Bethany Royce

Lady **Bethany Royce**(born 109 AC), is the current Heiress of Runestone.  Born the eighth child and third daughter (sixth living child and second surving daugther) of Gerold Royce and Perianne Arryn, Bethany was never expected to inherit Runestone, being behind her sister Ysilla and even before that four brothers. However, when she was 6 years old, her mother and older siblings left King's Landing to return to Runestone. They never returned, dying in a winter sickness. She unexpectedly became Heiress to Runestone at the tender age of 7 when her brother Robin finally died. When she was 14, she left her father in King's Landing to begin to establish herself in Runestone. Ever since she has worked to manage affairs of Runestone while her father continues his Justiicar duties. Unlike her father's serious and melancholic temperament, Bethany is a sanguine, outgoing and extroverted, who uses her natural charms and graces to advance the affairs of her father and her House. Due to her father's long absences, she is the face of House Royce in the Vale of Arryn, and is known for being a popular and promising young socialite. However, despite the glaring differences she does share her father's sense of duty and personal virtue. She recently entered into a betrothal with Victor Tully.

## Appearance and Character

Bethany Royce is a young and bright woman, considered attractive by many, with dark brown almost black hair, more close to her mother's hair than to her father's, and brown eyes more like her father's. She has a slender figure like her mother, standing at roughly fiver foot five. She has a taste for is often seen with a smile on her face, and is known to have a bright and cheery disposition.

Unlike her father, who is extremely introverted and melancholic, Bethany is a sanguine, and very extroverted, enjoys the company of others. Friendly, outgoing, and gregarious, she is good at conversation and making friends. She is funny and witty and charismatic. She is good at establishing relationships and networks and getting contacts. She is quick and clever, but not exceptionally strong or athletic. In addition, her sanguine temperament can cause her to be frivolous or forgetful of duties, and sometimes she has trouble focusing on what is important. However, although she differs in many ways from her father, she follows her father's moral code and sense of duty, and uses her temperament to work towards the her duty to House Royce.

## History

### Early Life

Bethany Royce was born the eighth of ten children and third born daughter of Gerold Royce and Perianne Arryn. At the time of her birth, she was the sixth child and second daughter, as her oldest sister Perianne died in an accident in 104 and her older brother Osmund died shortly after his birth. She was named after Bethany Royce, her cousin who had died at a young age, who in turn was named after Bethany Manderly, Lord Gerold's grandmother. She was born in King's Landing while her father was a Lord Justiciar in the Red Keep, another addition to the growing Royce family. At the time of her birth, she was never expected to succeed her father, given the fact that she had four healthy older brothers and an older sister.

She was a healthy girl, but was known for screaming loudly to get what she wanted. As she grew she became a bright young child, and was known for enjoying to spend time with her siblings and other children around the Red Keep, but was known for also being loud and boisterous. Despite her mother's insistence on her remaining the proper tranquility and manners of a lady, Bethany was a very willful and autonomous child.

Growing up in the Red Keep meant that she up in the heart of the Seven Kingdoms, around the royal court and especially the Justiciars in the Father's Bastion, but most of her time was spent with either her siblings or other children of nobility living in the Keep. Her father always took time to spend to help teach her lessons about the history and law and her mother took care to oversee her education as a lady. So she was happy for the first years of her life, and became known for cheerful and boisterous disposition. During this time, she came to know Aerys Tully and his sister Aelinor through her older siblings, although she was very young when Aerys left King's Landing.

### Family Tragedy

In the worsening of winter in the year 115, when Bethany was six years old, her mother and her five living older siblings returning to Runestone, leaving her with her father and two younger sisters, who were considered too young to travel. She waited for the day when she could finally visit her family's home, which she could not remember, having all her memories of King's Landing. But her older siblings never returned. Bethany found her father and his squire, her cousin Rodrik Arryn, in his solar one night, with her father bitterly weeping. He embraced Bethany and told her that her mother and her siblings had died in a sudden illness, all except for Robin, who had survived but was severely weakened by the experience. She began crying as well, only just then beginning to realize the loss which had just occured.

Having never seen her father cry, she was shocked and perturbed. She felt the loss as well, more acutely than her younger sisters- Myranda was too young to know, and Zhoe was confused, and afterwards kept asking when her mother would return home. But Bethany knew, even though she could not understand it fully. In order to cope with the loss, she turned to her friends, trying to get rid of her grief by the pursuit of other activities. However, she was unable to shake the grief from her, and so once her father returned from his retreat, she found that he was always willing to take time from his work to talk to her about it, although he never made a show of it. She and her other sisters became extremely close to their father after the tragedy, though she was never as close as the younger two. She had her own friends and relations to attend to, and soon returned to a normal life, as most normal as what she could get.

