Theodan Stark

Bowen Stark

Raya Stark

Ethan Stark

Gwynesse Stark

**King Theodan Stark** is the second son and thirdborn child of King Alaric I Stark and Serena Dustin's marriage. He was crowned the King of Winter after the Tourney at White Harbor in 98 AC.

## Appearance and Characteristics

Theodan looks much like his father, and is thus a typical Stark. He has a long face, dark hair, and grey eyes. He is much more traditional than his siblings, and has a very strict isolationist stance. He supports trade with other kingdoms, but does not support heavy diplomatic relations.

He usually wears heavy fur as the North has been quite cold since the Winter of a Hundred Kings. However on warm days he wears simple black leathers.

He's kind to those who deserve it, but those who deserved it, earned it. He has few who he would consider friends, but he holds them dear. His closest friend is his kinsman Brandon Stark, the two are near inseparable.

## History

One of Theodan's first memories was the night his brother Harlon died. It has stayed with him since. When he was but three years old, the prince was woken by his kinsman Jorah Ironsmith and taken to his father in the cold of the winter night. While he didn't understand what was happening until later in life, Theodan spent hours holding his brother's hand before realizing it was slowly turning cold. This day haunts him still.

But his childhood was happy, to say the least, while his true mother was never there, as she died giving birth to Ethan, Alaric loved his son. Personally training him in all matters of war, blade and coin. But it was quickly clear that Theodan had none of his father's talent for coin but more than made up for it with his skill with a blade. The Kingdom of Winter would know a warrior prince.

### Familial Enemies

If Theodan was to name a person he hated more than any other in the world it would be his father's second wife. Leyla Osgrey. The majority of his teen years were spent fighting her and her daughter instead of attending to princely duties. There reached a point where Alaric moved Theodan from the Great Keep to the tower. While the king thought this would be a punishment and would help the young prince cool his head it was more of a reprieve.

The boy of two and ten had his belongings hauled to the top of the tallest tower in Winterfell, where he has lived since. Rather than feeling punished, Theodan felt he was granted a fief of his own to rule.

### Eyes Opened

Prince Theodan's eyes didn't open until he was seven and ten. The dragonblight sealed the gates of Winterfell for nearly an entire year. The Prince of Winter spent his days atop the tower, looking below at the sick and dying, wishing he could be riding and hunting in the wolfswood. It was around this time that Theodan's dreams became more realistic. He began to dream he was walking through the streets, much shorter than he was during his waking hours. He found himself moving through Winterfell, when he walked past the kennel he heard howling. Looking down, he saw not his legs, but those of a dog, shaggy and long hair was matted against the unfamiliar legs, and Theodan Stark's prayers were answered by the Old Gods. He was given the ability to travel while locked within the castle walls.

Most nights he spent within the dog's body, running around the castle grounds, avoiding the kennel master when he chased him and attempted to cage him like the rest of the hounds. By the time that the plague passed, Theodan spent most of his time inside the stray. Yet, suddenly one day he could no longer enter the mind of the hound. When the sickness finally passed and he spent more time in the castle grounds, Theodan was sad to find the hound had passed from the blight.

### Wolfswood Ravagers

Shortly after the plague abated, it didn't take long before troubles arose once more in the North.
92 AC, the plague had finally ceased its rampage and disappeared from the Kingdom of Winter, but the north still had to deal with the lingering death and destruction the blight left behind. Nearly every House and holdfast across the kingdom found itself crippled by the blight, lacking in both manpower and the food to help their people start their lives anew. The times were still looking bright, however, as those who could work did, and in the months to follow the end of the blight, the typical mood across the North was one of perseverance and overall optimism.

Unfortunately, not everyone in the North would put their effort to restore the kingdom. A man by the name of Malmur Stane felt the cause of the North’s suffering started when the northmen abandoned the old ways of worshiping the Old Gods by giving the divine the human sacrifice they need.

In the waning months of 92 AC, Malmur Stane travelled from the Isle of Skagos to the Wolfswood, gathering a small band of followers who felt similar to the Skaggosi. If the Starks wouldn’t follow the Old Gods the proper way, they would and they would save the North from themselves.

Malmur’s group swelled to a solid group of some 50 to 60 followers while in the Wolfswood. The local lords in the area began getting horrific reports from their peasants of kidnappings happening at all hours of the day and night and finding strange totems with disgusting and terrible shrines with human remains and body parts like some kind of nightmare horror story mothers used to scare their kids. News of these events spread across the Wolfswood as fast as voice could travel and before long House Glover was forced to action. Lord Glover wrote to King Alaric and other Lords of the North but found himself alone in his fight against this fanatical group: the other Lords simply couldn’t spare the men to fight another battle.

