Veteran Knight: “In days of old, the Brazens used to brainwash through torture.” Recruit: “We all know. Prisoners-“Veteran Knight: “Not only prisoners. Lord Atticus had his younger brother put through it. That fixed him up.” Recruit: “Really? What happened to him?” Veteran Knight: “He was found with a belt around his neck, and his pants at his ankles. Hanged and hung, they say.”
House Brazen has always been a militant stede. They required their military might to outweigh the countless bandits who fled to their mountains and so House Brazen did just that. The unfortunate thing, or fortunate depending on how you look at it, is that their prisons were overflowing. Now when you mix men hardened to steel with this problem, you end up with some unique solutions. Some turned to medical experiments, some turned to beefing up the local work force, but some… some darker individuals turned to torture. They wanted to test the limits of how far you can push the body before it breaks, how far you can push the mind before it’s putty in your hands. They say that some managed to find that point, but those are just rumors.
Of course, when Atticus I’s younger brother, Corvus Brazen, died, the rumors went wild. They liked to whisper that he too had been tortured, just to see what it was like, but truth be told: it wasn’t anything so heinous. This Corvus Brazen had a healthy fascination with whores. He liked the stranger ones, the ones that would whip you for a pretty coin, and one day it just went too far. Hanged and hung, they say.