House Swann

We Do Not Fight For Victory
We Fight So That Others May Be FreeLa Liberté Ne Pas La Victoire

Home
The History
Into Nobility
Present Day
Notable Faces
Gallery

The History of The Swann

The history of the Swann name goes back before the start of the Dragonsong War. An Elezen family that started deep in the mountain range of Abalathia, the Swanns were not of noble blood. Farmers and fur traders, they were known for their strength which in certain generations seemed almost unnatural.
This fact alone is why they were recruited with gusto as soldiers when the war against the dragons started. Their lands were far from easy to protect and were one of the first places razed by the dragons and their kin. With no lands to call their own, there was not much choice left for a Swann other than to join in the fighting. Perhaps one day they could claim their lands once more.
Skilled atop a chocobo after years of handling the beasts, it soon became their calling-card. A Swann soldier atop a chocobo was a force to be reckoned with. Spears and claymores their weapons of choice, if unseated they would fight side-by-side with their feathered companions who fought just as fiercely as their rider. With such prowess in combat, many Swanns picked up their lances and donned the armor of the early Dragoons. It was this honor that allowed them to once again reclaim their lands and start anew.
And start over they did. They started breeding their own chocobos, hefty and stalwart beasts twice the size of the average chocobo and twice as vicious. They quickly because known as a Swannbo, as the only people capable of handling such a beast were the Swanns that rode them into battle.

For nearly nine-hundred years, the Swanns continued to fight. Even after they reclaimed their lands and started tilling the fields and breeding war chocobos, they continued the tradition of sending their sons and daughters with the fortitude and, unnatural, strength to fight. As the war raged on, fewer and fewer took on the mantle of Dragoon. A strange development within the family lineage had started to take root and the appearance of many Hyuran spouses and half-breed children started to 'dilute' the pure Elezen genes. While this did little to cull that unnatural strength in their fighters, it did cause many to look down on them as 'unpure' and more 'mongrel' than knight.
And so the Swanns started to dress in armor from head to toe. One could not be shunned by another if they could not tell if someone were man or woman, elezen, hyur, or half. Even if discovered, the pride of having your life saved by a Swann tended to seal lips and shut down unsavory rumors.

Home
The History
Into Nobility
Present Day
Notable Faces
Gallery

The Noble Swann

The last one-hundred years of the Swann Legacy has seen the most change to the family name. The last three generations, having lost nearly all of the Elezen ancestry, were lead by hyuran patriarchs. Khorgrim Swann was the first to earn rank within the nobility. A Dragoon, he slew so many of the scalekin that it would have been impossible to deny him the lowest rank of nobility. Even if any tried, he roared with challenge and defeated any and all who tried to deny him and his family the rights they felt earned after nearly a millennium of fighting and sacrifice. He was succeeded by his son, Vaan Swann after falling in battle against a horde of wyvern and kin.
Unlike his father, Vaan was not a fighter. He was brilliant when it came to coin...and, unfortunately, women. For every fortune he made in trade and every discovery made from relics of wonder and near priceless value, he swooned and wooed in equal. Even after he was married for political gain, he could not abandon the game of coin and bed. It is rumored that the brilliant scoundrel sired more than a dozen offspring; none of which have come to claim any sort of rights, which is why the number is only a rumor.

Save for one.
Vaan had developed a reputation, however during his adventures to discover treasure, there was always one group he hired to travel with him. Within that group was a half-elezen woman and she traveled with him on more adventures than not. While still unable to give up his love of the 'chase', this one adventurer was someone he always went back to.
It was her child he brought back to Ishgard one day, begging and pleading with his wife to allow the child to stay. Caerae Swann, Vaan's wife, was not a cruel woman. Despite her husband's unfaithful ways, she could not put the blame on the child and agreed to take him in.
The illegitimate child.
Many assumed the Swanns had just taken the child in to save face and wait until Lord Vaan and Lady Caerae finally had a child of their own, but even with their best efforts, no true heir ever arrived. Perhaps because of those rumors, as the bastard child grew, it became more apparent that Lady Swann could not control him. A 'wild and rebellious' creature, it got to the point were both Lord and Lady shipped the ten-year old child out of the city to live with his step-uncle. It was there that the child vanished and the Swanns continued as if the pass ten years never happened. Their wealth grew and Lord Swann was even able to gain more land to grow the ranches they bred chocobos on. The bastard child was forgotten.

Home
The History
Into Nobility
Present Day
Notable Faces
Gallery

The Modern Swann

The Calamity
No one left the destruction and change unscathed and that included the Swanns. Over 75% of their lands froze solid and all of their ranchers and farmers in the Spine had to retreat south or suffer a slow starvation. They were able to be relocated, however most of the farmers and ranchers had to give up their peaceful trade for the life of a soldier.
It was during this time that the long forgotten bastard child resurfaced. Nivaar Greystone had been tricked and manipulated into the military at the young age of twelve, two years after he was kicked out of his home and name. Now a young man, he was a hardened warrior and despite the treatment for being a bastard and of mixed blood, he refused to accept his station. Battle after battle, he clawed his way through the Dragonsong War and forced his way back into his family's attention.
The Lord and Lady Swann had noticed the estranged child. Unfortunately, they still had not been able to have their own child and as they watched Nivaar join the Ishgardians following Lord Commander Aymeric to help in the Liberation of Ala Mhigo, they made a controversial choice.

During the fighting in Ala Mhigo, the Lord and Lady Swann went through the steps to return Nivaar to their name, allowing him to once again be Nivaar Swann. Whether it was out of regret and guilt, worry the name would die when they did, or something different, the Swanns defended their choice against any who spoke up with the familiar strength the Swanns use to have.
With the timing only Halone herself could have made perfect; the ink had barely dried before the Swanns received grave news. Ala Mhigo had been freed, but on the return trip back home, Nivaar and his unit had been ambushed. The entire unit was wiped out and Nivaar was terribly wounded. So badly that it took the young man nearly two years to be able to return back to Ishgard. During those two years, in what could only be seen as guilt, Lord Swann's health drastically declined. Despite the efforts of his wife and the return of his son at the end of those years, the Lord's health only continued to fall.Then to everyone's surprise, Lady Swann announced she was four months pregnant.

As Lord Swann's condition showed no signs of ever getting better, Nivaar and Lady Swann went back into their confrontational ways. Having finally taken his place back within the family, it looked to be three or four months before it would all be taken away again. And Lady Swann swore it would be so, as soon as her child was born.
With more perfect timing, two years ago to the day, the Swann Estate caught fire. During the time, Nivaar had been attending Silvergrace Academy and Lady Swann had been away visiting family to help with the pregnancy. Lord Swann was the only victim to the flames that consumed more than half of the estate. A tense investigation started and despite Lady Swann's accusations that it was Nivaar who had started the fire, there was no evidence that the son was anywhere near Ishgard during that time. He even allowed the investigation to turn his life inside and out without hesitation or intervention. It was during this time that Lady Swann gave birth seven weeks before she was due and once she and the baby were deemed healthy...she vanished to the East.
Once again Nivaar was put under investigation for the Lady's sudden disappearance and once again no evidence was found. With no one left to claim the House Nivaar stepped in as Regent-Lord and after a time and many hoops jumped through, he was able to take his place as the current Lord of House Swann. The youngest Swann patriarch in the family history at only twenty summers.