Of old, in the days of the Kingdom ere the sundering of 861, was the House of Arandil founded by the Prince Arandil, second son of King Valandur of Arnor. A cadet branch of the royal Line of Isildur, they were granted lands about Nenuial by the King, and given a hereditary responsibility in turn. A herald to his elder brother was Arandil, standard-bearer and first knight to the Crown Prince and future King; thus were his sons and his sons' sons to be so to the Royal House, in perpetuity or until their lines extinguish. And so it was.

     Descended in a long line from the Prince Arandil is Halbarad, his family preserved and maintained through the long years as the other survivors of the Angmarean holocaust; his duty through the years of his own life to take up the mantle of his retired father and serve as adjutant and lieutenant to Aragorn the Chieftain, as his fathers have served Chieftains and Kings down through the centuries. And so, when the time comes again for the royal standard of Elendil to be raised and borne forth in his lifetime, as his insight tells him it must, Halbarad will carry it to his lord though long leagues and dark death lie between them, and see it unfurled upon the morning breeze to strike awe and terror in the heart of the foe once more.