[hider=Ser Beric the Burnt][center][h3]Beric Hightower[/h3]
[img]https://media.giphy.com/media/QTW9Bg5CYNpg4/giphy.gif[/img]

[b]Ser Beric "The Burnt" Hightower[/b][/center]

[INDENT][B][SUP][SUB][H3][i]Age[/i][/H3][/SUB][/SUP][/B][/INDENT][hr][INDENT][INDENT]47[/INDENT][/INDENT]
[INDENT][B][SUP][SUB][H3][i]Appearance[/i][/H3][/SUB][/SUP][/B][/INDENT][hr][INDENT][INDENT]Will write later. Hides his leather couch face with a burlap sack all the time.[/INDENT][/INDENT]
[INDENT][B][SUP][SUB][H3][i]Reputation[/i][/H3][/SUB][/SUP][/B][/INDENT][hr][INDENT][INDENT]Beric was the second son born to Ser Terance and Lady Cara, the Lord and Lady of House Hightower. Even from infancy, Beric had a queer coldness to him -- He would not cry as a baby, would not speak as an infant, and would not smile as a child. He would respond to both commands and praise with blank indifference, and his speech was slow and quiet, causing the Hightower's maester to initially assume the young Beric was simply deaf.

Of course, this was not the case, though Beric's silence would force him to remain all but a stranger to his family until he was a boy of seven. One summer afternoon, during one of his family's jaunts to Oldtown, Beric witnessed two knights dueling by the docks. It captured his attention like nothing other, burning an image in his mind that has lasted to this day. That afternoon, he told his father that as a second son, he would like to train as a knight. It had been perhaps the longest phrase Beric had ever spoken to his father, and so he was made his father's official squire within a fortnight. Under his father's tutelage, Beric would take to the longsword like a moth to a flame.

Beric's devotion to the sword  quickly grew into an obsession, and by the time Beric was ten, his father conceded that any further training his son would receive would have to come from a more skilled swordsman than himself. Terance Hightower then purchased the tutelage of a sellsword and two hedge knights -- [i]Hasin Nogarys, Ser Brynden Marbrand, and Ser Rodrick Dalt[/i] -- to teach Beric the three combative aspects of knighthood; Swordsmanship, Horsemanship, and Bowmanship. These three warriors would remain Beric's tutors for the next four years,until he was knighted at the age of fourteen and his presence was requested at Highgarden by Lady Margaery. As a result of a trade deal arranged between Lady Margaery and Terance Hightower, Beric would serve as the sworn guard of Margaery's newborn son, Jon Flowers.

The next four years would be the same for Beric, who was accustomed to waking at the crack of dawn to train his sword, though now with better scenery than Oldtown's. The unsmiling, rigidly disciplined Beric would remain an unpopular figure at the painted galas and courtyard ceremonies of Highgarden for years to come, save for in the eyes of Margaery Tyrell -- [i]who some believed to have brought the young knight for reasons less virtuous than guarding her infant son[/i] -- and Garlan Tyrell, who had a personal hand in Beric's continued training at Highgarden. By the time Beric was eighteen, he was known as "Beric the Babe", the prodigal boy-knight of the Reach. It would be fortunate that Beric was as skilled as he was by then, as Jon Flowers would be legitimized Jon Targaryen at the age of four after King Aegon suffered a bout of ill health.
Beric's guardianship over Jon became more serious after his legitimization, leaving less time for Beric to train. The young boy chafed under Beric's constant vigilance, and equally, Beric grew uneasy without his constant routine of practice. Eventually, Jon would find a friend in his protector. The smiling retainers Jon was surrounded by at Highgarden would practically climb over one another to win favor with the Targaryen boy, which confused and upset him a great deal during his childhood. Beric's cold, awkward nature seemed like proof that unlike the flatterers at court, Beric had no ulterior motives, and could be trusted to at least confide his woes.

Beric would do just that for twelve years, becoming a brother figure of sorts to the would-be king, training him to the best of his ability in swordplay, carrying out errands and tasks, and gradually steering Jon into a marriage with his younger sister, Gwynesse. Their time together would be brought to an end on Jon's sixteenth nameday, when King Aegon VI decreed that Jon be given Dragonstone. Having been stationed as the prince's guard by Lady Margaery, who had been dead for a year by that point, Beric was thereby dismissed from Highgarden. Beric continued as a renowned hedge knight for some five years, his monicker quickly changing at tourneys and highways to "Beric the Bedless" with his diminished status.

Beric would remain [i]Beric the Bedless[/i] until his mutilation at the Bloody Caltrops Inn. He was recognized by a young sellsword named Dunsen, whose bandit father Beric had killed a year prior. That night, Dunsen returned to the inn with a small gang, taking Beric's key from the innkeep at knifepoint. Beric awoke to find himself surrounded and unarmed, and was tied and gagged by the group, beaten within an inch of his life until dawn. Upon the group's departure, Dunsen dragged Beric's head into his room's fireplace, aiming to "light him like a beacon", and assuming that the flames would quickly kill the tightly-bound knight. Beric would manage to wiggle to freedom, but not before suffering serious burns on his head. He was found by a fellow inn patron, a turnip farmer from Old Oak, who carried Beric all the way to Oldtown, receiving a keep and knighthood from Beric's father for the deed.

Healing/Training Paragraph
Sent to Summerhall

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[INDENT][B][SUP][SUB][H3][i]Relations[/i][/H3][/SUB][/SUP][/B][/INDENT][hr][INDENT][INDENT]Jon Targaryen - Beric has known Jon since he was born, swearing an oath to his mother to spend his life protecting Jon. [/INDENT][/INDENT][/hider]