Triston Celtigar

## Early Life

Triston Celtigar was born the son of Arthor Celtigar and Alyssa Massey in the year 334. He led a sheltered youth on Claw Isle, displaying little aptitude for feats of physical activity. Average at best with a blade, the young boy quickly learned to make up for his slender frame in other ways. Displaying a keen strategic mind, the boy was proficient both at wargames and at getting people to do what he wanted. He quickly saw the value in knowing things other people didn’t want him to. Triston grew up close to his mother, a paranoid woman who sought to instil knowledge of the dangers of the world in her young son’s head. Surrounded by those who fought better and harder than he could, Triston learned to keep an affable face about him while trying to convince and cajole these brutes to deal with each other instead. Around this time the young boy began to show interest in the arts of persuasion, and how he could convince and persuade others with a kind word and a generous action. He became adept at disguising his true intentions through his experiences dodging around the bigger children. His grandfather was a great influence on the early years of Triston’s life, drilling the long and ancient lineage that the Celtigar’s possessed into the fledging boy. With pride in his ancestry however came envy, and Triston was infuriated by the lesser houses of Westeros receiving more credit than his esteemed blood. He resolved to rectify this situation any way he could and take any means necessary to restore the family to the position it had been in the early days of the Targaryen’s; providing Hands and councillors to the conqueror himself. He also grew to admire the institution of the Iron Throne as it had existed previously – a kingdom spanning all of Westeros wielding great power over the realm.

The years passed quickly as the young lordling surrounded himself with allies, including his brother Maldon, a frequent feature in Triston’s activities long into the future. He took his first taste of military combat in the First War of Reclamation, commanding small sections of his father’s levy. While initially green, Triston learned quickly and began to show himself a cunning tactician on the battlefield. He established the method of command he would employ often in future wars during conflict – directing his forces from the rear, as he had no particular skill at arms to lead from the front. He swiftly learned to reduce the soldiers under his command down to numbers the same way as he would with intrigue, and many of his attacks were taken for the strategic benefit with no regard to casualties. This was the start of his fractured relationship with his father, who loved the people of Claw Isle and wished that his young son would treat them with the same respect he did.

As he grew older, he began to assist his Lord Father with his duties as sons are expected to do, acting as a competent administrator when his father was absent. He began to feel a growing resentment towards his unambitious father however, fearing that as Arthor sat by the world would leave their family behind and condemn them to eternal weakness. He implored and begged his father continually to invest more in the future of the family, but his appeals fell on deaf ears. This disagreement became so pronounced that when his father came to die in 355, he assumed the Lordship with great happiness, spending only a token amount of time mourning his late Father. As he donned the apparatus of the Lordship, he had ambition and determination that his reign would be different, and that he would reverse the centuries of obscurity the house had suffered from.

## The Reign of Lord Triston

The Gods would not prove as kind as Triston had hoped for however, and his reign has been far more tumultuous for the Celtigar’s than that of his forebears with no meaningful progress. He began his reign with a cleanout of the workers of the Castle, who he suspected were easily manipulated or bribed by his enemies. News from Claw Isle became increasingly tight-lipped and scarce as Triston surrounded himself with those, he knew to be loyal to himself and only himself. At the same time, he placed informants around Westeros in areas he considered of especial priority, concerned that he was surrounded by enemies on all sides. Disguised all across Westeros in various key positions, these informers would become crucial parts of Triston’s plan making.

The daily business of Claw Isle changed little in times of peace however, and Triston lacked much of a chance to make an impact beyond increasing the revenues the Isle got from trade, and well as cracking down on smuggling. Many more men have been left one-handed in Triston’s reign that that of his father. He lacked the capacity to fight during the Dornish Rebellion, although he would meet a Crownlander who he befriended, and whose son would one day be fostered with him on Claw Isle. The years went by steadily, and Lord Celtigar wedded Annara Chyttering early into his reign. The marriage proved relatively happy, if dispassionate, and the new Lady Celtigar would bear four children to Triston through their marriage, their only son Lucos becoming the apple of his fathers’ eye. Annara perished of infection shortly after bringing his youngest daughter into life however, and Lord Celtigar remained a widower for a number of years. His children developed promisingly, and Triston was eternally proud of his family and their glorious history every time he saw that continued in his children, though he was fierce to them if they disappointed him in any way.

Lord Celtigar continued throughout his life to spread his informants around Westeros, and make good impressions on many strategic Lords, though the King himself would remain out of Celtigar’s reach until circumstance allowed. The most interesting event of this long period of peace was at Lord Tully’s tourney a few years before the Second War of Reclamation began. Tully invited a large number of Lords from the South, Celtigar included, and it seemed to Triston that he was unsure about his fealty to Stark. This would plant the seeds that Celtigar would later seek to exploit once he became a member of Lord Tully’s court after the war that was to come.

## The Second War of Reclamation

No one could argue any event has defined the fortunes of Claw Isle in recent years more than the Second War of Reclamation. Lord Celtigar saw an opportunity for greatness in the bloodthirsty King Orys’ service, and immediately offered his support to the King. While the man was unstable at best, Triston admired his ambition and will to power far greater than many of his fellow Lords and would frequently pen letters reporting on the progress of the army in their first engagements. Fighting with distinction in three of the largest and most decisive battles of the war, Triston would emerge the victor in the first two with his allies Martell and Tyrell against first the Lords of the Riverlands, then the Arryn’s themselves. In the third he participated in the battle with the King himself directing his force with ruthless distinction. The battle proved a defeat against the beleaguered forces of the Iron Throne in spite of the Kings presence, and Celtigar was taken hostage by the Northern armies. Threatened with the destruction of everything he had worked hard on building, the Lord decided to play a long game and accepted his vassalisation by the enemy, along with his sister wedding Lord Tully’s brother.

Now nominally a part of the Riverlands under Lord Tully, Celtigar watches in horror as the Northern kingdom tears itself apart with scheming and treachery. Arryn has been taken by madness, and the Ironborn begin to look back towards their violent past with nostalgia. Celtigar’s spies see them all, and as the Kingdom lurches closer and closer to chaos, he took the step of wedding a Mooton himself, cementing a powerful ally in the very south of the Northern Kingdom. Now a senior lord under Tully Celtigar whispers into Tully’s ear tales of reward in the South, and Tully is clearly tempted. Mayhaps Triston can make something great out of their defeat in the war, but it will test every skill he has acquired through his life to overcome the odds against him and bring the Riverlands into the embrace of the Iron Throne.

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