Noble House Roles

Noble Roles

These are the various roles fulfilled by nobles within a House. Many Houses of smaller sizes combine or omit some of them.

• Head of House: Status = House Status. The noble who acts as the seat of power in a given House, holding all authority within it. In Ilbarych, this can be a man or a woman, given the titles "Lord" or "Lady."
• Consort: Status = House Status -1. The Head of House's spouse, also given the title "Lord" or "Lady." This can be a same-sex partner, but almost never is, unless the Head of House has plenty of siblings and niblings from which to name heirs.
• Heir: Status = House Status -1. Primogeniture assumes the Head of House's first born child of either gender acts as the Heir of House. Legally speaking, another child can be chosen, but this is seem as an embarrassment - it is tantamount to admitting that one's own firstborn is unworthy of the distinction. In the case of a childless Head of House, anyone whom the Head chooses is an acceptable, legal Heir.
• Dowager: Status = House Status -2. The non-Head of House parent of the Head of House, who survived the death of the previous Head of House. Though they do not wield the authority of the Consort any longer, their influence is usually still quite formidable.
• Other Children: Status = House Status -2 or greater. xx
• Sworn Companion: Status = House Status -2. xx
• Noble Knights: x
• Squires: x
• Handmaidens: x
• Pages: x

• Lord: What does he do on a daily basis? What are his relaxations and his responsibilities? • Lady: What does the lady do? Include mention of her role in not just running the servants in the household, but also in her duties to her lady's maids and the pages. o Include a sidebar on Dowager Ladies - the lady mothers of Lords who remain alive, and their roles in the Household. • Heir & Other Noble Children: What does life as the child (both young and adult) of a noble in Westeros look like? o Mention the ideal fostering situation: a boy goes off to the household of a House higher in station than his own to train as a page, and then becomes a squire to a (noble) knight of some renown to learn the arts of battle. o Talk about how this "career path" pretty much plays out in most of Westeros, where their family is able to get the attention of their betters to enable it, but about half the time, they can't find a good House for him to page at, or a good knight for him to squire with, and so the family House handles all of that. • Noble Knights: Many Houses - particularly those with banner Houses beneath them - maintain other young nobles as knights in their Households. They are usually there for a limited time, often until they inherit some other position, marry or otherwise "make something of themselves." • Pages: The tradition of fostering among nobles is intended to help build ties, and wee little page-boys are the basic currency of that system. o From about the age of 8 to 12, a noble boy may be sent to live elsewhere as a page (a tradition that everyone in Westeros uses, even if only those steeped in Andal culture use the term "page"). o As a page, a boy is there to learn what a young nobleman must learn: fighting skills from the castle's master-at-arms or lord, his letters, numbers and other basic education from a septa or maester, and manners from the Lady of the House. o The care of pages is part of a Lady's dominion, and it is more than merely a maternal role - she is given the care of a child of another House entirely, and so must ensure he is trained well but also treated well for the sake of the alliance between those Houses. o Pages are expected to serve as personal servants for the House's noble family, running messages and small errands around the seat, as well as pouring wine at the high table. • Squires: Ideally, by the time a page is 12 or so, he's got some basic fighting skills enough to attract the attention of a knight of noble birth, or at least a knight of some renown. o Though in an ideal world, the boy's virtue and potential bring him such notice; practically speaking, however, it is most often the boy's parents and the Lord and Lady who are fostering him as a page that find such a knight willing to take him on as a squire. o It is almost unheard of for a boy of high noble Status to squire to a knight of lower Status, but it does happen, particularly if the knight in question is well-regarded by the boy's parents. o Also, by the time a boy is old enough to