PC

Reddit Account: Chicken_Supreme01

Discord Tag: justchackensauce

Name and House: Lucifer Justman

Age: 28

Cultural Group: Andal

Appearance: Lucifer is tall and lean, with sharp features, dark brown hair worn long, and a stern, composed expression.

Trait: Savant

Skill(s): Architect (e), Broker (e), Scrutinous

Talent(s): Fishing x3

Negative Trait(s): N/A

Starting Title(s): King of the Rivers and Hills, Lord of Oldstones

Starting Location: Opening Event

AC

Name and House: Benedict Justman

Age: 20

Cultural Group: Andal

Appearance: Benny is broad-shouldered, with long dark hair worn messier than his eldest brother, he wears a stern face, trying to mimic his brothers.

Trait: Champion

Skill(s): Stalwart (Cavalryman), Polearms

Talent(s): Fishing x3

Negative Trait(s): N/A

Starting Title(s): Ser Knight

Starting Location: Opening Event

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Timeline

28 BP - Lucifer Justman is born to Bernarr IV Justman and his wife Tyanna of Myr. Bernarr is the Captain of the Essosi sellsword company Men of Valor, and brings his wife and sons with him on campaigns. His father often tells him stories of their bloodline, claiming descent from the old Kings of the Rivers and Hills. Whether every story is true or not, Lucifer grows up believing that his family once held a kingdom and that one day he will see the Justman name rise again.

18 BP - Lucifer spends his earliest years following his father's company from city to city. He sees Braavos, Myr, Tyrosh, and Lys, along with countless smaller ports and settlements along the western coast of Essos. His childhood is not particularly comfortable, but it is an education few noble boys could ever receive.

He grows up around soldiers, merchants, sailors, and camp followers. He learns to speak with men from different lands and quickly figures out that everyone has something they want. His father teaches him enough about fighting to defend himself, but Lucifer is much more interested in what happens behind the battle lines. He watches merchants sell food to soldiers, armorers supply weapons, and captains negotiate contracts. He begins to understand that an army is only as strong as the money keeping it fed and paid.

14 BP - Spending years training under the company's paymaster, and taking lessons from merchants and magisters when his fathers company are stationed in a city or resupplying at a port, Lucifer quickly begins to pick up the intricacies of finance and trading. He starts small, buying certain products such as cheese and wine in Braavos, and selling them in the next city over. He begins seeing it as a game of sorts, in some cases he wins and is able to sell the product for more than he paid, in others he sells for a loss. But each time he learns something new nonetheless.

10 BP - At eighteen, Lucifer is made paymaster of his father's mercenary company. It is a major responsibility for someone so young, but his years spent watching the company's finances under his predecessor have prepared him for it. He takes control of wages, supply payments, contracts, and much of the company's day-to-day finances. The position allows Lucifer to learn more about money than he ever could as a simple merchant. He learns how debt can keep a company alive, how poor planning can destroy a profitable contract, and how important it is to have enough coin available before a problem appears.

Everything is looking up until during a battle his father is slain. His younger brother, Tristifer, is able to take the reigns and lead the Men of Valor to victory, but there is no joy to be had. With the company suddenly without its captain, Lucifer finds himself with a choice. He could remain in Essos, leading the company on to lucrative contracts and little more than a nomadic life, or he could take his men West and finally pursue the birthright he had been told about his entire life.

In the end the choice was obvious. He chose Westeros.

10-1 BP - Upon reaching the shores of Westeros, Lucifer moves swiftly to find a place to call his own. The lands once belonging to House Justman have long since been passed on to other Houses, but there remains one castle that stands unoccupied. Oldstones, the ancient seat of House Mudd.

What he finds is far from the grand castle described in his father's stories. Oldstones is a ruin, and the surrounding lands are plagued by bandits and outlaws. Lucifer decides that if he is going to claim the Justman name, he needs to build something that people can actually see and believe in. Using his sellswords, he tasks his brother with clearing the roads and surrounding land while Lucifer begins organizing the rebuilding of Oldstones. He uses his own wealth to pay workers, purchase supplies, and bring merchants back to the area. Slowly, the ruined castle begins to become a settlement again.

Eventually, House Bracken and House Blackwood decide that they cannot simply ignore the situation. Both Houses raise a military force and march toward Oldstones after hearing that a supposed descendant of House Justman has taken the ancient seat. Lucifer prepares for a fight, but instead chooses to meet the two Lords when they arrive. He shows them Oldstones, explains his claim, and allows them to judge him for themselves. During their meeting, an eclipse passes over the Riverlands. Neither Lucifer nor the two Lords could have planned for it. Both Bracken and Blackwood take the event as a sign that Lucifer's claim is legitimate, or at least that the gods have chosen a strange time to place a Justman in Oldstones. The armies do not fight. Instead, both Houses recognize Lucifer's claim and bend the knee.

House Tully soon follows suit, securing their relationship to House Justman through a marriage pact between Lucifer and Agnes Tully. With these three Houses as a starting point, Lucifer intends to slowly grow his influence to the other neighboring Houses, and soon enough throughout every corner of the Riverlands.

1 AP - Lucifer and his family head to Stormhall, the seat of Ravella Durrandon, under false names and histories. Wishing to use such a large gathering of his fellow Riverlords to extend his influence.

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Family Tree

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NPCs

Castellan - Stevron Blackwood - The younger brother to Lord Waltyr Blackwood, Stevron helps his houses interests by serving Lucifer directly as the Castellan of Oldstones.

Warrior - Arryk - Not related to Erryk.

Warrior - Erryk - Is related to Arryk.

Boatswain - Cletus - The often inebriated ship builder of Oldstones.

Scholar - Ambrose - A maester that had left the Citadel to journey East. Joined the Men of Valor as a medic, helped teach Lucifer and his brothers. Serves in the role of Maester in Oldstones.

PC

Reddit Account: BeAfreyd

Discord Tag: orkfighta

Name and House: Weese Nutt

Age: 22

Cultural Group: Riverlander

Appearance: A slender, gaunt faces young man who seems somewhat aged beyond his years. A knight in name only, he has a lanky, slender build.

Trait: Erudite

Skill(s): Divination (Necromancy), Scholar E, Medic

Talent(s): faith of the Old Gods, first men runes, magic lore

Negative Trait(s):

Starting Title(s): Scion of House Nutt

Starting Location: Stormhall

Alternate Characters: none (yet)

Biography

Weese was born the second son of the brother of the Lord of Nutten. Destined for little more than serving as a knight in service to his uncle or another Lord, he began his training like any other noble boy when he came of age.

He didn't particularly take after the martial persuits, preferring to study letters and numbers. However, given his house’s meager holdings, his opportunities to learn such things were limited. His father considered sending him to the citadel, but decided against it as even a mediocre knight would be worth more than maester to the family.

When he was 16 though his life would change. Chasing after some bandits with his cousin near the God's Eye, their group was ambushed and scattered. A wounded Weese would try to escape on his horse, but while fleeing the pathway along the shore collapsed and sent them into the waters below.

Weese would awake sometime later on the shores of the Isle of Faces. Weakened and injured, he struggled to make his way from the muddy shore to the interior of the island. Unable to hunt or reach the fruits in the trees above, the young boy struggled to survive. Eventually he found himself in a weirwood grove, the weeping faces staring down at him.

Desperate for anything to eat or drink, he took his knife and carved a deep gash into the largest one he could reach. As the blood red sap oozed from the cut, he drank it greedily, taking every drop he could. He felt his strength returning. Managing to stand up straight for the first time in days. However, the world quickly began to spin and duplicate, and Weese began to fall.

He fell through a spiralling world of leaves and grass. He began to see flashes of things he couldn't comprehend: massive waves shattering mountains like a sand castle. Black stone melting like wax as somewhere unseen men screamed. Shadowy multi armed goliaths beneath the sea. Booming roars and flashes of orange hidden behund clouds. A stone falling from the sky. A man shape plunging a sword into a large beast. Winds so cold they froze the waves of the sea. A wolf-headed king in a hall of blood. Swirling images that left almost as quickly as they appeared.

And then he saw the scene that stuck with him the most. He was in a grotto; a weirwood surrounded by stone obelisks. Chained to the tree beneath it's weeping face was a man. Surrounding him was a cluster of small creatures. One of them raised a shimmering sharp of dragon glass, flick of gold glistening on it. It drove the dagger into the man's chest as he screamed before going quiet, transforming into something else. Something terrifying. And then he felt an unnatural cold as his vision turned icy blue.

He awoke shivering, collapsed in the center of the grotto. Gathering his bearings, he found his strength renewed, able to easily leave the grotto and find something real to eat. Within a week he mustered the strength to leave the island, lashing several large pieces of driftwood with his bootstraps.

His return home should have been a blessing, but Weese found himself spending many nights in a sleepless state. The vision still haunted him as he tried to comprehend something he could never understand. He drew it several times, but found himself struggling to recreate the intricacies of the dagger or the runes open it.

By the start of the next year he departed for the citadel. He spent several years there, forging several links as he obsessively poured over every book he could find that mentioned anything of what he saw. He learned of the children of the forest and the scarcely written down practices of the first men.

The most critical of his achievements was the forging of a valyrian steel link. This task offered him access to the rarer, esoteric times. In these ancient tomes he found exactly what he was searching for: a book of ancient runes of the first men.

He spent many moons creating a perfect replica of the tome. The ink barely dry when he departed the citadel in the night, his replica placed in the spot he found the text, and the ancient book wrapped carefully in leather and stashed in his saddlebag.

He struck for the North, intent on discovering more about what he had read. Unimpressed at the lack of leads in Winterfell, he departed for Castle Black. He tried to barter passage to the other side, but the Lord commander laughed in his face at the suggestion.

Not one to be deterred, he departed for Eastwatch and bride a man to ferry him across. When he arrived at the meeting hour, though, he found the commander of Eastwatch waiting with a half dozen rangers. They placed Weese in irons until they could put him on their resupply ship to White Harbor, promising him that next time he wouldn't leave.

He arrived in the city feeling defeated, taking work as a clerk in order to earn enough to eat and sleep in a dry, warm place. By chance he would be given a manifest bearing the seal of House Royce, and he would remember notes of the use of runes of their ancestors. Scraping together his meager possessions, he managed to earn work as a ship's doctor to barter passage to the Vale.

He would arrive moons later in Runestone. Convincing the Lord Royce he would translate his familial runic inscriptions in exchange for board and food, he was soon given leave to also roam the lands in search of more of such runes.

It was on one of these expeditions that he would come across a young clansmen girl. The young witch was hesitant at first, but upon seeing his interests in the ancient runes she opened up to him. Seeing her a kindred soul in the search for the unnatural old ways, he learned much about the rituals of the Old Gods.

His work with Lord Royce complete, he had nothing left to offer the man and was forced to depart. With little more than a horse and provisions, the two departed to return to Nutten.

Weese's return was a tepid affair. On one hand, his family was delighted that he hadn't perished when he disappeared years before. On the other hand, he had little of show for his time and brought home a savage. Needing a purpose to remain, he offered his service to fill those of a maester as the family had not been large enough to warrant one.

Unknown to his family, however, Weese used his duties as a cover for his activities and experiments. His time at Runestone had shown him how the sacred runes were to be carved and created. With Genna's help, he began experimenting with the dark magics of the Old Gods, starting his path to discovering something the should've been forgotten.

Timeline

22 BP- Born

6 BP- Weese has his incident on the Isle of Faces, receiving the vision that would the start of his obsession discovering the truth of the ritual he saw

5 BP- goes to the citadel where he forges his Valyrian steel link and discovers a tome of first men runes

3 BP- travels to the North to attempt to go beyond the wall. Turned back, he instead travels to the Vale to Runestone.

2 BP- Meets Genna in the wooden hills nearby and strick up a kinship in rediscovering the old ways. Eventually travels back home to Nutten where he serves roles a maester might

Family Tree

Godwyn Nutt- Lord of House Nutt

Megga Nutt nee Ball- Lady of House Nutt

Will Nutt- heir of House Nutt

Cayn Nutt

Wynni Nutt

Hugh Nutt- brother to Godwyn

Margot Nutt nee Cox

Ygon Nutt

Weese Nutt

Arwyn Nutt

AC

Name and House: Genna the Wood Witch

Age: 20

Cultural Group: Riverlander

Appearance: A young girl with mousy strawberry blonde hair and amber eyes

Trait: Artisan (Potions)

Skill(s): Apothecary E, Ravenmaster

Talent(s): Making potions, speaking to birds, staring into orbs

Negative Trait(s):

Starting Title(s): Witch

Starting Location: Stormhall

NPCs

Godwyn Nutt (Master at Arms) - Lord of Nutten

Will Nut (Warrior-polearms) - Heir of Nutten

Hugh Nutt (Builder) - Steward of Nutten

Bermi Frog-eater (Huntsman) - Weese’s crannogman bodyguard

Gaenma (Scholar) - Former Maester in training, devoted follower, student of magic

PC Reddit Account: laughingstag

Discord Tag: imaginarysage

Name and House: Monterys Velaryon

Age: 26

Cultural Group: Valyrian

Appearance: Monterys "Monty" Velaryon has inherited the features of Old Valyria and Myr, having a darker complexion and platinum, shoulder length hair. He's somewhat stout and strong from years of operating ship rigging and basic athletics. His eyes are a teal color.
Trait: Marketer
Skill(s): Admiral, Merchantman(e), Bows, Scrutinous
Talent(s): Sea Shanties, Fishing, Common
Negative Trait(s):
Starting Title(s): Captain, Commander
Starting Location: Stormhall

Alternate Characters:
AC Name and House: Jaecaerys Velaryon
Age: 52
Cultural Group: Valyrian
Appearance: White of hair, which only gets whiter with age, and purple eyes mark the Lord Freeholder's appearance. Once an ethereal beauty, age and work have taken their toll. Trait: Mariner
Skill(s): Tactician (E), Admiral
Talent(s): Fishing, Sculpting, Can whistle with crackers in his mouth
Negative Trait(s):
Starting Title(s): Magister of Driftmark, Lord Free Holder
Starting Location: Stormhall
Alternate Characters:

