Post by Stranger on Jun 16, 2014 19:26:38 GMT
The following are others within House Bartheld that may be chosen as characters by players. While a little of their background has been written already, these quasi-pregens are up for grabs and whoever claims them may draw up their own stats for these characters as they see fit.
Anton Black
Anton Black performs two primary functions at Hart House. First, he is a master artisan, keeping the manor’s blades sharp and providing a source of income and prestige. Second, he is Lord Davain’s mentor and confidante.
Anton was born into the service of House Swann at Raintree. His father was a hostler and his mother was one of the Maester’s assistants. As a child, Anton was full of nervous energy and frustrated creativity. His parents thought that he was doomed to either be killed in an accident or fight or get into serious trouble before he was fully grown. Fortunately, Raintree’s smith saw that Anton had potential and took him under his wing. He gave Anton a trade, but more importantly, Robin taught Anton discipline. When Robin died, Anton took over as Raintree’s smith and held the position for several decades.
When Davain arrived at Raintree, Anton saw a kindred spirit. Davain was also full of energy and without discipline. Anton felt he had no choice but to save Davain the way he had been saved. He first attracted Davain’s attention by implying that learning how to make swords would make Davain a better fighter. Davain declared that he was “done with” Anton five times during the course of his childhood at Raintree, but Anton always managed to draw him back. Davain himself was looking for a strong father figure, though he didn’t know it. Davain rightfully credits Anton with making him the man he is today, and when he came to Hart House, he invited Anton to come with him.
Anton is a big man with tan skin and wiry black hair. He is rarely seen outside the forge and usually wears a smith’s sturdy clothes and leather apron. His mannerisms are quick and forceful. Most of the teeth on the right side of Anton’s mouth are gone as a result of a fight when he was fourteen and his voice is muffled. Davain has a lot of practice understanding him, but most others find it difficult. Anton listens carefully, but rarely speaks.
Bevan Sand
Hart House’s chief cook is a tall, narrow Dornishman with dark skin, dark eyes, and dark, curly hair. His features are too sharp and his eyes too beady and close together for him to be handsome, but he is a little exotic looking. Bevan’s face has an odd resemblance to Hart House’s Maester Forthwind’s, a similarity made comical by Bevan’s lanky build as compared to Forthwind’s pudge. Like any good chef, Bevan samples his food constantly as he cooks. He says he’d be as pudgy as Forthwind if only he could slow himself down; he dashes throughout the kitchen, constantly ensuring that everything is just so.
Bevan is very good at what he does and resents any interruption or meddling in his kitchen. He considers himself lord and master of the kitchen, worthy of the same respect as King Robert on his throne.
Ser Edmund Bartheld
In any other family, Edmund would be considered a failure. Edmund—Davain’s little brother—is a passable swordsman, but shows no interest in mastering that or any skill appropriate to a nobleman. Neither does he show interest in swearing himself to the service of some potent lord. Instead, Edmund spends his days at Hart House in the company of his manservant Reginald, reading and writing poetry, compiling histories of Westeros, and studying the properties of herbs and minerals like a peasant farmwife. Edmund doesn’t even pursue a beneficial marriage to the daughter of an important, influential, or wealthy lord. If he had been born a Lannister, Edmund would have been pressured to join the Faith or the Maesters or take the black a long time ago.
However, no one can deny that Edmund has the trait the Barthelds hold most dear: absolute loyalty. Several important lords consider Edmund a friend and confidante, and he has kept their secrets in the face of bribery, threats, and blackmail. Although a mediocre swordsman, at best, Edmund has faced more than one duel to protect the honor of his friends. He took a wound defending Lord Gyles Rosby’s skill as a general and was nearly killed over an insult to Ser Addam Marbrand’s wife.
Hart House has become Edmund’s home, though he makes frequent trips to visit his friends in King’s Landing, Lannisport, and other cities and castles of Westeros.
