Martin Wilshere

**Martin Wilshere** is a character in Book 1. He is a highly skilled sellsword, originally from Braavos. Over the years, he found himself in service to the Burned Man, one of Oldtown's crimerlords, and he became one of the man's top enforcers in the war against the fellow crimelord Butterfly.

## Backstory

Not much is known about Martin's past. He was born in the Free City of Braavos, as the son of a Westerosi sellsword, Thomas Wilshere, and a Braavosi whore. He learned his craft from his father, who later died through unknown means, leaving behind a ring, which Martin always carries with him.

In the following years, Martin earned a reputation as a capable, fair sellsword. During one of his missions, he also had an encounter with the Tom, which ended with many of Martin's companions dead and both men parting as enemies.

Travelling through the Free Cities and the southern parts of Westeros, he eventually arrived at Oldtown, where he quickly caught the eye of the Burned Man. Martin decided to work for him and after a while, he became one of the Burned Man's most trusted fighters.

He also met the whore Keira, who worked for the enigmatic Hishi. Quickly, he found out that Keira was originally meant to spy on him, though he was drawn to her beauty and proposed an agreement of sorts. The two started a relationship that was initially strictly physical, though soon, both started to genuinely fall in love with each other.

## Book 1

### We Write History

Martin was introduced together with Harpy, whom he protected on her way through Oldtown. Jaron stumbled into both of them shortly after he left the Pale Princess, where he recovered from his wounds. Initially, the sellsword got on Jaron's bad side, when he sarcastically commented his current situation.

The trio went to one of the Burned Man's safehouses, where Harpy gave them something to drink and proposed a drinking game. Slowly, they got to know each other a bit better and Martin even started to like the hedge knight.

Eventually, Harpy revealed the reason for their meeting. Suspecting a traitor in their ranks, she came up with a plan to lure out whomever had been giving Butterfly information about their operations. For this, she had checked the Burned Man's associates and found out about two suspicious members of their organization, Jarek and Robb. Martin was chosen to check out Robb, a task which Jaron decided to help him with.

### Butterfly

After choosing to assist him, Jaron and Martin travelled to Tanner's Alley, where Robb was supposed to be located. They indeed found Robb, but not before he finished a talk with the Tom, one of Butterfly's most dreaded henchmen. During this talk, Martin and Jaron overheard that Robb planned to sell Harpy out and to deliver her to Mullendore.

This angered both of them and they kicked in Robb's door, shortly after the Tom had left. Though Robb tried to defend himself by claiming to be a mole in Butterfly's organization, Jaron did not believe him and he allowed an enraged Martin to beat Robb, which the sellsword gladly did. They later brought Robb back to the headquarters of the Burned Man, where Robb's story got confirmed.

Together with Harpy, Martin was involved in making a risky plan to take out Butterfly once and for all. Jaron and Robb were supposed to deliver her to the Tom and to Butterfly, as ordered, while the urchin Himani Sand was supposed to follow them and to later lead Martin to their location, together with a group of fighters, which Martin was sent to assemble.

In the following, he played his part well. Martin managed to win the renowned sellsword Ayden Blackwell for the Burned Man, as well as a couple of other fighters, among them Samantha Ducard and the Ghiscari slavers Abbas al-Yunkari and Bakr al-Astapori. He led them to the warehouse where Butterfly was located, attacking the supposed crimelord and taking him down. Though agreeing that the man deserved it, he was reluctant to watch Harpy actually killing Butterfly afterwards.

### The Iron Price

After the victory over Butterfly, Martin celebrated together with the others. He introduced Jaron to Keira and the three shared a drink, together with the slaver Bakr. It was Martin's suggestion that eventually moved Jaron to confess his feelings towards Harpy. Later in the evening, he and Keira retreated for his room, which caused him to miss Jaron making his move on Harpy.

### Masquerade

A week after the events of the warehouse attack, Martin accompanied Harpy, Jaron, Keira, Jarek and Ayden to Lord Vyrwel's estate, where the Tom was supposed to strike next. It was planned that Martin and Keira would remain at Harpy's side at all times, as her main bodyguard and handmaiden, respectively. On the way, Jaron and Martin had a talk, where the sellsword complimented Jaron on his recently started relationship to Harpy and the two friends shared a light-hearted talk.

During the mission, Martin stayed at Harpy's side, as planned. He mostly stayed in the background, although he did participate in the fight against the Alley Cats that tried to murder Lord Hightower. Afterwards, he and the rest of the group quickly left the scenery, especially after Harpy brought up the concering theory that Mullendore himself would be Butterfly. To escape, he brought up the plan to take a long route back to their safehous, which would be something Mullendore wouldn't expect.

