Houses & lineages¶

Dynasties, cadet branches, great families and the Teutonic Order as an institution, with heraldry and genealogy.

Labels. [Historical record] is attested in the sources or standard scholarship; [The saga’s invention] was made for this series.

Martin rule for this page. Every house has a seat (what it holds), a grievance (what it lost), a marriage web (whom it is bound to) and a patron or burden (which Force feeds on it). Political scenes should touch at least two of the four.

1. The Gediminids (Gediminaičiai)¶

1.1 The family tree¶

Read it top to bottom: a dotted line is a marriage (⚭), a solid arrow runs from parent to child. Daughters and minor sons are given selectively; the text tables below are fuller.

graph TD
  GED["Gediminas<br/>c.1275–1341/42"]
  JEW["Jaunė (Jewna)<br/>d. 1344"]
  GED -.-|"⚭"| JEW

  GED --> MANV["Manvydas<br/>d. 1348"]
  GED --> NARI["Narimantas<br/>d. 1348"]
  GED --> ALG["Algirdas<br/>c.1296–1377"]
  GED --> KES["Kęstutis<br/>c.1297–1382"]
  GED --> KARI["Karijotas<br/>d. c.1363"]
  GED --> LIUB["Liubartas<br/>c.1300–1384/85"]
  GED --> JAUN["Jaunutis<br/>c.1300–c.1366"]
  GED --> ALD["Aldona-Ona<br/>d. 1339<br/>⚭ Casimir III of Poland"]
  GED --> AIG["Aigusta-Anastasija<br/>d. 1345<br/>⚭ Simeon of Moscow"]

  %% Algirdas, first marriage
  MARV["Maria of Vitebsk<br/>d. 1346"]
  ALG -.-|"⚭ 1318"| MARV
  ALG --> AND["Andrius of Polotsk<br/>c.1325–1399 (Vorskla)"]
  ALG --> DMI["Dmitrijus of Bryansk<br/>c.1327–1399 (Vorskla)"]
  ALG --> VLA["Vladimiras of Kyiv<br/>d. after 1398"]
  ALG --> KON["Konstantinas"]
  KON --> CZA["Czartoryski princes<br/>Ivan, Aleksander"]
  VLA --> OLE["Olelka of Kyiv<br/>d. 1454"]

  %% Algirdas, second marriage
  ULI["Uliana of Tver<br/>c.1325–1391"]
  ALG -.-|"⚭ 1350"| ULI
  ALG --> JOG["Jogaila / Władysław II<br/>c.1362–1434"]
  ALG --> SKI["Skirgaila / Kazimierz<br/>c.1354–1397"]
  ALG --> KAR["Kaributas / Dmitrijus<br/>d. after 1404"]
  ALG --> LEN["Lengvenis / Simonas<br/>c.1356–1431"]
  ALG --> KRG["Karigaila / Kazimieras<br/>d. 1390"]
  ALG --> VYG["Vygantas / Aleksandras<br/>d. 1392"]
  ALG --> SVI["Švitrigaila / Boleslovas<br/>c.1370–1452"]
  ALG --> KEN["Kenna-Jaunė<br/>d. 1368<br/>⚭ Kazimierz of Pomerania"]
  ALG --> ALE["Aleksandra<br/>d. 1434<br/>⚭ Siemowit IV of Masovia"]
  ALG --> ELE["Elena<br/>⚭ Vladimir of Serpukhov"]
  KAR --> ZKAR["Žygimantas Kaributaitis<br/>c.1395–1435"]

  %% Kęstutis
  BIR["Birutė of Palanga<br/>d. unknown (1382 or later)"]
  KES -.-|"⚭ c.1350"| BIR
  KES --> VAI["Vaidotas"]
  KES --> BUT["Butautas / Henrikas<br/>d. 1380"]
  KES --> VYT["Vytautas / Aleksandras<br/>c.1350–1430"]
  KES --> TAU["Tautvilas / Konradas<br/>d. 1390"]
  KES --> ZYG["Žygimantas<br/>c.1365–1440"]
  KES --> DAN["Danutė<br/>d. 1448<br/>⚭ Janusz I of Masovia"]
  KES --> RIM["Rimgailė<br/>⚭ Henryk of Masovia<br/>⚭ Alexandru of Moldavia"]
  KES --> MIK["Miklausė"]
  ZYG --> MYK["Mykolas Žygimantaitis<br/>d. 1452"]

  %% Vytautas
  ONA["Ona<br/>d. 1418"]
  JUL["Julijona Alšėniškė<br/>⚭ 1418"]
  VYT -.-|"⚭ c.1370"| ONA
  VYT -.-|"⚭ 1418"| JUL
  VYT --> SOF["Sofija<br/>1371–1453<br/>⚭ 1391 Vasily I of Moscow"]
  VYT --> SONS["two sons<br/>d. young, c.1390–92"]
  SOF --> VAS2["Vasily II of Moscow<br/>1415–1462"]
  SOF --> ANNA["Anna<br/>1393–1417<br/>⚭ John VIII Palaiologos"]
  SOF --> ANAS["Anastasija<br/>⚭ Olelka of Kyiv"]

  %% Jogaila
  JAD["Jadwiga of Anjou<br/>1373/74–1399"]
  ANC["Anna of Celje<br/>c.1380–1416"]
  ELG["Elżbieta Granowska<br/>c.1372–1420"]
  SOH["Sophia of Halshany<br/>c.1405–1461"]
  JOG -.-|"⚭ 1386"| JAD
  JOG -.-|"⚭ 1402"| ANC
  JOG -.-|"⚭ 1417"| ELG
  JOG -.-|"⚭ 1422"| SOH
  JOG --> EB["Elżbieta Bonifacja<br/>Jun–Jul 1399"]
  JOG --> JADY["Jadwiga<br/>1408–1431"]
  JOG --> W3["Władysław III<br/>1424–1444 (Varna)"]
  JOG --> KAZ["Kazimierz<br/>1426–1427"]
  JOG --> C4["Casimir IV / Kazimieras<br/>1427–1492"]

