Sini

[ASOIAF]: Before the Dragons Danced

@Sini

Changed and I based the contents off of the template provided. I’ll probably reveal the other topics IC.

@RisingSun

I usually put them in the character description. I'm not a huge fan of listing them explicitely.

[ASOIAF]: Before the Dragons Danced

...

@RisingSun

Sheet Feedback:
I find there's some contradiction in his character, but I can't quite put my finger on it. Maybe because you point out that he isn't the most honourable of men, whilst saying that he stays true to friends and allies. To me that seems to entail an honourable personality. Also, 'pride' not 'proudness' (while the latter exists apparently, it really is uncommon). Finally, I advise you to add in some weakness(es), and relations. Quirks are also always a nice thing. These will make Matthos a more interesting, rounded out character.

[Approved] Kurin Tonaal, Sith Apprentice

Fine by me!

[ASOIAF]: Before the Dragons Danced

House Hightower

Ancient and proud, House Hightower of the Hightower is the most powerful of the noble houses in the Reach. Among their illustrious lineage are kings and queens, men and women both legendary and infamous. They have often preferred trade instead of war, but are far from pacifist.

Their seat is the Hightower, located in the city of Oldtown, an impressive lighthouse fortress which features on their coat-of-arms as a stone white watchtower, crowned with fire. Their motto is "We Light the Way". Further burnishing their prestige is Vigilance, their Valyrian steel sword.

As masters over the oldest and wealthiest city of Westeros, protectors of both the Citadel and Starry Sept, and with a host of bannermen all their own, the Hightowers command pride and place. As their sky-scraping seat of power does over Oldtown, so do the Hightowers loom large over the pages of history indeed.

Recent History:

House Hightower, like their eponymous seat, has risen sky-high. Having made a name for himself as an able administrator as his Abelar’s right hand man. The brothers had quarrelled most viciously, and it was agreed that Oldtown had become too small to accommodate them both. Ser Otto duly exchanged Oldtown for King’s Landing where he did very well for himself indeed. Upon Baelon the Brave’s death in 101 AC, Ser Otto was named Hand of the King by Jaehaerys I. Otto Hightower would hold the office for nigh a decade, until his incessant dogging of Jaehaerys’ son, Viserys I, to elevate the king’s grandson above Princess Rhaenyra caused him to fall from grace. Leaving behind his Daughter Alicent, Queen since 106 AC, and a strong faction that support her son’s claim to the Iron Throne, Ser Otto returned to Oldtown to reconcile with his elder brother.

For the past two years, Abelar and Otto have patched up an uneasy peace between them. While Otto may no longer be Viserys’ Hand, he still exerts massive influence through his daughter, the Queen. Otto has adopted patience, confident his skills and personal relations to the royal house will see him restored to office. Lord Abelar believes his brother’s ambitions soar too high, and is convinced he would be better off tempering them. At the same time, he understands his brother’s pursuit of power for Otto has no lordship to call his own. He is aware of a certain parallel between himself and King Viserys. Whilst the King has been heard to say “Let Daemon play at war. It keeps him out of trouble,” Lord Abelar adapted the royal quote to fit his own brother, displaying his sarcastic sense of humour: “Let Otto play at politics. It gets him in trouble.”

Sworn Houses:

House Beesbury of Honeyholt
House Bulwer of Blackcrown
House Costayne of the Three Towers
House Cuy of Sunhouse
House Mullendore of Uplands

House Members:

• Lord Abelar Hightower (51), also called Abelar the Able
  • Ser Ormund, his son and heir (27)

• Ser Bryndon Hightower (48), the foremost knight of Oldtown, also called Bryndon the Bold (or Bryndon the Bald in covert ridicule).

• Ser Otto Hightower (46), Abelar’s youngest brother
  
  • Ser Barris, his eldest, deceased
  • Queen Alicent Hightower (27), wife to Viserys I. She is three-and-twenty years of age, (born 88 AC), and became Queen in 106 AC. She has already given His Grace two sons and a daughter, their children being
    
    • Aegon (born 107 AC), a raucous toddler
    • Helaena (109 AC), a quiet child still in swaddling
    • Aemond (110 AC), a newborn babe
  • Ser Gwayne Hightower (15), youngest of Otto's children, and already a knight of renown in spite of his young age.

