Lia Cole

Ser (self claimed)

Lieutenant of the Golden Company (formerly)

Cassella Celtigar

Lia Cole is the current Lady of House Cole and a Lieutenant in the Golden Company. She wields the Valyrian steel sword Loyalty in battle and is a fierce warrior.

## Appearance and Character

Long brown hair cascades from Lia's head, falling down her back and brushing against the armour and cloak she is not often seen without. Her face is thin and her jaw defined, every feature as sharp as a knight's lance. When armoured, she is nothing but fearsome. Even dressed in clothes considered more "womanly", Lia Cole has an aura of power about her. Standing at a firm six feet tall she is as tall as or taller than most men, something that, even when sword-to-sword with her, they struggle to comprehend.

## History

### Born Beneath the Gold

Lia Cole was born upon a ship in the latter moons of the three-hundred-and-fifty-ninth year after Aegon’s Conquest, to Quentyn Cole of the Golden Company and his wife Lynesse of House Peake. Her parents had met upon a ride through the Reach, and Quentyn’s valour and skill had made Lynesse fall for him, along with her existent desire to become reacquainted with her cousins in the Golden Company, the line of Laswell Peake. Together they had left the Reach as the War of White and Gold began and wandered the Stormlands for a short while, before setting out for Essos late in Lynesse’s pregnancy.

Her birth would mark Lia’s first journey across the Narrow Sea, but it would certainly not be her last. And yet for a long while she remained in Pentos under the care of her family and her mother, whilst her father went to war with the Golden Company. Under Prince Aelor and Princess Daena, Lord Quentyn gained great fame as a commander and a warrior. From the fields of Norvos to the walls of Volantis he fought, and upon his returns he was lauded by the Golden Company.

Every time her father returned, Lia asked him to train her to be like he was. Every time, he brushed her off. It would be her cousin Orys who became the next military man in House Cole, not her. She would learn with her mother and the tutors at court, and be a lady. If the Golden Company were to return to Westeros some day, her father said, she would have to learn how to act properly. Outwardly she seemed to accept that, and even enjoyed learning of the history of Westeros and its many wars and conflicts. And yet whenever she could, whenever her parents took their eyes off her she snuck out to the training yard with her elder cousin and trounced him cleanly. For years this cycle continued unbroken until she entered her early teenage years. Quentyn had been home for a while, and had found himself leaving *Loyalty* around out of his eyesight, as threats had receded. For Lia, this was an opportunity, and so in the dead of night her and Orys plotted to steal the bastard sword and train with it.

Their plan went off without a hitch, for a while. For both Lia and Orys, the sword was too heavy, and so they took turns trying to swing it at a training dummy with little success. It was when Orys dropped the sword with gusto that the plan fell apart entirely. Quentyn had been watching, and clouted his nephew upon the ear when he finally emerged from the shadows. As the elder of the two, Orys was berated furiously, and told he would never be a Lieutenant as long as he held any influence over the Company. Lia, as the younger, was not given as harsh a treatment. Whilst she received a single slap for her theft, she was given an offer to accompany him to the Queen’s war in Volantis.

Together at the head of a Golden Company contingent they joined up with their Queen and Princess, and Quentyn acted as both a tutor and a commander with great skill. For a man who had once simply wandered Westeros, he was wise and experienced, and Lia learnt a lot. And, when a Volantene general challenged him to a duel on the field of battle, he dispatched him with ease. Lia tried to emulate her father with mixed success, and trained with him when there was a lull in the war. As much as she had some skill in the courtly arts, with a sword in her hand she was a master. Even at such a young age, dressed only in leathers and mail, she took to the field of battle. Her first kill was at ten-and-five years old, a Volantene warrior with two swords and a death wish.

Soon enough that war was over, and the father and daughter returned to their homes in Pentos. Quentyn was glad to see a moment of peace. Lia desired more blood, more experience in war. And so she had to find what she wanted in the training yard where she could. Armoured from head to toe, Lia was indistinguishable from the men of the Golden Company in every way, except from the difference in skill.