### Youth in the Red Keep

Bethany continued to grow, and received a good quality education in how to be a lady from a septa hired for the Royce girls by her father. However, Lord Gerold took care to make sure he gave lessons to Lady Bethany, now the future of the House, in how to rule well and how to rule justly. Despite her independent streak and oftentimes lack of caring for her studies and duties, her father treated her seriously and was willing to listen to what she had to say. He recognized that she was a different temperament than he was, so he was always very accommodating. So over time she gradually learned to accept and to heed her father's special lessons, and came to a firm belief in his moral code. He also became an outlet for, an avenue she could speak about anything to and confide in, and became her rock as she grew up.

She made friends with other children in the Red Keep, especially Visenya Targaryen, but most often spending time with her sisters or with her cousin Rodrik Arryn, and the two became good friends. As she grew older, she began to frequent life at the Court more, learning social graces, experience the high life of King's Landing- all from appropriate distances and with the proper courtesies of a young lady at court. In this regard her natural outgoing nature aided her, for she proved proficient at the beginnings of social interaction. In addition, as the now heiress of Runestone, one of the Vale's most important Houses, she became a valuable prize for some in the Court. Whereas Gerold was never one for court affairs and focused on his duty in attending to the Justiciars, the young Bethany was a public face for House Royce in the lower ends of the Royal Court.

### To Runestone

After spending nearly all her life in King's Landing, on her fourteenth nameday in 523 she and her father sat down and had a discussion. Lord Gerold had lived in King's Landing for two decades, and his seat in Runestone was currently managed by a cousin. She had proven to him that she was capable of handling herself. He believed the time was right for her to return to the Vale and to Runestone, and to take her place as his heir, and so that she could learn to manage on her own, in case something were to happen with him. She agreed, and on a special promise to her father, declared that she would not have any relations with a man and bring disgrace to the House before a proper marriage was arranged. She then left King's Landing for Runestone, beginning the next chapter of her life.

When she arrived at Runestone, she found that despite many of the smallfolk loving Lord Gerold, they were dismayed that their Lord had abandoned them to live down in the South. Runestone was fairing well, but not prospering. She immediately began making connections, and visiting both the castle residents and the smallfolk of Runestone personally, getting to know them and slowly reestablish her houses's good name. She left most of the administrative affairs at first to the Castellan, slowly taking on more as time went on, but immediately she first built up a social network to meet her ends. In addition, frequented social events in the Vale, getting to know her fellow nobility and her lieges, the Arryns. Knowing Rodrik already helped her make her way into the upper social spheres of the Vale.

After establishing herself in the Vale, she began to travel around the Vale, meeting various Lords and Ladies and attempting to make the necessary connections. She traveled to Maidenpool in 125, and after spending some time there she decided to travel to Riverrun and Fairmarket to visit Lord Aerys, whom she had met in King's Landing years prior. She enjoyed spending time with the Tullys, and came back to visit several times after. Although Aerys took a bit of getting used too, he soon warmed up to an old friend returning after a few visits. In addition, she enjoyed spending time with Victor Tully, Lord Aerys' cousin, who had a kind personality and enjoyed building things, which also inspired her partially to come back. Over the years the relationship between the two began to blossom, but remained friendly and chaste.

### Mistress of Runestone

Over the years, Bethany became the face of House Royce in the Vale, which had been left vacant for nearly 20 years after Lord Gerold went to King's Landing. However, as heiress to one of the most powerful Houses of the Vale, she was not without suitors. However, she used her social ability to try and maneuver around suitors, but sometimes had to outright avoid some, especially those who tried to seduce her and to manipulate her. She remained true to the promise she made to her father, and openly follows his moral code. In 129, after getting her father's permission, she became betrothed to Victor Tully after speaking with Aerys Tully. The two were set to be married in early 130, but the death of the King put a delay on their plans.

Over the seven years she has been in the Vale, she has adjusted into her role as the Mistress of Runestone, ruling in the place of her father. She has gradually taken more and more administrative affairs into her hands, but is also unafraid to delegate things if they are beyond her or are suited to other tasks. She deals best with social affairs and interpersonal politics, and so that is what she focuses on, using her talents at speaking and making friends as a method of doing her duty to her house, a value which was ingrained by her father in her. With the death of King Viserys in late 129, she no doubt will be heading with the Vale party back to King's Landing, back to her home to reunite with her father, and to see how she can work the situation towards the advantage of House Royce.

## Family

WIP. See Gerold Royce for the most current family list.

## Household

As the current heiress of Runestone and manager of affairs at Runestone, these are the members of the Household of Lady **Bethany Royce**:

* Ser Yohn Royce, Castellan of Runestones. Born 75 AC.
* Ser Vayon Reed, born 69 AC. Seneschal of Runestone.
* Ser Gyles Royce, born 93 AC. Captain of the Guards of Runestone.
* Maester Godric, Maester of Runestone. Born 88 AC.

## Meta Character Details

**Attribute**: Gregarious

 **SKILLS** | Silver Tongue
Entertainment
Networking