Motto: Hold Fast

House Information

House Hardy is a banner house to Winterfell and House Stark. They are an extremely old house, with half-remembered tales stretching back to the days of the first men. Some whisper that, like an oak tree which has grown so massive that it splits under the weight of its own limbs, House Hardy is experiencing a slow decline. It remains to be seen whether the current generation will be the vital force which rekindles the strength and glory of an earlier age, or if they are the last gasp of a dying giant.

House Setting
House Hardy's seat is Holdfast Castle, an ancient edifice partly built during the Age of the First Men, or so it is said. Blood of the First Men runs through the veins of many of Hardy.

Holdfast Castle is located on the northern edge of the Wolfswood but south of the mountains, set back from the Kingsroad.

The ancient castle is immense and in terrible condition, with crumbling walls and a huge weirwood in its midst. Despite this, Holdfast Castle has been a good home to the Hardys, and the location between the Wolfswood and the mountains means it has rarely been assailed.

Holdfast Castle’s walls include an inner castle sheltering a weirwood, stables, a small tower for the maester’s use, a barracks, a smithy, ample storehouses, and other features standard to a house’s seat.

House History
House Hardy's seat is Holdfast Castle, an ancient edifice partly built during the Age of the First Men, or so it is said. Blood of the First Men runs through the veins of many of Hardy.

Although the Hardys were kings among the first men, they have been loyal allies of the Starks since a cementing marriage ages ago. Lord Hardy, it was said, had no dowry to pay for his daughter's hand to Lord Stark except his eternal loyalty. The Stark's accepted the offer in the spirit it was intended, and have repaid loyalty with loyalty ever since. Rivaly with the Draupauds over the ownership of contested lands between their estates goes back almost this far, matters which the Starks choose to stay out of so long as both Houses don't get too out of hand.

It is rumored that the ancestral Hardy castle predates the era of Bran the Builder.

It is said there has always been a Hardy at the Wall.

During Robert's Rebellion, the Hardys sided with the Starks, and hence Robert. This was quite fortunate, considering how the war concluded, but even if the Starks were to challenge the whole realm, it would be in keeping with their anscient traditions to stand with the Starks and hold their ground until shattered by much larger forces.

House Personality
The members of House Hardy hold be their house motto - Hold fast.. They tend to be loyal and dependable, almost past reason.

The Hardys have never been great readers. Wisdom internalised, such as Maesters possess, is valued much more highly than the books they read to get there. The concrete and material are valued highly, and books are seen as ephemoral.

Even compared to other northern lords, the Hardys 'Hold Fast' to the old gods. While the opinions of individual family members show the usual degree of variance, Septons are not held in high regard. Generally, however, they are smart enough to bite their toungues on this particular subject.

When war came to the north, the Hardy's were always ready to hold the most impossible, often suicidal, positions while the Starks rallied reinforcements. Tales are still told of battles in which a small group of Hardy men held a pass, or sometimes a hill or ford, against a much larger force of Southron mercenaries, impossibly large hordes of Wildings, or men from the Dreadfort.

Similar tales circulate around the Wall about last stands of scions who bore the Hardy name, and many Hardys treat all men of the Black Watch as distant cousins.

Some say that Hardy knights will stand atop a hill and hold their ground against dragonfire itself, the quintessential force which breaks the morale of armies. Of course, the Hardy knight always dies in those stories...