Game of Thrones OOC

[Foxes]

I'm going to make House Reyne. Should be cools.

[Sinistred]

I'm going to make House Reyne. Should be cools.

You're welcome to do so. However, perhaps you could think about making a bannerhouse for someone else who doesn't have one yet? Tully, Arryn, Stark or the Greyjoys perhaps?

[SilverQuill]

House Florent



Seat: Brightwater Keep, at the headwaters of the Honeywine River



Exports: Fruits, wines.

Bannermen of the Tyrells of Highgarden, they both swear fealty to and despise their overlords, feeling as if their legitimate claim to the Reach was gained by subterfuge and cronyism at the end of the Gardener rule. They are a seeming fickle lot, with their aspirations of greatness and their apparent humility to the Tyrells. Their military strength is just as well sold to the highest bidder as seen in the ranks of the Tyrell van, and have been known to be friendly with those that could give them a better bid to the Reach. The number of men at arms Lord Eustis Florent can call is relatively large for a single minor family, yet he is biding his time for the right moment.

The overall gentility of the Reach seems to have been taken into the very heart of House Florent, their extensive families not only sending many to the halls of the Maesters in Oldtown, but populating the lists and teaching their ladies at home in the best ways to be better wives and mothers to great lords. The Florents are possibly the best poised of the Reach families to achieve political greatness due to both their size and military might.

Lord Eustis Florent, 51.
Lady Adriana Florent – second cousin to Lord Randyll Tully, 37.
Lenard Florent, Heir to House Florent, 20.

Ellana Florent, 19.
Myles Florent, 14.
Ellynor Florent, 13.

Sabel Florent, 10.
Water “Wat” Florent, 7.
Tess Florent, 3.

Name: Eustis Florent, Lord of Brightwater Keep
Age: 51
House/Affiliation: Florent
Personality: Eustis is a gruff man, long begrudging of the Tyrell name. His entire life has been spent under the "smothering" fealty to House Tyrell, as he was born in the midst of the Flowering Rebellion that both lost a bid to the Highgarden seat for the Florents and saw the death of not only his own father but the deaths of Leo and Willem Tyrell, who spurned his sister for being too young to marry.

His innate distrust of all Tyrells has left him a rather xenophobic man, who has a hair-trigger temper, and the only tempering he knows is in the form of his Lady-wife, Adriana.

As a father, he institutes a tough love strategy and a suspicious protective streak around all men concerning his daughters. He expects his children to act according to their station and not make fools of themselves in public.

Appearance:


History: Born the youngest child of Lord Pearse and Lady Jeyne Florent, Eustis never knew his father, who died in the Flowering Rebellion (so named for the occasion that his eldest sister, not yet thirteen, had not flowered and was to be espoused to the son of Willem Tyrell). The second son, and the only son at home as his eldest brother had taken up with the Maesters of Oldtown, he was thrust into power at his mother's breast. His mother's regency sufficed until the Steward took the regency from her hands as the grief of her husband's death became too much for the Lady to bear.

This pervading sense of gloom about Brightwater is what tempered Eustis into the sullen young man he became, obsessed with tournaments and power. He has become a crafty statesman, much like his father, though he has also allowed himself to become enamored of his Lady-wife, a Tully cousin. They have produced seven living children, some of which he has realized need to start being married off, and as such has begun making firm plans for their futures, even if behind closed doors.

Name: Lady Adriana Florent
Age: 37
Personality: Adriana is a mischievous sort, or was in her youth, much like her daughter Ellana. Now hidden beneath layers and layers of calm, matronly pride in her family, Adriana has continued in glowing health despite her status as mother of Eustis' children. She is also the only calm to touch her husband, tempering his black moods with calculated solace and logic when her husband's eyes are clouded with rage.

Appearance:


History: Growing up in the Riverlands has given Adriana a unique perspective on the Tyrell-Florent feuds, and gives her a way to consel her husband when others might fail. She is the only living child of her parents, her mother dying in childbirth and her father following of a consuming fever mere months after her birth.

