would lead to war, and so as the letter was sent, he mobilized his forces and prepared for a war of independence against treachery.
When word of war reached Storm King Qarlton and Reach King Edmund, they mobilized their forces in favor of their countryman. The massive war played out all across the Crownlands, and though the Crown was outnumbered, their dragons leveled the field. Valaena’s forces immediately marched for Woodpoint, the Kingswood capital, and razed it, capturing Armond Northwood, Corwen’s heir. Corwen was away, marching his forces to meet with the Storm King’s and the Reach King’s. Upon hearing the news of the siege and the capturing of his son, Corwen turned his host around and returned to Woodpoint, where it clashed with Valaena and her dragons. Corwen, perhaps blinded by rage and the want for his son’s safety, charged directly for Valaena. However, Valaena’s mother, Visenya Targaryen intercepted him with her dragon Vhagar. Corwen was unperturbed and dueled the dragon, suffering a massive wound that nearly left him disabled. Corwen Host was rescued by the Storm Armies, forcing Valaena’s forces to rout.
The war lasted three long years but was decided by a battle between Corwen’s Host and Valaena’s Host after Blackwater Bay was occupied by the former. Again, Valaena and her mother assaulted Corwen’s forces with their dragons and the battle was nearly theirs, but the armies of the Reach arrived on the scene in the nick of time after being delayed by a civil war erupting in their lands. The combined armies of the Reach and Corwen destroyed the Targaryen force, forcing them to rout further north. Knowing the war was his, Corwen extended a letter of peace to Valaena and it was accepted. Valaena surrendered herself to Corwen and was chained in the dungeons of Woodpoint where judgment awaited.
Lord Corwen was given a heavy decision as the victor of the war: to allow Valaena to remain as the Queen of Westeros, to act as her regent and rule until her death, to usurp the title of Westeros for himself, or to call the nobles of the land together to decide who shall rule Westeros. Being a just man, he did the latter. In the period of interregnum, he was named Lord Protector of the Realm, made to watch over it while the Great Council decided.
The Council decided that four people were the leading contestants for the kingdom, one of them being Corwen himself. Visenya, Valaena’s mother, was considered, as was a lowborn Valyrian woman, and Valaena’s husband. Corwen, knowing he did not want the kingdom in the hands of a dragonrider, voted for himself, and to his surprise so did 89 other nobles.
Within a week of defeating Valaena and her forces, Lord Corwen Northwood of the Kingswood was being named King of Westeros, placed there by a combination of his own actions and the faith of his countrymen. In early 8021, Corwen was crowned King of Westeros.
Corwen died late in the next year from an infection in a wound inflicted by Vhagar during the war. He left the kingdom to his firstborn son Armond.
