Arynno

**Arynno**, also known as **Arynno Hayford** or **Arynno Corbray**, is the Lord Regent of Hayford and the former Master of Whisperers for Viserys I Targaryen--positions he has held since 95 AC and 93 AC, respectively. Ostensibly a upstanding wealthy merchant, few know of Arynno's dealings as a smuggler or roots as a pirate in the Stepstones. Fewer still know of his birth into slavery in Volantis.

After the death of his first wife, Lady Hanna Hayford, in childbirth in 95 AC, Arynno assumed the regency for her three year old son Humfrey, as requested in her will. Arynno was found dead in 98 AC under suspicious circumstances.

### History

#### Slavery

Arynno never knew his parents. Born into slavery in the city of Volantis, he was stripped from his parents soon after birth and sold to another master--a merchant named Malaquo Paenyron. From an early age, perhaps because of his quick wit or his pedigree, he was separated from the other slaves designated for menial labor and other back-breaking tasks. He was taught sums, letters, etiquette, and history. By the time he was fourteen, he was already responsible for ensuring the validity of cargo manifests and ledgers. Through this work, he quickly proved to be one Malaquo's most valuable possessions. When the merchant traveled--as infrequent an occurrence as that was--Arynno was at his side. It was on such journeys that he first saw the world outside of Volantis: before he turned eighteen, he had seen Myr, Tyrosh, and Lys.

It was on one of these expeditions that Arynno earned his freedom. While traveling from Volantis to Tyrosh, Malaquo's fleet was set upon by pirates. Though the fleet initially seemed like it would be able to fight off the pirates, time was not in their favor, and before long most of the escort ships had been sunk, captured, or forced to retreat. When Malaquo's flagship was all that remained, the pirates set upon them, too.

As the pirates boarded the vessel, Arynno decided that if there was *one thing* he was going to do before he died, it was make Malaquo pay for the indignities he had forced him to suffer throughout his life. When the pirates stormed the opulent captain's quarters, they found Malaquo under Arynno, his face a bloody ruin.

#### Piracy

Rather than killing him immediately or selling him back into slavery (as they did with many of the *other* slaves captured in this attack), the pirates decided they found the young slave's efforts *endearing*, in that odd, criminal sort of way. When they learned that their own bookkeeper, an erstwhile Maester by the name of Denys, had found himself on the receiving end of a crossbow bolt during the battle, the pirates' affection for him grew as they came to appreciate his utility, too. By the end of the day, Arynno had cemented himself as the new bookkeeper of the pirate crew.

Finally freed of his shackles, gilded as they had been, Arynno partook in every imaginable pleasure he had been denied. When they pulled into port in Tyrosh, rich with the spoils of his fallen master's ship, he got *blind* drunk. Alcohol, drugs, whores--you name it, the freedman partook in it. *This* was what freedom was. His (mis)adventures resulted in a son not a year later: a black-haired, blue-eyed babe the spitting image of his father that he named Malyrio. Though the boy lived in Tyrosh with his mother, Arynno paid visits to the pair whenever he was able.

Though loot *was* divided among the various members of their ragtag pirate fleet, it was distributed far from *equitably.* The lord of the fleet, a Summer Islander named Xarro, kept the majority of the spoils for himself. Of course, the pirate lord was too busy doing *entertaining* things to keep track of his own treasure hoard. That job quickly fell to Arynno, who quickly used his position running the books to skim a little off of the top. As time passed, his courage grew, and by the end of 80 AC, Arynno was the second best paid person on the crew--second only to Xarro himself. Most of it made its way back to Tyrosh, where Arynno stashed it as a nest egg of sorts for Malyrio.

Arynno would have been perfectly to allow this state of affairs to continue. Arynno was making more than he had ever dreamed of with, he thought, relatively little risk to himself. Unfortunately for him, fate had other plans.

In the early days of 82 AC, Xarro's fleet was set upon by a group of sellsails in Tyroshi employ. Though they fought valiantly, Xarro's fleet was ultimately outnumbered, outgunned, and outmatched. By the time the sun set, Xarro was dead, and the fleet was scattered to the winds.

