Cato Nestoris, Sealord of Braavos

Kiera Nestoris (22)

Denya Nestoris (19)

Cato Nestoris is the head of House Nestoris, one of the venerable noble houses of Braavos. Since 378 he has ruled Braavos as Sealord, the first Nestoris to hold the title in over a century. He has four children

### Appearance and Character

Though once considered too crude and rough for his position, Cato has begun to fit the mold of a sealord. He never shows himself as anything less than finely groomed and immaculately dressed. Only the callouses on his hands now reveal his past at the arsenal. During his time in office, he has lost the last of his black hairs. Though he remains lean and unsoftened by his life in the luxurious Sealord's palace, the position has reinforced the subtle weariness of his appearance. He has grown out of his brash and prickly ways as a younger man, forgiving old insults while never forgetting them. He now plays the part of the elder statesman, well-spoken and reserved, smiling more than before, but never too much. He has a love of art and music, and a soft spot for theatre despite having been the subject of many a satirizing play over the course of his political career

### History

Cato was born as the eldest son of Sergo Nestoris in 328. Though a child of summer, he would be anything but a merry youth, prone to brooding and walking around with a chip on his shoulder at most any time. Though far from impovrished, his house had certainly seen better days. At the time of his birth it had been nearly 80 years since the death of the last Nestoris Sealord. As a boy of only twelve, he began to get the feeling that his house was on the way out, a sentiment he would find to be common among the other noble families. Worst of all, Cato could not help but feel like his father faced the declining stature and pride of their house with indifference, eventually reaching the conclusion that he had to become his own man and surpass his kin in order to save them from their own dangerous negligence. Perceiving veiled slights at every turn, he became a boy eager to grow up and impatient to grow old, for only the senior most statesmen of the city had a chance at the mantle of Sealord. He was eager to join the fleet as soon as he came of age, hoping he might get an early boost to his reputation by fighting the bastards of the tide. Unfortunately for him the bastards were decisively crushed while he was not yet even captain of his own ship in 346. Cato spent the next few years working his way up the ranks as he stewed in his own fat, feeling snubbed of his chance for glory. In time however, he would get more chances than he could have prayed for and witness greater horrors than he could have imagined.

Before then however, getting to know the joys and hardships of family life would serve mellow out the young man somewhat. In 347, at the age of 19 he would marry Sylvia Prestayn. Cato had taken little interest in matters of romance prior to his marriage, yet while his early relationship to Sylvia didn’t have a particularly romantic tone to it he would develop a deep love for her, beyond what public gestures of infatuation could ever have expressed. In time the two would learn how to conduct themselves romantically in public spaces, though largely for political purposes. In 352 the couple would have their first child, a son named Marcel. As a father Cato would prove somewhat distant, yet devoted to building a legacy for Marcel to live up to, a point he considered his own father to have failed him at. When he was on leave from his duties in the fleet he would bring his son books, primarily Braavosi political texts but also the occasional historical account and the odd foreign classic, always with the instruction to study them thoroughly. Though they never grew truly close during Marcel’s childhood, the boy never failed to meet expectations at the end of the day. Though the aging sealord may now regret his lack of time spent with his heir, he still believes there was no other option. His early family bliss was quickly interrupted by war

Cato had only just attained a significant position of command in the fleet when the Ibbenese struck the northern narrow sea like a typhoon. A bloody death-struggle against the God-king of Ibb would follow. Cato aged more in those five years than he had in the last decade, proving his mettle as a commander of men at sea. Stuck between devils and the deep sea, his sailors remained confident in their young admiral. The sight of the northern savages carving through countless braavosi fed Cato’s disdain and loathing for his enemy, but half a hundred battles and skirmishes also gave him a grudging respect for their capabilities. For the first time in decades, the purple fleet of Braavos was fighting by the skin of its teeth. More than anything Cato would learn that the valor of his crew would mean nothing if the fleet was not sufficiently equipped and supplied. For the first time he made a fully conscious move to the detriment of his ambition, abandoning his pursuit of the lord admiralty as a step on his way to the title of Sealord, instead aiming for the less glamorous post of Grand Magistrate of The Arsenal. As the war wound down, the conflict adopted a new scale. Even with the imminent threat to Braavos averted, the fleet had to work just as hard to keep thwart Ibbenese piracy and prevent them from re-consolidating their forces for another attempt to fell The Titan. In 360 Cato was able to secure himself a place at the arsenal, leveraging his service in the fleet and even grudgingly accepting some aid from his father. Though he would never fully work matters out with Sergo, his view of his father would change as the man entered his twilight years