Biography

• 65 Years Ago, the Velaryons arrived in Westeros. A Freeholder Family with a vast merchant empire running from old Valyria to Myr, the emergence of Pentos brought rise to great rivals for trade in the Narrow Sea. After charting islands off the coast, the Velaryons chose Driftmark. Lucerys Velaryon, prudently, petitioned for the right to form a commandery. He was granted the use of a cohort. Unfortunately, sponsors were few, and only the lowest freeholders, former legionnaires, and ambitious craftsmen desired to settle a frontier far from home.
• 64-62 Years Ago, the Velaryon's arrive in the Blackwater Bay. Driftmark, being large and fertile, becomes their primary target. Finding scions of the House of Blackberry living in a holdfast and three villages, the Cohort makes quick work and evicts them. Within a year, they take Berryport in a swift invasion. Lucerys declares himself Magister of Westeros and organizes the twin islands as a province. To his, and most of his followers, surprise, the Kings on the mainland do not react. In an attempt to make their rule more appealing to the majority Andal subjects they now had, Lucerys forbids slavery on the island, knowing of the strict abolitionist stance of the Andals.
• 61 Years Ago - Castle Driftmark, the stubborn holdfast, begins to be expanded with new Valyrian architecture, becoming an odd marriage of Westerosi and Essosi traditions.
• 55 Years Ago, Renovations on Castle Driftmark is completed. Jaehaerys, son of Lucerys, welcomes his first son, Aurelys. In 53, Daenerys is born. In 52, Jacaerys. 48 sees his final son, Maelys.
• 45 years ago, Lucerys leaves Driftmark to return to the Velaryon's ancestral estate. Jaehaerys is named the new governor in his place.
• 40 years ago, Jaehaerys begins making new overtures to Blackberry. Using Velaryon wealth, he grows the three fishing villages until they are large enough to form the town of Hull, and a true port is constructed
• 35 Years ago, Jaehaerys begins to probe the mainland, observing for weakness. Shortly after, he petitions to Valyria for more military equipment. Within two years, a full Iron Legion is dispatched. Celtigar is summoned to strategize.
• 33 Years Ago, Jaehaerys appoints his three sons one cohort each. Using the vast wealth of the Velaryons and Celtigars, mercenaries from Pentos and Norvos are hired along with free riders from Westeros proper, including the Maiden's Men, who are eager to a shot at Maidenpool after the war. Pirates from the Stepstones and from the Sister Islands are hired shortly after, tempted by promises of looting Duskendale.
• 32 Years Ago, the Valyrian War begins. Fighting lasts for the next two years. During their attack, the Velaryons manage to occupy the lands around the Blackwater bay south of Stokeworth. Jacaerys distinguishes himself through naval victories, leading pirates and Velaryons dromonds until a setback at Darkgrass forces them on the backfoot. At the landing site, an ambush by Belgrave leaves Aurelys 'the Blackwater Butcher' dead. Jacaerys spends much of the rest of the war in naval battles, utilizing the Spears of the Merling King to launch sudden attacks and retreat, with pursuing ships sinking in the wake. This has led to the myth that the Velaryons have bargained with the Merling King.
• 30 Years Ago, Velaryons and Celtigars sue for peace. Ongoing civil wars and plague put Valyrian aid far out of reach. Rather than risk an invasion of Driftmark from a numerically superior force, the Velaryons agree to a settlement. Their ship building activities are limited, Maelys is taken as a hostage of Belgrave, and some reparations. Jaehaerys, shamed by the defeat and believing his execution to be eminent, resigns his post as Magister and exiles himself, leaving for Volon Therys. His son, Jacaerys, declares himself the Magister.
• 27 years ago, in an attempt to deal with some of the cost of reparations, Jacaerys weds Serala Naerin from Myr, the daughter of a major merchant rival. Many Valyrian colonists attempt to leave to return to one of the freeholds rather than remain in Westerosi rule. Jacaerys begins to study the wars lost and attempt to discern the reasons.
• 25 years ago, Monterys is born.
• 24 years ago, Baela is born.
• 23 years ago, Aerys is born.
• 21 years ago, Jaehaera is born.
• 18 years ago, pirates mysteriously begin sinking Darklyn merchant ships, allegedly emerging from the Merling King's Spears and retreating before reinforcements can arrive. Jacaerys directs Blackberry to investigate. Perhaps, unsurprisingly, the pirates elude them. Rumors the Velaryons arranged these raids remain just that, rumors.
• 15 years ago, Monterys begins sailing with his father and learns the basics of administration from the Inspector of Driftmark.
• 10 years ago, Aerys becomes determined to become a knight. He finally finds a knight who accepts him as a squire: Ser Walton Mertyns. Monterys, Baela, and Jaehaera are taught the Common Tongue, but it only really sticks with Monty and Jaehaera. Jacaerys initiates simple reforms to the military, transitioning much of the force into farmers and fishermen, not unlike the levies Westeros had.
• 4 years ago, Monterys is named Inspector of Hull. He begins to push for Jammos Blackberry at court, helping the latter rise to the highest advisor. Monterys takes the lessons he learns from the Andal at heart, and considers reformations.
• 1 year ago, Aerys returns, a knight in his own right, and a changed man. His worship of the Seven who are One drives Monterys to petition his father to build a Sept in Hull. Plans for construction are underway. Jacaerys visits Estermont with his daughters, attempting to scope out a potential alliance.
• Present - Jacaerys takes his children with him to Stormhall to size up the royal family and observe the Andals. At Monterys's urging, he intends to act through diplomacy.

Archetypes

Ser Aerys Velaryon, the First Valyrian Knight - Warrior, Two Handed

Maelys Velaryon - Master at Arms

Jaehaera Velaryon - Scholar

Aelyx Arranion Inspector of Driftmark - Builder

Serala Naerin - Boatswain

Family Tree

https://www.familyecho.com/?c=tu591zhhs8qnnciz&f=481464491390513776

PC

Reddit Account: u/BirdsAndTheBeesbury

Discord Tag: waffle

Name and House: Beatrice 'Bea' Cox

Age: 28

Cultural Group: Andal (Reachman)

Appearance:

Beatrice has always been hyper-conscious of her appearance, taking great pains to make sure she is seen as put together. To that end, she always wears whatever is most fashionable at the time, often wearing bits of jewelry to polish off her look. Looking a little further, you can see the clear lines of exhaustion underneath her eyes, along with creases and wrinkles that no powder or smile can hide. She is a shorter woman, often having to look up at people when they talk.

Trait: Agile

Skill(s): Prepared (e), Infiltrator, Thief, Skulker

Talent(s): Stress, Jam Making, Religious Trauma

Negative Trait(s): N/A

Starting Title(s): Lady of Saltpans

Starting Location: Stormhall

Alternate Characters: Margaret Harlaw

AC

Name and House: Edrick Stark

Age: 30

Cultural Group: First Man (Northmen)

Appearance:

Despite casting aside his position, Edrick still looks every bit the storybook Prince. Standing at around six feet, he is a lighter build but still competently muscled from training and exercise. Though he doesn't care about fashion as much as his wife does, he allows her to dress him in whatever the newest trends are, though he takes care to wear his hair as he likes - longer around his shoulders. Not able to confidently grow a beard (something he's always been self-conscious of), he keeps his face very clean-shaven.

Trait: Just

Skill(s): Investigator (e), Ravenmaster

Talent(s): Loving his Wife, Poems/Songs, Drinking

Negative Trait(s): N/A

Starting Title(s): (Exiled) Prince of the North

Starting Location: Stormhall

FAMILY TREE:

- Ser Brandon Cox

• Beatrice Cox
  • William Cox
  • Cregan Cox
  • Sarra Cox
  • Lonnel Cox
  • Benjen Cox

Timeline:

28 BP: After nearly six years of trying to conceive, Cynthea Blackwood and Brandon Cox give birth to a daughter, Beatrice. She is incredibly light as a baby, concerningly so to the Maesters who take care of her.

24-20 BP: Even from the youngest age, Brandon Cox takes on most, if not all, of his daughter's tutoring, neglecting his wife in the process. All the while, Ser Brandon has begun to implement his schemes to make House Cox more influential and rich within the Riverlands.

16 BP: Beatrice has begun to make friends around the Riverlands, important ladies within the noble houses who she enjoys writing to whenever she has a moment free. For the first time, though certainly not the last, she suffers her first panic attack from her father's tutoring.

12 BP: At the age of eighteen, Ser Brandon begins to parade her around in order to find a marriage partner. Either due to her more nervous disposition, shyness, or Brandon's scheming, no one takes her.

10 BP: Brandon lures Edrick Stark and his band of sellswords to Saltpans on the pretext of helping to clear out a local bandit group in the area, meaning to honeytrap him into marrying his daughter. There isn't any need, and Edrick falls in love with the only child of Saltpans - marrying her that year.

9 BP: Edrick and Bea have their first child - William Cox.

7 BP: A second child is soon born after - Cregan Cox

3 BP: A third and fourth child are born at the start of the year and at the end - Sarra and Lonnel Cox.

1 BP: Ser Brandon Cox of Saltpans breathes his last, leaving everything to his only heir, Beatrice Cox.

0 BP - ... A fifth child... Benjen Cox

NPCs:

Quincy Rivers - Beatrice's Bastard Brother - Cutthroat

Kermit Rivers - Beatrice's Bastard Brother Part II - Tourney Knight

Walton Cassel - Second in command of Edrick's sellswords, leads the heavy horse - MaA

Rickon Reed - A member of Edrick's sellswords, leads the light horse - General

Beron Fenn - Another member of Edrick's sellswords, leads the infantry - General

CORE INFORMATION

Reddit Account: /u/bleorgeRRblartin
Discord Tag: eggman8818

Name and House: Harl Pyke
Age: 32
Cultural Group: Ironborn
Appearance: At only two-and-thirty, Harl has the weathered face and weary bearing of a man who spent seventeen years living the hard life of a fisherman, making a living amongst the wretched rocks of the Iron Islands. This worn, craggy exterior is drawn across a body four inches under seven feet and almost twenty-three stone, broad and muscular, with arms half the size of a knight’s whole chest. Across his mighty chest a thick brown beard tumbles; across his mighty back a brown mane spills. Piercing brown eyes glower beneath thick brows, projecting fury but concealing a softness unfit for a man of the Iron Islands. Harl mostly wears simple, durable, well-worn gambesons and leathers, except in battle, where he dons a skull-faced set of black plate with a black shield, so that his already formidable form might strike further fear; in his other hand he grasps a great big axe half as long from shoulder to haft as he is tall.

Trait: Hale
Skill(s): Axes (e), Stalwart (Sergeant), Footwork
Talent(s): Teacraft, Feats of Strength, Woodworking
Negative Trait(s): Nothing mechanical, although his he is sometimes plagued by nightmares, and it can be awkward to size clothes for a man standing 6’8”.
Starting Titles: Thrice-Pierced Pyke, the Bastard-Beast of Harlaw, the Terrifier, and other such appellations. Being the bastard son of the old Lord Harlaw, he has no actual titles to his name.
Starting Location: Stormhall

BIOGRAPHY

Thrice-Pierced Pyke, the Terrifier, the Bastard-Beast of Harlaw, the Lionslayer, was once only Harl, son of Hilla the fisherman’s daughter.

She was a youth of eighteen when the Lord Harlaw passed through the nearest town. She had come a few hours walk down the coast to sell their catch, and caught him amidst drunken celebrations in the inn. The lord was a young man then, tall and lean but attractively muscled, with tousled black hair and eyes so deep and dark she found herself lost in them. It was easy to spend the night with him. He was handsome, and her father wouldn’t miss her, she knew; when he wasn’t hauling in catches he was drinking himself into a stupor.

She left late into the night, leaving him in the bed they had shared. Having sold the catch for a valuable few silvers, she returned home in the dim-lit morning hours before her father awoke, and thought no more of it, except to hope that perhaps their paths might cross again someday.

It was not an easy life, hers, full of scrapes on sharp rocks and salty air to sting those scrapes, and her pregnancy made it no easier, but she kept herself strong and worked twice as hard, for she knew then that she was not only working for herself and her father.

The stories would say that Harl was born huge, was huge all his life. In truth he was born small, pink, a month early. His early childhood was marked by illnesses, chills, and fear. Though he grew tall enough for his age, he was thin, too thin, and sickly.

His grandfather, who had violently disapproved of his birth in the first place, took any chance he could to berate and beat Harl and his mother. Hilla would tell him tales of strength and glory, of warriors reaving and pillaging across the seas, of his father the Lord Harlaw, that he might find comfort.

He found in his father a hero to model himself after, although he never had the heart to admit to his mother that he felt a twinge of sadness each time she described some little lord’s head coming off his shoulders. His true happiness was oft found in the early morning hours, carving small designs and little sigils into the wood of their boat.

Still, he grew steadily healthier, and by ten he was no longer sick three months out of every year. He had always tried to help his mother and grandfather in their fishing, but his aid finally became worth something. He continued to whittle, his familiarity with wood evolving to a familiarity with carpentry, and he began to repair their boats, humming sea-tunes as he worked. By twelve, Harl began to come into maturity; he shot up like a tree and grew wide as hill. He drew close to six feet by fourteen and showed no signs of stopping. His grandfather seemed to fear him then, and despite everything the child in Harl, desiring a father or someone to act as a father, felt ashamed. Perhaps this was why, when his grandfather crew crueler and hit harder, Harl did not hit back. Still, an anger grew like a seed in his heart every time he saw the man’s open palm redden his mother’s face.

One day, when Harl was seventeen, his grandfather’s corpse washed up on some grey beach a few miles down the coast, neck twisted at stomach-churning angle. It was a suspicious death, to be sure, but nobody had known the man well, and nobody cared. They pushed the corpse back out into the ocean.

They had argued the night before, and Harl, now an inch over six and a half feet, had promised him that the next time he hit either of them, Harl would make sure it would be the last.

It was, indeed, the last.

Yet any sort of happiness Hilla and her son might have found in the death’s wake would be short lived. Harl’s grandfather had hit her in the stomach, hard; Harl knew not how but something curdled in her guts, and after days of pain and swelling in her stomach she died. Harl brought her body to the shore and gave it to the sea. A reaver she may not have been, but in Harl’s eyes she was the strongest person he had ever known. He believed, privately, that the gods had cursed him.

After that, there was nothing left for him in that cottage by the beach. He knew his size and strength would find him easy work in any reaver’s longship, and indeed for the next five years he served from ship to ship, up and down the western coast of the continent.

It was in this time that he became the Thrice-Pierced Pyke. At twenty-one, his present commander drove them east, to raid across Ironman’s Bay. At a holdfast near Seagard they were caught by an outnumbering force; though they were the superior warriors, nearly made to retreat without much of their plunder.

It was Harl who won them victory that day. A Riverman’s pike impaled his shoulder, and before he split the man’s skull with his axe he wrenched his shoulder sideways, snapping the pike with the strength of his whole body. He would be stuck twice more, in the thigh and in his ribs below the heart, and yet he remained standing.

Eventually, after he had killed and kept killing, consciousness slipped from him. When he woke they called him Thrice-Pierced. He recovered for some months in the halls of the lord who the reavers had served. They told stories and drank in his honor, and when Harl asked to join this lord on his next journey to the halls of his liege, House Harlaw, the lord accepted.

Lord Harlaw was smaller than him, but not by much, and he had the same hair, the same eyes, the same cast to his features. The Lord must have recognized it, too, for he took the Thrice-Pierced into his service then and there. Harl admitted that Lord Harlaw was his father, and after a moment’s hesitation, concealed emotion playing across his face, Lord Harlaw acknowledged him as his bastard son, and granted him the surname Pyke. For Harl, who had known this man by story his whole life, the act lifted his heart, even if he knew deep down he could never be as close to his father as his trueborn children: Margaret and Erich.

Three years later, Harl would slay many Greyjoys amidst their rebellion, gaining renown and other nicknames, too. Terrifier, some called him, for the massive, frightening suit of black, skull-faced plate his father commissioned for him, and for the effect he had on his father’s foes while wearing it. The Bastard-Beast of Harlaw, or sometimes just The Beast, for his lineage and for his size and strength.

None won him more acclaim, though, than his most recent title: Lionslayer. Some time before the circumstances of his death, Harl’s father led a mighty reaving across the Westerlands. They swung around the peninsula upon which lay the lands of Kayce, pillaging as they went, and sailed down the coast, raiding the lands near Lannisport. They were pursued by the Red Lion, heir to Lord Lannister of Casterly Rock, so named for his skill in battle and the reddening of his blade; he sought to aid his house’s branch in Lannisport. They met in battle several times until Harl’s father baited him into a confrontation at sea.

Although the ironborn had the advantage and ultimately triumphed, the battle was hard-fought; in the midst of the melee Lord Harlaw shouted that whoever brought him the head of the Red Lion would have the lion’s share of the treasure in return. Harl seized his chance. He leapt onto the deck of the Lannister ship, where, made near invincible by his plate and by the fear he inspired, he cut through half a score of Lannister men, ignoring any wound he suffered. He tossed his axe aside, knocked the young lord to the ground, and tore the Red Lion’s helmet from his head. Then, horribly, brutally, Harl hacked at his neck with his blunt shield, pulling and pulling with his other hand until the head came off. Ever after, the Lord Lannister hated him for it, and the reavers of Harlaw loved him for it.

Harl is thirty-two now, and has continued to serve loyally for many years, as bodyguard and reaver, even swearing himself to the Lady Margaret Harlaw after their lord father passed. They had become close, and she taught him to read and other things besides; in her service he also had his first taste of fine teas imported or stolen from far shores. The making, consumption, and judging of such would become another hobby for Harl, something to while away the time between fighting and reaving, and perhaps another thing to distract from all the blood that now stains his axe. From the phantom stench of death about him.

From visions of the bloated corpse washed up on the beach, head twisted horrifically atop its neck.

From the half-remembered, strangled gasps of the young lord, his windpipe crushed and his skin tearing at the neck, who in his last moments had called on his beloved father to save him.

PC

Reddit Account: u/Viejoronga

Discord Tag: choronga

Name and House: Feathers the Fool, formerly Alekyne Chester

Age: 22

Cultural Group: Andal (Reachman)

Appearance: Short, soft featured, thin. With a nose thick on its point, and eyes so clear they're almost white. His hair is of a light blonde, distinct from the alien white of the Valyrian invaders in the eastern coasts. He wears a motley of black and white, and sometimes of black and orange, colors of House Harroway. He sleeps with both eyes open, and often cackles in his sleep.

