Lyonel Waynwood

**Lyonel Waynwood** is the eldest son of the late Ser Vardis Waynwood and Lady Jeyne Redfort and the elder brother of Lady Maris Belmore.

## Appearance and Character

Lyonel is a young man of average height with the build of a somewhat muscular knight. He has wavy brown hair and hazel colored eyes, of which he inherited from his mother.

He's a rather inquisitive young man, who tends to be quick to laugh and even quicker to smile. Lyonel genuinely enjoys the company of others but he tends to be the quiet man in most groups.

Those who know him well say that the young knight is always watching and listening patiently waiting to pick up the little things others might say. Hoping to hear something that could help future his own personal ambitions or simply provide him with interesting gossip.

## History

Born in 74 AC shortly before Maegor’s Breath made its way through the Vale, to Ser Vardis Waynwood and Lady Jeyne Redfort. The young Lyonel was said to have arrived into this world healthy and strong, in the spitting image of his father. He grew up in Ironoak alongside much of his kin, where he was expected from a young age to be a valiant knight just like his father.

Lyonel spent much of his youth in either the training yard or running wild throughout the castle eagerly convincing both smallfolk and his noble kin to join him in his imaginary ‘adventures’ of which he would often re-imagine the stories his father had told him and play his father up to be a mighty hero.

Though his father for most of those years hadn’t yet told the boy just how brutal the men of the Vale were to the Clansmen. All Lyonel knew was that his father and his uncles had fought as true Knights of the Vale would have against the terrors in the mountains that surrounded them all.

All of that changed when Lyonel was ten and he stumbled into a conversation between his father Varis and his lord uncle Artys, hearing that his uncle Harrys, his wife and his young cousin Roland were butchered by Clansmen while returning home from a feast.

Even at a young age, he could see the fire burning within his father, a fire that he’d never seen within his hero. Few in Ironoak seemed to know how to proceed with news of his, Lyonel himself grew quieter. He played less with others and was more so shocked that his cousin, one of his best friends, a young boy was murdered alongside his parents, for simply being a Valemen.

In the years that followed Lyonel focused more on his martial training, in the hopes that he’d one day be able to march with the men of Ironoak and put down the Clansmen who dared harm one of his kin. But before he knew it, the Valemen marched during what would become the War for the Mountains of the Moon and he wasn’t permitted to ride with them.

But in 86 AC, at the age of twelve, the war came to him. One of the war’s bloodiest battles began at Ironoaks walls. After much of the Waynwoods fighting force left to join the Arryn’s army. The Clansmen saw an opportunity and attacked Ironoak with makeshift ladders, hoping to massacre all who resided within its walls.

Lyonel and his father Vardis took charge of defending their home. This was where Lyonel first tasted war. He fought bravely beside his father and did his best to push back the invaders. Yet it seemed with every man they killed, two more would arise.

The Clansmen assaulted constantly for almost three days, leaving little time for sleep. The second night of the assault was by far the most brutal and most heartbreaking for Lyonel. The young boy had barely been able to keep his head up as he stood on the walls, his father Vardis had told him countless times that it’d be best for him if he went to find his mother and hid away with the rest. At least until the sun rose once more. But of course, Lyonel refused, claiming that he’d fight and die a warrior like his father. Little did he know that that conversation would be their last. Moments after they spoke the Clansmen once more began an assault, he could barely see them over the walls but no matter what he did his best to kill any who scaled up. They seemed to once more hold back the Clansmen but at a horrible cost. Ser Vardis was stabbed through the neck by a Clansmen.

The young Lyonel was said to have wept over his father’s corpse until the sun rose over the horizon, through two attempted assaults. Thankfully on that third day, The Knights of the Vale rode across the horizon, beginning the \*true\* Battle of Ironoak.

In the weeks to come, Lyonel barely spoke or ate. He’d mourned a father, a hero and countless other cousins following the battle. For nearly three years, he’d become an angry shell of his former self. He’d never smile or laugh and it seemed no matter what there was always rage written across his face.

That continued until he turned sixteen. The War for the Mountains of the Moon was long over, with much of the Clansmen having been killed by the Vales army. Yet Lyonel remained the same. His family tried to figure out ways to help the boy but they only ever resulted in him lashing out towards them.

Until Ser Jasper Arryn once day came to visit Ironoak on a tour of the Vale. He was a few years younger than Lyonel yet the two hit it off fairly quickly, even though Jasper had for the most part been spared from much of the Clansmen’s presence as he lived high above the mountains.

Lyonel seemed to view this as a chance to finally leave his home and asked Jasper if he’d be willing to take him along on his tours. And of course, Jasper agreed having been one of the only teens on the tour, he loved the idea of more people of his age joining him.

This would be the start of their long friendship and well-needed change for Lyonel. After what seemed like years, Lyonel finally felt happy as he toured the Vale and met new and interesting people. All of whom shared similar stories of tragedy, and yet still found ways to stay strong. It was all well needed and life-saving to the Waynwood.

Though that tour only lasted a year and a half, as Lyonel and Jasper returned Eyrie. After hearing the start of the Rosegold Rebellion. Alongside Jasper and the Loyalists, Lyonel marched through the Riverlands towards King’s Landing. Where they’d soon fight against the Westermen forces in a blood battle throughout the streets of the city.

By the end of it, Lyonel and Jasper had slaughtered countless men and the Arryn had found himself being knighted by Lucion Corbray. In turn, Jasper almost immediately knighted his older friend, saying that the Waynwood more than deserved it far more than he.

In the five years that followed that war, Lyonel had stayed beside his friend and seemed to slowly once more became the smiling Waynwood his family recalled. But he’d also found himself learning a few more things. The importance of information and just how much knowing the secrets of another could truly change their outlook.

## Family

* Vardis Waynwood b. 51 AC d. 86 AC
* m. Jeyne Redfort b. 52 AC
	+ Maris Belmore b. 70
	+ Lyonel Waynwood b. 74 AC