House Ruesyn

Sigil: Saber Toothed Cat

Banner: A solid orange silhouette of saber toothed cat with white gleaming saber teeth with an open mouth
in front of a backdrop of a light blue top half and a green bottom half.

Castle: Legacy

Former Lords of Hurricane

House Ruesyn inhabited the castle of Legacy even before Aegon’s Conquest.  As the Andals spread to the Stormlands, one area remained unconquered. For ages, the Ruesyn were the Kings of Hurricane, a name taken from the decision to call the kingdom that surrounded them the stormlands.  After they were eventually conquered after 2 centuries of being enclosed by the Kingdom of the Stormlands, the Ruesyns in legacy finally fell to House Durrandon.

However, since the Ruesyns, after losing too many men to the Storm King’s army in the Battle of Hurricane, surrendered before the Durrandons were able to get anywhere near Legacy, the Storm King at the time allowed the Ruesyns to keep ruling Hurricane as a vassal state.  After he lost the Battle of Hurricane, Eliksundre Ruesyn knelt before the Storm King, and swore fealty to the Stormlands. Even when House Baratheon was given the Stormlands by Aegon Targaryen, House Ruesyn still ruled Hurricane from Legacy.

The burning of Harrenhal showed all of the nobility of Westeros the power of Aegon’s dragons.  As soon as Orys Baratheon arrived near Legacy, Welliem Ruesyn surrendered and sent an ambassador to say that he was ready to swear fealty to whomever Aegon decided to put in charge of the Stormlands.  This turned out to be Orys Baratheon, so Welliem Ruesyn agreed to swear fealty. There was a catch of course, Orys Baratheon would have to swear before Welliem Ruesyn that the religious tradition of Hurricane would be left alone, as Eliksundre Ruesyn had demanded of the Storm King when he had surrendered the Kingdom of Hurricane to the Stormlands

The frequency of the Ruesyns of Legacy to surrender to whomever threatened them was not born of cowardice, but of pragmatism.  Eliksundre and Welliem both knew of the precarious situation of hurricane. They knew that in order to keep the old gods alive, they had to ensure, no matter what, that they remained in Legacy to protect their godswood.  They also knew the cost of war, and in their political maneuvering to keep Hurricane out of war, they allowed Hurricane to prosper as the world around them fell apart. In the early days of the united kingdoms, Hurricane stood apart as an island of prosperity in an ocean of strife.

After the fall of the riverlands, many of the children of the forest fled to Hurricane, able to outlaast the exterminative genocide waged on them by the Andals.