Edmund is a slender young man with delicate features and a middling complexion. He wears his auburn hair cut short. He and Davain have the same intensely blue eyes, inherited from Brom. Edmund dresses well, in Bartheld colors, and rarely bothers to carry a sword. In addition to his storied honor, Edmund is actually quite shy. He prefers the company of Reginald and his few close friends—including Lord Davain.
Rose Clay
Rose Clay, wife of Ser Rowan Clay, leader of House Bartheld’s military, serves as Head Housemaid for Hart House. Rose is average height for a woman and pleasantly round, with a fair complexion and pale hair. Although she is quite pretty, her most striking feature is her intense, intelligent green eyes. She is twenty-eight years old, but has the presence and confidence of someone much older. Rose projects competence, practicality, and grace. She has a very dry sense of humor; most people don’t notice when she is making fun of them. Rose is especially skilled at gently mocking the nobility, who she is fond of in a patronizing way. She thinks people born to wealth and power just aren’t practical like ordinary folks.
Rose is the mistress of Hart House’s cleaning staff and has a great deal of influence with the steward and his staff as well. She has used her position to place herself at the center of Hart House’s gossip. Anything seen or overheard by anyone in the manor’s staff eventually finds its way to Rose. Rose has used this situation to make herself an asset to the masters of Hart House. Rose doesn’t pass along everything she hears, only the tidbits that the lord might find useful. In the old days, she reported directly to Lord Brom, but Lord Davain isn’t as canny or willing to compromise as his predecessor. Instead, she reports to his wife, Lady Ayleth.
Rose has significantly more intelligence, energy, and ambition than her position requires, and so amuses herself by sitting in the center of the webs of Hart House gossip. Just as her husband serves the family with his sword, Rose does her best to keep the Barthelds safe with her ears.
Ser Rowan Clay
Ser Clay, leader of House Bartheld’s forces, was a commoner, born and raised in House Asrig’s territory. The Asrigs were not good lords, but they were favorites of the Targaryens, and their excesses were never punished. At fifteen, Rowan had already seen men killed and maimed for imagined crimes and watched women raped as punishment for the misdeeds of their fathers and brothers. Rowan had only avoided fighting in Robert’s Rebellion thanks to his youth. He was also the oldest ablebodied male in his village; all the others had been conscripted by House Asrig and either killed or maimed in the fighting or decided to make a new life in some other part of Westeros.
Brom likes to tell the story of their first conversation. Rowan had come to the tent city set up where Hart House would soon be built to ask the new lord for help, and Brom, impressed with his pluck, had offered him a job. Rowan considered the offer for a long time, and then asked: “Are you going to be a good lord, or a great fat pigfucker like Leofrick Asrig?”
Brom laughed so hard he nearly fell out of his camp chair. He hired Rowan Clay on the spot. One of Brom’s knights made Rowan a knight a few months later after helping bring an infamous Asrig retainer to justice.
In the fifteen years since that meeting, Rowan Clay has grown into an impressive man. He is tall and broad-shouldered, with muscles developed by years of swordplay. Rowan wears his shoulder length dark hair tied back in a knot at the base of his neck; his wife Rose loves his hair, and it is his one vanity. Rowan’s eyes are dark brown, but flash gold in the light, and his skin is burned into a perpetual tan by the sun. Rowan bears a two handed sword Lord Davain made especially for him. Rowan and his wife live in the second largest house in Hartville and have two small children.
Rowan cultivates a reputation as a simple armsman. He speaks with a lazy drawl and pretends to be more provincial than he is. While the accent is genuine, Rowan is a skilled tactician and a shrewd judge of character, and he has traveled over a great deal of Westeros in Brom Bartheld’s service. Rowan finds it convenient to be underestimated by the nobility. He knows most lords and ladies—and even his fellow knights—will view him as a jumped-up peasant no matter what he does, and doesn’t care. Rowan is still fond of Lord Brom, but he is glad that control of Hart House has passed to Lord Davain. With Lord Davain’s support, Rowan hopes to make House Bartheld more militarily secure and eliminate the bandits lurking on the borders once and for all.
