House Name:
Gillean
Allegiance/Vassalage:
Duchy of Vitalis
Description:
House Gillean was founded upon the warrior spirit and inventiveness of Drac Gillean. Drac began his career as a commoner known as the Dragon Gillean, who became famous for his ferocity and creative use of a shield as a weapon in its own right. His fame grew and his hangers on began emulating him.
Gillean’s troupe became known for their sharpened and bladed shields. Rather than allow his allies to grow into a gang of hoodlums, Gillean shaped and directed their fervor and zeal into quests of glory and chivalrous challenges. Thinking these mere distractions to keep youthful men from becoming dangerous, he was unprepared for the few successes of his students. These successes drew attention to his school and soon, the employ of noble houses. It also drew the resentment and jealousy of the local mayor.
The mayor’s own guardsmen were less loyal, more expensive, and had no rapport with the people of his city. This mayor began to harass the men who had become known as shield wardens, challenging them on his streets and even arresting them. His petitions to higher courts may have been met with mixed results though as his wardens were hired as scouts, explorers, and other contracts for their services from local barons.
As the number of these wardens grew, the difficulty Gillean had with his mayor grew until he made an agreement to produce shields for the military of a Baron nearby. Gillean moved to this new barony and began to produce and equip his military as he did his own wardens. However, the Baron Gillean was sponsored by was overzealous and foolishly sought to use these shield wardens as a military advantage to improve his political position. Gillean was also still connected to wealthy merchants in his home town through a woman who would become Sidhe Drac MacGillean’s mother. Gillean tried to counsel his new patron against overaggressive use of his newfound students. His warning that training men to use these shields took longer than the making of the shields themselves. Yet no sooner as this Baron had a force fully equipped with these bladed shields he began to bluster and boast of military superiority.
Hoping to both embarrass Gillean and gain political favor, the mayor of Gillean’s home town sponsored a contest. While nearly every man carrying a bladed shield was defeated, Gillean himself took the field and won the tourney himself. As a result, the bladed shield has been discredited for use on the battlefield; but, Gillean was enriched and his fame grew even more.
Gillean thereafter married to his dearest lady and was granted the right to found the Gillean family. It was his sponsor and Baron who gave Drac Gillean his first name, and who presided over his wedding. It was this Baron’s last official act prior to his assassination.
The mayor of Drac Gillean’s home town was named the successor. Naturally Drac Gillean lost his baronial sponsorship and was forced to return to his home, wherein his fortunes were enough that he was able to secure the mayoral seat as well as vengeance. Drac’s personal guard and eventually the official police of his city were his personally trained shield wardens. Sidhe was born in the Mayoral estate at this time, just prior to the levied accusations from the previous mayor for the assassination of Drac’s former sponsor. Though at this same time, defectors from that barony visited Drac with testimony that the new Baron had boasted of his own responsibility for the murder. This was Drac’s introduction to the political games of empires and kingdoms.
His own count only begrudgingly supported him, having been influenced by the whisperings of his former mayor. Drac’s presiding duke was also noncommittal to the conflict but was insistent that no blood be shed, disallowing conflicts between his baronies.
The Duke was able to maintain peace for some time between his own duchies. Drac’s nemesis however had to deal with baronial insurrection and resistance to his rule. Drac himself continued to develop and train men in the use of the shield as a weapon, making adjustments to the design. Adding spikes, punch daggers, and other experiments. Rather than these innovations, it was Drac’s ability to inspire and train others to success that maintained his popularity. It also maintained his rivalry with his baronial nemesis.
Eventually, Drac was able to gain permission and support enough to make a bid at removing his nemesis and taking his Baronial seat. This was the first time Shield Wardens had been used on the battlefield, and the only time men properly trained with these weapons confidently took the field. Unfortunately, while Drac supplanted his rival and took the Baronial seat successfully from his nemesis; he failed to demonstrate that his weapon and weapon style was sufficiently superior to others to prompt other barons to adopt its use.
His success also made wary his Duke who sponsored Drac’s Baronial title. He took Sidhe and his mother as “guests” and oversaw Sidhe’s continued education as a precaution against any ambitions Drac may have had to continue to leverage his fame into greater rises in power. Drac had no such ambitions and was content to visit the home of the Duke to spend time with his family, performing his duties as Duke and overseeing the needs of his school of shield wardens.
Meanwhile Drac’s king had conflicts of his own and had employed shield wardens for special tasks of his own. During a campaign in neighboring territories, Drac had established himself and a unit of his most veteran shield warden’s as the Duke’s personal guard. Drac’s final campaign was in this capacity, where it is said that Drac and four other shield warden’s sacrificed themselves by throwing themselves before the body of the Duke to shield him from calamity.
Drac’s funeral was a state affair, drawing mourners from several counties and even neighboring kingdoms. Sidhe was allowed to remain at the Duke’s home and was assisted in his baronial duties by the Duke himself until his coming of age. However, the Duke had been impressed with Sidhe’s academic mind and his studious pursuit of mastery of his father’s martial style, even despite his smaller physical stature. Even while remaining in the court of the Duke, Sidhe’s mother grew close to the count of Drac’s home city where he had served as Baron. This Count embraced Sidhe as a son of his own, lacking any other. Sharing with him his own academic interests in arcane studies and the investigations of ancient mysteries. His marriage to Sidhe’s mother was short and gentle and the pair were close friends more than lovers. The Count’s funeral was quieter than that of Drac’s, a more personal occasion as this Count was less loved and less well known outside the regions of his own domain.
Not long after establishing himself in the county seat Sidhe began the manufacture of his own shield designs and had invested in his father’s school. He demonstrated his mastery of his father’s fighting style only with buckler sized shields being too small to effectively wield his father’s original design. Sidhe’s greatest challenge continues to be convincing his father’s veteran students that his adaptations of his father’s fighting style were valid and worthy. The lantern in the shield was the most difficult to express a need for on a battlefield. The smaller size of the shield made for a more accessible tool to the general populace and the newer design enjoyed a surge in popularity among city dwellers. There is a marked difference in the nature of students who wield Sidhe’s smaller Lantern Shield, and his father’s bladed shields. Not only are Lantern Shield Warden’s smaller in stature, but they tend to be city dwellers and more inspired by the intimidating nature of the Lantern Shield and the utility of its Lantern over the ferocity of shield bashing and finality of its blade. Sidhe continues to teach his students that their purpose is that of wardens though with the additional qualifier of gentlemen.
Those who care wonder, will there be a rift between the students of the Baron Gillean and those of the Count Gillean? Will the County accept the youthful aristocrat who claims mastery of such an arcane weapon as the Lantern Shield? Will Shield Warden’s continue to be guardians and accept their gentlemanly role, or devolve into well-equipped thugs? These are the concerns of House Gillean.
House Motto:
"Wisdom through stewardship. Strength through unity"
Forum Link:
House Gillean
Region:
NA-E
Discord Link:
House Gillean Discord
House Sigil:
(Not the Final Version)
