Azra Winterthorn

Azra Winterthorn, born 413 AC, has fled from Yunkai and Essos in 438 AC because of continuing problems with "the whole continent and everybody in it". Enslaved as a baby, broken free from slavery because of his personal success, and having lost everything he has established again, Azra has a highly volatile life behind him. Unknown to the Westerlands, but in Essos, rumours go he is a rare bastard of a famous Westerosi-Essosi warlord. As a matter of fact, the young man is indeed a brilliant officer, with a veteran experience and sophisticated understanding of most fields of the military, yet mainly having specialized in logistics and administration. “Azra Winterthorn” is just one of many changing names he has been called by during his life.

Appearance and Character
Azra is of half-Lysene, half-First Men origin, though the latter hardly shows. Relatively small with 5’7”, delicate and sinewy. Pale skin, bone-white hair framing an androgynous face. Steel grey eyes. Scars on his face and body from years of fighting.

He describes himself as having been forced to become an asshole and a careerist by his Essosi environment.

“I tried to be nice but no matter how nice and helpful I was to other people, when they found it suited their needs, they had their way with me. Next time I’m going to set up a contract for any personal relationship I’m about to enter. Really. I understand why people here like slaves so much. It’s the only ones who cannot afford a lawyer.”''

“I agree that loyalty is a great thing and truly pays off as long as it serves one’s personal aims.”

''“Human fear is the only contract that no savvy advocate would afterwards find a contractual loophole in. So I consider it beneficial for most parties involved that mercenaries should fear their officers more than the enemy.”

The above are comments describing the secret attitudes of Azra Winterthorn. To the outside world, he would rather show whatever face suited his recently played role best.

"“I’m pissed by being pissed”"

is yet another notorious comment heard often from Azra while complaining about the high amount of workload his never-ending ambition and tendency to workaholism has driven him into. Some business partners observing Azra’s psychological condition have been found to withdraw from the young man during his last months in Essos for fearing him to become burned-out, suffering from a heart attack, becoming otherwise seriously sick, paranoid, addicted to drugs or freaking out completely.

Short Summary
Azra was born in 413 AC in Myr to a Lyseni servant of the owner of a large trade company specializing in arms. The first name he is given, one of many that the young man has been called by during his life, is Yaron Sentres. Two months after his birth, his mother becomes enslaved due to suspicious circumstances. The boy is considered a slave as well. Believing the boy to be a rare bastard of the Westerosi Reginar Crakehall, Lord Marshal of the Westerlands, Lord of Crakehall, famous all over Essos for being a renowned mercenary commander, veteran warlord of many a battle and campaign, successful spokesman of producers and traders of arms as well as notorious military advisor and agent, a mercenary officer buys both mother and child. He raises the boy among the ranks of mercenaries to become an officer, and his efforts get rewarded to a magnificent degree as the boy shows great talent at both warfare and weaponry. Soon, the youth specializes in logistics and administration.

With his owner one day facing severe financial problems, the boy is sold to another mercenary company. Officially being a slave, the young half-Lyseni is by far never treated as such. And he never behaves likewise.

The next years see the young man break free from his slave status, take over an own mercenary company, being sold into slavery again, escaping, working as a mercenary again, setting up business, losing it anew, escaping yet another time, trying to start new business, and finally losing everything again, until he is forced to sail for Westeros in 438 AC.

Skills
"Attributes: Clever, Bellicose"

Biography
Azra’s real story begins at the age of 9 months (still named Yaron Sentres), when Ser Robert Durham, Westerosi exile, mercenary officer in a small mercenary company, spends a huge sum on buying a beautiful 19 year old Lyseni slave girl with her baby boy. His interest had been mainly for the boy at first, but then fell in love with the young pale-haired Lyseni mother as well. Rumours had spread among mercenary companies that Essosi warfare grey eminence Lord Reginar Crakehall, warlord of many a battle, mercenary commander, military advisor and inspector, and Lord Marshal of the Westerlands overseas, had fathered the boy during a stay at Myr. Not known to have any legitimate children, not even bastards, having been obviously careful throughout all his life, not to father any unwanted children, the baby boy was quite the rarity among mercenary companies, and quite famed for his alleged notorious descent at a time when he could not even walk nor talk.

