Accalon Vance

Accalon Vance was born in 71 AC to Ser Albar Vance, minor scion of House Vance of Wayfarer’s Rest, and his wife Jeyne Vance, née Strong. Accalon grew up among Essosi mercenaries where, following his mother’s early death, his father found a new living and a new life. Receiving high-quality training and education, though directed at little else than becoming an able officer among the ranks of mercenaries, Accalon has spent his whole life in mercenary armies, on the march through all kinds of regions, garrisoned in different cities, serving in a number of household guards or city watches and fighting in many different kinds of wars, conflicts and types of warfare. He has earned a reputation for being an outstanding commander, though amidst the hierarchical setup of mercenary companies, he has thus far mainly acted as an aide-de-camp for larger campaigns or a leader of escorts, household guards, smaller detachments and missions due to his relatively young age.

Following the announcement that his father might unexpectedly inherit the title of Lord of House Vance of Wayfarer’s Rest, Accalon and his younger brothers have accompanied Albar Vance back to Westeros. A continent unknown to them.

## Character and Appearance

Accalon is of a sinewy-muscular build, with dark shoulder-length hair and a tanned, though not overly much, skin. He stands at 5’10” (178 cm). His eyes are of a dark blue grey shade. From years of fighting, he carries several scars all over his body and some minor ones on jaw bone, temple and cheeks.

The young man is known to possess a stoic character, with a taciturn tendency in professional situations. He is perfectly aware of how to behave according to whatever status he is assigned in a military organization. Though his new life in the unknown Westerosi culture will prove a major challenge for somebody as aware of cultural differences and subtleties as Accalon.

To those that are dear to him, he is known to be charming, loyal and kind-hearted. Especially raising his brothers with so much love and care, Accalon always stuck out to those around him as being very focused on family and having lots of patience. He is particularly fond of children and most kinds of domestic animals.

## Biography

Accalon Vance was born in 71 AC to Ser Albar Vance, minor scion of House Vance of Wayfarer’s Rest, and his wife Jeyne Vance, née Strong. The death of his mother at age three plunged his father into a life crisis that finally saw him take his infant son and leave Westeros. Consequently, Accalon grew up among Essosi mercenaries where his father found a new living and a new life. Receiving high-quality training and education from a young age onwards, directed at becoming an able officer among the ranks of mercenaries.

Taking to the foreign language, climates and the myriad of cultures quickly, Accalon’s childhood and youth were typical for mercenaries’ sons. Over the years, they youth has hardly spoken his native tongue again, instead taking up plenty of different Essosi languages. Most of which he only speaks to the degree needed to converse in a professional military context and environment. While his father kept talking Westerosi to him, Accalon only resorts to the language when dealing with Westerosi mercenaries and no other common language can be found.

The years saw Accalon spend his whole life in mercenary armies, on the march through all kinds of regions, garrisoned in different cities, serving in a number of household guards or city watches and fighting in many different kinds of wars, conflicts and types of warfare. He partook in active fighting for the first time at age seven, when the camp was intruded by enemies over night and nobody was there to defend him. Amidst the panic, the tent Accalon had hid in was intruded by two enemy soldiers. Upon being spotted, Accalon threw a chair at them, then reached out for his father's mace and threw it in the advancing one's direction, before he escaped through the tent wall's opening at the bottom. And while, in general, his father, making a career among the higher ranking mercenaries, mainly acting as consultant, quartermaster and commander over the years, saw to it to keep his son out of actual combat, incidents happened again and again.

At age 16, Accalon decided for himself to participate in actual fighting himself, seeing that keeping away from it would just harm his status and career in the long run. All the more as the boy had turned out a decent fighter. His father, of course, was downcast and worried about this decision. But had to give in in the long run.

Accalon has not received a knightly training, and his cultural understanding is more of a fluent adaption to varying regions, with a core based on general universal mercenary standards.

His adult years saw him rise in status, act as aide-de-camp, consultant, commander of minor Household guards, escorts or missions including a maximum of thirty men. Though the chaos of war again and again gave Accalon the opportunity to temporarily take over a way larger command when the situation called for it.

Adhering to high, often strict moral principles (set on a mixture of conservative mercenary standards and the chivalric ethos dating back to when his father was young), Accalon enjoys a high status among mercenaries and contractors. Yet it has also led to certain problems for him when it comes to girls and women: Being mistrusted by most of them for still being a mercenary, Accalon finds it also difficult to resort to slaves or prostitutes – all the more as he is often interested in setting up long-term bonds. Because of that, his father bought him a young fair female slave at the age of 17. After one and a half year of caring well for her, Accalon was forced to realize that the girl was not made for the life amidst the soldiery and that protecting her from the advances of other men all the time proved a recurring burden. When she admitted she had fallen in love with a citizen of Volantis, Accalon sold her to her lover and moved on.

Another aspect of Accalon’s multi-cultural background is his devout followership of the Weeping Lady of Lys (though probably not carried out in the correct dogmatical way, but rather based on whatever the young exile took up from his Lyseni friends and rolemodels over the years).

Over the years, due to the lack of able, trustworthy and truly caring wet nurses and foster mothers, Accalon played a major role in raising his younger brothers as well as having an eye on the younger siblings of friends and dear comrades.

His relationship to his father remains rather stable, of mutual trust and respect, though natural problems have occurred during the teenager’s puberty. Accalon also deliberately spent some years in other mercenary companies than his father would, though as to gain distance. After the birth of his youngest brother and lucrative opportunities, he has returned to working together with his father. Though the birth of the youngest brother led to a rift between Accalon and his father for several months because of the young age of the mother.

## Recent Events

Following his father’s likely inheritance of House Vance of Wayfarer’s Rest, Accalon has accompanied his father and brothers back to Westeros. A continent that he has just a few singular memories of. If his father will be appointed Lord of the estates, Accalon is going to be trained to become his father’s heir.

## Family

http://www.familyecho.com/?p=W7WFF&c=1wa8oqkset&f=920491435763749587