Fostered with her father's family in the Riverlands, Adriana met Eustis at a tournament there, hosted by her Tully cousins. Their espousal was arranged and executed with little fuss, and even less fanfare, which made some whisper that the union was one of necessity rather than above the board sanction.

Since that day, she has made her life quietly at Brightwater Keep, carrying on with her duties as Lady-wife as contently as she carried her childhood.

Name: Ellana Florent
Age: 19
House/Affiliation: Florent
Personality: A willful young woman, Ellana has always been precocious and active. She is an adaptive learner, a skill befitting the daughter of a Lord. She can be the consummate lady when required, but it is the life of an undisciplined troublemaker she tends to prefer.

She is mischievous and a jokester, at least among those she considers family and tends to be kind despite the occasional tactless blunder, but can become strategically reserved around strangers. She believes in loving people for who they are, and fights to find the good in others. On the general whole, she is diplomatic when need be (read: when she does not like or trust someone), and the effect can be icy. If she genuinely likes a person, she is contrastingly warm, her jokes and jibes following suit.

Appearance:


History: The second oldest child of Eustis and Adriana Florent, she has been taught since a young age in the finer arts and in the tasks and skills of a Lady. Along with her brother, Lenard, she spent her early life with scarce cares, as children are oft wont to do. They were often found at the banks of the Honeywine, wading and daring each other to catch fingerling fish with their bare hands. Lenard usually won the contests, but Ellana was the better climber. There is a heavily bent willow tree on the banks of the river near the keep that is still considered Ellana’s place to go when she’s upset.

Even as her parents added to their growing family, eventually making Lenard and Ellana the eldest of seven living children, plans were laid in the dark of night. Ever suspicious of the stirrings of court and how similarities had given Highgarden to the Tyrells instead of to the Florents, Eustis determined his children would be well enough trained closer to home, and would not be “sullied” by the goings-on at King’s Landing. Having a more extensive view of the world, Adriana argued against it, but eventually agreed to train her children with that knowledge within the confines of Brightwater. Her perseverance brought a Maester and septa to the Keep to instruct her children in the wider world at hand, as well as various dancing masters to help with the courtly arts where she could not. The young men, as they grew, were trained in the arts martial by the aging master at arms, and were required to take a turn training with the military force mustered by the Florents.

As she grew older and into a beautiful young woman, the suitors began an intermittent stream through Brightwater, but most seemed to fade away without an offer. As she grew older, the suitors began to slow even as she began to realize their intent. Her father, ever suspicious of the Tyrell motive and rather overbearing in his demeanor, had steadily scared them away, but his political dealings had increased, most notably a seeming passing interest in an alliance with House Lannister.

In the meantime, Ellana has buried herself in the goings-on of her mother’s recreated court from her youth. Though entertaining only happens when more “important” Lords happen to come to Brightwater, Ellana and her younger sisters Ellynor and Sabel regularly dance to the music of the entertainers kept on retainer, and sometimes sing. Ellana also seems to enjoy strategic pursuits like chess and challenging her brother to war games on her father’s great map in the office where he tends to do his brooding.

OOC Notes: “Sweetbriar”

[Foxes]

House Mallister of Seagard
Sworn to House Tully of Riverrun

The Trueborn Children of Lord Jon Mallister of Seagard and Lady Lyria Qorgyle of Dorne

Name: Jacelyn Mallister
Age: 29
House: Mallister of Seagard, Sworn to House Tully

Appearance: A handsome man edging away from his youth, Jacelyn Mallister stands an inch or so under a solid six feet in height. Like his sisters, his hair is a sun-beaten bronze in color, and his eyes are a sea green. With his slender, elegant facial features, heart shaped face, and facial hair that only looks good when it simply isn’t there, Jacelyn Mallister has often been the butt of his sisters’ jokes, accusing him of having a woman’s beauty. All the same, though, he is well built, his body honed by years of knightly training and preparation for war. In armor, and out, Jacelyn Mallister looks like the knight he is.

