Aubrey Rowan

## Introduction

Aubrey Rowan is the Lord of Goldengrove and the Marshal of the Northmarch. A powerful and wealthy lord, he is among those lords most loyal to the Targaryens, and opposed to Highgarden.

## Appearance and Personality

Aubrey is blonde of hair, with eyes as blue as sapphires, as is quite common to his family. His face is almost sculptured, with high cheekbones, a narrow and straight nose and lips that, by some people’s estimation, would make a whore jealous. Yet even more than his comeliness, the thing that stands out about the lord is his freakish height. Standing at six inches and six feet tall, Aubrey stands head and shoulders above most men. Further extenuating his height is his lean and lithe build, which makes him look all the taller.

In battle he wears silver-alwyte mail under a suit of steel plate, intricately fashioned, gilded heavily in gold, inlaid with precious stones. The greaves and gauntlets as well inlaid with scrollwork, his rondels golden sunbursts, his fastenings gilded and the steel polished to blaze like fire in the sunlight. From his neck, fastened with a brooch of gold, flows a cape of white satine, the golden tree of Goldengrove boldly embroidered on it. Long streamers of gold and white silk spring forth from the top of his helmet.

In leisure time his style of dress is a touch severe, preferring high-collared clothes of an aristocratic cut. The colours he likes are varied, though more often than not he wears white and cloth-of-gold, using the colours of his house.

Aubrey is a man somewhat defined by his contradictions. Though amiable and extroverted, he has few, if any, people that share his confidences. He is not close to anyone, bar perhaps his mother, and this appears to be how he likes it, as he actively seeks to draw clear lines between himself and the ones around him. And while he tries to preserve the legacy of his grandfather, he has little of the tact or subdelty, instead functioning better as a blunt instrument.

This isn't to say that the lord lacks intelligence - quite the opposite - but he isn't a schemer and he prefers to overpower rather than subvert. More often than not he is brutal and merciless in the treatment of his enemies, though open handed and generous with those that support him, albeit he views most with veiled, or not-so-veiled, suspicion.

Having spent the last decade functioning as an enforcer for his mother and brother, Aubrey has a strong sense of duty and is capable of driving himself hard. He expects the same of those around him, being a ruthless taskmaster when things come down to it.

## Biography

Aubrey Rowan was born as the second son of Ser Edmund Rowan, son of Lord Rickard Rowan, by his wife Lady Amerei Florent. A newborn with good health, a tuft of golden hair upon his head, the babe was described as hale and healthy. From his mother he learned lessons of truth and nobleness that have never forsaken him. Often while he swung gently to and fro in his quaint, carved, and uncomfortable-looking cradle, did she sing to him the songs of valour, courage and all the stern virtues that could be found therein. Many a time she trotted the little lordling on her knee to the music of the tales of powerful heroes and great kings. She told him also many a story of brave and daring deeds, of noble and knightly lives, and how his ancestors had made the lands of his father a power to be reckoned with in the Reach and beyond.

The young Aubrey was brave, gentle and jolly, and as hardy as he was brave. Yet more than anything people remarked about his height, and the boy was growing exponentially, taller and taller every year. Aubrey was a sweet, somewhat bookish boy, but as many young lads he was wont he liked his rough-housing and was unaware, sometimes uncaring, about his strength.

As Aubrey grew, he became an excellent rider and hunter. By this point his father had died, and he had become third in line at the grand old age of 7. Yet as his brother seemed in full health, so Aubrey was deemed fit to be sent off as a page to Oldtown, the home of his grandmother’s family. The Hightowers received their kinsman favourably. Lord Loras was, much like Aubrey, a young boy, his father having died years before. In truth, it was not the Hightowers that ruled in Oldtown but a Baratheon, the mother of the lord. Yet what did a boy care for such things? Only little. But it was there that the young scion of Goldengrove realised his attraction to his own sex, sharing that inclination with the Lord of the Hightower.