Assorted cousins and kinsmen:

• Ser Myles Hightower, a knightly cousin, a greedy and miserly man.
• Ser Hobert Hightower, (41), yet another cousin, a stout, slow-moving man who is known to dabble in poisons.

Lord Abelar Hightower

Lord Abelar Hightower, Lord of the Hightower and master over Oldtown.

Age: fifty and one years of age (born 60 AC).

Appearance:
Echoes of Abelar's comliness and atlethism remain in his appearance, but he has grown stooped and bent, and grey before his years. The marks of his accident show in his limp and crooked back. His hair is thinning, and his face has become lined from worry and pain. His blue eyes, once lively and sparkling with mirth, have grown sad and tired.

Biography and personality:
Lord Abelar has been a vigorous man who has led a full life, having travelled extensively. As a young knight he went from tournament to tournament, making a decent enough name for himself in the lists. As time progressed, he even undertook a voyage to the Free Cities, going as far as Volantis. Once he visited the Summer Isles. When invested as Lord of the Hightower and protector of Oldtown, Abelar became more sedentary in order to focus on his responsibilities as head of his House. He took a wife, sired children and governed ably by mediating between the various factions within the city. Faith, guilds, the Citadel, smallfolk, all were treated justly. With so many conflicting interests brewing in the city, it did Abelar’s skills as an administrator credit. For his even-handed policy and fair governance as well as the memory of his tourney days, Lord Abelar’s moniker is ‘the Able’.

More recently, though, both Abelar’s health and disposition have deteriorated. His once sharp sarcastic sort of humour has turned to melancholy, his bearing tired and morose. Whilst only just passed his prime, the Lord of Oldtown has started to wither and decay. The maesters claim it first happened at Ormund’s fourteenth nameday. A magnificent destrier had been bought and was to be presented, a proud father’s gift to his son and heir. Abelar himself came riding in on the beast to hand over the reins with flair. However, the steed had only barely been broken in, and threw Lord Abelar onto the cobbled courtyard. After weeks of bedrest and mending of his back, Abelar rose from his bed even though the maesters had proclaimed he would never walk again. A few years on and he affected a limp. Now, his sword-arm trembles and twitches whenever it is idle. Writing is becoming difficult, and sometimes the lord is caught staring out of a window as if lost in deep thought… were it not for the blank stare and occasional spittle at the corner of a mouth previously occupied with smile and laughter. Abelar can be shaken from these ‘moods’, though with increased difficulty. He resents his own weakness and hates for others to see him thus.

Abelar the Able is no longer good-natured, but tries to bear his affliction with grace. Not once has he complained about the nagging pain in his back or joints, or the burden of his mind withering away. He is wasting away and painfully aware of it, but has to maintain a brave face and imperious mien lest the authority of Hightower be tainted. He is fortunate, so he says, to have his Brother Bryndon take up the martial responsibilities, while Otto - now he has returned and reconciled - is more focussed on the administrative aspects.

[Approved] Dashara Horizon, Unaligned Force User

I liked it.

Is this pending or WIP?

[ASOIAF]: Before the Dragons Danced

@Sini Have you determined if you'll be playing as House Hightower or not? I'd like to start a Direct Message thread so we can discuss the finer details, if you would be so inclined.

@Dusty

Sure. :) You may also find me on Discord.

[Approved] Captain Collem Corvinian

STILL PICTURE HUNTING

Captain Collem Corvinian

OoC

As a player, what is your preferred writing level?
•Several paragraphs
•Long stories with heavy collaboration
Is grammar and depth of writing important to you?
Very much so. I don’t care what preferred spelling you use (American or British English), but try to be consistent. Admittedly it is something I have to check myself too – whether I wrote ‘honor’ or ‘honour’. My own preference veers toward BE, simply because this is the style I was taught and currently teach.

