Wynton

Wynton is Grand Maester to Baelon I Targaryen, and serves on his Small Council. Wynton was born to Sittrick and Marna, smallfolk crofters on the edge of Wolfswood.

He remains unmarried, and without child, having spoken his Maester vows.

## Appearance and Character

Wynton's short grey-white hair matches the length of his beard, which adorns a stern and wrinkled face. His dreamy blue eyes are half-covered by eyelids sagging against their long fight with gravity. Some unseen burden bows his shoulders slightly, which are carried by the waning frame of a tall and historically strong body.

Unlike most maesters, Wynton has always had a true soft spot for the smallfolk of Westeros, frustrated with their ignorant self-harm, but not condescending of their lower station in life. He acts as if it is people's job to take care of the populace, not the gods'. In truth, he is not convinced the gods even try.

## History

### Birth and Early Childhood

The North is a cold, hard place to live for many, but children fare worst of all. The one boon Wynton enjoyed was he was strong and smart enough to begin working the fields and hunting early, becoming an economic asset to his poor family. Yet, it also made him the biggest threat to his father, and therefore his father's primary target.

Wynton's father, a man he has never named, save the moniker, "The Stranger's own bastard," was by his account a violent and despicable man, finding ways for all his children to fill his drinking purse. He filled his own duty for food and shelter for the family, But also made his wife and children pay in blood for the privilege during his drunken bouts of violent temper.

For all his young years, Wynton experienced a cycle of exhausting work, vicious beatings, and tearful apologies from his father, while his mother ineffectively did the best she could to shield them from the worst of it. Just as he was getting to the size where he could seriously entertain the thought of doing something about it, The Winter of a Hundred Kings spread its deadly fingers across the North, and with it the horrific circumstances which would save his life.

### Middle Childhood

Though the Dragonblight could not survive the harsh winter, there were other illnesses that did. As Winter came on, Wynton developed a chill, which turned nasty as he was forced to keep hunting. His chill developed into a cough, and it was severe enough that he could not go hunting anymore. And with that, he was simply another mouth to feed. As he lay there, burdened with guilt, he began to understand why those old men who should know better were laying about in the forest, unarmed, unequipped, unprepared. They had gone out there to die, and lessen the burden on their family. Wynton decided he would do the same.

As he planned to leave, his father beat him to it, picking him up off the bed and throwing him into the snow, threatening to end it himself if Wynton didn't leave area. It was then Wynton realized thinking about dying in the snow was much different from the reality, and tried to come back home, but his father was good as his word. It took only one beating to convince Wynton to move on. He wandered through the snow, shivering, and hungry, as most were in those days. Before long, he took up with a band of other abandoned children, and they found ways to eat, and keep warm. Without them, the would not have made it.

The Winter Boys, as they called themselves, were making for the South, where they heard there were oceans of sand, and the sun never stopped shining. Though they shared what they had, and found what shelter could be found, it wasn't enough. One by one the boys fell as they moved South. They'd pick up more on the way, who would also cycle through and die of cold, hunger, illness, infection, predators, or any of the other myriad things which threatened them every hour of their trek. By the time they passed through to the Neck, only Wynton and one other child were left. They were a day's walk from the Riverlands when his last companion drowned while they fled from bandits on the road.

### Late Childhood

One of the skills Wynton picked up along the way to the Riverlands, aside from avoiding death, was brawling. He'd been taking beatings as long as he could remember, and his fervent anger gave him cause to retaliate. Wynton was fighting off streetrats angry at the competition of a Northerner for the meager scraps of food that could be found when his skills caught Ser Medrick's eye. A Northman himself, from White Harbor, the hedgeknight was courageous, temperate, compassionate--all the things Wynton's father was not. Which was why, even though he was hungry, he took Wynton on to squire. Intelligent and hardy as he was Wynton was a quick study, and impressed Ser Medrick.

Three years in, Wynton had learned his letters, basic swordsmanship, and the proper care of cuts and cracked bones. And woven through all of it was the knowledge of the Seven, whom Ser Medrick credited for his remarkable character. Wynton began to believe, and learned to come to peace with his past enough to control his anger. But in a fight with brigands, the hedgeknight sustained a dire would which would not stop bleeding. Wynton scared them off with a blind return to the sheer savagery he'd learned before Ser Medrick taught him a better way, then stayed death as long as he could--which turned out to be but a few hours. Thus Wynton found himself alone in the Reach with Ser Medrick's horse, sword, and armor.

