Mordred Whitehill

## The Faithful Whitehill

Benjen Whitehill

## **Biography**

### **Childhood**

Mordred was born the firstborn son of Lord Bran Whitehill, the Pious Preacher Lord Whitehill, Bran was an excessively devout young man who wrote weekly to the High Septon, and would seek prayer often with his local Septon. Now to say he tried to impart these values on his firstborn son would be an understatement, Mordred grew up in the echo chamber of the Unionist Seven, the furthest beacon of the Faith deep in the North and before traveling with his father he did firmly believe in the zealous nature of his father.

This all changed in 281 AA, the young Mordred was now being taken on his father’s pious journeys to spread the faith and he started to see more of the North every day, he grew comfortable with the unease of the Dreadfort and the concept of loyalty was imbued early with the boy.

From there it was a journey to House Karstark’s lands. Lord Bran was not well received and spent little time here, he spoke with a few village elders on matters of faith and if he had made any progress very few would dare to admit it, as in Karstark lands as much of the North devotion to the Old Gods was ingrained deeply, he had a few orphans consider it, but the seeds of faith would not prosper in them after Bran left. It was watching his father’s constant uphill battle that started to plant doubt in Mordred’s mind that his father’s efforts would be well rewarded, perhaps it truly was a waste of time.

Mordred was a sharp minded boy and was able to read well before he do many other things, his father made sure he read scriptures on the faith, but Mordred grew bored with them, they were all very dully written he found, it was on the early days of his travels with his father that he was able to find other written works to read, he also grew to enjoy listening to the oral traditions of the North and he learnt much of the Wall, House Stark and the tales of Long Night.

From Karstark Land he made his way up to the land of Umbers at Last Hearth and it was here that Bran had family, Mordred’s aunt, Bran’s little sister was the Lady Umber and they were received as honorable guests, now while Bran was a preacher and a man to take opportunity to speak on the faith, the Lord Umber was open to his talk, even if he did not agree, and the two were fast friends, Bran respected the Old Gods while offering his views, they shared many drinks and to the surprise of the two they had one famous spar, where the might of the Old Gods stood with Umber in his giant’s might, while Bran was a true Knight with skill and discipline fueled by his sacred faith. They had a friendly spar which was a symbolic duel of the faiths, and it was the skill of a true knight that allowed Bran to best the giant, the Lord Umber would never admit it to Bran but he let him win, his wife Jane Umber nee Whitehill would have never forgiven him for smacking her brother around like that, so he threw the match to indulge the prideful Whitehill.

It was here Mordred saw the first instance of Wildlings and the damage that they could do, he saw a group of them launch a raid and his father alongside the Umber host march out and smite a group of Wildling raiders in the field, it was a bloody day and it was the first time that Mordred ever say people he knew not return alive at the end of the day. It gave the boy an instant dislike for Wildlings as he could see them for the barbaric savages they were.

It was 284 AA by the time that Lord Bran had made his trip back to High Point and spent a moon with his wife, and got to meet his newest child, Arya Whitehill, he spent time with his lovely Wull Wife and then they were off to White Harbor to spend time in a fellow place of faith, and then make the voyage to Skagos to preach the faith of the seven, for all it was worth Bran was lucky and was given guest right, he spent some time on Skagos and to the surprise of many a Magnar boy came with him into exile for the crime of adopting the faith of the seven, as well as a small group of common folk that numbred three.

### **Young Adulthood**

It was in in 287 AA that Mordred was finally free of his father’s zeal, from here he was sent to be a squire for Lord Wyman Manderly, it was here that the young Mordred developed a keen sense of reading and writing \*\*Scribe\*\*, he loved the urban nature of White Harbor and it was studying under House Manderly that he learned to love engineering as well and had access to the finest levels of education. \*\*Engineering\*\*  He was a fine young Knight and built a friendship with House Manderly. Wyman imparted a good set of values and balance between the Old Ways and the New.

It was in this time that he grew to fancy the Lord Manderly’s youngest daughter Serra Manderly. They grew fond of each other and were both witty and intellectual young people. He was knighted in the year 296 AA and came home to find the Northern Civil war starting to escalate, Bran aligned himself with the Lord Bolton firmly but as of the start of 298 AA, he finally passed in a mysterious accident

## Family Tree

Bran Whitehill: Father (250-298)

Marna Whitehill: Mother (257)