1.2 Gediminas and his children [Historical record]¶

Name	Dates	Seat / role	Notes
Gediminas	c.1275 – winter 1341/42	Grand Duke c.1316; Vilnius	Letters of 1323 to the Pope and the Hanseatic towns; Vilnius first named as capital. Legend (16th-century chronicles): the Iron Wolf dream, read by the priest Lizdeika, founds Vilnius. Wife traditionally Jaunė (Jewna), d. 1344, per the Bychowiec Chronicle; whether he had one wife or several is disputed.
Manvydas	d. 1348	Kernavė, Slonim	Usually listed as eldest. Died in 1348; only a guess ties his death to Strėva (2 Feb 1348), and Book VI keeps him alive in Feb 1348 (circumstances unrecorded).
Narimantas (Gleb)	d. 1348	Pinsk; served Novgorod	Killed at Strėva (2 Feb 1348) in most accounts. The chronology’s “first Amber Debt payment” fits him.
Algirdas	c.1296 – May 1377	Vitebsk, then Vilnius (1345–77)	Grand Duke; the eastern half of the diarchy.
Kęstutis	c.1297 – 15 Aug 1382	Trakai, Samogitia, Grodno	The western half; fifty years of war with the Order.
Karijotas (Mikhail)	d. c.1358–63	Navahrudak	Father of the Karijotaičiai (Koriatovichi) of Podolia.
Liubartas (Dmitry)	c.1300 – 1384/85	Volhynia, Lutsk	Builder of Lutsk castle’s stone phase; son Fedor lost Volhynia in the 1380s–90s.
Jaunutis (Ioann)	c.1300 – c.1366	Vilnius (1341–45), later Zaslavl	Gediminas’s chosen heir, deposed in 1345 by Algirdas and Kęstutis; fled to Moscow and was baptised Orthodox. Ancestor of the Zasławski princes.
Aldona (Ona)	d. 1339	Queen of Poland	⚭ 1325 Casimir III the Great. The first Gediminid–Polish marriage, sixty years before Krėva.
Aigusta (Anastasija)	d. 1345	Grand Princess of Moscow	⚭ 1333 Simeon the Proud.
Other daughters	—	—	Marija ⚭ Dmitry of Tver; Eufemija ⚭ Bolesław-Yuri II of Galicia–Volhynia; Elžbieta ⚭ Wacław of Płock.

[Historical record and the saga’s invention] Algirdas and Kęstutis depose Jaunutis in winter 1344–45. The saga’s invented Silent Pact follows later, in November 1345 (Cosmology §4.1). Jaunutis is the first Gediminid wronged by Gediminids. His descendants, the Zasławski, are Orthodox lords in the east who remember that the Pact began with a brother pushed aside.

1.3 The Algirdaičiai (children of Algirdas)¶

First marriage: Maria of Vitebsk (⚭ 1318, d. 1346). Maria brought Vitebsk as her inheritance. Her sons were raised Orthodox and grew up as Ruthenian princes. They were passed over in 1377 when Algirdas named Uliana’s son Jogaila heir. [Historical record]

Name	Dates	Seat	Arc in the books
Andrius (Andrei)	c.1325 – 12 Aug 1399	Polotsk; Pskov	Refused to accept Jogaila in 1377; sided with Moscow and fought at Kulikovo (1380) against Moscow’s enemies, while Jogaila marched to aid Mamai. Captured by Skirgaila in 1387 and held in Polish custody (Chęciny) until c.1394. Died at the Vorskla fighting for Vytautas.
Dmitrijus (Dmitry)	c.1327 – 12 Aug 1399	Bryansk, Trubchevsk	Went over to Moscow in 1379; at Kulikovo with his brother. Later reconciled; died at the Vorskla.
Vladimiras	d. after 1398	Kyiv	Removed from Kyiv by Vytautas c.1394–95; Kyiv given to Skirgaila. Father of Olelka (Aleksandr), restored to Kyiv in 1440–43.
Konstantinas	d. c.1390	Chartoryisk	Usually treated as ancestor of the Czartoryski princes; some genealogists make him a son of Karijotas.

Second marriage: Uliana (Juliana) of Tver (⚭ 1350, d. c.1391). Uliana was a daughter of Prince Alexander Mikhailovich of Tver (executed at the Horde in 1339), and her sister Maria married Simeon the Proud of Moscow. She was Tver’s woman in Vilnius, and Tver was Moscow’s great rival. Her children were the inner dynasty. [Historical record]

Name (pagan / baptismal)	Dates	Seat(s)	Fate
Jogaila / Jakov (Orthodox, possibly) / Władysław (Catholic, 1386)	c.1362 (selected saga reconstruction; birth year disputed, older view c.1352) – 1 Jun 1434	Vilnius, Krėva, Vitebsk; Kraków	Grand Duke 1377–81, 1382–92 (then overlord); King of Poland 1386–1434. Died at Gródek (Horodok) near Lviv.
Skirgaila / Ivan / Kazimierz (1386)	c.1354 – 11 Jan 1397	Trakai (duke 1382–92; Trakai fell 20 Jul 1382), Polotsk (Apr 1387), Kyiv (1395–97)	Jogaila’s governor (regent) in Lithuania from 13 Mar 1386 (VLE gives 1387–92); lost to Vytautas at Ostrów 1392; died in Kyiv on 11 Jan 1397 (8 Jan in some sources), circumstances unclear; VLE: ill after a hunt, “some sources” poison (no chronicle names a monk; Pachomijus is the saga’s). No known legitimate heirs.
Kaributas / Dmitry	after 1350 – after 1404	Novhorod-Siverskyi	Rebelled against Jogaila in 1382 (the campaign that took Kęstutis away from Vilnius) and against Vytautas in 1393. Father of Žygimantas Kaributaitis (c.1395–1435), Hussite claimant in Bohemia (1422–27), wounded and captured at Pabaiskas, died soon after.
Lengvenis / Simon	c.1356 – 1431	Mstsislaw; prince-for-hire of Novgorod	⚭ Maria, daughter of Dmitry Donskoy of Moscow (1394). The Algirdaičiai brother who married into Moscow after all.
Karigaila / Kazimierz	d. 1390	—	Killed defending Vilnius in 1390 against Vytautas and the Order.
Vygantas / Aleksander	d. 1392	Kernavė	Died suddenly in 1392; some sources hint at poison.
Švitrigaila / Bolesław (1386)	c.1370 – 10 Feb 1452	Vitebsk, Podolia, Chernihiv, Lutsk	Endless rebel: 1393 (Vitebsk), 1402 (with the Order), 1408 (to Moscow); prisoner at Kremenets c.1409–18, freed by a raid led by Dashko Ostrozky; Grand Duke 1430–32; defeated at Pabaiskas 1435; died ruling Volhynia.
Kenna (Joanna)	d. 1368	Pomerania	⚭ 1360 Kazimierz (Kaźko) of Słupsk, grandson of Casimir III.
Elena	d. 1437	Serpukhov	⚭ 1372 Vladimir the Bold of Serpukhov, Dmitry Donskoy’s cousin and a Kulikovo commander.
Aleksandra	d. 1434	Płock	⚭ 1387 Siemowit IV of Masovia, candidate for the Polish throne in 1382–84.
Kotryna (Catherine)	—	Mecklenburg	⚭ 1388 Johann II of Mecklenburg-Stargard.
Other daughters	—	—	Marija, Jadvyga, Vilheida appear in some lists.

Engine. The two marriages of Algirdas made two Algirdaičiai houses: Orthodox elder sons with no inheritance, and younger sons (Uliana’s) with everything. In 1377 Uliana’s party won. In 1440 the dispossessed line takes its revenge: the Czartoryski brothers, descendants of Algirdas’s first marriage (if Konstantinas’s parentage holds), kill Žygimantas Kęstutaitis at Trakai. The first Kęstutaitis to rule was murdered by Uliana’s sons; the last is murdered by Maria’s grandsons.

