[center][h3][B][color=fff200]House Baratheon[/color][/B][/h3]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/W8E5hUU.jpg?1[/img][/center]
[hider=House Baratheon of Storm's End][B]Name:[/B] House Baratheon
[B]Seat:[/B] Storm's End
[B]Words:[/B] [i]Ours is the fury.[/i]
[b]Affiliation:[/b] Greens
[b]Description:[/b] The Great House that rules the Stormlands, Baratheon had the bad luck of switching sides against relatives during the War, allowing the murder of Rhaenyra's son on the doorstep of Storm's End and then was, out of fear, forced into alliance with Aemond One-Eye, Aegon II and the Greens. After a lengthy period of sitting on his hands, Lord Borros led his troops to liberate King's Landing only after the battle for it was all but won and then, in a fit of optimism, proceeded into the Riverlands to be cut to pieces, along with his heirs and much of his strength, on the Kings Road, a battle known as the Muddy Mess.

The son of Borros' youngest brother, Steffon, now leads the House. Taciturn, given to few words but wielding a strong force of personality within his lands, he seems to have rallied the Stormlands in expectation of an invasion while, wisely, trying to negotiate peace with cooler heads. While he is untested as a Lord in dealing with the greater houses, he seems to have a great faculty for dealing with the problems of his own lands -- while the Stormlands is still a mess, it is less a mess than could be. 

[B]History:[/B]House Baratheon is the youngest of the original great houses, tracing its origin back to Orys Baratheon. Their castle is one of the strongest in the Seven Kingdoms. It is known as Storm's End. The Baratheon sigil is a crowned black stag on a field of gold and their house words are "Ours is the Fury." Orys adopted the home, sigil, and words from his wife's family line, the Durrendons. 

[B]Sworn to your house:[/B][indent]- [url=http://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/2494136]House Caron of Nightsong[/url] 
- [url=http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/House_Baratheon#Houses_sworn_to_Storm.27s_End]Others as listed here.[/url] (up for grabs)[/indent]

[B]Members of the House:[/B][List]
[*] Lord Steffon Baratheon, just recently made Lord Baratheon by Aegon II
[*] Maester Alyn, who is one of the senior advisors of Lord Steffon and served his grandfather, Boremund, well. He could have been an Archmaester, but for his devotion to Lord Boremund. He seems to have transferred that loyalty over to Steffon.
[*] Ser Martyn Storm, a household knight of his father's and a dangerous champion of the foot lists that has since taken over as Captain of the Guard at Storm's End. He is a seasoned warrior that knows his business. 
[*] Others TBD
[/List]

[b]OOC:[/b][/hider][hider=Lord Steffon Baratheon]
[Center][B]Steffon Baratheon, Lord of House Baratheon[/B]
[B]Age:[/b] 23

[img]http://38.media.tumblr.com/ac30703f45bfe3a01df34a08489e5aca/tumblr_mj5khy3yhq1s4qo3to1_500.jpg[/img][/Center]

[B]Sigil:[/B] The black stag on yellow.
[B]Words:[/B] [i]Ours is the fury.[/i]
[b]Affiliation:[/b] Greens, though since Aegon II is dead, that means he is a natural ally of Corlys Velayron.

[B]Personality:[/B][indent]Steffon is taciturn but courteous; with a strong build, a deep voice and a strong personality, he tends to impress those he faces directly. He is known as “The Silent Fury” because he was quiet even as a young lad in service as a squire to Lord Connington. Since becoming the Lord Baratheon, he has  moved as quickly as he can to quell dissent in the Stormlands, settle disputes of inheritance and organize the nobles into something capable of repelling an invasion by the wrathful Black supporters if it becomes necessary, though he has not particularly had enough time to do much more than send out the ravens and quickly adjudicate the disputes brought to him in Storm's End. He has inherited a mess and is grimly determined to see his house, lands and people intact through it. While a proud man, he also realizes that he may well have to bend the knee and pay some sort of indemnity or penalty for his fool uncle's acts during the war. It is not a thought he relishes, but he relishes the pillaging of the Stormlands even less.

