Harlan Tollett

Harlan Tollett was born on a stormy night to Wylla Karstark, Lady of the Grey Glen. His father, Byram, named him in honor of his great- grandfather. Harlan was a precocious child, climbing from his crib to play on the floor as soon as he was able. His acrobatics concerned his mother but delighted his father, whose clumsy nature made fighting afoot difficult. Byram endeavored to turn Harlan into the swordsman he never was, and allowed his bastard uncle to teach the boy. The uncle, one Brynden Stone, had fought ably in the Rebellion and the War of the Wicked. He showed Harlan all he knew, and, by the time he came of age, the young man was an exceptionally capable duelist.

In 247 AC, Harlan traveled to King’s Landing with his father, uncle, and sister to witness Maelys Blackfyre’s coronation. He was too young to enter the lists and the melee, so he contented himself with conversing with the great lords and ladies who populated the stands at those events. His childish nature made it easy to let one’s guard down, and he overheard enough interesting tidbits about the state of the realm to relate to his family. His listening paid off when he found out that a Dornish lord’s son was not his, but has been fathered by a minor Blackfyre cousin. Harlan never did anything with this information, but he learned that simply listening in could give him an edge that armor and sword could not. He also knew that his youth was the only reason why adults felt comfortable talking around him, and that this advantage wouldn’t last forever. Before he left the city, he made friends with a young page in the Red Keep, who often brought wine and food to the Small Council chamber, and maintained that relationship whenever he returned to the city.

At age 18, Harlan toured the Vale to meet a potential bride. Along the way, he stopped at Ninestars for the night. A mile from the isolated castle, his party was set upon by Burned Men. Harlan, unhorsed by a rock to the breastplate, killed the band’s leader in single combat, and drove off the rest. His heroism was witnessed by the Templeton honor guard, and the Knight of Ninestars knighted him that evening.

Harlan’s travels eventually found him in the Stormlands, where he visited Storm’s End and the Rainwood. On his way back from the southern forest, he stopped in at Broad Arch for the night. There he met Mara Staedmon. He’d planned on leaving Broad Arch at dawn the next day, but he found himself unable to leave the young woman behind. Harlan propositioned her after a day of riding through the Staedmon lands, during which he learned that his feelings were mutual. Mara was as lonely in Broad Arch as he was in the Grey Glen, and the two bonded over their shared wish to see the realm. The two wed the next month in Grey Glen, after their families consented to the marriage.

After his marriage, Harlan and his wife had three children in four years: two sons, Harys and Petyr, and a daughter, Margot. He lived a quiet life, interrupted by trips to the North, Dorne, and the Reach, made more out of curiosity than anything else. The Grey Glen was isolated, and Harlan wished to see the world while he could. His wife and children accompanied him on some, but others he took alone. During his travels, he stopped in King’s Landing often enough to cultivate the relationships he’d begun as a boy at Maelys’ coronation. His efforts created a small ring of loyal informants, who passed him information on the goings-on of the Crown and the capitol. He seldom used the information, preferring to keep it to himself unless it had to do with House Tollett, in which case he told it to his father.

Durran’s Defiance brought three generations of Tollett men to the battlefield. Fighting in Lord Royce’s cavalry, Byram, Harlan, and Harys charged the Stark camp on the Green Fork. Of the three, only Harlan emerged alive. His father, aged but loyal, had died in battle with some Dustin. Harys, a squire to Ser Templeton, was one of the first to fall, dying with an arrow through his visor. He'd been overeager to fight, and snuck onto a horse when his master left to form up in the battle line. Harlan found himself in single combat with Lord Stark’s bodyguards, who were protecting the man after he lost his arm to Lord Arryn. He was prevented from finishing the job by Lord Umber’s desperate charge, and would have lost his own life had he not been pulled into the Green Fork by Sargon Pyke, a wandering freerider who had joined the rebels. Harlan rewarded Sargon with a knighthood and a place in his house, and the two became close friends in the years following the battle.

The Vale’s humiliation after the Defiance hit the Grey Glen hard. The reparations demanded by the victorious rebels nearly bankrupted House Tollett, and, by 280 AC, Harlan was jsut managing to recover some semblance of the wealth his lineage had owned before the war. That same year, Harlan and his wife traveled to King’s Landing to witness the ascension of Daemon III Blackfyre to the Iron Throne. There, they pleadged their fealty to the new King. Harlan made a name for himself in the melee, defeating Ulrick Dayne, Luthor Tarly, Robb Mallister, and Lewyn Martell before losing to Robin Roxton of the Kingsguard.