House Strong

Origin

House Strong, as the Blackwoods is an ancient house descended from the First Men. Family traditions state they lived on the wolfswood, under the lead of House Blackwoods, in the North before being driven south by the Kings of Winter from House Stark. Some even suggest that they are related somehow to the Lord of Winterfell.   After their exile from the North, House Strong, just like their Lords, decided to migrate south and settled near High Heart, in an unspecified place, where they built a small castle; from this particular location, it can be deduced that the Strongs, just like other families originating from the First Men, were worshippers of the Ancient Forest Gods.   However, at some point, it is possible that they converted to the Faith of the Seven and abandoned the old religion.  

The Targaryen Era

  During Aegon's Conquest, House Strong followed House Tully in rebelling against Harren Hoare, King of the Isles and the Rivers, supporting instead House Targaryen. Ser Osmund Strong was named Hand of the King during the reign of King Aegon I Targaryen and oversaw the construction of the wall around King's Landing.   Ser Lucamore Strong was the victor of the grand melee held during the tourney for the completion of the Dragonpit in 55 AC. After Ser Willam the Wasp passed away the following year, King Jaehaerys I Targaryen replaced him in the Kingsguard with Lucamore.  

Lords of Harrenhal

  Jaehaerys named Lucamore's brother, Ser Bywin Strong, as Lord of Harrenhal in 73 AC, after the passing of Queen Rhaena Targaryen; Ser Bywin had two sons, Harmen and Simon. Later that year, Lucamore was caught breaking his vows after fathering sixteen children. He was gelded and sent to join the Night's Watch.   After Ser Bywin Strong's death, his first son Harmen became the new and second Lord of Harrenhal; he had one and only son, Lyonel Strong, who was born in 70 AC.   At thirteen years of age, Lyonel is sent to the Citadel, at Oldtown, to study law; at the end of his studies, in 87 AC he's called back to the Riverlands because of his father's health conditions. On his way to Harrenhal, he stops near High Heart, wear their ancestral house is located and there he meets a mysterious woman; with her, he would have a daughter, Alys Rivers. After Alys's birth, Lyonel returns to Harrenhal and decides to bring the child with him; this causes a great scandal, however, against his father's wish, Lyonel decides to recognize the girl as his and to raise her in the castle.   A year later, in 88 AC, at eighteen years of age, Lyonel became the new Lord of Harrenal; the same year he married his first wife, Carellen Smallwood, with whom he will have his first-born son and heir, Harwin.   His first wife will die in childbirth and so in 90 AC he will marry Corenna Butterwell with whom he will have Larys Strong.   At her death, which happened in 95 AC, Lyonel Strong married his third and last wife, Emphyria Vance, ten years his junior, with whom he will have two true-born daughters, Careleen and Alla. Thanks to his wife's family connections Lyonel Strong, in 105 AC, was chosen by King Viserys to become his Master of Laws and so he, along with Lady Emphyria and his children, moved to King's Landing, leaving behind Alys.   The two girls became handmaids to Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen; their elder brother, Ser Harwin Strong, was made a captain in the gold cloaks; the younger brother, Larys, joined the king's confessors. Four years later, Lyonel replaced Ser Otto Hightower as Hand of the King.   In 120 AC, after a series of false letters between Harwin Strong and Princess Rhaenyra resurface Lord Lyonel is forced to order his son to return to Harrenhal and together they leave the capital for the Riverlands.   Some days after they arrive at the castle a terrible fire burns the Kingspyre Tower, killing Lyonel Strong; luckily Harwin was not in the castle that night and survived, becoming the new Lord of Harrenhal.   After the Dance of the Dragons and the win of the Blacks, it will be revealed that the fire was not an incident and that was instead planned by Larys Strong, with the help of his uncle Simon, to kill his brother and become the heir.   During the 126 AC Harwin Strong accepted the Princess's desire to hold a Tourney at Harrenahl in honour of the twenty years of matrimony of the King and of the Queen. During the Civil War that broke in the early months of 129 AC between Rhaenyra and Aegon Targaryen House Strong fought for the Blacks, while his younger brother Larys sided with the Greens.   Alys Rivers, during the taking of Harrenhal, will become Prince Aemond's lover and despite the marriage promise he made with Cassandra Baratheon, she will convince him to marry her, unleashing the wrath of Lord Borros, who will rise up against the Greens when he finds out what happened.   It will later be revealed that this move was part of Alys' plan to neutralize Aemond and his faction and that she had actually been all that time in cahoots with her half-brother Harwin to avenge the death of their father Lyonel.   Between the 130 AC and the 136 AC Harwin Strong will marry three times.