Widespread panic began spreading across the region beyond the Wolfswood. Malmur’s group never stayed in any one spot for long, evading the Glover’s attempt to detain the group and before long the common people began spreading rumors that the fanatics numbered in the hundreds.

The Starks were finally stirred to action when Torrhen Snow, the Winter’s Shepherd, dies in the Wolfswood when the fanatics ambush and kill the religious leader as the man tried to pass along each village to calm the people’s spirits. Torrhen was horribly mutilated and Malmur spread the former Winter’s Shepherd’s body parts across highly-visible areas, showing, in his mind, that his way is the correct way in the eyes of the Old Gods.

Theodan Stark called what men he could to Winterfell and he formed his own party in response, made up of a mixture of houses, most noticeably the Manderlys, Glovers, and Karstarks, with even the Lord Bolton himself joining the Prince of the North. The group totalled in 60 to 70 in manpower.

Determined to end this evil and allow the North to finally feel at peace, Theodan scoured the Wolfswood for weeks, only finding a few number of Malmur’s group at any one time. Frustration grew with each passing day as Theodan’s followers feared that Malmur had already moved on from the area and began terrorizing other regions of the North.

Thankfully, in the beginning months of 93 AC, Theodan finally caught wind of Malmur Stane himself in the woods just north of Winterfell. The Stark host crashed upon Malmur’s group and slaughtered nearly every last one of them to the man. Malmur’s fanatics were beyond fierce and loyal to the bone, but the group consisted of women and children, and none of them were skilled enough to match any of the Stark’s men in combat.

The only survivor of the fanatic group was Eyron Dustin, who was only spared by Theodan by the Prince’s familial ties. Malmur Stane’s neck met Ice, and finally, the terror was over. Any fanatic believer left around the countryside was easily round up and promptly executed. Finally, after what felt like ages of blight and death and terror, the North was at peace.

### The Ranging

In 97 AC, Theodan found himself a man grown, one with ambitions and desire to explore the world. As such, he along with many others travelled with the Night's Watch on a ranging beyond the wall, simply to gather numbers for the tribes that were moving around Castle Black's location. However, they were ambused along the way. Lost beyond the wall for a fortnight, the men of Theodan's party fought wildling ambushes for nearly the entire time. Beaten and battered, when the men returned they were rushed back to Winterfell to be healed by the Stark's Maester. Luckily for them, a young prodigy, Alyssa Bolton happened to be in Winterfell at the time and tended to their wounds, thus allowing them to heal much quicker.

## Recent Events

### The Grand Tournament of White Harbor

In the 7th month of 98 AC House Stark threw a grand tournamnet in White Harbor, hosted by House Manderly. Invitations were extended to the independent kingdoms of the Iron Islands and Dorne and many made the trip, including King Urragon Drumm himself. At the opening ceremony King Alaric Stark welcomed all in attendance with the announcement that he would abdicate the throne at the end of the tournament to his son, Theodan Stark, much to the surprise of everyone in attendance, including Theodan himself.
The tournament proceeded with many events, including a grand melee that was won by Torrhen Hornwood. Much feasting was had and many new bonds and friendships were created. At the closing feast King Alaric Stark abdicated as the King of Winter, with Theodan taking up his father's mantle.

### Blackvein

During the closing feast word reached White Harbor of pirates raiding on the coast of Karhold. Theodan called for a council to be held at Karhold to determine the North's best course of action and the Lords of the North ventured from White Harbor to Karhold. Theodan called upon Houses Manderly and Karstark to supply ships to hunt down the pirates and Houses Glover, Hornwood, Bolton, Manderly, and Umber to provide soldiers. The fleet departed Karhold early in the 8th month of 98 AC but was met with storms not long after leaving the harbor. The fleet arrived off the coast of Skagos battered and bruised, however the storm proved to be a blessing in disguise as the pirate fleet sheltered in that same harbor. The battle was quick and decisive with the North winning a naval victory under the leadership Warrick Manderly and then a fight on land under the leadership of Jon Bolton, leading to the capture of Blackvein.

## Family Tree

http://familyecho.com/?p=LUBDU&c=3xs4idjis&f=832251730505647389