Denys of the Bloody Pass

Ser Denys of the Bloody Pass is a Stormland's hedge knight whose father swore allegiance to house House Dondarrion. He made a name for himself throughout the Red Mountains for his bold and ruthless raids against Yronwood soldiers and civilians alike during the Fourth Dornish War. He sports a cold, icy look, and isn't a man to laugh or smile much. He holds the Dornishmen in very low esteem, harboring a deep hatred for his swarthy neighbors, as do many in Westeros.

He is usually followed by his squire, Eddison.

## Appearance and Character

Denys inherited his father's deep blue eyes, an unforgiving icy stare deprived of any form of warmth, with dark auburn strands of hair falling loosely on both sides of his face. His face is pale and boney, his nose cutting through it like a sharpened rock, while his jaw is covered with a thick dark auburn beard greying in a few spots.

Of average height, he is quite slim and lean bodied, his limbs may seem thin and lacking meat on the bones at first glance, but he definetely doesn't lack strenght, gifted with lean muscles that are like hardened leather.

He appears to be a calm, cold and proud man that doesn't let his emotions show. He doesn't enjoy the frivolty of the noble courts, and is a soldier at heart, preferring to feast on ale and bread instead of the more lavish and fancy foods. He is a hard man by all accounts, and thus makes few friends during his travels, and especially not with Dornishmen, towards whom he harbors a great hatred.

## History

### A boy of the Marches.

Denys was the eldest sibling of two, born in 58 AC to a minor landed knight of the Dornish Marches, vassal to house Dondarrion, and his lady wife, a daughter of a minor noble house.

His father's holdfast, the Bloody Pass, was perched high near the Stormland's side of the Red Mountains. It got it's name from the many skirmishes that occured in the area during the Dornish Wars, but it had more of the looks of a glorified watchtower than a proper keep to speak of. Half in ruins and surrounded by half a dozen poor houses sheltering a handful of loyal subjects, it's main purpose was to be an advanced line of defense against Dornish invasions, but after three Dornish Wars, there weren't many people left here to serve this purpose, merely a handful of old knights and servants...

Denys grew up as a lonely child, the only boy in a village full of adults and elderly men, and didn't have much friends to talk to or play with. Instead, Denys spent most of his childhood training and taking long walks in the Marches with his father, causing great worry to his mother, whom feared for their lives in the treacherous Red Mountains where the despised Dornishmen lurk. His mother gave birth to Denys's younger sister when he was still a boy, a girl named Alerie.

When Denys got old enough, his father officially took him as his squire, and his real martial formation began. Life was tough in the Bloody Pass, it was a rather poor place, too dry for anything to grow and wildlife wasn't very abundant in the area, so Denys learned how to live modestly with a frugal diet. He trained daily with his father, learning to wield a mace, a longsword, a lance, in the proper martial tradition of the Marcher lords. He learned how to ride a horse and fight on one as well, went on patrol along the Dornish border with the knights of the Bloody Pass whom taught him how to survive on his own in the unhospitable Red Mountains.

His father often told him that "An arduous life in the mountains, a modest diet, and dornishmen at your doorstep are the three first steps on the path to becoming a worthy Marcher, sworn to defend his home from the invader."

In 76 AC, Denys's mother died from a bout of Dragonblight, thus making his sister, Alerie, the last living female in the Bloody Pass. His calm and brooding nature became more apparent as he turned into a young man, he wasn't chasing girls or drinking himself unconscious like many lads of his age, but he didn't particularly enjoy books either. What Denys did enjoy, however, was hunting down Dornishmen who'd attempt to cross his father's lands. Whether they came in good will or to steal and murder, Denys never knew nor cared, his father taught him to hate Dornishmen, and how to kill them. And Denys was good at killing Dornishmen.

### The Butcher of the Red Mountains

The Fourth Dornish War came to a knighted Ser Denys, rewarded with knighthood by his father a few years earlier after a skirmish against Dornish bandits, he knighted him immediatly, surrounded by Dornish corpses, knights of the Bloody Pass and the Red Mountains. Ser Denys was eager to prove himself in battle, he patrolled the Red Watch twice as much as any knight of the Bloody Pass, looking towards Dorne filled his deep blue eyes with lust for battle and Dornish blood.

