What do you think of this archetype for a fantasy story? It is only a side story and not part of the larger plot, but something witnessed by a wayward member of House Black when he returns home to convince the king not to go to war against the kingdom that he was made "ambassador" too (a spy). He has since become loyal to the country and become the princess's (now queen) swornsword.
Jaycen Black, the character, is one of several characters in the story.
So there is a kingdom known as Albus (located in the mountains of the same name, equivalent to the Alps) ruled by House Siegfried from the city of Highgate.
The Siegfrieds are at odds with another house, the Blacks, who believe that the throne is theirs by right (the houses are both splinter groups of a long gone ancient house).
The Blacks decided to make a "peace offering" with the Siegfrieds by marrying Isabella Black to the king (a Siegfried) as to unite the houses. Basically, like all of the Siegfrieds (except for maybe the younger generations), the king is a jerk who is awfully abusive to Isabella who, being in her early twenties by now, devising a scheme of her own, has a mutual affair with a distant cousin of hers, a lesser member of House Black, who is in his mid teens or so, and gives birth to a son, whom is thought by everyone to be a Siegfried.
When the son is somewhere between the ages of 12 and 16, the Blacks arrange for an assassination of the king and his death is blamed on another house that was once allied with the Siegfrieds, and the war is costly for the ruling house, but it really gives the Blacks an opportunity to gain more political influence in the kingdom while the Siegfrieds are fighting the war, which was truly orchestrated to weaken both houses.
About a year later, when the prince comes of age, the Siegfrieds and the Blacks plan his coronation ceremony, held in the Highgate cathedral, and they also agree to invite the warring house to attend to "settle differences", along with another house that is a strong supporter of House Black, filling the cathedral with hundreds of people, many of them being the Siegfrieds (literally all the Siegfrieds are there, including the children). A suspicious number of Black guards and those of the other two houses are there, heavily outnumbering the small amount of Siegfried soldiers.
The bishop then pronounces the prince "King Black" and everyone becomes very shocked, most of them being the Siegfrieds, but quite a few people from the other houses seem like it is expected.
So basically the Blacks, the house that they manipulated, and the other house end up slaughtering all of the Siegfrieds (ALL of them), except for the new king, who is led out of the cathedral moments before the bloodbath begins (amidst the confusion of his being pronounced a Black).
When it is over the Queen then tells him that the Siegfrieds were planning to kill him and that he must renounce them as being his house, and so he pronounces himself a Black.
I originally was planning on calling this event "Black Sunday", not even realizing that it was orchestrated by House Black. Once I realized, I figured that it is even more appropriate...
Does this sound too much like the Red Wedding? I knew about the RW, or at least heard about it, but I came up with this idea before I started reading ASoIaF. I based it off of two historical events.
Believe it or not I modeled the massacre after the "Black Banquet" (where I got "Black Sunday" from) of 1440 and the Glencoe Massacre of 1691. I also added a little bit of Order Sixty-six too because one of the orchestrators is a warlock working for like one of the six evil factions (I also have a tragic hero who is the son of the pope/priest king figure lead his men to investigate a blight, but he returns as a conqueror, which is based around another Scottish legend that actually inspired Arthas's fall and possibly Anakin's and Revan's, but I don't know about the last two). You do not find out he is a conqueror until probably a later book, if I even decide to do that since it would be cool to just leave book one on a false cliffhangar, but people would probably think of me as a jerk if I don't write a sequel, but it is too early and idealistic to think of a sequel. Plus I am a cynic, so I try to be as un-idealistic as possible.
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