Criston Tarth

## Lord of Tarth

**Criston of Tarth** is the only son of the late Lord Galladon and Lady Myranda Dondarrion. He is the current lord of the island of Tarth in the Stormlands and resides at Evenfall Hall.

## Appearance

The sky above Tarth is always miraculously clear, giving life and color to everything including Criston. Mountains and waterfalls, high meadows and shadowed vales have molded their master into a man worthy of his seat, with regal airs better befitting a Targaryen prince than a noble from the Stormlands. Lean and long he stands, with broad shoulders that taper to a trim waist - the physique of one well used to sitting astride a horse, long hours spent wielding a sword more so than a quill. He retains a fair complexion that contradicts one expected from an island home and short auburn hair that becomes like flame beneath the face of the sun. Short stubble dusts a rugged jaw, above which sets an average nose, and higher still a gaze as deep as the shimmering blue waters that surround the Sapphire Isle itself.

## History

Criston was not the first child born into the court of Lord Galladon of Tarth, nor the second for that matter, preceded five years by Eleanor and two by Jocelyn, a pair of flaxen-haired, fair-skinned sisters with eyes like a clear summer sky. Disappointed with his luck in having a male heir, Lord Galladon spent five taxing days and nights in the septry
 upon learning his wife was pregnant a third time, praying fervently to the seven gilded statues in their seven gilded niches for a blessing. Only stone-deaf ears and the surrounding frescoed walls heard his desperate plea.

The birth of the Evenstars’ last offspring was no cause for immediate celebration however, as it also brought about the death of his beloved wife amidst one of the raging black storms that was a rarity along the northeastern coast of Shipbreaker Bay. She did not go quietly into that dark night, and the halls of Evenfall rang for hours with the screams of a dying woman, broken intermittently by the squalling of a newborn babe. The birthing bed was burnt to ash by the grieving lord, and servants worked for two days to scrub the blood away from marble floor stones, which would forever remain tarnished by Lady Myranda’s memory.

Childhood on the stony shores of the Sapphire Isle was a semi-pleasant affair, filled with morning hikes along coastal ridges and afternoon swims in the azure waters that surrounded his home. Despite being much loved and doted upon by his elder siblings, he was considered a pariah by a father who had once wished for a son so desperately. The lord of the island paradise took to his cups in attempt to heal the schism created in his heart by the loss of his beloved, and in doing so became violent in nature. His sisters doted on him, soft-spoken and kind in comparison to the raging inferno with an iron fist and a tepid tongue that was his father.

The occasional strike of a hand morphed into harsher discipline where in Galladon took to sentencing the boy to arduous chores, some of which lasted entire nights and continued throughout the mild winter days. Mental abuse was mitigated with the ever-increasing occurrence of a ‘well-deserved beating,’ prompted by the failure to complete a task to
certain standards. Where Eleanor and Jocelyn might have defended their brother they were forbidden from associating with him, and a young Criston soon became notorious for his attempts at running from his troubles. There was nowhere far to run on an island, and the merchantmen always seemed to know which chest of silks or cask of summerwine he chose as a hiding spot aboard their vessels.

Adolescence treated the boy far more kindly and saw him sent to foster as a page at the age of eleven for his mother’s father, Lord Dondarrion. If before he had been a silent lad, almost afraid of conflict, the time spent away from home seemed to burst the young man’s shell asunder. From dawn until dusk he was schooled in both sword and lance, in archery and hunting as well as the histories of Westeros and the lands far to the East, from whence the dragonlord’s had come on the backs of their great serpents. Sums and social skills came naturally unlike the lordly devices of singing, dancing and lute-strumming, the latter of which received futile effort on his part.