become a squire, he is considered old enough to make such decisions for himself - a boy cannot be forced to become a squire, although his family will undoubtedly exert the sorts of pressure that noble families may. o The reverse is true as well: a boy who insists on becoming the squire to an agreeable knight may do so if he wishes, with no one to gainsay him, although his family may again exert pressure (up to and including disowning him!) for that choice. (We see this in the story of Dunk & Egg, the series of short stories that take place some ninety years before Game of Thrones, featuring the hedge knight Ser Duncan the Tall and the Targaryen Prince Aegon who insists he'll be squired to Duncan or no one.) o Once he is with a knight, a squire is his servant, trained first to care for the knight's horse and armor. He is also expected to aid a knight in battle, remaining on hand to watch for attackers from behind or the flanks, and to cover the knight's back. o In exchange for all of this, a squire is trained in fighting skills and (at least in the Andal ideal) in chivalrious behavior befitting a knight. He is also responsible for the boy's safety, feeding, housing and health. o Once a squire deserves it - usually after four to six years of training, and after accomplishing something noteworthy like being a distinct aid on the field of battle, or making an impression at a tourney - the knight will knight the squire. It is not uncommon among nobles for a knight of higher standing than a squire's own to knight the young man, especially if he comes from a family of high birth, but many knights will do it themselves, right after a conflict on the field of battle. By tradition, a knight will never knight a squire who cannot affrod his own arms, horse and armor - to create a new knight that cannot equip himself properly is considered a callous and cruel act intended to humiliate the young man. o Include a sidebar that talks about non-noble squires, some of whom never are able to afford the proper horse and arms, and remain squires their entire lives. • Handmaidens: Where a boy is ideally fostered as a page and then made a squire, a young girl of noble birth may be taken in by a Lady of a greater House as a handmaiden. o This is usually an upward-focused fostering: nobles generally only send their daughters to serve the Ladies of their liege Houses (or higher Houses still, if they can finagle a spot for them among a great Lady's household). o The young handmaiden acts as a servant to the Lady of the household (and possibly her noble daughters, if they are of adult age and unmarried). She is a "gentle servant," however - there to provide companionship, help with the household embroidery and to act as extra hands in planning events. She also frequently shares the bed of unmarried women in the household, to help protect the young lady's virtue (and see that her own is protected at the same time, of course). o In exchange, the noble Lady not only trains her handmaidens in proper comportment and the skills of running a household, but she also pledges to find them good husbands. This is the ideal goal of such an arrangement: in theory, the Lady of a greater House has more influence and connections than the girl's parents, and can find them better husbands than their mother and father might. o As such, the daughters of high nobility are often not sent away as handmaidens - their parents have the connections to make the best marriages for them. The exception to this is when royalty asks: the Lannisters and Martells, for instance, had daughters who were lady's maids to Targaryen princesses in days past, and Cersei was surrounded by lady's maids of noble blood whom she couldn't stand. o A daughter who is sent away as a handmaiden isn't just a girl being sent to train and prepare for being a young woman: she actually forms social connections between three Houses: her birth House, the House that fosters her, and the House she marries into. o These connections often form the basis for further connections between Houses. It is not uncommon for a girl to be sent to one House as a handmaiden, to marry into another House, and then send her boy to be a page in the House that fostered her, where he may very well grow up to meet and marry a girl of that very House. These sorts of interconnections are the basis of all Westerosi social conventions and often form the foundations for some of the strongest alliances in the lands.

