The Citadel

Hello all,

I've recently created my own 'Harken' noble family, which is in possession of the High Lordship of Harrenhal (among other things). Basically I just edited (by DLC Ruler Designer) the Whent family and replaced them.

Now I'm just wondering whether this was all set up and thought for, or just plain coincidence. If it was all set up, I apologize for posting it here
The thing is, due to roleplaying reasons and just because everybody loves the dying Valyrian breed, I married my male heir off to some talented High Valyrian girl, with ofcourse the platina hair and violet eyes. Just after she got pregnant (yay!), she died, before giving birth to the child (I didn't have an heir of my dynasty yet, so you can imagine how it felt). I looked for another Valyrian girl, and I found one! A talented one even! She died in a matter of months before even getting pregnant. Since Valyrians weren't very common, I loaded a save file to try again; only to have the first girl become pregnant and die once more, and the other one surviving this time yet never even achieving pregnancy.

Is this a pun from the Old Gods and the New? Or made to be like this? It really felt like that darn hall was cursed, not as much for me as for Valyrians. Even if these unfortunous events were all random, it would be a nice idea. I find Harrenhal nicely situated, with a rather powerful host and 'easy pickings' and weak lords around them. Still, they're not as powerful or important to the Riverlands as the Freys. Harrenhal should be a threat, a dormant, dark, brooding land, weak at the start but a potentially very dangerous factor after a couple of decades/centuries: much like the Boltons in the North, but in a unique way. To counter this, or just to add a nice RP-element, I'd like to propose certain types of 'curses' for the ruling family of Harrenhal. More deaths? Higher chance of becoming a Lunatic?

There's currently an event to cull High Valyrians who are not of Targaryen descent. The girls you are marrying are most likely randomly generated at the game start, with the culture of their court's lord. If you want the blood of Old Valyria, you'll probably have to wait until the Targaryens are out of power.

Meh something is going on in my head, not sure whether to share it, okay I'll share it.

I just pictured Harrenhal being developed into a unique minigame of sorts for a future release... We know for some reason or other families don't last very long there, usually under strange circumstances. The strategic importance of Harrenhal as a base camp during a megawar is the other reason it changes hands often. It would be so great to replicate that and turn Harrenhal into a "How long can you last there" game

It could become a nice unique thing to do... You can try to play the game just occupying Harrenhal and see how long your family can last before you get wiped out (via unique Harrenhal events and buffed general tragic events) or chased out by a larger enemy army wanting it for its (canonically) strategic importance during a megawar for the Iron Throne.

Plenty of settings for events to take place in like the Bathhouse, Bear Pit, Kitchens, Barracks Hall, Godswood, Flowstone Yard, Armory, The Walls, Hall of the Hundred Hearths and then the five different towers.

There doesn't even have to be ingame recognition of the time spent there if it's not possible, there could just be a thread for people to post their personal bests and their stories.

If for some strange reason people like the idea of this we can finish/polish/balance the idea after. I think It would be awesome though.

So basically Nazi Zombie's in Harrenhal? except sub out the Zombies for Curses and Ghosts and press Play

I think it'd be more hilarious just to insert Harrenhal's title as a factor that greatly reduces the time to happen for random negative events, though I have no idea if that's even possible.

Kingsgrave wrote:I think it'd be more hilarious just to insert Harrenhal's title as a factor that greatly reduces the time to happen for random negative events, though I have no idea if that's even possible.

It is completely possible, and in fact Harrenhal's title is already a penalty in the duel engine.

That's brilliant. Would love to see that extended to accidents and plagues and the like, as well.

speaking of the Duel engine, I have fought a lot of Battles against notable characters and haven't been lucky enough to engage in a duel yet I was really hoping to get cleaved in half by Ser Gerold Hightower or Ser Arthur Dayne, Paxtor Redwyne was bringing up the rear. Which my Sellsword Captains (Mainly Bronn, Yes I had Bronn! Woot) made short work of, then Dayne, and then Hightower and I battled for days like the whole war depended on the outcome of this small meeting engagement.

I AM playing as the lord of Harrenhal right now, well I'm already the paramount but never mind.

The thing is shouldn't it be a bigger castle than "Common Riverland Castle" ? Its supposed to be very big.
Perhaps give it a trait like Storm's End or the Twins in order to increase its status. I' m thinking of being a buildable trait that requires lots of inversion to represent that harrenhal may be a big castle but it would need lots of work to restore it to its original glory.

This is true.

When it was completed, Harrenhal was so large as to be grotesque, with five massive towers, curtain walls the size of cliffs, and a gatehouse so large it could fit the entirety of Winterfell’s Great Keep.

Harrenhal is the greatest castle of the region, however, dwarfing Riverrun and boasting the highest castle walls in the Seven Kingdoms.

The Red Keep is smaller than the great castles such as Harrenhal or even Winterfell, but it is equally sturdy.

It also can't withstand a siege because it's too big, the amount of men required to man it would eat through the provisions too quickly. It was the Ironborn doing a bit of power projection in the riverlands.