House Gardener

House Gardener was the ruling house of the Reach, led at the time of Aegon the Conqueror’s invasion by Mern IX. Its power was displayed in the enormous host Mern brought against Aegon, but the Field of Fire destroyed the king and his dynasty in a single battle. When Mern’s last surviving nephew died of his burns, House Gardener came to an end.

Rule of the Reach and the Two Kings

Mern IX rode north from Highgarden with a mighty army to join Loren I Lannister, King of the Rock. The two kings met beneath the walls of Castle Goldengrove, seat of House Rowan, and formed a common cause against Aegon. Together they commanded the greatest host seen in Westeros: 55,000 men, including about 600 lords and more than 5,000 mounted knights. Mern’s four sons rode beside him, and his two young grandsons attended him as squires.

The size of the allied force was itself a logistical burden. It could not linger without stripping the surrounding countryside bare, so the kings marched north by northeast through tall grasses and golden wheat fields. Mern claimed the honor of commanding the center, since his army was half again as large as Loren’s. His son and heir Edmund led the vanguard, placing the Gardener succession directly within the army’s battle line.

The Field of Fire

Aegon met the two kings with a smaller force, much of it made up of riverlords whose loyalty to House Targaryen was new and untested. Mern’s army advanced beneath a sea of banners, with the Gardener king at its center on a golden stallion. His son Gawen rode beside him carrying the house’s banner, a great green hand on a white field.

The allied charge broke through Aegon’s spearmen, but the Targaryen dragons turned the dry landscape into a weapon. Aegon attacked from above on Balerion, while Rhaenys and Visenya set fires behind and upwind of the advancing army. Wind drove smoke into the soldiers’ faces; frightened mounts and blinded riders lost formation as walls of fire closed around them. The men of Lord Jon Mooton, positioned safely upwind, struck down those who staggered out of the flames. The battle became known as the Field of Fire.

Extinction and Aftermath

The losses were catastrophic. More than 4,000 men died in the flames, another 1,000 were killed by weapons, and tens of thousands suffered burns, some permanently scarring. Mern died with his sons, grandsons, brothers, cousins, and other kin. One nephew survived for three days before dying of his burns; with him, the last of House Gardener died.

Loren Lannister survived and submitted to Aegon the next day, laying down his sword and crown. Aegon restored him to his lands and lordship, and many surviving lords of the Reach followed Loren’s example. House Gardener’s extinction thus removed the ruling dynasty of the Reach at the decisive moment of conquest: its defeat did not merely settle a battle, but broke the political order that had gathered the western kings against Aegon.