Sorry this is late; had a rough couple days. It's a little shorter than the other previews (by about a hundred words) but still contains a good overview of House Dunn.
House DunnVassals of House Tyrell :: “Until Mountains Fall”
HISTORY
The history of conflict between Dorne and the so-called marcher lords of the Seven Kingdoms goes back countless generations. Even in the days before the Kingdom of the Reach was truly a kingdom, feuds and conflicts broke out along what, increasingly, became a hard cultural divide. It is from these conflicts that the house that is today called the Dunns arose.
The exact origins of House Dunn are unknown today; some say the house is descended from the commander of an Andal commander who held the Dornish at the Silver Hills for days, allowing the Reachmen army time to arrive, while others say their origin, instead, lies with one of the Andal adventurers that came south during the Invasion. Whatever the truth, it’s clear that House Dunn is one of the eldest of the marcher houses.
Along with several other houses arrayed along the Dornish Marches that border onto the Red Mountains, the Dunns are part of a series of treaties with the other lords of the Reach; through them, those houses provide men and gold to the Reach marcher lords. With those men and gold, the marcher lords were to defend the realm against incursions from the south. The Dunns, in particular, chose to style themselves after the Night’s Watch of the north with their lord taking on the title Lord Commander. In time, even other houses outside the Reach began to contribute to the defense of the realm in this manner.
Such preparations were well tested during the days after Aegon’s Conquest; with tensions at an all-time high between the two powers, the Dunns were forced to often defend the land from roaming bands of Dornishmen from the Red Mountains. Although never specifically proven, it’s rumoured that a number of Lord Commanders of the Silver Hills even ordered preemptive attacks across the border in order to either take land or simply incite the Dornish to attack.
During the days of Aegon IV, the Dunns were especially tested. The young and recently come-to-power Lord Commander Thaddeus Dunn sought to gain great power for the Dunns. Making use of the king’s distaste that the Dornish remained separate from his rule, the Lord Commander led several raids across the border flying the flags of the nearby House Caron.
Such, however, soon proved folly; while a capable fighter, the Lord Commander found himself outnumbered and surrounded on the shores of the Torentine. During the conflict, Thaddeus Dunn suffered a grievous injury, losing the lower half of his right leg. It was only due to the timely intervention of another force from the marches that saw the badly beaten Dunn force retrieved. Although his life was saved, Lord Commander Dunn would never fight on the lines again.
Soon, however, it seemed the purpose of the Dunns would fade; during the early days of Daeron II’s reign, Dorne came to a proper peace agreement with the Iron Throne. Although Princess Daenerys is married to Maron Martell, Lord Thaddeus believed it was only a matter of time before Dorne stabbed them in the back and resumed their attacks. But as year after year ticked by, Lord Thaddeus found himself proven wrong – permanently, it seemed, when Prince Baelor the Breakspear marched out of Dorne at the head of a twenty-five thousand man strong Dornish army to bring to bear against the treasonous Blackfyre rebels.
In the years since, the Dunns have slowly begun to lose their respect from the rest of the land and, recently, even monies from treaties older than Westeros itself have begun to dry up as other lords realize that Dorne has finally become a true part of the Seven Kingdoms. Many blame Lord Thaddeus’ insistence that the Dornish cannot be trusted and that they will, soon, show their true colours for the Dunn’s failure to adapt to the changing political landscape of Westeros.
It will soon be time for the Dunns to change – or disappear into the dust of history.
HOLDINGS
While officially the seat of the Dunns has no given name, the fortress that stretches beneath the Silver Hills is known to many others in Westeros as The Burrow. A small fortress protrudes above ground on a hill to provide a watchpost looking south toward Dorne while well-dug and maintained tunnels beneath the surface serve as the primary living space for the Dunn household. Although no exorbitantly wealthy, the Dunns maintain a small hold of trophies from their victories against Dornish invaders – including an ancient spear they claim once belong to the warrior queen Nymeria.
As part of the defence line against Dornish incursion, the Dunns were held in high regard by their neighbours in the Reach and in Westeros as a whole. While the peace with Dorne and its slowly assimilation into the Seven Kingdoms as whole, however, the Dunns have slowly slipped from the place they once had due a lack of adaptation to the new political climate.
