[hider=The Hightowers]
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[color=#A52A2A]House Hightower.[/color][/center]
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[color=#A52A2A][sup][i]"We Light the Way."[/i][/sup][/color][/CENTER][table][row][/row][row][cell][center][sub][sup][sub][h3][b]
[color=#A52A2A]H O U S E    D E T A I L S[/color][/b][/h3][/sub][/sup][/sub][sup]_________________________________________________________[/sup]
[sub][COLOR=darkgray][b]House Seat:[/b][/COLOR] Oldtown & the High Tower. 
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[COLOR=darkgray][b]Region:[/b][/COLOR][/sub] The Reach

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[color=#A52A2A]K E Y    M E M B E R S[/color][/b][/h3][/sub][/sup][/sub][/center][sup]_________________________________________________________[/sup]
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[COLOR=darkgray][b]◼ Name:[/b] Jon Hightower
[b]◼ Age:[/b] 49
[b]◼ Appearance:[/b] Surprisingly well-kept for his age, brown hair and eyes contrasted by pale skin make him have a very standard appearance of a Westerosi Lord. However as of late his clean shaven and orderly appearance has given way to a slow creep of stubble 
[b]◼ Biography:[/b] [/color][/sup][/indent] Lord Jon Hightower was born in a good and peaceful times, the last savage wars of the continent distant memories. As his competence and loyalty to the crown was noted, some saw it as inevitable that he came to be Hand of the King. But as he did so, many contemplated if his unquestioning obeisance to Aegon was for the best of the realm, Lord Jon facilitating any whims and proclivities of the King if he so demanded them. 

It was thus in the eyes of many not particularly surprising that upon his King dying, Jon was dismissed from his title. Though he took his imposed resignation peacably, all at court could tell he was dissatisfied to say the least. 

So it was that returning home, he locked himself in a chamber of the High Tower, disappearing for a long time during which his eldest Morgan took running of the House. When he exited his self-exile, Jon was clearly unwell. Ravening about ancient readings and texts, his mood and thought changed more than the direction of the wind. While not outright out of play, Jon Hightower was now closer to a pawn than a proper piece of the Game of Thrones. 

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[COLOR=darkgray][b]◼ Name:[/b] Morgan Hightower
[b]◼ Age:[/b] 27
[b]◼ Appearance:[/b] Morgan can look far older than he is, with stress, time in the sun, and perhaps an unlucky roll of the bloodline's dice making him appear to be of the same age as his father sometimes with slightly wrinkled skin, occassional gray hairs, and the slightest bit of a hunch, his likely only pleasant traits being his great height and the hair many Ladies would be jealous of if not for Morgan's long working nights leading to it being washed less commonly than it ought be. 
[b]◼ Biography:[/b] [/color][/sup][/indent] Morgan was born weak and frail, many thinking he would pass in infancy leading to a lack of attachment from both mother and father that believed he wouldn't make it to adulthood. But he overcame his sickness, his time alone leading to a strongly independent streak. But, lack of direction from his father ensured the youth growing into a man would dip his toes into many things, yet never master anything. He was never a master warrior, nor poet nor administrator nor anything else. Perhaps for running a House that would have been optimal, but it lead to many a would-be marriage arrangement falling through as nothing exceptional stood out from him. 

Now the gargantuan task has been laid unto him of managing the House amidst his father's de-facto madness. While initially a not particularly difficult thing, it was just as his own ambitions started to rise of centralizing the House's power and being rid of things long troubling it that the ambition of his siblings and other people he was meant to trust grew, their efforts pulling the House into wholly different directions. 

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[COLOR=darkgray][b]◼ Name:[/b] Fiona Hightower
[b]◼ Age:[/b] 26
[b]◼ Appearance:[/b] Her father's daughter, long brown hair and dark eyes along with cheeks and a jaw too strong to be considered conventionally beautiful but at least pretty enough to not be ugly, everyone's eye first goes to her height, enough to dwarf all peasants and even some noble lords. While her father schemed to have her betrothed to one of the more nobly-behaved of the Targaryens, this fell through following Lord Jon's exit of the court. Now the poor girl is a bargaining chip disputed between her brothers, all the while rumours are abound she prefers the company of women in a carnal way. 
[b]◼ Biography:[/b] [/color][/sup][/indent]

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[COLOR=darkgray][b]◼ Name:[/b] Parlan Hightower
[b]◼ Age:[/b] 20
[b]◼ Appearance:[/b] Shorter than father and his elder brother, Parlan could be mistaken for a bastard with his slightly rounder facial shape, his exceptionally light features in eyes and hair, compounded with much more tanned skin. Much shorter than father or Morgan, the twins are nonetheless both well built, broad shoulders bearing martially capable not exaggerated or vain musculature. 
[b]◼ Biography:[/b] [/color][/sup][/indent] Twin to Hengist, the siblings were bright and strong from an early age. Seen for some time as more viable heirs than Morgan by many, it was some time in puberty that the siblings began to quarrel. Competing for everything from parental attention to girls to the last bite of pie, it soon got to the point that they sought different paths in life almost out of spite for one another. 

