Dunstan Belmore

Ser Dunstan Belmore, Knight of the Bloody Gate, Keeper of the Vale, Shield of the People, The Bloody Bell

## Appearance and Character

Appearance

Unlike his brothers, the giant and gaunt Horton and the short, ugly Benedict, Dunstan was of a more normal size. Not particularly short or tall, Dunstan stood just below six feet tall. He did not weigh so much as Benedict and was not so skinny as Horton. He had muscle, but no overabundance of it. Only one extraordinary thing could be said of Dunstan Belmore; he was the best looking of the three. Piercing blue eyes, like an ocean at its most calm. Red hair shorn short and a clean shaven face. He possessing a strong jaw, many a maid having fallen for his strong features.

Character

Chivalry comes easy to Ser Dunstan, a fact of life rather than a code to be lived by or not. Though women come easy to him, he is not typically one for carnal pleasures. His one true love always remains to be his sword. He lives for his liege, having spent the majority of the War for the Mountain of the Moon by Lord Gunthor's side. He loves the Seven, a devout follower of the Warrior. Almost as important to him as loyalty to his liege is the love he bears his two surviving siblings. He is hardly seen outside of his armor, a dark steel with golden bells clasping his purple cloak. A single purple feather flows from his great helm.

## History

Childhood

He was born the sixth child and third boy of Lord Andar Belmore and Lady Isabella Egen. His early days were of little interest, he was a robust infant and a wild youth. With other boys in the castle; grooms, scullions, rat catchers, Dunstan would often sneak out of the castle. Climbing over the curtain walls of Strongsong, Dunstan's retinue of friends would adventure all over the holdings. Lakes, villages, mountain fasts, no villager was safe from the antics of Ser Dunstan.

It wasn't until his eldest brother's return to court and his subsequent start as a squire that Dunstan became enamored with the sword. All his wildness left him the first time Horton placed the blunted training sword in his hand. He was always the first in the yard, bashing at the boys from House Renwick, Donniger, and Egen that inhabited Strongsong in those days. His martial prowess blossomed into something that his enemies would learn to fear. He would be too young to follow his brothers in their initial foray against the Crowned Men. He would make up for it in the wars to come.

War

Dunstan was only 15 when the fires of war began to sweep across the Vale. Lord Andar was too old to ride forth to answer his liege's call, so instead he sent forth his three sons with the majority of his strength. The three sons, known to the commons as The Three Bells, rode forth and joined their strength with the Arryn host. Dunstan, being the youngest and deadliest with a blade, took up a place amongst Lord Gunthor Arryn's sworn swords. He would spend most of the war by his leige's side, a steel shield at his back.

Present at the Red Parlay, Dunstan drew swords against half a dozen clansmen in defense of his liege. The Red Parlay was the most dishonorable thing Dunstan would ever be a part of, sticking to him as a stain. Gunthor Arryn would knight him for his bravery in the face of the savages. Dunstan was also a part of the Belmore forces during the Slaughter of the Villages. He did not partake in the rape and plunder that followed these battles, woman were not treasures of war to Ser Dunstan. His honor bound him to the orders of his lord, but he took no pleasure in killing. Swordplay was nothing but a means to an end, a means he would master.

The Struggle for Strongsong happened to be the hardest trial Ser Dunstan Belmore would ever face. His father, mother, and sisters would all perish in the initial sack of the castle. All the boys he had befriended in his youth would be put to the sword and many of the young maidens he had once stumbled out of his breeches with were raped and hung. The Strongsong Ser Dunstan eventually returned to, army at his back, would be vastly different than the one he had known from his youth. He would fight with the strength of grief and rage flowing through his veins, cleaving men nigh in two in his fury. He would be found after the battle in his father's solar, naked to the waist and drenched in the blood of his foes. He spoke only one command, a bath to be drawn.

Knight of the Bloody Gate

Upon the stepping down by the previous Knight of the Bloody Gate due to old age, Ser Dunstan Belmore was chosen to be the guardian of the Vale. On that day he took a new sigil for his own, a purple bell behind a golden gate on a silver field. His actions during the Struggle for Strongsong as well as his appointment at the command of the Bloody Gate earned him the name The Bloody Bell among the few common folk that inhabited his castle. He swore his sword at Lord Gunthor's feet, pledging to defend the Vale against all enemies until his last breath.

## Family Tree

http://www.familyecho.com/?p=NQTX0&c=kccq5gsp90&f=413414905169152763