Are there any writing subjects you particularly enjoy exploring?
I enjoy adult themes, meaning scenarios revolving around conflicting interests, alliances of necessity, cloak-and-dagger, politics, intrigue, negotiations, power mechanics, etc. What’s a character’s motivation? What does he/she aspire to? Why? While the occasional action scene or gunfight is interesting, I find myself more engaged when delving deeper. For example, I would much rather such an action sequence was part of a grander story or scene, like an ongoing battle or jailbreak.

Is there anything you really dislike and want to avoid like the plague?
Uncollaborative writing partners.

Is there something you are uncomfortable with happening to your character?
Do not hijack, ‘bunny’ or godmod my chars. Some of you who know me will also know that I am alright with them being used when I intrinsically trust you with them, or give you permission to control them ICly. The golden rule is to check first.

Do you have any short-term or long-term goals with this character?
Collem’s supposed to be a tool for me to be able to join and be involved with a variety of RPs. He’s for me to get into that sweet, sweet roleplay. As with his daddy dearest, he should facilitate stories. In addition, he might provide a link to the Grand Moff, thereby acting as a bridge between low and high tier player characters.

Imperial personnel files

Name: Collem Corvinian
Species: Human (negligible Sith pureblood percentage)
Age: 34
Gender: Male

Military Branch: Imperial Navy / Imperial Intelligence
Rank: Captain
Unit/designation: Intelligence
Role/specialisation: Operative, asset handler

Current place of Service:
Classified.

Known Skills and Trained Techniques:
Military Tactics (small to large units), strategic deployment and manoeuvres, leadership and command, operational analysis, logistics, working knowledge of economics, law and assorted ‘civilian’ fields, starship engineering knowledge, basic combat training, hand-to-hand combat, linguistics, cultural studies.

Known associates:
Classified.

Favoured Equipment and clothes:
When serving with a naval task force or in official capacity, Collem adheres to the appropriate dress code. Austere, military style of dress are preferred. While Corvinian is concerned about appearances, his uniform must first and foremost be functional not fashionable. When deployed, the golden rule is to dress for the occasion. One does not wear a crisp white service dress when entering a hive of scum and villainy.

Personality type:
A chip off the old block. A natural-born leader and battlefield commander, Collem is gifted with charisma and confidence, and projects authority in a way that draws people together behind a common goal. While certainly not numb to others, he is characterized by an often-ruthless level of rationality, using his drive, determination and sharp mind to achieve whatever end he has set for himself.

Known flaws:
• Utterly ruthless… sorta: Corvinian has shown that he is willing to do almost whatever it takes to attain a goal. He lacks the cruelty that serves/served others in the Sith Empire so well.
• Rash, proud and confident: burnished by military success and glory, Collem has come to see himself as some sort of strategic virtuoso while forgetting that age-old truth: pride cometh before the fall.
• Petty rivalries: Though he does not enjoy conflict, Collem nevertheless seems to find it. Altercations with superior officers (especially his father) have been no rarity.

Imperial Intelligence Reports

_{Detailed appearance. Imagery insufficient.}

A young man, in shape, of agreeable countenance. Non-descript height, which perhaps is useful in his current operational field. Collem carries himself with the same confidence seen in his father. In recent years Collem has become somewhat of a chameleon, adept at changing his appearance and comportment.

_{Report on skills and talents, including level of skill}

• Engineer-minded: Collem is enthusiastic about advancements in military technology and ship construction. His passion ranging from wielding a blow-torch to writing code and protocols.
• Adaptable: While the case, Collem’s adaptability goes beyond practical applications or ship manoeuvres. Open-minded and progressive, one of the few points where the younger Corvinian agrees with his father is that the Empire is threatening to decay. Having risen to unprecedented heights, it is now imperative that the Empire adapts to the new reality.
• Ambitious: With open conflict over and done, and naval operations limited to patrol and anti-piracy, Collem has had to find a new way to continue the fight against the Republic. Great things are coming, and he feels the need to be part of it.
• Judge & Reader: Collem does his research, thoroughly. When faced with a lacune or hiatus, he either shores up his knowledge or brings in an expert. It is therefore important for him to be a good judge of character.

_{Report on known combat experience, training and weapons training. Report on role, specialisation and responsibilities pertaining to the subject’s military deployment.}

Refer to biography/interview, skills and talents, known interests.

