History

Founder of Highgarden ,Bandor Tyrell

It began with one roleplay in 2012 when the Tyrells became the rulers of the Reach and, with the permission of Bandor Tyrell (Bandor Beningborough), this roleplay is printed below exactly as it was written. Ser Bandor Tyrell is the owner of Maui Swingers Resort-SL’s Exclusive Member’s Only Swinger Resort. Married to Dani, and he is the creator and owner of Debauchery Adult Furnitures. He also created the Feudalism System, an immersive Meter/Hud system created for the use of Game of Thrones. He is the founder of the Original Highgarden Group and Game of Thrones Roleplay Group.

What follows is an In Character history of Highgarden and The Reach.

((Roleplay Commences))

The Queen’s Bounty glided silently down the slow flow of the Mander, heading downstream at the whim of the current. The large ship was wide of berth with a high prow and curved bow. It looked more like the upturned hat of some Braavosi dandy than a royal pleasure barge.

The King sat reclining on the aft deck surrounded by scantily clad young maidens who fawned over him, one massaging his hunched shoulders, another cleaning his feet, their breasts dangling exposed and ripe for the plucking. The King sat up, waving away the girls with a dismissive gesture, “Out, all of you! By the Gods, I’m too old for this!” He turned to his steward and waved him closer, “Merek, Merek! Come here my boy. I was dreaming of the days when youth still flowed through these tired old veins. The days when I was a force to be feared, to be respected. Do you remember, Merek?”

The steward, dressed in a green surcoat bearing the yellow rose of house Tyrell, approached the aging King and sat down next to him, handing him a goblet of Arbor Gold. “Of course, my liege, I remember. You were quite impressive in your youth. I remember when I was a squire to Ser Abram and saw you win the day at the Tournament of the Sun in Dorne. I’ll never forget how you unseated the Bear. He was so huge and fearsome with that bear helm he always wore.”

“Aye, and I hit him so hard, I nearly unhorsed myself from the shock of the blow. But, he did make a grand noise when he hit the ground, didn’t he Merek?”

“Aye my lord, he did, a glorious thump. I felt the earth shake way over by the stables.”

The King raised the cup to his lips, his hand shaking visibly. “My how you’ve gotten old, Merek. You’re not a boy any more, are you?” Merek Tyrell, Steward to House Gardener, laughed, “No, my friend, I’m not. I’m an old man. But, at least I can still chew meat. I’ve not lost all my teeth.” The King laughed loudly, his toothless grin only helping to make him appear even older. “Bloody hell man, you know how to cut a person to the bone. In all the things I’ve lost as I’ve gotten older, it is the teeth I miss the most. The Gods take my cock, but give me back my teeth. What I wouldn’t give to chew a chunk of meat.”

The two men sat in silence for a moment, reflecting on their lives, the King let out a long, slow sigh, “How did we get to this, Merek? I should have died years ago, but who would have thought I would outlive my sons.” He turned to his steward and put his hand on his shoulder. “You may be only my son by marrying my daughter, but you’re the only son I’ve got. I’ve been giving this some thought.” The King sat up straighter, but began to cough, a hacking, deep cough that hinted at the true state of his aging body. He took a long swig of the wine, then continued.

“I want your boy Bandor to marry my grand-daughter Milliva.”

Merek sat forward, the surprise not hidden on his face, “Your Grace, surely you remember that I only recently agreed with Arad Lannister to marry Bandor to his daughter, the Princess Ginevra. An Milliva is Bandor’s first cousin.”

The king interrupted him, waving his hand like swatting at an annoying gnat, “Lannisters be damned. I’ll not have the King of the Reach married to a Lannister whore!”

“King of the Reach?”

“Aye, I intend to name your son as my heir. My sons are long dead and my wife was never able to bear me another. I can’t bloody well turn over the throne to a bastard, and I’d sooner see the Kingdom overrun before I let one of my fools of a nephew rule. Your son has served admirably as the Lord Commander of my army. The men love him more than I think they love me. He is a born leader and well, I plan to spend the rest of my days, what few I have, without worries about the Kingdom.”

“But your grace, surely you want a Gardener to take the throne after you?”

The King drained his cup and held it out to be filled, “My blood flows through your son’s veins, he’s half Gardener.” Merek filled the cup, his hands now shaking, “But, your brother’s sons, they will not take it lightly.” The King took a big, sloppy swallow, spilling half the wine onto his long gray beard, “Bugger them all. They rose against me and sided with Fossoways! It was your son that defended this Kingdom when my own kin wanted to force me from the throne. He’s more a Gardener to me than those who have the name. It is done, Merek! I’ve made my mind up on this. You will break the betrothal with Lannister and Bandor will marry Milliva. There’s a war coming, Merek. I can feel it in my bones. The Kingdom needs Bandor more than any of my useless kin.”

The ship lurched sharply and rolled over a large wake as it began to move out of the Mander and into open water. The king nearly fell out of his chair and Merek jumped to help him regain his balance. As he did, Tyrell stared off into the distance, lost in his thoughts, his eyes drawn to something on the horizon. “What are Braavosi ships doing by the Arbor?”

