Raya Reed

The Greywater Witch

 Raya Ill-Omen

**Raya Reed** is the younger sister of Theo Reed, Lord of Greywater Watch. Naturally nimble and fleet of foot, she is capable of moving at great speeds without making a sound.

Raya has green dreams of what is to come: births, betrothals, marriages, deaths, and much more, Raya has seen and will continue to see it all.

## Appearance

Relatively short for her age, like most of the Crannogfolk, Raya is best described as a mix of slim and sinewy, with a wiry, toned form. Raya has green eyes and long, dark brown hair that falls to the small of her back, just below the shoulder blades, arranged so that the tied locks at the rear of her skull overlap with the rest of her unbound mane. Her skin is pale and lightly weathered due to having spent pretty much the entirety of her life in the marshlands, while her hands have been described as not those of a lady, but of a huntress.

Raya Reed is possessed of a fine jawline, minorly clefted chin, slightly pouty lips upon a small mouth, delicate cheekbones, a button nose, soulful eyes, thin if arched eyebrows, a smooth forehead, and remarkable ears. Raya is comely in a peculiar, idiosyncratic sort of way. Her lack of interest in her own appearance leads her to commonly look rough and unkempt.

Her face has been marred by a long vertical slashing scar, going over the left eyebrow, completely missing the mouth and ending off right at the jawline.

## Biography

### Backstory

The second and last child as well as only daughter of Walton Reed and Alys Reed (nee Tallhart), Raya was raised more by her brother than her parents, both of whom died when she was still a child. A few years after her mother's drowning, Raya's father died on Brandon Stark's four-and-twentieth nameday in 136 AC. Her brother, Theo, became the new Lord of Greywater Watch and liege of the crannogmen at the age of ten. With her parents long dead, Raya's recollection of them leaves her a little more with each year.

#### Greensight

She was five years old and deep in the midst of sleep when suddenly, things seemed to shift and change within her subconscious. She saw a small Bullmoose, strong and quick and proud, cantering at a breakneck speed, movements quickened not by fear, but by exhilaration. The ground suddenly ended off in a cliff and the Bullmoose tumbled down into the inscrutable darkness below. Three weeks later, news reached Greywater Watch that Colen Hornwood had lost his grip while climbing and fallen, breaking his back and shattering his skull.

Ships aflame and men screaming as a dragon roared triumphantly, a pack of bears disappearing one after the other until only a few young cubs remained, a quill burning to ashes under the ferocious sun only for a new quill to take its place, a rose being trampled by the hoof of a horse - all but a small taste of the countless things she's perceived.

#### Education

Between her love of nature and growing sense of wanderlust, Raya soon took to wandering the Neck, becoming older with age. At her brother's insistence (as well as her own), she was soon instructed in the ways of the crannogmen: swimming, fishing, fieldcraft, the brewing and application of both poisons and medicine, where and how to hunt what and when. This was taught to her as well as an education, including reading, writing, mathematics, and history.

With skill came a certain degree of confidence, culminating in hunts for even more dangerous and vicious game; What began with frogs, turtles, and fish eventually graduated to venomous snakes and lizard-lions. Compared to wild creatures, humans were something of a rarity on the paths she would take, but that's not to say she didn't have her fair share of encounters. They are even some, she is sorry to say, which ultimately ended in violence.

At the age of five-and-ten, Raya came across a pair of poachers a few miles from Greywater Watch. While she originally planned to leave them be, the duo had other plans, fearing a witness might result in punishment later on. After a protracted and brutal struggle, she managed to kill them both, but not before one of them gifted her with the large scar present upon her face.

#### Betrothals

Her brother soon honoured a marriage pact with House Karstark, made not long before Walton's death. With the death of Arra Karstark shortly before the wedding was to take place, the Karstarks had no choice but to replace her with her older sister, Berena. Three children later, Raya is no longer the heir to Greywater Watch, much to her content. Soon after the birth of her youngest nephew, Edwyle, it was decided Raya was to wed as well.

Starting in 148 AC and ending in 150 AC, Raya had precisely two suitors of particular importance: the first was Edrick Whitehill who, while pleasant enough, soon ran away to Essos with his best friend (and lover) - something that Theo Reed found solace in upon watching Dorren Whitehill stammer and try to explain. The second failed betrothal and the more infamous one ended with the death of Raya's second possible husband, Barick Dustin.

Raya has since become one of the most controversial figures living in the North, with dozens (if not hundreds) more rumours attaching to her name with each passing year. According to a more popular one, she is said to have cast a dark curse upon Barick Dustin and caused his death. Before that, she's also believed to have altered Edrick Whitehill's mind, which is what caused him to run off with another man and forsake his right to Highpoint.

## Personality

> "*She was a queer creature: she had once written a hundred-page manuscript on the many reasons why she disliked aubergines and then, upon finishing the last word, poured salt upon the ink and then promptly hurled the manuscript out of the window and into the marshland below.*"
>
>

From childhood, Raya has always wanted to be of service to others, assisting them in whatever way she can. To that end, she considers her greensight to be a great responsibility, one that she must use for the betterment of others rather than to their detriment whenever possible. Raya has a unique strength in that she is capable of glimpsing the future. Having lived her live constantly envisioning significant events and the many ways they can play out for those around her.

Raya has a certain degree of insight into the planet she lives on and the various people who populate it. Though she has never gone far from the Neck, there is a certain degree of worldliness to her, a sagacity which normally would've been expected from one much more well-travelled than she. Yet, sometimes when she speaks, there is a wisdom to her words which cannot be doubted, much less argued with.

Crannogmen have always been thought of kind of weird by the reckoning of 'simple folk', but Raya is typically so straight-up outrageous, it defies explanation in its absurdity. Raya's greensight is only one small facet of her consistently strange behaviour: She favours lying flat on the ground for the better part of an hour so that she can 'commune with the bog', occasionally rambling for over five minutes to the nearest hapless guardsman in a strange accent. and sometimes using her dagger to stick an ear of corn to the ceiling. All of this done for no conceivable reason, or at least ones that only really make sense to her. Though some believe her to be strange, many find her proclivities to be charming and humorous, serving to make her quite endearing to other people.

However, Raya isn't exactly the most popular person in the North, owed largely to the strange fates which befell her past potential suitors. These and more such events happening in such close proximity to her has led many to believe she's the root cause of numerous misfortunes and tragedies which have plagued certain denizens of the North as of late. Because of this, she tends to be treated with distrust or suspicion, and her presence or even the mere mention of her name is considered to be an ominous portent. While she is treated quite well within the crannog, she is shunned even by other Northerners as a result of their fearful ignorance, believing themselves to be safe only so long as they get as far away from her as they possibly can.

As a person, Raya is known for her unpredictability. Prone to bouts of impulsiveness, Raya is a truly fascinating case of just how incredibly the human mind can work. A nimble one for sure, Raya has always displayed exceptional athleticism. She's extremely quick on her feet, easily capable of outrunning those of a greater size, and also moves quite lightly too, so much so that she rarely makes a sound. She also has superb hand-eye coordination and incredibly quick reflexes.

Being a crannogman by itself means people tend to look down on her as a matter of principal, but combined with her green dreams and outlandish nature, it's really something of a surprise she isn't disdained more. Try as she might, Raya will likely never be welcomed amongst greater society in Westeros, but she can take comfort in the fact that whatever might happen, she'll always know where she and they stand.