Blood of Dragons

House Mertyns of Mistwood

General Information

House Mertyns of Mistwood is one of the most venerable noble lines of the Stormlands. To their distinguished ancestry and wide possessions, they have added the advantage of close alliance with their Baratheon liege lords; sealed in the marriage between Lord Baratheon and the current Lord Mertyns’s sister, Leyne. Despite this theoretical eminence, however, for some decades now the Lords of Mistwood have preferred to dwell in relative obscurity, far from the pitfalls of court and of warfare.

The Mertyns have always kept up a reputation for learning, though not necessarily of the kind offered by Citadel or Septry. Sons of Mistwood are bred to conform to a complex ideal; warriors, but with the sort of wisdom not always to be found in books. As for the Houses daughters, they are said to prize good counsel above beauty, and even riches. Many is the suitor to a Mertyns lady who has wracked his brow with despair at her enigmatic demands; and many a husband to a Mertyns lady has later blessed her shrewdness.

The present Lord of Mistwood, Garse, is as close and careful in his dealings as any of his ancestresses. During the Dance of the Dragons, still a boy, he watched his father navigate through a delicate policy, offering harbourage and homage, but naught else, to his Baratheon overlord, a supporter of Aegon II, while resisting the pressures of his siblings, Ser Conen Mertyns and Annis Massey, to declare for Rhaenyra.

The accession of King Daeron and the declaration of war upon Dorne found Lord Garse a perfectly hale man in his middle forties, but the cunning Mertyns pled a serious illness. In this, though, he did not command the allegiance of his whole family, and many Mertyns - younger branches, bastard cousins, and even Garse’s own younger son - fell in Dorne all the same.

Whether the House will always be so willing to wait and to watch is uncertain. The heir to the lordship, Ser Elys, is a notable fighter, and took the curious step of wedding Olyria Frey, though House Frey is not ancient, rich, or very well-reputed, and an alliance with a northern Riverlord seems of limited use in the Stormlands. Rumour also has it that for a peaceful House, the Mertyns employ a strangely numerous entourage of private soldiery. Perhaps the Owls merely await the hour to hunt.

General information about House Mertyns from the books.

Family Tree

• Garse Mertyns (b. 112), Lord of Mistwood,
  • his wife, Lady Eldera (b. 108) of House Estermont,
  • their children:
    • Ser Elys (b. 130), a famous knight, heir to Mistwood, m. Olyria Frey (b. 133),
      • Elys's son, Guyard (b. 153), a squire,
      • Elys's daughter, Artaria (b. 155),
    • Jasonnei (b. 135), m. Ser Yuric Staedmon (b. 130), heir to Broad Arch,
      • (See House Staedmon),
    • {Ser Urston} (b. 137), killed in Dorne (d. 158),
  • his siblings:
    • Lady Emmara (b. 110), m. {Lord Belion Chester} (b. 108), assassinated in Sunspear (d. 160),
      • (See House Chester),
    • {Jon} (b. 114), a squire killed in the Dance of the Dragons (d. 131),
    • Ser Leobald (b. 115), m. Moranne Swyft (b. 120),
      • Leobald's son, {Ser Ethos} (b. 140), former deputy warden of the Kingswood andformer steward to Ser Tancred Baratheon, killed in battle (d. 165), formerly wed to Joleta Gargalen (b. 133), heir to Salt Shore,
      • Ethos's Devin (b. 162), born in Salt Shore of his estranged wife, page to Prince Cadan Nymeros Martell,
      • his squire, Halyn Grimm (b. 148),
      • Leobald's daughter, Elyana (b. 142), m. {Ser Dandon Meadows} (b. 136), killed in Dorne (d. 157),
    • Lady Leyne (b. 119), m. Lord Corwen Baratheon (b. 117),
      • (See House Baratheon),
    • {Ser Jarmyn Storm} (b. 103), called the Bastard of Mistwood, captain of the guards, killed in the Dornish camp near Godsgrace, m. Amylla Brune (b. 111),
      • Ser Jarmyn's son, {Ser Yonel Storm} (b. 129), an officer of the City watch of King's Landing, slain at Godsgrace by Lord Davit Gargalen (d. 161),
      • Ser Jarmyn's son, {Patrik Storm}(b. 133), drowned during the invasion of Dorne (d. 157),
      • Ser Jarmyn's son, {Maester Talbard} (b. 135), counselor, tutor, and healer at Wendwater Castle, killed in the wildfire disaster in the Kingswood (d. 174),
      • Ser Jarmyn's daughter, Sarella Storm (b. 139),
  • his uncle, aunt, and cousins:
    • {Ser Conen} (b. 92), killed in the Dance of the Dragons (d. 131), m. Olyssa Fell (b. 97),
      • {Ser Andar} (b. 116), killed in Dorne pursuing rebels and outlaws (d. 158), m. Imeona Rambton (b. 122),
        • Andar's son, Ser Lorys (b. 139),
        • Andar's daughter, Antaria (b. 141), m. Baros Lydden (b. 135),
          • (See House Lydden),
    • Annis (b. 96), m. {Ser Daved Massey} (b. 97), killed in the Dance of the Dragons (d. 129),
      • (See House Massey).