Early in the three-hundred-and-seventy-eighth year after Aegon’s Conquest, Quentyn Cole tapped his Valyrian Steel sword upon his daughter’s shoulders and bid her rise Ser Lia Cole, with a smile.

## Reborn By Bitter Steel

Later that same year, the Golden Company set forth to war. Daena Targaryen was going to reclaim her family’s kingdom, and House Cole was going to ensure she was successful. Orys was to remain in Pentos and ensure the safety of their house’s assets, whilst Quentyn and Lia fought with their company in the west. Whilst Lia would be acting as a serjeant, her father would be commanding the Third Legion directly under Captain-General Qoherys and Queen Daena herself. At the Battle of the Arbor and the taking of the Hightower the father and daughter pair fought together, Quentyn wielding *Loyalty* and Lia her own greatsword. Though Her Grace and the Captain-General held full command, Quentyn was more than just a competent general. And yet when the time came for the first true battle of the war, he made a strange decision.

News reached the Golden Company of the Reach mustering an army at Brightwater Keep as expected, and Daena’s legions marched north to meet them. Yet Quentyn did not lead his Third Legion as expected, instead relinquishing command to his daughter and second-in-command along with his Valyrian Steel sword. What possessed Quentyn Cole to pick up a spear and join the vanguard is not known, but at Smithyton he found himself in the Company’s front lines.

As Lia’s forces held the left flank and pushed into the Reach’s unprotected side, Quentyn fought tooth and nail with the loyalists’ first charge. It was there he met Ser Garlan Tyrell of the White Rose Tyrells, cousin to the Lord of Highgarden. Equipped with a spear that he was skilled with, but certainly no master, the Lord of House Cole gave his all. Yet Garlan was the better warrior that day, and Quentyn Cole fell. The news only found its way to Lia as the Reach’s forces retreated, and she resented the fact that her father would not yet be avenged. She knew, however, that she could not wallow in her sorrow whilst war still raged, and so awaited further instruction from whoever was selected as the next Lieutenant of the Third. When said Lieutenant turned out to be Lia herself, she could not contain her shock. At first she asked Gaelon Qoherys whether his half-council had made a mistake. She was ordered to return to her legion and prepare for the march on Highgarden, and so she did.

For her first battle as true commander of the Third Legion, Highgarden was a trial by fire. Outnumbered by the White Rose’s forces and stuck outside of the ancient castle’s walls, the odds were against the Golden Company. Even at the siege of Volantis years before, Lia had not felt the fear that ran through her there. When Loras Tyrell’s scorpions let loose their bolts, she nearly ordered her section to retreat from the field, thinking it lost. And yet she stood strong, in her father’s honour, and watched as the great castle was enveloped by Drogon’s flame. Qoherys gave the order to charge and pick off what was left after the beast immolated the men of the Reach, and Lia was there on the front lines, cutting them down.

Copperstone burnt at the Golden Company’s hand and Drogon’s maw. At Crakehall they were driven back, and Lia’s legion was forced to fight off attacks from the Westerlands’ army as they retreated south of Silverhill. With the Queen’s support, the Battle of the Goldvein would have been simple if bloody. Without it, it was a fight that Lia knew they may not win. She met with Qoherys and the other commanders and expressed her discontent towards Daena’s abandonment of their forces, but spoke no further before the battle began. At that battle she watched many of her father’s trusted soldiers and serjeants fall at the hands of the Westerosi knights and men-at-arms. It should have been them who she grew angry at, but she could not help but think that Daena Targaryen’s presence was what killed them. When Drogon and his rider appeared once more after the Golden Company was forced to retreat and shattered the Westerlands’ host, that thought was all but confirmed.

And yet though she harboured great malice towards the Dragon Queen she continued onwards. When Her Grace had seized the Iron Throne and finished this war, then words could be exchanged, criticism given. For now, the Golden Company had a war to win and Lia would not attempt to jeopardise her place in that. And so when Daena ordered Gaelon Qoherys to move his men to the Trident and burn their way through, Lia was there beside him loyally.