Personality: Jacelyn Mallister is a good natured, chivalrous man, with an instinctive sense of fairness, right and wrong, loyalty, and duty. He is the sort of man to take his oath of knighthood seriously, and in every battle he has fought he has insisted on leading the van at the head of his soldiers, simply because he feels that it’s the right thing to do. Outside of war, he is a gracious, courteous man, and Jacelyn Mallister seems to be a natural for the position of lord. Granted, this comes from his father’s extensive grooming and preparation for the day his son would assume the title of Lord of Seagard, but there’s something about the 29 year old Lord Mallister that suggests that he was born for the role.

While he is well suited to the position of lord, Jacelyn Mallister is an intelligent, educated man, prone to questions and curiosities. After his time spent with the maesters of Oldtown, Jacelyn returned with a deep interest in political philosophy, and as of late has turned his spare time toward authoring a treatise on virtuous political rule.

History: Jacelyn Mallister was born the first trueborn son of Lord Jon Mallister and his Dornish wife, Lady , though he was the Lord’s third child, with the future Battle Maid of Seagard, Justine, and the bastard Criston Rivers coming before him. The heir to Seagard would eventually be wholly disliked by both for the fact that he came before both in the line of succession. This superiority was not something he was ever entirely comfortable with, and even today he questions the wisdom of the Westerosi political system that brings so much strife and violence to the people when it comes to such matters as succession.

An intelligent, inquisitive young man and a quick study, he was raised to be a knight and a lord. He learned the sword and shield, riding, archery, statecraft, history, and, most importantly, according to his father, justice, an elusive concept that all lords must come to discover. He became well versed in everything he set his mind to (not discounting the art of womanizing, which he studied for several years in his youth), though ultimately his desire to explore his intellectual interests outpaced what his father’s education could provide him. At the age of 17, after an extended argument, his father agreed to send him to learn from the Maesters in Oldtown for exactly one year and one day.

He made good use of his time there. When he returned, he was almost immediately knighted.

Ironborn raids had increased in frequency since his departure, and it fell to his sister Justine, his bastard brother Criston, and him to defend Seagard with their father. The three would become major leaders in what ended up being a brief, six month long campaign. During it, the three became famous warriors in the western Riverlands, with Justine and Jacelyn gaining renown for their successes fighting on land and Criston becoming recognized as one of the most promising naval commanders in Westeros. Jacelyn himself became famous for the Battle of Seagard, where two forces of Ironborn raiders faced two small Mallister armies, one led by Lord Jon Mallister, the other by Jacelyn. With expert use of his cavalry forces, Jacelyn was able to rout his foes despite a numerical disadvantage while Criston Rivers led a surprise attack by sea against the largely unmanned Ironborn fleet. The Ironborn, six hundred strong, were killed to a man.

After these skirmishes, Seagard saw peace once more, during which time Lord Jon Mallister passed away and the lordship fell to Ser Jacelyn. Justine, who had always chafed at the restrictions Westerosi society placed on women, accepted this transition with bitter disappointment. Criston Rivers, a hardened, hateful man after the campaign against the Ironborn raiders, did not take Jacelyn’s ascent as well as Justine had. He and his two most loyal captains mutinied and sailed south with three of the Seagard navy’s strongest warships.

In the six years since then, Jacelyn has taken a wife in Lady Lanna Reyne, and with her has fathered a son. Jaime Mallister, currently a boy of four, looks a great deal like his father and shares his father’s intelligence and gracious manner. T’is the wonders of proper child rearing techniques at work.

Name: Justine Mallister
Age: 36

Biography: A woman of middling height and some token beauty, Justine Mallister has never been content with her lot in life. She is more interested in arms and armament than her brother, Jacelyn, and has a natural familiarity with strategy, tactics, warfare, and skill-at-arms to rival him. Even their lordly father wondered at her natural talents and regretted that there was little room in the world for her. Even so, she has fought for her own place in the world, and has earned some fame across the Riverlands for her daring recapture of Thornton Keep during the war with the Ironborn raiders. The keep, which was held by sixty Ironborn warriors, was retaken when Justine and her men scaled the walls in the dead of night and opened the gates for her army of two hundred. A severe and unforgiving warrior, despite taking the Keep without a single loss of life she ordered every last Ironborn she had captured to be executed.

