03-15-2016, 10:36 AM
I would love to participate, but sadly I am really, really bad at getting things started. I just keep getting confused, start over and over again until I end up not participating. But I think the Crimson Crucible is a great chance to overcome that and improve generally, so I will try my best. Though I have very little time the next two weeks, but maybe I will get something done.
I took the first option, and to make things less confusing I wrote down how I imagined a brief history of House Negrea, and other things about them that I thought might be important. I am no native speaker, so I'm sorry if my language is horrible
"House Negrea was once, hundrets, maybe thousands of years ago, servant to the powerful House Gardener. They had neither wealth nor fame, seeing they were only tending the great Gardens of the Reach. Had there not been rivalry and hate between Harlen Tyrell and Eadred Negrea, they might still call Highgarden their home. They both fell in love with Magaret Gardener, though House Tyrell was already powerful back in the days, so Eadred stood no chance. Still Magaret seemed to like him. Harlen was more than distrustful and tried to get Eadred out of the way more than once, but out of pure luck he survived.
When Highgarden stood in flames during the Targaryen Conquest, the whole House of Gardener died burning, including Magaret. Eadred lost both his parents and his younger brother, but managed to flee the city with his twin sister Eleanor and her husband. They reached a forest that seemed as dark as it was deep, but in panic they did not hesitate to enter. What they found in the woods was way beyond anything they had ever imagined, trees as high as the greatest castles they had ever seen, horned beetles as big as dogs and, in some nights, as many fireflys as there are stars in the sky.
Or that is how the story goes. There is very little proof that Eadred and Eleanor ever really existed, but in the hidden kingdom of the forest, they are still celebrated as heroes. After all, someone must have built their castle that lay sheltered inside a huge cave. The beetles were not quite as big as dogs anymore, but there was still a lot of armour made from their shell that was proof enough that they had existed. And that someone was must have killed them.
And the people of the forest still knew where to find beetles no smaller than a hedgehog. Their shells were rare and valuable, so they were trading with all the Seven Kingdoms.
While winter is harsh for anyone South of the Wall, it is probably the hardest for House Negrea. Since it was dark in the woods, there is no way to grow fields of wheat or spelt. While they can easily live off meat, berries and roots from spring to autum and can trade shells for the harvest of peasants in the Reach, in winter no one would trade. In winter, no berries or roots would be growing and the animals and beetles would be dying.
So hard work, restraint and faith that spring would come again were the only things to keep them alive sometimes, and they take a lot of pride in that. House Negrea has no gods, but they say to themselves that they have stronger faith than all the rest of the Seven Kingdoms together."
I took the first option, and to make things less confusing I wrote down how I imagined a brief history of House Negrea, and other things about them that I thought might be important. I am no native speaker, so I'm sorry if my language is horrible
"House Negrea was once, hundrets, maybe thousands of years ago, servant to the powerful House Gardener. They had neither wealth nor fame, seeing they were only tending the great Gardens of the Reach. Had there not been rivalry and hate between Harlen Tyrell and Eadred Negrea, they might still call Highgarden their home. They both fell in love with Magaret Gardener, though House Tyrell was already powerful back in the days, so Eadred stood no chance. Still Magaret seemed to like him. Harlen was more than distrustful and tried to get Eadred out of the way more than once, but out of pure luck he survived.
When Highgarden stood in flames during the Targaryen Conquest, the whole House of Gardener died burning, including Magaret. Eadred lost both his parents and his younger brother, but managed to flee the city with his twin sister Eleanor and her husband. They reached a forest that seemed as dark as it was deep, but in panic they did not hesitate to enter. What they found in the woods was way beyond anything they had ever imagined, trees as high as the greatest castles they had ever seen, horned beetles as big as dogs and, in some nights, as many fireflys as there are stars in the sky.
Or that is how the story goes. There is very little proof that Eadred and Eleanor ever really existed, but in the hidden kingdom of the forest, they are still celebrated as heroes. After all, someone must have built their castle that lay sheltered inside a huge cave. The beetles were not quite as big as dogs anymore, but there was still a lot of armour made from their shell that was proof enough that they had existed. And that someone was must have killed them.
And the people of the forest still knew where to find beetles no smaller than a hedgehog. Their shells were rare and valuable, so they were trading with all the Seven Kingdoms.
While winter is harsh for anyone South of the Wall, it is probably the hardest for House Negrea. Since it was dark in the woods, there is no way to grow fields of wheat or spelt. While they can easily live off meat, berries and roots from spring to autum and can trade shells for the harvest of peasants in the Reach, in winter no one would trade. In winter, no berries or roots would be growing and the animals and beetles would be dying.
So hard work, restraint and faith that spring would come again were the only things to keep them alive sometimes, and they take a lot of pride in that. House Negrea has no gods, but they say to themselves that they have stronger faith than all the rest of the Seven Kingdoms together."