_{Psychological evaluation of candidate.}

Reared to take command from an early age, the younger Corvinian developed a keen sense of pride. However, there is always the shadow of his father to contend with. He is in need of validation. Coming from a family steeped in military tradition and prestige, and personal accomplishment, has fuelled in him a burning ambition to excel. Oddly enough, Collem feels as if there is a competition between himself and his father, Grand Moff Blayse Corvinian.

This need to ‘be his own man’ has led Collem to adopt and develop a remarkable style of leadership distinctively different from Blayse’s. While there is certainly a spark of brilliance and more than enough daring and dash involved, Corvinian’s battlefield tactics and command border on the dangerous. They are almost too daring, if you will. When faced with unsurmountable odds, Collem takes it for a challenge rather than an impossibility. He takes refuge in audacity, rather than err on the side of caution and recognise the merit of a tactical retreat. Backing down, professionally or personally, comes hard to him. While this boldness does wonders for the morale of his subordinates, it is borderline overconfidence and irresponsible. It makes him a somewhat unreliable commander. Some risks can (and should) be avoided. His actions have more than once earned him a reprimand from his old man, only contrarily emboldening him further.

He operates at a higher tempo than most of his opponents, and gambles with hunches and intricate plans where the result is so spectacular that it looks like Force Sight. Collem Corvinian not only plays to his enemy’s psychology through his artistically-informed military tactics, but by making them doubt themselves and their own abilities. He is a trickster, causing his opponent to believe that he would be aware of their every move. Or perhaps he plays the role of trickster. Collem uses his own reputation and his opponent’s self-doubts as a weapon. He might be a ‘genius’, but is without a doubt more than a bit charlatan. And then there is a personal drawback, for his reputation also ‘imprisons’ himself in a fixed role, where there is little room for error. Playing with high-stakes infers that any blunders would be catastrophic.

_{List and description of known and suspected flaws. To be put into restricted database.}

• High Target: as son of a Grand Moff, he is subject to high scrutiny and political bias.
• Hubris: He is proud and overconfident, suffering from ‘daddy issues’. Collem – perhaps unwittingly – cultivated these traits in order to pursue validation for his own achievements. He is forever looking for something that will give him an edge.
• Convoluted plans: He is a skilled tactician portraying/presenting himself as a brilliant strategist. Though he is formidable, some of his manoeuvres are massive gambles, their success largely attributed to luck and flukes.
• Stressed: Juggles stress coming from a variety of sources – father, responsibilities of command, his own reputation, rivalries, … He also fears his military prowess has plateaued at its current level, which is chipping away at his confidence.
• Dislikes the Force and Sith: In an Empire ruled by Dark Side force users, this is an unpopular stance.

_{All known interests of the candidate.}

• Spaceship engineering.
• Military history.
• Leadership, policy and management.

_{Major achievements on record.}

• Scoured the border regions along the Outer Rim reach of the Corellian Run of pirates and deserters, thus bringing a modicum of order to the notoriously troublesome worlds such as Tatooine, Rodia and Ryloth.
• Streamlined Taerab ship designs to cut back on energy consumption, system redundancy and minimum personnel requirements. Automatisation of internal systems in particular merited credit, for it alleviated the Empire’s manpower problem as well as lowering construction costs.

_{Major failures on record. Confidential.}

Classified. Additional security clearance required.

Interview

_{Personal biography, as detailed by the subject for use in imperial archives. Acquired shortly after last achievement of note.}

Growing up during wartime, Collem was chomping at the bit to pull his weight from an early age. He followed a similar cursus honorum as that of his old man, enrolling in the naval academy. Upon early graduation, he served as ensign aboard the same Gage-class Transport: the Sable Dirge.

When he moved on, it was as an officer on board of a Terminus-class Cruiser. Collem earned his stripes in the latter days of the Great War, particularly during the Rim Campaign of 3660 BBY and the final stages of the Minos Cluster Campaign from 3659 BBY on. Concurrently, Collem collaborated with Taerab Starship Manufacturing on ship and module designs. As a consultant, he focused on tackling those deficiencies such as crew requirement, energy consumption, manoeuvrability and redundant systems.