1.4 The Kęstutaičiai (children of Kęstutis and Birutė)¶

Kęstutis (c.1297 – 15 Aug 1382) married Birutė of Palanga c.1350 (traditional dating). Whether all his children were hers is unknown. The eldest sons, Vaidotas and Butautas, were adults by the 1360s, which fits a c.1350 marriage only barely. Some historians suggest an earlier wife. The saga treats all of them as Birutė’s.

Name (pagan / baptismal)	Dates	Seat	Fate
Vaidotas	fl. 1362	Kaunas	Defended Kaunas when the Order destroyed it at Easter 1362; captured. Disappears from the record.
Butautas / Henrikas (Heinrich)	d. 1380	—	Plotted in summer 1365 against Algirdas and Kęstutis jointly (while Kęstutis was in Volhynia), fled to the Order and was baptised; died at Prague, 7 May 1380. The first Kęstutaitis traitor.
Vytautas / Wigand (1383) / Aleksandras (1386)	c.1350 – 27 Oct 1430	Grodno, Brest, Podlasie (1384); Trakai (1392); Vilnius (as Grand Duke)	Grand Duke 1392–1430. Born, by tradition, at Senieji Trakai. Died at Trakai.
Tautvilas / Konrad	d. 1390	—	Killed at the siege of Vilnius, 1390, fighting on the Order’s side (baptised Kondrat, 21 Oct 1383), “believed killed by a crossbow bolt” (Wigand) while besieging the Crooked Castle. Same siege, same walls, same year as Karigaila on the other side.
Žygimantas / Sigismund	c.1365 – 20 Mar 1440	Starodub; Trakai	Hostage of the Order 1390–98 (binding decision, after pl.wikipedia: Jan 1390; VLE says 1389–98; in 1382–84 he was Jogaila’s prisoner; freed after Salynas); Grand Duke 1432–40; assassinated at Trakai on Palm Sunday 1440. Son Mykolas Žygimantaitis (commander at Pabaiskas 1435; pretender after 1440; captured, d. in Moscow shortly before 10 Feb 1452, poisoning suspected).
Danutė (baptismal name Anna/Ona in some sources; the saga uses only ‘Danutė’ to avoid confusion with Vytautas’s wife)	c.1358 – 1448	Warsaw, Czersk	⚭ c.1373 Janusz I of Masovia. Vytautas’s refuge after Krėva (late 1382).
Rimgailė / Elžbieta	d. 1423	Płock; Suceava	⚭ 1392 Henryk of Masovia (bishop-elect of Płock, Jogaila’s envoy at Ostrów), who died within a year; ⚭ c.1419 Alexandru the Good of Moldavia.
Miklausė / Anna	—	—	Married a Masovian or Ruthenian prince.
Others	—	—	Patirgas and other sons appear in some genealogies.

1.5 Vytautas and Ona¶

Ona (Anna). Married Vytautas c.1370. Her parentage is unknown. One hypothesis makes her a princess of Smolensk, another a daughter of a Lithuanian boyar house. Died 1418 at Trakai. She organised the Krėva escape of autumn 1382, in which her maid (Elena) stayed in Vytautas’s bed and was executed. Hostage of the Order in 1383–84 (saga) and, in the record, from the Treaty of Lyck (19 Jan 1390); the Order freed her in May 1392 to spread pro-Lithuanian rumours; she confirmed Ostrów in two letters. Born c. 1350–52 (the record has no date; Book IV’s ch. 9 makes her 66 in 1418).
Sofija (1371 – 1453). Betrothed to Vasily Dmitrievich of Moscow. By tradition the match was made when Vasily escaped from the Horde in 1386–87 and passed through Lithuanian lands. Married 9 Jan 1391. Grand Princess of Moscow 1391–1425; regent for her son Vasily II from 1425 in the Muscovite civil war. Her children include Vasily II the Blind (1415–62), Anna (1393–1417), who married the Byzantine heir John VIII Palaiologos in 1411 and died of plague, and Anastasija, who married Olelka of Kyiv, so Vytautas’s granddaughter married Algirdas’s great-grandson.
The sons: a CONTESTED tradition. Sofija is the only child of Vytautas in the record. The late tradition (Simon Grunau, 16th c.) says that two young sons, Iwan and Georg (Jurgis and Ivanas: the names are the tradition’s, not the saga’s), were poisoned by a knight while hostages of the Order, as revenge for the betrayal (after the break, before Ostrów, summer 1392). en.wikipedia (Jonynas 1984) calls it a false rumour; Vytautas’s letters never accuse the Order of it; a “Jurgis and Jonas” on the 1390–92 hostage list were kinsmen who came back alive. The saga adopts the tradition and says so in Book II’s afterword.
Second wife: Julijona Alšėniškė (Uliana Olshanska), ⚭ 13 Nov 1418 at Grodno (en.wikipedia; VLE: “before Christmas 1418”), daughter of Prince Ivan of Halshany (Alšėnai). No children.

Consequence [Historical record]. Vytautas died with no male heir. His blood survived only in Moscow: his grandson Vasily II. Vasily I’s testament (1423) placed the boy under Vytautas’s protection. The Kęstutaičiai line that the Order tried to wipe out ends up on the Muscovite throne, which is the bitterest irony in the series.

1.6 Jogaila’s wives and heirs [Historical record]¶

Wife	Dates	Marriage	Children	Notes
Jadwiga of Anjou	1373/74 – 17 Jul 1399	18 Feb 1386, Kraków	Elżbieta Bonifacja (22 Jun – 13 Jul 1399)	Crowned rex 16 Oct 1384. Daughter of Louis I of Hungary and Elizabeth of Bosnia; betrothed as a child to Wilhelm of Habsburg. Her death left Jogaila’s Polish title legally exposed. Canonised 1997.
Anna of Celje (Cilli)	c.1380/81 – 21 May 1416	29 Jan 1402	Jadwiga (8 Apr 1408 – 8 Dec 1431)	Granddaughter of Casimir III through her mother, chosen to give Jogaila Piast legitimacy. Cousin, by the Celje line, of Barbara of Celje, wife of Sigismund of Luxembourg.
Elżbieta Granowska (of Pilica)	c.1372 – 12 May 1420	2 May 1417	none	Thrice-married, older than custom liked; her mother is said to have been Jogaila’s godmother, a scandal of spiritual kinship. The lords hated the match.
Sophia of Halshany (Sonka)	c.1405 – 21 Sep 1461	7 Feb 1422	Władysław III (31 Oct 1424 – 10 Nov 1444), Kazimierz (1426–27), Casimir IV (30 Nov 1427 – 7 Jun 1492)	Proposed by Vytautas. Accused of adultery (1427), purged herself by oath. Her sons’ succession was bought from the Polish lords with privileges (Jedlnia 1430, Kraków 1433).