She currently acts as the master-at-arms of Seagard. Should any man doubt she earned the position, she gladly welcomes them to fight her in single combat. She usually wins.

Name: Corenna and Jynessa Mallister
Ages: 19

Biography: Twins Jynessa and Corenna are privy to all of the inherited beauty their sister Justine seems to have missed. Corenna is a picture of a Riverlands maiden, with thick, wavy auburn hair, her father’s sea green eyes, and a beautiful smile. Jynessa, on the other hand, is the only one of the family to show her Dornish heritage. Dark olive skin, chocolate eyes, and hair as black as jet frame a sultry smirk and full lips. They both share lovely curves and full breasts, and where their siblings have gained fame for their prodigious skill at war, Corenna and Jynessa have gained much attention for their stunning appearance.

They two girls could not be more different, though.

Corenna, known as the “Songbird of Seagard” for her musical talent, is a traditional lady of noble birth. She can knit, sing, gossip, listen, and smile politely as well as the best. She’s also a talented harpist and her sole ambition is to marry a golden haired Lannister and give him half a dozen children. In fact, before his untimely death, Lord Jon Mallister had endeavored to marry her to either a Stark or a Lannister. Unfortunately, after his death such arrangements have fallen to Lord Jacelyn Mallister, who has much less of a mind for arranging weddings than his father did.

Jynessa, on the other hand, is a true daughter of Dorne. Known as the “Mallister Scorpion” by some for her Qorgyle lineage, Jynessa follows after her sister Justine in her pursuit of the martial skills. She excels in archery, riding, and the use of the spear. She refused every suitor her father offered her, and has no intentions of marrying in the near future. She and her sister are not famous for their friendship, though, ultimately, they are very close all the same

The Bastard Son of Lord Jon Mallister of Seagard and Lady Jeyne Keath of House Keath

Name: Criston Blacksails, formerly Criston Rivers
Age: 33

Biography: Criston Rivers was the son of Lord Jon Mallister and a daughter of House Keath. He was born to the mother, who was then married off to a landed knight in service to the Mallisters. Baby Criston was sent to be raised by Lord Jon, who took the boy into his household and raised him accordingly. He lived alongside his brothers and sisters as friends and, being raised by a mother of Dornish heritage, was sheltered from the ugly truth that bastard children are second rate citizens to the trueborn nobility. He was vaguely aware of this as a young adult, but the true extent of the taint of being a bastard was not apparent to him until after the campaign against the Ironborn raiders.

During the campaign, he had played an arguably greater role in the victory over the Ironborn than either of Lord Jon Mallister's trueborn children. He scored several victories at sea that eventually claimed the majority of the Ironborn longships, while his half-brother and sister merely defended the coasts from a few incursions. He had fought as hard as them, but was rewarded with dirty looks and barely a glance during the discussion about the succession to the the seat of Seagard. Justine Mallister was made master-of-arms, Jacelyn Mallister was made Lord of Seagard, and Criston Rivers was passed over for the position of master-of-ships.

And then he turned his cloak.

With his two most loyal captains he mutinied against Seagard and took the three most powerful warships in the Mallister navy. The largest, formerly named Lord Tully, became his flagship, the Bastard’s Revenge, and he sailed south to the Stepstone Islands. He took the name Blacksails and, as the name would suggest, replaced the white sails of his ships with black ones, marking him as a pirate. For the past six years he has pirated up and down both coasts of Westeros, and today his fleet consists of fourteen large warships, and the Bloodstone cove he has used as a harbor has become a small town of some three hundred people living outside the laws of any nation. Though he enjoys his de facto lordship over what has come to be called Bastard’s Cove, his true ambitions are elsewhere, namely in Seagard and Riverrun.

[Sinistred]

AEGON'S OLDEST BASTARD

Name: Daemon
Age: 19
House/Affilitation: Targaryen (- Blackfyre)

Personality:
Born as a bastard, even a noble one, has instilled Daemon with a feeling of adversity toward those of ‘true blood’. However, he considers himself as pure as one can be, for he has the blood of ancient Valyria coursing through his veins from both parental sides. Like most bastards, Daemon has matured fast and is a strong personality at court to whom many feel themselves drawn to.