After the war ended in 3653 BBY, Collem spent a year with Taerab Starship Manufacturing until his father’s assignment as Moff in Oversector Southern opened up the possibility to hunt pirates and pockets of Republic holdouts. Active duty was something he missed, and so he applied for transfer. From Druckenwell to Smuggler’s Run and Farstine to Gamorr, Collem headed a minor flotilla of light vessels, preferring their manoeuvrability to chase down smaller, mobile bands of enemies. On occasion infiltration of criminal or paramilitary groups was necessary to gain vital intel. With the regions mostly pacified, Collem started looking for a new challenge.

His personal ties to Grand Moff Corvinian, military track record, displayed skills of (tactical) flexibility, and extensive experience moving in the Galaxy made him a suitable candidate for Imperial Intelligence. Collem became part of the extensive network as an operative. Retaining his military rank, he nonetheless moved away from commanding from the bridge and into handling assets. Generally, the trend is to evolve away from field work, but Collem welcomed the (clandestine) action and excitement. As an intelligence officer willing to get his hands dirty, he bridges the gap between covert ops and military application.

Biography Timeline

• 3681 BBY / 1299 PRE / 28 BTC: Born
• 3660 BBY / 1320 PRE / 7 BTC: Ensign
• 3659 – 3653 BBY / 1321 – 1327 PRE/ 6 BTC – 1 ATC: Participation in the Rim and Minos Cluster campaigns. Consultant at Taerab Starship Manufacturing.
• 3652 BBY / 1328 PRE: Consultant at Taerab Starship Manufacturing.
• 3651 – 3649 BBY / 1329 – 1331 PRE: Captaining a roaming anti-insurgency task force.
• 3649 BBY / 1331 PRE – present day: special operative.

[ASOIAF]: Before the Dragons Danced

<Snipped quote by Dusty>

Ok so, the sheet's really well written and I understand the desire to want to play a weakened house, but there's a few things to note here.

Firstly; House Baratheon is the Lord Paramountship closest to the Targaryen Crownlands, and this is an age of relative stability and peace for the Iron Throne (at least initially). Not to mention the Targaryens still have their dragons 'and' Storm's End is one of the most powerful seats on the Narrow Sea for the Kingdom to maintain. I don't really see a situation in which the Targaryens allow the Baratheons to entirely lose control of the Stormlands. It might be worth altering the end situation to one of the rebellious Lords being installed as the Regent to the young Baratheon heir, and ruling through him, that way.

Secondly, one of the main potential claimants to the Iron Throne, Rhaenys Targaryen, is half Baratheon through her mother, Jocelyn Baratheon. As mentioned you're more than welcome to change canon to play different characters, this is quite an important link. To keep this connection intact, I'd like to offer the solution that Robbas the Elder was a younger brother of both Jocelyn and Boremond (making him a son of Lord Rogar Baratheon and Dowager Queen Alyssa Velaryon) and that, unlike in canon, Boremond died without heirs. Let me know if that works for you.

@Ezekiel

@Dusty

I more or less second this. You write well, and I quite like the sheet. It's great - for another time period. House Baratheon commands pride and place at this point in history, more so than usual. They have an important role to play. Their genealogical and geographical proximity to House Targaryen and the Crownlands makes the series of events you so fabulously describe unlikely. Perhaps you could look at the established canon of the time period and see if and how you might incorporate it into your application. Alternatively you might look at other houses to play where this issue does not occur. A large part of why I was interested in playing them was because how closely entwined the Baratheons are with established canon.

Also, not to be nitpicking, but it's "Ours is the Fury" not "Our's".

Furthermore, in regards to your earlier query, I'm fine with working something out between the houses we end up playing. Be they Baratheon and Hightower or otherwise. I very much enjoy collabs! I think I even shared a House with someone...

[ASOIAF]: Before the Dragons Danced

That was quick indeed @Kingfisher !

I was pondering Baratheon, but maybe I ought to shift my attention to another house - like Hightower.

[Approved] Gleetch Elnam, Bounty Hunter

Approved. Have fun blasting stuff.