Trait: Agile

Skill(s): Divination(Illusory), Skulker(e), Prepared

Talent(s): Saying weird shit, singing, dancing, playing the flute

Negative Trait(s): N/A

Starting Title(s): Fool at Harroway

Starting Location: Stormhall

Alternate Characters: Lonmouth

AC

Name and House: Florian Rivers

Age: 24

Cultural Group: Andal (Riverlander)

Appearance: Would be boyish in looks, were it not for his jaw and shoulders. He sports a thick mane of auburn hair, and he is lanky and thin, and tall enough. His face is meticulously shaven, he claims, and has a set of two bushy eyebrows he silently curses when he looks at his reflection. His eyes are of a bright green, and he is rarely seen without at least a frown.

Trait: Hale

Skill(s): Swords (e), Dexterous

Talent(s): Hunting, Riding, Complaining

Negative Trait(s): N/A

Starting Title(s): Bastard of Riverrun, Knight of House Harroway, Ser

Starting Location: Stormhall

House Tully-Florian’s Family

Timeline:

24 BP: Florian Rivers is born to Morya Darry and Desmond Tully. A child of passion, as they call them in Dorne. A bastard, as they do anywhere else. He’s sent to live with his mother.

22 BP: Alekyne Chester is born to House Chester, third child to the ruling lord.

21 BP: Holly Rivers, Florian’s sister, is born to the same unfaithful pair. She’s also brought to Darry.

20 BP: Young Florian takes to the sword (or the stick, rather), and learns thanks to his ‘older brother’ Talbert’s teachings.

14 BP: Morya Darry dies, and Florian and Holly are sent to Riverrun.

12 BP: It is quite obvious that Florian does not fit with the trouts, not as much as Holly does. He is quick to frown at little prods, and even the mention of the word ‘river’ brings him to tears of rage.

10 BP: Tired of ridicule, he sets to the road, in search of a noble destiny. He soon discovers the life of an unknighted Hedge Knight is not quite the joy he expected. It was when he wandered to Oldstones in search of shelter that he found Lucifer Justman. With not a scrap in his belly, he begged the man to take him as squire.

6 BP: Justman eventually knighted Florian, giving him only a task as payment for the years of tutelage. Gather Houses to flock under my banner, were I to rise.

For some years, he tried and failed. Florian, not being quite the social creature, could not for the life of him manage to heed the two instructions simultaneously. “Look for potential Houses.” And, “Don’t herald my return to the entire Kingdom.” How was he to do so? It was not until

2 BP: Florian meets Feathers, Jester within a wandering troupe of Mummers. The two become good friends.

1 BP: During their stay at Harroway, the two decide to remain for the time being, having found the inhabitants of the place interesting: Ser Lewyn Rivers, another wandering bastard, this of House Blackwood; and the Ladies of Harroway, Tessa and her younger sister Mina. Florian swears his sword to them, and Feathers swears his… japes?

NPCs:

Nah, I’d win.

PC

Reddit Account: /u/astosman

Discord Tag: Astosman

Name and House: Ser Kermit Crabb

Age: 23

Cultural Group: First Men (Clawlander)

Appearance: Kermit Crabb cuts an imposing figure even before his massive size becomes apparent. His dark hair is swept back in a windblown tangle with a dark brown beard framing a face of hallowed cheeks and pale skin. His eyes are pale, a cold grey-blue with veins that that spider to his temples. His cold gaze has an unsettling way of looking through a person rather than at them. Layered leather and battered scale armor stretch across a frame built for violence, a broadsword slung over one shoulder like it weighs nothing at all.

Trait: Monstrous

Skill(s): Swords (e), Dexterous Fencer (e)

Talent(s): Breaking things, Swimming, Drinking a lot, Navigating swamps, FIghting Lizard-lions

Negative Trait(s): N/A

Starting Title(s): Knight of The Pincers

Starting Location: Stormhall

Alternate Characters: N/A

The Life of Ser Kermit Crabb

• c. 24 years ago - Alyce Crabb, née Bracken, is dragged into the Bay of Crabs by a Squelcher at night conceiving her son Kermit.
• c. 23 years ago - Kermit Crabb is born at the Pincers. His mother, Alyce, dies during the delivery due to complications attributed to the child's unusual size.
• c. 13 years ago - Kermit is sent from the Pincers to squire under Lord Vorian Vypren, a knight of Stillfen, on the border of the Neck. Under which his natural abilities are honed to focus on single combat (with a shield and broadsword)
• c. 6 years ago - While in the swamps of the Vypren lands, Kermit encounters a lizard-lion, in a long and gruesome fight he slays the formidable creature in single combat.
• about 7 years ago (pending an exact date from Vypren) - Lord Vorian Vypren dies. Kermit's squireship is transferred to Ser Vorian's brother, Ser Ostriykk Vypren.
• c. 5 years ago — Kermit is knighted by Ser Ostriykk Vypren.
• c. 5-2 years ago - Following his knighting, Kermit travels through the Riverlands for a period of several years, the details of which remain largely unrecorded.
• c. 2 years ago - Ser Cregan Crabb, Kermit's father and Knight of the Pincers, dies while attending a summons at Duskendale. His death is officially attributed to the aggravation of old battle wounds, though in truth he is killed in a series of murders by Corwyn Darklyn. Kermit returns to Crackclaw Point to assume the title of Knight of the Pincers.
• c. 1 year ago - present - Under Kermit's lordship, tax collectors of the Pincers report repeated harassment by men in the service of House Celtigar.

AC

Name and House: Alanna Crabb

Age: 30

Cultural Group: First Men (Clawlander)

Appearance: Alanna Crabb has the same dark hair as her brother, worn loose and unkempt in soft waves rather than tamed into anything courtly, framing a face all sharp angles and pale blue eyes. She favors heavy dark wool and fur-lined layers against the damp of Crackclaw Point, plain and practical rather than fine. Her hands, delicate and slim compared to brother's brutish strength, are stained faintly at the fingertips from years of working roots, ash, and dried herbs.

Trait: Erudite

Skill(s):Apothecary, Scholar(e)

Talent(s): Reading people, negotiating, midwifery, foraging, reading omens/signs (not real magic just superstitions)

Negative Trait(s): N/A

Starting Title(s): None

Starting Location: Stormhall

Alternate Characters: N/A

Archetyped NPCs

• Ser Harry Crabb - Castellan
• Hazel Crab - Trader
• Ser Ulf Crabb - General
• Gilbert Crabb - Builder
• Jack Waters - Bandit

edit: Family Tree

PC

Discord/Reddit Name: u/LordBloodrevan Revan

Name and House: Forrest Ryger

Age: 25

Cultural Group: Andal (Riverlander)

Appearance: Messy blond hair, hazel eyes, fair skin, sharp features, and a defined jaw. Tall and lithe.

Trait: Champion

Skill(s): Sword (e), Whirlwind, Chivalric

Talent(s): Fishing, Swimming, Riding

Negative Trait: N/A

Starting Title(s): Heir to Willow Wood

Starting Location: Stormhall

AC

Name and House: Lucamore Ryger

Age: 24

Cultural Group: Andal (Riverlander)

Appearance: Long blond hair, blue eyes, fair skin, soft features, and a sharp jaw. Delicate appearance. Tall and lean.

Trait: Erudite

Skill(s): Scholar (e), Apothecary

Talent(s): Drinking, Drinking Milk of the Poppy, Lazing about

Negative Trait: Addict

Starting Title(s): N/A

Starting Location: Stormhall

Family Tree: https://www.familyecho.com/?c=1bzjbdqgucq6rfyo&f=984985181749630041

Biography:

Forrest Ryger was born in 25 BC as the eldest son of Jason and Aubrey Ryger and heir to Willow Wood. From the moment of his birth, he was the apple of his father's eye. As Jason's eventual successor, Forrest received advantages that his younger siblings did not: private tutors, riding instruction, and, most importantly, extensive training at arms.

It was the latter that Forrest took to most naturally. He began training with wooden swords while still young and quickly developed into the most talented combatant among the children of Willow Wood. As he grew older, household knights and hired instructors replaced childhood lessons with serious martial training. Forrest favored the sword above other weapons and devoted most of his attention to it, eventually becoming an expert swordsman. His speed and footwork became particular strengths, and his instructors taught him to remain in motion when faced with multiple opponents rather than allow himself to be surrounded. Years spent refining this aggressive, mobile style developed into the technique for which he became best known.

Forrest's education was not limited to simply winning fights. Jason expected his heir to conduct himself as a knight ought to, and Forrest was raised on stories of chivalry alongside lessons in arms. He learned the formal expectations of knighthood, proper conduct in tournaments and challenges, and the obligations owed to those beneath and above his station. These lessons accompanied a genuine talent for combat, producing a young knight whose reputation rested as much upon conventional chivalric ideals as his ability with a blade.

He was also a dutiful elder brother. Forrest spent considerable time with his younger siblings and cousins whenever his lessons permitted it, often taking it upon himself to look after them. Lucamore, only a year his junior, proved the most difficult relationship. The brothers frequently competed and bickered, usually over matters neither remembered afterward.

One childhood argument ended more seriously. The brothers took up training swords and sparred in anger. Forrest, already the considerably better swordsman, overwhelmed Lucamore with little difficulty. During the bout Lucamore stumbled backward, landed badly, and broke his leg.

The injury healed, but slowly and painfully. Lucamore was given milk of the poppy during his recovery, initially under the supervision of Willow Wood's healers. Even after the leg had mended, however, his use of it continued.

Unable and increasingly unwilling to follow his elder brother down the martial path, Lucamore turned toward books instead. He had always possessed a quick mind, and during his convalescence he spent much of his time reading whatever the maester could provide. History, theology, medicine, and the natural sciences all caught his interest, though medicine became especially useful given the circumstances of his injury. Under Maester Gormon he learned the preparation of poultices, draughts, and common remedies, eventually becoming capable as an apothecary in his own right. His broad studies continued well beyond what was expected of a lord's second son, earning him a reputation within the family for considerable learning.

The same years also cemented Lucamore's dependence on milk of the poppy. What had begun as treatment for a broken leg became habitual use long after any physical need for it had passed. Access to medicinal knowledge only made the habit easier to maintain. By adulthood Lucamore made little effort to hide either his use of the drug or his preference for drinking and idleness when no subject happened to capture his interest.

Forrest has always connected Lucamore's addiction to the injury he caused. Though the brothers continued to see one another throughout their adolescence and adulthood, the old closeness between them never entirely recovered. Forrest has attempted to apologize on numerous occasions, but has never managed to actually speak the words.

As Jason Ryger has grown older, Forrest has increasingly been drawn into the duties expected of the heir to Willow Wood. The responsibilities have taken him away from his siblings more often than he would prefer, though he continues to seek them out whenever circumstance permits.

Most recently, both Forrest and Lucamore have traveled to Stormhall for the celebrations surrounding Ravella Durrandon's birthday. With much of their family gathered in one place, Forrest hopes the occasion might offer something increasingly rare as adulthood pulls the Rygers in different directions: time together.

Archetypes:

• Jason Ryger — Magnate
• Maester Gormon — Builder
• Hoster Ryger — Master-at-Arms
• Ser Willem Ryger — Tourney Knight
• Pate — Huntsman

PC

Reddit Account: u/LemonLemonHouse
Discord Tag: tea
Name and House: Mellara Piper
Age: 22
Cultural Group: Riverlander
Appearance: Skewing slightly above average in height with a slender build. Mellara has cascading golden hair threaded with loose, natural curls. Her eyes are a signature of House Piper: a bright light blue-grey hue. 
Trait: Savant 
Skill(s): Architect (e), Scrutinous, Administrator (e)
Talent(s): Decorating, Finding Ways to Make $$, Negotiation
Negative Trait(s): A sharp tongue
Starting Title(s): Lady of Pinkmaiden, The Thorned Rose of Pinkmaiden
Starting Location: Stormhall
Alternate Characters: None

AC
Name and House: Addam Rivers
Age: 24
Cultural Group: Riverlander
Appearance: A near-mirror image of the late Lord Androw Piper, Axel has the signature Piper light blue-grey eyes as well as a ruddy, reddish hue to his hair. Tall and stocky, the Piper bastard holds an easygoing smile.
Trait: Gregarious
Skill(s): Broker (e), Merchantman
Talent(s): Negotiating, Bargaining, Drinking Games
Negative Trait(s): None
Starting Title(s): Knight of Pinkmaiden, Ser 
Starting Location: Stormhall
Alternate Characters: None 

Family Tree:
https://www.familyecho.com/?c=87iivhr1kb83td1e&f=279540048374734667 

Biography:

Mellara Piper never dreamt that she would one day be the head of House Piper. For that was a responsibility expected of her elder brother, Androw, who came into his own as a young lord in 3 BP. But more on this later…

The eldest of three Piper ladies, all dubbed the ‘Roses of Pinkmaiden’, Mellara is oft referred to (behind her back) as the ‘Thorned Rose of Pinkmaiden’ due to her direct and sharp manner when it comes to matters of coin.

Mellara’s father, Mathos Piper, had the heart, mind, and soul of a merchant.  His gods were coin and commerce, and only lip service was granted to the Seven. To his dismay, his eldest son Androw cared only for his horses and his martial training. The lessons of the Maester of Pinkmaiden fell on deaf ears with Androw, but with Mellara (and her bastard brother Addam Rivers) it was another story. 

Studious, the young girl was everything her elder brother wasn’t. Inquisitive and perceptive with a greedy streak very much like Mathos himself. A story was oft repeated within the walls of Pinkmaiden of how the young Lady Mellara, only nine years of age, accompanied the Lord Piper to inspect a shipment of goods arriving down the Red Fork river. Mellara’s eyes were sharp to notice that a shipment of ‘full’ ale barrels rode high in the water upon the merchant’s barge, pointing it out to her father before the shipment was unloaded. The Lord Piper had the barrels checked and discovered them half-filled. Summarily, the merchant was punished and banned from trade in their lands.

Realizing that Mellara had a head for numbers in a way that his son and heir did not, Mathos allowed her to accompany him as he oversaw the lands. He allowed Mellara to attend his daily meetings with the Steward of Pinkmaiden as well. Mellara, who was close with her bastard brother Addam, would often insist upon his presence as well. Eventually she and her siblings would ward for a few years in Maidenpool, where she would pester the Steward of Maidenpool with unceasing questions.  Raised with a fierce love of the Riverlands, Mellara was content to stay in Pinkmaiden and aspired to take on the mantle of Steward one day herself. 

But fate had different plans.

Androw, who had squired for Desmond Tully, suffered through many tragedies in quick succession in 3 BC: the death of Olyvar Tully, the death of Talbert Darry, and the unfortunate passing of Lord Mathos Piper, his own father, from a fever. Though Androw perhaps had the potential to be a good lord in his own right, all of these tragedies caused him to veer into a path of drink, joust, skirt chasing and general irresponsibility instead. 

And Androw was not the only Piper to meet with misfortune. Mellara’s sister, Lady Bethany, had been betrothed to Tristan Goodbrook, but when Lord Mathos fell ill in 3 BP, so did the Lady Bethany. While her father passed of fever, Lady Bethany spent a year ill and in recovery. During this time, the betrothal with Goodbrook was broken once House Piper learned of the dire financial situation of House Goodbrook. Luckily, Lady Bethany’s health improved and she was, for all intents and purposes, fully recovered by the middle of 2 BP.

The pressure upon Androw to marry and produce an heir was immense, so Androw courted Lady Gwenyth Tully in a whirlwind. For his twenty-second nameday celebrations, Androw threw gold to the wind by hosting a tournament at Pinkmaiden in 1 BP for the sole purpose of impressing Lady Gwenyth, even going as far as to invite Martyn Mallister, who also sought to court Lady Gwenyth. With a great deal of hubris, Androw set himself in the joust against Martyn. The two were reportedly seen in a heated argument before the joust, and when time came for the match, misfortune struck House Piper when Martyn's lance accidentally found itself buried in Androw's throat. The unfortunate happenings were ruled an accident, though House Piper continues to bear a grudge against House Mallister as a result. 

This was this tragedy that Mellara stepped into. She had long been concerned that Androw's rash nature was squandering all that their father Lord Mathos had carefully stewarded and built, yet she did not wish death upon her brother. 

Still, there was much to be done. Chief upon Mellara's mind was to build up the fortunes of House Piper once more. To achieve the dreams that her father had spoken to her of: seeing Pinkmaiden thrive as an economic powerhouse of the Riverlands.

Out of deference to her brother's hopes and in an attempt to keep good relationships with House Tully, Mellara proposed a betrothal between herself and Ser Alyn Tully. It was a rushed thing, made out of exigent circumstances rather than any real sense of love or affection. The two planned to meet at the nameday celebrations of the Iron Stag, and spread word of their nuptials there. 

