House Tarbeck of Tarbeck Hall
House Description and Recent History:
Tarbeck has long been a house in decline.
All but a scant few of its mines through the Pendric Hills have dried up, silver and gold ore deposits exhausted from centuries of excavation. What few mines remain productive provide a steady stream of iron, but iron is a mean and meagre metal upon which the wealth and power of a noble Westerlands house cannot rely. The Tarbecks have spent long years and small fortunes on exploratory efforts, delving into the rock in increasingly desperate hope of striking some precious vein, but these efforts have not been rewarded. A new source of silver has not been tapped since the reign of Jahaerys, a new source of gold since there was a King of the Rock, rather than a Warden of the West. No more than a trickle of the silver and gold that once made House Tarbeck an equal among its peers now flows from the family’s hilly holdings.
And it is in the midst of this decline that Addam Tarbeck takes up the lordship of Tarbeck Hall. On the eve of 202 AC, Lord Alyn Tarbeck, advanced in years but still a hale man, died after taking a tumble from his horse. The wheels of succession then turned, and Ser Addam Tarbeck, firstborn son to his late lordship, now sits at Tarbeck Hall, and he finds that there is much uncertainty and doubt in his leadership.
Though a knight, Ser Addam is a bookish man and fond of learning. He left his wife to manage his holdfast while he traveled to the Citadel, where he spent several years away from house and home while forging links of gold and steel in his study of commerce and metallurgy. Half a knight and one-tenth a maester, as his relations either joke or mock, depending, the new Lord Tarbeck may either be the antidote to the misfortunes of his house, or another usher of its eventual collapse.
The Lands and Holdings of House Tarbeck:
House Tarbeck is nestled in the Pendric Hills and holds court at its seat of Tarbeck Hall. The Hall is the largest and best fortified of its castle holdings, but the Tarbecks and their bannermen hold a dozen holdfasts, fortified manors and small castles aside, all of which once guarded mines rich in gold and silver. Today, only Tallhill Hold, highest holdfast in the Tarbecks’ stretch of the Pendric Hills, continues to produce gold ore in any notable quantity, and there are but three mines that produce any silver, Tarbeck Hall itself among them. Though still rich in iron, it is certainly difficult to describe the Tarbeck mines as rich, and much of House Tarbeck’s fortifications have declined and fell into varying measures of disrepair.
The castles, holdfasts and mines aside, House Tarbeck holds dominion over a collection small towns, villages and hamlets. Together with the hundred or so household knights of Tarbeck Hall, the swords of his sworn petty lords and the levies, the Lord of Tarbeck may raise some two thousand or more swords when the banners are called and the armies raised.
Immediate Family Members:
{Lord Alyn Tarbeck} – Lord of Tarbeck Hall, died 201 AC at three and sixty.
Lady Myranda Tarbeck – Widow of the late Lord Tarbeck. A Vikary cousin.
Lord Addam Tarbeck – Firstborn son of the late Lord Tarbeck, recently ascended to the title.
Lady Jeyne Tarbeck – Lady wife of Addam Tarbeck. A daughter of House Osgrey.
Addison Tarbeck – Daughter of Lord Addam Tarbeck, a girl of five and ten and cupbearer to Lord Addam's table, together with her sister.
Alyx Tarbeck – Daughter of Lord Addam Tarbeck, a girl of four and ten and cupbearer to Lord Addam's table, together with her sister.
Alyn Tarbeck – Firstborn son of Lord Addam Tarbeck, a boy of nine. Heir to Tarbeck Hall and squire to Ser Jon Vikary.
Ser Josmyn Tarbeck – Second son of the late Lord Tarbeck, holder of Tallhill Hold.
Rhea Tarbeck – Wife to Josmyn Tarbeck and mother of his two sons, Axell and Arys.
Septon Robb – Third son of the late Lord Tarbeck. Formerly a well regarded tourney knight, now a septon.
Alysanne Tarbeck – Only daughter of the late Lord Tarbeck. Married to a Lannisport Lannister.
Maester Willas – Maester of Tarbeck Hall.
Ser Jon Vikary – Cousin to Myranda Tarbeck, knight and master-at-arms at Tarbeck Hall.
