House Halad is the family of the current soverign of Keledon, Queen Heulyn II, and the six preceeding kings of
The Standard of House Halad.
the realm. The house has a noble history; although it is not as old as some of the other Great Houses of Keledon its blood line reaches back to the legendary first king of the land, Sothar.
History in Brief - To the Throne[]
The Halads were a family long settled within the southern reaches of Kingsland, near the town of Hawksbridge. In their past they had recieved noble blood; one of the early progenitors of the line was a cousin of Sothar, from his own Huailo clan. The Halads remained loyal supporters of the crown until the rebellion of 1299 AS; their support of the ultimately deposed Alfor I led to their flight south from the capital and into Gathenshire, where they hid and, eventually, began to work the land alongside their neighbours. Memory of their origins was carried on within the family.
In 1498 AS, during the reign of King Gendar I, Rath Halad (the last son of the line) was conscripted into military service when the Akarythan king, Felar III, staged an invasion of Keledon. In battle near Kaylis, in North Avendur, Prince Sern (the heir presumptive) was surrounded when the tide of combat suddenly turned. Seeing the distress of the Prince, Rath rallied the footmen around him and struck out at the Akarythan cavalry. In saving the prince, Rath earned not only his thanks but a knighthood as well. The two remained friends for the remainder of their lives; once Sern came to the throne as King Seithr II Rath became Captain of the King's Guard.
Toward the end of his life, when he had taken to his sickbed, Rath called for the king, who came to see his old friend. There, Rath revealed the truth of his lineage to his old friend, begging the pardon of the Royal House for the past misdeeds of his own. The pardon granted, Rath died.
Rath's firstborn son, Koruth, was trained from his youth as a squire, and later became a knight in his own right. He was raised as close friends with the young Prince Gendar, who would later sit the throne as the second king of that name. On Koruth's twenty-fifth birthday Gendar II restored the traditional lands of House Halad, and raised them again to the nobility. He also increased the rank of the family, from Earl to First Earl. Finally, he took as wife Gendar's sister and united the blood of the two Houses.
When the great-grandson of Gendar II, Gendar III came to his own deathbed in 1672 AS he had no surviving children and named his nephew, Tharun Halad, as his heir. Thus, as Gendar IV ('The Venerable'), the first king of House Halad sat the throne of Keledon.