'From Dusk to Dawn'
The Darklyns of Duskendale are an ancient house with a pedigree that stretches back to the Age of Heroes, when they reigned as petty-kings of the First Men around Blackwater Bay. Though their time as 'Shadow Kings' came to an end when the Andals reached the continent's shores millennia ago, the Darklyns were able to survive by bending the knee to the invading warlords who overpowered them and converting to their God-of-Seven, remaining loyal to each new overlord (including the Hoares of the Iron Isles, who were certainly not among the Faith of the Seven) while pursuing their own interests where they could and once even expanding their dominion into Crackclaw Point while they were bound to the Storm Kings of House Durrandon. This was said to be the origin of their house words - however dark the night might become for House Darklyn, it always found a new way or at least, a new overlord to revive its fortunes, just as dusk and night are eventually banished by the dawn. This pattern changed little many years later when Aegon the Conqueror arrived with intent to weld the entire continent into a new kingdom for himself: at the command of the Iron King Harren the Black, their last pre-Targaryen overlord, the then-Lord Darklyn rode out to confront him together with Lord Rosby and was promptly defeated, after which his son hastily bent the knee to the first of the Dragon Kings. The Darklyns have since served the Targaryens as loyally as they did most of their previous overlords, and seven Darklyns joined the Kingsguard over the past two-and-a-half centuries, a service that their patriarchs recognized by adding seven white shields on red to the traditional sable fusily on yellow that formed their house's arms.
For the past 100 years, the Darklyns have generally stood with their original Targaryen masters in their wars against their illegitimate Blackfyre kin, as they had once followed the Hoares' marching orders before exchanging their tyranny for less malevolent Targaryen overlordship. In recent times however, Aerys II Targaryen burned down the Great Sept of Baelor and in so doing murdered the previous High Septon: the previous Lord Darklyn, a pious middle-aged man who had never been particularly robust, experienced a fatal heart attack upon receiving the news. His son and heir Denys, a similarly devout young man, promptly affiliated House Darklyn with the nascent 'Holy League' of lords in the Crownlands who heeded the new High Septon's furious condemnation of Aerys and the Targaryen line, and has added the strength of Duskendale to the armies of House Baratheon as they march to claim the Iron Throne with the Faith's backing.
| Lord Denys Darklyn | 
Age: 25 (born 244 AL)
Skills: (7 pts to start, being 25) +2 Duel, +2 Survival, +1 Charisma, +1 Battles, +1 Joust
Denys is the eldest son of Lord Devan Darklyn, a pious and kindly man of fragile constitution, and his lady wife Falyse (nee Darke), a more robust woman whose house was a cadet branch of the mainline Darklyns: from the former he inherited the traditional Darklyn dark-grey eyes, though of his siblings he is the only one to have gained the latter's dark brown hair, as opposed to their father's true black. From a young age Denys was educated in not just martial pursuits and stewardship as most lords' heirs are, but also in the tenets of the Faith of the Seven, per special instructions from his devout father. 'A proper lord and true knight must exhibit the seven virtues of the gods', Duskendale's septon and Lord Devan had always told him: to be just like the Father but also to temper judgment with the Mother's mercy, to be chaste like the Maiden and wise like the Crone, as valorous as the Warrior and diligent as the Smith, and as unafraid of death as the Stranger that brings it, for all men must meet the gods someday. Denys certainly took the latter virtues seriously, as he grew up to be a brash lad - not one who lacked bravery or heart, as he tried his utmost to demonstrate the Warrior's courage in daring games with fellow pages & squires as well as the Father's justice and the Mother's mercy when he sat on his father's councils, but one who could certainly have listened a lot more to the voice of the Crone and seemed to treat his life lightly, as if the Stranger's touch was not something he thought of much if at all. At age thirteen, when brigands ambushed his father's party on the road to one of their vassals' keeps, despite having been a squire for only one year Denys hastily charged into the fray and killed his first man by accident more than anything, tripping over a tree's roots and burying his first sword in a bandit's chest: and upon being seized as a hostage by one of the man's compatriots, he proudly proclaimed that he had no fear for the Stranger's coming and bit the brigand's hand, which by another stroke of luck saved his life - it gave his father's knights an opportunity to cut the man down and free him. That said, he would later insist the Warrior was obviously guiding him throughout the entire experience instead of everything he did having paid off by sheer good fortune, and years later he at least matured into a competent warrior by the time he received a knighthood, though his recklessness and thirst for battle continued to mar both his fighting ability and tactical leadership.