Ser Robert Durham was forced to leave his recent company, fearing word might spread to the likely father of the boy, and fearing the consequences thereof. He settled in Volantis, for a start, but during the next years, alongside his wife, the boy, and their joint children, (as well as half-siblings from another slave woman he had already possessed before), often moved and followed the course of wars, sometimes taking his women and children with him, sometimes leaving them behind.

A big disappointment, though, to Ser Robert it was when the prominent first men blood running so strong in the veins of the Crakehalls did not come to show at all in the outer appearance of the boy. He had inherited whatever Lysene aspects there were to be had. Apart from steel grey eyes that some considered to be his father's. If the aging warlord was his father even. For, in fact, the delicate youth with the bone white hair, the androgynous face and the small build seemed more Lysene even than many 100 % Lyseni.

Despite all of that, Ser Robert put into practice what he had intended with the boy (whom he had renamed Alyn, remniscient of his Westerlander heritage): To raise him in the military, teach him the arts of war, and see if there was anything left from his Lord father’s proud heritage. And whatever he told him, whatever he showed him, whatever, soon enough, his colleagues and mercenary leaders taught the boy: It hailed like rain on infertile desert lands. It fell like sparks on dry forest ground. And like an explosion, things started to get going.

The boy took to the sword as if he had been born for it, and the fields of the art of war seemed more like his siblings than his real half-brethren were. At age 8 the slave boy moved among the ranks of the mercenaries, not like one of them, but of a rank beyond. And they liked him. It was a natural thing for him, something he seemed born to do.

Lacking outer first men appearances and any indicator of his likely father, his character and behaviour followed suit: Soon known as the Mercenary Prince, his slave collar went nearly unnoticed beneath a behaviour of recklessness, belligerence, a strange sophistication and need for display in clothes, weapons, and outer appearances. He was charismatic, able to play roles suitable to any situation, and preferred to spend his time with the mercenaries, especially their officers, instead of playing with other kids. Quick-witted, with a fierce tongue, and tougher in both mental and physical ways than Lyseni were, Ser Robert Durham was watching with mixed feelings. He could not explain were else these character traits, the stubbornness, the taste for aesthetics, the high level of rational intellect, and the feeling of being above those who surrounded them, if not from his true father’s heritage. Combined with the boy’s blossoming mastery in warfare, Ser Robert Durham’s bet had begun to pay off.

At the age of 14, the bold youth with sarcastic comments to anybody opposing it, pushed through that he would specialize on the more administrative and logistical parts of warfare during the next years. It was a calculating decision: For first of all, it was a niche that few excelled in, but would serve as a great opportunity to make a business. And second, it would often keep him out of the more dangerous elements of the “business”.

When Alyn was 16, he was already reputed among specialist circles for his talent and for calculating marching routes, being involved in the planning of layouts of encampments, the acquisition and storage of equipment, and many other things. He got acquainted with handling the company’s money and food, in assessing the skills of single mercenaries applying to be welcomed into the company, or even the abilities of whole mercenary units. And many other things.

It was after one particularly bloody and dangerous campaign in the service of the City of Yunkai that Alyn asked Ser Durham to be granted freedom from slavery in return for him having contributed crucially to the survival and ultimate success of their company. Ser Durham evaded the conversation and Alyn never got a reply. He continued to ask, with an ever more aggressive and insulted tone. But the outcome was always the same. It was not that Ser Durham would not have liked the boy. He had treated the slave youth as his own. But… he proved reluctant.