Yet once more Daena Targaryen abandoned them. For King’s Landing first, an understandable departure. But then for Essos, to put down a rebellion as Qoherys’ force approached the capital to meet with Prince Viserys, now their commander-in-chief as the war reached its conclusive stages.

His Grace the Prince of the Red Keep ordered fifteen-thousand men to march on Harrenhal, where it was reported the King was staying, and Lia’s Third Legion was a part of that force. *Loyalty*’s blade was coated in the blood of Riverlander and Northman alike as Lord Stark’s relief force attempted to push them back from House Baelish’s holdfast. Whilst the battle was a failure for the Golden Company, once more did Lady Cole prove herself in combat. She did the same at Wildburrows too, commanding directly beneath Prince Viserys as he tried to put down King Garlan’s resistance at its heart. Queen Daena had often abandoned her forces to their own devices, but the dragon prince was there, always. With *Blackfyre* in hand he fought on the front lines along with his commanders whenever he could. Lia admired the future king more than she did his mother, far more. Married though he may have been, it did not stop the Third Legion’s Lieutenant from developing a firm infatuation towards him. Honourable and skilled, she thought him unbeatable, the greatest that the Golden Company had to offer. And then he fought the King and it all crumbled to dust. Dishonourably slain with a knife to the gut, the man she had began to love from a distance passed from the world at the hands of the Lord of the Seven Kingdoms. Her own victory against Lord Victor Massey was tempered by this loss, and in fury she tore the pendant from the man’s neck and retreated behind her lines, leaving his sons to be stopped by the Third Legion’s finest.

For a while, as much for Lia’s sanity as to inflict damage over a greater area, the Third separated from the greater force, burning and pillaging in the northern Riverlands as Garlan Tyrell split his army. Yet when Gaelon Qoherys and the Dragon Queen announced they were to march on Stoney Sept, she rejoined them as quickly as possible. Mourning the Prince could be done afterwards, criticisms to the Queen could be delivered in the Red Keep’s throne room, not in a command tent.

Lia would never get to say those words. Daena and her dragon plummeted from the sky halfway across the battlefield, just before the Third was pressed in by a contingent of Stormlanders. What happened to the Queen was suddenly irrelevant to the Lady of House Cole. She had to ensure her legion survived. And so she pushed forwards to the front of her lines and fought like a demon. Carving swathes through the enemy, she came face to face with Ser Steffon Penrose, heir to the Parchments. For a while they circled each other, before the Stormlander made the first move. Lia blocked his slash and stepped back, before pressing her advantage and slaying the knight with ease.

And then the retreat was called. Her Grace had been slain, and Garlan Tyrell had proven victorious. As Lia stood over the corpse of Steffon Penrose, her blade bloody, her armour covered in the dirt and muck of war, and her cape tattered and torn, the Third Legion turned tail and ran to the countryside. If she had chosen to, she could have moved forwards and tried to slay some high-ranking nobleman before dying honourably.

She did not. Her legion still needed her. House Targaryen still needed her, and so did the Golden Company. And so she mounted her charger and followed the retreat.

### Terror of the Flatlands

Returning to Pentos was far grimmer than even she had expected. House Targaryen had been slaughtered by the magisters of the city like cattle, and the Captain-General had fallen ill on their journey back. And so it fell to Uthor Lothston to take command of the Company in his absence. It was not long after their arrival that the order came to what was left of the Third, now re-absorbed into the greater Golden Company as was tradition, to put down a collection of nobles meeting for a council near the city’s port. Lia Cole fulfilled this order with more than just obedience. She revelled in it.