Unfortunately, his source of food died with the knight, and the pair of men Wynton found who wanted to buy the horse and armor turned out to be from a group of brigands, not a local lord, and led him not to a keep, but to a fallow field where they left him empty-handed and bleeding. This was near the tail end of the plague that broke out in the South, and he was desperate. If it weren't for the septon headed for Oldtown who took him in and had pity on him, Wynton would have gone to join the ranks of mauraders who took for themselves what they wanted. The septon's plan, after his surprise at Wynton's literacy and marked intelligence, was to bring him into the fold of the Seven. As he had nowhere else to go, Wynton went along with the plan, but when Wynton saw Oldtown, that plan went out the window.

### A Man Grown

It did not take long for him to get accepted, begin forging links, and excel at learning. This tall, strong, grim Northman who knew of the Seven and chivalry was an interesting anomaly, and his stories easily captured the attention of the more privileged members and lecturers. He had an endearing gratitude about him as well, for compared to everywhere else he'd been, the Citadel was a literal paradise. It is unsurprising his previous experiences with death propelled him toward medicine and healing, and it wasn’t long before lectures and cadavers weren't enough, and he wanted to help others in a hands-on way.

There were wars, and Wynton signed on with serving maesters to go assist, who were only there for their lords. Wynton, armed with a love for learning and compassion for the suffering, circulated among the men, however, helping and healing where he could, especially in the medicine and pest tents. He didn’t get much love from the maester's for such work, but he was a fine healer, and a strong, reassuring presence.

His Northern strength of will and stoicism had another double-sided benefit--he became one of the fastest amputators there. On the outside, there was much to be proud of, but the screams of men for their mothers haunted him, and he vowed to stay clear of battlefields from then on. It was a vow that would not stick. Not while men suffered and he was able to help.

### Middle Adulthood

Wynton returned to the Citadel a changed man, his gratitude tempered by the things he'd seen and heard during the war. He'd gotten into his studies with a desire to prevent the kind of deaths the Winter Boys experienced--things he learned were so easily preventable with herbs and plants they actually had access to, if only he'd had the skills and knowledge he now possessed. This motivation served him well in his youth, but now, seasoned, learned, and grown, Wynton knew better. There was no saving those children, and it was luck more than anything that kept him alive. There was a sadness to him after this realization, but his gratitude eventually came back in full force, this time for his life, and his work, and the goodness which could be found in both.

His fervor for medicine never waned, but he took on a broader and more generalized field of study after this, patterned after the maesters. He was an advanced learner in every subject he touched--a natural student. His faith in the Seven, and the Old Gods, never again took hold. Instead he transferred responsibility for the welfare of the people to the nobility. He strove in his studies to be worthy of the title Maester, to be able to impart knowledge and wisdom to those who commanded the fates of so many like himself. It was his way of making the world a better place, and he would do his utmost to make concern for the people a part of the thought process for whatever lords he ended up serving.

And in the end, he was a healer--his hands and mind were clever, competent, and consistent. Despite the prejudice of many maesters about Wynton's lowborn status, his expertise, education, and experience in medicines and healing was second to none. It still took many years before his work was recognized. If not for one of the less prejudiced archmaesters, who presented Wynton's credentials to the archmaesters, *before* telling the rest of the council whose credentials those were, he would never have made archmaester, and Grand Maester afterward. He remains grateful, if a bit gruff, cynical and impatient in his long years; but is an excellent teacher, and a masterful healer. Whether those are the makings of longevity in a Grand Maester, only time can tell.

## Family

* Sittrick (father)
* *m. Marna (mother)*
	+ **Wynton**
	+ Wylla (sister)
	+ Robard (brother)
	+ Bowen (brother)
	+ Lyra (sister)
	+ Shyra (sister)

## Meta

**Attribute:** Brilliant

**Skills:** Endurance (COM), Poisoncraft (INT), History & Law (STA), Botany (EDU), Medicine (EDU)

**Mastery:** Medic (EDU)

**Tiers:**