Raya Blackwood

House Targaryen

Barbrey Blackwood

Jenna Blackwood

**Raya Blackwood** is the current **Lady of Storm's End**. She is the youngest daughter of the late Lord Lucas Blackwood and Cersei Tully, who died giving birth to her. During her time in the merciless grip of her eldest sister Miriam Blackwood's machinations, Raya became the now ex-girlfriend of King Viserys I Targaryen and wife of Lord Roy Baratheon.

## Appearance and Character

The tallest of her sisters, Raya's time spent in the training yard as a young girl left her once lean and toned, although her figure now takes on a more gaunt appearance sans the remnants of childbearing. Of her youthful combat pursuits only small scars remain. Melancholy weighs upon her features, leaving her with a dull, dark-eyed complexion kissed by freckles. Her chocolate eyes are framed by full brows often sunken and sullen, with a smile however disingenuous just as frequent upon her face.

Raya's personality was shaped by the happenings of her upbringing, or lack thereof. Besides her family, the remainder of Raya's interactions came from the smallfolk of the village nearest to Raventree Hall. Despite not knowing their names, Raya found comfort and familiarity in their humbleness and felt envy towards their honest ambitions. A soft spoken girl, she bent easily to the whims of others and kept her own wishes close to her chest. Horseback riding, dancing, and beating her nephew in a duel were among Raya's favorite pastime activities. She prefers darker clothing, although sometimes she will don a blue gown or on even rarer occasions, white.

In recent moons, the flurry of events in Raya's personal life compounded with the lifelong feelings of guilt and recent betrayals sent Raya further inwards, making her in many ways more introverted albeit with a sharp sense of distrust and far less willingness to forgive. With fewer people allowed closer to her, it would be difficult to name the beast that silently and slowly consumed the Lady of Storm's End: paranoia.

## History

No event in Raya's life has been more significant than her birth. Her entry into the world in 78 AC marked her beloved mother's departure, and Raya grew up in the hole she left behind. Raya never felt she knew her father for who he was, for after the death of his wife, there wasn't much left of Lord Lucas Blackwood. He looked to his youngest daughter and felt guilt, but above all, confusion. His eldest daughters fit so easily into the roles he believed they desired, but he could never get such a strong feel for Raya. While rarely outright cruel to her, Raya's eldest sisters seemed to cling to one another more than they did to her, save for Miriam who was more or less always trash.

Raya supplemented her childhood loneliness with a robust imagination. Though prone to tomboyish behaviors, Raya enjoyed many things about being a young lady. As a girl she looked up to Miriam, jealous of her dress and grace, though the unspoken animosity never went away, much to little Raya's dismay. Her youth was spent largely riding back and forth from Raventree Hall to the neighboring village, alternating between lessons from the Maesters and hearing tall tales from the village's old widows.

As they were unusually close in age, Raya felt a special bond towards her nephew, Miriam's eldest son Armond. He proved an easy sparring target, and a scapegoat when she accidentally knocked over a vase or two. She

felt that she could be herself around him. All of this changed in 98 AC, when it became clear Armond was developing in a way Raya hadn't expected nor been comfortable with. Now, she commonly looks for reasons to avoid Armond and his small entourage, and pretend not to hear his whispers of dreams to carry on the newfound "cousin-fucking tradition" of House Blackwood.

Raya hoped to leave Raventree Hall one day to find what she never had: a home.

## Recent Events

Raya found many things in King's Landing, a home among them. Just, not the home she wanted.

Per her sister's machinations, Raya was thrust into the path of King Viserys I Targaryen with little say in the matter. However, Raya took quickly to the silver-haired King and an intense relationship soon began. In the heat of their romance, Viserys proposed a marriage to her, bedded her, and subsequently won her devotion, announcing the betrothal to Lady Blackwood shortly thereafter to Miriam's elation. The pair initially intended to get wed quickly, but the King decided to push back the wedding, to allow the realm to attend should they so wish. This elicited an enraged response from Raya's lady sister, who insulted the King directly to his face, no hesitation. Stances were made clear, lines were drawn in the sand, and that night the betrothal was cancelled. Raya was never told the truth of the events of that evening, only that Viserys was by her side one moment and the world had color, and the next she was alone and everything became gray. Just as her father abandoned her, and her sisters after him, Viserys had abandoned her as well.

Raya wouldn't be left alone in her misery. During an inspired moment of cruel ingenuity, well aware of her sister Jenna Blackwood's longstanding affair with the King's Hand Roy Baratheon, the Lord of Storm's End, Miriam engineered a new betrothal to Raya and this Lord Baratheon. The considerable amount of effort put into making Raya as appealing as possible to the people and her ongoing conversion to the Faith of the Seven played a role in Miriam's decision, as Raya would likely be a more palatable choice than wild and eccentric Jenny. In truth, Miriam's longstanding grudge against her youngest sister for the perceived slight of killing their mother compounded with lesser feelings of rage and envy brought a sense of satisfaction to Miriam when Raya reacted in horror. With her middle finger promptly poised to the King, Miriam saw that Raya and Roy were quickly wedded.

Astoundingly and certainly unexpectedly shortly thereafter, Raya discovered she was with child. A moment of unparalleled joy, elation, and security...in her mind, with Viserys. In reality, she was terrified. Not only did it remind her of the circumstances surrounding her mother's demise, but the sheer amount of changes to her body and mind in such a short period left Raya feeling shaken and especially alone. She wanted so badly to believe in love, and needed only to recall how Roy looked at her sister Jenny to tell herself that it did exist, just not for her. Every time she looked to her husband it brought feelings of guilt and self-loathing. These feelings grew with each passing moon, the limits of Raya's mobility doing more to make her uncomfortable. She kept a court of only servants for a time, until an unlikely duo practically fell into her lap.

It was Clover who first caught the eye of the Lady of Storm's End while at court in King's Landing, owing her attendance to her Rowan lineage. Alone and longing to feel the life that once filled her, Raya gravitated towards the cheerful maiden and her twin brother, whom she grew even closer to due to his passing resemblance to her former lover. Their bond perhaps accelerated by Clover's eagerness and Raya's isolation, the twins became Raya's trailing shadows that were nearly an acceptable substitute for the King. It became such that Raya favored them above her own kin, although with her family perhaps that wasn't saying much. Peculiar, that a pair of bastards would become her new family over that of the House Baratheon, but there was little in Raya's life that she didn't believe to be ridiculous anymore. The closer she grew to the twins, the further she pushed the rest away, a mounting distrust of others slowly creeping to the forefront of her mind like an encroaching storm.

Soon to give birth, her newfound companionship gives her the courage to revisit the ruins of what her life was supposed to be and reforge herself in the ashes.

## Family

Lucas Blackwood, Lord of Raventree Hall †

m. Cersei Tully †

* Addam Blackwood †
* Miriam Blackwood, Lady of Raventree Hall
	+ House Blackwood

Barbrey Blackwood

* Jenna Blackwood
* **Raya Blackwood**
	+ m. Roy Baratheon
		- Unborn Child