[Center][h1][b]House Hightower[/b][/h1]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/lD7msQ5.jpg[/img][/Center]
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.

[Center][img]https://cdnb.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/003/227/899/20160816081102/small_square/karakter-design-studio-got6-old-town-fd-01.jpg?1471353062[/img][/Center]

[h3][b]Recent History:[/b][/h3]
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.”

[h3][b]Sworn Houses:[/b][/h3]
House Beesbury of Honeyholt
House Bulwer of Blackcrown
House Costayne of the Three Towers
House Cuy of Sunhouse
House Mullendore of Uplands
[h3][b]House Members:[/b][/h3]
[List]
[*]Lord Abelar Hightower (51), also called Abelar the Able[List]
[*]Ser Ormund, his son and heir (27)[/List][/List]

[List][*]Ser Bryndon Hightower (48), the foremost knight of Oldtown, also called Bryndon the Bold (or Bryndon the Bald in covert ridicule).
[/List]

[List][*]Ser Otto Hightower (46), Abelar’s youngest brother
[List][*][s]Ser Barris, his eldest, deceased[/s]
[*]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 
[List][*]Aegon (born 107 AC), a raucous toddler
[*]Helaena (109 AC), a quiet child still in swaddling
[*]Aemond (110 AC), a newborn babe[/List]
[*]Ser Gwayne Hightower (15), youngest of Otto's children, and already a knight of renown in spite of his young age.[/List][/List]


Assorted cousins and kinsmen:
[List][*]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.[/List]

[hider=Lord Abelar Hightower]
[b]Lord Abelar Hightower[/b], Lord of the Hightower and master over Oldtown.

[b]Age: [/b]fifty and one years of age (born 60 AC).

[b]Appearance: [/b]
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.

[b]Biography and personality:[/b]
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. 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.
[/hider]