Allister Blackthorne

Allister Blackthorne was the only progeny of SIr Guyard Blackthorne by his wife, Callista of the GIlded Isle. After the death of Lord Lamorak Blackthorne, a council was convened in 508AE that declared Allister over the She-Griffins Three or Lamorak to be Lord of House Blackthorne, a position he reigned in until his death of accidental asphyxiation in 556AE. Allister's reign was classified as a period of both peace and immense prosperity. He had previously served as Lamorak's coinmaster and had a talent for the handling of the family banks, which soon earned him the nickname of "Golden Griffin." He was able to secure a peace with King Argiliac, ending the war with Brecilidia that plagued his predecessors. 
Allister was married to Lady Phaedra Plataneget, last of her name, ruler of the Great Riverford. Allister had sought to claim the keep for himself but was eventually thwarted by Phaedra's cousin Vincente Vonostra who won the Senate's support to take the castle upon her death. With his wife, Allister had a daughter, Allison, and two sons Sir Edward Blackthorne and Sir Balin Blackthorne. It was Edward's son Henry Blackthorne who eventually succeeded Allister as Lord after the latter's death.
== Appearance and Character ==
Allister was of average height for a westerner; never really interested in the pursuit of a warrior's life, he was called "barrel-chested" as a youth and "portly" as an adult, though never quite heavy enough to be conisdered overweight. His hair was a unique combination of stormborn scarlet streaked with gilded-isle gold; he wore it relatively short and swept back over his head, with a similarly-colored bushy beard that hid his mouth beneath an aquiline nose and "sparkling" golden eyes. It was rumored among commoners that Allister had so much gold that it even grew from his own hair. He dressed opulently in coats of finest silk, and dazzled in bright jewellery; whenever he took to the tourney lists, he owned a suit of glittering golden plate armor that was passed, in a (sadly appropriate) tarnished state, to his grandson Edwin Blackthorne. 
Allister had a pleasant demeanour and a quiet way of speaking. Almost no-one truly disliked him, as he was considered very mild and unthreatning. Many who knew him closer claimed his soft reputation masked a much more hawkish and scintillating core to his personality.
== Skills and Abilities ==
A banker by trade, Allister had a clever understanding of trade, debt and credit that outstripped that of his fellow feudal lords. He was able to greatly enrich his own family, often at the expense of others; his lending of money led him to be viewed as generous with his wealth, though few of his fellow nobles realized that he was driving them into irreconcilable debt to him.
== History ==
Allister's father Guyard was a bureaucrat cousin to Lord Lamorak Blackthorne, involved in overseeing the family's offshore mining operations. On the goldmine Gilded isle, Guyard married a local beauty of low birth named Callista, having a son named Allister. The young Golden Griffin grew up on the Gilded isle and learned much of commerce, hoping to follow his father into trade; he had a fine head for economics and was eventually called to handle House Blackthorne's financial interests in the role of Coinmaster.
When his cousin Lamorak died without an apparent male successor, there was a council convened to decide who should take over as the new Lord Blackthorne. Allister put his own name forward and began to gain swift support among the bannermen, most of which he unwittingly had on his payroll. Lamorak's daughter Evaine, and her sisters the She-Griffins Three, were passed over for succession in favor of Allister, causing friction within the family.
Allister's first actions were to make peace with King Argiliac, ending hostilies with Brecilidia. He negotiated a trade agreement which allowed the High Elves greater access to the ice-fishing and whaling routes south of Cinderfell, while ensuring that his own banks took a share of the new profits that business created.
He chose Phaedra Platanaget as his bride, though he lost out on her claim to the Great Riverford to his chagrin, and had three children with her. He doted upon his only daughter Allison, naming her in part after himself and marrying her to a high-ranking nobleman. His son Edward, called Blackshanks, was a considerably more martial man than his father and caused trouble with Brecilidia. His younger son Balin was a quiet and retiring figure who would go on to play a much larger part in the histories of House Blackthorne.
== Death & Legacy ==
At the age of 68, Allister was entertaining guests at dinner in his Everglow manor-house when he suddenly began to choke violently upon his chicken-and-bacon pie, causing a heart attack that killed him. The healers and medics that examined the body ruled the death as accidental though it is frequently regarded as a possible poisoning. The culprit for such an act is debated, though many like to lay the blame on Allister's political enemies; the Brecilidian King Argiliac, for one, but also his cousins the She-Griffins Three who never forgave his ovetaking of them in the Council of 508AE--and the middle daughter of whom, Isolde, was rumoured to be a Witch. 
The Golden Griffin left House Blackthorne considerably wealthier and at peace with their enemies, but his political scheming and unwillingness to control his aggressive son led to a destabilizing to relations with Brecilidia and by the end of the century the Blackthornes and High Elves would be at war once again. Allister outlived his eldest son Edward. Upon his death the Lordship went to Edward's son and Allister's grandson, Henry Blackthorne.