Jadwiga (1408–31), Anna of Celje’s daughter, was Jogaila’s only heir for fifteen years and was betrothed to Frederick of Brandenburg (Hohenzollern). Her death in 1431 was rumoured to be poison, blamed by gossips on Sophia.
Władysław III became King of Poland in 1434 and of Hungary in 1440, and was killed at Varna in 1444.
Casimir IV was elected Grand Duke of Lithuania on 29 June 1440, aged 12, by the Lithuanian council against Polish wishes, and crowned King of Poland on 25 June 1447. He is the founder of the Jagiellonian golden age.

The Shadow-Seller’s letter (Magic rules §8) [The saga’s invention]: Jogaila’s 1382 bargain was that his line inherits the crown and loses the land. Read the table above that way. Four wives, and the sons come only from the last, a Ruthenian girl of seventeen. Those sons rule Poland, Hungary and Bohemia, and the Grand Duchy becomes a province of their house.

1.7 The lesser Gediminid branches¶

Branch	Founder	Lands	Role in the books
Karijotaičiai (Koriatovichi)	Karijotas	Podolia	The brothers Yuri, Aleksandr, Konstantin and Fedor ruled Podolia. Vytautas expelled Fedor in 1393–94, and Podolia became a Polish–Lithuanian bone of contention (the 1430 Podolian crisis).
Liubartaičiai	Liubartas	Volhynia	Fedor Liubartaitis lost Lutsk; Volhynia went to Vytautas and later Švitrigaila.
Narimantaičiai	Narimantas	Pinsk; Novgorod service	Minor princes; serve as border captains.
Jaunutaičiai (Zasławski)	Jaunutis	Zaslavl	Orthodox, eastern, quietly aggrieved (see 1.2).
Olelkaičiai	Vladimiras → Olelka	Kyiv (restored 1440s)	The Kyivan appanage revived under Casimir.
Czartoryski	Konstantinas	Chartoryisk (Volhynia)	The assassins of 1440 (see 2.4).

2. House cards¶

Mottos are [The saga’s invention] unless stated. Heraldry follows the record where it exists and says so where it does not.

A note on Lithuanian heraldry [Historical record]¶

The Vytis (Pogonia, Pogoń): an armed rider charging, sword raised. Mounted-warrior seals appear among the Gediminids in the second half of the 14th century. Which duke used it first is debated (attributions to Algirdas’s era and to Narimantas or Kęstutis circulate). Under Jogaila and Vytautas it becomes the arms of the Grand Duchy. In the 1380s it is a princely seal, not yet a “national” flag.
The Columns (Gediminaičių stulpai): the “Gediminid” name is a 19th-century label. The sign is first attested on Vytautas’s coins and seals in the late 14th century, and is used afterwards by Žygimantas Kęstutaitis. It is plausibly a family tamga (property mark) of the Kęstutaičiai. In the period the Columns are Vytautas’s mark, not Jogaila’s.
The double cross (Jagiellonian cross): appears on Jogaila’s seals after his baptism (1386). It is Jogaila’s personal sign as a Christian king.
Długosz on Grunwald [Historical record]: the Lithuanian banners bore mostly the rider, a minority the Columns.
Horodło 1413 [Historical record]: 47 Catholic Lithuanian boyar families were “adopted” into Polish heraldic clans and took Polish arms (see §3). Before 1413, Lithuanian boyars used house-marks, not Western coats of arms.

Consequence for the books. In Book I (1382–87), no one should wear the Columns as a dynastic blazon on Jogaila’s side. That is an anachronism, and it also inverts the symbolism. The Vytis on a ducal seal or banner is acceptable, with care.

2.1 House of Gediminas (the dynasty as a whole)¶

Seat: Vilnius: the Upper Castle on the hill, the Lower Castle, and the wooden Crooked Castle (burnt 1390). Older seats: Kernavė and Trakai.
Arms: the Vytis [Historical record, with the dating caveats above].
Sigil (saga use): the Iron Wolf howling on the hill [The saga’s invention; the dream itself is Historical record as legend].
Words: Kol staugia vilkas, stovi miestas. “While the wolf howls, the city stands.” [The saga’s invention]
Character: pagan-pragmatic. They marry Orthodox, Catholic and steppe brides, accept baptism when it pays and drop it when it does not. They rule a mostly Ruthenian and Orthodox empire from a pagan Baltic core. Their genius is the appanage: every son gets a city, and every city gets a son who might rebel.
Feuds: Jaunutis against his brothers (1345); Algirdaičiai against Kęstutaičiai (1380–92, 1432–40); the elder Algirdaičiai against the younger (1377–99).
Mythic patron or burden: the Silent Pact (Cosmology §4.1) is sworn by the house, not by one branch. Clause 2, no Gediminid sheds Gediminid blood, binds every branch, which is why every kin-killing in the tree above costs something in the Unbinding.

2.2 The Algirdaičiai of Uliana: Jogaila’s line (the Jogailaičiai)¶

Seats: Vilnius (as Grand Dukes), Krėva (Algirdas’s patrimonial castle; Jogaila’s refuge after 1381 and the prison of 1382), Vitebsk (Uliana’s dower lands), later Kraków (Wawel).
Arms: the Vytis for the Grand Duchy; Jogaila’s personal double cross after 1386 [Historical record]. After 1386 Jogaila quarters the Polish White Eagle with the Vytis on royal seals.
Sigil (saga use): a crow on a crown [The saga’s invention].
Words: Tyla toliau nueina. “Silence goes further.” [The saga’s invention] This echoes the chronicle tradition that Algirdas never told even his captains where an army was marching (record as tradition).
Character: patient, calculating, Orthodox-raised by their mother and Catholic by necessity. They win by waiting. Jogaila outlives every rival: Kęstutis, Skirgaila, Jadwiga, Vytautas. The house’s virtue is endurance; its vice is that it lets others do the killing.
Feuds: Jogaila against Kęstutis (1380–82) and Vytautas (1382–84, 1389–92). Švitrigaila against everyone. Skirgaila’s resentment of Jogaila’s ingratitude. The Uliana sons against Maria’s sons.
Marriage web: Moscow (Lengvenis ⚭ Maria Dmitrievna; Elena ⚭ Serpukhov), Masovia (Aleksandra ⚭ Siemowit IV), Pomerania, Mecklenburg; Jogaila’s four queens (Anjou, Celje–Piast, Pilica, Halshany).
Mythic patron or burden: the Shadow-Seller (Šešėlių Pardavėjas). Jogaila’s 1382 bargain: his line inherits the crown and loses the land (Magic rules §8). The White Silence settles where his baptism is bought (Cosmology §3.3: Vilnius 1382, Krėva 1385). Later, the Gold-Glutton feeds on his heirs’ Polish privileges. The Root-Mother treats him as “a tumour in her side”. [The saga’s invention]