Notably, his voice is known for its depth and volume; even when speaking softly, its deep tones tend to turn heads. His most recent experience of warfare was the Muddy Mess, where he managed to pull a few men out and organize a retreat, a grim march back to report the unpleasant news to Aegon II in person; since the messenger could reasonably expect to be fed to a dragon, that took a bit of balls. He is known to cut through the courtesies to get to the point and prefers to do this when it can be done. In sensitive situations, however, such as dealing with the proud Lord Royce Carron, he knows to mind his courtesies and show good manners, though he is no man's lickspittle.[/indent]
[B]Biography:[/B][indent]Borros Baratheon was a fool.

And that is where Lord Steffon Baratheon's story starts. Before Borros Baratheon was killed invading the Riverlands, he allowed one of Rhaenrya's sons to be slaughtered outside his own gates by Aemond One-Eye and was forced to take a side one and there out of fear for his own skin, brought on by being too craven to tell a prince of the Realm that it was unacceptable to kill a stripling boy on his doorstep after he'd been made a guest.

And worse, Borros convinced himself he was clever, as he did when he held back his forces and allowed Kings Landing to be sacked, and then as he did when he invaded the Riverlands impetuously, convinced that he only faced feeble opposition.

Steffon was there. He cut his way clear from the battle and rallied what he could of the shattered host, mourning his twin's death at Lord Borros' side along with most of the Baratheon family who perished in that folly under the arrows of Black Aly and the swift and decisive flank by Bloody Ben. 

Battered, bloody and defeated, he didn't have much of a host. He gave word of the battle in person to Aegon, being of sterner stuff than Borros, and reported in that deep voice of his precisely what happened. Perhaps something of the towering young man standing before him impressed Aegon, either the candor or the man's grim but unbowed demeanor. He was conferred the title of Lord Baratheon, for he was indeed the heir at that point, commanded to return to the Stormlands and raise a new force, to defend Kings Landing with it.

Little was known of Steffon Baratheon even in the Stormlands, besides that he had a twin, Ser Lyonel that was the more popular and affable of the two. Both were strong knights and intelligent men, sons of Boremund's fourth son, Ser Duncan, who married a woman of the Crakehalls, but seemingly destined for little besides serving Storm's End as a household knight. Lyonel became a ward of the Lord Rosby, but Steffon was sent to the Griffin's Roost as a squire to Lord Connington.

Good fighters, both lads, but Steffon turned out to be the more serious, responsible one, while Lyonel became enamored of King's Landing and was the more politic of the two. Borros favored Lyonel, and that was why he died in the van with Borros on the Kingsroad. 

When he returned, he showed unexpected mettle, more like his grandfather Boremund than his uncle Borros -- though unlike either of him, he displayed little of their belligerent temperament; Steffon Baratheon quickly resolved inheritance disputes and rallied the Stormlands with what resources he had, instructing the preparation of the keeps for invasion, provisioning them for siege, setting up rider relays to warn other keeps when such a siege happened. Whether the defeated but proud houses of the Stormlands will rally to this show of resolve remains to be seen; they have been battered and beaten in battle in the Riverlands, but a folly of a fight in the Riverlands did not mean the Stormlands were easy; such a folly was the province of Borros and others like them.

Aegon was poisoned, though the Lord Baratheon had naught to do with it from so far away, though the resolution of the Dance seems to have left a boy on the throne but the Wolves at the door of King's Landing. Lord Steffon swore that he would not suffer others to punish his lands for the follies of Borros, though he has sent out heralds in an attempt to negotiate for a peace, reckoning that even the most impetuous of the Blacks might look upon the Stormlands and consider that a negotiation is preferable to a bloody season of grinding war against keeps well-prepared for the onslaught.

While Lord Steffon has not been long in the Lord's Seat at Storm's End, it is very apparent that he is not Borros. But given the immensity of the problems he faces, that alone won't save Storm's End or House Baratheon.[/indent]

[b]OOC:[/b][indent]Steffon is unmarried. The truth is, he wasn't a very hot prospect before, but now, all of a sudden, he's a pretty eligible bachelor, assuming the no one decides to bring him to justice of some sort for being the guy that inherited Storm's End from Borros.[/indent][/hider]