Name: Ser Ronnel Arryn
Age: 27
House/Affilitation: House Arryn
Appearance:
Ronnel Arryn strikes a figure that is truly one of two continents. The man was once the very nature of Vale Knighthood itself, aquiline features with a nobility that was only part arrogance with golden blonde hair styled short for both use and fashion. The man's time in exile has changed this, his skin has burned and tanned countless times beneath the Essosi heat, his hair a darker, dirtier, blonde. Previously airy features have hardened beneath strain and training and a beard now obscures much. One would still consider him handsome, but there is an exotic, rogue streak to both his appearance and personality which the Knight from before did not possess.
Biography:There was a time when Ser Ronnel Arryn was synonymous with nobility and knighthood. He earned his spurs fighting against the Mountain Clans of the Vale alongside his Household knights of far greater years and was the talk of any melee or tournament hosted in the earlier years of King Viserys' reign. The man tended to be close to the 'main' Arryn line, although he spent increasingly little time in the Vale, mixed up in the travels and adventures of his family, while finding time for his own. Such were his knightly exploits several songs, some rather more bawdy than the others, were sung in regards to his career, the most acceptable among the nobility being 'Let the Eagle Soar,' A tune that was said to please both King Viserys and his Arryn Queen greatly.
The death of Aemma Arryn spelt the end of this hay-day of Valeman nobility, in the end it was not anything Ronnel did that sent the Knight, apple of the eye of both court and peasantry, into exile, but his father. Rymond Arryn had never been the most tactful of souls. When Aemma died after yet another difficult pregnancy, her unlce (Rymond) was so bold as to claim, while drunk, that his grace should be tried for her murder, after all, it was him that had put yet another cursed child in the Queen's belly. Both the Targaryens and Arryns were grieving for their lost Queen, it was not a time for easy forgiveness. Ronnel followed his father into exile despite the sentence not passing to the son, many a peasant girl and noble maid grieved for the loss of their favoured knight among the lists, but soon the tale of Ser Ronnel Arryn was forgotten.
Rymond Arryn did not survive long into his exile, a tongue that had ensured his punishment did little to ingratiate him to the politics of cut-throats and warlords. His body was never found, one day he simply did not return to the apartments he and his son lived out of in the city of Pentos. Grieving but not surprised, Ser Ronnel set out on the first of many travels which would define his time in the East. He left for Andalos, for the heartlands of his dynasty. Seven times Ser Ronnel made his way to the hills of Andalos, the first six to different ancient shrines of the six openly worshipped of the Seven. The final time, he knelt in prayer atop the rolling hills of the Andals. What words the Stranger spoke to the exiled knight, one can never say, but when Ser Ronnel returned to the Free Cities afterwards, his legend had been made. Already a renown warrior and combatent, he soon became a leader of men. Those he had met among the Andals, alongside other exiles and travellers from Westeros, knights and commoners alike, found common cause with the Knight of the Vale. The Swords of the Seven were unlike most mercenary companies, they were hardly militant monks the like of which had been seen during the reign of Maegor the Cruel, but they avoided the worst of the politics of Essos, keeping their faith, and the ways of their homeland on these foreign shores.
Many might consider what would have become of the Swords and Ser Ronnel, had he not then encountered Celena Lannister. Just as much as he keeps his final journey to Andalos a private matter, so too does he never quite explain what the pair spoke of, all that is known comes from his public deeds. Estates and offices in Pentos were sold, those men among the Swords who could not, or would not, return to Westeros were paid their final wages and dispersed. The rest, alongside their Commander, set out for the Vale.
Ser Ronnel Arryn had returned.
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