Once appointed, Cato wasted little time in throwing himself into his work. He would rebuild and expand the purple fleet to combat the Ibbenese menace. The God King’s fleet had descended into a myriad of smaller raiding fleet as the larger battles ebbed out, placing Braavos’s merchant ships in jeopardy. This emerging threat also turned away many a merchant who might otherwise have made landfall in the city, depriving the noble houses of badly needed toll revenues. At first tolls were raised, but this spike in levies on trade only exacerbated the crisis, forcing the nobility and the sealord to relent, lowering tolls in the hopes of coaxing trade back to the chequey port, instead turning to the Iron Bank. Even while the fleet was devestated by war and trade declined, the bank’s power and wealth grew as the city authorities incurred ever growing war debts. While the bank was forgiving for a time, knowing the fleet was all that protected its vaults from the greedy clutches of the Ibbenese, the Iron Bank would have its due. Cato grew wary and suspicious of the bank and its influence during the 360s while at the same time depending on it for funds, as only loans could muster the necessary sum to restore the Purple Fleet to its former strength. Cato had to carefully balance costs while at the same time realizing the need for upgraded ship designs that accounted for the new power of Ibb, designs that cost more than regular ships even when costs were cut where it was possible. In the end Cato could do little to stop himself from deepening Braavos’s debt even while keenly aware that if the new fleet was not up to the task of fending off these new enemies, it would soon need another costly replacement. It was this crisis which encouraged the young magistrate to run for the position of Sealord when he was only 38 years old.

While narrowly clearing the official age requirement of 35, his campaign in 366 was seen as an outrage by some and a farce by most. Cato leveraged whatever he could, from his wife’s political acumen and connections to what little respect he’d earned in the fleet and the arsenal. While his victory seemed near impossible from the start it was his tactics and rhetoric that scrapped his chances beyond salvaging. Cato would lash out at the old guard of the nobility, positioning himself as a champion of a new generation who had suffered for their shortsightedness during the war. Though his speeches gained unexpected traction among sailors and dockworkers they ultimately had no say in the matter. His promise to take a hard stance against the banks to make them forgive the war debt turned into a city-wide comedy as playwrights and mummers mocked him to no end. The ultimate humiliation came on the day of the election itself, when even a sizable portion of the minority who had declared their support for him didn’t show up. Cato left the palace in a fury, seething as he alternated contemplating the act of throwing himself into the canal one moment and assaulting a theatre troupe the next. His seniors in the nobility had made up their minds that he was a brash fool. The ultimate humiliation he was caused by his absentee supporters was later attributed to The Daughter of Dusk, a young courtesan who would go on to become a rising star in the eyes of the new Sealord. It took all of Cato’s patience not to seek vengeance. Humbled, he resumed his work at the arsenal, biding his time. It took the nobility and playwrights alike a long time to grow bored of mocking him, and so he had no choice but to wait for the events of his election campaign to fade from public memory.

He’d continue outfitting the fleet with new weapons while also dedicating time to one of the Arsenal’s older projects. In the archives of past chief magistrates Cato found schematics going back all the way to the year 300, when the Braavosi authorities had first grown wary of the reborn dragons of Daenaerys Targaryen. These were plans on how to kill a dragon, the only creature that could reduce whole fleets to charcoal in a day and even bring down The Titan itself. With the power of the fleet restored, Cato turned his attention to building prototypes. While these cost less than warships, the sealord’s debt meant he had a harder time justifying their cost to his superiors. His later years in the Arsenal would see him developing greater political savvy than he’d ever displayed in the past as he was no longer in a position where he could avoid having to swallow his pride, inviting both nobles and bankers to the arsenal to convince them to support the project. When the Sealord who had defeated him died after only a few years, he decided not to run in the next election in 374, knowing his defeat was still fresh in the memories of many, instead remaining focused on the weapons projects at hand. In an odd twist of fate, the courtesan who had undermined him in the previous election would end up losing favour during this one just as she’d once gained it, being exiled from the city by the new authorities. By then Cato had made her acquaintance, and so would remain in touch with the woman now known as Seranah Nestassar. At any rate, Simeon Tregar’s tenure in the Sealord’s palace would be even shorter than that of his predecessor. His death remains shrouded in mystery, seemingly lacking both culprits and motive. There are those who suggest in whispers that the Sealord had made the mistake of provoking the faceless men.