As the lad grew up in Oldtown, the city proved fertile ground for the wild young lordling. He and a group of likely lads managed to turn the city upside down. They threw cherry-pits at the gray-bearded councillors, smashed in windows and scandalized the citizenry. They played ball with the table dishes and broke benches in the Sept. They beheaded sheep in the street till it ran with blood, and then pelted the passers-by with sheep's heads. They spent money like water, and played so many heedless and ruthless tricks that the period was known, even now, as the "Rowan Fury”. Little of the menace would reach the castle, however, where Cassandra Baratheon ruled with an iron hand, the ire of which Aubrey quickly learned not to provoke.

By the time he turned twelve, Aubrey was as tall as many full-grown men, and more wild than he had a right to be. Despite being rough around the edges, he was judged to be more than ready to be a squire, though no one in Oldtown was like to take him, mainly due to the reputation for wildness and insubordination that surrounded the lordling. Instead his grandfather would bring him to King’s Landing, to be squired to the Prince of Dragonstone himself. Though still displaying his wild side, the presence of his grandfather would work to make the boy more agreeable and less rowdy, displaying none of the penchant for cruel pranks that he had displayed in Oldtown.

He would prove himself a dutiful and capable squire to the prince who, while capable at arms, would relegate the training of Aubrey to the Master at Arms and other assorted staff. The prince and his squire, both quite extroverted, got along quite well, which was bolstered by the strong loyalty to House Targaryen that was instilled in him by his grandfather. Yet the influence of the aged Lord Rickard, the venerable Master of Coin that had served on the Small Council for more than twenty years, would not be long felt, as the man would die early into the year 120 AC. The squire would attend to his grandfather’s body, escorting the body back to Goldengrove for burial before returning to the city. He would serve the prince for four more years, in which time the royal suffered his own loss. Aubrey could sympathise with his knight quite a bit, though there was nare a time to show it. Still, he remained with Baelor throughout the man’s self-imposed exile on Dragonstone and returned with him to court. On his 18th namesday he was knighted by the Crown Prince.

After his knighting, he would return to the Reach, this time for good. He would assume his role at the side of his brother, Rickard, a pious man, though frail of body and often incapable of rule. Their mother had taken up the rule of Goldengrove when the lord had his episodes. With the return of Aubrey, she received an iron fist to supplant her own silk glove. While Goldengrove had grown in both power, wealth and influence, it was still something of a backwater compared to the great settlements of Highgarden and Oldtown. Having inherited some of his grandfather’s distrust of the Tyrells of Highgarden, more often than not the heir of Goldengrove would stick to Oldtown - a place that reminded him of King’s Landing. While on one of his many visits there he had a tryst with the Lord of Oldtown, rekindling his childhood flame.

Yet the situation in Goldengrove was not as good as one would have hoped. No, there were problems arising from the lack of consistency in the rule performed by Lord Rickard. Their lady mother tried to do the best she could to afford a sense of strength and stability, but the inconsistency that was so often the result of the erratic actions of the Lord. Vassals had come to rely on this inconsistency, and thrived on it. And even the criminals of the land would benefit from the pious lord’s tendency to reverse some of the more practical policies of his mother. Aubrey was called on more and more to deal with the governance of the Rowan realms while his mother, and Maester Rycherd, kept her eldest from interfering too much. Bandits and rogue lords alike would find themselves on the end of a brutal repression campaign conducted by the heir of Goldengrove. Having proving his effectiveness as a commander and a repressor of all things lawless, he would be given the title of Marshal of the Northmarch.

Yet there was only so much that smoothing over could do and the relationship between the family grew increasingly strained. Aubrey would grow resentful of his brother, even showing it openly at times. Luckily, or unluckily, the conflict would come to an end in the year 129 after Aegon’s Conquest. Lord Rickard had been in one of his less capable states for a while, his mind frail. Then his condition would take a turn for the worst and he would pass away late in the year. Aubrey, his mother and the others in Goldengrove would mourn, but the newly minted Lord would soon take up his mantle. Now he travels to King’s Landing to swear his fealty to the new king.

## Meta

Skills: Skirmishing (MAR), Logistics (MAR), Weapon Proficiency - Swords and Shields (COM), Riding (COM),

Mastery: Field Commander

CHA - 3

MAR - 10

COM - 7

INT - 0

STE - 0

STA - 0

EDU - 0

MAG - 0

REP 4