Tarris
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Heraldry for House Tarris
HOUSE INFORMATION
Kingdom: Taniford
Seat: Griffon Point
Fortification: Griffon Point
Motto: Honor and Glory be thy Path
Colors: Sable, Vette, Red
Liege: Lohstren
Vassals: TBD
LEADERSHIP
Rank: Knight
Honorific: Sir (The head of the house is typically a Knight at this time)
Head of House: Gauvain Tarris
Predecessor: Dougal Tarris
Heir: Talina Fairmount (Sister)
MILITARY
Military Emphasis: Archers
Cavalry: 0 Men-at-Arms: 5 Archers: 20

Overview

The House of Tarris is a loyal Banner of the House Lohstren. Nestled along a stony shore, the House's holding of Griffon Point is both a defensive structure and a Village with out lying farms that see to some of the small village's needs. The Village itself is modest, and spread out around a large defensive tower at it's center. It boasts an Inn (The Griffon's Roost,) a Tavern (The Perky Porpoise,) a smithy, and a chapel to the Four. Just on the outskirts is a modest graveyard where the dead are laid to rest, including a decorated cairn where the members of Tarris are laid to rest.
The house itself is run by the Lady Felicty Tarris, though the current head of the household is her son, Sir Gauvain Tarris. The Lady Felicty oversees the day to day running of the lands of Griffon Point while her son moves about handling affairs outside of their holdings. These day to day events are things such as managing the harvest rotations, seeing there is plenty of food, paying tithes to both the Temple and their liege lords, and handling internal disputes as well as making sure the Queen's Peace is kept within the village. To help her with the law keeping, she has four men who act as peace keepers and keep a watchful eye out for any bandits, as well as break up the occasional dispute in the Porpoise.
Defensively, the Village is watched over by a great Tower called The Point. When he returned from the Corsair War, Sir Gauvain had a wall of timber built around the central portion of the town, encompassing the Tower, the Inn, the Tavern, the stables and the chapel. Since the raids of the Corsair war it is customary to maintain at least one person at the top of the tower watching the surroundings, and this is done at all hours of the day and night. In case of an attack, the population can be ushered inside the walls and a defense can be mounted from the tower and the tops of the walls.
Griffon Point has several farms that see to feeding to the populace, which include cows and chicken for meat and wheat for bread making. One the farms has a mill that crosses a stream called simply "the Stream" by the populace, where the farmers all bring their wheat for milling. One of the decrees made by the first Lord of the house was that each Farm was to maintain at minimum two horses for breeding purposes and encouraged the farmers to breed their stock together. This was mainly due to his Lohstren tradition, but the idea has continued though many of the horses and stock were killed, stolen, or purchased during the Corsair War. Today there are about a dozen breeding mares, and the same in stallions. The House itself owns a further six Stallions, and five mares. To maintain this tradition one of the Farmers has been raised as Master of Horse and oversees that breeding is done fairly done among the other farmers, and maintains the Tarris Family's own stock.

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(Griffon Point, as seen from offshore)

History & Culture

The house of Tarris, a vassel to the great house of Lohstren is actually a new household. Given over to a cousin of a cousin of the head of the Lohstren line. The man, Bastard born to a woman, was honored when as a Squire he saved a highborn Lady's life and was gifted with his own small fort, a few farmers, and the men to make tower and keep the commoner's there in the farms protected. This was three generations ago. The man was Sir Castus Tarris, who married a young woman named Cecilia. They built the tower in the central heart of a tiny farming and fishing village, and the house has slowly grown since then.
During the Corsair War, Griffon Point found itself the subject of two small Raids, and one major raid. The two smaller raids, consisting of only a few dozen Corsairs were repelled easily, the second one while the Lord at the time, Sir Dougal Tarris was away in the war. The defense was led by his wife, the Lady Felicty Tarris who organized a Village Militia once the raider's vessel was spotted. The large raid, consisting of one hundred and fifty raiders happened five years later. The now permanent Village Militia, which consisted of farmers who kept some form of weapon handy, mostly consisting of spears and hunting bows, was then led by Sir Dougal Tarris, and augmented by a second Knight, that of his son Gauvain Tarris. The raiders first besieged the town, harassing the edges in little probing attacks, but after four days they tried to sack the village and charged in. The fighting lasted for most of that fourth day, but the defenders of Griffon Point managed to repel the invaders at the cost of around half the Militia's lives. Including the liege lord, Sir Dougal's.
Since that time, Sir Gauvain Tarris has been the Lord of the Point, and has done much to see to both the Village's defense as well as repairing what damage was done to the village and the surrounding countryside. But even given that is has been seventeen years since the battle, the village is only just now starting to fill up again as that second generation has grown and begun to have children of their own.

Current Members

Lady Felicty Tarris (NPC) — The Lady mother of Gauvain, Talina and Caterina, Felicty is the current Steward of Griffon Point while Gauvain is away.
Sir Gauvain Tarris — A knight, and ruler of Griffon Point.
Squire Bethany Ashdown (NPC) — Gauvain's bastard born daughter and Squire, she has been brought up as if noble born, but is well aware of her station.
Caterina Tarris — The youngest daughter of Sir Dougal and Lady Felicity. (In CG)

Political Relations

Family Tree

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