She did not ask the magister’s name before she ran him through, nor asked the name of his conspirators and family who were present. Women and children were arrested and sent to Lothston, whilst the men were executed on the street. *Loyalty* once more tasted blood, and once more cut in anger at the loss of House Targaryen. When the inevitability of Gaelon Qoherys’ death came, Lia Cole cast her vote for Uthor Lothston before giving any notice to other candidates. She herself did not stand, though as a Lieutenant it was her right to, instead placing her full support behind her chosen candidate.

Purges and slaughters continued of the magisters throughout the city into Lothston’s first year as Regent of Pentos, and Lia took to the streets with her finest men to participate. Yet soon enough she had an order. With one-hundred-and-fifty men, she would venture beyond the walls of Pentos into the Flatlands to put down a group of raiders and bandits calling themselves “the Lordship of the Flatlands”.

And so she did, taking a suspiciously Westerosi contingent with her, composed of the closest thing the Golden Company had to knights. Out in the Flatlands she had expected nothing more than a few common warriors, looking to make a name from themselves. What she encountered was a group of knights and nobles, battered and tired yet still fighting fit. And at their head, Ser Manfred Lannister, cousin to the Lord of Casterly Rock.

Cole’s and Lannister’s forces clashed with fury as men on both sides fell. Lia herself crossed swords with Alesander Rowan, a man who seemed to be there almost by circumstance more than intention, and quickly knocked him to the ground before he surrendered and scuttled away behind her straight into the custody of two spearmen. Content to deal with the Reachman later, Lia pushed forwards to meet the commander of the force itself. Manfred Lannister, self-proclaimed Lord of the Flatlands, was no slouch like her first opponent. Skilled with sword, lance, and spear, he was the challenge that the Lady of House Cole was looking for. Their duel lasted near as long as the battle itself, and much of Lannister’s forces had fallen as the two fought with skill. Manfred’s blade caught the bottom of Lia’s helm and knocked it to the ground, revealing her face as she brought her Valyrian Steel into the side of his leg and forced him to lose his balance, sending him to the ground with a crash, his own helmet flying off. Disarmed and disoriented, Manfred stood once more only to be met with Lady Cole’s gauntleted fist in his jaw, breaking it.

And that was the end of it. Lannister ordered a retreat from what was left of his force, and the Golden Company’s detachment began the march back to Pentos. Save for Alesander Rowan, Lia ordered the prisoners she had taken from the Lord of the Flatlands’ retinue executed. As the one noble she had managed to capture, and as a smooth-talker, Rowan was spared this grim fate. Her intention was to allow the Captain-General to judge him instead, as was his right as a noble, but Lord Alesander was able to talk his way past his guardsman to relieve himself off the road unwatched, and made his escape then.

It was no great loss to Lia, who continued back to the capital and was met with thanks from the Regent of Pentos for her service. For one week she remained in the city, before being sent once more, to finish the job and burn the Lord of the Flatlands’ manor to the ground. It seemed that Manfred Lannister had abandoned his seat entirely, and so there was no resistance as what had once been a Pentoshi magister’s property was burned to the ground.

With her cleansing of the Flatlands, what was left of Mace Wildflowers’ plot against the Dragon Queen had been removed from Pentos. Uthor Lothston’s control over the city and its lands had been cemented, and Lia had played a key role in that, as was her duty. And when the Captain-General called for diplomats and envoys to be sent to King’s Landing, it once more felt like it was her duty. Leaving her cousin Orys behind in the city once more, with *Loyalty*, she set forth with the Voice of Pentos for the Westerosi capital.

### Family

* Ser Richard Cole - Grandfather - b. 319 AC, d. 357 AC
* m. Jeyne - Grandmother - b. ??? AC, d. 361 AC
	+ Quentyn Cole - Father - b. 338 AC, d. 379 AC
	+ Lynesse Peake - Mother - b. \_\_\_
		- Lia Cole - b. 359 AC
	+ Arthur Cole - Uncle - b. 339 AC, d. 375 AC
	+ Aerea \_\_\_\_\_\_\_ - Aunt - b. ???
		- Orys Cole - Cousin - b. 357 AC