His wishes came true, and left a bitter taste in his mouth that would follow him for the rest of his life. In the wake of the Fourth Dornish War, news reached Denys as he was sparring with his men in their holdfast, the Yronwoods were gathering an army at the border. Denys's father immediatly rode out with a couple of men to get a better understanding of the situation... He'd never come back, only one man returned from this patrol to tell Denys what had happened in the Marches. They were ambushed by a scouting party and his father received a spear through the chest during the brief and one-sided skirmish.

Denys wasted no time in hopeless mourning, his father was a soldier and he knew the risk. True to his cold and calm nature, Denys didn't cry out and beg the Sevens to bring his father back, he instead swore to avenge his death. Not only did he harbor the Marchers's traditional hatred for the Dornishmen, he now had a personal reason for bloody revenge. He sent his sister to take refuge in Blackhaven and warn Lord Dondarrion about the incursion. He'd later find out that she never made it to the castle, which fell before she even got there. After sending his sister away, he immediatly rode out with the few able men and horses that were left at the holdfast. He took the Dornishmen's scouting party by surprise and exacted a bloody vengeance upon them, sneaking into their camp in the middle of the night and slaughtering them in their sleep. He then left the heads of his victims on the Boneway for all to see, their mouths stuffed with their own genitals.

As it turned out, the Dornish incursion was no minor skirmish or provocation, the following days saw the fall of Blackhaven and the all out invasion of the Marches by the Dornishmen snakes. His plans to meet with the Dondarrion host were pushed aside, as the prospect of making a name for himself in the Red Mountains arose. He rode with his small party, travelling unseen amidst the mountainous landscape, ambushing scouting parties, butchering, pillaging and torturing any Dornishman he could get his hands on, throwing their decapitated heads in wells to poison the water. He was bold, but not suicidal, hiding from larger parties until he could strike. He earned himself a bloody reputation in the Red Mountains, on the Dornish and Stormlander sides alike, and honored his title of Knight of the "Bloody Pass".

Upon returning to his holdfast, Ser Denys found it empty and pillaged. The Dornishmen plundered the place in his absence, finishing to turn the decaying keep into an empty ruin. The news of his misdeeds in the Red Mountains began to raise the Dornishmen's awareness, and he found it more and more difficult to wage his terror campaign, so with his keep in ruins and the practical impossibilty to act on his own he decided to move north and join the Stormlander lords in their larger fight against the invader. Denys soon learned of the gathering force aiming to retake the ruins of Blackhaven, and decided to join them. There, he briefly made the acquaintance of the heir of Blackhaven, Lorimar Dondarrion, during the campaign, and fought under the command of Lord Baratheon when his host joined with the Reach and Crownland's armies and fought the rest of the war alongside thousands of other knights.

### The Hedge Knight

After the peace between the Iron Throne and Dorne was signed, Ser Denys found himself in a difficult situation. The war of attrition in the Red Mountains earned very few spoils of war, he'd lost most of the few men that followed him, and his home was in ruins. A horse, an armor, a few weapons and just enough food to last a week, those were his only possession when he first stepped into the Reach after the war.

Ser Denys then spent nearly fifteen years travelling as a Hedge Knight, serving whomever noble Lord would guarantee him a roof, a meal and perhaps even sometimes something to fill his purse with. He worked hard, protected noble ladies as a bodyguard, taught a Lord's peasants to fight and hold their own in a melee, trained another Lord's sons, hunted down bandits. He was hardworking, always carrying out his task like he was ordered, but never did more to attract a Lord's favour. During his years as a hedge knight, Ser Denys entered the service of a fat, despicable Lord. The man would pay him a great deal of coins to escort and protect him at all times, and it was under his service that Denys learned to despise those rich, weak, stupid and unworthy Reachmen Lords.

Ser Denys was asked to escort the fat man to his favorite brothel on a daily basis, he stood guard many hours in front of the brothel while his liege had his way with the local whores. They despised the Lord, Denys could hear their desperate screams followed by the man's laughter as he did unspeakable things to them, and every time the brothel owner would try to stop him from hurting his workers, the Lord would order Ser Denys to cut the man down should he try anything. Denys despised the man, yet let nothing show of it and accomplished the work he was hired for.

Everynight, he'd hear him insult and belittle his wife, taking great pleasure at humiliating the poor woman. The man was confident that his wealth and bodyguards would prevent any brave souls to attempt anything against his life, and there was no louder laughter than his when he boasted about being able to afford another bride should his wife prove herself unfit to a man of his stature.. He openly despised his poorer subjects as he walked the streets of his holding, and Denys had to fight off many hateful peasants angry at their lord. He left this lord's service after a few moons, seeking a more worthy task. He despised most of those Reachmen petty lords, he saw them as little more than fat idiotic pampered children, unfit to rule or let alone lead men to war.