Suddenly fire erupted nearby. People began shouting and a woman was screaming either in terror or in pain. The ship turn hard to the starboard and an bell began ringing rapidly, sounding the call for battle stations. A ball of fire passed just over where their heads to strike against the far gunwale and explode into a rapidly spreading wall of flames.

“We’re under attack!”, Merek shouted as he grabbed the King by the arm, “Come Darius we must get you below deck!”. He tried to pull the King to his feet, but he was overcome by a fit of coughing and fell to the deck. People were running around and the clamor was nearly deafening. Merek saw one of the King’s Guard running by, his arm broken, blood running down his side, “Lothar! What is happening?”

The King’s Guard knelt next to the King and tried to help him. He looked up at Merek, fear clearly visible on his partially burned face. “Pirates! A fleet of them. They knew we was coming, my lord. They attacked us as soon as we entered the straits. They hit us with pots of burning liquid. The captain…he’s gone. There’s no one controlling the ship.”

Merek stood and drew his sword, “Stay here and protect the King. When they board us, do your duty.” He started to turn away, “My lord,” the King’s guard called out, “where are you going?”

“To find the Queen. Do your duty, guardsman.” Merek turned and leapt over a burning board and headed toward the stairs to the Queen’s cabin. The ship was listing badly and was caught in the churning waters where the River Mander met the open sea. Suddenly, as he reached the stair, there was a horrible crashing sound and the ship seemed to jump under his feet. He fell head first down the stairway and landed with a sharp crack at the bottom. He cried out in pain and reached for his foot. The agony was nearly blinding as he felt his foot turned at an unusual angle. He tried to climb up on his good leg, but he fell back and had to pull himself along what used to be a wall, but was now the floor.

He grabbed onto the stairs and began pulling himself along, one step at a time. His useless leg was burning with a searing pain and he nearly lost consciousness, but he managed to pull himself sideways along the stairs to the doorway and back onto the deck. What he saw was terrifying. The front of the ship was gone and where moments before the King had lain, there was a huge gash of twisted and broken wooden beams, wrapped around a large rocky tooth. Seawater was pouring in over the deck and running toward him. It washed over him with a salty foam, so cold it shocked the air out of his lungs. As the water began to cover him, he clutched the door frame and shouted out a name, “Dariah”.

Within moments, the Queen’s Bounty slipped beneath the waves as the three Braavosi ships turned their sails and headed back out to deeper waters.

((Roleplay ends))

Generations later, it came to pass when King Merek Tyrell, the great, great grandson to the first Merek Tyrell came back to The Reach to take his place upon the throne. He rode into the kingdom upon a large, dark steed and walked into the castle. So it began, the first chapter of the Reach. The arrival of a new king. As time went on, King Merek traveled the lands and soon found himself in the North where he came upon a princess. She was not like anything he had seen nor anyone he had met. His intention was to seek audience with King Edric Stark to arrange a marriage for his youngest daughter. When he saw that young woman step out of the saddle, he knew then that she was the one he would marry. They married months later, after much turmoil and fighting, for the princess, Maya Rose Stark, had no intention of wanting to marry anyone. They had six children over the decades, Prince Edric, Prince Tyrian, and Princess Ginevra Rose Tyrell. They were born as triplets, but so much was behind their birth: a red priestess, a curse, and, yes, even a dragon. A dragon by the name of Essovian who destroyed The Reach with her breath of fire. A prince kidnapped at six years old, a kidnapping ordered by his own father, soon to arrive back as a faceless man in the reach, grown.

The next main chapter in the history of The Reach began decades later, when the Tyrells were overthrown by Aiden of House Florent. King Merek and his family, separated and on the run, were in constant danger as the new King Aiden tightened his despotic grip upon the land. Merek’s queen, Maya, was captured and brutally tortured by the Usurper, and his son and heir, Prince Edric, was murdered by a kinsman of the so-called Mad Fox. The Queen’s family in the North, were also murdered, all except one who escaped into the night, by mercenaries sent by the Mad King. Despite these tragic setbacks, King Merek was able to organize a resistance, rescue his queen, and get his son’s body back for burial, before beginning a counteroffensive against the Florent King’s forces. Aiden, who had, at first, acquired almost total domain over The Reach, felt his sanity begin to erode as more and more sections of the land fell back under Tyrell control.

The Mad Fox, now mad in truth as well as moniker, became desperate enough to finally meet King Merek’s forces in direct battle. Opposing camps were established in the Farmlands area of The Reach and skirmishes and battles shifted the tide of the war back and forth, before the depletion of Aiden’s supplies, the repeated attacks upon his encampment, and finally, the arrival of the Targaryens and their Dragon, the great beast Valyrion, on the Tyrell side, left him no choice but to take the field in a last ditch effort to defeat the king he had unseated.

As the conflict between their forces swirled around them, Merek and Aiden, encircled by a wall of Dragonfire, dueled each other to the death for the sovereignty of the kingdom. Chapter three of the history of The Reach concluded with Aiden’s headless body lying at the feet of King Merek, who swore to never allow such a threat to his rule and his people to rise again within the land.

The Reach continues to thrive under the rule of King Merek Tyrell and Queen Maya Rose Stark, now a new Chapter will begin, what will it be?