One Oath · One Castle · One Bloodline
Rising on the misty edge of the north, Tirby has stood for eighty years under the watch of a single house: Gunric.
Cold our witness, loyalty our law
▾ Scroll DownAmong the stones of Tirby lies an unwritten history — the eighty-year tale of the Gunric blood.
No one gives a castle to a landless knight. Gunric was the man who broke that rule.
Gunric wrote his name into history on a single morning of battle. As the Vlandian army stood on the brink of rout at the northern border, he broke through the enemy's flank with only thirty horsemen and saved the king's life.
His reward was a ruined tower on a desolate hill whose name no one had even heard of until that day: Tirby. Most knights would have called it exile. Gunric laid the first stone with his own hands.
Together with the twenty families he brought with him, he turned the tower into a castle, and the castle into the home of a house. The black-and-white checkered pattern on his coat of arms stood for an order that would not break; the silver fish in two opposite corners stood for loyalty to the cold waters of the north and to its patience.
Ospir was not content with the stones his father left behind; he added new ones.
When Gunric's son Ospir inherited Tirby, the castle was still little more than a single-storey garrison. Over his twenty-year rule, Ospir doubled the height of the outer walls and added a granary and an armory to the inner keep.
He gathered the scattered farms and boats of the surrounding lands into two settlements: Dusk and Wolfrest. To Dusk he entrusted the fishing along the lakeshore; to Wolfrest, the forest's game and timber. Tirby was no longer just a border castle, but a self-sufficient barony.
Ospir's legacy lay not in stones, but in the order he built.
Aremund never led an army into the field without knowing the loyalty of every man at his table.
When Ospir's grandson, Lord Aremund, took the seat of Tirby, the winds of civil war were blowing across the region. A neighboring lord had set his eyes on Wolfrest's timber revenue and tried to win one of the settlement leaders over to his side.
Aremund chose to listen before he fought. He visited Dusk and Wolfrest one by one, heard the leaders' grievances himself, and exposed the treachery before it could spread. During the Siege of Dusk, Tirby's gates did not open even once.
From that day on, one saying endured in House of Gunric: "A castle stands on trust, not on walls."
The sentry standing at Tirby's gate today still keeps the promise Gunric made eighty years ago.
Today Tirby is ruled by Lord Aremund dey Gunric. At his side stand the old wolf and his loyal advisor Leo de Frostmont, along with trusted names such as his son Garlios and Maximus. Together, this generation preserves the order and strength of the house; while keeping alive the legacy inherited from their ancestors, they continue to strengthen the army and expand their lands.
The barony is now home to a castle and two villages, dozens of soldiers under arms, and its people. The order of the villages and the needs of the people are overseen by the village elder, Theon. With the experience of many years, Theon carries the troubles of the people of Dusk and Wolfrest to Tirby, keeping the bond between the villages and the house alive. Fish from Dusk's bountiful waters and game from Wolfrest's hunts meet Tirby's needs. Remaining loyal to the County of Rovalt, Tirby — with its military strength and its lands — continues to keep order and peace in northern Vlandia.
The story of House of Gunric is not over — every new siege, every new treaty adds another chapter to it.
The Gunric blood that shares the rule of Tirby, and the house's closest allies.
Head of House of Gunric. He leads Tirby's political and military administration and represents his house in the council of Rovalt.
Leadership
Generous +2
The house steward who runs the daily affairs of Tirby Castle. He is responsible for the castle staff, provisions and upkeep.
Steward
Generous +1
First in the military hierarchy of the Tirby garrison. He personally oversees the changing of the watch and the daily drills.
One Handed
Honorable +1
Tirby's administrative advisor. He keeps the tax records of Dusk and Wolfrest and counsels Lord Aremund on the decisions of the house.
Trade
Calculating +2
The banner of Tirby flies over the northernmost region of the Vlandian map, and politically holds the status of a Barony.
Seat of the Barony
Garrison · House Council
The main seat of House of Gunric. The defense and administration of the region are carried out from here.
Village
Watchkeeping · Mist · Marsh Border
A misty village bound to Tirby on the edge of the marshes. It lives more by watchkeeping than by farming; it is where dangers creeping in from the north are first felt.
Village
Wolf Packs · Rocky Forests
A forest village bound to Tirby, built upon harsh crags. It is where the warriors of House of Gunric are forged.
Dusk and Wolfrest have stories of their own — words whispered from generation to generation, beyond Tirby's official records.
"The dark is ours… we hunt in silence."
When night fell over Wolfrest, the village did not sleep — it only grew quieter. For everyone knew that the dark is the hour of those who belong here.
The village was built upon harsh crags; narrow passes and natural ridges shielded it from outsiders. But what truly set Wolfrest apart was not its stones — it was the wolf packs that roamed around it.
These were no ordinary wolves. They did not attack out of hunger, nor flee out of fear. It was as if an old, unspoken pact existed between them and the village. Those who broke that balance rarely lived to see the morning.
To House of Gunric, Wolfrest was where warriors were forged. Those who grew up here learned not only to wield weapons, but to master fear. For here, fear was not a weakness — it was a tool to be controlled.
The youth of Sir Lortan dey Gunric was still spoken of. When he met his first wolf, he did not step back, nor did he look away. In that moment the pack recognized him — or so the tale goes.
Wolfrest had a tradition: before being counted as an adult, every youth entered the forest alone. What mattered was what they brought back — a fang, a scar… or that cold, still gaze that showed they no longer feared anything.
In Wolfrest, courage did not shout. It waited in silence.
"The mist hides everything… but we see everything."
