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[h1]House Stark[/h1]

Following the recent death of old Lord Torrhen Stark during the cruel of winter it fell to Lord Torrhen's eldest and heir, Beron Stark, to lead Winterfell and the North into the first signs of spring and the thaw. A warrior with no tolerance for flattery or fools that tends to care more about what goes on north of the Neck rather than south of it, the new Lord of Winterfell stays in the North and instead sends his siblings to deal with the Dance and the loss of Lord Dustin's Winter Wolves. This has allowed Lord Beron to personally see to delivering the North safely out of a lethal winter, and mixed reactions down South; many southern Lords believe they can treat with the bookish and diplomatic Lord Deckard, while very few look forward to the arrival of the blunt and dangerous She-Wolf, Lady Sela Stark. 

The Hour of the Wolf is upon King's Landing, as the Northmen take the city and the Red Keep following no resistance from the boy King, his court, or the City Watch.[hr][/center]

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[b]Lord Beron Stark, Lord of Winterfell, Warden of the North | Eight and Thirty years of age[/b][/center]

[b]Personality[/b]

Beron Stark was ever the proactive, protective, eldest brother. Comfortable with fighting men (and women), uncomfortable with scholars and septons, and a man other men found easy to like and follow. He takes his family's responsibility to the North and Northerners more seriously than he takes anything else in life; because of this Beron has taken to rule easier than most gruff, rough edged, warriors. He treats small folk with respect, and his justice is often the brutal and swift justice of the First Men. 

Despite his exterior, Beron has always been a family man. Always fond of his unusual younger siblings, even encouraging both to follow their respective chosen paths. Four years ago he extended the Stark family by marrying a busty, plump, charming Mormont girl of six and ten named Bethany. The couple have already welcomed two young sons into the world. The love, and lust, between the new Lord Stark and his Lady Stark are quickly becoming famous throughout the North.

[b]Biography[/b]

Beron was the first born of Torrhen and Sarra Stark, and since his earliest days has been groomed as Torrhen's heir. The bond between father and eldest has always been strong, and later on became closer to friendship as it was little Sela Snowborn that replaced Beron at their father's side most times, allowing Beron a level of independence and individuality that simply never existed before Deckard and Sela came to be. Trust came easy between Lord Father and the heir, resulting in Beron taking on most of the traveling required of a Stark to oversee the North. 

In time, Beron would visit every keep and hold and ringed fort north of the Neck. He would even visit the three major holds of the Night's Watch, and was on hand when the newest Lord Commander of the Night's Watch was chosen just five years ago. He has fought Wildlings, Ironborn, and Skaagosi--even joining Manderly warships for combating the Narrow Sea corsairs desperate enough, or foolish enough, to go that far north. Once, Beron went to King's Landing. He was there barely five days, before head and heart told him the North was where he needed to be.

Since returning from that trip, Beron has never left the North. When his father died and Winterfell became his, Beron put his days of many women aside and began searching for a bride. It didn't take him long to find Bethany Mormont, or rather, it didn't take Bethany Mormont long to find Beron Stark. Despite a healthy age difference of two and twenty years between them, many at Winterfell believe the now Lady Bethany Stark to have been the missing piece: maternal and warm and affable to high and low born alike.

More recently, it is Beron's younger siblings that give him the greatest pause. Lord Deckard was gone long across the Narrow Sea on business for House Stark, and though he returned mostly successful he also returned with a Lannister woman he intended to make his wife. The match would hurt House Stark politically in the North, but in allowing it Beron gave House Stark a kind of ally it had never before had in Celena Lannister. 

And then, there was Sela the She-Wolf. Knowing attempting to force a marriage would be the end of the tight bond Beron held with his sister, the new Lord of Winterfell decided after much thought...to simply do with Sela as Lord Torrhen had wished: let her do what came naturally to her. In time, Torrhen Stark had been convinced, Sela Stark would settle down on her own. 

With the recent chaos of the Dance and the loss of Lord Dustin's Winter Wolves, the host Beron himself intended to lead South was given to the She-Wolf. Knowing King's Landing was not the sort of place a woman like the She-Wolf would be most effective, Beron bid his brother Deckard and his soon-to-be wife Celena Lannister join the voyage south. Between them, they stood a far better chance at returning with success than Beron alone did. And left in the North, Beron could ensure those lost during winter could finally be properly buried, and life continued by those that remained.