2.3 Skirgaila: “the hand that did the work” (cadet seat)¶

Seats: Trakai (1382, and by Jogaila’s grant after 1384), Polotsk (taken from Andrius, 1387), Kyiv (1395–97) [Historical record].
Arms: used the dynastic rider as Jogaila’s lieutenant.
Sigil (saga use): a mailed fist closing on a chain, the chain that strangled Kęstutis [The saga’s invention].
Words: Darbas nekalba. “The work does not speak.” [The saga’s invention]
Character: the family’s enforcer. Brave in the field (he took Polotsk and defended Vilnius in 1390), feared and drinking, never thanked. Historically he was Jogaila’s most capable lieutenant and the man Polish lords expected to govern Lithuania for the king.
Feuds: with Vytautas (Trakai is the open wound until Ostrów 1392); with Andrius of Polotsk (whom he captured); with Švitrigaila (whom he treats as a child).
Mythic patron or burden: the Shadow-Seller’s second stone. His price was to be used and then discarded (Magic rules §8). Perkūnas’s enmity follows his broken safe-conduct of August 1382 (Power systems §2.6). He dies in Kyiv in 1397 with no heir; the stone drops. [The saga’s invention]

2.4 The elder Algirdaičiai: Maria’s sons, the Orthodox princes¶

Seats: Polotsk (Andrius), Bryansk and Trubchevsk (Dmitrijus), Kyiv (Vladimiras), Chartoryisk (Konstantinas’s heirs).
Arms: the rider on Ruthenian-style princely seals. Orthodox icons and princely signs.
Sigil (saga use): a church dome under a rider [The saga’s invention].
Words: Pirmasis kraujas neužmiršta. “First blood does not forget.” [The saga’s invention]
Character: the first-born, Orthodox and Russian-speaking, with Kyivan Rus’ manners. Loyal to their lands, not to Vilnius. They change sides (Moscow, the Livonian Order, Vytautas) to keep their patrimonies. Yet two of them die for Vytautas at the Vorskla (1399), which shows that the Kęstutaitis cousin treated them better than their half-brother had.
Feuds: Andrius against Jogaila and Skirgaila (1377–87); their descendants against the Kęstutaičiai (the Czartoryski murder of 1440). [The saga’s invention suggestion]: the Steppe-Hunger takes its price from them at the Vorskla; their dvoeverie keeps the domovoi fed even as the gods fall silent.

2.5 Švitrigaila: the storm-bringer¶

Seats: Vitebsk (1390s), Podolia and Chernihiv–Siverian lands, Lutsk (his last seat).
Arms: the rider; as Grand Duke 1430–32 he sealed with the Vytis.
Sigil (saga use): a black horse rearing in lightning [The saga’s invention].
Words: Audra neprašo leidimo. “A storm asks no leave.” [The saga’s invention]
Character: the youngest, Uliana’s favourite, charming to Orthodox princes, Tatars and the Order alike. He rebels in every decade of his long life and dies in his bed at eighty, outliving every brother and cousin. He is the Gediminids’ last pure appanage prince.
Feuds: against Jogaila (1393, 1402, 1430–32); against Vytautas (1408 defection to Moscow; prisoner 1409–18); against Žygimantas Kęstutaitis (the civil war of 1432–38). [The saga’s invention suggestion]: in Book V the Root-Mother’s wolves attack only men carrying “foreign seals” (Book V ch. 11). Švitrigaila promises a “return to the Old GDL”, so the forest may briefly court him, then abandon him at Pabaiskas when his allies prove to be the Livonian Order, the Iron Saint’s own.

2.6 The Kęstutaičiai: Kęstutis’s line¶

Seats: Trakai, which includes Senieji Trakai (Old Trakai, Kęstutis’s early residence), the Peninsula Castle and the Island Castle (begun under Kęstutis, completed by Vytautas in the early 15th century). Also Kaunas (destroyed 1362, rebuilt), Grodno (Vytautas’s seat before 1382 and after 1384), and Samogitia as their sworn charge. [Historical record]
Arms: the Columns (Vytautas’s and Žygimantas’s mark [Historical record, late 14th century onward]); the Vytis as Grand Dukes after 1392.
Sigil (saga use): the boar for Kęstutis (“the Old Boar”, Senasis Šernas, the series’ own epithet); the wolf for Vytautas; amber for Birutė [The saga’s invention].
Words: Duotas žodis nerūdija. “A given word does not rust.” [The saga’s invention] This is grounded in Kęstutis’s real reputation among the Order’s own chroniclers for keeping faith, and ironic because his sons break their word to the Order again and again.
Character: soldiers, oath-swearers, frontiersmen. Western-facing (Prussia, Masovia, the Order) where the Algirdaičiai face east. Kęstutis himself was admired by his enemies; the knights told stories of his escape from Marienburg (1361). His sons inherit the courage, not the honesty.
Feuds: Butautas’s betrayal (1365); Vytautas against Jogaila and Skirgaila; Žygimantas’s paranoia against the boyars and against Švitrigaila (Book V).
Marriage web: Masovia (Danutė ⚭ Janusz I; Rimgailė ⚭ Henryk), Moldavia (Rimgailė’s second marriage), Moscow (Sofija ⚭ Vasily I), Halshany (Julijona).
Mythic patron or burden: the Amber Queen’s line through Birutė, and claimed by Perkūnas (Cosmology §3.2; Magic rules §7), because the feud between Perkūnas and Jūratė is unfinished, and Vytautas is the vessel’s son. The Root-Mother contests the claim (Magic rules §7). The house carries the flame vow (Magic rules §6): while I live, the last fire will not go out. [The saga’s invention]

2.7 Vytautas’s own line¶

Seat: Trakai (Island Castle) and Vilnius; the court at Lutsk for the 1429 congress.
Arms: the Columns on his seals and coins, the Vytis for the state [Historical record].
Sigil (saga use): the Iron Wolf with an amber eye [The saga’s invention].
Words: Kas atsimena, tas valdo. “Who remembers, rules.” [The saga’s invention] This is the Amber Queen’s office of memory turned into politics.
Character: the man of two baptisms (Wigand 1383, Aleksandras 1386) and two defections (1384, 1392). He builds an empire from the Baltic almost to the Black Sea, and dies without a son.
Feuds: with Skirgaila (Trakai); with Švitrigaila (Moscow, Kremenets); with Oleśnicki and the Lesser Poland lords (the crown, Book IV).
Burden: the sons poisoned (1392) as the price of defection. Sofija in Moscow as the only survivor. The flame vow, which costs him the crown in Book IV. [The saga’s invention for the vow; Historical record for the heirlessness]

