Grayford
Story Emits
House Grayreeve rebelling against House Deepwood had caught the attention of most of the Compact. With hundreds of houses, little border wars and conflicts between lieges and their bannermen happen, but this was different in that Count Augustus Grayreeve was doing so because he questioned Marquessa Samantha Deepwood's claim to her house, and cited longstanding grievances of different traditionalists who were outraged by the number of neo-nobles being granted titles in the Compact, and the amount of Abandoned permitted to bend the knee. That hostility remains, and many houses watched the quarrel carefully to see how it might shape future conflicts between those who wish to defend the traditional rights and privileges of the nobility and citizens of the Compact, and those wishing to challenge it.
Unfortunately, the end of the Grayreeve rebellion is likely to leave more questions than answers, as word trickles back to Arx from Grayford, Old Oak, Pearlspire, the Twainfort, Pridehall, Bastion and Hawkhold. Count Augustus Grayreeve is dead, with apparently a significant portion of the Grayreeve Castle at Grayford collapsing, and he was buried under the rubble, following an altercation with his son and heir, Lord Thomas Grayreeve. Reports are confused on what exactly happened, with some claiming that Lord Thomas led an uprising against his father, others said they had a simple argument and the collapse was a freak accident, and others with a preposterous claim that a hulking knight in black armor hit the wall of the castle with a warhammer that caused a collapse. Regardless of what precisely happened, Lord Thomas Grayreeve has declared to his family that he is taking the mantle of Count of Grayford, which has passed without contest, asked House Deepwood for forgiveness and reaffirmed their loyalty to Marquessa Samantha, and called for an end of hostilities. A decisive end in favor of Marquessa Samantha Deepwood.
However, the flood of Abandoned being offered safe passage and settling safely at Pearlspire and the Twainfort as prodigals has alarmed much of the peerage, and House Shavsbane has denounced House Riven and House Seliki for offering shelter to the Compact's enemies. Word arrives that House Shavsbane attempted to attack the Twainfort with sellswords, but was decisively repulsed by Riven and Bisland forces, with Dame Irisa Wainryte and Lord Jyri Whitehawk distinguishing themselves in the fighting. However, no less than a dozen different houses have offered Shavsbane military aid should they be attacked in retaliation, seeing them as a check against 'recklessly sheltering the Compact's enemies'. When Grayreeve calls upon its vassals, Houses Twinstone, Ratherford and Shavsbane to lay down their arms and once again see their banner-marquessa as their leader, both Twinstone and Ratherford send warm regards, but Shavsbane sends no one and answers with only silence.
The rebellion is over. The conflict with traditionalists openly hostile to prodigals and ennoblements remains.
Some evidence has come forward that many of the raiders were members of the Undrowned Sons, an extremely large and multi-chapter group of sellswords of a particularly dark and vicious reputation, who were almost certainly responsible for the destruction of Coldreach, and murder of all members of the Coldrain family. It has become clear that they have been repeatedly hired to strike at targets that the traditionalists in the Isles find distasteful.