House Stormbarer
Hailing from the scantly inhabited Eastern Hold, House Stormbarer have been the guardians and thanes of the small town of Isbrygge since the second age. Considered a true 'ancient' house of Aedrinar for their preservered hold on their territories and outlasting of the numerous conflicts and wars they have they faced throughout history. Amongst the most mysterious and secretive houses of the realm, the Stormbarers are considered 'odd' and brutal by other great houses.
The Stormbarer seal is a light blue field with a shark at the centre of a storm vortex. The shark is closely associated with the family, with ancient tales holding how young stormbarers would have to tame a shark as a right of adulthood. Dead sharks and their body parts have also been used in correspondences with other houses - with the Stormbarers often leaving shark heads as threats against their enemies.
The House are currently assisting Doomed 2 Die in their fight against The Dragon Clan as thanks for having Torgier's ancient family ring returned to them.
Members
- Thane Jorvin Stormbarer
- Krieg Stormbarer
Culture
House Stormbarer, despite their lack of numbers, are brutal warriors and sailors. Firecely independent, during the 40 Year War the house honoured their oaths to aid The Commonwealth but operated outside of any key military campaign and serving their own needs and raids.
When in times of war, the Stormbarers often shave the side of their heads revealling aquatic of holy tattoos. They are also known for leaving few survivors in their battles, with Thane Jorvin Stormbarer becoming known as "Thane No Quarters." for his refusals to accept surrender and to leave no survivors from raids. Even by Aedrinaran standards this makes the Stormbarers partically bloodthirsty and has given them a reputation of not being messed with by the other great houses.
The house also remains deeply devout, honouring Thor the god of Thunder the greatest. Several Stormbarers throughout history have born tattoos of Mjolnir to show their deciation, including Krieg Stormbarer who has a tatoo of Mjolnir on his lower left arm.
As their house motto proclaims, the Stormbarers are 'keepers of secrets' and refuse to elabroate on whatever 'ancient oath' they profess to defend. This secretive and private nature extends to all manner of politics, with the Stormbarers refusing to share their secrets or knowledge making them one of the most trusted but feared houses.
History
The Stormbarers hail from mysterious origins. Since the house refuse to share their house chronicles or deeper history, most of their early and ancient history is assumed or interpretted from myth. In some sources, the Stormbarers hail from a homestead deep within the Eastern Hold, in others they are originally from Gudshard and another history claims they are from a now sunken island between Aedrinar and Asrinheim. A more bizzare theory states they lived deep within the sea and that is how they learned to tame sharks.
Some mentions of the Stormbarers have been recorded in other chronicles, with Jotun sources claiming Stormbarers attacked their coastline in the mid first age and aedrinaran chronicles of the final battle against Soulthek stating 8 Stormbarer Longships sailed to the battle of Adar, but no title of nobility was granted to them or any mention of their home ever mentioned in these sources. It would not be until the house arrived in Isbrygge around the early second age, during the Age of Iron and Blood, that they would gain a noble title. The Stormbarers have remained within the small town ever since, making their rule amongst the longest in all of Aedrinar, lagging behind the prestigious and ancient House Winter-Shield.
When the Age of Iron and Blood ended with the rise of High King Ragnar III Wintersheart, the Stormbarers peacefully submitted to the Wintershield king. Throughout the Fourth Kingdom, the houses of the Shark and Fox maintained a close relationship with the Stormbarers becoming routine problems for the Wintershields enemies, the Coldstars. When the Wintersrevenge war began, Stormbarer ships helped attack coldstar and loyalist towns throughout Aedrinar. The house then returned to their usual quiet independence following the Wintersrevenge War's conclusion.
During the fifth Kingdom, the Stormbarers remained quiet but did submit peacefully to High King Haarold II at the kingdom's foundation. The house's first major raids began during this kingdom as Stormbarers travelled en masse with Ragnar IV's war fleets to attack the continent of Prima Terra. Stormbarers favoured attacking the northern regions of the continent - sacking cities in the Crag and even smaller dwarven holds within their mountains.
Most Stormbarers were absent on raids when the Sixth Kingdom collapsed and remained abroad for continued attacks for multiple periods during the 60 year long Lesser Interregnum. Isbrygge would be sacked and a small number of Stormbarer nobles slain when Olaf II reunited Aedrinar into the sixth kingdom. It would not take the Stormbarer's long to reinstate their independence when High King Ebbe be struggled to keep the Sixth Kingdom together. The Stormbarers revolted often and regularly, engaging in gurriella warfare against the high king's forces. Indepedence was gaurunteed upon Ebbe's death at the hands of King Knut as the Stormbarer's resissted Knuts attempts to fold the Eastern Hold into his kingdom.
Throughout the great interregnum that followed, House Stormbarer began their centuries long feud with House Dragontooth of the Eastern Isles as the two factions began consistent warring and raids against each other. This came to its bloody conclusion in 517 with the Rise of Olaf III Kingmaker, a member of the Dragontooths, who took Isbrygge and forced the Stormbarers into vassalage under him. This gave the Stormbarers a constant disdain to the 7th Kingdom as the house regularly refused to participate in kingdom events or wars. The house rebelled several times throughout the seventh kingdom, always offering peace whenever their enemies closed in on Isbrygge, confounding their enemies given their bloodthirsty nature.
By abstaining from the greater court of the kingdom, the Stormbarers were spared during the calamity of the terrasic where thousands of Aedrinaran warriors were killed and several great houses extinguished when the Eldrian Navy defeated the combined naval forces of High King Ulfgir V. This meant the entire house would survive the disaster and go onto become Jarls of the Eastern Hold during the third interregnum.
As Jarls, the Stormbarers were able to claim most of the eastern isles and subjugated their rivals, the Dragontooths, in the process. This rulership would last just over a century, ending in 899, 3e when the Dragontooths were appointed Jarls by the moot. This status quo has existed since, and the two houses field the strongest navy in all of Aedrinar but maintain a tense relationship within the east of Aedrinar.
During the 40 Year War the family worked independently of the other Aedrinaran and Ice Elf armies, prefering to raid and pillage according to their own plans. In one famous incident, Jorvik Stormbarer travelled up the River Axe and raided a village 2 miles away from Eldron, the capital of the Eldrian Empire, killing every villager, guard, and animal leaving only a severed sharks head with a mockery of a crown made out of the dead facing the capital. These routine acts of raiding targets, military and civilian, and leaving no civilian and accepting no surrenders earned him the nickname of "no surrender" or "no quarters" Jorvik.
In duskfall 1052, 3e, the Stormbarers set out to find Doomed 2 Die and retrieve Torgier's found ring. Shan and Azura were at first hesitant to hand this over as it was all they had left of their fallen left and Krieg refused to explain exactly why they needed it other than it was a secret. The group returned it to the stormbarers eventually with the Isbrygge family promising to help them fight The Dragon Clan in exchange. They appear to have honoured this oath, as a listing Dragon Clan ship was found between Kriegerholm and Drekenheim with the entire crew slain and only a shark's head containing a shattered Dragon Clan Consul's mask found on the deck.
Territories
House Stormbarer rules over the entire Eastern Hold and its subsidery homesteads. This makes them the largest area of land within the Jarldom of the Eastern Islands but amongst the least populated. The mountains provide a difficult obstacle for settlers, with year round frost and little growth found outside of small lakes or springs. Most of the population can be found in and around Isbrygge and along the coast of the Vaniri Sea.
Keepers of Secrets and Storms
Type
Geopolitical, Great house
Leader Title
Parent Organization
Notable Members
Comments