2.8 The Palanga amber-priestess line (Gintaro vaidilutės) [The saga’s invention]¶

Basis [Historical record]: Birutė’s Palanga origin is a strong Lithuanian tradition (Birutė Hill at Palanga, her legendary role as a vaidilutė guarding a sacred fire). Wigand of Marburg (c. 1394), not Długosz, has Jogaila drown her (en.wikipedia: at Brest, with relatives Vidimantas and Butrimas killed); VLE thinks Kęstutis sent her to Brest in 1382; at Constance (1416) delegates said she lived long and died a natural death; the Palanga burial first appears in Stryjkowski (1582). Her death date is unknown. Everything else below is invention.
Seat: Birutės kalnas (Birutė Hill), its shore flame and the sea-stone (Šventasis akmuo, ch. 11).
Sigil: a drop of amber with a flame inside [The saga’s invention].
Words: Jūra atsimena. “The sea remembers.” [The saga’s invention]
Inheritance: through mothers (Magic rules §2: the gift “usually runs down the maternal line”). Each generation gives one daughter to the shore flame. The line supplies the vessels of the Amber Queen (Cosmology §3.4).
Birutė’s maternal kin: keep them unnamed and few. A grandmother who was a vessel before her (the last “walking” of the Queen before 1384) is the cleanest invention. The chronicle tradition that Birutė’s relatives were killed in 1382 can mean, in the saga, that Jogaila’s men tried to end the line. Birutė is the last vessel: after 1384 the Queen acts only through amber Birutė has touched.
Status after 1387: a remnant of women keeping a hidden fire at Palanga without a vessel. By Book V the statue no longer glows (Book V ch. 25).

3. The great boyar families¶

Period rules. Before Horodło (1413) there are no “magnates” in the Polish sense: there are boyars (bajorai), servitors of the duke, rewarded with land and castles. The great families named below rise through Vytautas’s service and become magnates in the 1430s–40s. Use surnames sparingly before 1413; patronymics (Astikaitis, Valimantaitis) are more authentic.

Family	Founder(s) in our period	Polish arms after Horodło	Role and era
Goštautai (Gasztołd)	Jonas Goštautas (d. 1458)	Abdank	Rises under Vytautas. In the 1430s–40s the leading voice of the Lithuanian council: his role in the 1440 murder of Žygimantas is uncertain (VLE; the killers are recorded as the Czartoryski brothers, Švitrigaila’s partisans); leader of the council that elected Casimir Grand Duke in 1440. Voivode of Trakai, then of Vilnius. Book V’s kingmaker.
Astikai (Ościk)	Kristinas Astikas (fl. 1390s–1430s; d. c.1442–44)	Trąby	Vytautas’s companion. His son Radvila Astikaitis (d. 1477) founds the Radvilos.
Radvilos (Radziwiłł)	Radvila Astikaitis	Trąby	Only beginning in Book V. The Radvilos are a late-15th-century power. In 1440–50 they are a young branch of the Astikai. Treat any “Radvila magnate” before 1450 as anachronistic (Book V outline ch. 17 should say “the Astikai and their sons”).
Kęsgailos (Kieżgajło)	Mykolas Kęsgaila (d. 1450), son of Valimantas	Zadora	Samogitian magnates. *Elders (seniūnai) of Samogitia* 1412–32, 1440–41 and 1443–50 (Švitrigaila’s man: imprisoned by Žygimantas after 1432, restored in 1440). The Valimantaičiai brothers, including Rumbaudas Valimantaitis, Vytautas’s man in Samogitia c.1409–11, are the bridge between Vilnius and the Samogitian assemblies.
Manvydai (Moniwid)	Albertas (Vaitiekus) Manvydas, first voivode of Vilnius (1413)	Leliwa	The first holders of the new Horodło offices. Unrelated to Prince Manvydas son of Gediminas (no evidence of descent).
Jaunius	Jaunius, first voivode of Trakai (1413)	—	Vytautas’s administrator.
Daugirdas (Dowgird)	Jonas Daugirdas, voivode of Vilnius in the 1430s–40s	—	Council lord of the Žygimantas years.
Alšėniškiai (Holszański, Halshany princes)	Ivan Olshansky (Jonas Alšėniškis); his son Andrei	(princely)	Lithuanian–Ruthenian princes. Ivan was one of Vytautas’s chief captains and governor of Kyiv after Skirgaila. Julijona (Vytautas’s second wife) and Sophia (Jogaila’s fourth wife) are from this family. The house that married both cousins.
Ostrogski	Dashko (Danylo) Ostrozky; Fedir Ostrozky	(princely)	Volhynian Orthodox princes. Dashko freed Švitrigaila from Kremenets in 1418; Fedir fought alongside the Hussites and was a pillar of Švitrigaila’s party in the 1430s.

Era notes

Book I (1382–87): name boyars by patronymic or personal name only. The Kęstutis loyalists massacred in ch. 7 can be the Iron Wolves, invented retainers. Their names should be pagan dithematic (Dau-gird-as, Ram-baud-as).
Books II–III: Vytautas’s companions (Astikas, Goštautas’s father’s generation, Valimantas’s sons) rise. Many princes and boyars die at the Vorskla (1399), which makes room for new men.
Book IV (1413–30): Horodło makes the Catholic boyars a heraldic nobility. The new voivodes of Vilnius and Trakai become offices worth fighting over. Orthodox lords are excluded from the highest offices: a Record grievance that feeds Book V.
Book V (1430–50): the council lords (Goštautas, Daugirdas, Kęsgaila) are the state. They make and unmake grand dukes, as in 1440.

4. The neighbouring houses¶

4.1 The Masovian Piasts [Historical record]¶

Seat: Warsaw and Czersk (Janusz I); Płock and Rawa (Siemowit IV).
Arms: the Masovian (Piast) eagle.
Words: Między dwoma ogniami. “Between two fires.” (Polish) [The saga’s invention]
Key figures: Janusz I (c.1346–1429) ⚭ Danutė Kęstutaitė: Vytautas’s brother-in-law and steady ally. Siemowit IV (c.1352–1426) ⚭ Aleksandra Algirdaitė (1387): a failed candidate for the Polish crown in 1382–84, who tried to seize Kraków by force. Henryk (d. 1392/93), bishop-elect of Płock and Jogaila’s envoy at Ostrów, ⚭ Rimgailė Kęstutaitė in 1392 and was dead within a year.
Character: small, proud, squeezed between the Order, Poland and Lithuania. Two brothers married the two Gediminid lines: Janusz to Kęstutis’s daughter, Siemowit to Algirdas’s. In the saga Masovia is the neutral ground where cousins meet and where Vytautas runs first after Krėva.

