Alesander Baratheon

## King on the Iron Throne

Alesander of the House Baratheon, the First of his Name, King of the Andals and the Rhoynar and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm.

## Appearance

It's often said that the Baratheon Seed is strong, and on many occasions genealogists have pointed out that children born to the Baratheon possess more or less the same look.

Alesander's broad shoulders, muscled arms, coal-dark hair and handsome features are the only thing of worth his Father ever gave him. And even then, purely by accident. His Father wore his hair short, despised the trend of long hair on men. *"Vanity!"* He'd shout in the later years, and when his temper gripped him the sound carried through the Red Keep. *"Vanity, and nothing more!"*

So, naturally, Alesander took to growing his hair out. It's a style that's never really left him, for even in the present his hair hangs past his ears. He keeps his beard trimmed. His eyes he got from his mother. Blue, a storm blue, but ask him what his favourite part of his appearance is and he'd tell you it's his eyes.

## History

In 340 AC, after eight years of the Realm's whispered wonderings as to the Queen's fertility, Alesander was born in the Royal Chambers of the Red Keep. He came into the world quiet as a Silent Sister, calm as still water. A few attending feared the boy had been born without a heartbeat.

It was Beric that took him in his arms, that stirred the first sounds from his son through the use of silly faces. Perhaps the only time Beric Baratheon was anything but a serious man.

His early years were quiet. He was a healthy child, never so much as a cough. When he reached the age of four, when he could talk in whole sentences and walk without swaying, he took to exploring the Red Keep. Slipping out under cover of darkness to talk with cooks and guardsmen.

Shortly after his fifth nameday, his brother Richard was unleashed into the world. If Alesander was a wave lapping against the shore, then Richard was a tidal wave. He screamed upon birth, and he didn't stop screaming for weeks. Leslyn tried her best to appease the child, but still Beric grew angry. The King locked himself up in his study, refused to see a soul until, in his words; *"That damned babe stops it's keening, or someone smothers it silent."*

Then, in 352, when Alesander was twelve and Richard seven, Beric and Leslyn brought another child into the world. Little Edric, a perfect Baratheon boy save for his right hand. The boy came at a cost, however, as Leslyn didn't survive the birth. For weeks, Beric was lost to the rage. He stormed about the Keep, he launched things at walls and roughed up anyone who so much as looked at him the wrong way.

But life went on, and the boys grew. With Beric lost in his cups, Alesander took to caring for Edric, until such time when the youngest Baratheon was moved across the Keep and tended to by men Beric brought in for the purpose. Alesander, enamored by the life of his Great-Grandsire Renly, took to learning the art of winning people over with his charm and honeyed words, along-side reading books on siegecraft. It's here, lonely in the libraries of the Red Keep, that the young Prince started his journey towards being an engineer.

Richard and his elder brother fought, and as they grew the fighting became more violent, more feral. Though they were brothers, they were so different in personality that they could never be in the same room for long. Richard, quick to anger and always willing to use his fists, often swung first, and Alesander, calm until pushed past a point, would return in kind.

The next nine years passed slowly, every day a struggle. Their Father became less competent, more of a recluse, and the scant few times he did call for the company of his sons, the time together was filled with a myriad of abuse, both verbal and physical.

In 357AC, then just seventeen years old, after watching Beric entrust the Southern hosts participating in the War of the Burning Brand to ineffectual leaders and armchair commanders, Alesander assumed control of the Southern Armies through clever use of a writ he'd forged in Beric's name. By the time the King, his Hand, or the Small Council were aware of the plan, it was too late to stop the Prince. There he won a measure of renown, fighting along-side Northern Lords and Southern Lords alike.

Alesander was no longer the quiet and curious boy he'd been in his youth. Always smiling, it's said, and his smile cut like a knife. He walked through life like men wanted to be him and women wanted to sleep with him. To those who knew him, and knew him well, it seemed like Alesander had a friend everywhere. High or low, it didn't matter, Alesander was owed favours from people the city, the country, over.