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[b]Lord Deckard Stark, The Cold Hand and Cripple | Eight and Twenty Years of Age[/b][/center]

[b]Personality[/b]

The world is a game to Lord Deckard Stark.

It is a game, and the purpose of games is to amuse--and he is amused. The mistake people make is assuming it's a game he doesn't [i]care[/i] about. As anyone who has engaged him on the checkered field can readily attest, the Crippled Stark is not in the habit of playing games that he doesn't win. It is fortunate that 'winning', then, is rebuilding Westeros in the wake of the Dance of the Dragons rather than any personal ascension on his part. He is neither timid nor foolhardy, neither shying from danger nor pursuing it--a cautious player, he approaches from as many avenues and contingencies as possible and takes pleasure in the execution of a well-laid plan.

In many ways a caring individual in spite of his demeanor, he has great empathy and compassion for the people he holds dear and nothing but contempt for those that strike against them--though he does not delight in cruelty, he does believe that some victories must be...

Complete.

[b]Biography[/b]

If Beron was his father's son and followed in his footsteps as the eldest should wont, neither truly knew what to make of young Deckard, born a full ten years after his brother.

The difference between the two Stark boys was night and day. His brother's shadow had already stretched long by the time young Deckard was toddling about the training grounds--five years and ten and already a monster, Beron strode the training grounds against the knights of the North and made proud his father with his warhammer. As a boy the younger Stark threw himself into training, devoting himself to equaling his brother and earning his father's pride. Enthusiastic but undisciplined, his exuberance might have endeared his mother but it failed to impress either father or brother. It was at eight that his brother received a new set of mail as a gift and, in a fateful display, wore it to the training grounds to boast to his peers. Young Deckard, thinking himself clever, turned on his mentor and struck at his brother to 'test the new steel', only to carve a long scratch across the worked breastplate the very first day it was worn. 

Beron was furious, and without restraint drew his hammer overhead and crushed his brother's shoulder with a single fell strike. The younger Stark was taken aback by his brothers fury and fell beneath the blow, his right side and shoulder shattered to pieces. Though the maesters did their best to heal the injury there was little to be done for it--though his life was saved and the shards fortunately did not pierce his lungs, the best that could be managed was middling use of his right arm. To this day he can barely raise it to chest level, his shoulder obscured in a white web of scarring. Oddly enough that day brought the brothers closer together than ever before--as Beron wept for what he'd taken from his brother and swore to even his temper, Deckard breathed out through the pain a great sigh of relief. He would never have been the equal of his brother the warrior, but now he would never [i]have[/i] to be.

And so he devoted himself instead to scholarly pursuits, his father leaving him in the capable hands of the greatest tutors and maesters the North had to offer. He studied his letters and arithmetic and herbs, his history and the history of the realms and what lay both North and South of the Neck, and he found the discipline and calm he hadn't before. Indeed for his age he became still and reflective, relaxed and focused as a man far beyond his years. It was then that he discovered his love of gamecraft, taking to Cyvasse and other intellectual pursuits with astonishing ease. Though he would never win a bout on the grounds, by ten he'd slain kings against the best minds in the realm, a fearless prodigy willing to challenge any adversary. If he never received his father's understanding he at least earned his respect when he proved skilled at [i]something[/i]--certainly skilled enough to run circles around the Lord of the North on the board--and by the time he was old enough to be declared a man he'd had his fill of the Northern lands.

Beron was off gallivanting through the forts of the North and his father had found a companion in Sela, so though it broke his poor mother's heart--they had always been close, and took after one another--Deckard decided it was time to set off on his own. With nothing but a guardian and enough coin to back up the name of House Stark, he set off to see if he couldn't beat the best player of Cyvasse in each of the Great Houses.

It was quite a journey.

Over his years in the courts of others he kept to his studies and learned diplomacy and the value of cunning, but also the value of well placed honesty and integrity. It is rare for a man of the North to display tact and guile, much less without sacrificing the honor they're known for, but Deckard has learned to strike the balance most expertly. Despite his handicap he has maneuvered himself through a great many dangerous situations over the years, gaining the sobriquet the Cold Hand somewhere along the way (rumors persist that it was during a game with an elderly Greyjoy with lives on the line, but there has been no confirmation either way), but half a decade into his journeys he simply disappeared for a fair time.

