#house lydden

[thepog]

Леннарт Лидден знает: завоевание доверия — искусство, требующее терпения и тонкости, сродни ювелирному. Каждый шаг, точно огранка драгоценного камня, выверенно и аккуратно придает видимости части нового творения. Но будет ли столь же легко сотворить общую историю и придать ей блеска?

[dysenterydany]

Stevron Frey and his wives: Corenna Swann, Jeyne Lydden, and Marsella Waynwood

[rosaluxembae]

Imagine if House Lydden were Lords Paramount of the Westerlands instead of the Lannisters. When character go through the Riverlands everyone would be like "our village was pillaged by a band of marauding badgers 😭"

[indisden]

House Lydden of Deep Den - a noble house of the Westerlands. The Lyddens were Andal adventures that settled in Westeros,

[game-of-style]

Gown for a Lady of House Lydden, sworn to Casterly Rock - Elie Saab Haute Couture Fall 2018

[goodqueenaly]

House Words Wednesdays: House Lydden

Welcome to House Words Wednesdays! Each week, I take a House without known canon or semi-canon words and present what I think could make sense as that House’s motto. You’re free to suggest more as well, if your favored House has not yet been suggested; take a look at this link to see what has already been suggested, and shoot me an ask through Tumblr if you have another House you’d like to see done. 

House Lydden of the Deep Den is one of the principal Houses sworn to the Lannisters of Casterly Rock; indeed, Sansa includes Lord Lydden in her noting the "great western lords" (alongside Brax and Crakehall) gathered for the post-Blackwater victory ceremony. Still, despite their high status in the Westerlands now, the Lyddens were not always so exalted. Unlike the Crakehalls and some other Westerlands Houses, House Lydden is not native to the Westerlands; the Lyddens were originally Andal adventurers, seeking their fortune in the western hills. Through the policies of assimilation and subtle Westerlands indoctrination, however, the last of the Lannister First Men kings created marriage alliances that guaranteed these latecoming Andals' fealty to Casterly Rock. The Lyddens were included in this strategy, and actually profited more than perhaps any other House: Ser Joffrey Lydden married the only daughter of King Gerold III Lannister, and when he died without male issue, the lords of the west decided to crown Ser Joffrey as King Joffrey Lannister, the first Andal King of the Rock (who perhaps, if Cersei were feeling historically clever, which I don't know that she was, became Joffrey Baratheon's namesake).

The Lydden sigil is a white badger on a per pale green and brown field. In keeping with the HWW tradition of strangely specific animal myths, in the medieval period it was believed that badgers work together to dig their holes. Specifically, one badger would lie on its back with a stick in its mouth while other badgers piled dirt on its belly; when the dirt pile got high enough, two other badgers would each take an end of the stick and drag it out. I've never seen a badger, but I'm willing to say this probably doesn't happen in the wild; nevertheless, real-life badgers are known for using their large claws to dig dens (or “setts”) that can extend a few meters deep underground. That's doubtless why the Lydden seat is known as the Deep Den; in fact, I wonder if, because it is located in or around the southern pass through the western mountains, the Deep Den is built into the mountain itself, extending deep into the rock and beyond what can be seen from the outside.

So for the Lydden words, I chose We Dwell Below. It's an obvious reference to the badger on their banners, as the badger's home is its underground sett. It's also a nice connection to the Deep Den: the Lyddens, like their badgers, dwell below the peaks of the great western hills and mountains, their seat's full power invisible to the naked eye. These words also serve as a threat to would-be invaders of the Westerlands: the Lyddens, dwelling below, lie unseen waiting for their foes, and woe to any who would presume to cross the mountains into the wealth of the west. Finally, I like how these words sort of subtly hint at the Lydden place in the Lannister genealogy: though no one would ever say aloud that it is House Lydden that rules Casterly Rock (especially not in Tywin Lannister's hearing), looking "below" - that is, farther down the line of ancestry - one finds that today's Lannisters are Lannisters only in the female line, with male-line Lydden ancestry "dwelling" for all to see in the annals of House Lannister.

Let me know how you like these words for the Lyddens of the Deep Den. Next week is a House of Stark loyalists with very tragic fates.

[krystal280791]

OC Moodboard ➤ Seraphine Lydden

[dysenterydany]

Jeyne Lydden, the second wife of Stevron Frey, with their children, Aegon "Jinglebell" Frey and Maegelle Frey.

Headcanons: Jeyne died giving birth to Maegelle. Stevron is fond of his middle children but also sees Aegon as an issue to be handled because of his developmental disability and Maegelle as the reason his favorite wife is dead.

Aegon didn't choose to be the house jester and it bothers him a fair amount, but he's found pretty quickly he won't get any support being anything but that and has settled into that role, As You Do. He's found his own joy in it and is genuinely very funny.

Maegelle definitely had her own developmental issues but not in ways that are seen as such by the broader Westerosi culture, partially because her symptoms mostly weren't problems for her family. She's very much a Sansa-type autistic, making being a lady and running her household her special interest. Unfortunately she lives with a lot of internalized ableism and is terrified of being seen as any way like Aegon, or her children being seen to be any way like Aegon, so is harsh on herself and her kids both. :/