### Under the Stag Banner

Ser Denys of the Bloody Pass was back in the Stormlands by the time the Rosegold Rebellion broke out, he owed his loyalty to his liege, Lord Baratheon, but was skeptical about fighting the Reachmen. As much as he despised some of the flowery petty Reachmen lord, he held houses Tarly and Peake in high esteem, as they were prominent Marcher houses with a strong anti-Dornish tradition. In his opinion, the Marcher lords would be better off joining their forces against Dorne than fighting among themselves. Yet his sense of duty prevailed, and he soon joined Lord Baratheon, as part of Lord Dondarrion's host.

Ser Denys fought and bled with the armies of the Iron Throne at the battle of Bitterbridge. He fought bravely and didn't shy away from the battlefield, as did thousands during the slaughter, where bravery and sacrifice became the norm and not the exception. Lost amidst a mass of bloodied steel, his deeds would remain unseen, unremembered, the violence of the bloodbath overshadowing much of the individual's acts of bravery. He'd remember this battle bitterly, having seen so many good knights die on both sides, for what ? A betrothal and a position on the small council as a reward for the rebels ? This battle hurt his trust in the Iron Throne greatly, as Lord Paramounts were allowed to wreak havoc and openly defy the Throne and not lose their heads for it.

### Unity in Hatred

Angered by the meaningless bloodbath that was the Rosegold Rebellion, Ser Denys left for the Marches as soon as peace was signed. He crossed the Red Mountains and arrived in the Marches, where he stumbled upon an orphanage whom sheltered many children whose parents died during the Fourth Dornish War. Some of them were only babes when the war started, and were now young children.

With no home of his own anymore, tired of serving Lords who'd use him for petty tasks, or on the contrary send him on bloody battlefields for a meaningless cause, he decided he'd try to fix the damage done by his mortal enemies and help defend and raise these orphans and teach them how to survive the next war, as there would be a next war against Dorne. He was sure of it.

One of those younglings got Denys's attention in particular, a boy with a willful and honest face named Eddison. His parents died during the war against Dorne, he never knew how as he was only a baby when the Orphanage took him in. This inconscious trauma caused him to develop an irrational fear of Dornishmen, as a boy, the very idea of ever meeting one would cause him to cry and run back to Ser Denys for protection. Annoyed by the boy's irrational fear, yet animated by a profound compassion for the boy as Denys also lost his father to Dornishmen, he decide to take Eddison under his wing, as his squire.

Everyday, he trained the boy in the Orphanage's backyard, teaching him how to use a sword, a lance, a mace, yet it was with the bow that Eddison shined the most. The boy had a natural affinity with bows, a skill that Denys would not be able to help him with as he had no particular skill with ranged weapons himself. Denys was hard with the boy, often giving him a beating when Eddison talked back or didn't obey his commands, and he made him live a hard, frugal life just like his father did with him.

He intended to use the boy's fear of Dornishmen and turn it into hatred and purpose, like a blacksmith shaping white-hot iron into a blade, and he did so relentlessly. Denys's methods were tough, even cruel sometimes, as he filled the boy's head with stories of the so-called Dornish perifidy, how they barely counted as human beings and should never be trusted if he didn't want to get stabbed in the back. Eddison wasn't very hard to convince, as he'd aldready heard countless stories of the Dornish invasions in his childhood, and thus his fear slowly turned into hate as his years of training with Denys slowly turned him into a man.

When he deemed the young man ready, Denys said his farewells to the Orphanage and left with Eddison to the Red Mountains. They spent a full year in almost complete isolation, living off the land and surviving on their own in the arid climate of the Red Mountains. There Denys perfected his squire's training in arms and survival skill, and Eddison developped his talents with a bow.

## Family

Unremarkable, his mother died of the Dragonblight, his father was killed during the Fourth Dornish War, and his siter probably died of starvation in the Red Mountains.

## Household

Ser Denys is always followed by his squire, Eddison.

## Recent events

Worried by the alarming increase in Dornish patrols at the border, Denys and his squire decided to end their trip in the Red Mountains and ride to Blackhaven in order to meet Lord Dondarrion.