4.2 The Polish court and the Lesser Poland lords¶

The Anjou queen. Jadwiga (see 1.6). Daughter of Louis I of Hungary and Poland (d. 10/11 Sep 1382) and Elizabeth of Bosnia (murdered 1387). Write her as used by it.)
The Lesser Poland (Małopolska) lords [Historical record]: the oligarchy that chose Jogaila over Wilhelm of Habsburg and Siemowit IV (1384–85). Key names: Spytko II of Melsztyn (Leliwa arms; voivode of Kraków; killed at the Vorskla, 1399); Jan of Tarnów (Leliwa); Dobiesław of Kurozwęki; Jan Tęczyński; Krystyn of Ostrów, castellan of Kraków.
Two Spytkos, do not merge them. Spytko II (d. 1399), Jogaila’s backer, dies beside Vytautas at the Vorskla. Spytko III of Melsztyn, his son (d. 4 May 1439 at Grotniki), led the Hussite-leaning confederation against Oleśnicki.
Zbigniew Oleśnicki (1389–1455) [Historical record], Dębno arms. Royal secretary; at Grunwald he saved Jogaila from a German knight’s charge (Długosz). Bishop of Kraków (appointed 9 Jul 1423), cardinal (created 18 Dec 1439 by Eugene IV; the antipope Felix V also named him on 20 Jan 1440). Leader of the Polish party that blocked Vytautas’s coronation (1429–30). Patron in the saga: the Gold-Glutton, with Henė’s last bargain.
Words (Lesser Poland lords): Rex regnat, nos regimus. “The king reigns; we rule.” (Latin) [The saga’s invention]

4.3 The Luxembourgs [Historical record]¶

Seat: Buda (Hungary), Prague (Bohemia), the imperial court.
Arms: the Luxembourg lion; Sigismund’s arms combine Hungary, Bohemia and the imperial eagle. Sigismund founded the Order of the Dragon (1408) [Historical record].
Key figure: Sigismund (1368–1437). ⚭ Mary of Hungary (1385), then Barbara of Celje (1405/08). King of Hungary 1387, King of the Romans 1411, of Bohemia 1419/1436, Emperor 1433. Hosted the Council of Constance. Arbiter between Poland and the Order (the 1420 Breslau award went against Poland). Offered Vytautas a crown at Lutsk (1429).
Words: Divide et arbitra. “Divide, then arbitrate.” [The saga’s invention]
Patron: the Shadow-Seller serves him in 1429–30 and the Gold-Glutton flatters him.

4.4 The Rurikids of Moscow [Historical record]¶

Seat: the Moscow Kremlin.
Arms: the mounted St George appears on Moscow coins from the late 14th century. Two riders, Lithuania’s and Moscow’s, facing each other across the Ugra.
Key figures: Dmitry Donskoy (1350–89), victor of Kulikovo (8 Sep 1380), negotiated with Uliana in 1384 to marry a daughter to Jogaila (an Orthodox alternative to Krėva). Vasily I (1371–1425) ⚭ Sofija Vytautaitė: three wars with his father-in-law (1406–08), ended by the stand-off on the Ugra (1408). Vasily II (1415–62), Vytautas’s grandson, under Vytautas’s protection from 1425.
Words: Sobirai i terpi. “Gather and endure.” (Russian) [The saga’s invention] [The saga’s invention suggestion]: Moscow is the realm the Horde taught to collect tribute, so the Steppe-Hunger’s shadow lies on it lightly.

4.5 The Horde khans [Historical record]¶

Tokhtamysh (khan c.1380–95; killed c.1406 near Tyumen). Reunited the Horde, burned Moscow in August 1382 (the same month Kęstutis died), was broken by Timur (1391, 1395), and fled to Vytautas, granting him rights over the Rus’ lands in exchange for restoration. Sons Jalal ad-Din (fought beside Vytautas at Grunwald; briefly khan 1411–12) and Kadir Berdi (killed Edigu in 1419).
Temur Qutlugh (khan 1397/98–99). Nominal victor of the Vorskla; died months later.
Edigu (c.1352–1419). Manghit emir and beglerbeg, the kingmaker of khans; field commander at the Vorskla; raided Moscow (1408) and Kyiv (1416).
Hacı Giray (d. 1466): raised in Lithuania, made first khan of an independent Crimea with Lithuanian backing in the 1440s. Book V seed.
Arms: tamgas (clan marks).
Words: Tengri – dangus, žemė – arklio. “The sky is Tengri’s; the earth belongs to the horse.” [The saga’s invention, phrased in Lithuanian as heard at Vytautas’s court]
Patron: Stepių Alkis (Steppe-Hunger), which is not Tengri (Cosmology §2.2) but the egregore of horizon-conquest.

5. The Teutonic Order as an institution-house¶

5.1 House card¶

Seat: Marienburg (Malbork), the Grand Master’s seat since 1309. The Marshal at Königsberg. Frontier houses on the Neman: Ragnit, Georgenburg (Jurbarkas), Christmemel, Marienwerder (Naujapilis), built for Vytautas in 1384.
Arms: the black cross on white [Historical record]. The Grand Master’s arms add a gold cross over the black, with the imperial eagle on an inescutcheon. The fleur-de-lis ends attributed to St Louis are legend.
Words: no period motto. Helfen – Wehren – Heilen is a modern motto; do not use it in 14th-century scenes. Saga motto: Per crucem, ferro. “Through the cross, by iron.” [The saga’s invention]
Character: a corporation, not a family. Celibate brother-knights recruited mainly from the German lands, with no heirs, so the house never dies and never forgives. It is rich (amber monopoly, grain, the Prussian Hanse towns) and diplomatically skilled. It ran the Reisen, the winter and summer raids with Western “guests” (Henry Bolingbroke in 1390 among them).
Feuds: internal: the Grand Master against the Prussian estates (the Prussian Confederation, founded 1440); Heinrich von Plauen deposed by his own chapter (1413). External: Lithuania, Poland, the archbishops of Riga.
Patron: Geležinis Šventasis (Iron Saint) (Cosmology §3.3), fed by the Reise and forced baptism. Not the Christian God.