Lady Ysme Bartheld
Hart House is also the home of Lady Ysme Bartheld, one of Westeros’s most unconventional young noblewomen. Ysme was only two years old when Brom came into the land where Hart House now stands. One of her earliest memories is of Brom trying to explain why it was so good for the family that they were now landed nobility. The best he could come up with was “now that we have land, no one can tell us what to do.” Today, Ysme continues to act as though the family land means that no one can tell her what to do. That isn’t to say that Ysme is out of touch with reality. Rather, she knows that unlike her ancestors, who were dependent upon their patrons, there is a place she can always call home. Since she is no longer dependent upon anyone but her family—who she knows will never let her go hungry or homeless—she sees no reason to live by the laws that have constrained Westeros’s women for hundreds of years.
As a result, Ysme has grown into an uncontrollable young woman. She runs wild through the halls of Hart House and through the hills and forests of the surrounding countryside. Brom was convinced that Ysme would never settle down, and he gave her the run of Hart House. Lord Davain continues this tradition. Since the family is on the outs with His Grace, Ysme can no longer go out of her way to embarrass the family at court in King’s Landing. For Ysme, exile to Hart House is a blessing, not a punishment.
Ysme is fair-skinned and dark haired, with intense hazel eyes. She is very pretty, in a young and wild sort of way; more than one noble given to poetry has compared her to the Children of the Forest. Ysme cleans up well, but is uncomfortable in formal clothes and makes no effort to hide it.
Despite her declaration that she will never marry, Ysme still occasionally entertains suitors at Hart House. She leads them on long enough to humiliate them, but some desperate noblemen hoping to enrich faltering houses take this as reason to hope. Davain has no idea what to do with his wild little cousin, so he ignores her. His wife, Ayleth, has made an effort to reform her, but when she was rebuffed, she slid into the same way of thinking. Only Davain’s cousin Edmund has anything to do with Ysme on a regular basis. The two seem to share a bond.
Anton Black
Anton Black performs two primary functions at Hart House. First, he is a master artisan, keeping the manor’s blades sharp and providing a source of income and prestige. Second, he is Lord Davain’s mentor and confidante.
Anton was born into the service of House Swann at Raintree. His father was a hostler and his mother was one of the Maester’s assistants. As a child, Anton was full of nervous energy and frustrated creativity. His parents thought that he was doomed to either be killed in an accident or fight or get into serious trouble before he was fully grown. Fortunately, Raintree’s smith saw that Anton had potential and took him under his wing. He gave Anton a trade, but more importantly, Robin taught Anton discipline. When Robin died, Anton took over as Raintree’s smith and held the position for several decades.
When Davain arrived at Raintree, Anton saw a kindred spirit. Davain was also full of energy and without discipline. Anton felt he had no choice but to save Davain the way he had been saved. He first attracted Davain’s attention by implying that learning how to make swords would make Davain a better fighter. Davain declared that he was “done with” Anton five times during the course of his childhood at Raintree, but Anton always managed to draw him back. Davain himself was looking for a strong father figure, though he didn’t know it. Davain rightfully credits Anton with making him the man he is today, and when he came to Hart House, he invited Anton to come with him.
Anton is a big man with tan skin and wiry black hair. He is rarely seen outside the forge and usually wears a smith’s sturdy clothes and leather apron. His mannerisms are quick and forceful. Most of the teeth on the right side of Anton’s mouth are gone as a result of a fight when he was fourteen and his voice is muffled. Davain has a lot of practice understanding him, but most others find it difficult. Anton listens carefully, but rarely speaks.
