The Great Upstart Lord
In a fracturing kingdom where royal power wanes and ambitious dukes maneuver for advantage, fifteen-year-old Ramis Mervyn carries the weight of a name that once commanded respect. His family, ancient barons of the North, were once Dukes who ruled vast territories with armies of knights. Now they travel to the capital's grand celebrations in a farmer's wagon with twelve men in rusted mail, their silver reduced to a single clasp, their pride all that remains of former glory.
The occasion is Princess Arielle's coming-of-age ceremony—a week-long festival that draws every noble house in the realm. But beneath the pageantry, a succession crisis brews. King Aldric III, weak and indecisive, has four sons and no chosen heir. The kingdom's three dukes are already choosing sides: Duke Aldren of the South backs the eldest prince and tradition; Duke Marric of the West supports his warrior friend Prince Lorian; Duke Corvan of the East plays kingmaker through his daughter's marriage to the crown prince. Each faction schemes and maneuvers, while the North—fractured into squabbling counties and baronies with no duke to unite them—becomes the prize that could tip the balance of power.
For Ramis, the celebration becomes a crucible. When a newly-risen count's wife publicly humiliates his mother, mocking the Mervyns' fall from grace, he faces his first true test. Defend his family's honor and risk making powerful enemies, or swallow the insult and accept their diminished place in the world. His choice—to stand up with both courage and calculated intelligence—sets in motion a chain of events that will either restore his house or complete its ruin.
In the tournament's squire lists, Ramis defeats the count's arrogant son through tactical brilliance rather than superior equipment, announcing to the assembled nobility that the Mervyn heir is more than a relic of faded glory. But instead of savoring his victory, he makes a move that surprises everyone: a public apology that demonstrates political wisdom beyond his years, winning admiration from older nobles while binding his enemies' hands.
By the festival's end, Ramis has gained something more valuable than gold—the attention of Duke Aldren, the recognition of a prince, and a clear understanding of the fracturing kingdom's power dynamics. He returns to the North with a dangerous gift: opportunity born of chaos.
But Ramis is just one player in a realm of many. Great Upstart Lord follows multiple protagonists through shifting perspectives as they navigate a kingdom tearing itself apart. A bastard-born hedge knight seeks to rise through merit in a world that values blood above skill. A princess realizes she's more than a marriage pawn in her brothers' games. A prince discovers that the throne he desires may cost him everything he values. Each character's ambitions collide and intertwine as the succession crisis deepens and old alliances crumble.
In the North, where no duke has ruled for generations, Ramis begins the patient, ruthless work of consolidation. Through strategic marriages, military brilliance against bandits and rivals, and the calculated manipulation of the region's fractured nobility, he starts building power from nothing. Every alliance is a gamble. Every victory breeds new enemies. Every step toward restoring his house pushes the kingdom closer to civil war.
This is a story of ambition and consequence, where clever young nobles discover that rising in a world of entrenched power requires more than intelligence—it demands the willingness to break conventions, betray expectations, and risk everything on a single throw of the dice. It's a tale of political intrigue and brutal warfare, of marriages made for advantage and battles won through cunning, set in a gritty medieval world without magic where only steel, gold, and ruthless ambition determine who rises and who falls.
The game of thrones has many players. Ramis Mervyn is determined to be more than a piece on the board.
