Age: 55
Appearance:
Personality: Janos is and has been the head of House Hightower for the past 18 years, since his father passed on. He was raised as would befit a noble of his station. Early on, he learned the ways of the sword and court, but more so he embraced his intelligence. Growing so close to Oldtown and the Citadel provided young Janos with a plethora of tutors and teachers along with his family's own Maesters. By the time he ascended to Lordship, Janos was as educated as most of the Citadels Acolytes. More than anything however, his Lord father had instilled in him from a young age that honor was everything. Everything that separated a Lord from the common folk. Life, however, thought otherwise otherwise. Life taught that even Lords were but men, and prey to the pitfalls all men face. The birth and his subsequent acceptance and adoption of his twin bastards taught him as much.
He is a warm man, slow to anger but quick to judge and not one to suffer fools lightly. He has as sharp wit and a tongue sharper still. He loves his family and they are his first concern, along with the well being of his House, its Bannermen and their subjects. He is an even ruler, just and fair, but knowledgeable as he is of the laws and treatises of the Seven Kingdoms, he can't help but acknowledge the flaws in them.
Bio: Janos was born the eldest of three brothers. He, Leos and Damon grew side by side in the Hightower as the House faced its stern trials. The wars with the Dornish in particular. When peace was made and eventually mended through marriage, Dorne came under the demesne of the Iron Throne, the Realm was once again at peace, save for the occasional pirate raids on the coast. It was in this interlude of peace that Janos had become a man grown, and so began travelling with his Lord father Abelar Hightower, seeing to the matters of court and the high society. It was on such an outing that he'd attended a Tourney hosted in Oldtown. He was bested in his third tilt but found a Roxton maid calling upon him afterwards. So began their brief but fiery courtship
When Janos' Lord father became aware of them, it was too late; the bastards had already been born. Janos intended to marry her before the seven, but Abelar refused and threatened disinheritance. No son of Hightower would wed beneath them. "Honor," he'd said, " is more important than love, dignity, or a bastard." Janos had said nothing, but as he took the twins from their mother to be raised in the Hightower, he couldn't help but wonder if
Two bastards were more important than honor. Though seven years later, Janos was wed to Jeyne Oakheart and his first true-born son, Abelar, was born, but his father never forgave him for bringing the twins to Hightower.
He was wroth but spoke no more on the matter- or of the twins until the day he died. His last words were "The Bastards will never rule." Most assumed he spoke of Prince Daemon and Bittersteel, but Janos knew the words were for him. Their father had lived his life in the shadow of the Dance of Dragons, watching. Waiting for the day the land would divide once more. And so he'd taught his sons.
They were told that one day, another Rebellion would rise. Abelar Hightower was but a boy, not yet a man grown when his Lord Father Ormund Hightower rode for the fateful battle of Tumbleton where he was slain by the Winter Wolves. The fact that he had never known his father saddened him as a boy, but made the young man strive to live up to his House's legacy.
More so, it made the young Lord very guarded against betrayal. So Abelar had ensured that his progeny would be prepared for the day another pretender would try to rise up and challenge for the Iron Throne.
So the boys grew with the best training and tutorage available from Oldtown. The studied with the Maesters of the Citadel and trained in the martial arts under the seasoned veterans of the Dance of Dragons. And so it went, with Abelar keeping a close eye on the political stability of the realm while his sons prepared for the inevitable. Through the wars with Dorne, and the subsequent overthrow of Targaryen rule in Dorne, he never lost sight or waivered from what he'd perceived to be the greatest threat to the Realm. And so it came.
However, perhaps he had forgotten the lessons of Reach lords who swore for the Blacks so many years ago, or maybe chose not to look too closely at his own family, but when the blades where drawn, Leos and Damon had gathered what men they could from their holdings and joined their cause with Lord Gormon Peake. With a weary heart, Janos had called his banners and set off to slay his brothers and kinsmen.
At the wars end, Damon had been slain, and Leos was shipped off to the wall after taking the Black. Janos had been the Lord of Hightower for but five short years and already succeeded in seeing his closest kin slain as well as by his own hand. But the Realm was secure, at long last. In the decade that passed since the Blackfyre rebellion was quelled upon the Redgrass Field, Janos worked to pass on the teachings of his father, to be always prepared, sharp of blade as well as wit for the day the Realm would split again.