The Broken Oath by Critical_Embargo

In the savage wastelands of the Greyward Marches, honor is a lie the dead tell themselves, and survival is the only victory that matters.

Calder "Stonewolf" Vane has long outlived kings, lords, and ideals — fueled by nothing but stubbornness and a relentless will to endure. He owes loyalty to no man, no banner, no god. Only one debt remains unpaid: a blood promise made long ago to Ser Garran Veyne, the only man who ever spared Calder’s life without demanding a price.

Now Garran is dead, betrayed by those he called allies, and his last surviving heir, Branwen Veyne, is being hunted like an animal.

Calder never believed in honor — but debts are another matter.

Dragging Branwen from the jaws of death, Calder makes one thing clear: this isn’t about loyalty, justice, or love. It's about finishing what was promised — nothing more. But saving Branwen paints a bloody target on Calder’s back. Every petty lord, mercenary, and bounty hunter in the Marches wants them both dead.

Outnumbered and hunted, Calder gathers a brutal warband of deserters, killers, and broken souls — the worst the Marches have to offer. Together, they wage a merciless campaign of survival and revenge, carving a path through the lords who betrayed Garran.

As the fields drown in blood and treachery, Branwen clings to the fading dream of rebuilding a better world — but Calder knows better. The Marches cannot be saved. They can only be ruled.

Through betrayal, slaughter, and grim lessons written in blood, Calder shapes Branwen into a weapon capable of seizing a crown built on ash. But when the heir he saved becomes a tyrant worse than the men they destroyed, Calder must confront the price of the broken oath he swore to keep — and the monster he helped forge.

In the end, Calder Vane will pay his final debt the only way he knows:

With steel. With blood.

And with the last shreds of whatever soul he has left.