Stell Shadowcat

**Stell Shadowcat**, also known as Lady Barbrey Umber, is the adopted daughter of Bloody Salla, and a member of the Nightrunner Clan.

## Appearance

Stell has long brown hair, and dark eyes. She is extremely tall for a woman much like her Umber kin, with fair but scarred skin, and a lean figure. She often wears seal skins, roughspun wool, some pieces of leather armour, and shadowcat furs.

## Biography

Stell was born Barbrey Umber, trueborn daughter of Lord Styr Umber and his wife Alys, in 344AC. The elder sister of four brothers, Barbrey was instilled with a sense of duty and responsibility. With those duties, she grew into a severe child with a formidable protective instinct. Though she held little love for her mother, a woman of strict morals, she admired her father to the point of idolization.

In 353AC, in the midst of a particularly painful winter, a band of wildlings raided Last Hearth. After setting a forest in the north aflame, distracting the garrison kept by Lord Styr, the wildlings were easily able to storm the township. Barbrey took responsibility for her brothers, and for a long night hid with Jon, Rickard, Godric, and Benjen in the cellars of the Great Hearth. The fighting raged outside, and though Lord Styr and his wife were spared from a mortal end, Last Hearth was left almost bereft of food and steel. By the time the children were discovered in the last hold of the Hearth, Barbrey knew little of the damage done to her home, and blindly attacked her would-be murderers.

With a dagger and axe in hand, her untrained skill caused little more than a grievous scar across the face of Arrold Shieldbreaker, the leader of the band. Arrold had not only taken all the supplies that would last the people of the Umber lands through the winter; he was also the new owner of Giants Hammer, House Umber’s ancestral longsword, and Cleaver, its matching greatsword. With his spearwife Salla and their numbers, they left with grain, coin, steel, furs, and plate. Barbrey was taken as plunder, as Arrold not only liked her spirit and courage, but desired a noble child of his own to raise as he saw fit. She has not seen her family since, and knows nothing of their fate following those days.

The wildlings left Seal Shore at night aboard a crudely wrought longboat, oars padded by dense furs, with the Northern girl gagged into silence. She began to learn that night what it meant to be a member of the Free Folk when Salla, the spearwife and truer leader of the Nightrunners, had Arrold thrown into the freezing depths of Seal Bay. It was said a deal between the once-lovers had gone sour, and knowing she would soon be replaced by one of Arrold’s other women, Bloody Salla ran a coup even the Shieldbreaker himself would never have predicted.

Barbrey was taken in as one of Bloody Salla’s own, dubbed Stell instead of her kneeler name, and at the young age of nine was expected to pick up the sword and spear like any other wildling woman. For many years she served as Salla’s second in return for her protection, and by the time Stell was strong enough to defend herself, she followed Salla out of obligation and admiration instead. She adapted quickly to their ways, for though it was never made explicit, not adapting meant death Beyond the Wall. Her body, once so used to the good nutrition afforded to nobility, quickly lost all roundness as her diet changed to little more than fish, seal, and occasionally, venison. Her mind, so set in the ways her family had dictated to be right for a young noble girl, was malleable in Salla’s hands. Her protective instinct and desire to fulfil her duty yielded Stell into a strong leader, while her wildling upbringing raised a new and dangerous distaste for anyone who would harm her people, including members of the Night’s Watch. She was to be Bloody Salla’s weapon against the people who had so long subjected the Free Folk to lives of pain and hardship, and was raised, essentially, as one of her daughters.

And Salla had many. Unlike Stell’s her home at Last Hearth, in the constant company of her male relatives, Bloody Salla provided five daughters of her own blood, fathered by Arrold Shieldbreaker and other men. With them she found her first examples of healthy female relationships, and in time was considered a sister among them just the same. Stell grew fond of her sisters, and with them shared everything.

In 369AC, a notable change had begun Beyond the Wall. Women, mothers, daughters, wives, and crones had been disappearing. The rumours of the Others spread among the lesser educated, and even near on two decades living as a member of the Free Folk had not wavered Stell’s unshakeable disbelief in snarks and grumpkins. Men of other clans and tribes insisted they had been spirited away in the night, or run away to answer the Night’s King’s call for his bride; the other women knew that the enemy was nothing so fantastical, but that men of the Night’s Watch had taken to breaking their vows. Regularly, it was said, and without care for force.

The families of the Nightrunner clan quickly rescinded as far from the Wall as feuds and summer’s defrosting allowed. Their efforts were useless in 371AC, when Sera, Salla’s eldest and most beautiful daughter, was taken in the night. Weakened by raiding, feuds, and sadness surrounding Sera’s disappearance, the Nightrunners have returned to their home in Storrold’s Point, lead by a different person than Stell ever remembered Bloody Salla to be.

## Timeline

* 344AC: Barbrey Umber is born in Last Hearth
* 353AC: Last Hearth is raided by wildlings, who kidnap Barbrey. She is taken Beyond the Wall and raised Free Folk
* 363AC: Stell is stolen by Uther, a man of the Hornfoot Clan. She kills him in his attempt. Months later, she is stolen again by Torrick, and takes him as her lover.
* 365AC: Stell defends the Nightrunner clan from a pride of Shadowcats while many of the warriors are fighting Hornfoot men for land. She kills enough to scare the rest away, but earns a grievous wound on her back for her efforts. She wears a pelt of their fur, and from that day on is known as Shadowcat.
* 369AC: Women are being kidnapped from Beyond the Wall; the Nightrunner clan moves north, away from the Night's Watch.
* 371AC: Stell's sister Sera is taken by men of the Night's Watch. The Nightrunners return to Storrold's Point.

## Family

Lord Styr Umber (b. 325AC,), and his wife, Lady Alys Lake (b. 324AC)

* Barbrey Umber, aka. Stell Shadowcat (b. 344AC)
* Jon Umber (b. 347AC)
* Rickard Umber (b. 348AC)
* Godric Umber (b. 348AC)
* Benjen Umber (b. 350AC)