In recent days, Denys found himself in his father's seat much sooner than he had expected when Lord Devan felt the Stranger's touch in the aftermath of Aerys II's burning of the Great Sept of Baelor, dropping dead of a massive heart attack at the news. Filled with righteous wrath at the desecration of the holy site, and blaming the Mad King for indirectly causing his father's death, Denys openly praised Aerys' death at the hand of the Kingsguard Lyonel Arryn and led his family in praying that the Seven would forgive him in the afterlife for having to break his oath to do so, while also calling off his father's plans to arrange his marriage to a Myrish lady by the name of Serala on account of her 'heathenry'. When the new High Septon proclaimed the Targaryens anathema to the Faith and called upon faithful lords to disobey them, Lord Denys wasted no time in affiliating his house with the 'Holy League', an organization of like-minded devout Crownlands lords who rejected continued Targaryen overlordship, and when Steffon Baratheon's claim to the Iron Throne was endorsed by the Faith & the Holy Lords marched to aid his cause, Denys followed suit. The seven shields and black fusily of Darklyn can now be found among the banners of the Stag's Crownlander allies, and this dark-haired Shadow Lord rides at his men's head to avenge his father and fulfill the will of the Seven by installing Their chosen atop the Iron Throne. |
| Ser Dontos Darklyn | 
Age: 21 (born 248 AL)
Skills: (6 pts to start) +2 Battles, +2 Scout, +1 Duel, +1 Survival
The second son of Lord Devan Darklyn is no less devout than his father or brother, yet he most highly venerates vastly different aspects of the Seven than the latter. The reserved and studious Dontos has always been the one to caution his brother from his more reckless acts, whether it was trying to convince him not to climb old trees as a child or to rush into battle with little regard for his own safety or the odds as a grown man, and for that Denys has called him numerous names, from spoilsport to craven. Where Denys furiously clashed with other squires, swam in dangerous waters or rode the wildest stallions at Duskendale with full confidence that the Warrior had his back, Dontos thoroughly studied tactics with the Smith's diligence and asked for the Crone to light his way as he waged his own battles with mathematics and history books late at night; and where Denys grew up on tales of the great knights such as Aemon the Dragonknight & Serwyn of the Mirror Shield, Dontos preferred stories of the wise Old King and Septon Barth. While Denys prefers to lead his household knights in song-worthy charges on the battlefield, Dontos always directs the Darklyn men from the rear - a matter of prudence and not cowardice, he has always argued - and prefers to avoid risking his life unless it is absolutely necessary (and even then he's not going to be happy about it). Still, though he understandably resents his moonstruck older kin and believes his careful temperament would better suit the heir to Duskendale, Dontos is keenly aware that the gods mandate loyalty to family & obedience to one's elders, and so he grits his teeth and dutifully bears Denys' foolishness.
Dontos' dearest hope is to become a Septon in his own right and mind holy books or minister to the masses for the rest of his life. However, Denys and their father before them maintained that as the second son, it is the gods' will that he should remain ready to inherit Duskendale until Denys has children of his own to succeed him. |
| Delena Darklyn | 
Age: 18 (born 251 AL)
Skills: (5 pts to start) +3 Charisma, +1 Wealth, +1 Survival
Though she was fat and homely as a child, the youngest Darklyn sibling has witnessed her baby fat gave way to attractive curves as she grew up, and now combined with her long dark curls, the haunting dark grey eyes of her house and porcelain skin, she can properly claim her place as one of House Darklyn's proud beauties. Though no less religious than her brothers, due to the difficulty the other noble girls gave her over her looks Delena does not venerate the Maiden above the other aspects of the Seven, having instead (much like the middle brother, Dontos) placed most of her faith in the Mother who she identified with her own kindly mother, the Smith as her tutors taught her sums & history, and the Crone as she sought clever ways to make those who mocked her sorry. That said, her faith was sorely tested over the past year her father Devan tried to arrange her marriage to Jon Hollard, the steward at the Dun Fort whose family had loyally served the Darklyns for centuries, but she opposed the marriage both publicly and in her prayers: even she had to admit Hollard was not a cruel or disloyal man, but he was as old as Devan and she simply felt no attraction to him, having considered him something of a second father but nothing more as she grew up. She was decidedly less than pleased when her aforementioned prayers came true in the worst possible way, with her father dying of a sudden heart attack following the destruction of the Great Sept of Baelor and her brother considering using her to set up a more advantageous marriage alliance.
Being a bookworm like Dontos, Delena has never had much stomach for violence - though her eldest brother Denys blames that on her witnessing a knight being killed by his competitor on the very first jousting field she visited. Nowadays, mindful of the results of her reckless prayers for salvation from a betrothal to old Jon Hollard, she now finds herself praying to all aspects of the Seven to keep her brothers safe as they set out to support Steffon Baratheon's claim to the Iron Throne at the head of Duskendale's banners, even if it comes at the cost of suffering the mockery of the other noble ladies of the court again. |
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