Bevan Sand
Hart House’s chief cook is a tall, narrow Dornishman with dark skin, dark eyes, and dark, curly hair. His features are too sharp and his eyes too beady and close together for him to be handsome, but he is a little exotic looking. Bevan’s face has an odd resemblance to Hart House’s Maester Forthwind’s, a similarity made comical by Bevan’s lanky build as compared to Forthwind’s pudge. Like any good chef, Bevan samples his food constantly as he cooks. He says he’d be as pudgy as Forthwind if only he could slow himself down; he dashes throughout the kitchen, constantly ensuring that everything is just so.
Bevan is very good at what he does and resents any interruption or meddling in his kitchen. He considers himself lord and master of the kitchen, worthy of the same respect as King Robert on his throne.
Ser Edmund Bartheld
In any other family, Edmund would be considered a failure. Edmund—Davain’s little brother—is a passable swordsman, but shows no interest in mastering that or any skill appropriate to a nobleman. Neither does he show interest in swearing himself to the service of some potent lord. Instead, Edmund spends his days at Hart House in the company of his manservant Reginald, reading and writing poetry, compiling histories of Westeros, and studying the properties of herbs and minerals like a peasant farmwife. Edmund doesn’t even pursue a beneficial marriage to the daughter of an important, influential, or wealthy lord. If he had been born a Lannister, Edmund would have been pressured to join the Faith or the Maesters or take the black a long time ago.
However, no one can deny that Edmund has the trait the Barthelds hold most dear: absolute loyalty. Several important lords consider Edmund a friend and confidante, and he has kept their secrets in the face of bribery, threats, and blackmail. Although a mediocre swordsman, at best, Edmund has faced more than one duel to protect the honor of his friends. He took a wound defending Lord Gyles Rosby’s skill as a general and was nearly killed over an insult to Ser Addam Marbrand’s wife.
Hart House has become Edmund’s home, though he makes frequent trips to visit his friends in King’s Landing, Lannisport, and other cities and castles of Westeros.
Edmund is a slender young man with delicate features and a middling complexion. He wears his auburn hair cut short. He and Davain have the same intensely blue eyes, inherited from Brom. Edmund dresses well, in Bartheld colors, and rarely bothers to carry a sword. In addition to his storied honor, Edmund is actually quite shy. He prefers the company of Reginald and his few close friends—including Lord Davain.
Rose Clay
Rose Clay, wife of Ser Rowan Clay, leader of House Bartheld’s military, serves as Head Housemaid for Hart House. Rose is average height for a woman and pleasantly round, with a fair complexion and pale hair. Although she is quite pretty, her most striking feature is her intense, intelligent green eyes. She is twenty-eight years old, but has the presence and confidence of someone much older. Rose projects competence, practicality, and grace. She has a very dry sense of humor; most people don’t notice when she is making fun of them. Rose is especially skilled at gently mocking the nobility, who she is fond of in a patronizing way. She thinks people born to wealth and power just aren’t practical like ordinary folks.
Rose is the mistress of Hart House’s cleaning staff and has a great deal of influence with the steward and his staff as well. She has used her position to place herself at the center of Hart House’s gossip. Anything seen or overheard by anyone in the manor’s staff eventually finds its way to Rose. Rose has used this situation to make herself an asset to the masters of Hart House. Rose doesn’t pass along everything she hears, only the tidbits that the lord might find useful. In the old days, she reported directly to Lord Brom, but Lord Davain isn’t as canny or willing to compromise as his predecessor. Instead, she reports to his wife, Lady Ayleth.
Rose has significantly more intelligence, energy, and ambition than her position requires, and so amuses herself by sitting in the center of the webs of Hart House gossip. Just as her husband serves the family with his sword, Rose does her best to keep the Barthelds safe with her ears.
Ser Rowan Clay
Ser Clay, leader of House Bartheld’s forces, was a commoner, born and raised in House Asrig’s territory. The Asrigs were not good lords, but they were favorites of the Targaryens, and their excesses were never punished. At fifteen, Rowan had already seen men killed and maimed for imagined crimes and watched women raped as punishment for the misdeeds of their fathers and brothers. Rowan had only avoided fighting in Robert’s Rebellion thanks to his youth. He was also the oldest ablebodied male in his village; all the others had been conscripted by House Asrig and either killed or maimed in the fighting or decided to make a new life in some other part of Westeros.
