House Words Wednesdays: House Paege

Greetings, everyone!

I have started a feature on the Tumblr called House Words Wednesdays. Each week, I take a House without known canon or semi-canon words and present what I think could make sense as that House’s motto. You’re free to suggest more as well, if your favored House has not yet been suggested; take a look at this link to see what has already been suggested, and shoot me a tweet or ask through Tumblr if you have another House you’d like to see.



So I have kind of - eh, I don’t know, weird words for House Paege. Listen, I - I try really hard with this stuff. I do the best I can when it comes to coming up with words for these Houses. I feel like I do, an alright job, at least. But man, I had nothing for the Paeges; not a goddamn thing. I don’t remember who requested the Paeges, if I even knew, but - well, you’re going to take what you get here, because I am fresh out of ideas and this is about the best thing I came up with for the landed knights of the Riverlands.

Usually I describe the House and then work toward the words, but today’s entry is going to work backwards. The Paege words I came up with are Thus Are We Bound, and to start explaining let’s go to the sigil. The Paeges blazon their shields with twining red-and-white snakes, on a black field. When I first saw this, I thought of the caduceus - the staff with the twining snakes and wings that you see so often (and inaccurately) associated with the medical field; one of the stories behind the formation of the caduceus was that the god Hermes, coming across two snakes battling one another, created peace by separating them with his wand. But unlike Hermes’ caduceus, the snakes on the Paege sigil are not wrapped around some staff. That to me suggests that the Paege snakes are still, if not combatant, at least bound up in one another’s affairs.

Indeed, the Paeges, while not leaders among the riverlords (unsurprisingly, given their status as mere landed knights), have often been bound up in the political affairs of their neighbors. They joined the Goodbrooks and Vyprens in throwing their lot behind Harwyn Hoare when he invaded the Riverlands, and joined the Shawneys and Freys (among other lords) in the Whitewalls Tourney that was supposed to kickstart the Second Blackfyre Rebellion. I took these words as sort of an acknowledgement that, where you’ll find a handful of ambitious riverlords, you’ll likely find the Paeges, bound up in the actions and ambitions of their neighbors.

At the same time, these Paege words also can reflect the loyalty Paeges have shown. They seem to be pretty stalwart bannermen of the Tullys of Riverrun. Ser Robert Paege, for one, is a companion and friend of young Edmure Tully, and even though the Paeges renewed their fealty to the Iron Throne at the end of the War of the Five Kings, Jaime noticed that their banners were absent from the force of riverlords besieging Riverrun. “Thus are they bound” to their overlords, in loyalty and friendship; as the twinned snakes cannot be separated, so the Paeges cannot be separated from their lieges.



Let me know what you think, because for the love of R’hllor if you have better words for the Paeges I want to know. Another P-House next week, though that one’s a good deal more powerful - well, once - and a hell of a lot more haughty than the Paeges.

The Queen Regent (NFriel)