Andros Tarth

**Andros Tarth**, known sometimes as the Blood Sapphire, was a Stormlander most famous for his membership to the organisation remembered infamously as the Band of Nine.

## History

A twisted and sadistic child, Andros carried the reputation of the black sheep of Evenfall Hall from a young age. Any horse given to him to ride he whipped raw, his hunting dogs suffered near daily at his hand. At the age of thirteen, he was sparring with his cousin, and had to be pulled away from the squire, who he had beaten within an inch of his life. Whilst a maester tended to his cousin’s numerous wounds, Andros was confined to the Sept by his father, in hope that it would teach the child some humility.

It would prove otherwise. Enraged at his perceived imprisonment, Andros resisted the teachings of Septon Kromley and Septas Mia and Jacelyn, growing ever violent in retaliation. Defacing the sculptures of the Seven in a blind rage, it would be Mia that would next earn his ire. Pummelling the Septa with a broken chair leg,  the holy woman would later die of her injuries, despite the efforts of Evenfall Hall’s maester.

It proved the final straw, although Andros was shown one final mercy in the form of a choice. Opting for Pentos over the Night’s Watch, he was given passage across the Narrow Sea. With naught but his hands to his name, Andros quickly sought work as a mercenary, and in time would find himself serving with the Company of the Cat. Dubbed the Blood Sapphire by his peers, Andros would prove too volatile for the majority of the company’s serjeants and captains, and in 255AA, four years after leaving Evenfall, was discharged from the mercenary group.

Declaring the men of the Company of the Cat to be weak-willed, and unwilling to do what was necessary in times of bloodshed, he instead decided to create a company of his own, naming his band of men Turmoil’s Blade. The company struggled initially, but with another two years had garnered a few regular contract givers, most of which appreciated the dedicated and oft times brutal methods used to achieve long standing results. It proved a reputation that lingered long after Andros’ eventual demise, most notably so for the notorious actions of Turmoil’s Blade during the Slave Revolts lead by Grazdan the Golden, during which the company was responsible for the genocide of nearly eight thousand slaves.

Andros left Turmoil’s Blade in the year of 257AA, realising he could make more coin working as an independent mercenary. Hired by the Great Master Hazkol mo Pahl to train his pitfighters in Meereen, Andros lived the life of lavish luxury, showered in rewards in exchange for his vicious, but undeniably effective tutelage. Whilst visiting the flesh markets on Yaros, Andros found himself uncharacteristically smitten with the isle, yearning for an island of his own.

But even the wealth gathered over the last two years of service to one of the richest families in the Known World would not prove sufficient to fulfil his desire. So instead he began to search elsewhere, an path of enquiry that led him to Salazor Saan and the rest of the group that would become the Band of Nine.

Andros Tarth was amongst those that survived the invasion of Lys by the Tiger Triarch Haelor Staegone, but unlike his associates, did not deem the Stepstones an appropriate location for his island kingdom. Instead, he and his men sailed south in stolen Lyseni cogs, bound for the Summer Isles. Landing upon the Isle of Women, his men ravaged the settlements of the peaceful peoples that called the isle their home and subjugated the populace. In a lavish ceremony, he declared himself King of the Summer Sea. Ruling over the isle for a moon, his appetite for wine, women and wealth grew all the more, and thus his gaze moved to the isles to the south. However, when he tried to expand his kingdom to include Walano, the Zhaqu family rallied a number of peoples from the isles, who unite to expel the Stormlander and his men.

Andros Tarth returned to the Stepstones, having fled the Summer Isles after the uprising by the local populace in response to his attempts to expand his Kingdom. Approaching the territory of Salazor Saan, another of the Nine, he hailed the Lyseni pirate, but found his ship fired upon by volley after volley of arrows, to which the Stormlander fell foul.