5.2 Grand Masters (Hochmeister), 1345–1449 [Historical record]¶

#	Grand Master	Term	Relevance
21	Heinrich Dusemer	1345 – 1351 (resigned)	GM of the Pact year and of Strėva (1348).
22	Winrich von Kniprode	6 Jan 1352 – d. 24 Jun 1382	The great Master of the Order’s golden age; Rudau (1370); dead before Kęstutis’s murder.
23	Konrad Zöllner von Rotenstein	1382 – d. 20 Aug 1390	Vytautas’s host in 1382–84 (Book I ch. 18–19); Dubysa, Königsberg; he died on 20 Aug 1390, weeks before the Sep–Oct 1390 siege of Vilnius, which was run by Marshal Engelhard Rabe during the interregnum.
—	(vacancy; Grand Commander governs)	Aug 1390 – Mar 1391	Lyck/1390 diplomacy.
24	Konrad von Wallenrode	12 Mar 1391 – d. 25 Jul 1393	Hard and anti-clerical by reputation; Reisen against Vilnius. (Mickiewicz’s 1828 poem “Konrad Wallenrod”, a Lithuanian disguised as Grand Master, is pure fiction, and shows exactly the impossibility behind H5.)
25	Konrad von Jungingen	30 Nov 1393 – d. 30 Mar 1407	Salynas (1398), Raciąż (1404); took Gotland (1398). Preferred diplomacy to battle.
26	Ulrich von Jungingen (b. 1360)	26 Jun 1407 – killed 15 Jul 1410 (earlier komtur of Balga 1396–1404, marshal 1404)	Grunwald.
27	Heinrich von Plauen	9 Nov 1410 – deposed Oct 1413 (d. 1429)	Saved Marienburg (1410) as commander of Schwetz; Thorn (1411); deposed and imprisoned by his own brethren.
28	Michael Küchmeister von Sternberg	9 Jan 1414 – resigned Mar 1422 (d. 1423)	The Hunger War (1414); Constance.
29	Paul von Rusdorf	10 Mar 1422 – resigned 2 Jan 1441 (d. 9 Jan 1441)	Melno (1422); Lutsk-era intrigue; allied with Švitrigaila (Christmemel, 1431); the Livonian disaster at Pabaiskas (1435); Peace of Brest (1435).
30	Konrad von Erlichshausen	1441 – d. 1449	Book V’s late Master; the Prussian Confederation grows.

Livonian branch (Landmeister in Livonia): Wilhelm von Freimersheim (1364–85), Robin von Eltz (1385–89), Wennemar von Brüggenei (1389–1401), Konrad von Vietinghoff (1401–13), Dietrich Tork (1413–15), Siegfried Lander von Spanheim (1415–24), Zisse von dem Rutenberg (1424–33), Franco Kerskorff (1433–35, killed at Pabaiskas, 1 Sep 1435), Heinrich von Buckenvorde (1435–37).

5.3 The great offices (Großgebietiger) [Historical record]¶

Office	German	Seat	Function
Grand Master	Hochmeister	Marienburg	Elected for life by the General Chapter; governs with the five great officers.
Grand Commander	Großkomtur	Marienburg	Deputy; runs the central administration; governs during a vacancy.
Marshal	Ordensmarschall	Königsberg (also Komtur of Königsberg)	Commander in war; leads the Reisen against Lithuania; head of the Order’s military discipline.
Grand Hospitaller	Großspittler	Elbing (also Komtur of Elbing)	Hospitals and care of the sick.
Drapier	Trapier	Christburg (also Komtur of Christburg)	Clothing and equipment.
Treasurer	Tressler	Marienburg	The treasury.
Commanders	Komture	each convent house (Osterode, Ragnit, Brandenburg, Schwetz, Tuchel…)	Run a district: a castle, its brothers, its lands and its levies. Below them: Vögte (advocates), Pfleger (stewards).

Membership. Brother-knights (Ritterbrüder) took the three monastic vows of poverty, chastity and obedience; they had to be of knightly, legitimate birth and, in practice, from the German lands. Priest-brothers served as chaplains. Half-brothers (Graumäntler) and familiares were associates. Guests (Gäste) were Western crusaders on the Reise.

5.4 Why Vytautas could not be Marshal¶

The Marshal was a professed brother-knight: a monk under vows. A married man could not take the vow of chastity without his wife’s consent and separation, and Vytautas was married to Ona, who was then a hostage in the Order’s hands.
The great offices were filled from senior brothers with decades in the Order. A convert of weeks (baptised at Tapiau on 21 Oct 1383) was not even a novice.
Recruitment was effectively German-only. No Lithuanian ever held a great office.
The Marshal led the Reisen against Lithuania. Handing the Order’s war against Lithuania to a Lithuanian claimant would have been absurd to the chapter, and the Order was suspicious of converts who had sworn first by pagan forms (Power systems §2.6).
What he really was [Historical record]: a baptised ally and vassal under the Treaty of Königsberg (30 Jan 1384). He pledged Samogitia to the Nevėžis and was entrusted with castles to hold (Marienwerder, Georgenburg) and with Order troops “lent” to his war. This is the correct Book I status: a vassal-prince with borrowed knights, not an officer. The Marshal of ch. 20 is a real Order brother. (The Marshal around 1383 may be Kuno von Hattenstein before naming him.)

5.5 Order figures relevant to the books¶

Figure	Office	Record	Saga use
Günther von Hohenstein (real, c. 1310–1380; komtur of Osterode from 1349, later Brandenburg)	Komtur of Osterode	Not the 1381 informant (he was dead; his own attestation is weak). The saga’s Hohenstein is an invented young brother (22 in 1353) who shares his name: the honest enemy of Book VI, third knight at Lake Ublik (1361), translator at Marienburg.	Proof that the Order is men, not only egregore. Book VI ch. 14, 16, 17, 19.
Konrad Zöllner von Rotenstein	Grand Master 1382–90	Received Vytautas; Dubysa, Königsberg	Book I ch. 18–19 (replaces Kniprode; keep the chess-player characterisation).
Kuno von Hattenstein	Marshal (1380s)	—	Candidate for ch. 20’s Marshal.
Kuno von Liebenstein	Komtur of Osterode, godfather of Danutė	The 1381 informant: warned Kęstutis of the Dovydiškės treaty in Aug 1381 (Ivinskis 1978, via en.wikipedia; VLE and Wigand name no one)	Named in Book I ch. 1. Do not confuse with Kuno von Lichtenstein, Grand Commander killed at Grunwald (1410).
Marquard von Salzbach	Komtur of Brandenburg (Prussia) and earlier frontier posts	An old acquaintance of Vytautas from his Prussian years. Captured at Grunwald; Vytautas had him beheaded (with Heinrich von Schaumburg) when he refused to apologise for insulting Vytautas’s murdered mother after the Peace of Raciąż (1404) (en.wikipedia, after Ekdahl 1992; Długosz’s Banderia Prutenorum). In 1384 Vytautas’s captive, 1389 his adviser; komtur of Ragnit by 1399 (Lyck 1390, Vorskla with an Order contingent, Salynas).	A gift for the saga: the insult to Birutė, the Amber Queen’s vessel, answered on the field where the Iron Saint screams. Planted at Raciąż, Book III ch. 6 (not 1390).
Friedrich von Wallenrode	Marshal	Killed at Grunwald	—
Kuno von Lichtenstein	Grand Commander	Killed at Grunwald	—
Thomas von Merheim	Treasurer	Killed at Grunwald	—
Werner von Tettingen	Komtur of Elbing (Grand Hospitaller)	Fled the field at Grunwald	The survivor’s shame.
Heinrich von Plauen	Komtur of Schwetz → GM	Held Marienburg against the Polish–Lithuanian siege (Jul–Sep 1410)	Book III Part 3 antagonist.
Wigand of Marburg	Herald of the Order; chronicler	His rhymed chronicle is a main source for the 1380s–90s	Delicious detail: Vytautas’s first baptismal name was Wigand.