Brom likes to tell the story of their first conversation. Rowan had come to the tent city set up where Hart House would soon be built to ask the new lord for help, and Brom, impressed with his pluck, had offered him a job. Rowan considered the offer for a long time, and then asked: “Are you going to be a good lord, or a great fat pigfucker like Leofrick Asrig?”
Brom laughed so hard he nearly fell out of his camp chair. He hired Rowan Clay on the spot. One of Brom’s knights made Rowan a knight a few months later after helping bring an infamous Asrig retainer to justice.
In the fifteen years since that meeting, Rowan Clay has grown into an impressive man. He is tall and broad-shouldered, with muscles developed by years of swordplay. Rowan wears his shoulder length dark hair tied back in a knot at the base of his neck; his wife Rose loves his hair, and it is his one vanity. Rowan’s eyes are dark brown, but flash gold in the light, and his skin is burned into a perpetual tan by the sun. Rowan bears a two handed sword Lord Davain made especially for him. Rowan and his wife live in the second largest house in Hartville and have two small children.
Rowan cultivates a reputation as a simple armsman. He speaks with a lazy drawl and pretends to be more provincial than he is. While the accent is genuine, Rowan is a skilled tactician and a shrewd judge of character, and he has traveled over a great deal of Westeros in Brom Bartheld’s service. Rowan finds it convenient to be underestimated by the nobility. He knows most lords and ladies—and even his fellow knights—will view him as a jumped-up peasant no matter what he does, and doesn’t care. Rowan is still fond of Lord Brom, but he is glad that control of Hart House has passed to Lord Davain. With Lord Davain’s support, Rowan hopes to make House Bartheld more militarily secure and eliminate the bandits lurking on the borders once and for all.
Lady Ysme Bartheld
Hart House is also the home of Lady Ysme Bartheld, one of Westeros’s most unconventional young noblewomen. Ysme was only two years old when Brom came into the land where Hart House now stands. One of her earliest memories is of Brom trying to explain why it was so good for the family that they were now landed nobility. The best he could come up with was “now that we have land, no one can tell us what to do.” Today, Ysme continues to act as though the family land means that no one can tell her what to do. That isn’t to say that Ysme is out of touch with reality. Rather, she knows that unlike her ancestors, who were dependent upon their patrons, there is a place she can always call home. Since she is no longer dependent upon anyone but her family—who she knows will never let her go hungry or homeless—she sees no reason to live by the laws that have constrained Westeros’s women for hundreds of years.
As a result, Ysme has grown into an uncontrollable young woman. She runs wild through the halls of Hart House and through the hills and forests of the surrounding countryside. Brom was convinced that Ysme would never settle down, and he gave her the run of Hart House. Lord Davain continues this tradition. Since the family is on the outs with His Grace, Ysme can no longer go out of her way to embarrass the family at court in King’s Landing. For Ysme, exile to Hart House is a blessing, not a punishment.
Ysme is fair-skinned and dark haired, with intense hazel eyes. She is very pretty, in a young and wild sort of way; more than one noble given to poetry has compared her to the Children of the Forest. Ysme cleans up well, but is uncomfortable in formal clothes and makes no effort to hide it.
Despite her declaration that she will never marry, Ysme still occasionally entertains suitors at Hart House. She leads them on long enough to humiliate them, but some desperate noblemen hoping to enrich faltering houses take this as reason to hope. Davain has no idea what to do with his wild little cousin, so he ignores her. His wife, Ayleth, has made an effort to reform her, but when she was rebuffed, she slid into the same way of thinking. Only Davain’s cousin Edmund has anything to do with Ysme on a regular basis. The two seem to share a bond.
It's set just before the historic Blacks v Greens period