3 Galladon Tarth (3)

After some arguing back and forth Lord Selwyn finally agreed with his son's choice but used this as a leverage to gain some spots for his subordinates, or rather their children, when new spots in the four different auras will be available in the next years.

After observing his only son for ten years he obviously knew about his close relationship with those three animals he nurtured since birth and their attachment to the young heir of House Tarth. If anybody got close to his son or even tried to harm him, they would die instantly due to the attacks of those three fierce animals.

Finally, he had an explanation for the mysterious development of those three little guys into fearsome and ferocious animal kings. When a cute little puppy turns into a wolf king, nearly as large as a small house, or a little eagle turns into an air predator with a wingspan of nearly 6 meters nobody could give any reasonable answer for this mystery. The wingspan was simply incredible, as the largest eagle in Galladon's former world only had a wingspan of 2,5 meters. When spreading his wings Silver (Eagle Name) nearly looked like a dragon from afar.

Galladon's three pets not only developed incredible body features, but they also conquered the wild wolves, eagles and wild horses on the Island of Tarth and build their own small kingdom in the deep forests and steep cliffs. Every animal belonging to their kind was docile and peaceful in front of his son, while defending their territory ferociously.

Ultimately, they were very helpful for House Tarth, because they could control the whole eco system very well and kept any dangerous animals away from the small villages along the coastal side and further prevented any animals from damaging the few good farmlands House of Tarth had. Most of those farms were located on the flat part between the coast and the mountainous forest, thus often attacked by hungry animals.

In the last few years this situation drastically improved and every farmer on the island of Tarth was extremely grateful to their young master and his three animal companions.

Galladon was not angry with his father for trying to gain control over some of his future spots, he even was grateful. For now, all the people close to him were already included in his aura and being able to strengthen the foundation of House Tarth and further binding important servants and retainers would only deepen his influence in the family and his heir position.

His only condition was to prioritize younger members, preferably under the age of ten, because than the impact of the aura and the influence on the future growth would be most advantageous. Only if an important old retainer had health problems would he make an exception to include him into his Health Aura. Fortunately, this situation never happened in the next few years.

Over the next years the development of House Tarth was steadily on the right track. In the first five years Galladon included ten more people into his aura. Five children of long-term members of the standing army of House Tarth and five young children of the current captains of the navy.

The five children of army commanders were included into the three auras of health, strength, and speed, while the five children of navy commanders only received the aura of intelligence. On the on hand, navy commanders didn't really need personal strength and on the other hand Galladon didn't want to create any all-around talents, even if they were members of the family.

His auras deepened his connection with all people included but were by no means loyalty curses. Anyone not belonging to his immediate bloodline, or any animal extremely close to him, would never be included in all four auras at the same time.

Including five children of navy commanders belonged to the long-term strategy of House Tarth to improve their navy, which in recent history has always been rather weak, at least for their important geographic position in the seven kingdoms.

Because House Tarth was positioned close to the Free City States and the Stepstones they had to deal with pirate attacks all year long.

In the long history of House Tarth, they suffered many attacks due to having a weak navy. But only considering the recent history of the last two hundred years. House Tarth has an extremely long and glorified history, maybe one of the best of a noble families of Westeros.

Tarth was its own Kingdom for thousands of years.

Tarth was independent all through The Dawn Age and for most part of The Age of Heroes, when The First Long Night happened. We are talking about at least 3 or 4 thousand years of independence, where The Evenstar King was the sole ruler of Tarth.

It's unclear when they lost their independence, but presumably it was sometime after the living defeated The Others. After the Long Night ended and the living won, The Storm Kings started to gain land and establish their kingdom, the Kingdom of The Storm. That's probably when House Tarth lots its independence, when one of the Storm Kings (Durran Durrandon, The Fair) married the princess of Tarth, the Evenstar's daughter at the time, and brought Tarth under their rule.

From that moment on, Tarth was incorporated into the Kingdom of The Storm, and while they kept the tittle of Evenstar, the Lord and ruler of the Isle answered to The Storm Kings. But for thousands of years, Tarth was its own kingdom.

After having knowledge of his son's magical aura and constantly being improved by all four auras Selwyn Tarth's ambition to regain the glory of the past was constantly increasing. Luckily for House Tarth, Galladon was by no means overflowing with confidence. He vehemently demanded low key development of the family for the next few years, at least until he is a grown man.

To curb his father's pursuit of stronger combat troops he denied him any excess to all aura spots between his 15th and 18th birthday. He used those spots on new species of animals.