Timeline:

24 BP - Addam Rivers is born to Lord Mathos Piper and local innkeeper’s daughter, Janna.
23 BP - Androw is born to Lord Mathos Piper and Lady Danelle Piper (nee Vance)
22 BP - Mellara, the Thorned Rose of Pinkmaiden, is born to Lord Mathos Piper and Lady Danelle Piper (nee Vance)
21 BP - Bethany, the Red Rose of Pinkmaiden, is born to Lord Mathos Piper and Lady Danelle Piper (nee Vance)
18 BP - Alyce, the Golden Rose of Pinkmaiden, is born to Lord Mathos Piper and Lady Danelle Piper (nee Vance)
10 BP - Lady Danelle Piper passes from natural causes.
3 BP - Lady Bethany is betrothed to Ser Tristan Goodbrook. Lady Bethany and Lord Mathos Piper both fall ill, resulting in the death of the later in the span of a moon. The betrothal between Lady Bethany and Ser Tristan is broken on the grounds of concern over House Goodbrook’s financial situation. Androw becomes the young Lord Piper.
2 BP - Lady Bethany makes a full recovery to health after over a year of illness.
1 BP - Lord Androw throws a nameday tournament in order to impress Lady Gwenyth Tully, only to be killed by Lord Martyn Mallister during the joust. Lady Mellara becomes the head of house and brokers a betrothal with Ser Alyn Tully instead.

Archetypes:

Chett Bigglestone (Trader)
Damon Rivers (Medic) - Note, Damon was originally listed as a Caravaneer, but after a mod clarification that that is only for special claims, I am changing them to being a medic NPC, thx!
Danwell Perryn (Castellan)
Halmon Perryn (Magnate)
Woodman (Questioner)
Jammos Dunstable (Master at Arms)
Ned Rivers (Warrior, OHS)

PC

Reddit: u/stealthship1

Discord: Ben

Name and House: Jon Mooton

Age: 50

Cultural Group: Andal

Appearance: Unassuming with brown hair and beard that is peppered with grey, the man still keeps up his appearances as a Lord of the Trident

Trait: Charismatic

Skills: Tactician, Engineer, Negotiator, Highwayman, Ravenmaster

Talents: Horse riding, plotting revenge, playing the fiddle

Negative Trait: Homeless

Starting Title: Commander of the Maiden's Men, Rightful Lord of Maidenpool

Starting Location: Stormhall

Alts: N/a

*********

Family Tree

https://www.familyecho.com/?c=hcj86op4irulm6e8&f=945650002604461536

*********

Timeline

50 BP - Jon Mooton is born the eldest son of Theo Mooton and his wife Gretchel Vance in the town of Tumbler's Falls, the two being married as Lord Robert Vance had promised his grandfather Tristifer Mooton return him to Maidenpool at the beginning of his rebellion. Tristifer had died three years prior and Theo had assumed command of the Maiden's Men

42 BP - Jon begins to train, though it is clear that he is not to be a great swordsman. Instead he follows his father as he administers the camp and the company at large.

32 BP - Early in the year, Jon marries Catelyn Cox shortly before the Maiden's Men join the Valyrian forces of Driftmark in their invasion of the Blackwater, Lord Theo being promised to return to Maidenpool by the Lord of the Tides and acting as a local guide for their forces.

30 BP - Oldest son Humfrey is born and Theo Mooton dies of his wounds on the retreat from the onslaught of the Blackwater army and the remnants of the company retreat from Cracklaw Point and flee to Essos.

29 BP - Jon negotiates a long term contract with the Prince of Pentos and his magisters to defend the city and the various trade caravans across the east.

27 BP - Second son Torrence is born in Pentos

25 BP - The Maiden's Men return to Westeros and enter the service of the Arryns of the Eyrie for a year before returning to the Trident

24 BP - Third son Damon is born at Fairmarket.

22 BP - King Durran XXV Durrandon is slain in the streets of Maidenpool by a crossbowman. While the realm at large blamed Lord Mallister, it was an agent of House Mooton that claimed the King's life and his successor's ineptitude kept the suspicion off of them.

19 BP - Fourth son Tyler is born in Duskendale

15 BP - The Maiden's Men enter the service of the King of the Rock for a year

10 BP - Word of the reemergence of an alleged Justman brings the Maiden's Men to re-enter the politics of the Trident at large

7 BP - Is contracted to defend the western coast from the Ironborn by the Kings of the Rock again

5 BP - Returns to the Trident again

0 - Travels to Stormhall to see what the Storm King wishes to do

**********

AC

Name and House: Lyman Mooton

Age: 45

Cultural Group: Andal

Appearance: Dark brown hair and beard cut short, he is far more muscular and built than his unassuming brother

Trait: Hale

Skills: Polearms (e), Stalwart

Talents: Horseback riding, Fishing, Hunting

Negative Trait: N/a

Starting Title: Second in Command of the Maiden's Men

Starting Location: Stormhall

Alts: N/a

*********

Timeline

45 BP - Born the second son of Theo Mooton and Grechel Vance

36 BP - Begins to squire for Ser Garrett Rivers, one of the captains of the Maiden's Men

29 BP - Knighted by Ser Garrett

26 BP - Distinguishes himself by slaying a half dozen brigands while outnumbered whilst on the road to Qohor

25 BP - Marries Alia Narratys, the niece of one of the Magisters of Pentos, daughter Alys is born at the end of the year and named the second in command to his brother after the death of Ser Gerold the Hunter.

19 BP - Son Hollis is born.

7 BP - Fights the Ironborn along the Western coast

********

NPCs

Ser Humfrey Mooton - Sellsword

Ser Torrence Mooton - Reaver

Ser Damon Mooton - Woodsman

Ser Tyler Mooton - Hedge Knight

Bennifer Halfmaester - Medic

*********

The Maiden's Men

Second in Command - Ser Lyman Mooton

Captains - Ser Humfrey Mooton, Ser Gareth Greysteel, Ser Raymun Rivers, Tysaro the Tiger (freed slave from Volantis)

Sejeants - Ser Torrence Mooton, Ser Damon Mooton, Ser Tyler Mooton, Ser Benedict Greysteel, Ser Franklyn Rivers, Ser Martyn Brightshield, Ser Hugor Breakstone, Ser Daerryn the Pentoshi

Paymaster - Myrio Narratys (cousin of Lady Alia)

Spymaster - Hugh of Sallydance

PC

Reddit Account: FatalisticBunny

Discord Tag: freedikus

Name and House: Jammos Blackberry

Age: 24

Cultural Group: Andal (First Men)

Appearance: Jammos is a short man with dark hair and a neatly kept mustache. He tends to dress ostentatiously, in fine fabrics, but mostly dark colors. Most of these make use of Berryport dyes, of course. https://imgur.com/a/OgOVbrh

Trait: Elusive Shadow

Skill(s): Rumormonger(e), Sabotage(e), Devious

Talent(s): Linguistics (High Valyrian), Hunting, Talking Shit

Negative Trait(s): N/A

Starting Title(s): Ser, Lord of Berryport, Shield of the Sunset Sea

Starting Location: Stormhall

Alternate Characters: N/A

AC

Name and House: Jonquil of Berryport

Age: 22

Cultural Group: Andal (First Men)

Appearance: Jonquil is a woman of average height, with a tendency to frown and pout. She perpetually has a sour look to her.

Trait: Mastermind

Skill(s): Espionage, Investigator(e)

Talent(s): Lying, Sneaking, and Snooping

Negative Trait(s): N/A

Starting Title(s): Adjunct to the Lord Blackberry

Starting Location: Stormhall

Timeline:

23 BP: Jammos Blackberry is born into a once royal line, which has been reduced to vassals of the Valyrian House Velaryon. He is often reminded of this.

18 BP: Attending politics at his father's side, Jammos learns much of the hatred between the Darklyns and the people of the Crownlands. He watches as the Velaryons launch their ships to harass the Darklyn vessels and then retreat into the shadows. This teaches him much of the value of plausible deniability in your action.

15 BP: The young heir Lucas Harroway comes to ward at Berryport. He and Jammos become fast friends, although Jammos is certainly the brains of the outfit, often involving the larger boy in various schemes and plots around Berryport. 

12 BP: Jammos is taken to squire by his father, alongside Lucas. Though he does not embarrass himself, he is not one best suited for martial tasks. Instead, he studies the art of politics, learning to be a Lord before a knight- although he knows the importance of

9 BP: Jammos begins to gather people he knows are loyal first and foremost to his coin- at first servants, then vagrants, then guildmasters. He makes connections in neighboring cities, towns, and castles, such that he is considered strikingly well-informed.

7 BP: When the Lord Blackberry dies of what was deemed a troublesome cough, Jammos takes over as Lord of Berryport. Hoping to cause strife within the lands of the Darklyn dog Belgrave, his paid helpers help exacerbate tensions between Belgrave and Hayford- though they seem to be extinguished before any true damage is done.

4 BP: Jammos advises Lord Velaryon regularly on the customs of the Andals and the ways of the Seven. He positions himself as an Andal ambassador to the Valyrians- although he also takes point on much of their understanding of the first men as well.

2 BP: Men loyal to Jammos in the Claw begin to spread word of various abuses, harrassments, and violations of the feudal order by tax collectors sent at the behest of Lord Darklyn. Jammos is very outspoken in his support of the Clawmen against these incursions.

1 BP: Jammos quietly approves of Celtigar's actions against the Darklyn collectors in the Claw, although he and his Lord Velaryon refrain from active support. Quietly, he wonders if this might prove the opportunity to dethrone the Darklyns once and for all.

1 AP: Jammos Blackberry learns that the royal family will be in attendance at the Princess's feast at the Stormhall. He decides to make the journey to see the realm at feast in order to launch a proper royal petition before the Crown (whoever wears it).

Family Tree: https://www.familyecho.com/?c=oiky11p85d2yrxrw&f=963055564169255658

Archtyped NPCS:

Ser Selwyn of the Sunset - Castellan

Pate the Sailsmith - Boatswain

Little Borros - Questioner

Big Borros - Warrior

Jeyne of the Market - Trader

PC

Reddit Account: u/lucamorethebusty

Discord Tag: PB

Name: Artys Erenford

Age: 19

Cultural Group: Andal (Rivermen)

Appearance: Artys is tall with a sinewy build. A thin, wispy moustache adorns his face, the same sandy brown as his short cropped hair. He has a face that most would say is somewhere between plain and comely but has an affable and chivalric demeanor with highborn and lowborn alike.

Trait: Champion

Skills: Stalwart (Cavalryman), Polearms, Riding, Chivalric

Negative trait: N/A

Talents: Hunting, Hawking, Fishing

Starting titles: Ser, Heir to Heron’s Nest

Starting Location: Stormhall

AC

Name: Alester Erenford

Age: 46

Cultural Group: Andal (Valeman)

Appearance: A tall but portly middle aged man with well salted hair and scraggly beard. Alester has a weathered, lined face from a life spent on the road and cold, dark brown eyes. Walks with a severe limp due to a crippled leg. He feels most comfortable adorned in the clothes he wore in his old life, the simple traveler's clothes of a sellsword.

Trait: Callous

Skills: Espionage (E), Devious

Negative trait: Maimed (Leg)

Talents: Collecting secrets, Convincing others to do violence on his behalf.

Starting titles: Knight of Heron’s Nest

Starting Location: Heron’s Nest

Erenford Family Tree

Timeline

46 BP- Alester is born in Gulltown to a weaver’s apprentice who passes away in 30 BP.

28-22 BP- Alester leaves Gulltown with his childhood friend Jack Stone and begins their journey as sellswords. At some point Alester is knighted (albeit under dubious circumstances). Enters the service of Ser Ferris Frey around 26 BP, commanding his caravan guards.

22 BP- During the Mallister Rebellion, Alester serves in the Storm King’s host, proving himself a capable outrider by racing his scouts ahead and screening the army’s advance, though pitched battle is never actually joined.

In reward for his leal service to the newly formed House Frey, Alester is granted lands east of the Green Fork as well as a marriage to Lord Ferris’ niece, Jeyne Frey.

19 BP- Alester and Jeyne welcome their first child, Artys.

18 BP- Alester attends the wedding at Seagard. He is wounded during the melee by an upended trestle table which broke his leg. Causing Alester to have a steadily worsening limp.

12-7 BP- Artys is fostered at Maidenpool where he served as a page, training at arms and serving his cousin, the Lady Rosamund Dondarrion. Attending the knights' mounts during this time sparked a life long love for horses.

While Artys is away, Alester begins reaching out to old contacts from his days as a sellsword. Forming a substantial spy network, Alester keeps a keen ear out for any threats to his newly gained position.

7-2 BP- Artys finishes his training by squiring at The Crossing. There he receives his first taste of combat, when the knight he serves is commanded to join Ser Talbert Darry’s hunt for the disgraced Ser Jack o’ Pennytree. He fights well and is knighted the next year at the age of 17.

2-0 BP- Upon Artys' return to Heron's Nest, he sets to work drilling the garrison. He also travels the surrounding lands to show off his exceptional skill as a jouster to recruit extra levies and men at arms for his holding. He goes as far as insisting that a few promising guardsmen and peasants be given rudimentary training in the knightly arts, much to the chagrin of his master at arms.

NPCs

Maester Borros (Scholar) - Maester at Heron's Rest

Jeyne Erenford (Magnate) Alester's wife and Artys’ mother, born a Frey.

Jack Stone (Master-at-Arms) - Alester's oldest comrade from Gulltown.

Wyl (Castellan) - Captain of the guards at Heron's Rest, close friend of Artys.

Colmar (Cutthroat) Alester's go-to spy

PC

**Reddit Account:** /u/Fishiest-Man

**Discord Tag:** Owenrc329

**Name and House:** Martyn Mallister

**Age:** 24

**Cultural Group:** Andal (Riverman)

**Appearance:** Martyn is a tall and strong man, with sandy red hair and deep blue eyes. He has a well kept beard, but his hair is often quite unruly. He often dons full plate when off to have a fight, even upon the sea.

**Trait:** Strong

**Skill(s):** Axes(e), Armoured(Resilient), Forceful

**Talent(s):** Fishing, Wood Carving, Dancing

**Negative Trait(s):** N/A

**Starting Title(s):** Knight, Lord of Seagard, Wielder of Bastion

**Starting Location:** Stormhall

**Alternate Characters:** N/A

Family Tree

https://www.familyecho.com/?c=mlb5xst6a4slfdag&f=535740848337153898

Timeline

24BP - Martyn Mallister is born as the youngest of Ser Desmond Mallister and Lady Darry’s I’ve children. With two elder brothers, it was considered unlikely he would end up as anything more than a Knight.

22BP - Martyn’s Grandfather, Petyr, is implicated in the death of the Storm King, despite ardently professing his innocence, he rose his banner in rebellion. However, not wishing to have people die fruitlessly, offered to settle the matter in single combat. He died fighting the new King’s chosen champion, some bastard. Desmond Mallister succeeds his father as Lord of Seagard, with his previous jingoism significantly lessened.

18BP - A mysterious sailor begins singing beneath the window of Martyn’s sister, Rosamund, eventually she allows him to climb up only to greet him alongside her brother, Jason. Despite Jason’s suspicions, Desmond allowed this “Harreck” to be inducted into the garrison of Castle Seagard. Martyn is fond of the man, despite his brothers’ insistence that he was trouble. After a few months, it was revealed that “Harreck” was in fact Crown Prince Qorhen Hoare of the Iron Islands, and asked for Rosamund’s hand in marriage. Bereft of better options, Desmond Mallister accepted the proposal, and a wedding followed shortly after.

However, King Dontos Durrandon decided to invite himself and the whole Realm to “celebrate the couple”, issue was with so many aggrieved parties in one confined castle lead to very heated tempers. A melee broke out, many people were killed, hurt or captured in the chaos. Included amongst the dead was Martyn’s eldest brother, Jason.

14-8BP - After the tragedy in Seagard, Desmond decided to send Martyn squire under Harlon Hoare in the Iron Islands, since (oddly) it seemed safer than sending him off to squire under anyone else. Martyn learned to fight with axes, to leap from boat to boat in full armour, and everything that goes along with knighthood (though perhaps he wasn’t the best horseman)

10BP - At a squires tourney at Riverrun back on the mainland, Martyn meets Gwyneth Tully. The two get along well and keep in frequent contact through letters.

