Eustace Grafton

Elyana Grafton (b.76)

Damon Grafton (b.77)

Gargon Grafton and Targon Grafton (b.79)

Gilwood Grafton (b.51)

Kella Templeton (b.53)

Lord Eustace Grafton rules over Gulltown as well as the surrounding lands. An influential statesman, Eustace works alongside his family in order to pursue his family gaining more power and wealth for those who trust in him. With a violent and chaotic time unraveling in the Vale of Arryn, Eustace now seeks to use his wealth and connections to carve out a more powerful position within the realm.

## Appearance and Character

Rather stocky in appearance, Eustace slumps a bit due to his age as well as spells of dizziness whenever he feels peckish. With hair as white as the bubbling tides, the Lord of Gulltown became renowned for his ambivalent facial expressions whenever he spoke and his odd way of throwing compliments toward everyone that came to discuss anything with him, always following the compliment with an awkward wink and smile.

Many of his connections find him eccentric, but reliable and passionate about whatever endeavor he seeks to pursue. He often guffaws loudly during conversations and seeks to connect with others by finding things that they can both agree upon. This often happens whenever the Essosi are mentioned as he views them as a necessary evil in terms of commerce and wholly supports the notion that, one day, the Crown could become much more wealthy and powerful than the free cities that he often has to establish trade negotiations with.

## History

Born the first son of Lord Armond Grafton and Cyrenna Grafton, Eustace entered the world as a plump child with blushing cheeks and a cry that sounded more like a series of chirps due to the weakness of his lungs early on. As he grew older, Eustace outgrew his sickly nature for the most part and enjoyed his youth traveling around the eastern side of the Vale, ensuring connections that would linger to this very day with those who served the most prominent houses of the Vale. Accompanying his father and uncle about their tasks, he became very comfortable with traveling and wining and dining the various lords of the realm as well as their liege lords, the Arryns.

As an adolescent, Eustace was constantly scolded for his brash behavior and garish manner of speaking to those that his father was hoping to establish trade negotiations with. While this often would make whatever nobleman was listening in cringe in confusion, the smallfolk and knights that served as wards would usually snicker at the bold nature of the Lords and Ladies. As a teen, one could often find Eustace in the kitchens and barracks talking with those of a lower station than he and entertaining. It was during one of these nights in the kitchens that he caught the eye of one idealistic Leona Mooten, that saw him as the exact opposite of her stern and martially minded father. They would often spend their nights traveling the small towns around Maidenpool.

After twelve moons of Eustace constantly coming up with vague reasons to visit Maidenpool yet again, they became betrothed to one another with Armond's blessing. This established a very strong bond between House Mooton and Grafton in which they would ardently support one another to this very day.

Once he turned around 14, he was squired to a battle-hardened knight in the employ of his father by the name of Ser Mandon Shett. Although from a minor house, Ser Mandon made the Shetts of Gulltown much more recognizable due to his commanding of men during the War for the Bite as well as the infamous Attack on Gulltown by the mountain clansmen. Mandon was constantly perplexed by the young squire as he was always asking questions about how the enemy could be exploited or distracted for an ambush. Either by paying smallfolk off or crashing smaller ships into warships, the young heir to House Grafton's wealth proved that he fought through adaptation as opposed to sheer brutality and strength. The latter earning him his knighthood during the War for the Bite, and the latter proving helpful in saving Gulltown from the threat of Ruryk and his clansmen.

Eustace began to be much more confident in battle, now recognizing that his role was not to lead, but rather to distract and confuse the enemy. An early example of this being Eustace's use of smallfolk in the lordship to lure Ruryk into an amush set for them just outside the northern gate of Gulltown. The plot had worked beautifully and had led to Ruryk begging on his knees for his life. Armond called his son a "craven genius" for years after, but Ser Mandon Shett saw this act as further proof of Eustace's gifts and saw it fit to pledge loyalty to his former squire as his sworn sword from that day on.

It was during this time that he also wed his beloved, Leona, and started siring children with her, of which they would have many. Around this same time, his father's loyalty to House Arryn was recognized, and his older sister was wed to the brash Gunthor Arryn.

Ryella found the brutal atrocities he committed attractive much to the disdain of several others within his family. But Eustace's opinion had no weight when compared to his Lord Father's when it came to their lordship and ruling over the fair city of Gulltown. He was relegated to the chambers to assist the steward as was his talent to increase the depth of the coffers.

Instead, as the violence within the region began to swell, so did his father's volatile nature. Criminals began to be marched through the streets on a daily basis and were put in public squares for regular beatings. The punishments of the failed clansmen had now become the regular punishment, and there were even tales of his father endorsing a more eccentric practice: Guards accepting payment in exchange to allow wealthy merchants to come and have their way with prisoners, including obscene methods of torture.

This became the last that Eustace could stand from his father who had always been rather distant from he and his siblings, and this distance only sought to grow more and more over the years. Rather than attempt to speak again to his father, he tried to show him a different way by showing up the prisons and paying for the release of one of the smallfolk that had stolen from the market district. In his own way, this became more and more commonly sought out by Eustace in order to distract himself from the death of his sister, Ryella. Rather than allowing himself to dwell on his frustration and slowly rising hatred for the War Eagle that had driven both his father and sister to insanity, together with the deaths of his nephews, he sought to simply try and make things better for his people and correct the mistakes his father had become infamous for making.

On the evening of the first day of the 4th Moon of 86 AC, Ser Mandon and Eustace greeted those who were imprisoned and welcomed by the guard. In that level of the prison were all those who had been suspected to have acted out and committed petty theft. Rather than judge them, Eustace sat with them and heard their stories of what brought them to steal and why they felt they were the one deserving of freedom. It was during this time that Armond came to the prison looking for his son to scold him for still being a craven and caring about those who broke the law of their House and lordship. After a small and heated argument, Eustace refused to argue with his father anymore and turned his back on him. In an act of rage, he took out a dagger and proclaimed that his son had become a traitor, only to look down and find a hilt buried in his gut from Ser Mandon himself. Eustace, still in shock from it all, paid every prisoner a hundred gold dragons and sent them out on a ship to Braavos to seek out a new life, and to protect his mentor and sworn sword.

Since then, Eustace has ruled over Gulltown with relative isolation from the rest of the region, albeit losing hope that his goodbrother could ever find redemption from his ever-increasing bloodlust. Other than connecting with several lords in order to arrange marriages, he relegates himself to the intimidating towers of Andal's Hold that peers over Gulltown and it's massive harbor.

## Meta

INT- Subversion & Espionage

STE- Clandestinity & Home Turf

STA- Counter-Intel & Stewardship

EDU- Shipbuilding

Aptitude: Cloak and Dagger (INT)