Maric Stark

Serena Stark

Brandon Stark

**Maric Stak** is the second son of Lord Rickard and Lysara Stark. He is often regarded as pensive, serious, and irascible -- qualities that support a woeful reputation. Among Maric's more divisive opinions is his marriage to two women, Johanna Redwyne, and his cousin, Alys Manderly.

## Appearance

Dark of hair, gray eyed, and pale complected; Maric is a striking suggestion of House Stark's bloodline. The gray in his left eye is deep, so much so that it is often mistaken as black outside of direct light that would otherwise reveal a vivid, smoke color.

Maric is tall and wears an icy, joyless expression expected of his house. However, Maric is broad, not slender and his shoulders are wide and his physicality is stiffened sinew. Appropriate to his alias, Maric often dresses in black and dark drab. He has wide, gnarled hands and solid lips.

However, his most recognized feature is a duo of scars that have ruined the right half of his face; the first across his eye, the second across his lips. While it is believed he still has use of the eye, the iris and pupil have dulled white and are faintly discernible.

## History

**384 AC:** Maric Stark is born the second son and child of Lord Rickard and Lysara Stark. He is healthy with drawing, deep, grey eyes. Maric would later be remembered as the easiest and calmest babe of his siblings.

**389 AC:** In glaring contrast to his infancy, Maric grows into an active boy with a strong imagination and a talent for trouble. Although sharp and well meaning, Maric is only obedient to Lord and Lady Stark, and vexes the household greatly. The Maester attributes Maric’s wild nature to the affliction of ‘Wolf’s Blood.’

**390 AC:** Maric is sent to foster with House Royce of Runestone. He comes to nurture a love and talent for both climbing and hunting, the latter of which reminds him of home and his father. Maric develops a strong sword hand, and though he’s fond of the Vale and his distant cousins in the Eyrie, he is unsatisfied by knightly and courtly, southern customs. Maric is short tempered with the many of the youth his own age, and experiences frequent altercations; though is otherwise content.

**397 AC:** Nearly a man at an age of three and ten, the Winterfell household celebrates the return of a calmer second son. However, it later becomes apparent that Maric’s wild temperament was not relieved, but rather developed with his adulthood. Although no longer a household mencae, Maric skips lessons to spar and hunt, and begins philandering with the girls in the winter town.

**401 AC:** At the request of his aunt, Lady Jeyne Manderly, Maric accompanies her young son and heir, Lucas, to King’s Landing to escort his sister home to White Harbor; a girl who was fostered in the Arbor. Maric’s distaste for all things southern put the already unlikable Stark into a foul mood. When he meets his cousin Alys, however, a girl he had not seen since she was barely three, Maric becomes immediately infatuated. And then again, when he is introduced to a girl she names ‘sister,’ the daughter of Lord Redwyne.

Maric, a young wolf with a reputation for yard violence and unfamiliar, pretty girls, is enraptured by the pair, and spends his nights with each and both at once. When the party sails for White Harbor, they do so with the addition of both girls together.

Both Lord and Lady Stark are infuriated with Maric, and though his mother insists on sending Johanna Redwyne back to King’s Landing with some dozen riders, Rickard will not have it. By the year’s end, Maric and Johanna are married in the Godswood.

**402 AC:** The rapture and happiness of their new marriage does not wane in the coming months. Still, Maric leaves for the Wall to serve his five, determined to be done with the charge as quickly as possible. Although the sword was not meant for him, Maric’s elder brother entrusts Longclaw to him at his departure.

**403 AC:** Maric is allowed a short return to Winterfell where he meets his son, an infant boy named Rendon. He is relieved to find that Alys has been staying with Johanna in his absence.

**404 AC:** Maric establishes himself as an exceptional ranger, and while he enjoys the benefits of his family name, he is made an officer at the Nightfort where he serves under his uncle. Maric is an active ranger, and demonstrates little regard or pity for the wildlings. He is soon styled the “Blackwolf” by various clans and settlements, a name that is too coined by the Watch itself.

**407 AC:** Maric’s years as an unsworn brother of the Night’s Watch are violent and dark. He is sent to serve his remaining months at the less eventful Shadow Tower.

On his return to Winterfell, and each visit prior, Maric finds Alys the fast ‘sister’ of his wife, Johanna. The three are inseparable again, as they had been in King’s Landing so many years ago. To much controversy and scrutiny, Maric takes Alys as his second wife.

**411 AC:** Though news of a War with the Free Cities came to the North years prior, it is not until 411 that an army of the North is assembled, joining the Knights of the Vale to enter the war on the Northern Theater.

While the Sealord is away, the combined force begins by assaulting the Free City of Braavos. Maric is credited as the first to scale the Titan and enter his halls in the attacks opening moments.

**412 AC:** Maric fights in the Battle of Northern Andalos. After a punishing victory, a small hose of Northmen, Maric among them, break off from the North and Vale armies, and make east for Norvos where the Battle of the Bells will take place.

**413 AC:** As one captain of three, Maric commands a flanking assault on the Volantene garrison during the Battle of Sorrows. The violence is haunting and bloody and brutal. The Northmen are unable to hold the garrison for longer than a fortnight, and are forced inland to the hills by the Lhorulu where they are eventually encircled for weeks and months until the Battle in the Bones.

**414 AC:** The armies of Westeros return home, and Maric back to Winterfell.

**417 AC:** Many northern lords ignore the call for a king’s celebration, and though Maric would be counted among them, he accompanies his wives and a modest northern host to the capital.

## Possessions

### Animal Companions

* *Sunder* - Sunder is an old, sturdy garron. He's solidly built and his coat is brindled -- a rich mahogany stripped across a lighter chestnut.
* *Ash* - Ridden for hunting and war, Ash is a young, courser, mare. She is lean and firmly muscled, and named for her dark, coal-gray coat.

### Weapons

* *Longclaw* - Once the ancestral sword of House Mormont, Longclaw is a bastard sword made from Valyrian steel. The blade is rippled a dark, heavy gray and the pommel is a black wolf's head shaped from black iron.

### Other

* *Helmet* - Maric wears an interesting helmet forged from black iron, a dull, matte material. The back and neck are protected by a wide, lobstered brim and the crown centered by a short, sharp, fin. The face is set with a narrow visor and vents narrower still.

## Connections

* *Johanna Stark* - Maric's first wife and mother to his first born. Intimidating and strikingly beautiful, Maric was infatuated with Johanna from the moment he met her.
* *Alys Stark* - Cousin and second wife. Alluring and eerie at once, Alys is the only woman who could compete with Johanna for Maric's affection.
* *Lyanna Stark* - A daughter of Lord Mormont that Maric safeguarded while on the Wall. The incident left Maric with a faint, protective impression.
* *Aemma Arryn* - Distant cousin and Lady of the Eyrie. Younger than him by some years, Maric's uncharacteristic amity for his family extends to Arryn's of the Vale.

## Rumours

* Does not drink wine or other alcohols.
* Commanded the butcher and rape of a village on the Milkwater.
* Performs dark rituals to the Great Other, learned Beyond the Wall.
* Credited as the first climber into the Titan of Braavos during the Bleeding Titan.
* Other rumors concern cannibalism and bestial brutality.