In Dusk, the mist was not a whim of nature but a habit. It hung so heavily over the village that strangers felt their breath tighten with their very first step. The villagers never even noticed; for them, the world had always been this way.
Dusk was built right on the edge of the marshes, where narrow paths crossed — paths on which even those who knew how to get lost lost their way. So whoever came here either came on purpose… or had been dragged here by fate.
To House of Gunric, Dusk was where dangers creeping in from the north were first felt. Sturgian scouts and rogue raiders often used these hazy roads; but very few of them ever made it back.
The people of Dusk lived more by watchkeeping than by farming. The soil was poor and the harvest meager; but eyes were sharp and reflexes quick. Children learned to track before they learned to play, and memorized the directions before their own names.
In the middle of the village rose an old watchtower. Legend has it that Sir Alfmund dey Gunric's first signal fire was lit here. From that day on, the fire in the tower never fully went out.
Every night, at the changing of the watch, the same words were whispered: "Know the shadow… for it already sees you."
The recorded pitched battles, sieges and defenses of Tirby's forces.
A neighboring lord's siege of Dusk was repelled during the time of Lord Aremund, after a defense that lasted forty days.
A band of raiders heading for Wolfrest was ambushed inside the forest by cavalry under the command of Sergeant Maximus.
A sudden midnight raid was halted before dawn thanks to the garrison's sentries.
The latest events, appointments and official announcements of the barony.
Midnight had long since passed. The cold wind battering the stone walls of Tirby Castle had snuffed out, one by one, the torches lighting the library stairs; and the snowmelt of the day had turned, with the night frost, into a thin sheet of ice on the stone steps. Most of the castle folk had long since retired to their rooms.
That night, however, sleep had not paid Advisor Leo a visit. After tossing and turning in bed for a while, Leo finally decided that leafing through a few books would calm his mind. With a small oil lamp in hand, he walked toward the library. Rumor has it that the book he was after concerned the old tax records of Vlandia; which is why the reason for his sleeplessness remains a matter of debate.
Having made it to the library, Leo's real struggle began on the way back. He carefully descended the first few steps of the dark staircase, paused on the third, noticed the ice, and muttered to himself, "Must have salt spread here in the morning."
The fourth step, however, did not share that opinion.
Leo's foot slipped in an instant. The advisor first tried to regain his balance, then tried to grab hold of the wall, and in the end managed to descend several steps by a method never before seen in Vlandia. When the sentries, hearing the noise, rushed to the library, they found Leo at the foot of the stairs, clutching his shoulder.
A first examination revealed that Advisor Leo had injured his shoulder, but that his condition was not serious. He was advised to rest for a few days.
After the incident, the castle servants cleared the ice from the stairs at first light and relit the extinguished torches. Reeve Garlios, upon learning of the accident, is said to have ordered more torches placed along the library stairs.
Among the sentries, however, the true lesson of the night had already been recorded rather differently: "In winter at Tirby, reading a book is more dangerous than stepping onto the battlefield."
The seven boats that set out on the lake before dawn returned in the evening full enough to overflow their holds. Chad, the oldest fisherman in Dusk, said he had never seen anything like it in the ten years he has fished these waters; some nets tore as they were hauled in, and some boats came close to sinking.
The settlement leader sent a third of the catch as a gift to the Tirby garrison and the house kitchen; the rest sold so plentifully at the market that the price of fish fell by half for a week. Reeve Garlios, taking the bounty as a sign of House of Gunric's old bond with the lake, announced that he is planning a visit of thanks to Dusk.
In the evening an impromptu feast was held on the pier; fishermen and garrison sentries ate around the same fire. In Chad's words: "The lake has paid its debt to us — now we owe it our thanks."
For ten days, a large wolf pack prowling near Wolfrest's timber camp had begun targeting wood carts and lone hunters. Two sheepfolds were raided, and a shepherd named Aldous escaped wounded. The settlement sent urgent word to Tirby.
Sergeant Maximus dispatched a twelve-man patrol to Wolfrest; the settlement's most experienced hunters followed the tracks and guided them all the way to the pack's den. In the joint raid at dawn, the pack's leader was killed and the rest scattered into the depths of the forest.
Following the incident, a permanent watch post was set up in Wolfrest and warning bells were hung along the timber roads. Maximus praised the hunters' courage: "Without the garrison we could not have saved the hunters of this forest so quickly — and without the hunters, we could not have saved the garrison."
Last winter's freeze-thaw cycle had opened deep cracks in the mortar of the northern wall, which dates back to Ospir's time. When a spring inspection found that the stretch of wall between two towers was at risk of collapse, Lord Aremund declared its repair the house's top priority.
Under foreman Corwin, thirty workers labored for six weeks; the old stones were removed one by one and re-dressed, and the mortar was strengthened with lime brought from Wolfrest. During the repairs, a lead plate from Ospir's era bearing the house's first checker-and-fish seal was found in the foundation of the wall.
The plate is now on display in the ceremonial hall of the inner keep. As he finished the work, Corwin said: "These walls have stood for eighty years — our job is to keep them standing for eighty more."
Eight of Tirby's soldiers, who had taken up arms only in the past three months, were selected by Sergeant Maximus and sent to the Northia garrison for training. The three-week program covered shield formations, mounted maneuvers and night-watch discipline.
In the exercise held on the final day of training, the soldiers from Tirby were assessed in mixed detachments alongside recruits from other houses; all eight completed it without ever breaking the shield line and were promoted to Tier 4.
Upon their return, a small ceremony was held in the castle courtyard; Lord Aremund dey Gunric presented each of them with a belt buckle bearing the house's coat of arms. Maximus remarked that this generation would form the backbone of the garrison.
