#the arbor

"Finding Families."

My own piece for the @beyondshapesandbeatszine - go check it out if you haven't yet, it's free! Featuring my own Blixer and sona, as well as the Blixers and sonas of several of my friends. This fandom led me to meet some of the most important people in the world to me, and what better way to honor that than include it in the zine.

Other designs by @glaciers-blorbo-purgatory, @jsabaddict, and @armadillocamel!

The Reach

•Queens

Queen Ceryse Hightower, Margaery Tyrell & Alicent Hightower🌹🏰🌹

•Ladies

Queen Elinor Costayne, Selyse Florent, Lynesse Hightower & Olenna Redwyne🌼🦊🍷

The Love story of Olenna Redwyne and Luthor Tyrell

The Love story of Margaery Tyrell's paternal grandparents is a remarkable Love story itself

When they were younger, before they finally met, Luthor was potentially betrothed to Viola Redwyne ( an older sister of Olenna ), and Olenna was potentially betrothed to Daeron Targaryen of Dragonstone

However, neither are particularly keen in marrying their former potential betrothes

When Luthor and Olenna finally met one night in the gardens of the Redwyne Castle in The Arbor, a spark ignited with them and a kindred bond ensues as both realize they are in similar circumstances at those points

The 2 formed an alliance which later grew to something more.

Luthor is a predecessor of Mace Tyrell and Loras Tyrell. He is a brave and adventurous knight who becomes a formidable King of the Reach, and also a man of lyre playing and poetry

Olenna is a predecessor of Alerie Hightower and Margaery Tyrell. Cunning and shrewd even at a younger age, Olenna came to build a remarkable camaderie of wit and eloquency, and a formidable Queen in her own right

Luthor x Olenna have some parallels to Ned x Catelyn and Jonsa in spades

The Greyjoys of Pyke claim descent from the Grey King of the Age of Heroes. Legend says the Grey King ruled not only the western isles but the sea itself, and took a mermaid to wife.

For thousands of years, raiders from the Iron Islands—called “ironmen” by those they plundered—were the terrors of the seas, sailing as far as the Port of Ibben and the Summer Isles. They prided themselves on their fierceness in battle and their sacred freedoms.

Each island had its own “salt king” and “rock king.” The High King of the Isles was chosen from among their number, until King Urron made the throne hereditary by murdering the other kings when they assembled for a choosing.

Urron’s own line was extinguished a thousand years later when the Andals swept over the islands. The Greyjoys, like the other island lords, intermarried with the conquerors.

The Iron Kings extended their rule far beyond the isles themselves, carving kingdoms out of the mainland with fire and sword. King Qhored could truthfully boast that his writ ran “wherever men can smell salt water or hear the crash of waves.” In later centuries, Qhored’s descendants lost the Arbor, Oldtown, Bear Island, and much of the western shore.

Still, come the Wars of Conquest, King Harren the Black ruled all the lands between the mountains, from the Neck to the Blackwater Rush.

When Harren and his sons perished in the fall of Harrenhal, Aegon Targaryen granted the riverlands to House Tully, and allowed the surviving lords of the Iron Islands to revive their ancient custom and choose who should have the primacy among them. They chose Lord Vickon Greyjoy of Pyke.

The Greyjoy sigil is a golden kraken upon a black field.

THE TYRELL FAMILY TREE: PAXTER REDWYNE

Paxter Redwyne is the Lord of the Arbor and head of House Redwyne. He is married to his cousin, Mina Tyrell, the sister of his liege lord, Mace Tyrell; he is thus twice a nephew of the Queen of Thorns, Olenna Redwyne. Paxter and Mina have two sons, Ser Horas and Ser Hobber, and a daughter, Desmera.

Paxter commands the Redwyne fleet from his galleas, the Arbor Queen.

Paxter is stooped of shoulder, thin, and balding with only a few orange tufts of hair remaining.

Following the lead of his liege lord, Mace Tyrell, Paxter remained loyal to the Targaryens during Robert's Rebellion. During the year-long siege of Storm's End, the Redwyne fleet blockaded Shipbreaker Bay to prevent Stannis Baratheon from being resupplied by sea. Paxter and Mace feasted outside Storm's End while the Baratheon garrison starved. The siege was nearly successful, but Storm's End was resupplied when the smuggler Davos slipped through the Redwyne blockade. Following the defeat of the Targaryens through the Battle of the Trident and the Sack of King's Landing, Paxter swore fealty to the new king, Robert I Baratheon, when Lord Eddard Stark arrived to break the siege.

During Greyjoy's Rebellion, Paxter presumably commanded the warships from the Arbor which supported Stannis, Robert's master of ships, in the sea battle off Fair Isle.

• The Arbor (Julia Hall McCune).

Date: 1906

Photographer: Clarence H. White (North American American, 1871-1925)