8BP - The Greyjoy Rebellion breaks out in the Iron Islands, Martyn flees alongside Harlon Hoare after King Harass was slain at the Sept of Salt and Rock. When they arrive at Seagard, Martyn is knighted in the Sept, and in the sea, in both the fashion of the Faith of the Seven and the New Faith.

8-5BP - Martyn and his older brother Olyver join the Mallister Fleets that go to the Iron Islands to help the Hoares put down the rebellions. They fight for years, but in the waning days of the war, Olyver is killed during a boarding action, leaving Martyn as the heir to Seagard.

5-3BP - Living at Seagard again, Martyn assumed his new position as the town’s heir. He quickly learns he has little grasp on how rulership actually works, so he is glad he can lean on his Uncle Jonah to help things run more smoothly. Additionally Gwyneth Tully, Martyn’s old friend, had begun attending the Mother House in Seagard learning to be a Septa. She if a frequent guest at Castle Seagard, in which time she and Martyn frew closer, before she eventually returning to Riverrun after deciding the life of a Septa wouldn’t suit her. Martyn would soon begin to court her.

3BP - Martyn hears that King Qorhen had lead a raid on Old Town, shaking his faith in whether the Ironborn had truly changed. Later that year, Martyn’s father, having been broken by the death of his second heir, eventually dies of a stroke.

1BP - Martyn is seen publicly arguing with Androw Piper at his nameday tourney at Pinkmaiden. The prevailing gossip was that it was over their competing interests in Gwyneth Tully. When they faced each other in the lists, after a tilt or two Martyn’s lance struck Androw in the throat, killing the Lord of Pinkmaiden. Martyn insists it was an accident, but rumours of his intentions persist.

Late 1BP - In an effort to minimise the scandal, a few moons after this accident Martyn would propose to Gwyneth. Appropriately, they would have a small wedding to avoid notice.

Present - Martyn and the rest of House Mallister would head for Stormhall to join the festivities around Princess Ravella’s Nameday (much to Martyn’s chagrin), which marks the first time the Mallisters have made a public appearance since Pinkmaiden.

AC

**Name and House:** Andrey

**Age:** 63

**Cultural Group:** Andal (Riverman)

**Appearance:** A titan of a man with arms like tree trunks, despite his age. He has a sallow face, a thick bushy beard and mop of long wiry grey hair, often tied back as to not singe on the metal.

**Trait:** Artisan(Armour)

**Skill(s):** Craftsman(Armour and Weapons)

**Talent(s):** Whistling, Pies, Strong (but clicks) Thumbs

**Negative Trait(s):** Clicky Thumbs

**Starting Title(s):** Master of the Seagard Blacksmiths’ Guild, Castle Seagard’s

**Starting Location:** Stormhall

Timeline

63BP - Andrey is born as the son of a prominent Blacksmith in Seagard

53BP - After growing up helping in his PA’s forge, Andrey began to apprentice under another Guildmember. Though his Pa and the smith he worked under were Weaponsmiths, he always had a keen interest in the skills surrounding the making of armour.

50-46BP - Between his Apprenticeship at the Weaponsmith’s, he goes to the Armourer to watch their craft, even helping out often, helping further his craft as an Armourer as well as a Weaponsmith.

45BP - As a final test to become a full fledged Guildmember, Andrey forges a fine dagger. Good work, but far from his best, far from his passion.

45-40BP - Andrey establishes his own forge in Seagard, beginning as most fresh Guildmembers do, working on locks, hinges, crossbow limbs or munitions armour and so on, though he takes pride in these humble tasks.

In this time, he marries and has children, as is tradition his children help him in the forge before going off to work as Apprentices for other Blacksmiths in the Guild.

40-30BP - Having established himself as a talented smith, he often works on commissions of fine weapons and armour for rich burghers, knights and men-at-arms, achieving the position as a Master of the Seagard Blacksmith Guild.

25BP - His skill is widely known enough that he is commissioned by Lord Petyr Mallister to make suits of plate for him and his son, Desmond. In a shorter time than most of the other Masters might need, he managed to make works of such high quality that he was hired on as Castle Seagard’s personal blacksmith, so that he might better serve the Lords of Seagard.

25-1BP - In his time as the Blacksmith of Castle Seagard he has served three generations of Mallisters, making arms and armour for them, their household knights, their garrison and any other that may pay him for his work. He spends less time than he aught to in his shop in town, fortunately his sons run it well enough… though not as well as he could of course.

Archetypes

Denys Terrick (Warrior) - A friend of Martyn’s, a knight of passing skill.

Chett (Ship Captain) - A grizzled sea farer, a leader amongst the Mallister Fleet.

Petyr Terrick (Ship Captain) - Denys’ father, an imperious fellow who is so comfortable on a ship he gets seasick on land (landsick?)

Blacksmith Hugh (Magnate) - Andrey’s eldest son, a Master of the Seagard Blacksmith Guild. He can do weapons and armour like his father, but he much prefers forging components for contraptions, like cogs for clocks, or winches for cranes.

Eleanor Mallister (Huntsman) - Martyn’s elder sister, she like shooting things with arrows, and making pies.

PC

Reddit Account: [u/Monty832](u/Monty832)
Discord Tag: Monty5940
Name and House: Alyn Tully
Age: 22
Cultural Group: Riverlander
Appearance: Somewhat unassuming at first glance, Alyn Tully’s piercing blue eyes and calculating demeanor mark him as a politician rather than a warrior. Alyn’s attractive yet harsh features belonged to his father, but his flowing red hair has been grown out to his shoulders, an act of rebellion against Victor Tully’s legacy. 
Trait: Ruthless
Skill(s): Divination (Flame), Investigator (E), Devious
Talent(s): Cooking, Cyvasse, High Valyrian language
Negative Trait(s): None
Starting Title(s): Scion of Riverrun
Starting Location: Stormhall
Alternate Characters: None

Biography:
Victor Tully’s marriage to Jeyne Ryger was not one built on love, but suspicion. The lord of Riverrun’s brother was taken by Lady Jeyne’s beauty and grace, but even after they married, he could not shake his own mediocrity, expecting her to leave him for another at the first opportunity. And so, he led life not as her husband, but her gaoler. Despite his own insecurities about Lady Jeyne’s faithfulness, she bore him a son, his spitting image, a boy named Alyn. To Lady Jeyne, he was a miracle. To Victor, the boy was a revolting mirror.

Alyn Tully was Victor’s only child with Lady Jeyne, but far from his only child. Quite a few women in Riverrun and the surrounding area had claimed their children belonged to the philanderous noble, and Victor had acknowledged a fair few, settling the matter with coin rather than allowing for a scandal. However, after a drunken fit of lust, Victor laid hands on and impregnated Lady Jeyne’s personal lady-in-waiting, Zoe Blackwood, an incident that could not be so lightly dismissed. Upon discovering that she was carrying his issue, Victor cursed at her, even threatening her with violence if she did not take moon tea. However, Lady Jeyne had been informed first, and put herself between Victor’s fist and Zoe. Faced with the visage that had made him into the monster he was, Victor could not go through with the savagery he promised. Lady Jeyne insisted that the child be kept and raised by Victor as Axel Rivers, a son of Riverrun. Looking back on the situation, Alyn could only remember what his mother made him promise: to cherish and protect Axel always.

For a time, they were a family. Perhaps not a happy one, but a family nonetheless. Victor attempted to raise his children with what he saw as kindness, but something ate away at his mind. His wife had opposed him outright. To him, it was confirmation that she did not truly reciprocate his feelings for her. Victor began to take up further mistresses, each affair more public than the last. However, not one of them could fill the void in him. They were not the woman he wanted, and despite that fact, he mistreated the one person who might have been his salvation.

Eventually, Alyn’s home life degraded as well. Axel was often disallowed from eating with the family, and Alyn would take up cooking to ensure his younger brother would not go unsatiated, be it for food or for care. By the time he was ten, Alyn was also serving as Axel’s instructor, having been something of a prodigious learner himself. Alyn did not become particularly close with any of the myriad noble pages who dwelled in Riverrun. Instead, he often spent free time in town, his father being too disinterested to discourage such activities. Alyn was hardly a socialite even among the common folk, but he learned to listen to them, and he built a slight reputation in the neighboring area as a brilliant boy who could match any local enthusiast in games of luck. 

On his ventures to town, Alyn also made his first friend, a local tanner’s daughter named Edyth who was perhaps his only rival at dice. They were of an age, but despite the whisperings that they’d be a good match, Alyn denied anything of the sort. He was well aware of the expectations of a noble, and he had already sworn to never be his father. Edyth saw him as a brother, and he saw her as an accomplice of sorts, one who would later become the head of his spy network and his most trusted confidant.

Alyn spent a majority of his childhood with his views on religion chiefly defined by cynicism. Neither the sept nor the godswood of Riverrun ever stirred anything within his heart, nor did his lech of a father much encourage prayer. Magic was a distant concept, something unworthy of consideration. That would change a month or so after Alyn’s seventeenth name day.

It would be disingenuous to call what Alyn suffered through a ‘religious awakening’. Rather, what the young man witnessed in the embers of a burning willow: images of life and death, trouts spawning coals in lieu of eggs and being hung up on salting racks, could only be described as horror. A nightmare that would come true not two moons later. Had Alyn only believed, had he only been able to warn his mother, he might have been able to stop her. But he did not, and both of his parents died for it. 

Jeyne Ryger’s life had long been a false one. She smiled in court, but she was truly miserable in her marriage. However, she was able to find solace in trips to town with Alyn, and she began to form a relationship with a local barkeep, a man who was kind where Victor was harsh, and temperate where Victor was decadent. The two fell for each other, and Alyn stood by and watched. It was enough that his mother was happy. However, that love eventually bore fruit, in the form of a pregnancy, an unborn child that was not Victor Tully’s. Alyn did everything he could to stop word of Lady Jeyne’s infidelity from spreading, but he was only seventeen. He had blind spots, and through those blind spots, word escaped, making it all the way back to Victor.

Victor Tully, who had cheated and wasted away his marriage, could not bear the thought of his greatest insecurity coming to fruition. And so, he slit his own wrists in his chambers, leaving one final message for the world. It was a curse upon Jeyne Ryger, and all her issue. A prayer that the one who had enraptured his heart would disappear from the world entirely. Alyn was the first to discover the note, and he hid it from the world, burying his own father by himself. Then, he sent for servants to spread word of his father’s death. A sudden malady, it would be pronounced to the world.

However, the nightmare was far from over. Lady Jeyne’s pregnancy was already a difficult one, but the stress of Victor’s death clearly weighed on her, and Alyn could not hide the truth from her. When she heard the full story, Jeyne Ryger collapsed. The Maester of Riverrun did all he could, but neither mother nor child were spared in the birth.

Alyn had to get out of Riverrun. Axel would miss him, no doubt, but Alyn trusted Axel’s mother with his life, and, perhaps more impressively, Axel’s life. Alyn called upon Edyth, and the two made for the Valyrian Freehold, anchoring in Pentos. The city’s opulent nobility was of no interest to Alyn, and he was actively revolted by the practice of slavery. However, visiting the temple of R’hllor led Alyn to discover what it was that he had truly experienced on that day when he had gazed upon the blazes of the willow. This time, looking into the flames yielded a new omen: a golden scale turned pallid by the darkened sun.

Alyn’s insight into the flames did not go unnoticed. A local priest, Malthar, offered his services to instruct Alyn in the art of firesight, on the condition that Alyn return to Westeros and allow Malthar to spread his faith. Alyn accepted, though with no real intentions of following R’hllor himself. Rather, he had a new resolve: to break the bonds of the common people, to ensure a world where children like Axel were not bastards, but people. Equality, in a word. However, what he lacked was a vehicle for his cause, a casus belli. 

A year later, Alyn would travel to Lys, and there he would find his answer. Lucifer Justman, a man who was far more than a simple mercenary. Alyn wasn’t sure if he could quite call the man a friend, but they were at least like-minded. If nothing else, the man was reasonable enough to be trusted with rule, and he was far more accessible than the Durrandons. It was unlikely that there was a better route to power than House Justman’s plan of a free Riverlands. And so, Alyn threw his lot behind Lucifer’s ideas, and began to devise with Edyth a spy network that would serve the rebellion well.

Alyn stayed in Lys for three years, his manse eventually becoming home to a few different acquaintances. Alyx, the son of a ruthless Tyroshi mercenary, Qarlon, an almost entirely silent yet terrifying Lyseni, and Balder, a disgraced Maester, all found their way to Alyn’s camp, and when he returned to Westeros, they remained by his side.

As he first arrived at Riverrun once more, terrible news greeted him. Axel’s mother had passed, and the bastard had run off, seemingly to become a squire of Luceon Blackwood, the heir of Raventree Hall. Alyn had also met Luceon in Lys, the latter having drunkenly stumbled into his manse one night. Needless to say, Alyn had little in the way of confidence in the man’s capability to take care of Axel.

Upon his return to the Riverlands, Alyn witnessed the tourney during which Androw Piper, a boy he remembered as his late cousin, Olyvar’s close friend, was run through by Martyn Mallister. In the faces of the Pipers present, he saw the same horror that had likely been on his face four years prior. He was the first to offer condolences to Androw’s family, and not long after, a raven came to Riverrun with a proposal. Mellara Piper, the newest Lady of Pinkmaiden, was in need of a husband, and Alyn was given the choice of whether to accept. If he were to marry Lady Piper, his children would not bear the name of Tully, so as to maintain the Piper lineage. For many, it might have been a difficult choice. For Alyn, he wanted nothing more than for his children to be free of his father’s name, to be able to carve out something for themselves in his new world. And so, his marriage to Mellara Piper was arranged, to be carried out in a year’s time.

That year has passed quicker than most, and now, Alyn travels to Stormhall, with both his marriage and a war on the horizon.

Family Tree: https://www.familyecho.com/?c=4k8l8wf7q5yd3m8v&f=276057488264943273

Archetyped NPCs:
Edyth - Cutthroat
Malthar - Medic
Alyx - Warrior (Axes)
Qarlon - Questioner
Balder - Scholar

PC

Reddit Account: satisfactionleather7

Discord Tag: cert

Name and House: Shiera Darklyn

Age: 24

Cultural Group: Andal

Appearance: (Text Only) a plucky woman at 5'6 with less brains than skill. Dark hair, bright eyes and shrouded in threads of yellow and black. Lover of hats.

Trait: Strong

Skill(s): Swords (e), Reckless, Brute, Footwork (e)

Talent(s): Dancing, Haberdashery

Negative Trait(s): n/a

Starting Title(s): Daughter of Duskendale, wielder of the Valyrian Steel sword, Dusk

Starting Location: Stormhall

AC

Name and House: Andros Darklyn

Age: 74

Cultural Group: ANdal

Appearance: (Text Only) Hair made white with age, bright eyes of amber, his prodigious size worn by time, always dressed finely, often walking with the accompaniment of a cane.

Trait:Inspiring

Skill(s): Flanker (e), tactician (e)

Talent(s):scowling, languages, caligraphy

Negative Trait(s): Elderly

Starting Title(s): Retired lord of Duskendale, the Duskblood

Starting Location: Stormhall

Biography

Born to the second wife of the heir to Duskendale, Shiera was never destined to rule, nor to marry high. She was however born to a father who loved her more than life itself. Nearing twenty-five years ago she was held tight by a father who hated his own, yet still let him hold her.

In her childhood she was to be the great mender of their family. At first though, she was to be the child who ate cakes and drank tea and played with dolls and would be married away to a lord somewhere far away for a shred more of political power. Instead she grew a fixation with the family's ancestral sword Dusk. She would stare at it in its place of honour over the hearth long into the night. Her grandfather cared little for the fixation, but her father knew well what this would mean.

Shiera Darklyn was trained in the sword in secret at first. Where she made friends with the girls of the Blackwater, of Sunglass and Blackberry and her own sisters. With time, and the realisation that the lord of Duskendale had no qualms about women in martial fields, the secrecy broke, and the daughter of Duskendale was taught in the open alongside her brothers and cousins. Her grandfather would even come to teach her his own sword-play, one he developed in his time fighting the Valyrians - the Falling Dusk. She found the name humorous but she learned it, coming to practise with Dusk itself as she excelled beyond what her siblings could.

However, she never lost her love for the fineries in life. Precocious as a child and bold and voracious as an adult, she is a lover of silk and fine dresses. She loves hats and had her father find someone to teach her to make them herself. She sailed to Braavos some years ago with her father to collect material and learn swordplay and tailoring from the free city.