Cato had spent his predecessor’s tenure refining his political image, working to distance himself from the bold claims he once made on the campaign trail. While he’d made his share of connections during this time, even gaining the support of Seranah Nestassar through her old network which had once brought him low, Nestor did not consider himself popular enough to have a chance yet. Fortunately, circumstances favoured him. The proxy war waged by his predecessors against Volantis had backfired, resulting in all the other free cities bowing to Daena Targaryen and her dragon. Braavos now stood alone in Essos, and there was a growing certainty that Braavos would not survive a Targaryen on the iron throne. While his career at the arsenal had once made him seem too unrefined for the role of Sealord, Cato now became a prime candidate, running on a platform of rapid expansion of the fleet to deter any Targaryen opportunism and prepare the city in the eventuality of entry into the war. His old opponents and detractors had expected him to run his mouth off and make a fool of himself once more, yet Cato surprised them by humbling himself, publicly apologizing for old insults. While still in his late 40s, the threat of war allowed him to play the role of elder statesman by virtue of his military experience. Eventually the old mockery lost its bite, and all that remained in his way was an exceptionally clever banker named Ferro Antaryon, who was still seen by some as the less controversial candidate thanks to his greater discretion in elections past. While both he and Cato were ambitious men, they were also realists. In order to work out an arrangement that would secure the future of Braavos, the two met on a courtesan’s barge one late spring night. The Pact of Purple Harbor would decide the outcome of the election, as Ferro conceded the need for a seasoned military leader in a time of turmoil and Cato in turn pledged to repay his support with his own, to work his future influence on the bank to give Ferro a higher position. In late 378 Cato was elected Sealord of Braavos to the tune of cautious celebration from its citizens, who all lived in fear of seeing the last of the dragons soar above the Titan’s head one cold morning.

A dual effort by the bank and the nobility commenced at the dawning of the year 379 as Cato began a programme of armament while the bank offered loan to King Garlan Tyrell, already locked in a desperate struggle with Daena. The fleet was expanded, the Titan’s defences renovated, but perhaps most crucially, the weapons tests finally yielded a successful outcome, a ballista capable of reliably piercing dragonscale, or so they prayed. Even as the Braavosi listened to words of Daena Targaryen’s conquests in quiet horror, loans remained the extent of what contributions they could make while avoiding direct entanglement. As the war progressed however, the exploits of Mace Wildflowers caught the Sealord’s attention. The bastard showed himself to have a gift for sowing chaos, and Cato saw only benefits in nurturing the seeds he had planted. Where rebellions sprang up, Braavosi silver soon found its way into the coffers of the insurgents. It was after witnessing Mace’s successful campaign of sabotage that the Braavosi elite decided to give him a parting gift on his way from Myr, the schematics to their dragon-felling weapon. As the war turned in the favour of the Tyrells, further diplomatic tendrils were extended. In the latter days of the war, Mace Wildflowers became a representative of King Garlan at the Sealord’s court. In turn, Cato suggested his youngest daughter Denya as a lady in waiting to Myrcella Tyrell, the Crown Princess. Braavos was unscathed throughout the war of the last dragon, though this came at a cost. For the first three years of his reign, Cato had deepened the debts of the Sealord’s palace further while the Bank’s power grew disproportionately to his owing to interests collected on both side of the Narrow Sea. Having provided wartime leadership, Cato now faced the greater task of keeping the city’s finances afloat. While terms remained cordial with the bank as the two had stood together through a time of great ordeal, the Iron Bank would have its due. Cato remains focused on the issue of the debt, knowing the city risked crumbling under its weight one way or another

In westeros his daughter’s mission of securing good relations was pushed far ahead of schedule by events that were as tragic as they were unforeseen. The sudden death of the young King Garlan resulted in Myrcella’s ascension to the Iron Throne. Cato sent Marcel to attend the funeral along with Denya, extending his deepest condolences to the bereaved Queen. Beyond her daughter, an even more prominent Braavosi at the Tyrell court would be Ferro Antaryon, as Cato worked to keep his end of the pact. After five years in the palace, Cato finds himself at a crossroads, having to prove he is worthy of the title he gained under extraordinary circumstances

### Family Tree

* Sergo Nestoris The Elder (Father, d. 365)
* Lyra Nestoris (Mother, d. 370)
* Sylvia Nestoris (Wife, b. 330)
* Marcel Nestoris (Son, b. 352)
* Sergo Nestoris The Younger (Son, b. 357)
* Kiera Nestoris (Daughter, b. 360)
* Denya Nestoris (Daughter, b. 363)

### Skills and Attributes

Mastery: Admiral

Attribute: Shrewd

Skills: Naval Technology (EDU) Leadership (CHA) Commerce (STA) Naval Warfare (MAR) Navigation (MAR)