No manner of books or scrolls or sheaves of parchment could hold his interest like hiking the marches could, racing stallions with his cousins over the dusty moors or taking unorthodox trips over the border into Dorne to hunt the shadowcats that haunted the shadow of the Boneway. Fun would not last, nor those lighthearted memories conceived during that temperate winter spent at Blackhaven as a simple squire. He earned his knighthood through no small amount of valor, when in the year 361 AC bandits from the foothills of the Red Mountains descended on the countryside, pillaging farmhouses and setting fire to grain stores in their search for wealth and infamy. Lord Dondarrion’s eldest son was tasked with bringing their closely-confined reign of terror to an end, along with the aid of other Marcher lords. A then seven and ten year old Criston, untried and untested save for in the training yard and tournament ground was sent to accompany. Amidst the howls of dying men and smoke so thick one might get lost within it he slew his first man, with an overhand swing that glanced off of the haft of a makeshift pike and nearly threatened to open his own flesh before the edge of his blade buried itself in the vulnerable neck of his outlaw opponent. For two weeks they scoured the countryside until once more it was safe for those who lived there, and upon their return he entered the septry to emerge an anointed Knight of the Seven and Defender of the Faith.

Lord Galladon was not present to meet his son on the day of his return six years after his departure, though it felt more akin to an eternity. On the morning of his eighteenth nameday Criston arrived to a shipyard inhabited only by the usual slew of merchants and fishermen who traded gold and wares for valuable marble and other resources unique to
 the island. Eleanor and Jocelyn were both married and moved away in his absence, a revelation both disheartening and gratifying in that his father had taken his head out of a wine cask long enough to make such arrangements. Boyish looks and soft edges were long gone; in their place were sharp edges, chiseled lines and a handful of physical scars borne with pride. Eyes that had once been as calm as the surrounding sea had hardened to sapphires, quick to betray his quick wit and quicker temper. In contrast, the aging patriarch sagged in places once drawn tight with muscle and the wrinkles in his forehead had deepened. Crows feet were prominent at the corner of his eyes and grey shadowed a fast receding hairline. An intimidating presence, no doubt, but not the monster from a childhood best forgotten.

In the years afterward their broken relationship never quite managed to heal itself, rather father and son learned to tolerate one another in the joint overseeing of lands, levies and commerce. Two years after his return, a marriage was brokered with the eldest daughter of the Lord of House Penrose, a slight maiden with a gentle temperament and a sad smile. They were wed in the sept at Evenfall with only a modest celebration to accompany, and he found Joy to be a mediocre lover at best. Try as he might, he could never elicit a genuine laugh from his wife, nor did that smile she always seemed to bear ever quite reach slate grey eyes, which peered at him from beneath long lashes inauspiciously at best.

Alarming news from Dorne spread upward through the Stormlands like a summer wildfire in the year 365 AC that sent most of the surrounding south into a tumultuous uproar. The sellsword-turned-pirate Grazdan held the entirety of the ruling Martell household in retribution for unspecified reasons, and among them the sister of the ruling Lord Baratheon. So dire was the situation that Maekar Targaryen called forth the royal fleet to aid in their deliverance, and Criston found himself among those who volunteered to storm the heavily fortified harbor at Bloodstone alongside Barristan and his Dornish allies. The battle was hard fought, hard won, and at the end of it all red waves lapped hungrily at blood-soaked beaches and the silent silhouettes of the fallen. Too late to save some, as the broken body of Lady Marya was carried respectfully away from the carnage, but from the putrid depths of the self-proclaimed Lord of the Stepstones keep emerged her children, borne out of that earthly hell in the arms of their saviors.

Criston remained for a single long year to aid in scouring the islands free of the remaining pirates, but a letter sent from Tarth bid him make haste homeward. In his absence Joy had given birth to a son, but a frail condition and premature timing saw neither mother nor baby survive the ordeal. What should have been an earth-shattering experience drew no reaction from the young lord, who had seen enough death and dying to last three lifetimes. He’d sworn to uphold the teachings and customs of the Seven upon taking his knightly vows, but what had been a vague mistrust of all things religious deepened in the wake of yet another tragedy.