Things reached a head in 361 AC. King Beric Baratheon, who'd been relying on his Small Council to handle most of the Realm's affair in recent years, launched himself from the top of Maegor's Holdfast before the castle had a chance to rise. When the day dawned afterwards, his corpse was found bloated, lifeless, and pale by the docks, and was unceremoniously dragged through the streets of King's Landing. Not one of Beric's son's grieved his death.

Alesander ascended to the Throne in 362AC. It was time of celebration, as the Realm wanted nothing more than to forget Beric's later year as much as Alesander did. Though most of the Realm was present at his coronation, including his brother Edric, Richard was nowhere to be seen. Soon after, Edric requested leave to travel to the Citadel in Oldtown, where he wished to train as a maester. Alesander granted the request, and on the morning of his brother's departure watched from the balconies of the Red Keep, adequately disguised.

In 363AC Alesander marries Carolei Penrose, and soon after welcomes a son, Robert, into the world. Worry gripped him after his wife dies birthing his son, as he fears turning into a man like his Father.

Later in the same year, in what the Historians are referring to as Richard's Regret, Richard’s jealousy gets a hold of him, and, piss-drunk in a tavern, he rounds up his friends, knights and lords more loyal to him than his brother, and makes an attempt to seize the throne while night has fallen over the city. Alesander breaks it easily, pardoning his brother Richard only because the man was of his own blood, but Richard dies within the year to the pox and rampant alcoholism, proving that he’d have been just as bad of a King as his father had been near the end of his reign.

Following on from this, Alesander happens upon a young Roland Westerling wandering the Red Keep, having been sent to King's Landing to squire with a member of the Kingsguard. Alesander sees promise in the youth, and takes him under his wing, teaching him the ways of state-craft and how to rule. In 368 AC, Alesander names his ward Hand of The King.

## Recent Events

Alesander is discovered dead in his offices by two of his kingsguard. The good king had been fine moments before, however poisoned wine did him in, living precious little evidence and no real witnesses. A dark day for the realm as the Kingdom of the Iron Throne was already deep in the midst of turmoil and political schemes.

## Timeline

* 340 AC - Alesander Baratheon is born to Beric and Leslyn Baratheon, their first child and heir to the Iron Throne
* 345 AC - His brother Richard is born, Beric and Leslyn's second son
* 352 AC - The third and final son, Edric Baratheon, is born. Complications during the birth claim Leslyn's life, and Beric begins his spiral toward becoming a drunken recluse.
* 361 AC - King Beric Baratheon, who'd been relying on his Small Council to handle most of the Realm's affair in recent years, launched himself from the top of Maegor's Holdfast before the castle had a chance to rise. When the day dawned afterwards, his corpse was found bloated, lifeless, and pale by the docks, and was unceremoniously dragged through the streets of King's Landing.
* 362 AC - Alesander ascends to the Throne, gives Edric leave to seek out his own path at the Citadel in Oldtown
* 363 AC - Alesander marries Carolei Penrose, and soon after welcomes a son, Robert, into the world. Worry gripped him after his wife dies birthing his son, as he fears turning into a man like his Father.
* 363 AC - Later in the same year, in what the Historians are referring to as Richard's Regret, Richard’s jealousy gets a hold of him, and, piss-drunk in a tavern, he rounds up his friends, knights and lords more loyal to him than his brother, and makes an attempt to seize the throne while night has fallen over the city. Alesander breaks it easily, pardoning his brother Richard only because the man was of his own blood, but Richard dies within the year to the pox and rampant alcoholism, proving that he’d have been just as bad of a King as his father had been near the end of his reign
* 368 AC - Alesander raises his ward, Roland Westerling, to the position of Hand of the King
* 370 AC - Alesander is discovered dead in his office, with his Hand of the King unconscious and vomiting at his side.