While Arynno does not know how many ships survived the calamity, he knows at least *one* did. By a stroke of luck, he had been off of Xarro's flagship *The Black Jewel* at the beginning of the battle, as he was examining the books of a smaller vessel, *The Intrepid*. When the battle began to turn against them, the *Intrepid* was one of those ships that managed to escape the sellsails, using its shallow keel and small profile to hide among the small island inlets on the Stepstones. When the danger had passed, the *Intrepid* slipped into Tyrosh. Most of the crew decided to stay with the ship and keep doing the only thing they knew how. Arynno, on the other hand, decided to take fate's advice. He collected his nest egg and bailed out.

#### Mercantile Endeavors

His nest egg wasn't quite as large as he would have liked it to be--not if he wanted to guarantee a comfortable life for his son (whose mother, he discovered after he pulled into port, had died a few weeks ago). He decided he had to invest it somehow. Putting his accounting skills, his illegal contacts, and his experience under Malaquo to use, he spent every last coin he had on ships, warehouses, goods, and employees.

It was touch and go for a few months. *Fine*, a year or two--but he made by. His initial investment quickly began to turn dividends. His wit and natural talent, coupled with a healthy dose of luck and a *lot* of hard work, saw his investment double, then triple, then quadruple. *Sure*, there was a *little* illegal activity along the way, but the law is a flexible thing, and Arynno hadn't exactly lived as a law-abiding citizen up until now anyway. His shipping company became the greatest frustration of harbormasters on both sides of the Narrow Sea, but for every ship that was found to be breaking the law, a dozen more slipped by unnoticed. A heavy sack of gold in the right hands was often all it took to convince a man that their hold really did only contain grain, and that the pittance they had to pay in duties to import it *was* accurate.

As the company grew, it became increasingly legitimate, with the less-than-legal ventures pushed off onto shell companies. Nevertheless, he remained a valuable information broker for those with their ear to ground in King's Landing. It did not take long for the Master of Whisperers, Garth Mullendore, to take notice of him. The pair developed a profitable relationship: information for coin and favors. On more than one occasion, his information, collected from ports all over Westeros and the Narrow Sea, made its way into King Rhaegar's ear.

By 88 AC, Arynno was, in the minds of almost anyone you asked, a respectable, legal, upstanding merchant. With his business becoming increasingly focused in Westeros, he purchased a manse in King's Landing in a deal that was *totally legitimate* and did not involve *any blackmail or extortion of the previous owner.* He took to hosting lavish parties at his residence. Attendance was limited at first, held back by questions of who he was and his general lack of reputation, but in due time, minor nobility began to attend his parties. Behind them came middling nobility from throughout the Crownlands.

#### Summer Loving

He first laid eyes upon Hanna Hayford, the ruling lady of Hayford, at one of these parties. Just a few short hours from Hayford, Arynno's manse proved a welcome escape from the dull halls of her family's keep. Her and her husband, Harrold Hayford (originally the third son of some minor Crownlands House), became frequent guests at Arynno's estate.

His relationship with Hanna quickly developed into something *more*. Like many of Westeros' nobility, Hanna had been forced into a loveless match, meant more to serve some political purpose than to provide a suitable companion. She found great comfort in Arynno's presence--his stories of his life across the Narrow Sea, the feel of his arms wrapped around her, the kiss of his breath on the nape of her neck. Hanna's visits involved Harrold less and less. This didn't much seem to bother him. His interests, Arynno quickly noticed, lay more in the backsides of the manse's manservants than in his wife. In 92 AC, the fruitless union of Hanna and Harrold finally bore fruit--though its provenance may well be of different origin than expected. They named the sickly infant Humfrey.

#### Entering the Court

For a lowborn merchant like Arynno, entering the King's court was no small feat. It took months of currying favors, befriending minor courtiers, and making himself generally indispensable. In 90 AC, he finally managed to gain permission from Rhaegar to enter court at the urging of the Master of Whisperers and Hanna Hayford. From thereon, he was a constant face at court, doing all he could to woo and befriend those in the halls of power.

The first to fall to his charms was the King's daughter Jaehaera. After a sloppy attempt to employ as a spy one of the kitchen maids already on Arynno's payroll, he took her under his wing and taught her the arts of intrigue. Though her family was at first skeptical of the relationship, they eventually came to appreciate the value of the skills he was imparting. The mentorship served as a soft audition of sorts, too: Jaehaera was able to vouch for his skills and connections in the shadows, which would turn out to be critically important when he made his eventual bid for a Small Council seat.