While he was assumed to be wandering, in truth he had made his way across the Narrow Sea. He speaks little of his time there, preferring to hide it behind a cryptic smile, but what is known is that when he returned a few years later from the Free State of Bravos, he did so with his betrothed--the Lady Celena Lannister, much to the shock of almost everyone involved. It was on their way to Winterfell to introduce her properly that the Dance of the Dragons began in earnest and everything went to hell. Though they weathered it well in the North at Winterfell, they arrived only a scant few months before being shipped off to Kings Landing with the Stark host. Even having reunited only briefly, it was clear enough to Beron that an even hand would be necessary to restore order to the realm, and though it came suddenly in the return of his younger brother he had high hopes for a tempering influence.

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[b]Lady Sela Stark, the She-Wolf, Commander of the Northern Host | Two and Twenty years of age[/b][/center]

[b]Personality[/b]

Most tend to think Sela Stark was born on the wrong side of the Wall. If ever there was a Wildling from birth, it would be the She-Wolf of Winterfell. A strong reader, though a poor student in her youth. Though said to look comely in one, Lady Sela never wears gowns, preferring instead light leather armor and light chainmail. A style that perfectly matches the spirit and soul of the noble woman; in private she can be playful and even girlish, but when strange eyes are upon her always she wears the frozen mask of the She-Wolf. 

Though brash and impulsive, Sela seems to always make the right decision as a commander of men...even if such wise decisions seem to come out of nowhere and contrary to any prior position she seemed to have. Of love and/or marriage Sela appears utterly indifferent. 

[b]Biography[/b]

Sela Stark is the only one of the Stark siblings born in winter, during a period of such heavy snowfall that in her younger years she was known as Sela Snowborn. Some of the older Winterfell servants and guardsmen still call her that, though they grow fewer by the year. While Lady Sarra Stark introduced little Sela Snowborn to the life of a northern Lady, it slowly became apparent that such a life would not be in store for Sela Stark. For one, she had been a marksman with bow and arrow since she could pull the string of a training bow. She quickly unseated Beron as her father's favorite to bring on hunts, insuring she never missed a one. And in time even the gowns would go, ignored even when other nobles would visit Winterfell. 

When she was five-and-ten, Sela Stark ran away from Winterfell. All she had left behind was a note to her father in Sela's suprisingly pretty script: [i]Gone hunting.[/i] The father let her go, even if Beron and Lady Sarra conspired to search for Sela. It was no use, Sela was the best tracker of her family by that point, and good enough with a head start to evade the best tracker in Winterfell. In the New Gift Sela ran into Wildling raiders on their return from a raid, and stalked them from the New Gift, over the Wall, and into the lands of Always Winter. 

While her plan was to track the Wildlings back to their village and slay them all in their sleep, the Wildlings drove so far north that the very forests seemed to be of a different sort than what she'd known below the Wall and just beyond it. Quickly she lost the trail of the Wildlings, but the most pressing danger was that almost overnight, it seemed to her, finding food became radically more difficult. How she managed to not only survive, but survive in one piece and make it all the way back to Winterfell three years later still remains largely a mystery. 

Sela herself merely says that the Old Gods took pity on her, that she had a spiritual experience. The only other clue of Sela's time beyond the Wall? A young white and grey Direwolf named Snow (short for Snowborn) that appeared at Winterfell's gates at Sela Stark's heels. The animal is no help; it says nothing, and rarely leaves the Stark Lady's presence save for the occassional hunt. The two later joined Beros in suppressing a minor, mad, Skaagosi rebellion. Where Sela Stark was an able fighter for a woman before, after her return she was simply lethal, woman or not. Since then, Sela has yet to miss a Stark war council. 

When her father died and Beron ascended to Lord of Winterfell, it surprised few that the Northern host meant to march on King's Landing was given to Sela the She-Wolf.

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[b]Lady Celena Lannister, Lord Deckard's betrothed, water dancer, spy mistress | Eight and Twenty years of age[/b][/center]

[b]Personality[/b]

The truest line ever spoken on the subject of Celena Lannister's character comes from Braavosi Keyholder Ezzel Terro during the last choosing of the Sealord of Braavos: "Whatever Celena Lannister you have met, you have never met the true woman behind all those pretty masks. And you never will." 

Capable of adapting to nearly any situation, any audience, any danger--and she's been doing it since she was little more than a child still traumatized by the bloody murder of her beloved father. At first the result of knowing any family member or friend could have been an assassin of her father's, and only deepened with the descent into madness by her mother after the murder of her Lord Father. 

