Gilliam Frey

Gilliam Frey, son to the late Humfrey Frey and Lady Arwyn Darry, is the current Lord of the Crossing and a knight of some renown.

## Appearance and Personality

Gilliam is shorter than very tall men, but taller and more noble than most, so that neither does he appear great among the small, nor does he seem small among the great. He has a handsome, sturdy build, with straight and well-proportioned, muscled limbs, and excellent posture. His body is lean, with nigh an ounce of fat on him, hardened by an upbringing focused on martial activities. His face is bright and cheerful, defined by high, sharp cheekbones, his teeth even and snow-white in color. His hair is reddish-brown, worn long and loose down to his shoulders. His armor is fine silver plate with enameled blue chasings. His crest is shaped like a castle and he rides a dappled brown courser.

Gilliam is brave, vain and at times subject to nerve storms that terrify his entourage. Above all, he has always been determined to get his own way, and has little inclination to hide what he desires, being rather candid. Spoiled and cosseted from infancy was as a child, and continues to be, a true *enfant terrible*. He possesses a great amount of self-confidence which verges, and often surpasses, arrogance.  However this is, to an extent, offset by his powerful work-ethic and his desire to visit all his soldiers which, combined with his personal skill and bravery in battle, makes him immeasurably popular among the soldiers under his command. Despite his fondness for getting his way, he despises the luxuries of decadent courts and looks upon sloth and frivolity, at least when it comes to others, as unpardonable offences. Due to the influence of his mother, he has a genuine devotion to the Seven, and even has a fondness for reading, though that’s mostly confined to books about military affairs.

## Biography

Gillam was born as the first and only son of Lord Humfrey Frey and his wife, Lady Arwyn Darry. From his mother he learned lessons of truth and nobleness that never have forsaken him. Often while he had swung gently to and fro in his quaint, carved, and uncomfortable-looking cradle, did she croon above him the songs that told of valour, courage and all the stern virtues that could be found therein. Many a time she trotted the little lordling on her knee to the music of the tales of powerful heroes and great kings. She told him also many a story of brave and daring deeds, of noble and knightly lives, and how his ancestors had made the lands of his father a power to be reckoned with in the Riverlands and beyond.

The little Gillam was as brave as he was gentle and jolly, and as hardy as he was brave. This was, in a way, surprising, because the lad was born with poor physique and was a sickly child who did not speak until the age of four. Within earshot, his father often remarked that such a frail physique would never be able to stand the rigors of war. He also did poorly at his lessons and continually frustrated his Maester with his poor memory and inability to grasp various subjects. He became an avid reader, though, and came to love the annals of military history.

As Gillam grew into his teens, his health vastly improved. He became an excellent rider and hunter - at ten years old he killed his first fox and at twelve he had his first successful bear hunt. The formerly sickly and weak boy grew into a lad of strength and physical bearing, though it still took him considerable effort to maintain his regimen. By this point his father had died, and he had become lord at the grand old age of two-and-ten, with his mother as regent. Seeing as he was the only son, his mother was loathed to send him away to squire. Instead he learned the knightly arts from an aged uncle - a hoary, old and cunning warrior who had cut his teeth fighting in the Free Cities and against the Mountain Clansmen in the War for the Mountains of the Moon. The young lordling proved an able student and quick to master the arts of war. The command of men came easy to him, granted to him by the the disposition fed to him with mother’s milk. He would often be found commanding small companies of lads against each other in mock battles, having conscripted every boy and young man in the castle and surrounding villages.

Mock battles was not the only mayhem that the young lord caused. He and a group of likely lads managed to turn the castle and countryside upside down. They threw cherry-pits at the gray-bearded councillors, smashed in windows and scandalized the peasantry. They played ball with the table dishes and broke benches in the Sept. They beheaded sheep in the castle till the floors ran with blood, and then pelted the passers-by with sheep's heads. They spent the money in the castle treasury like water, and played so many heedless and ruthless tricks that the period was known, even now, as the "Frey Fury”.

Gilam’s redoutable lady mother found these events too much to bear and, unable to reign in her son, decided to send him off to squire with her family, the Darrys. For her intention of keeping her son safe, this was unfortunate timing as the Rosegold kicked off not shortly after. The war would go quite poorly for the Riverlanders, though the young Frey lord would have the time of his life, albeit he would not make many friends in the process. He would earn the ire of Lord Harry Darry by publically remarking that the only direction the man was good at advancing in was backwards, referencing the multiple retreats that the Lord of Darry had been forced order in his battles with the Westermen. Still, the young Lord of Frey would prove himself valorous, brave and capable, yet due to the friction between him and the Darrys, he would receive his knighthood on his return to the Twins rather than at the hands of Lord Harry - something that caused conflicted feelings in the young Frey.

Now a man of two-and-twenty, sturdy, strong, and hardy, and at the date of our story, in the year of 99 after Aegon’s Conquest, the greater part of his time is given up to military exercises and sports, with but little attention to debates in council or to the cares of state. He has also earned himself as a reputation as the finest lance anywhere along the Green Fork, possibly along the whole of the Trident.

## Skills

Aptitude: Field Commander.

Skills: Warcraft, Logistics, Leadership, Champion, Mounted Combat, Ambidexterity