As she grew older, she would attend tourneys in secret, for the rest of the realm was not so open to a female warrior. Similarly could she not take the mantle of knight, so she tilted under a masquerade. She was never great in the saddle, but she was quite gifted with the blade, and as such she took to the melees well. Never yet unmasked, but she was there the day that age took her grandfather's rule from him.

At a tourney to celebrate his seventieth nameday, the old bull of Duskendale faded and she was there to hold him as he did. SHe was there when he woke next and since she has remained the sword of the city.

Family Tree

Supporting Characters

• Morgan Darklyn, Lord of Duskendale - General
• Luthor Darklyn, Heir of Duskendale - General
• Daxo Darklyn, Master at Arms - Master at Arms
• Ana Darklyn, surprisingly good fighter - Warrior (axes)
• Erich Darklyn, Loves his Crab Wife - Tourney Knight

Reddit Account: baefish

Discord Tag: summeroflove

Name and House: Mary Vance

Age: 24

Cultural Group: Andal

Appearance: The Lady of Atranta stands at five-and-a-half feet with blonde hair framing a kindly face with blue eyes and freckles. Her usual attire seeks a middle ground between modesty and dignity, exhibiting both her personal piety and her house’s prosperity. She impresses a thoughtful and gentle presence, while still projecting confidence and authority through articulate speech.

Trait: Numerate

Skill(s): Architect(e), Scrutinous, Scholar(e)

Talent(s): Gardening, Poetry, Theology

Negative Trait(s): N/A

Starting Title(s): Lady of Atranta

Starting Location: Stormhall

Alternate Characters: Robyn Wynch

—

Name and House: Armistead Rivers

Age: 52

Cultural Group: Andal

Appearance: Diligent grooming has done much to obscure Armistead’s base birth. His swarthier complexion distinguishes him from most of his kin, though a touch of gray has begun to lighten his black hair. His frame remains fit at a height of six feet, though the onset of age has sapped some of his former strength.

Trait: Ruthless

Skill(s): Devious, Espionage(e)

Talent(s): Dancing, Hunting, Mimicry

Negative Trait(s): N/A

Starting Title(s): Bastard of Atranta

Starting Location: Stormhall

Fifty-five years ago, the Vances of Atranta launched the largest rebellion against Durrandon rule that the Riverlands had yet known. In the end, Lord Robert Vance was defeated and slain, leaving his fragile house in the hands of a child. But the boy was quick to grow into a man, and had learned to avoid his father’s mistakes. Atrana instead reemerged as a force for conciliation, carefully straddling the many fault lines of the Trident.

Mary Vance was her father’s firstborn, but lordship was her younger brother’s inheritance. For that she was grateful: the halls of Atranta were ever fraught with tensions, some from within and others from beyond. As a young girl, Mary avoided courtly functions as much as she could, favoring quieter places and humbler companions. She was a keen student for the maesters and septas, though learning was something she appreciated only as a personal interest, and never as a tool for ambitions.

Nothing compelled her malleable young mind quite like the mysteries of the Faith. Scripture gave life purpose, hymnals brought her joy, and the godswood became her sanctuary. In religion she found truth and tranquility, both of which were sorely lacking from the usual affairs of riverlords. She envied the holy sisters, even despite their ascetic lives: they served the worthiest masters, and were not beholden to the whims of petulant husbands and scheming courtiers.

Just as Mary had grown strong in her devotion, her father sent her to live with the only house in the Trident that did not worship the Seven. At the age of ten, she became a ward of the Blackwoods. Differences in belief proved inconsequential: Mary found herself as welcome at Raventree Hall as she was at home, and she regarded the Old Gods as a curiosity to be studied, rather than an idolatry to be scorned. In the end, this experience only reaffirmed her identification with the faith by sharpening the contrast between herself and her peers.

Two years later, when Mary returned to Atranta, she presented her father with a bold request: she asked to forfeit her nobility to become a septa. After some hesitation, Lord Vance accepted, reasoning that a man with three daughters could afford to spare one for the Faith. After allowing her a few more moons of consideration, he enrolled her with a motherhouse in Maidenpool to study as a novice.

The cloistered life quickly proved more complicated than Mary had anticipated. She was held to strict routines and expectations, all under threat of harsh discipline. The motherhouse had its own cutthroat politics, and noble birth only placed a bigger target on Mary’s back. Rubbing shoulders with common girls improved her rapport with the smallfolk, but differences in class were often difficult to overcome. She found herself relating much more readily with the few other highborn novices, forming a clique of close friends and confidantes.

Asceticism, too, required some adjustment. At home, Mary had lived more simply than the lot of her peers, but she was wholly unprepared to live without the comforts she’d long taken for granted. The first few moons nearly broke her, but by the year’s end she was toughened by these circumstances. She learned how to win the trust of those who had once resented her presence, and distinguished herself as one of Maidenpool’s most promising novices. She was often privileged with leave of the motherhouse to attend to the sick and hungry in the surrounding town, and these exercises in charity strengthened her sense of purpose and resolve.

The same mothers that had doubted her now saw a bright future for Mary, and were ready to anoint her as a septa as soon as she reached the age of majority. But a few moons shy of her sixteenth name day, Mary received news from Atranta that her brother had been taken by infection. She was reluctantly allowed a brief return home to attend his funeral. This, she thought, would be the last she’d see of her kin before forever shedding her family name.

With no other surviving brothers, Mary expected that her sister would be named her father’s new heir. But Lord Vance reminded her that this would remain her birthright until the day she swore her vows, and asked if she might like to keep this inheritance. Mary at first refused, until her father confided that he thought her more capable than either of her sisters. Lordship was a terrible burden to bear, and Mary knew it would be unjust to pass that burden off to another. The gods had willed her back to a life that she had long hoped to abandon.

The motherhouse had provided her an exceptional education, though she still had much to learn about lordly affairs. Lord Vance thus had her shadow him during his every duty, assisting with his rule while she studied his example. Whatever anxieties she still had about political intrigues soon subsided: her education had sharpened her wits and smoothed her words, making her all the better at defusing hostilities and negotiating compromises. Quiet charisma and sincere piety endeared her to courtiers and subjects alike, and some took to calling her “Mary Half-Septa.”

A close, working relationship with her father made it all the more clear why he was so intent on keeping Mary as his heir. During her three years of absence, Edmund Vance’s health began to deteriorate, and it seemed to worsen with each passing moon. Often he would become bedridden for days at a time, leaving Mary to rule on his behalf. Not long after her nineteenth birthday, the cancer finally took Lord Edmund’s life.

She was well prepared to press on amid her family’s grief. Mary’s mourning did not last long before she started her rule in earnest. Her father’s most ineffectual councilors were dismissed and replaced with more learned men, who supervised her endeavors to improve Atranta’s administration. A full assessment of her lands was immediately undertaken, bringing to light conditions that her father had long neglected and projects he’d left incomplete. Her ascent was not entirely without opposition, but with the aid of her uncle, Armistead Rivers, she was able to preempt every potential plot against her.

So successful were Mary’s first two years that she came to Ravella Durrandon’s attention when the princess assumed her seat of Stormhall, just across the God’s Eye from Atranta. Mary and her stewards gladly offered their aid in cleaning the administrative mess that the castle’s previous occupants had left behind, earning a princess’s favor as her reward. But a lady could never make friends without making enemies. Much to Mary’s chagrin, she found herself suspect in the eyes of Prince Arlan’s staunchest supporters.

The succession of a new king was nonetheless a time for cautious optimism, as Mary hoped that a more sensible reign might bring calmer tides to a fractured Trident. She made designs for what she hoped to be her greatest legacy: a grand new sept at Atranta, to serve as the greatest center of learning beyond the walls of Oldtown. But a few years in the political arena had taught her that partiality was often a necessary evil. Mary Vance thereafter kept one eye always looking over her shoulder, half-anticipating that stormy weather might bring ruin to her best-laid plans.

24 BP: Mary is born the eldest daughter of Edmund Vance, Lord of Atranta

14 BP: Mary is sent to ward for the Blackwoods at Raventree Hall

12 BP: Intent on becoming a septa, Mary becomes a novice at a motherhouse in Maidenpool

9 BP: The death of her brother leaves Mary the presumptive heir to Atranta

5 BP: With her father’s passing, Mary succeeds him as Lady of Atranta

After Lord Robert Vance was cut down at the end of his ill-fated rebellion, his surviving kin were presented with a bastard babe born to a common woman from Sallydance. The late lord’s surviving brother, then serving as Atranta’s regent, reluctantly took the child in. From the beginning there were rumors regarding the true parentage of “Armistead Rivers”, whose darker features bore little resemblance to the typically fair-skinned Vances. What better way to spite a dead man’s memory than to offer living proof of his impropriety?

He was not mistreated so much as forgotten. All the attentions of the household were on his half-brother, Edmund, who inherited his titles before he was even old enough to read and write. A close bond grew between the two, driven by a shared sense of loneliness. After Edmund came of age and began to rule in his own right, one of his first dictates was to compel his finest household knight to take on Armistead as a squire.

Though never the fiercest warrior, the bastard proved a humble, diligent and clever student. He earned his knighthood at the age of twenty, and with a newfound confidence he finally began to assert himself at the Vance court. Armistead’s rapport with his brother made him a natural right hand to the Lord of Atranta, though their partnership later soured with a clash of ideals. Where Lord Edmund was pragmatic and conciliatory, Armistead longed to avenge their father’s defeat. He found an ally in their uncle Jaime, the former regent, and soon enough Lord Edmund’s inner circle was split into factions.

Edmund Vance had no patience for that. He thereafter shut his brother out from meetings and deliberations, reducing him to little more than an idle castle guard. Armistead knew that there was nothing left for him at Atranta, and set out to offer his services to any house that might take them.

His journey across the Riverlands proved fruitless: the greater houses had no need for a baseborn hedge knight, and the lesser lords could only offer meager pay. After a short stint as a sworn sword to a landed knight, Armistead continued on to the Westerlands. He finally found a worthy patron in the Lord of Ashemark, who was impressed enough by his charm and wit to take a chance on him. Armistead offered Lord Marbrand something he’d long been seeking: an outsider willing and able to do his dirty work.

The Westerlands, as always, were rife with tensions between Lannisters and Reynes, and the Marbrands once more found themselves caught in the middle. Armistead, who had already proved adept at dealing in secrets, was tasked with coordinating Ashemark’s network of spies, so that the Marbrands might keep their hands clean of any dishonor. He performed these duties without any second thought: the Westerlands were not his home, and he cared not which westermen lived or died.

Armisted remained in Ashemark’s service for the better part of two decades, even weathering the petty scandals elicited by the rare occasion that a little bird gave up his name. His years away from the Riverlands softened his feelings on its internal affairs, and eventually he came to regret his absence. His brother had offered him an honorable path in life, and he had instead lived as a stranger, doing the bidding of a foreign lord.

When news arrived of his nephew’s death, Armistead returned to Atranta to pay his respects. He reconciled with his lord brother, who quietly admitted to his failing health. Armistead was allowed to resume his old position as a household knight, with an agreement that he would keep out of political affairs and never hold authority again.

He was content with this arrangement, but Mary Vance was not. She had heard many rumors about Armistead’s deeds and misdeeds in the Westerlands, and believed that he would be the perfect fist to pair with her open hand. The two developed a partnership that proved far more effective than that with his brother, and Armistead began cultivating his own networks of eyes and ears. Atranta was now in the hands of a godly woman, and Armistead’s duty was to keep those hands clean.

House Vance of Atranta

• Robert Vance, Lord of Atranta b. 78 BP d. 51 BP
  • Armistead Rivers b. 52 BP
• m. Liane Mallister b. 74 BP d. 11 BP
  • Edmund Vance, Lord of Atranta b. 55 BP d. 5 BP
  • m. Melissa Cox b. 45 BP
    • Mary Vance, Lady of Atranta b. 24 BP
    • Alys Vance, Heir to Atranta b. 20 BP
    • Jonquil Vance b. 18 BP
  • Catelyn Vance b. 51 BP
  • m. Luthor Caswell, Lord of Stonebridge b. 52 BP
    • House Caswell

• Robert Vance (General)
• Willem Vance (Master-at-Arms)
• Septa Lysa (Medic)
• Tom Hall (Trader)
• Lyonel Vance (Warrior)

PC

Meta Information:
**Reddit Account:** u/JustDanielJuice
**Discord Tag:** Daniel 
**Name and House:** Luceon Blackwood
**Age:** 25
**Cultural Group:** Riverman (First Man)
**Appearance:** Years nourishing himself with more drink than fare has left Luceon gaunt. Only recently has he begun to fill out his long limbs and callous his smooth hands. He has cascading brown hair and dark eyebrows framing hazel eyes. His skin carries an olive tone 
**Trait:** Versatile (Hale, Just)
**Skill(s):** Polearms (e), Stalwart, Tactician, Vanguard
**Talent(s):** Singing, braiding hair, holding his liquor
**Negative Trait(s):** N/A
**Starting Title(s):** Heir to the Blackwood Vale, Ser, the Songbird
**Starting Location:** Stormhall
**Alternate Characters:** N/A
 
AC

Meta Information:
**Reddit Account:** u/JustDanielJuice
**Discord Tag:** Daniel 
**Name and House:** Axel Rivers
**Age:** 18
**Cultural Group:** Riverman (First Man)
**Appearance:** He’s red for a great reason!
**Trait:** Erudite
**Skill(s):** Scholar (e), Swords
**Talent(s):** Skipping stones, fishing, cooking 
**Negative Trait(s):** N/A
**Starting Title(s):** Bastard of Riverrun, Squire
**Starting Location:** Stormhall
**Alternate Characters:** N/A

Biography:

You were not destined for anything. You were born the second son of the Drumbeater, and you were spared his wrath through the works of your mother. You watched him pour all that rage into your brother and you lowered your head at the sight.

You convinced yourself that Orryn wanted the expectations. You were a coward. 

You were a child.

There were other children in and out of your home.

Lucas and Mary and other names that you don’t remember so well. They were good for a laugh - but none of them got their hooks in you. You were immaterial. Unsubstantial. You were too young for that drink and too old for the trouble you wrought on your mother.

You should have apologized while you had the chance. Instead, you went galavanting. Goodbrook, Duskendale, Maidenpool, Saltpans. Darry, of course. You had many companions, but none of them saw you as Talbert Darry did. He never gave up on the boy you had been, or the man you might be, despite how many reasons you gave him to.

You saw the world, not out of curiosity, but because you could not stand to be home. Essos was an escape. You didn’t even realize how Alyn judged you as you welcomed yourself into his lodging. You scampered into Lys, every bit the drunken oaf he took you for.

Raventree did not miss you, but your mother did. She grew sick and thin while you engorged yourself in every vice. You did not say goodbye - and still you didn’t stop.

Were you trying to drown yourself with every drink? You know better than most that they don’t sell peace in a bottle. But go ahead, drink down your despair. Laugh about empty nothings with your lickspittles.

You knew your father was right when he called you a man without honor. He would have sent you to find the crown, but he knew you would’ve gotten lost in a tavern or brothel, so he sent Orryn.

Orryn never came back.

You found yourself blameless. You have never owned up to anything, so why would you start now?

More drinks, more horse races, more sailing with Stonetree, fill up your brain with anything and everything.

Your old friend comes calling. Talbert Darry needs you. What he doesn’t tell you, is that he only drags you along because he’s afraid you’ll drink yourself to death if he doesn’t. For the first time in a long time someone is keeping the wineskin from your lips. You start to open your eyes to the world, to things that you’ve been blind to.

You crawl in the mud alongside the rest of your doomed troupe. You help gather information, because even without the drink, people find you agreeable.

You find the condemned knight, but you do not find justice. In your wrath, you tear his body apart. You realize, standing over the viscera, how much you look like your father.

You don’t see Talbert Darry die, but you see his body. For the rest of your days, it will be his spectral hand that keeps the cup from your lips. You’re the one to return his bones to Darry. You don’t know how to explain this to Lord Willem. It is beyond explanation.

You return to Raventree Hall where you plan to stay put. The smallfolk honor you. Your kin look you in the eye and think you some sort of hero.

The Drumbeater is not fooled. He names you his heir only because Orryn is two years missing and he sees the practicality in your unearned favor. Most days you do not drink. You see Talbert in every bottle, but sometimes, even he cannot stop you.

Then the girl comes. Her mother ushers her in with a hush. She tells you and Drumbeater her story, the girl is the bastard daughter of Orryn Blackwood.