#### The Rosegold Rebellion

That day would come sooner rather than later. When King Rhaegar's death lead to the accession of his son Viserys and the Rosegold Rebellion in 93 AC. While Lord Caswell was quick to abandon his post and join the rebels, Lord Mullendore was more hesitant, claiming he intended to remain loyal to the Crown (though his brother, who ruled the fiefdom in his absence, had elected to side with the rebels).

This was, of course, a lie. Using his position as the Master of Whisperers, Garth intended to keep the Crown blind to developments on the front, feeding false information to Viserys and ensuring that the Loyalists were unable to effectively counter the rebel offensives. This treason went undetected until the late days of the war when Garth overreached. When the Westermen siege of King's Landing began, the spymaster went to set his *coup de grace* into motion: he and his agents would throw open the gates and allow the Lannisters uncontested entrance to the city, surely spelling doom for the unwitting defenders.

Only, when he gave the order, he quickly came to realize that the agents responsible for carrying out this killing blow, fine days before, were almost all dead, arrested, or disappeared. Worrying he had been discovered, the Mullendore went to ground, hiding out in the city proper with the intention of slipping out into the countryside once the city had fallen.

He never managed to make it that far. After tracking several of his known collaborators, Arynno and his agents were able to track the Lord to his safe house in Flea Bottom. A midnight raid quickly dispatched the few guards present and successfully apprehended Garth. When the sun rose the next morning, Mullendore was dragged before Gunthor Arryn kicking and screaming, swearing up and down that he was innocent. The evidence presented by Arryno more than proved otherwise.

When the Westermen managed to breach the city regardless, Arynno used every connection he could muster in the underworld to make their attack a living hell. Spontaneous barricades and the targeted assassination of officers and nobles, coupled with the valiant efforts of the main defense force, proved too much for the invaders to stomach. Malyrio, now a young man himself, managed to distinguish himself in the fighting as part of the City Watch, though he too was ultimately beaten back to the Red Keep.

Though these efforts were not enough to win the war, nor even to break the siege of King's Landing, they helped buy time for Viserys to broker a peace with the rebels. With the war over and his council about to be filled by erstwhile traitors, Viserys quickly promoted Arynno to the spot vacated by his former employer.

#### Marriage

Though the Rosegold Rebellion was short, it was exceptionally brutal, and few families in Westeros were left unscathed by the conflict. House Hayford proved to be no different. The House's proximity to the capital, usually a boon, proved to be their undoing during the Siege of King's Landing. Returned home from the front following an injury, Harrold rallied what men he could when he heard of the approaching Westermen and marched with all haste towards King's Landing. Unfortunately for him, the Westermen outriders under House Crakehall proved faster, and quickly dispatched his small force and took him hostage. A few days later, he was dead, allegedly executed by Lord Arthur Crakehall.

The death left Hanna is something of a bind. Though Humfrey's birth meant the succession was secured, the young boy was still very sickly, and his survival was far from guaranteed. This, coupled with her love for Arynno, the influence at court he would provide her, and the sizeable bride price he was offering, drove her to marry her longtime confidante in hopes of further securing the succession. A year after Arthur's death, the pair traveled to Oldtown, where Arynno was baptized into the Faith by the High Septon himself. The very next day, the pair were wed.

#### Regency

No marriage can last forever. While Hanna got her desired spare, it would end up costing her more dearly than she would have hoped. Almost three years after their wedding, Hanna took to the birthing bed with a son, who she named Artys. However, the birth took an extreme toll on her health, and within the week, she slipped into quiet repose and joined her first husband in the arms of the Stranger.

Her family, while obviously upset that their beloved Hanna had left them, were elated that the opportunity had finally presented itself to get rid of the foreigner that had so ensorcelled her. Much to their displeasure, their attempts to oust him ended quickly when he revealed that her will had named him the Regent for her son by Harrold, Humfrey Hayford. Though her relatives seemed certain the document was a forgery (why would she leave the regency of her first son to her foreign husband rather than her own family?), the Maester of Hayford was able to authenticate the document, leaving her family with no leg to stand on.

And so Arynno became the Lord Regent of Hayford in 96 AC, a position which he holds to this day. He continued to serve on the Small Council, where he has proven to be one of the King's most competent and capable advisors.

### Family

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