“We were reavers once, kings of salt and rock. Now we kneel to dragons without dragons and follow a man whose body and mind are no longer his. Surely we can aspire to more than this.”House Greyjoy and its lords were powerful reavers in the days before Aegon’s Landing. When Aegon the Conqueror first stepped foot on the mainland of Westeros, the Ironborn controlled the Iron Islands, the Riverlands, and Harrenhal under the leadership of Harren the Black. House Hoare ruled as kings, but they could not stand against dragons. Dragonfire brought the Ironborn to heel, and once House Hoare was extinguished Vickon Greyjoy was chosen to lead the ironmen in kneeling before the Iron Throne.
With the deaths of the dragons during the reign of Aegon III Targaryen, called the Dragonbane, the Ironborn may have risen against their conquerors. House Greyjoy was formidable enough to command the respect and fealty of their vassals, but they have been plagued by unambitious lords, content to reave in the far corners of the world, if at all, in cooperation with the Targaryen sanctions on Ironborn raiding. After remaining aloof from the Blackfyre Rebellion, the Greyjoys had an incredible opportunity before them. The realm was defenseless, having splintered their armies against each other, while the Iron Islands were at full strength. Lord Maron Greyjoy, however, was no reaver, no conqueror, and certainly no king.
He is, however, possessed of great longevity, much to the annoyance of the heirs he managed to outlive. At 76 years of age, only now are his mind and body failing, and upon his passing he will leave his seat at Pyke to his grandson, Vickon Greyjoy, the eldest son of his late heir, Balon. There is a clear line of succession. Vickon and his wife, Alannys, have a son together, named Balon in honor of his father, but nothing can be truly certain. The krakens are gathering from all corners of the known world, and they are a treacherous lot. The astute claimant to Maron Greyjoy's seat would be wise to keep a wine taster on hand and a blade at his bedside.
We begin this tale of succession, intrigue, and conspiracy with our eyes turned not to Pyke, but to Tyrosh, where a long errant son of House Greyjoy plans his return home.
Maron Greyjoy, Lord of Pyke and the Iron Islands; age 76
{Gwynda Blacktyde}, first wife of Maron Greyjoy; died age 51
{Lia Farman}, second wife of Maron Greyjoy; died age 28
{Harras Greyjoy}, Lord Maron’s first son by Gwynda Blacktyde; died of a fever, age 3
{Balon Greyjoy}, Lord Maron’s second son by Gwynda Blacktyde; lost at sea, age 50
{Alysa Greyjoy}, wife of Balon Greyjoy; died age 39
Vickon Greyjoy, Balon Greyjoy’s first son; age 36
Alannys Greyjoy, wife of Vickon Greyjoy; age 33
Balon Greyjoy, first son of Vickon Greyjoy; age 4
Dagon Greyjoy, Balon Greyjoy’s second son; age 35
Dagon’s Daughters, the three bastard daughters of Dagon Greyjoy; ages 17, 14, and 13
Victaria Greyjoy, Balon Greyjoy’s first daughter; age 26
{Rodrik Greyjoy}, Lord Maron’s third son by Gwynda Blacktyde, twin to Quellon; killed while reaving, age 44
Gwynnifer Greyjoy, wife of Rodrik Greyjoy; age 43
Criston Greyjoy, Rodrik Greyjoy’s first son; age 27
Gyselle Greyjoy, Rodrik Greyjoy’s first daughter; age 25
Quellon Greyjoy, Lord Maron’s fourth son by Gwynda Blacktyde, twin to Rodrik; age 49
Helanna Greyjoy, wife of Quellon Greyjoy; age 46
Maron Greyjoy, Quellon Greyjoy’s first son; age 27
Qarl Greyjoy, Quellon Greyjoy’s second son; age 25
Mylessa Greyjoy, wife of Qarl Greyjoy; age 22
Gwynesse Greyjoy, first daughter of Qarl Greyjoy; age 4
Daemon Pyke, bastard son of Qarl Greyjoy; age 10
Ser Martyn Greyjoy, Lord Maron’s first son by Lia Farman; age 29
Trysta Greyjoy, wife of Martyn Greyjoy; age 27
Tristifer Greyjoy, first son of Martyn Greyjoy; age 9
Genna Greyjoy, first daughter of Martyn Greyjoy; age 5
Dayna Greyjoy, Lord Maron’s daughter by Gwynda Blacktyde; age 46
Jeyne Greyjoy, Lord Maron’s first daughter by Lia Farman; age 32
Carolei Greyjoy, Lord Maron’s second daughter by Lia Farman; age 24
Primary Characters
Name
Criston Greyjoy
Appearance
Criston is markedly attractive. His hair, which he keeps slick with Myrish oils, is nearly jet black, reaches to the nape of his neck, and is marked by a sharp widow’s peak. His eyes are similarly dark, and his face is sharp and angular, with high cheekbones, an aquiline nose, and a narrow jaw line. He is lean and lithe of body, and his skin, though naturally pale, is well tanned from years in the Essosi sun. He maintains his appearance with meticulous grooming, and keeps a neatly trimmed, closely cropped beard.