Never cruel, rarely mistreats others, and typically soft spoken. However don't let it fool you; there is simply not a more cunning, more ruthless, merchant of secrets and spies in all of Westeros and western Essos. The day she departed Essos to return to Westeros, more than a few Archons and Magisters and Princes and Triarchs breathed a deep sigh of relief. 

Many more pray she never crosses the Narrow Sea again.

[b]Biography[/b]

[i](Written by Belicho Votar of the Elephants, spymaster to Triarch Tiresso of Volantis)[/i]

In order to separate fact from fiction regarding the trials of Celena Lannister, it's important to stick strictly to what can be proven, or at least reasonably presumed: she was the only child of Lord Addam and Lady Marielle of House Lannister of Lannisport. A minor noble and a second son with a generational mind for banking and trade, Lord Addam quickly took from his family's coffers and made use of gold coins that had simply been collecting dust. The result was a financial empire that threatened the very established framework of power in Lannisport at the time. 

It's believed Lord Addam's eldest brother gave the assassination order when Lord Addam refused to be cowed by vague threats from the ruling Lord of House Lannister of Lannisport, Celena's own uncle. True or not, the eldest brother's fall soon after Lord Addam's death simply cannot be an accident. 

After the murder, paranoia and fear (and overusage of Milk of the Poppy) turned the formerly bright and sweet Lady Marielle into a raving mad woman. Family paid to have Lady Marielle locked away in a large manse on the far southern edge of Lannisport. Soon after, most the servants fled, leaving only a few desperate for coin to stay and struggle with the mad woman alongside the ten year old Celena Lannister. 

That life would continue for two years, until the mother violently attacked the daughter. The next day, Celena Lannister disappeared from Lannisport. How she ended up from Lannisport to the deck of the Braavosi corsair king Enka Dumazi is not known. Some say she purchased passage to a Free City and that ship was intercepted by Dumazi, and while it is the best theory, there is little evidence to support it. 

It is known Dumazi was fond of men and boys, not women and girls. At some point, it's clear little Celena is an active part of Dumazi's crew, even trained in the martial and sailing arts of piracy. She will spend two, maybe three, years upon the sea with Dumazi. At some point, Dumazi dies, though it is unknown whether or not of natural causes. Here, at the age of ten and four, Celena Lannister disappears from history, only to reappear again over ten years later in Braavos--where she would become a Water Dancer champion and it is believed to be offered the position of First Sword of Braavos by the newest Sealord. (Clearly, she turned him down.)

Where she was in the interim, and what she did, no one can say for sure. Rumors suggest she was raped and sold to slavery by Dumazi's crew after the corsair king's death without him there to protect her, while other rumors still suggest she became a girl captain of her own small but dedicated pirate crew. No records in Myr or Lys, the two most likely slave markets she would have been sold to, can be found of Celena Lannister. And though many girls matching her description appear in esteemed training centers for slaves in either city, it is past the point of reason to assume any of these were Celena Lannister. 

She has travelled the Demon Road. She has been to each of the Free Cities, and counts Braavos as her favorite. She has visited Sothoryos, and Yin, and Leng. She has seen Vaes Dothrak, and the Bones. She has likely been to Kayakayanaya. 

Celena Lannister is a known agent of the Iron Bank of Braavos. It is heavily suspected by Pentoshi magisters that she played a central role in ensuring the downfall of the Kingdom of Three Sisters as part of a Braavosi-Qohorik plot to weaken Tyrosh, Myr, and Lys. 

She owns a modified swan ship built in the Summer Isles, though none know it's appearance or name or current anchorage. It is believed to fly Braavosi flags. It's typical captain is a Braavosi that is said to owe Celena his life, going under the alias Noho Varvo. Myrish spymasters suspect the vessel to be anchored somewhere in Westeros. 

Celena is known to have met Lord Deckard in the Free Cities, and their courtship lasted at least several months before she agreed to return to Westeros with him.

Her true allegiance may never be known. However, for our purposes it does not matter what master she truly serves, she is to be considered an enemy of Volantis--and any state that supports slavery. Braavos and it's allies are weaker today for having lost her to Westeros.

In a way I pity the Westerosi spy masters that will soon contend with her. More than that, though, I'm simply glad it's they who will be playing these deadly games of power with her in the future, and not us.

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