The lands of the Dunn rest along the edge of the Silver Hills, stretching for trackless miles of borderland between those hills and the plains of the Reach – almost all of it empty land aside from the small farming communities that dot the landscape. The Silver Hills somewhat unique position gives them borders with both the Stormlands and Dorne – and the military presence kept by the Dunns on their land occasionally gives rise to skirmishes with their neighbours in the Stormlands, House Caron.
Large, mostly empty land, however, gives rise to large areas where, despite its size, the Dunn military doesn’t patrol. As such, numerous lairs of bandits have crept up in old abandoned villages and ruins, allowing them to prey on the outlying villages during harsh times. The majority of the population, then, crowds into a few small villages and a reasonably sized town overlooked by the Burrow – a town that, for the most part, exists to serve the military forces housed nearby.
The Dunns are not a particularly wealthy family with most of their funds coming from old mutual defense treaties that require the other houses of the Reach to support the marcher lords. These funds, along with a minor supply of iron from a meager mine dug into the Silver Hills, have allowed the Dunns to keep an arm a sizable military force – though with Dorne now a part of the Seven Kingdoms, Lord Thaddeus fears other lords may question they need for those treaties.
LORD COMMANDER THADDEUS DUNN
Lord Commander Thaddeus Dunn, Protector of the Silver Hills, is a corpulent fellow; wounded in action during the final days of conflict with the Dornish, Thaddeus’ tendency towards mass consumption of food combined with his lack of activity have caused him to grow to prodigious size. Once a great soldier – but poor tactician – it was his overconfidence in the days after assuming his lordship that saw him missing half of a leg and forever kept from the battlefield.
Despite this, Thaddeus is a man who recognizes that any day now could be his last; in his growing age, his old war wounds pain him still and so he indulges in all the pleasures of life he can – and not just food. It’s rumoured that, over the last half decade, he’s spawned nearly two dozen baseborn children – though, of course, he denies any of them are his.
A widower with five legitimate children – two sons, Kevan and Hervey, and three daughters, Maera, Rhaenys, and Lydia – Thaddeus is a man now obsessed with seeing treachery everywhere. While that paranoia served him well during his early days, others now realize it may in fact be holding the house back as he refuses to treat with any of his former Dornish enemies and sees any other marcher lords who have made deals with them to be traitors to Westeros who are plotting to take his family’s land – an irony, given his one-time plan to seize control of Nightsong from the Carrons. One day, Lord Thaddeus insists, the Dornish will once again turn upon the Westerosi.
PREGENERATED CHARACTERS
Kevan DunnHeir to the Burrow, Kevan Dunn is a boisterous, good-natured young man with a penchant for chasing peasant girls. Although still a squire, Kevan has been promised by his father to be knighted before the turn of the year – a promise he doesn’t particularly believe his father will hold to. Instead, he seeks favor with other knights in his father’s employ, hoping one will eventually agree to knight him.
Maera DunnThe eldest Dunn daughter, Maera was shaped by her family’s proximity to Dorne from a young age; here, in the Marches, even the women are taught to defend themselves with weapons to some degree and, with some childhood pestering, she has even learned to ride as a soldier might from Gerrod. Now approaching the age of 16, she knows her father plans to find a husband for her; it is her intention that she will only marry someone who appeals to her and she intends to make sure her father knows that well.
Ser Robar ReddingThird son of the Lord Donnel Redding, Robar is sworn to serve the Dunns as part of his family’s obligations to the protection of the Dornish Marches. As one of the younger knights – few of whom have actually experienced real battle – he’s often derided by many of the Dunn’s veteran soldiers for his glorious ideals of combat. Still, he doesn’t relent and hopes to win honors for himself and his family at Ashford.
Ser Steffon FossowayNephew to Lady Dunn, Steffon Fossoway has been staying for a number of months at the Burrow to help foster further relations with the Dunns. With his cousin and squire, Raymun, Steffon has been preparing for the tourneys that were inevitable come the spring. It is at his behest that Lord Dunn has sent a contingent to Ashford – where Steffon hopes to win a place as champion and the honors it would bring him.
Gerrod the GreyA veteran of the last battles fought against Dorne, Gerrod is master of horses at the Burrow. While nearing his fiftieth year, Gerrod is a still a feisty man with a gruff soldier’s bearing. It’s very obvious from watching him at work, however, that he cares deeply for the horses he keeps – something that can be attested to by a number of knights who’d felt his wrath after working their mounts too hard.