He dresses with a foreign exoticism, garbing himself in intricate, black dyed leathers that fit him like a second skin, rich crimson silks, and a sable cloak as soft and black as sin. He carries his longsword on his person at nearly all times, a gorgeous piece of Qohorik artisanship featuring a curving talon, sculpted of dragonbone, for a pommel and a blade of deep blue-black steel. He carries a number of Myrish stilettos as well, sheathed on both hips and at the small of his back.
Personality
Criston Greyjoy’s personality is difficult to pinpoint with accuracy. He is charming and charismatic, sweet as honeywine, but beneath this veneer is a cold, cruel, and ruthlessly calculating mind that makes him among the most dangerous of the Greyjoy line. He is lascivious, power hungry, and cunning, driven by his greed and fueled by his arrogance and ambition. Together, these traits make him a skilled warrior, a shrewd schemer, and a merciless reaver.
History
Within a few years of their marriage, Rodrik Greyjoy and his wife, Gwynnifer Tawney, had produced both a son and daughter. The son they named Criston, the daughter Gyselle. From youth to adulthood, Criston wanted for little. Anything he desired was his, so long as the iron price was paid, and Rodrik and Quellon Greyjoy, the Kraken’s Twins, were firm devotees of the Old Way. As soon as Criston, his sister, and Quellon’s son Qarl were old enough to swing a blade, the Kraken’s Twins and their issue set course for Essos with a force of longships. They reaved for years, spending more time away from Pyke than at Maron’s court. Criston learned the art of war, and slowly grew into a man. He killed his first man, took his first salt wife, offered his first sacrifice to the Drowned God, and took command of his first ship over those years.
At the age of two and twenty he was captain of his own longship, the powerful Eclipse, and had a fiercely loyal crew of Ironborn raiders sworn to his banner. He carried out his own raids, independent of his father and uncle, and lent his reavings a particularly dark and twisted note. He was a warrior through and through. In his twenty-second year, however, one reaving brought tragedy to House Greyjoy. During an attack on a Volantene slaver, a crossbow bolt caught his father in the eye, killing him instantly. After returning his father’s body to the sea, Criston and the Eclipse vanished into the wild blue, taking no plunder from the slaver save five Volantene crossbowmen who had surrendered to the raiders. It was the last time he would be seen west of Volantis for months.
Where he went during that time no man can say, save his crew and the man himself. Criston says nothing of his journeys, and his crew seems inclined to discuss the matter, save to say that when Criston Greyjoy returned, he returned not to Pyke, but to the Disputed Lands, and came garbed in black leathers and crimson silks. Rather than returning solely to plunder the vessels of the Free Cities, he established himself as a sellsail and soon gained a fearsome reputation throughout the Free Cities.
He has remained aloof from the Iron Islands for the entirety of the five years since his father’s death, but has maintained a relationship with those members of House Greyjoy make a habit of crossing the narrow sea, including his cousins, Dagon and Qarl, and his sister, Gyselle.
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Name
Brandon Greystark
Appearance
Brandon is tall and powerfully built, and pale of skin and dark of eye in the vein of the northmen. He has unkempt shoulder-length hair and a roughly cropped beard, both of which he dyes black for the sake of appearances. His hair is naturally a Lysene blond.
He dresses according to northern norms, his clothing featuring wolf and ermine fur despite its impracticality in the warmer climates of southern Essos. He sheaths a bastard sword at his hip, an ancestral blade of House Greystark he claims is melted down and reforged each time it is passed from father to son.
Personality
Brandon Greystark is a stoic and pragmatist, a dour man of dour lineage. He is remarkably honorable for a mercenary, upholding a reputation for having never turned his cloak. He is a formidable warrior, but is surprisingly humble. Unlike the majority of sellswords, Brandon has little desire for wealth and riches beyond that needed to maintain his ship and crew. His only true desire is the reclamation of the Wolf’s Den and the restoration of House Greystark.
History
Long before Aegon’s Landing, long before the Manderlys built the city of White Harbor, House Greystark sat at the Wolf’s Den. Though an elevated cadet branch to House Stark, they betrayed their kin and rose against the King of Winter alongside House Bolton. They were defeated. House Bolton was laid low and subjugated, and House Greystark’s line was extinguished. The Wolf’s Den passed to other houses, including the Lockes, Ashwoods, Flints, Slates, Longs, and more, until it was granted to House Manderly. The Greystarks are long gone, as far as any northman is concerned. Brandon Greystark would disagree.
According to the sellsail, the shattered remnants of the house fled to Essos and survived in exile, adapting to a life outside Westeros but always remaining mindful of their heritage. The reclamation of their seat at the Wolf’s Den has been a task borne, but never fulfilled, by each heir to House Greystark. Brandon has vowed to return to the Wolf’s Den or die in the attempt.
While he appears to be a northman by blood, his claim is a dubious one at best. The chances that the Greystark line has continued, unbroken, for nearly fifteen hundred years is small at best, and it is all the more likely that Brandon is simply the descendant of a sellsword who claimed the name as his own, rather than the true line of House Greystark. History has shown time and again, however, that legitimacy is more often won by the sword than by the truth.
Brandon is the captain of a Myrish war galley, the Winter Wolf, and serves as a sellsail to the merchant lords of the Free Cities. He has a reputation for his honor, reliability, and ferocious skill at arms, which together have made him a more successful mercenary than most.
