Brynden I Baratheon

Protector of the Realm

Lord of Casterly Rock

Shield of Lannisport

Merrianne Baratheon

Tommen Baratheon

Jeyne Baratheon

Robert Baratheon

**Brynden I Baratheon,** King of the Andals, the Rhoynar, and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm, is the current King upon the Golden Throne and the head of House Baratheon. He is the grandson of Tommen Baratheon and the son of Lyonel Baratheon. He has ruled since the death of his father in 368 AC. He is married to Maegelle Redwyne, and together they have four children.

## Appearance & Personality

Prior to coming to the Throne, Bryn was the sort of man who could make friends with anyone. With few formal responsibilities (the day to day ruling of the Ream fell to his father, and he had no territory of his own which he was to administer), he was free to spend his time however he pleased. He was known to travel extensively, using the wealth of Casterly Rock to perform acts of charity. Those issues he inadvertently inflamed by attempts to earn friends through his agreeable nature were swiftly dealt with by his father or his grandfather, both of whom were far sterner men.

Since he acceded the Throne two years ago, that affability has been stifled. His life has been torn between his person and his duties--what he must do, and what he wishes to do. There is no divorcing those two aspects of his being, no matter how much they might conflict. Stronger men often fault him for his hesitance to do things that are unpopular or immoral, but necessary, yet few accuse him of being ignorant of what it is to rule. He is intimately familiar with that burden.

He tends towards magnanimity and charity, though these usually earn him fewer friends than he would like. Perhaps these are traits that will mellow in time--after all, he has only been King for two years--but fewer people seem to believe that with each passing year.

He is prone to fits of melancholy, followed by bouts of extreme dedication to new hobbies and ambitions. Usually, he quickly abandons them after realizing they are more difficult than he first believed.

## History

Brynden was born seven months after the marriage of Prince Lyonel Baratheon and Celia Tully in Lannisport. He was a small, frail child, and when he first exited the birthing chamber, swaddled in red, gold, and black, it was to spirit him away to the small Sept in the Ringfort atop Casterly Rock for the Septon's blessing. The midwives and the Septas watched over him all night. Celia, always a religious woman, attributed him surviving the night to that blessing.

As days turned into weeks, and weeks into months, and Brynden grew hale and hearty, the Golden Court breathed a sigh of relief. The succession was secure.

Brynden did not want for much in his early life. More than being the eventual heir to the throne of Westeros, he had all the riches of Casterly Rock at his back. He learned from the best Maesters, tutors, and Septons money could buy. But all the riches in the world could not buy the boy's interest. Tutor after tutor struggled to earn his attention; he was always more interested in roaming the halls free than he was in sitting cooped up in a Maester's tower, pouring over dusty tomes.

For all the difficulty his tutors had in getting him to sit still, their task was still easier than that of the castle's master-at-arms. When it came time for the boy to pick up arms and learn the ways of the warrior, he did everything in his power to avoid the lessons. Funnily enough, that meant spending more time locked up with the Maester and his tutors. That, the young Prince thought, was the lesser of the two evils. While he did spend time in the yard, it was only enough to teach him the very basics. He remains a novice in swordplay to this day.

Brynden was able to get away with such poor behavior in large part due to his grandfather's fondness for him. While Lyonel was nominally responsible for the upbringing of his child, Tommen exerted a great deal of influence in the process. Where Lyonel tried to punish him for misbehavior, Tommen by and large tolerated it, believing that children would be children.

That changed when Tommen's health began to fail in his later years. By the time Brynden was thirteen, Tommen had ceded much of his formal power to his son, retreating from public life. Lyonel, always the strict disciplinarian, took advantage of this lapse in Tommen's attention to send Brynden away to squire for Lord Reynard Lefford, a renowned warrior known for his no-nonsense attitude.

If Brynden's relationship with Lyonel was poor, his relationship with Reynard managed to be even worse. He spent more hours polishing the Lord's armor or sharpening his sword than he did learning the way of the blade--Reynard's idea of building character and instilling discipline in the rebellious youth, breaking him down into a man fit to rule. Even through those indignities, Brynden persevered through five long years. He was sent away after his eighteenth nameday without receiving his spurs. No one is quite sure what finally led Reynard to give in, but gossip at court suggests that the speedy marriage of his eldest daughter to a weaker vassal house and the blonde-haired boy that emerged eight months later is to blame.

While Lyonel was disappointed that Brynden had failed to grow into the man he had wanted him to be, Tommen was happy to have his grandson back with him. He arranged for him to be knighted by the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, Ser Edmund Crane, in a lavish ceremony at the Sept of Lannisport. Brynden accepted, and thus became a knight.

Not a month after arriving, Brynden and his father found themselves at odds again. The details of the dispute are unknown, with the most extraordinary rumors claiming that the King tried to force his son and heir into taking the Black, but what is known is that Brynden announced his departure from Casterly Rock the very next day on the pretext of a Royal Tour. Brynden would not return to Casterly Rock for many years.

His first destination was the Upper Trident. He spent several months traveling through the smallest of the Kingdom's territories, where he stayed with his extended family in Riverrun. Most every court in the region hosted him for at least a night or two, and many of the smallfolk in the region fondly remember him for his magnanimous displays of charity. His visit also created a brief diplomatic crisis after he and a few dozen other knights steered too close to the border in pursuit of a group of outlaws. Fortunately, it did not amount to much.

Next came the Iron Islands. Maybe. Depends on when that Kingmaker Shindig was.