It was in that year that the company Ser Robert Durham was in suffered mightily during the next campaign. To pay debts, reinvest, make up for losses, add to the rebuilding of the company, and pay the medical bills for two of his children’s diseases, Ser Durham was finally forced to sell Alyn. He made clear that the Company of X that would become Alyn’s new official owner would take care of the lad, and actually Alyn knew many among their ranks already. But he was furious like wildfire. The situation reached its climax when Ser Durham proved emotionally unable to lead the price negotiations and Alyn had to arrange his own sale. It is said that, among all that had happened, in the end, until today Alyn has never forgiven Ser Durham for suddenly accepting a “way too low price” to just put an end to the nerve-racking negotiations.

Upon now belonging to another mercenary company, Alyn was given the permission to choose a new name for himself, and was since then called “Nôrn Vishe’Dar”.

At the age of 18, following several military disasters faced by the company, the youth slays his own mercenary captain, breaks his own slave chains and declares himself their new captain. He successfully leads them for thirteen months. One day, however, in a dangerous situation, they are cheated by the city of Norvos that has decided to stop backing them. Threatened by an attack of an enemy mercenary consortium of three mercenary companies, Nôrn's company desperately searches for a solution. Behind their leader’s back, his members recall how one of their enemy parties was once interested in Nôrn's skills as well. Right in this moment, they realize that if they just ignore how their captain rose from slavery once, declaring himself a free man thirteen months ago, that their threatened company would then still be his rightful owner. So they strike a deal with the enemy, inform Nôrn that they actually never officially accepted his status as a free man, and trade him to the enemy for free passage. Thus, Nôrn’s slave status is renewed, and he grudgingly serves as a logistics officer in the consortium.

His owners change several times during the next two years until he finally escapes and leaves his slave status behind him yet again.

He gets news of his mother’s death the same year.

Leaving the logistical sector behind for a while in order to stay undetected, chosing new names on suitable occasions, he accepts work at a household guard in Astapor and soon rises among the ranks of the city guard. He quits again and becomes independent, starting his own mercenary group, specializing on armed escorts and transports. At the age of 22 he adds a naval business with three ships and his enterprise is heavily in dept. The day his creditors come to collect their debts, the prosecuted debtor has already left the city and his business behind him.

He turns to Braavos and gets a dull job as a clerk at a minor bank house there. Personal relations to a customer seeking military consulting for suspicious half-criminal ventures see the young man return into the military. At the age of 25 he has miraculously, by hard work, sleepless nights and taking extreme risks, worked his way up to never known heights. He is a co-owner of two notable and a smaller mercenary company, is an investor to the bank house he has worked for, and strikes deals for two shipyards and two construction companies as well as other arms businesses every now and then. The 25 year old now owns a small manse in Yunkai and two flats in Myr. He is affiliated with semi-criminal gangs all over the place. He has finally just started enjoying living a lavish lifestyle among the aspiring nouveau-riches.

As to his character, he describes himself as a complete asshole hating people but proving helpful to them at the same time, hence why they need and pay him. The former officer has given up fighting, considering that beneath him now, and pays bodyguards. Especially as he has become paranoid of the alleged existence of assassins working for Astapor’s magistrate whom he recalls still owing a stunning sum - but is not really sure about it and is certainly not going to ask. Else he spends his days working like a fanatic, desperately trying to set up relations among the upper classes, surrounds himself with luxury goods to display his newly acquired wealth and tries to adhere to his “master plan” in a flexible way. Also, he is more heavily indepted than ever before, but his two clerks manage to make cash flows work out.

In the 9th month of 438 AC, the ambitious young entrepreneur expectantly turns to the magistrate of Yunkai, in order to collect a noteworthy sum of money that the city owes him for multiple largely military services he and his affiliates had conducted for the city. With the former mercenary finally slaying seven guardsmen on his escape, with half the city watch behind him, chasing him down to the harbour, it becomes clear that the deal has gone horribly wrong. The former entrepreneur has lost everything again, yet he has still managed to reach a ship just departing that very moment – and coincidentally sails for Westeros.

The situation makes him chose yet another name: "Azra" in honour of his beloved chubby cat Ezra that he had to leave behind – along with everything, everything else. As well as the Westerosi surname "Winterthorn" for… possibly his nasty character and Westeros’ weird obsession with winter.