Lord Addam Tarbeck
Age: Five and Thirty.
Appearance: A lean, handsome man. Dark of hair, high of cheekbones, sharp of jaw.
Description & biography: Born to Lord and Lady Tarbeck when they were nearly thirty years of age, Addam Tarbeck, firstborn child of the main line of that old house, was certainly late in the coming but seemingly worth the delay. He took to sword and shield as well as letters and sums and was well liked by his peers and tutors at Tarbeck Hall. He spent his youth squiring for Ser Jon Vikary, his mother's cousin and a household knight at Tarbeck Hall (and later its master-at-arms), and once knighted he participated in a few of tourneys across the Westerlands.
Still, Addam Tarbeck was ultimately a man of words, rather than swords, and he took a keen interest in commerce and trade. Given House Tarbeck's ailing fortunes, he wondered whether he might bring the house back to its former glory when he came to lordship. After the birth of his son and heir, Alyn, he traveled to the Citadel, where he spent five years forging maester's links of gold and steel, returning to the Westerlands and home but seldom in that time.
When he did return, he returned with a mind to revitalize House Tarbeck's fortunes in the coming years.
Antario Tarbeck, the Mariner
Age: One and Forty.
Appearance: Tanned, leathery skinned and sandy blond, Antario Tarbeck claims to have a bit of Stony Dornish in his blood and does look the part.
Description & biography: Much ado is made of the noble houses of Westeros, and while little thought is given to their cadet branches and more distant relations, those sons of second and third sons have sons of their own more oft than not. As such, there is many a Tarbeck in the Westerlands who has never met Lord Tarbeck or seen the Hall.
Not so for Antario Tarbeck and his kin, however. These Lannisport-settled Tarbecks, descendants of a Lord Tarbeck's second son some three generations now removed (and possibly a Stony Dornishwoman he took for a lover, but that may be a tall tale), have carved out a niche for themselves among the noble families of the Westerlands as mariner merchants. A great admirer of Corlys Velaryon and his nine great voyages, Antario Tarbeck has plied the free cities for decades, trading far and wide during his time abroad and seeking glory in the vein of the Sea Snake.
Antario Tarbeck and his father had little in the way of common interest with the Tarbecks of Tarbeck Hall, but it seems the new Lord Tarbeck, a man educated in the sciences of commerce, may be a different matter.
Robb Tarbeck, a Septon of the Faith
Age: Nine and Twenty.
Appearance: Robb Tarbeck is, by all accounts, the comeliest of the Tarbeck line. More handsome than his brothers and prettier than his sister, in his time Robb Tarbeck, Knight of the Blue Roses, tempted many a maiden with his good looks, rakish charm and daring exploits on the tourney grounds. As a septon, this is largely unchanged, through there are significantly fewer tourneys involved.
Description & biography: Robb Tarbeck is the thirdborn son of the late Lord Alyn Tarbeck, and of the Lord's three sons the most martially inclined. At an early age, Robb proved a marvelous horseman and a keen hand with lance, spear, sword and bow. He was knighted at just four and ten, and had won his first tourney - a local affair - two short years later, unhorsing many a more veteran man in its course. A dab hand with paintbrush as well, he became well known for painting his shield with quartered roses in the Tarbeck colors. By twenty, Robb Tarbeck had well-earned his reputation as a tried and true knight on the field of combat. Robb had long spoken of his dream to take up a white cloak as a member of the Kingsguard, and the Lord Alyn Tarbeck found that his son's childhood ambitions seemed not so childish as he proved himself time and time over.
It is an oft repeated tale among the Tarbecks that a raven addressed to the King and his Lord Commander had left Tarbeck Hall's rookery the morning Robb took the practice field with his brother Josmyn. That day, of all days, Robb dealt his brother a grievous wound while practicing his form with a mace. Robb broke Josmyn's jaw in gory fashion, and only by the immense skill and talent of Tarbeck Hall's wizened maester was Josmyn not utterly disfigured by the blow.
In life, Lord Alyn never said what became of his letter to the Kingsguard. It mattered not, as Robb refused to take up sword, shield or lance again. After some time, he settled on a new direction in life - that of a man of faith. He now wears the robes of a septon and holds his ministries at Tarbeck Hall's sept.