The lordship of Tarth and the title of the Evenstar was passed from father to son in the third moon of the year 370 when an aged and ailing Galladon drew his final, rasping breaths in the same austere room in which his wife had died six and twenty years before. Criston was long since past any sort of feeling for a man who had never truly been the father figure which he’d yearned for as a boy, and come to despise as an adult. Two years hence and Lord Criston is yet to wed again, aided in the governance of Evenfall and the Sapphire Isle by an astute uncle and an abundance of cousins - a perpetual reminder of what he lacks in regards to a family. At the invitation of Lord Barristan Baratheon and the behest of his castellan he has accompanied the Stormlander party to King’s Landing to attend the coronation of His Grace Aemon I Targaryen, and potentially secure a bride.

## Recent Events

Criston left the Stormlands in the retinue of Lord Barristan Baratheon, on whose invitation he has traveled to King's Landing to attend the coronation of Aemon I Targaryen.

## Timeline

* **344 AC :** Criston is born to Lord Galladon of Tarth and Lady Myranda Dondarrion, who dies on the birthing bed. Lord Tarth is resentful of his son and heir, and the lad’s childhood is made miserable by an uncaring father.

* **355 AC :** He is sent to live with his maternal grandfather at Blackhaven, who takes him as a squire and tutors him in academics as well as martial skills. He finds that he favors the lance and lists above training swords in the yard, and becomes an adept at jousting.

* **361 AC :** Criston departs with his cousin - Lord Dondarrion’s heir - to aid in ridding the countryside of a small group of bandits who have taken to raiding farms and small settlements north of the Red Mountains. He is knighted for his efforts.
* **362 AC :** Criston returns to Tarth on his eighteenth nameday to find that his sisters have since been wedded and his father remains the same drunken cavorter as when he’d departed, though the two quickly learn to tolerate one another.

* **364 AC :** He is wed to Joyeuse Penrose, the eldest daughter of the Lord of Parchments. Although a somewhat loveless affair, she proves able at keeping his head level and feet grounded in dealing with the daily necessities of lordship.

* **365 AC :** He departs with the forces sent from the Stormlands to aid their Dornish neighbors in rescuing the Martell family from the sellsword grazdan. He remains another year to help scour the pirate dens clean of brigands.

* **366 AC :** Criston returns to Tarth to find that his wife and son have both died in childbirth, much as his own mother years before, though the loss takes no real emotional toll as he’s learned to deal with such tragedies by choosing not to care.
* **370 AC :** Lord Galladon passes from old age and chronic illness, leaving Criston to assume the titles of Lord of Tarth and the Evenstar, of which he already has several years of experience. Galladon’s younger brother is named castellan.
* **372 AC :** Criston is invited to accompany Lord Baratheon to King’s Landing to swear fealty to and witness the coronation of Aemon I Targaryen, with the reluctant ulterior motive of securing a new bride at his uncle’s behest.

## Family

* Galladon of Tarth (b. 302 AC, d. 370 AC) - Lord of Tarth; the Evenstar
* Myranda Dondarrion (b. 310 AC, d. 344 AC) - Lady of Tarth
	+ Eleanor of Tarth (b. 339 AC)
	+ Jocelyn of Tarth (b. 342 AC)
	+ **Criston of Tarth (b. 344 AC) - Lord of Tarth; the Evenstar**
	+ Joyeuse Penrose (b. 346 AC, d. 366 AC)
		- A stillborn son, 366 AC.
* Alesander of Tarth (b. 314 AC) - Castellan at Evenfall
* Cassana Estermont (b. 320 AC)
	+ Andrew of Tarth (b. 337 AC)
	+ Leona of Tarth (b. 342 AC)
	+ Guyard of Tarth (b. 348 AC)
	+ Byron of Tarth (b. 354 AC)

## Supporting Characters

* Ser Joseth Storm - A hedge knight in Criston's company and an old childhood friend.
* Ajax - A brindled mastiff and Criston's favorite hound.