Ultimately, Jaron decided to take the quickest way possible, through Tanner's Alley. It was there where the Tom and his bodyguard, the Moggy, ambushed them. Shortly later, Mullendore, his underling Jaylon Gordus and half a dozen members of the city guard arrived as well. Mullendore made sure that they would know how serious he is about killing them when he killed the urching Himani Sand right in front of their eyes.

While he offered Harpy a way to escape, she refused and attacked him by surprise. This caused a fight to break out, during which Martin and Keira both took on the Tom. However, the masked man quickly proved to be too skilled for both, when he killed Keira with a throwing knife. The death of his lover sent Martin into a frenzy and he attacked the Tom without any regards for his own safety, up until he received a severe wound in his abdomen.

Nonetheless, Martin was far from defeated. After Jaron killed Jaylon Gordus and got into a fight with the Tom, he intervened, to save Jaron's life. For a bit, they fought side by side against the Tom, though with both of them being wounded, this proved to be futile. Knowing that his wounds would likely be fatal anyway, Martin offered Jaron a way out. He attacked the Tom and kept him busy, allowing Jaron to escape. This selfless sacrifice claimed his life, when the Tom killed him shortly afterwards.

### Valar Morghulis

While not seen in this chapter, Martin's fate was confirmed. In his talk with Harpy, Hishi's second-in-command, Lanford, revealed that Martin was decapitated and that his head was put at a stake in front of the Hightower, next to the heads of Keira, Jarek, Himani and all the others who died on that day.

## Appearance

Martin is noted for his boyish handsomeness. Looking a bit younger than he actually is, Martin has short, brown hair and clean cheeks, as well as soft skin. His eyes are unusually coloured, with the left one being brown and the right one being blue. He also has a short scar on his forehead.

Typically, Martin can be seen in common clothing, though he never forgets to wear protection, in form of leather or chainmail underneath. He also likes to carry his weapons, two short swords, with him whenever he feels it is necessary.

## Personality

Martin's key character trait is his sense of humour. He doesn't seem like the person who takes anything seriously. Always with a lighthearted joke on his lips, it is rare to find Martin in a serious, or even sad mood. That said, Martin is not as shallow as he appears initially. He has a firm sense of duty and comradeship and many find him easily likeable. He is brave, compassionate and cares for his friends, for whom he would not hesitate to risk his life. In general, Martin is a good friend, who is genuinely happy whenever those he cares for succeed. He is loyal and even though he is a sellsword, there are many moral lines he would not cross.

## Relationships

### Jaron

Jaron and Martin started off on slightly bad terms, when the sellswords sarcasm initially annoyed the hedge knight. The fact that a majority of his jokes were targeted at Jaron did not help. However, when the two left on a mission together, they noticed many similarities and quickly became friends. From there on, their friendship constantly improved, up to the point where they considered each other best friends at the time of the masquerade ball. Eventually, Martin even managed to give Jaron time to escape from the alleyway massacre, at the cost of his own live. Jaron was deeply saddened by the loss of his friend and continued to remember and honour his sacrifice.

### Keira

Martin met Keira soon after his arrival in Oldtown, where he booked her services for the night. Noticing her beauty, he returned the following nights and the whore started to enjoy his company as well. They started a physical relationship, though the more they spent time with each other, the more they actually developed feelings for each other. Keira was fascinated by Martin's decency, while Martin was surprised and intrigued by Keira's gentle heart. It took them a while, but they eventually confessed their love for each other and started a genuine relationship, even if both tried to play it off as a casual fling. Keira's death at the hands of the Tom broke Martin and caused him to attack her killer without any regards for his own safety.

### Harpy

Martin and Harpy first met when he was assigned to be her bodyguard during her errands through Oldtown. Both quickly got along, as their sense of humour matched and they formed a good team. Over the months they spent working together, Martin started to consider her as the little sister he never had. Harpy also considered him as one of the few people she would trust unconditionally. Martin greatly cared for her, a feeling that was mutual.

### The Tom

Martin and the Tom had met in the past, during a mission in Essos, where they found themselves on opposing sides. A fight broke out and the Tom killed several of Martin's companions, for which the sellsword still hates him. When the fight in the alleyway broke out, Martin did not hesitate to face him once again. During this fight, the Tom would kill Keira, which greatly enraged Martin. In the end, his skill was not enough and he was slain by the masked man.