Stark in the South

In recompense for the events of the Blacksword's Folly, the future firstborn grandchild and eventual heir to Winterfell would be promised to the Crown, to serve as a ward in the south. As the years passed with the young Teora Stark in the south, the young lady became known as the Stark in the South.

Stark in the South
In 205 AC, some eight-and-ten years following the events that would come to be known as the Blacksword’s Folly, the young and future Lady of Winterfell, Teora Stark, would be sent south. The girl, the heir, was some ten years grown now, and upon the oath sworn by the Blacksword himself on both his honour, and that of the North’s, the Crown would have its due.

The girl went, easily enough, for the Starks had no appetite for refusal nor rebellion, but the wider North. . . That was another matter entirely. None spoke out at first, none dared, but all too many watched on, eyes narrowed, lips pursed, and brows furrowed. The first great resistance to this warding in a place so foreign, a place which occupied in the minds of many lords and ladies a residence of such disgust and dishonour, of southron knights of the summer prancing about, of boys so green they pissed grass, and girls clad in garments which would never know the kiss of winter, the fear of what would happen to the young “Stark in the South”, as she would become known, would manifest for the first time in 207 AC.

It was from Lord Hornwood the discontent came. A feast at Winterfell in the midst of a week long hunt. The Lord Hornwood spoke long about his concerns for the young Teora, for her upbringing, for her way of life, of dress, of speech even, but most fervently yet, of her faith to the Old Gods. Lord Hornwood proved an easy enough man to persuade of the absurdity of his concerns, but a year later, they would come again.

208 AC would see the Lady Glover and the Lord Ryswell begin to make rumblings about the North, speaking of the lack of Stark heirs, and of the Stark in the South, and how Teora would never truly be a Stark. The Starks did what they could to dissuade this belief, hosting lords and ladies, and visiting many more, and in part, a small part, it worked, though for many more, it only brought the issue of the Stark in the South closer to home and heart.

By 211 AC, it seemed the entirety North, each keep, every field, and all the snow falls, had an opinion on the matter. And so, in 212 AC, it was decided that Lord Dustin and Lord Karstark would travel south and bring back word on the matter of the Stark in the South.

And so they did. The two lords spent three moons in King’s Landing, observing the heir, observing Teora, speaking with those who knew her, and in the case of Karstark, even deploying his own heirs in the mission of spying into Teora’s mind. By the time the pair returned North, Dustin had but one thing to say.

“She will never again be of the North.” Lord Dustin had proclaimed, to mixed reception, though his words had seemed to find particular harbour with the Ryswells.

Yet, in the case of Karstark, it was wholly different. Karstark spoke of the situation the girl had been sent to, of how the winter snows still burned bright in her eyes, and of how she held true to the Old Gods, the gods of her ancestors and forefathers before her.