It was only when they left novitiate studies at the Citadel that the full chasm between them was visible. It was Parlan's twin that was the straight arrow, that much clearly observable when the boys were taught how to fight in their late teenage years. Parlan used hooks and daggers everything but a proper sword, he studied the campaigns of the Dornishmen against the attempts to conquer them and the guile they used to stay independent. In civil matters, he came to take charge of the family's banking and usury, of overlooking shady trade for bribes, of control over trade of herbs and other exotics passing through Oldtown. It was thus a shock to those that eventually came to learn that he was privately martialling the family's resources to aid the Targaryen loyalists, until they had learned his brother had already sought out to aid the Blackfyre cause. 

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[COLOR=darkgray][b]◼ Name:[/b] Hengist Hightower
[b]◼ Age:[/b] 20
[b]◼ Appearance:[/b] He looks the same as his brother, save for his body being covered with scars, whilst choosing to be clean-shaven with short, neatly combed hair.  
[b]◼ Biography:[/b] [/color][/sup][/indent] As remarked, Hengist was a self-imposed foil to his brother. Lacking the sinister and grim nature of his brother, he became far more adept at walking the well-trod path. An honourable warrior, and administrator of the roads and granaries and smithies, he became interested in the cause of Daemon Blackfyre as rumours of the bastard origins of the current King were relayed to him in a quite convincing way, and thus he became certain the rotten structure had to fall. A letter was sent to the claimant, offering what resources of House Hightower that Hengist could bear for the cause. 

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[COLOR=darkgray][b]◼ Name:[/b] Sara Hightower
[b]◼ Age:[/b] 17
[b]◼ Appearance:[/b] Of black hair and gray eyes, the girl has always been seen as an exceptionally beautiful woman save for a set of crooked teeth that some in the family have considered knocking out to merely replace with perfect enamel or porcelain prosthetics. Just slightly taller than the average noblewoman, yet still somewhat shorter than most lads who would be prospective matches. 
[b]◼ Biography:[/b] Sara was a simple girl that didn't want for much save to please mother and father. Yet increasingly as time passed and the scheming of her family aside from her parents became clear, she soured on her kin. Knowing how even know her brothers seek to use the girl as an asset to be traded more than anything else, she took a religious path. Thus there is an uneasiness, for some believe her claim to wish to be a Septa is naught more than a threat, a bargaining tool for better treatment from her brothers, others wonder if it is sincere piety that can be used to improve the family's reputation. 


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[color=#A52A2A]H I S T O R Y[/color][/b][/h3][/sub][/sup][/sub][/INDENT][sup]___________________________________________________________________________________[/sup]
[COLOR=DARKGRAY][indent]House Hightower is one of the oldest of Westeros, their founding in dispute but its legacy not. Whatever the exact details of their mythic ancestry, they nonetheless followed a conciliatory path through their whole history peacefully acquiescing to their overlords in the Reach, the arriving Andals, and then later the Targaryens. This has ensured that despite the tumultuous history of the continent, they managed to not just survive but even flourish through the ages. 
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[color=#A52A2A] C U R R E N T    S I T U A T I O N[/color][/b][/h3][/sub][/sup][/sub][/INDENT][sup]__________________________________________________________________________________[/sup]
[COLOR=DARKGRAY][INDENT]Having avoided entanglements of any kind after the Dance of Dragons, House Hightower's power and wealth grew as they maintained closeness to the crown. One culmination of this was appointment of Jon Hightower as Hand of the King. Yet, for all their faithful service, with the death of Aegon they were spurned as far as their patriarch was concerned. Removed from his position as Hand of the King, Jon quickly soured to the Targaryens. Briefly locking himself in to contemplate, he seemed turned almost mad. Having exited his isolation, he one one day rants about how House Hightower failed the Seven Kingdoms and hence had themselves to blame for rightfully being set aside, while on the other he gives long diatribes about how the Targaryens are now nothing without the dragons upholding their inbred rule, and how he had read prophecy in the Citadel of their imminent fall. In the absence of his stoic rule, his children, cousins, and the Maesters in their service are lead to marshal his resources. 

Though by virtue of owning Oldtown and the Citadel the House can marshal enormous resources, the fact they are divided and in disarray can make the House in one moment appear  on hard times when its representatives are acting against one another, and in another moment appear to suddenly be Kingmakers when its disparate cliques finally act in accord. 
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