Additional to his interest in the arts of war and battle, he is intrigued by history and music. In spite of his young age he has become well-read and versed. His attempts at poetry are far from mirthful, which hints at a great sadness and anger burning in his core.

However, Daemon seems to harbour a great feeling of injustice towards him. This feeling is continuously nurtured by some of his advisers and undoubtedly stems from the difficult life as a royal bastard. Rumours that his half-brother, Daeron, and heir-apparent to the Iron Throne is a fruit of incest are abound and feed his frustration and resentment. Though he appears warm and outgoing, chivalry seems to make only so much for the stigma of 'bastard'; only a few know the real Daemon Waters and nobody knows what goes on exactly behind those amethyst eyes... not even Aegor.

Appearance:
Daemon is tall and powerful, with broad shoulders, muscular arms, and a flat stomach. He has strong Targaryen features, with deep purple eyes and silver-gold hair worn long over his shoulders. He always goes clean-shaven. Almost inhumanly beautiful, Daemon looks every inch the warrior, and many think that he strongly resembles portraits of Aegon I.

Daemon matured into a man of considerable charm and strength, mastering all weapons of the battlefield, but with the sword in hand he is said to fight like the Warrior himself. He has won friends easily and women are drawn to him.

History:
Born four years before Daeron Targaryen, his half-brother, to King Aegon IV and Daena the Defiant ( Aegon’s cousin). From a very young age he has been trained at the use of arms and his skills are already legendary throughout the Realm. However, until the age of thirteen it had been uncertain whom his father was as Daena had been locked away in the Maidenvault by the late King Baelor I. The reason for his recognition is him besting all other squires at a tourney. Aegon IV was thoroughly impressed by the skills of his son that he recognized the youth. Thus giving him the right to call Aegon father, yet not carry the royal name.

Since then, Daemon was treated with solid reticence by most members of court, save for his brother Aegor Rivers and the Red Keep master-at-arms Quentyn ‘Fireball’ Ball. However, his warm nature and natural attraction caused the courtiers to stop treating him like a leper. The bastard dragon grew popular with the small-folk as he had a striking appearance and regal aura. As the boy turned to man it became clear Daemon was of the blood of the dragon. Some even claimed he was the reincarnation of Aegon I.

In recent years he has turned into an important figure of society as people seem to flock to him from all corners of Westeros, and beyond. The bastard prince has collected a group of personal retainers and councilors, of which Aegor Rivers is the paramount. Many people think and feel that Daemon would make an excellent king, should his heritage not be marred by bastard blood.

Daemon feels great sympathy for his lord father and king, pitying him in fact. He believes the burden of leadership is the cause of Aegon’s perverse and violent nature and slow descent into, dare he say, madness. The relationships with the ‘trueborn’ Targaryens can be called salty at best. Queen Naerys, for one, considers him nothing but air, hoping that by not acknowledging his existence to make it indeed so. For his little half-brother he feels contempt, though he would not admit that to anyone else. In truth, he envies the youth's station.

OOC Notes:
Daemon is not yet known as Blackfyre when this rp starts.

[Phoebas]

Goodness that post was excellent! Well done you three! Bravo!

[Ghostly Bagel]

Goodness that post was excellent! Well done you three! Bravo!

I second this comment.

[Foxes]

Third. I'm super excited now.

[Raptorman]

Thanks

[SilverQuill]

Just a heads up...

I go on my work schedule in the morning and will likely be scarce for 2 weeks. I work 4 10 hours days, followed by 2 8 hour days on a different shift, followed by 1 day of rest, followed by 4 10 hour days.

I am liable to be groggy, punchy, sleepless, and generally weirdo. I will try my best to keep updated, but I will likely only pop into chat to let folks know I am not dead. If you need to get in touch with me, please drop me a PM on this site, or if I do not reply here, Sini knows how to get ahold of me on another site too.



Sil