Sini — Roleplayer Guild

Ok there we go. It should all be the right name now@RisingSun

There are still a bunch of 'Lucien' references in your sheet. I counted nine.

A weakness doesn’t always have to do with one’s personality. The things I’ve listed could bring the character down just as well. However, if you’re adamant on one regarding personality, you can say he’s overly ambitious which I do believe I’ve mentioned but just not in the “Weaknesses” field.@RisingSun

Indeed it doesn't. But this is GoT and advanced. There's no room for Ser Gary of House Stu. I want to see flawed characters. Nobody's perfect. The 'overly ambitious' route can work, as it's a common one and has led to many a man/woman's downfall. It's also just one element. Where are his quirks? His peeves? Doubts and guilt? I still can't help but feel that Matthos, in his current state, is a flat character.

And perhaps in the future@RisingSun

Now. A Great House consisting of just the one guy is not the way to go about it. Branch out, challenge yourself. Multiple POVs make it more fun and immersive, and offer other player characters more chance to interact with yours. Picking a Great House implies you facilitate roleplay and pick up more than just the one character.

To me the House Sheet falls short of the mark, particularly since it is a Great House. You must realise we scrutinise these even more than lesser ones. Perhaps the other GMs may chip in when they have time @Ruby and @Ezekiel.

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 Abe(lar) the Able or Lord AbleSer 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 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. Though he had taken a heavy hit and broken his back, he still had his proverbial backbone.

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. Ormund has taken over more and more of his father’s duties and responsibilities, but Abelar remains hesitant to burden his son with them. He wishes for ‘his boy’ to experience the width and breadth of the world like he once did, seemingly forgetting that at Ormund’s age he had already been wed and settled. Another thing to be attributed to his condition perhaps?

Ser Ormund Hightower, heir to the Hightower.

Age: seven-and-twenty

Appearance:

Green-eyed, dark-haired, square-jawed, athletically built and handsomely featured, Ormund is very much the gallant knight starring in a maiden’s dream. He sports a well-groomed beard and whiskers which accentuate his fiendishly wicked smile. Ser Ormund cuts a dashing figure and he knows it, his vanity encouraged him to augment his appearance. However, of late ladies’ knees have not been weakened by Ormund’s grin as often as before. Nor have the tailors and tradesmen made their usual profit of his pursuit of fine garb and garment.

Biography and personality: 
Born into wealth and privilege, there developed quite some conceit in Ormund’s character. Things came easy to him, whether it be riding a horse, practice at the quintain, composing sonnets or studying tomes. As such, his childhood and early adolescence hardly prepared him for the adversity which followed later in life.

After his father’s accident, Ormund sensed a nagging feeling of guilt haunt him. It took a while for the heir to specify what exactly was troubling his mood, and by then he was on the cusp of manhood. Like many a young lad, he sought to alleviate his sorrows and worries in the pursuit of wine and women. Given his station and talents, conquests came easy. Empty satisfaction and fleeting gratification started to lose their appeal. But what else was there?

Abelar suggested Ormund visit Essos as he once did. A tour of the Free Cities would broaden his son’s horizon, and be a good chance for him to work on behalf of his House. Prior to setting off East, Ormund travelled the Reach. Having followed the Rose Road, he called on his kin in King’s Landing. Though King’s Landing could hardly compare to the charm and history of Oldtown, Ormund stayed a while, exploring the Royal Court whilst Uncle Otto was Hand. The Targaryens had always fascinated him greatly, and he was impressed and scared equally by their dragons. Thence he set sail for Pentos, starting his voyage.

Reports trickling home spoke of Ormund travelling from Braavos to Pentos and the Three Daughters (Tyrosh, Myr and Lys). For a while he lingered in Daemon Targaryen’s fledgling Kingdom of the Stepstones, lending his sword and those of his retinue to the prince’s cause – and this in spite of Uncle Otto’s animosity of Daemon.

However, when he was expected to set sail for home, Ormund ventured further East, calling at Volantis and even went on to spend a season in the Ghiscari cities of Slaver’s Bay. A year on and the heir to House Hightower sojourned in Qarth. He was tempted to venture even farther, and visit the jade-and-silk courts of Yi Ti and Leng. An Oldtown based merchant found Ormund before he sailed out, with news of Lord Abelar’s plight. It was said that he had not left the Hightower itself since Ormund’s stay in Slaver’s Bay, and that whilst Ser Otto governed diligently in his brother’s stead he was close to over-stepping his station. Ormund abandoned his eastern dreams and for the first time in years turned his prow westward.

Upon his return to Oldtown now little over a year ago, the usually debonair heir to the Hightower felt a change coming over him. Sophistication and charm were all well and good, but playing the dandy or fop sapped Ormund’s energy. His journeys had tempered him. Whilst he still maintained a sense of refinement and the urbane, constant observation of Lord Abelar’s decline blunted Ormund’s former affability. Watching his father waste away, and struggling with the sense of guilt over its source, he has adopted a more cavalier attitude. Ormund has found his patience wearing rapidly thin, and that things previously attractive or uninteresting increasingly vex him. It is a rare thing of late, to find Ormund in high spirits after visiting with his ailing sire. Safe to say his feelings and emotions are difficult to contend with.

Due to the carefree nature of his youth, his uncles regarded him still as something of an airhead. Ser Bryndon recently came around having witnessed his nephew’s novel interest in military science and theory, but Ser Otto has evermore been the most stubborn of the threesome. He continues to see his young nephew as the roguish womanizer, the dreamer and wanton, as the man he was before. Ormund is determined to quell the doubts and step up as Abelar’s son and heir.

Age: six-and-forty years of age (born 65 AC), 
Appearance:

Biography and personality:
Ser Otto rose to the position of the Hand of the King late in the reign of Jaehaerys I Targaryen, after Baelon’s death in 101 AC, and continued to hold the position under Viserys I Targaryen who became his son-in-law. Until 109 AC that is, when he was dismissed from office after hounding King Viserys about the rights of Alicent’s sons to the throne. With no more place for him at court, Ser Otto returned to Oldtown but left behind a strong faction at court who defend the rights of his grandchildren. He has been frequently at odds with the King’s brother, Prince Daemon. Bookish and learned, Ser Otto might have easily passed for a Maester (as indeed many Hightowers have done over the ages), if not for his personal ambition. He has a haughty, blunt and domineering personality, but is methodical and effective.

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