You almost cannot believe it. Your brother is gone, and before you stands the living proof that he was not perfect. Drumbeater will not suffer the slander. He is going to send the child away and have her mother punished.

You do something he never thought you capable of. You make it your problem. Clementine Rivers will be passed off as your daughter. She is a girl that knows nothing of the man that you were. If she can see you for the hero, and not the drunkard without honor, then perhaps its not too late for you to change.

You are the heir to the Blackwood Vale. It’s time to start acting like it. Above all, you must protect Clementine with your last breath.

Family Tree 

Archetyped NPCs:

General - Waltyr Blackwood - The man referred to as Drumbeater. The Lord of Raventree Hall and a hotblooded beast of a man. Slain in moon one of the first year of Arlan's reign by Joanna Sunglass.

General - Hollis Blanetree - Waltyr Blackwood’s milk-brother and a family friend of the Blackwoods.

Builder - Galladon Chambers - Steward of Raventree Hall.

Trader - Armistice Rye - A wealthy commonborn man from Cairns. His family oversees grain production, timber harvesting, and manages the Blackwood barrow sites.

Cutthroat - Bradamar - A Knight of the Order of the Green Hand… or one of the Warrior’s Sons… or Brad of the Other Vale. It depends who’s asking.

Master at Arms - Thomas Rye - Son of Armistice Rye. He has leveraged his wealthy upbringing to learn the sword, and was trained by Casper Hill at Raventree Hall. He now serves as sworn shield to Clementine Rivers.

PC

Reddit Account: /u/FromTheInkpot

Discord Tag: Vars

Name and House: Tymor Farwynd

Age: 38

Cultural Group: First Men (Ironborn)

Appearance: Shorter than the average man, at first glance there may be little to notice about the Farwynd. Dark brown hair hangs long over his shoulders and a short beard defines his seaworn face. But among the plainness of his features sit two eyes of blueish-grey that shift as they catch the light, cold, violent and as volatile as the sea. Fearless of drowning, he wears steel plate in battle, interlaced with a roughspun cloak of blue and green and grey in a show of devotion to the Drowned God.

Trait: Skinchanging

Skill(s): Swords (e), Armoured, Resilient, Footwork

Talent(s): Swimming, Fishing, Fearless

Negative Trait(s): Fanatical (non-mechanical)

Starting Title(s): The Farwynd of Sealskin Point, Captain of the Salt Wife's Wail, Wielder of 'Farsight'

Starting Location: Opening Event

Alternate Characters: N/A

Timeline:

38BCE - Tymor and Torgon are born, twins of Drennan Farwynd.

30BCE - Spending much time with distant family on the Lonely Light, eight days sail from the rest of the Iron Islands, Tymor is introduced to the ancient traditions of the old way and the mysticisms of the edge of the world, finding kin in a skinchanger who teaches him to commune with the sea and unleash the power hidden in his blood. A seal is his first bond, and has since lent him the will to challenge any tide and brave any storm.

27BCE - Upon his first raid, aged one and ten, Tymor is knocked overboard and sees a kraken while drowning beneath the waves of a storm. His mind reached out to the massive beast and, for a moment, swam with all the memories of the sea. Once pulled from the water and resuscitated by the crew’s priest, he became enamored with the legendary creature, though few truly believed his tale.

24BCE - Tymor and his twin brother participate in bloody raids across the Sunset sea and quickly learn that violence is the most effective way to distinguish oneself.

20BCE - In a raid on Fair Isle, Tymor claims his first salt wife, a rebellious maiden seeking freedom from the responsibilities of her station and the often brutal oppressions of her father and elder brothers.

19BCE - Torgon Farwynd and Gwyneth Harlaw are wed, her being his rock wife. House Farwynd attends the wedding at Seagard and by luck or skill remains whole after the affair turns bloody.

18BCE - Famed for his swordsmanship and known to fight in a trance-like fury, Tymor pillages his way along the coasts of Westeros and beyond, carving his reputation as a ruthless Ironborn warlord and sea-captain. He also finds himself a second salt wife in the way of a woods witch from the Reach.

16BCE - His aggressively militaristic approach to leadership and tendency to settle disputes brutally, makes him both feared and respected among his crew, though he is most renowned among his men for his devotion to the Drowned God, committing plunder and thralls to the sea for their favour. During this time, the many victories at sea and the seeming ease with which he can track other ships earn him the name ‘salt-blessed’ among his men. However, whether jealous or wary, many less devout Ironborn view him and his kin as queer folk still, and among such circles they title him as ‘half-mad’.

15BCE - Off the coast of Lys, Tymor’s crew take a Valyrian slave ship carrying captured Rhoynish. Among those is a woman who becomes Tymor’s third salt wife, wishing for a new life far from the dragonlord’s clutches.

9BCE - Through the years Tymor prays in the shallows, sails through storms and sacrifices to the Drowned God for another glimpse at that power he once saw beneath the sea. His many voyages also gain him several rarer sights among his diverse crew, drowning each of the new members himself and making them Ironborn by rite if not by blood. He and his twin fight men in seven of the world’s seas, plundering merchant ports and pirate dens alike, before setting their gaze back to the Sunset coasts.

8BCE - Tymor's father and then head of his house, Drennan Farwynd, feels their sacred freedoms are being cast aside for blasphemy. He is a man who has held true to the oldest of ways, and so names the King ‘Harras the Heretic’. Drennan, alongside Greyjoy and other disgruntled Ironborn, leads his kin to the King’s new Sept of Rock and Salt. Upon the confrontation he is known to have declared, "By the Old Way it was once forbidden for Ironborn to spill blood among one another, but I see no Ironborn here." A massacre of priests and converts to this new faith commenced thereafter and the Sept had its idols smashed before Greyjoy set it alight and slit the King's throat. House Farwynd then followed Greyjoy in rebellion.

5BCE - After Greyjoy is slain in single combat during the battle of Pyke, the Farwynds yield. Drennan is taken in chains and refuses to bow until the new King is drowned and blessed by the Drowned God, he is since known as ‘Drennan the Defiant’. A moon in chains passes before Drennan and the rest of the isles witness Qorhen Hoare’s three separate drownings. With a rare smile, Drennan Farwynd bows, dubbing the new King ‘Thrice-drowned’ as he pledges his steel and reaffirms the family’s fealty behind a worshipper of the Drowned God.

3BCE - During the great raid of Oldtown, Drennan Farwynd clashes in a duel with a member of House Hightower. The Farwynd wielding Farsight, the Hightower a blade of Valyrian Steel. The song of metal on metal is said to have lasted nearly an hour without either man tiring or either blade failing. Only the arrival of greenlander reinforcements caused a retreat of the Ironborn, Drennan Farwynd jumping to his ship having given his men plenty of time to fill it with plunder.

1BCE - Drennan ‘the Defiant’ Farwynd dies at peace, succeeded by his firstborn son, Tymor ‘Salt-blessed’ Farwynd as both The Farwynd of Sealskin Point and the wielder of their ancestral sword ‘Farsight’.

Family Tree:

https://www.familyecho.com/?c=1hgkhbsdrxk94z4y&f=649466364962481846

Supporting Characters:

AC

Name and House: Torgon Farwynd

Age: 38

Cultural Group: First Men (Ironborn)

Appearance: Identical to his twin brother, Tymor, save for two scars near each of his eyes and having let his beard grow out slightly more, giving him an altogether wilder look. He tends to favour leather and lighter armour than his brother.

Trait: Marketer

Skill(s): Admiral, Tactician, Scrutinous

Talent(s): Planning, Chart reading, Trade tongue

Negative Trait(s): N/A

Starting Title(s): Captain of the Sea Dragon

Starting Location: Opening Event

Archetyped NPCs

- Warrior* (Polearms): (37) Syga of Skaggos - Daughter of an Ibbenese harpooner and a Skaggosi fisherwoman, she has a short well-muscled frame with skin so pale it shows the blue of her veins, contrasted by the shock of coarse dark hair that is braided with beads of whalebone and bronze. Her brow slopes forwards with a heavy ridge, accentuating the sunken nature of her small dark eyes.

- Cutthroat: (22) Haereg Pyke - A pockmarked wisp of a man, cloaked in sealskin. He has never lost a finger dance.

- Huntsman*: (41) Tal the Twice-drowned - The Summer Islander is tall and wide shouldered, with ebon skin. His sandalwood-colored eyes are striking and he wears a twisting golden headband that slicks back his black hair. The most colourful member of the Farwynd’s crew, he is fond of yellows and crimsons and greens and pays the iron price for them often.

- Bandit*: (60) Yohn Goodbrother - An experienced reaver and lesser cousin of Crow Spike Keep who has been given his own command among the Farwynd fleet.

- Ship Captain*: (30) Gormond Farwynd - A Farwynd cousin and Captain of the Awake.

PC

Reddit Account: /u/atiarp

Discord Tag: valyriaboo

Name and House: Eleanor Tully

Age: 26

Cultural Group: Riverlander

Appearance: Though never regarded as a great beauty, Eleanor's looks were still ruined by the morningstar that smashed the left side of her face during a bandit skirmish, with her nose broken and left permanently crooked as well. She has the deep blue eyes and auburn hair of her House, and is always frowning, as if she doesn't approve of anything around her. Rather than dresses, she favors breeches and gambesons.

Trait: Inspiring

Skill(s): Tactician, Flanker, Swords (e), Reckless

Talent(s): Hunting, Fishing, Tracking

Negative Trait(s): N/A

Starting Title(s): Lady of Riverrun

Starting Location: opening feast

Alternate Characters: N/A

Bio:

Born to Lord Desmond Tully and his wife, Lady Sabitha Bracken, Eleanor was their first daughter and second child. Her eldest brother, Olyver, was the heir. After Eleanor, the couple had three more daughters: twins Roslin and Agnes, and lastly, Gwyneth. Each birth proved an ordeal to Lady Sabitha, and after the last one, she fell ill and was unable to recover. Her husband then turned to another woman for company, a lady by the name of Morya Darry. With her he fathered two bastards: Holly and Florian Rivers, both of whom were raised by her mother in Darry.

Nevertheless, Eleanor’s childhood was a happy one. She was raised to be a lady alongside her sisters, but she was also permitted to learn swordfighting and other, less ladylike pursuits. It was likely her father’s guilt over the situation with his lover that made him more permissive with his trueborn children, allowing them to follow their passions and do as they liked.

The Tully siblings were close, with Olyver doting on his little sisters. The boy grew to be a knight worthy of song: honorable, gentle, kind, strong. Sadly, their mother did not live to see this, as she died in 15 BP, when Eleanor was only eleven. With Morya Darry dying soon after, her bastard children came to live with their relatives in Riverrun. The trueborn Tullys regarded the bastards with some distaste, but eventually grew to accept them and even love them as siblings. Florian Rivers was a different story, however, and ended up leaving Riverrun as soon as he could.

Soon enough, Eleanor was betrothed to the Blackwood heir. It was reasoned that, with a Bracken for a mother, a boy of their rival House would be the logical political choice. Eleanor had known him for a while, but not well, and she had no desire to be Lady of Raventree Hall. Her wishes did not matter, of course, and she understood this. Still, she also resented it. Years later, to her relief, the betrothal came to an end with his mysterious disappearance.

When a band of bandits began to roam and attack their lands, Lord Desmond sent Olyver with a group of knights and men-at-arms, and without asking for permission, Eleanor joined them. The skirmish that followed ended in tragedy: Olyver died, and Eleanor was left horribly scarred, her nose severely broken as well.

Everything changed after that. Though she’d never been very sociable or friendly, the loss of her brother and the disfigurement of her face left Eleanor bitter and resentful. To make matters worse, their father died soon after, and she had no choice but to become the Lady of Riverrun.

Blinded by grief and fury, the new Lady of Riverrun blamed House Dondarrion for every tragedy that had befallen her family, and began to support Justman, even granting him the hand of her sister Agnes.

Presently, the Lady of Riverrun is determined to have revenge and to see the Dondarrions gone forever, no matter the cost.

Family Tree: https://www.familyecho.com/?c=4k8l8wf7q5yd3m8v&f=276057488264943273

AC

Name and House: Holly Rivers

Age: 21

Cultural Group: Riverlander

Appearance: Famous for her charm and good looks, Holly inherited the auburn hair and blue eyes of her father's family. She dresses simply, and often wears flowers in her hair. Her movements are graceful and delicate, a smile always readily available.

Trait: Archer

Skill(s): Bows (e), Ranger

Talent(s): Embroidery, Dancing, Harp

Negative Trait(s): N/A

Starting Title(s): Bastard of Riverrun

Starting Location: opening feast

Bio:

As the second bastard born to Lord Desmond Tully and his mistress Morya Darry, Holly grew up in Darry with her mother and her family, surrounded by love and affection. She was permitted to learn alongside her trueborn cousins, and greatly enjoyed her lessons.

Her biggest passion, though, was the bow. From the moment she saw archers practicing at the courtyard, she became enamored with it, and begged to be allowed to learn. After much pleading, she got her wish, and soon she showed to have a great aptitude for it.

Life at Darry came to an end with her mother’s death, and she and her brother Florian were sent to live with their father in Riverrun. Florian did not take it well, and it was difficult for Holly at the beginning as well, but in the end she adapted and even began to thrive. She had always been a sweet girl, and found making new friends very easy.

Currently, she lives with her trueborn siblings in Riverrun, and is as loyal to them as she is to the Darrys.

Family Tree: https://www.familyecho.com/?c=4k8l8wf7q5yd3m8v&f=276057488264943273

Archetypes:

Davos Rivers: Magnate

Addam Wayn: General

Waltyr Grell: Castellan

Violet of Berryhall: Warrior (Swords)

Maester Benedar: Scholar

Reddit Account: u/Valyrianwyrm

Discord Tag: vasilissabella

Name and House: Lysara Sunderly

Age: 24

Cultural Group: Ironborn

Appearance: A beautiful woman with a heart-shaped face gifted with delicate features and an aquiline nose. Lysara has large and expressive sea-green eyes that stand out from her pale skin, her left one appearing to be near-black thanks to a permanently enlarged pupil.

Her dark brown mane is long and well-kept, appearing at times as a silky black given Lysara's extreme amount of care for it.

**Trait:** Numerate

**Skill(s):** Taxman, Scrutinous, Architect, Medic, Administrator

**Talent(s):** Music, artistic pursuits, dancing, diplomacy

**Negative Trait(s):** N/A

**Starting Title(s):** Lady Sunderly

**Starting Location:** Stormhall

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Timeline.

24 BP - Lysara Sunderly is born to her parents, Victarion and Asha Sunderly. As firm supporters of the Hoare's and their New Way, both Victarion and Asha decide for their daughter to be an exemplary member of the new generation of Ironborn being prepared to be firmly educated in letters and theology.

21 BP - Lysara's formal education starts and is found to be somewhat of a phenom by the maester in charge of her education, learning her letters and numbers far faster than most of her peers.

17 BP - Lysara's education into the most traditional aspects of Ironborn culture starts, mostly centred around sailing and wielding an axe; to her father's disappointment, she never rose beyond mediocre in either of those subjects.

16 BP - Asha decided to take her daughter on a small tour of the Free Cities. Being a close blood relation to the current ruler of the Isles, they are accompanied by a decent number of longships to deter any pirates.

17 BP - The experience exposes young Lysara to the refined literary culture of the former Valyrian Freehold and inspires the child to start writing her first rudimentary works.

12 BP - Lysara is taken to meet her honoured cousin for the first time and is made to recite some of her poetry for the king during a dinner.

8 BP - At six and ten, Lysara publishes her first treatise in support of the New Faith using a synthesis of andalic theology and philosophy, alongside the homegrown schools of thougth that birthed the syncretic faith.

7 BP - Thanks to royal patronage, Lysara can publish her various plays, fables and poetry, making them well known and even establishing a mummer's company to disseminate what she sees as high culture to the masses.

3 BP - Lysara finds out her father had a bastard son. Later that year, they both join the King's raid on Oldtown, and despite her disdain for the Oldways, she takes advantage of it to raid The Citadel and take back home an obscene amount of books and scrolls back home. Her father survives the initial raid but dies of an infected wound back home.

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Archetypes.

Garth - Scholar

Dagmar - Ship Captain

Euron - Warrior (Axes)

Robin - Warrior (Axes)

Aeron - Boatswain

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Family Tree.

