Weiland Manderly

Lord Weiland Manderly is the current Lord of White Harbor and Warden of the White Knife.

Born a sickly child to Lord Wendel Manderly, Weiland was not expected to survive when he was born. As like his father before him, Lord Wendel Manderly had difficult success in producing a legitimate male heir up to that point, and a considerable amount of gold was spent in finding the best maesters and medical practitioners from in Westeros and across the Narrow Sea.

The Lord Wendel Manderly's efforts paid off, and the young Manderly heir survived; Though there would be some irony in Lord Wendel's efforts, as five years later he bore another son - Weiland's brother, Wyndryck.

As a child, Weiland Manderly was frail and bookish, preferring reading to most activities. This would change in his adulthood, as during adolescence Weiland had a very large growth spurt and grew to be a surprisingly strong and large lad, tall and stocky, with broad shoulders and arms like tree trunks, growing even taller than his brother Wyndryck who was himself a very fit lad. He was known to have squired and aspired to be a knight.

Around age sixteen however, Weiland took two bad falls from a horse; the broken bones of his legs never healed properly and were deformed, and it became clear that it was permanent damage. As he was never knighted properly before that point, Lord Manderly would never be able to add the ancestral title of "Knight of the Order of the Green Hand" to his name - A fact he very much regrets to this day, even in his old age, though his younger brother Wyndryck would lay claim to the title for himself.

Lord Manderly's booksmarts from his youth would prove key when his mother and father, Lord Wendel Manderly and Lady Selyse Manderly, passed away when Weiland was but nineteen years of age due to a boating accident at sea. The young lord took care to listen to the advice of Maester Melwyn of the Citadel, the maester long assigned to White Harbor whom Lord Wendel and Lady Selyse trusted implicitly as almost a member of the family. Although at times an odd and eccentric man whom it was said struck many the wrong way, Maester Melwyn was nonetheless gifted in many of the skills of the chain he wore, even if one among them was the link of Valyrian steel... the sign of one who'd studied the occult, in the tradition of the Maesters.

It was shortly after this time that the young Lord of White Harbor would be set to marry, to ensure hold over White Harbor and that the Manderly line carry on as strong as possible. Fortunately for the young Lord Manderly, the Lady he was set to marry would be one he would get along quite well with, in time, and one which would further solidify House Manderly to the North... Lady L?yanna?? Stark, daughter of Rickon Stark, the returned King in the North who bent the knee to Aegon VI Targaryen, once again restoring peace between the North and South.

The two were a quarrelsome couple at first, though in time they grew to knew each other well. It was not a love as lovestruck young love would be, but stronger... a love of companionship and genuine friendship between the two, as best friends. Thus, although Lady L?yanna?? would at first resist the idea of marriage to the young Lord Weiland, she would eventually be happy to dye her hair green the night before her marriage in the tradition of the female line of the Manderlys to signify her dedication to her husband and new family.

Utilizing White Harbor's key position along the Narrow Sea, with Lord Weiland's silver tongue under Maester Melwyn's tutelage, L?yanna??'s like-minded rationality in business, and his brother Ser Wyndryck's advice on the defense of White Harbor, the sizeable Manderly Fleet grew to arrange very lucrative trade deals and contracts for the North with many other areas of the realm on the Eastern shore, from King's Landing to Gulltown to the Arbor, to even Braavos and beyond, as Lord Manderly employed his business skills to great effect, through srewd trading doing more than his duty to ensure that the North has always had enough supplies as he could muster through White Harbor to tend to the grueling winters of the region.

Despite their success in trade, in recent years the Manderlys of White Harbor have had less success in trade arrangements with the Reach, in particular with the Redwynes of the Arbor. In the year 378, Wylie Manderly, daugher of Lord Weiland Manderly was set to wed Ser Paxton Redwyne of the Arbor in an arrangement which would have brought the two wealthy seafaring houses exceedingly close. The night before the wedding, however, the Redwyne ship \*The Lady Fortune\* was meant to sail the coast along the White Knife, on a celebratory cruise... One the ship never returned from, the ship assumed long wrecked or lost at sea with everyone aboard deceased.

Due to the fact that the vessel itself was never meant to wander far from the coast and certainly never meant to leave the Bite, both the Manderlys and the Redwynes pointed the fingers and blamed each other for the loss of all aboard, including both the Manderly and Redwyne scions as well as Maester Melwyn of White Harbor, who had taken the young Lord Manderly under his wing so many years ago.

The anger between the two houses was fierce at first, but quelled down following the aftermath: The Manderlys citing that the \*The Lady Fortune\* and it's crew were of the Redwyne fleet and that clearly the famed Redwyne fleet's sailors were not as competent at seaworthiness as they claimed, and the Redwynes claiming the Manderlys were careless to let such an important ship sailing within the Bite, so close to the docks of White Harbor go missing when the Manderly fleet was within the bay.

Since then, the relations between the Redwynes and the Manderlys have been cold at best, though due to the sheer amount of trade between the docks of White Harbor and the Arbor such tensions have never boiled to the point of conflict, with both sides trading openly with one another, the profits from trade between Northern and Southern Westeros as well as from the Narrow sea being too lucrative for the two houses to be outright enemies, yet each side remains steadily wary and distrusting of the other.

Very recently, due to the death of the previous Royal Master of Coin who had long served in the position, at the advice of the remaining members of the Small Council, His Grace, King Viserys III Targaryen chose Lord Weiland Manderly as Master of Coin.

As a businessman, Lord Weiland is a rather jovial and charismatic, known for having a very deep, booming laugh and a hearty smile on his face. However, he is occasionally known to have quite the temper to those who anger him, prompting some to say behind closed doors that, "The merman's laugh may always turn to wrath".

Though he is quick to anger in some cases, he is also quick to forgive, and for the most part would rather spend his time eating, drinking and making merriment with various traders and merchants from the South and the East in search of ever more trade dealings, as opposed to waging battles and war.

Given his attitude for business, the Warden of the White Knife has has had much success securing trade and shipping across the Narrow Sea, bringing to the North all manner of trade and fineries from Gulltown, King's Landing, Braavos, Pentos, Lorath, and beyond.

Thus, for his lack of physical prowess in moving from place to place on land, preferring to travel in a litter due to his deformity, he has always felt most at home on the sea... The oceans which have not only given his family so many riches, but have also claimed so many of his kin... and to the sea one day he might return as well, to join them.

Combined with the many cultural ties the Manderlys have to the South as one of the only Northern houses to follow the Faith of the Seven and the fact that the Manderlys hold the only true "city" and major trade port in the North with the cultural mixture any trade city would bring, this has caused some Northerners in the past to think of the Manderlys of White Harbor as not 'truly Northern' in some respects culturally.

Nonetheless, it is well known in the North that despite their cultural differences, House Manderly has always held their honor above all, and always pledged very fierce allegiance to the Starks of Winterfell, taking as much pride in loyalty to the Starks as they do the many titles that the Lord of White Harbor possesses. Thus, the house words of House Manderly reflect their actions in the trade and business of the Manderly Fleet in the city of just as the words reflect the ancient and ancestral debt to the Starks that they honor to this day: "True To Our Word".