Ayla Mormont

**Ayla Mormont**, is the eldest living child of Cregan and Lyanna Mormont, and Sworn Sword to House Stark.

## Appearance

Ayla Mormont is a gargantuan, broad-shoulderd woman of fair complexion with a head of fire-red hair. Sunken green eyes return your gaze from beneath a high forehead malformed with scars. The rest of her face also bears ghastly and repulsive scarring, destroying what little beauty it might have once displayed.

## History

Ayla Mormont was born the second child, and only daughter, to Cregan and Lyanna Mormont in 257. The birth was exceptionally hard on her mother, nearly killing her. The Maester of Bear Island, Maester Mace, made comment in his records that he had never delivered a child as large as her.

The young girl was large upon her birth, and grew even more over the following years. Cregan saw this as her being blessed by the Old Gods, and started teaching her their ways. Their mother, being concerned for Ayla, arranged for her to be taken on as a Ward by Harlon Stark, an offer too prestigious for Cregan to deny.

So by the time she was six, in 263 she was above the size of her older brother Jeor Mormont and shipped off to Winterfell.

This is where spent the next two years of her life. She did not stop growing there and, unfortunately, took poorly to her courtly lessons. She was always much more interested in watching the young Starks in their martial studies, in particular Benjen Stark, whom she started to develop a young girl's crush on.

Unfortunately for her, her awkward clumsiness and giganticness drew the cruel attention of two stark cousins, Eddarion and Edrick. The two would mercilessly taunt and tease the unwieldy young girl, to the point where she would often run to her room in tears.

This escalated, until the kids discovered her childish feelings for Benjen Stark. The pair then decided to play their best, and worst, prank on her yet. They tricked her into thinking that Benjen wanted to meet her in the woods at night. Naive young girl that was, she obliged and went into the woods, and promptly got lost.

It wasn’t long until she was noticed missing, the Stark cousins confessing what they had done, and Harlon organized a search for her, taking Benjen and a number of guards to find them. The pair found Ayla, unfortunately for her not before a giant of a wolf found her. The beast was on top of her, ripping and tearing and eating her face. Harlon and Benjen managed to drive off and kill the beast, returning Ayla to the Maester of Winterfell, who barely managed to save her life.

She spent the several moon turns in bed care of the Maester in Winterfell, highly suspected of not surviving. She did survive, mostly due to the strong constitution of her size, but did not heal well. Her face was left a ruined blasphemous crag of horrific unlovable disfigurement. When she was healthy enough to travel, she returned to Bear Island.

This sent her spiraling into horrific depression, which was not aided by most of her family. Her father insisted that this meant that she was marked by the Old Gods for great things. Her mother was distracted and bedridden by the disease that would claim her life later that year. Her younger brother was only a babe. The only support Ayla received in this time came from her older brother Jeor.

In her extreme depression, she shunned the teachings the court and her father tried to give her, shutting herself in her room and barely eating, only wandering around at night on lonesome treks, to avoid anyone seeing her horribly malformed face. One night, at the age of ten, on one of these wandering she came across her brother Jeor practicing his swordsmanship late into the night hours. She watched for a time, before he called her out and she joined him. Seeing how much this lifted her spirits, and how much of a natural she was at the art, this became a common occurrence for the pair nearly every night, meeting alone so she could hide her face from anyone that might mock her.

This continued until ten years ago, coming to and end with what became known as Durran’s Defiance. Jeor went off to the war with Harlon, leaving Ayla to continue to train alone, and continue to grow. She matured both physically and mentally, finally coming to terms with her disfigurement and no longer hiding in shame over it. She would, of course, feel pain whenever she noticed someone recoiling in horror or staring at her too long, but she learned to push it deep inside of her.

She reached over six feet when he returned for one day. There was a meeting between Jeor and their father Cregan, to which only Ayla was there besides the pair. The details of what happened in that meeting have never been shared, and Ayla has kept the silence since. But the results are indeed known, Jeor left Bear Island with Longclaw , and has not been back. Cregan would refuse to speak of Jeor after, and Ayla does not often bring her brother up in conversation.

Ayla continued to train and fight on the island, slowly developing a plan in her mind. In her twenty-first year alive,her father died and the Lordship of the island fell to her brother. After the rights were done and completed, she bid him farewell and left the island herself, presenting herself to Harlon Stark.

There on bent knee, in return for the life debt she owed to Harlon and Benjen for saving her from the accident that left her an atrociously malformed monster, she swore her sword to them as long as she lived. Since then, the two years before 280, she has lived in Winterfell.

Ayla participated in the Tournament for Daemon's crowning, where she fought well as the Mystery Knight known as the Knight of Snowflakes. As that persona she defeated many acclaimed fighters from the around the realm, but was eventually herself eliminted by a member of the King's Guard, Robin Roxton.

In King's Landing, Ayla took the opportunity to finally reveal her family's dark secret; her brother Jeor Mormont had tried to kill their father, but was banished after he was beaten back by Ayla, the rogue escaping with their family heirloom, Longclaw . She took this grievence to the King, who bade them fight a duel from which Ayla resoundingly won, reclaiming the honor of House Mormont alongside their ancestral blade.

Also at King's Landing, Ayla met ser Arthur Osgrey of the Kingsguard, and the pair had an extremely short night of romance, from which Ayla eventually gave birth to twins; Daemon and Darcey Snow. However, to maintain her reputation and preserve the safety of their father, the pair is being passed off as children of her younger brother Brandon Stark and a low-born woman who died in childbirth.

## Recent Events

280AC

- Fought in Great Melee

-Fought and won Trial By Combat against her brother, Jeor Mormont. Reclaimed stolen sword.

281AC

-Supported the new Lady of Winterfell, upon her father's death.

-Secretly retired to Bear Island to give birth to her children

## Timeline

* 257: Born
* 263: Sent to foster at Winterfell
* 265: Viciously mauled and disfigured by wolf.
* 266: Returns to Bear island. Mother dies.
* 267: Begins training with swords.
* 270: Jeor leaves Bear Island to fight for Harlon. Returns just one night, then leaves again.
* 278: Father dies, Ayla travels to Winterfell and becomes Sworn Sword to Harlon and Benjen.
* 280: Travels to KL with Harlon. Fights in Grand Melee. Fights and wins a Trial by Combat against her brother, Jeor.
* 281: Supports Lyanna upon her father's death. Gives birth to her two children

## Family

* Rodrick Mormont, Uncle
* Lord Cregan Mormont, Father
	+ Jeor Mormont, Brother
	+ Brandom Mormont, Brother

## Household

* Maester Mace
* Morgan, Pirate-turned-Sailor

* Ayla1
* Ayla2
* Ayla3
1/3