Standfast

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Standfast
Stronghold
STA.png
Standfast by Mike S. Miller
Location The Reach
Government House Osgrey, Landed knight
Religion Faith of the Seven

Standfast is the stronghold of House Osgrey in the Reach. It is called a castle by courtesy, but more closely resembles a towerhouse. Three villages fall within its dominion. Its exact location has not yet been published, but it is located a few leagues east of Coldmoat in the north of the Reach; the Osgreys were once Marshalls of the Northmarch. Standfast is sworn to House Rowan of Goldengrove.[1]

Layout

Standfast stands upon a hill and can be seen for leagues around. A single path leads to the tower, which can only be ridden single file. A daub-and-wattle stable sits at the base of the tower.[1] Standfast has one entrance, an oak and iron door twenty feet above the ground, the stairs leading up to it consist of bottom steps made of blocks of smooth black stone, so worn that they are bowl-shaped in the middle. Higher up, they give way to a steep wooden stair that can be swung up like a drawbridge in times of trouble.[1]

Standfast's size is deceptive. It is only four stories tall above ground, with the two upper floors having windows and balconies and the two lower floors having only arrow slits.[1] The rebuilt north and west faces of the building are of pale grey stone above and old black stone below. Turrets were added during the rebuild, and two ancient grotesques whose shape had been lost long ago stand on the other two corners. Its pinewood roof is flat, though warped and leaky from time.[1]

Underground, however, there is a complex of deep vaults and cellars cut into the hill that Standfast sits upon. The castle has its own well in the undercellar.[1]

The west way runs between Standfast and Coldmoat.[1]

History

Prior to Aegon's Conquest, the Osgreys controlled four castles, the greatest of them Coldmoat, and watchtowers on hills. The house's fortunes declined after the Field of Fire, however, and the Osgreys were eventually reduced to landed knights controlling only Standfast and its vicinity.[1]

Standfast was originally built of black stone. A few centuries before the reign of King Aerys I Targaryen, the castle suffered a partial collapse. The Osgreys rebuilt the north and west faces in pale grey stone above the windows, and they also added turrets above the roofline on the rebuilt sides. At the time of Ser Eustace Osgrey, grotesques decorated the rooftop corners which had not been rebuilt.[1]

Eustace buried his wife and sons in a blackberry thicket around back of Standfast's hill. Eustace's servants included Sam Stoops and his wife.[1] Eustace hired Ser Bennis of the Brown Shield, Ser Duncan the Tall, and Duncan's squire, Prince Aegon Targaryen, amid a quarrel with Rohanne Webber, Lady of Coldmoat.[1]

References