Leona Woolfield, Lady of Ramsgate

Leona in 98 A.C

Leona in 130 A.C

Warrick Woolfield (b. 101)

Kyra Woolfield (b. 102)

Thorren Woolfield (b. 104)

Bennard Woolfield (b. 106)

Alys Woolfield (b. 109)

Leona Woolfield is the Lady of Ramsgate, having become her father's heir when her elder sister, Kyra Woolfield, married the Warrick Manderly, Heir of White Harbour. She is married to Harlon Umber, with whom she has seven children

### Appearance and character

Leona is a short woman of moderate proportions.

50 years and seven childbirths have left their mark on Leona. She has grown heavier and wearier, but her eyes have never once lost their spark of brightness. Even as her hair greys and age her years catch up with her just as they did with her father before her, she remains the determined and sensible head of her house.

Her sister's marriage was a sudden change for the both of them, as Leona suddenly gained the position as her father's heir, one she had grown up without ever expecting to hold. This did not however, leave her unprepared for the task ahead, as she had been educated to run a castle, even though she never expected it to be Ramsgate. It changed her outlook on her situation. While having a good relationship with her sister, she'd always harboured a feeling, knowingly or not, that she was standing in her shadow. When faced with the new state of affairs, she accepted it wholeheartedly. Though not a very outgoing person, she made an effort to be a more open person since becoming heiress. While by no means socially inept, she did not greatly enjoy large and prolonged social occasions

As she grew older and wiser, becoming the matriarch of her family, she would begin to shed her previously shyness. While still a reserved woman, she has gained the confidence and authoritative stature expected of the leader of a noble house

## Biography

### Early Life

The second daughter of Bennard and Alys Woolfield and their last child, Leona was raised at Ramsgate with her sister Kyra. They were largely educated together, however Leona started later and was under lesser scrutiny. The same expectations did not apply to a second daughter as an heiress, and her parents had a tendency to dote on her a bit more as their youngest. Perhaps because of this, she was not given a military education, however as a voracious reader Leona studied up on siegecraft and fortifications in her own time. Her comparatively smaller ammount of oversight and duties gave her time to pursue the fields she studied in greater depth, branching out into more specific fields of knowledge. She accompanied her sister riding and hunting on occasion but was a far more casual and amateurish outdoorswoman, treating hunts more like a passtime than a sport. While following the Old Gods, she was taught about the Faith of The Seven from a septa, and participates in many of its rituals as a vassal of the Manderlys

### Two weddings and a funeral

When the outbreak of shivering sickness set in at Ramsgate, Leona was but a girl, even while on the verge of adulthood. Her father would put her in quarantine and seclusion for her own safety even as her mother and elder sister remained to nurse the sick. The helplessness she felt while cut off from the outside world as people died in droves would leave a deep and lasting impact on Leona. Unable to do anything as the sickness ravaged her homeland and claimed her mother's life, she would dwell on this event long into the nights for years to come. One of her greatest concerns is still how to prevent or mitigate a new outbreak of the inexplicable disease.

In 96 A.C her father and sister went to White Harbour on business. Leona asked to be allowed to join them, but was told to remain at Ramsgate for reasons yet unbeknownst to her. Within a few weeks everything became apparant. While her sister was away, Harlon Umber, the brother of the Lord of Last Hearth would arrive at Ramsgate as a guest. Leona had suspicions that he had been invited as a potential suitor by her father, though she wondered why he would consider a second son as her husband. The reason revealed itself when news arrived from White Harbour that Kyra was to marry Warrick Manderly, Heir of White Harbour itself. This sudden change in positions struck Leona by surprise, yet she was no less excited than she was dazed. Shortly after her sister's wedding she would marry Harlon Umber at Ramsgate in the middle of 97 A.C, shortly after her 18th nameday. Ever since that time she has been preparing to be a lady, now in her own right, ruling her ancestral home

### Marriage and adult life

Leona and Harlon got along well as a couple and her marriage in itself did not present any great challange. If anything it proved her sole spot of normalcy in these new, changing times. Her father's attention became more focused on her as the new heiress, his expectations rising in accordance, and though she did her best to prove herself worthy of the title, she found that he was constantly fussing over small matters and micromanaging excessively, speaking to her as if she had not been listening for the past two decades. Things didn't much improve when she learned that she was with child, a fact she hid from her father for well after a month after she learned of it herself. If her father had been micromanaging before, now it broke all previous boundries. Leona started to feel trapped in her own home as her day was laid out for her to an excruciating level of detail, with her father scheduling her entire day for her so as not to endanger the child. She grew more frustrated with his excessive control which ended up having the opposite effect, the stress causing her to fall ill in the final couple of moons before the child was to be born. She spent this time quarantined once again, and neither she nor her father attended the council at White Harbour. Finally in the early 6th moon she gave birth to a daughter named Ella. Having finally cleared one major ordeal, she would confront her father and demand that he ease his grip on her daily life. After a heated argument he eventually relented. The two would attend the council at Karhold together after this

Following their return from Karhold, Lord Bennard would extend an olive branch to his daughter, beginning the slow process of mending trust between the two in earnest. This opened for Leona to assume a more active role has heiress, allowing her to present several belated economic plans she'd had ample time to prepare while confined to her quarters. Seeing the renewed potential Ramsgate had attained under her Father's tenure as lord, she sought to build on these foundations, aiming to provide the sheep farmers and fullers that provided the greatest source of Woolfield incomes with their own market town from which they might sell their goods directly rather than having to make the journey to White Harbour a few times a year. The village of Fulton by The Cove, which already served as Ramsgate's main port, was chosen as the most eligible for a town charter.

