House Reading

House Reading is a minor house from the Heartlands. They ruled from the castle of Oakwood Hall.

History
House Reading was heavily involved in the Third Red Crown War. Lord Patrick Reading had a close alliance with Lord Samuel Troute, and followed Troute's plans to gain power. While Patrick was a retainer of Samuel's in Redrock, Oakwood Hall was ruled over his son, Daniel Reading, who was a "good man" and was kept out of the loop by Patrick. Most of Patrick's duties fell to his bastard son, Isaac Black, who was the complete opposite of Daniel: cutthroat, ruthless, and sadistic.

Patrick stayed with Samuel in Redrock when Troute made his coup against Emperor Krieg I. Cornering the Emperor against the cliffs of the capital, Patrick and a few other men charged at the emperor. In his last stand, the Emperor killed two men, one of them being Patrick, before being overpowered and sent to a watery grave off of the cliff. Upon assuming power, Troute sent a letter to Oakwood Hall, explaining that Lord Patrick had been killed as part of the plot against the crown by the southerners. Samuel also named the new Lord Daniel as being part of the plot and ordered his arrest.

The men of House Reading's lands refused to turn against their liege, and Daniel, believing there was a coup, planned to announce his allegiance to Wilrich the Red in the west. However, Isaac Black would murder Daniel in the night and throw his body into the Hearth River. Black's men head to arrest Patrick's second son Lucas Reading, but Lucas escapes Oakwood Hall and follows the moonlight down river. Black sends Patrick Coldwater after Lucas, and then proclaims himself to be the new Lord of Oakwood Hall.