Dacey Stark

**Dacey Stark** was the first born child of Lord Rickon Stark of Winterfell. Her younger brother Beric is the current Lord of Winterfell and Warden of the North. Before she was even born, Dacey Stark was betrothed to the would be King Tommen II. Her marriage saw the final phase of the North’s integration into the Seven Kingdoms complete and the continent once again unified.

## Appearance and Personality

Dacey is a marked Northern beauty that carried heavily the Stark features of her grandfather and none of the Tully that distinguished themselves in her father’s appearance. She is slim at the waist and busty. She enjoys pursuits typically enjoyed by men such as hunting, riding, and falconry which keeps her in peak physical condition. She maintained a large rookery for her falcons and tended them daily, she never lost a bird.

Unlike her brother, Dacey is gentle and kind though she shared his unending youthfulness and taste for life. She is constantly involved in helping her husband maintain his position on the throne and supported him unendingly. She deeply loved her husband and the children that were born of the union, the Princes Alester and Lyonel.

## History

Dacey was born in 315 AC in Winterfell to Rickon Stark and his wife Leonora Manderly. She was a lucky child, surviving a difficult pregnancy and being the girl needed to fulfill the agreement between the Crown and Winterfell. She grew up very close with her father, who feared greatly for her safety due to his experiences in life. She always had a guard on her and was never allowed out of whatever keep the Starks were in after dark. Her upbringing made her very guarded, a skill that would serve her well later in life as Queen.

She was educated in the traditional womanly arts as well as the more intricate arts of statecraft. Lord Rickon was not by any metric an effective ruler and he deferred her education to the best tutors that could be found. She showed particular talent in the management of trade and the mathematical art of finance. She worked hard in her adolescence to assist the North’s Master of Coin and weeded out corrupt tax collectors by the dozen, making up for the years of lacking oversight that had been a consequence of her father’s incompetence.

Dacey and her brother both rose to prominence in the North in 332 AC. Following the Savage Winter of 321 AC,the prestige of House Stark was greatly diminished and many lords, knowing well that Lord Rickon was not a man to do anything about slights, began to openly defy his mandates. Chaos began to spread, especially in regions now controlled by those of wildling birth. In 332, the agitated lords Whitehill and Wells rose in rebellion against Lord Thenn of the Dreadfort, refusing to bow any longer to a wildling ruler.

Rickon was characteristically weak in his response, doing nothing to muster a force as he said that the Thenns would handle the matter on their own. Unwilling to let the Starks be disgraced any longer as fearing that the unrest would spread, his children rose to the occasion. While Beric rose the Winterfell levy and began mustering and preparing for war, his sister went to the keeps of the major lords to gather their support. While most needed convincing, they eventually rallied not to Rickon’s banner but that of his children who they saw as the future of the North. At the head of a combined Northern army, Beric rode forth and crushed the rebellion while his sister ruled as the Stark in Winterfell with grace.

The threat passed within a year and, in 333 AC, Dacey was old enough to be wed. In a grand ceremony in King’s Landing, the long betrothed royal couple were married and began their rule as King and Queen. Dacey brought with her the might of the North as well as a set of skills in governance that made her a formidable opponent in court politics. She was a fierce advocate for her husband and his children as well as being a tender, loving mother.

The greatest tragedy of Dacey’s life was the civil war that broke out between her sons, the news of which caused her to suffer a stroke that left her bedridden without the use of her legs for the remainder of her life. She died the day after her son returned from the war, just long enough to say her goodbyes to him then joined her husband, son, and the rest of her family in the next life.