Johanna Stark

## Lady of Winterfell

Serena Stark

Alaric Stark†

Brandon Stark

**Johanna Stark** (née Redwyne) is the eldest daughter of Lord Meryn Redwyne and the first wife of Maric Stark, the Blackwolf. Controversially, she is involved in a polygamous marriage with her husband and his second wife, Alys Manderly.

## Appearance

The gilded vineyards of the Arbor are a childhood dream, where the summertime sun turns pale skin peachy and lazy days are spent sampling from casks of sultry red and saccharine gold. It was here that Johanna spent pieces of her childhood, carried between her island paradise and the drab streets of King’s Landing where her father served on the Small Council of the one they called the Merciful.

The Blackwolf’s Wife is their name for her below the Neck, and in the North whispers of “southern whore” crawl down her back. They have long ceased to turn her blood hot. A decade spent within the walls of Winterfell has taken the summer glow from her skin but not the light in her eyes, bright as wildfire. Copper hair that once hung freely about her shoulders is now more often twisted into braids, turning to pure flame whenever it catches the sunlight. What she lacks in height she makes up for in demeanor which, coupled with the smooth rasp of her voice, more often than not means she always gets what she wants.

## History

**387 AC:** Johanna Redwyne is born on a hazy summer afternoon at the Arbor, the eldest daughter of Lord Meryn Redwyne and his lady wife. The babe is marked by a shock of red hair and wide, curious eyes, like polished Essosi emeralds.

**393 AC:** From an early age, Johanna’s interest was always in books (literacy) more than numbers or needlepoint. The hours after lessons were spent within the Arbor’s vast library, curled up in an armchair and poring over an innumerable amount of tomes.

**398 AC:** A shy northern girl by the name of Alys Manderly arrives to foster at the Arbor for three years. Their grandfathers had been fast friends, and so Johanna and Alys strike up a friendship that eventually turns into innocent childhood love.

**401 AC:** A party from White Harbor arrives in the capital where Johanna’s father serves as Master of Ships. They were sent to retrieve Alys, and with them was Maric Stark, the second son of Lord Rickard. The infatuation is immediate (seductive).

Although he hails from the foreign North and is the furthest from the chivalrous knights she and Alys had spent the long summer admiring, Johanna falls hard and fast. She leaves a note for her father to find and boards a ship to White Harbor.

Despite the fervent disapproval of Maric’s mother and the threats of her father that arrive nearly every moon by raven from the South, Johanna marries him at the turn of the year beneath the weirwood tree in Winterfell’s godswood.

**402 AC:** For a wedding gift, Maric presented Johanna with a gelding who was both gentle of temper and swift as the wind. Having never been much good at it, she insists that he teach her to ride properly, and in no time joins he and the other men on hunts.

**403 AC:** Johanna and Maric’s first child is born early in the year, a son named Rendon. He is an angry, red, squalling thing with a shock of dark hair and eyes as turbulent as a winter storm. Maric is briefly allowed to return to Winterfell from the Wall to see the babe.

**404 AC:** On the eve of the fourth moon, in a tumultuous and bloody affair, Johanna suffers a miscarriage. The maester determines that the jarring motion from riding her gelding, Rumirin, was the cause and she is left distraught for nearly a fortnight.

**407 AC:** Maric returns from his five year conscription at the Wall, much to Johanna’s relief. Nine months from the day, a girl named Lyarra is born. She has the red hair and bright eyes of her mother, but her mannerisms are distinctly Stark-like.

**407 AC:** In a similar ceremony to her own, Maric weds his cousin and Johanna’s childhood lover Alys Manderly, an unusual practice that hadn’t been implemented in several hundreds of years. Controversial as it was, the marriage was sanctioned by his parents and hers both.

**409 AC:** Serena Stark comes into the world after a stressful labor, but mother and child are quick to recover. Unlike her sister, she has the looks and airs of her father’s family but the tender nature of her mother. She prefers needlepoint over swords and arrows.

**411 AC:** A second son is born to the Blackwolf and his wife, but his tiny body had yet to finish forming and his lungs not yet strong enough to work. He never even takes his first breath. Johanna names him Alaric, and he is buried in the crypts beneath Winterfell.

The incident leaves Johanna silent and angry. She spends most of her days and nights locked in her solar or praying in the small sept that had been built for the wife of Ned Stark. The only person to whom she will speak is Jorah Cassel, master-of-arms.

**412 AC:** Much to the maester’s chagrin, Johanna becomes pregnant a seventh time. Like his elder brother, Brandon Stark is wild as a wolf, with the dark hair of his father and wide green eyes. Unlike his brother, he is coddled by his parents, the baby of the family.

**413-415 AC:** With Maric away at war, Johanna tends to the task of raising her children and in doing so grows closer to the woman whose acceptance she thought she might never earn, the wife of Lord Rickard and her husband’s mother.

**417 AC:** Johanna accompanies the Stark party to King’s Landing for the first time in sixteen years to attend the celebration of the old king’s nameday. Though she has no interest in feasts and tourneys, she *is* determined to make amends with her family.

## Possessions

### Animal Companions

* Rumirin, a sweet-tempered dappled grey gelding affectionately known as Rumi, named after her favorite knight’s horse as a child.

### Trinkets

* The weirwood wedding band given to her by Maric who took it from the tree in Winterfell’s godswood, chased in polished black iron.

### Other

* A nondescript book bound in dark red leather with gilded page edges, the contents of which are unbeknownst to anyone but Johanna.

## Connections

* Maric Stark - the second son of Lord Rickard; husband.
* Alys Manderly - childhood friend turned lover, now second wife to her husband.
* Wallace Redwyne - estranged brother; the heir to the Arbor.
* Selyse Redwyne - younger sister and close confidant.

## Rumours

* Johanna is an enchantress and bewitched Maric Stark when they were both young, It is the only plausible reason he would marry a southerner.
* She lays with both men and women, a distasteful practice that better suits a Dornishman than a lady of good breeding.

## Quotes

* "I was not born in the North, but I was made there."

## Recent Events

1. Iron and Ice: Part I
2. Iron and Ice: Part II
3. Iron and Ice: Part III
4. In the Hall of the Dragon King