Supported in her endavours by her sister Kyra, who was married to the heir of White Harbour. Leona would embark upon her project to turn Fulton into the new population centre of her lands. During a mysterious outbreak of flux in White Harbour, she would host her infant Nephew Darryn, helping keep her sister's son safe. It was during this time she discovered that she was once again with child, this time carrying her future son and heir. Shortly thereafter, she and her family would have to return to White Harbour as The North entered its brief war with the self-proclaimed Queen of The Trident, leaving only Lord Bennard and his garrison to defend Ramsgate castle. Leona feared for her father in this time, but her fears were soon abated when the war ended just as quickly as it had begun. She returned home, giving birth to her first son at the end of the year 99 A.C and naming him Theodan after the recently crowned King in The North.

Not long after the birth of her son, the town would be completed in the first year of the new century. In the five years to come, Fulton would become a burgeoning hub of trade and a focal point of the annual fleece fairs. The family's good fortune would continue throughout the first half of the new decade, as in addition to financial prosperity, the family would also grow rapidly. Leona had three more children that spring, Warrick, Kyra and Thorren, all of whom were healthy babes, and she made it through each birth without complication, though the rapid succession of pregnancies would leave their marks.

The arrival of summer had been greatly anticipated, but proved a false hope. Though The North would see some of its warmest weather in living memory when the season began, this proved to be more of a curse than a blessing as a lack of downpour coupled with the heat would lead to drought. Access to the coast would alleviate some of the suffering caused by the drought for the vassals of White Harbour as it allowed the people to supplement their diets with fish. Advised by Leona, Lord Bennard would import grain and fodder from Essos at the outset of the drought, but this practice eventually proved too costly to keep up. Ramsgate did not see any large scale starvation, however many of its valuable sheep had to be prematurely slaughtered to feed the beleaguered farmers. Leona's last two children were born during this summer. Her last son, Bennard, named after his grandfather, would be born in 106 without difficulty. However Leona's final childbirth was as dramatic as her first, as bringing her last daughter into the world nearly cost her life. She was bedridden for months after Alys was born, after which Maester Tello informed her this child would be her last. This did not phase her however, as she remembered her mother's struggle just to have two daughter. With seven healthy children she was more than content, not to mention exhausted

113 A.C would be a grim reminder of the past, as plague once again struck White Harbour. Meanwhile, Lord Bennard's health was deterriorating, though for different reasons, his rheumatism intensifying to the point where he could no longer walk due to the intense pain it caused in his joints. It was in this troubled time that Leona assumed full regency of the city. Thankfully her kin in the city were wise enough to close it down, however the lack of dragonblight outside the city lead Leona to fear that her own town could be infected by sea. Ships that wanted to dock in Fulton would henceforth have to stay at anchor for 30 days and not make landfall until this period was expired. While commerce declined significantly because of the rumours of plague, there were those that still insisted on docking in Fulton. When one ship tried to break with orders, Leona had to blockade her own port using her levy fleet to deny them entry. Another time, a group of sailors were caught trying to sneak onto land in a rowboat. They were burned on a pyre, visible to their crewmates from the coast, to prevent the spread of plague and send a clear message

The next year saw the dragonblight pass and White Harbour and Fulton would gradually relax measures against it, though their harsh response would lead to commerce being slow to return. Instead a different kind of ships began to arrive; pirates. Though they dared not attack the walls of White Harbour directly, Ramsgate and other vassals of the Manderlys were less fortunate. As raiders from Essos ravaged The North's eastern coast, the situation for the Woolfields reached its most desperate. Bedridden, the ailing Lord Bennard could do nothing to help his kin or people, while Leona's rulership entered its most difficult phase. The levy would be raised, and men were sent to garrison coastal villages. This seemed like effective deterrence in the earliest days, but the pirates quickly adjusted their tactics, concentrating their forces into fewer but far more devestating raiding parties.

In 115 the situation for Ramsgate reached its most desperate point as the raiders breached the defenses of Fulton, engaging the garrison in a bloody street battle that resulted in large numbers of townspeople fleing to Ramsgate castle while their town was looted and set on fire. The blaze took two days to finally put out, with nearly half the town's buildings reduced to charred husks. Rebuilding and the continued upkeep of the full levy began to drain the Woolfield treasury, and the destruction of land and decline in trade did little to better the situation. As talks began between the King In The North and the Iron Throne, Leona held out a silent hope that the King would kneel, alleviating his people's suffering in the process. Lord Bennard lamented the prospect of losing independence, having lived through the rebellion against the southerners in his youth. In 118 he breathed his last, just a day before word arrived that the The North had formally forfeited independence a week ago. As she grieved, Leona prayed for better times, knowing she had finally become the Lady of Ramsgate at one of its darkest moments in recent history. Since the North rejoined the seven kingdoms, Leona has remained a loyal supporter of the Warden of The North, seeking to maintain the safety and prospertiy of her lands and people as the rebuilding efforts were finally completed and trade resumed as usual.

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### Family

* Bennard Woolfield, father (b. 48 A.C)
* Alys Woolfield, mother (d. 94 A.C)
* Kyra Manderly, sister (b. 76 A.C)
* Harlon Umber, husband (b. 74 A.C)
* Ella Woolfield, daughter (b. 98 A.C)
* Theodan Woolfield, son (b. 11th moon of 99 A.C)
* Warrick Woolfield (b. 101 A.C)
* Kyra Woolfield (b. 102 A.C)
* Thorren Woolfield (b. 104 A.C)
* Bennard Woolfield (b. 106 A.C)
* Alys Woolfield (b. 109 A.C)

## Meta

 4

**Skills:** Finance, Civil Engineering, Leadership, Commerce, Medicine

**Mastery:** Scholar