Retainer Roles

These are the folk who serve the noble House and its family, and who are accorded high honors. They are not merely servants, but considered important persons of authority in the operation of the Household. These retainers are often a curious mix of members of the House, nobles from vassal or allied Houses and particularly skilled armsmen or even smallfolk. • Castellan: The commander responsible for the defense of the castle. Usually a knight or proven military commander. In the Lord's absence, the Castellan acts to ensure the security of the castle. • Master-at-Arms: The fighting man responsible for seeing to the castle's armories, overseeing the training of its troops, personally training the House's sons and pages, etc. • Master of the Hunt: A man who not only leads the hunts nobles choose to take, but also acts to keep an eye on the populations of animals on House lands. He is often in charge of a small handful wardens whose jobs are to prevent poaching by smallfolk. Check out a description of a "ghillie" who acts to lead hunting and fishing excursions and acts as a gameskeeper when he's not doing that. • Master of the Kennels: The one in charge of the House's dogs. He is reponsible for their general welfare, for their medical care, for training them and for overseeing the purchase or breeding of new dogs to the kennels. Often works closely with the Master of the Hunt. • Master of the Stables: The one in charge of the House's horses. He oversees the servants of the Stables (see below), and acts to oversee purchase of new horses or the House's breeding program (if it has one). • Chaplain: A monastic or knight-sanctified who is given authority over the Household chapel, seeing to its maintenance and rites. They possess no spiritual authority over the House or any of its inhabitants - they are caretakers overseeing a spiritual retreat, though sometimes some may come to the chaplain with questions about the unctæ. • Steward: A retainer whose job is governing the House. In the Head's absence, the Steward acts to keep the castle running. • Tourney Master: A retainer who is in charge of organizing any tourneys the House might hold, as well as be the one who keeps an ear to the ground for upcoming tourneys thrown by other Houses, so that the home House and its knights might make an appearance. Such retainers are also often responsible for helping with public festivals and major House events, like name-day celebrations or weddings. • Other Specialists: Anyone with particularly rarified skills might be taken in as a retainer. A falconer, an alchemist, a minstrel, an armorsmith - people like that. Also mention the existence of retainers who have vague or even fake titles to cover up their actual purpose (a widowed Lady's lover as the "Master of the Solar," for example, or a "Master of Missives" that is the House's spy-master). • How Many Retainers? (Sidebar): Give me a system for determining just how many Retainers a given House has, please. Ideally, I'd like it to basically be some kind of system based on how power (Power) and renowned (Influence) a House is, but with limits based on just how many people you can equip and feed (Wealth). These "retainer slots" should be spent on Knights and all the other Retainers mentioned here. Any retainers gained from Wealth Holdings are extra on top of these "slots". Emphasize that it is possible for a house to have a Retainer (say, a Maester) without a Holding - they just don't get the mechanical benefit without the Holding (in the case of a maester, an investment of money dedicated to improving the maester's knowledge and connections to gain a substantial boost to the House's fortunes).

Armsman Roles

These are the fighting men in general within a noble House's seat or other holding. • Knights: There are three "degrees" of knightly trust and responsibility given by a lord: household knights (who live in the House's seat or other holding), estate knights (who are given an estate in one of the House's Domains to govern), and landed knights (who are given a full Domain to govern as a vassal/banner, with hereditary right to do so, though without the Right of Pit & Gallows). • Armsmen: These are non-knightly fighting men.

Servant Roles

Talk about the various unofficial "Domains" of servants, each with a "boss" who answers to the Lord (for matters of finance or security), the Lady (for matters of creature comforts) or to another Retainer. Many of the servants in a castle are not dedicated servants - that is, service is not all they do. The lower positions of service are usually fulfilled by the smallfolk on the House's domain, who all owe the House a certain amount of labor per year. Upper servants who manage them are always dedicated in the House's service, though, and usually live within the House's seat proper, where the others go home at the end of the day. • Household Administration: Headed up by the Steward. Direct servants to the nobles, but also responsible for managing the estate in general, tending to work involving coin and correspondences. These workers answer to the chamberlain, a non-noble title that is given to the (usually male) servant who acts as "the big boss" for the rest of the servants (analagous to a butler in less-medieval times). The chamberlain answers to the steward, or the Lord directly if there is none. In large Houses, this might include a mess of clerks and secretaries - in most houses, though, it's really just the chamberlain. • Chambermaids: This is the cleaning staff, usually run by the oldest of the maids, who acts to organize and manage the younger maids. This woman - sometimes called the maid-of-house - reports to the chamberlain. • Kitchens & Pantrys: The staff who are responsible for food in the castle: storing it, preparing it, serving it and cleaning up after. The head cook oversees the kitchens and nominally answers to the chamberlain, but often as not wields as much influence as he does in the House. • Stables & Kennels: Servants who tend to the House's animals. Most Houses don't have dedicated kennels, but keep household dogs and the like, so the duties of caring for them fall to the men and women who work in the stables as well. Often run by a groomsman, who tends to the practical day-to-day operations of the stables, and who answers to the master of horse if there is one, or to the steward or Lord otherwise. If there is a formal kennels, those workers usually answer to the master of the kennels and/or master of the hunt if one (or both) are employed in the House, or to the master of horse otherwise. • Groundsmen: Unless the Lady employs a regular gardener, there are almost never regular servants for this service. The smallfolk do provide labor for the upkeep of the House's grounds, however, on a fairly regular basis. If there is a master of the hunt, he usually oversees these workers; otherwise that responsibility falls to the steward or even the castellan.