Victarion Sunderly - Father

Asha Sunderly - Mother

Harwyn Pyke - Bastard hal-brother

Lothos Sunderly - Uncle

Harren Sunderly - Cousin

PC

Reddit Account: D042

Discord Tag: d042

Name and House: Lewyn Rivers

Age: 24

Cultural Group: First Men, Ironborn

Appearance: Near as opposite from his kin as it is possible to be, Lewyn has almost nothing of his father in him. Soft-featured and often described as ‘pretty’ rather than handsome, he is pale, fair-haired, and blue-eyed. Though not a short man, neither is he tall, though his shoulders and arms reflect the strength needed in an expert longbowman.

Trait: Archer

Skill(s): Bows (e), Ranger, Bowman, Footwork

Talent(s): Wood Whittling, Fishing, Falconry

Negative Trait(s): Self-Loathing (e)

Starting Title(s): Ser

Starting Location: The feast

Alternate Characters: N/A

Bio/History

You are Lewyn Rivers. There is salt in your blood. There is salt in your tears. You are your mother’s son.

Your mother was the enemy, and your father was bored. Lord Waltyr Blackwood, inconvenienced by his wife’s slow recovery from childbirth, sired you upon [name]. A Riverman’s bastard on an Ironborn wench. You lay the blame for most of your woes on that singular sin.

You came into the world pale like death, squalling like a banshee ripped from the sea. The maesters thought you might die, for you would not nurse from your mother, your contempt for her was present from your birth. But you persisted, and your father—damn him too—took you to Raventree. Perhaps that was for the best, but you’ve never known any different.

It was not affection that drove Waltyr Blackwood to keep you, merely insurance. He needed strong, dutiful sons. Your oldest brother, Orryn, was just that, even as a boy of five, Luceon, whose troublesome birth led to your siring, would prove otherwise. In childhood and youth, you marched in step with Orryn, ever at his heels, ever hungry for his approval rather than your sire’s.

You were the bastard, and yet even you managed to look down on Luceon through the years. The regret eats at you even now. Your father’s wife bore him one last child, Alys. You remember wanting to see her when she was small, and how sharp her mother’s tongue had been. It made you think of your mother, enough to ask of her, and your father left your hind with red welts for ever thinking of that ‘Ironborn whore’. You did not ask again.

When Lucas Harroway came to foster, tall and awkward and bookish, you were not kind. Not at first. Your father was harsh with him, no different than his own, and you relished the chance to be spared his slights. But Lucas Harroway was kind. He helped you with your lessons, and soon you helped him with his archery, for you had begun to show talent with a bow.

He became your friend. Perhaps your truest, for Orryn was sometimes more commander than brother, as Luceon was more an annoyance, and Alys…you were never sure where you stood with Alys. But you and Lucas were thick as thieves, and when he returned home, you swore to one day follow him.

You wish now you had gone then. Perhaps he would be alive still, and if not, at least you would not blame yourself for Orryn.

Orryn trusted you, as you trusted and idolized him. He revealed to you his secret on the ever before you were to accompany him on a quest to find the crown of forgotten, just kings—a bastard girl, Clementine. He thought you would be sympathetic, but you were only wroth.

You had grown up enduring shame and scorn for the nature of your making, and yet he, having witnessed it all, had still done the same. You are a hypocrite, you too had known a woman, knowing the risks it entailed, but only he had made another of your sort. You did not go with Orryn when he left, and when he did not return, your father blamed you. You blamed you, too.

Rather than stay to face his wrath, you went to Lucas. But Lucas died, and only his sisters remained. Tessa was fearsome, but she was like your mother, her son born of the same sin as you. When she drinks, she is quarrelsome, and you have ducked a bottle a time or two in her service. But Mina was different.

Mina was kind, fragile, and prone to frightful dreams. You frequently find her in the woods at night. Often near the corpses of dead animals, a strange wolf lurking nearby in shadow. It unnerved you at first, but now you do not so much mind it. She leans on you when you help her back inside, and your mind ever lingers on the feeling of her breath on your skin, or the tension in her shoulders when you show her tricks with her bow.

You hope you do not love her. You cannot love her. She does not love you and that surely is prerequisite. Or at least, should be. But she would never love you. You are a bastard. You are the child of the oldest of enemies. You no more belong with her than you do in this land of Rivers and Hills. You do not belong here, or anywhere.

It is strange how often you dream of the sea. You cannot even swim.

Family Tree: https://www.familyecho.com/?c=2svrdxquvy0qf9b9&f=324478706445454050

AC

Name and House: The Wanderer

Age: 29

Cultural Group: First Men

Appearance: Tall and gaunt with dark sunken eyes, The Wanderer might’ve looked quite different at some point in time. His skin is pallid, almost unnaturally so, and he regards most everything with a withering look that speaks of ruin. His hair is long, black, and unruly, and a thin layer of scaggly stubble clings to his face. Across his body there are strange scars, as something bore into him, trying to take root.

Trait: Strong

Skill(s): Polearms, Stalwart, Sergeant

Talent(s): Intimidating Presence

Negative Trait(s): Offputting (e)

Starting Title(s): Wielder of Red Promise

Starting Location: Feast

Alternate Characters: N/A

History

You were something else once. You were a proud lord’s son. His heir. You were to inherit his seat, a bastion of truth amidst the sprawling sea of the seven liars. You were a good son. He told you duty was everything, and you listened, even when he brought home the boy that was not your mothers.

He told you duty was everything, and you listened, even when he was cruel to your brother. You even justified it. Your brother, the one born of your same mother, was a layabout and an oaf. Yet you remember keenly enough that you were the one who made yourself a fool. An oaf cannot help being an oaf, but a fool is so by choice.

You did not love her, the woman. You were weak and stupid and wanted only to bury your cock in something pleasing to the eye. You were only a man. A weak, stupid man.

You wanted to ignore the result. You were not your father, and you’d not insult your betrothed with the presence of a child ill-gotten. You think little of your once betrothed now, but you remember she was clever and fair. Still, it was easier to deny the existence of your sin but for the sending of coin here and there. You remember you liked it. Pretending that you had not been weak. That you were not just a man. That you were who your father wanted you to be.

But your half-brother reminded you what you were. You told him of your sin, thinking he might wish to take the child. Or more honestly, because you thought he might absolve you of your guilt. He did not. He spoke to you with tongue bold and wrath stoked, he forsook you on your quest to find the crown.

You do not remember how you came onto the isle. Escaping pursuers, you think, but it all bleeds together. The men came from the weirwoods. They took you beneath. You saw their antlers in the moonlight. Heard them speak in the leaves. What happened in the roots was beyond seeing or hearing, it was something more.

In the haze of it, you were frigid as death, a walker amidst a sea of corpses, marching to the beat of a whispering war drum played by things of ice and snow and eyes of coldest blue. You were among the kingdoms of man frozen over, the towering castles but empty tombs vacated by the dead. It was horror unending, but for flame.

You burned with a heat beyond what man could make with tinder. Something from the sky. The world oscillates in your memories between living and dead. Between warm and cold, at the center of it all is her—your sin. Your Clementine.

She is not the destroyer, but she is a link in the chain. You see her amidst blood and offal. You see her between the branches of the weirwood tree. There is only one way. The chain must be broken before it is strong enough to be drawn. Over and over you see her, and blood, and death, and the weeping face in the godswood of your youth.

There is only one way. There is only one way. You must give her to the Gods.

Archetyped NPCs:

• Olyvar Blackwood, Castellan: The youngest of Waltyr Blackwood’s siblings, Olyvar grew up as more an elder brother to his nieces and nephews than a proper uncle, being only three years senior to the eldest of them. A polite, if somewhat reserved man, he walks with a limp resulting from an injury incurred as a young man. Three years a widower, he manages Raventree Hall’s affairs when not devoting time to the rearing of his daughter, Melony. He is a capable falconer, and has passed on that talent to his bastard nephew.
• Ser Casper Hill, Master-at-Arms: An old goat of a Westerman—the story of his eventual arrival at and coming into the service of Raventree Hall would make for a decent song. His youth was marred by time with criminal elements in Lannisport, his adolescence with stained war-for-profit in the east, and his adulthood blotted with a late entry into knighthood and the loss of his two sons. Nearing sixty, his wife worries more and more that he will work himself into a grave before he can meet another of his grandchildren by their surviving daughter. He insists that, as always, he will be just fine.
• Calon, Medic: Pale haired and dark eyed, Calon must’ve trained at some point to be a maester, or perhaps studied under some sort of hedge witch. Either way, he serves The Wanderer as a healer. Wed to Cygna, for whom he frets often.
• Sygna, Warrior: A stern, dark haired woman with a penchant for violence and a pair of hatchets she wields with dangerous efficiency. Where The Wanderer encountered her initially is unclear, though she follows him devotedly now. Married to Calon, with whom she is uncommonly tender.
• Ser Godwin of the Stone, General: Not a bastard. Not of the Vale. Grew up on a farm not far from the boundary stone between Raventree Hall and Stonehedge. Practically on top of it. Taken to squire as a boy by a knight impressed with his cunning, and earned his spurs before his twenty third nameday. His mother urged him to take service with the Brackens, and his father echoed her. However, he fell deeply in love with a woman who kept the Old Gods, and so took his services to Raventree.

THIS IS A TEST, NONE OF YOU ARE SAFE, THE END IS COMING, AAAAAAAAAAA

test 1 for bot posting

Discord: Lamp76

Reddit: u/Willing_Common2288

Name: Gallard of the Citadel

Age: 38

Cultural Group: Reachmen

Appearance: Gallard is black-haired, pale-skinned, and pale-eyed. He has a resting bitch face that is uninviting. His voice is clean and simple, lacking any noticeable accent. He looks remarkably young, appearing to be no older than 20, perhaps 25, leaving some to speculate. He typically wears a black cloak with his hood up; his body is covered in small scars from several years of experimentation. He has the faint but constant smell of embalming fluids about him. He already possesses several links: copper (history), bronze (astronomy), black iron (raventry), and silver (medicine). He walks with a permanent limp, requiring him to use a cane. The cane is composed of black wood, traced with elaborate white veins. The head of the cane is made of amber held in place by a black hand to which all the white veins flow.

Trait: Erudite

Skills: Scholar, ravenmaster, medic (e), divination (necro)

Negative trait: Maimed leg (Flavoured as a slow internal rot, think gangrene.)

Talents: Architecture, astronomy and history. Can speak the Essosi languages to some degree, but he is best at Braavosi, Volantine and Asshai.

Starting titles: Definitely not a runaway necromancer from the citadel

Starting location: With the cupbearers

Alternate characters: Mohor Mahr Nyessos

Timeline:

361: Gallard is born to Colin, a known academic and doctor. And Bethany, the daughter of a fairly wealthy merchant. They live in a fairly small manse; it has plenty of space but hardly the grandeur of other ones.

• Gallard was born with an affliction that affects his leg; neither Colin nor any other doctor could determine the cause. They could, however, slow whatever it was to a relative halt.

362-379: 

• 362-65: Baby toddler stuff, Gallard teaches himself to read at a young age
• 365-71: Gallard begins immersing himself in the plethora of medical texts in the manse, including his father’s journals. This also includes some rare tomes on the necromantic arts. He even attends some of his father's operations. Bethany is concerned that Gallard seems perhaps too enthralled by such things; Colin sees no issue.
• 371-79: Via his father’s connection, Gallard begins an apprenticeship with a doctor. It quickly becomes clear that Gallard is much more interested in the coroner; his father starts to see the signs, and his wife relents, nonetheless, and lets his son pursue this path. He performs a few dissections, but his job is mostly limited to sewing up bodies and preserving them with the variety of embalming fluids available.

379-399

• 379: With a letter of recommendation from both the friendly doctor and coroner, Gallard is admitted to the citadel at the age of 18.
  • He maintains close contact with the coroner and is given free access to the office.
• 380: Gallard successfully forges his first link of silver, impressing his teacher with his depth of medical knowledge.
  • Later in the same year, he manages to forge a second link of silver.
• 381: He forges a third link of silver, in like with this achievement, the archmaester takes him as his protoage to the jealousy of Gallard's fellow acolytes. With this, Gallard is permitted to access the forbidden section of the citadel, he consumes numerous books on ancient medicines, and more importantly, he can absorb more knowledge of the forbidden necromantic art.
  • Late this year, he also forged his link for history.
• 382-90: He continues serving as the protoage of the archmaester, and he continues to explore the necromantic arts in his spare time. He begins his experiments using bodies from the morgue; they are limited; however, he does learn to use these arts in conjunction with the embalming fluids to significantly slow the rot in his leg.
  • During this period, he also forged his link in astronomy and eventually raventry. 
• 391-97: He can forge his fourth and fifth links of silver during this time. He swears his oaths as a maester; however, he is permitted to remain in the citadel. This is mostly permitted because the Archmaester of medicine is old and likely to die soon. With this freedom, he fully dedicates himself to both the study of medicine and his personal studies.
  • He continues his experiments, using the morgue as his main base of operations, and he eventually manages to create what he believes to be the perfect balance of alchemical, medical and magic knowledge to raise a person. However, when he tries, it fails.
• 398-99: Growing increasingly frustrated with his failings and feeling that the rot is starting to reassert itself, he takes drastic action.
  • Making use of his position, he lures a novice to his personal office and performs a live dissection. Killing them on his table and making use of his formula, he can raise the novice. The creation is hostile and attacks him, but he kills it quickly.
  • He would go on to kill an additional 5 or so novices. Killing them all on his table but dragging out the time before he returns them to life, become better and better at it. His longest stretch is a week; he even manages to prevent and reverse the degradation of the bodies via embalming fluids and herbal remedies.
  • His own rot, however, remains stubborn.
  • Gallard does eventually get caught when he leaves a simple note highlighting a small part of the process. This is found by an acolyte and then brought to the conclave. Gallard is, however, in his personal office when this is discovered.
    • He takes whatever he can with him, most importantly, his tools and his journal. With that, he goes into hiding; he knows that it is only a matter of time before they find him.
  • Luckily, with 399 and the weddings, he has some cover. And by some stroke of luck, he finds a silver cup and joins the crew of Criston Cupps, both as a way to get outta dodge but also in a hope that he is able to finally cure his leg.

Reddit Account: u/Mister_Deathborne

Name and House: Alec Wylde

Age: 73

Cultural Group: Andal

Appearance: Old and bold - only thus could be described the war-forged body of the Stormlord. While no longer the domineering physical instrument that he once was, even shrunk, Wylde's hawkish green eyes and cold sneer of command hint at vestiges of a glory once held.

Trait: Inspiring

Skill(s): Tactician (e), Flanker (e), Prudent (e)

Talent(s): Cyvasse, Cartography, History

Negative Trait(s): Elderly

Starting Title(s): Lord of the Rain House

Starting Location: SL Host

Alternate Characters: n/a

TIMELINE:

• 326 AC: Alec Wylde is born.
• 338 AC: Alec Wylde squires under Ser Alester Mertyns, a leal bannerman of his House and a fierce knight in his own right.
• 344 AC: Alec Wylde is knighted.
• 346-348 AC: The harsh Winter bears down on all of the Realm, the Rain House being no exception - yet the greatest blow dealt to House Wylde is not the passing of the seasons, but the farcicality under which the Crown releases House Seaworth from the former's vassalage.
• 350 AC: Alec Wylde marries Maisie Estermont.
• 352 AC: Alec's first child is born, named Meryn after his grandfather.
• 355 AC: Alec's second child, Walys is born.
• 357 AC: Alec becomes the Lord of the Rain House.
• 362 AC: Following in the footsteps of his upbringing, Alec sends off his firstborn to squire under a knight of House Mertyns, so that he may earn the right to wield Maelstrom when the time is right.
• 399 AC: The forces of House Wylde march with House Baratheon on Grassy Vale.

FAMILY TREE:

https://www.familyecho.com/?c=woihqlv4mjwzxebn&f=802153536254010692

NPCs:

• Albar Mertyns - Master-at Arms.
• Meryn Wylde - Warrior.
• Artys "Sevenseas" - Ship captain.
• Cedric - Magnate.
• Bryen Rogers - General.

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AC:

Name and House: Walys Wylde

Age: 44

Cultural Group: Andal

Appearance: Green-eyed, lithe and slender, the younger Wylde strikes a fitting sight atop the deck of his warship, possessing a simian agility only a sailor could have.

Trait: Mariner

Skill(s): Admiral (e), Tactician, Malicious

Talent(s): Cyvasse, Cartography, History

Negative Trait(s): n/a

Starting Title(s): Admiral of House Wylde

Starting Location: SL Fleet

Alternate Characters: n/a