Robert Baratheon (Lord Tywin's Gift)

## Robert Baratheon

**Robert Baratheon** is the Lord of Storm's End, Lord Paramount of the Stormlands, and the head of House Baratheon. He is father to Floris Baratheon and Eideard Baratheon, the birth of the latter caused the death of Robert's wife Lyanna Stark. He also has a number of bastard children.

## Appearance and Character

Robert has the classical Baratheon look: black hair and bright blue eyes. His heavy black hair is thick on his chest, and coarse around his sex. He is a very tall man; Eddard Stark estimates his height to be six and a half feet. As a young adult, Robert was a handsome, clean-shaven man, with rough and hard hands. He was strong and powerful, and muscled "like a maiden's fantasy." However, several years after failing to win the Iron Throne and the death of his wife, Robert's appearance began to change. Due to excessive feasting and drinking, Robert gained a significant amount of weight. Now, he is often red-faced from drink, with dark circles underneath his eyes, and walks as if he is half in his cups, while sweating through his silks. Robert's beard, a wild, thick and fierce thing, hides his double chin.

Well loved by soldiers, Robert is brave, but headstrong, rash, and impatient. He is proud, and will not likely back down on words spoken in a drunken bravado.

Robert is as strong as a bull and fearless in battle. He loves the song of swords and considers poison to be a coward's weapon. As long as they are honest and brave, Robert can be merciful towards his defeated enemies, and he can inspire loyalty and friendship in those he spares. A peerless warrior in his youth, Robert fought with a spiked iron warhammer, crafted at Storm's End by Donal Noye, although he also carried a blade. In battle, he wore a great antlered helmet, which made him look like a horned god. He prefers melees, in which he can hit people with his hammer, over jousts. Despite carrying a sword, the only blade Robert uses is a hunting knife he received as a boy from Jon Arryn, his foster father. Although his condition has deteriorated due to his weight gain and frequent drinking, Robert remains a strong man. Robert possesses a powerful battlefield voice.

Robert is a man of huge appetites, who knows how to take his pleasures. He is quite promiscuous, and has fathered multiple bastard children. His lusts are the subject of ribald drinking songs throughout the Stormlands. As king, Robert is not loath to impose upon the hospitality of his subjects, no matter whether it is voluntarily or forced. At the same time, however, Robert possesses a great, but rather careless, generosity. He is an avid hunter. Some of Robert's favorite songs are "A Cask of Ale," "Fifty-Four Tuns," and "The Bear and the Maiden Fair."

Robert owns a black velvet doublet decorated with a crowned golden stag, a green doublet, and a golden mantle with a cloak of black and gold squares. When riding his horse, Robert wears thick brown gloves and a hooded heavy fur cloak.

## History

### Early life

Born in 262 AC, Robert was the first born child of Cassana Estermont and Steffon Baratheon, Lord of Storm's End, Lord Paramount of the Stormlands, and head of House Baratheon. He was a scant year older than his brother, Stannis, who was born in 264 AC. When Robert was already in his teens, his youngest brother, Renly, was born in 277 AC, and his sister Shireen was born in 280 AC.

According to Stannis, when Robert was five or six years old, the two brothers were brought to court by their father, Steffon, where they witnessed the Hand of the King, Lord Tywin Lannister, sitting on the Iron Throne and holding court. Young Robert also played with an Estermont cousin whose father was good to the future king. Robert had a gyrfalcon named Thunderclap who never missed her strike, and he mocked Stannis's goshawk, Proudwing, as "Weakwing".

From an early age onwards, Robert had been fostered by Lord Jon Arryn at the Eyrie in the Vale of Arryn, together with Eddard Stark of Winterfell. The two boys became fast friends, and Jon, who had no children of his own, became like a second father to them. During the period in which he was fostered, Robert visited Storm's End on multiple occasions. At some point, Robert was knighted. During a tourney at Storm's End, Robert was defeated by Ser Barristan Selmy.

After reaching manhood, Robert divided his time between Storm's End and the Eyrie. In 278 AC, Robert's father was sent on a mission by King Aerys II Targaryen, to travel to Volantis to find a bride for Robert's cousin, Prince Rhaegar Targaryen. The mission failed, and Steffon, accompanied by his wife, returned home. Soon after his father's return King Aerys II Targaryen made Lord Steffon the Hand of the King

### Widowerhood

Robert's year grew worse when his newlywed wife and woman he loved, Lyanna Stark, died giving birth to twins. The loss of the woman he loved, as well as the failure to take the throne, led to Robert going down a dark path of depression and alcoholism. Beyond naming his son Eideard after his best friend, Eddard Stark, Robert paid little heed to his children as they grew up, choosing instead to spend most of his time drinking, whoring or hunting. He left the governance of Storm's End and the Stormlands to his brother Stannis Baratheon.

Over the years Robert fathered many bastards, usually to prostitutes and tavern wenches but one notable exception was Edric Storm, conceived on the wedding night of Stannis and Selyse Florent to a cousin of the bride, Delena Florent. Edric was the only bastard Robert acknowledged as his due to the mother being of noble birth. Robert's brother claimed the bastard was an insult to his honour, though the child remained at Storm's End.

Robert sent his son Eideard off to the Vale the following year to be a page to Lord Denys Arryn, Robert himself spent much of his childhood growing up in the Eyrie. Eideard's twin and Robert's only daughter Floris spent her years growing up in Storm's End being taught traditional feminine arts alongside Robert's sister Shireen, until Shireen was married to Viserys Targaryen and Floris joined her in King's Landing as her handmaiden.

Robert long desired to renounce the lordship to his son and travel to Essos as a mercenary fighter, he wished to wait until Eideard reached his majority though and so contented himself with drinking and whoring. This plan hit a snag when Lord Arryn reported to Robert that his son had nearly killed a fellow squire even after the boy had yielded, then he had raped a girl. The pair reached an agreement which would see Eideard moved to King's Landing and monetary compensation given to the squires house.