Darron Costayne

## First Steward of the Night's Watch

Darron Costayne is the First Steward of the Night's Watch. He has held the position since 396 AC and been in the Night's Watch since 394 AC after being banned from the Citadel.

## Biography

Darron Costayne was born to the Lord of Three Towers on the eighteenth day of the ninth month of 375 AC. He was born as the heir, but that wouldn't last long.

At first, he seemed to be the ideal for the future lord of a keep. The aspects of running the keep were of particular ease. The theories of keeping the keep stocked and well supplied came to him and he grew to answer all of the theoretical practice questions quickly and perfectly. He learned quickly, but his training with arms wasn't going as well as the other subjects. He was acceptable with the sword, shield, and bow, passable with the lance, and the only portion of his arms training he was any good at was riding his horse. He named it *Flare* for its bright spot across the right eye that was a color similar to that of a sun. By the age of eight, he was doing much better with his studies than is normally expected, as without his father's knowledge he had been studying during the night and other times he wasn't expected to do anything. The skills he self-taught himself turned out to be much better developed than those his teachers and maester taught him.

He spent much of his time with the maester speaking about his studies of the higher mysteries due to the maester's long studies to obtain his valyrian steel link, but which he ultimately failed. He enjoyed talking about the ancient magic that different civilizations had used from the Children of the Forest to the ancient eastern empire that was a precursor to the Valyrians. Due to these long talks, from the age of nine, Darron had decided that he would join the Citadel when he grew older.

His future was a point of strife between him and his father, where his father threatened many times to disinherit Darron should he attempt to pursue studies at the Citadel. His father's words did not discourage Darron from wanting to join the Order of Maesters.

At age twelve, Darron and his father came to words with each other over Darron's wishes for his future. Some words that his father said caused Darron to leave his home of Three Towers for the Citadel. Before leaving, his father took his horse, *Flare*, and cut its head off in from of Darron before shouting that he is to never use the name of Costayne when speaking of himself, and he said the words that everyone never wants to hear, "You are no child of mine."

When Darron arrived at the Citadel and was asked to present something of his birth, he was unable to do so other than a badge that any guard in the service of House Costayne had so he became just "Darron" from that day on. He was also unable to pay for his studies so he worked almost every hour he had after his studies performing the most meaningless of duties and the ones that no acolytes who had their studies paid for would do. From cleaning raven's cages to scrubbing the most disgusting of floors, he worked for every hour of learning he had.

Just as he had previously, he was very good with all of the basic subjects he learned such as arithmetic, laws, history, or the more maester specific skills such as ravenry or calligraphy. He gained the praise of many of his teachers but he only grew close to the Archmaester of the Occult. It was his subject that he truly yearned for, just as he had during his years of learning from the maester of Three Towers. His favorite area of learning was that of necromancy, something that the Archmaester kept hidden to the late hours of the night when Darron would come in for extra studies so that the pair was not discovered.

After Darron had forged four links by the age of seventeen and was near enough finishing another three within the next year. He exceeded norms in all of his subjects as learning the information came much more easily to him than others and it seemed that Darron was in a condition to become a perfect maester.

A year later, the books Darron had been using to study the higher mysteries were discovered after an argument with a fellow acolyte, and Darron's links were stripped from him, and he was banned from the Citadel. Darron didn't doubt that the fact that his father was a vassal of the Lord of Oldtown, wasn't a part of this harsh punishment. This was the second time that Darron had been rejected from what he called his home.

So a broken Darron left Oldtown and searched for a place in the world where he could fit. He first traveled to King's Landing, where he was recruited into the Night's Watch. He didn't have any other prospects for his life and knew that the Night's Watch wouldn't turn him away, so he traveled to Castle Black where once he was trained, he was assigned to the Order of Stewards in Castle Black.

The First Steward came to like Darron quite a bit, as he said he saw bits of himself in Darron. He grew to have many friends within the Night's Watch and it became a point of pride for Darron that he finally found a place for himself.

After two years in the Watch, the previous First Steward died of a chill and so Darron was raised to his position after a personal request from the previous First Steward. The First Steward said that Darron was an expert in the logistics of running a keep which one one of his reasons for choosing him as his successor. Several stewards weren't pleased with this decision as they had been in the Night's Watch longer, and felt that their service wasn't being honored properly. Darron noticed this and so he tried his best to give those who felt disrespected some of the more preferable jobs over the next several months in order to appease them. This tactic seemed to work in his favor, as those who had felt hurt began to turn back around to his favor.

## Timeline

* 375 AC - Darron is born
* 381 AC - Darron begins his studies
* 387 AC - Darron leave Three Towers and joins the Citadel
* 394 AC - Darron is banned from the Citadel and joins the Night's Watch
* 396 AC - Darron become the First Steward