Myles Mormont

Myles Mormont is the sole child of the late Lord Brandon Mormont, lord of Bear Isle and House Mormont, and a principal bannerman of House Stark.

Appearance and Character
Lord Myles is diminutive by the standards of many Northmen, standing at only a little over five-and-a-half feet tall, with an athletic but wiry build. His features make clear his northern heritage: he has stormy gray-blue eyes and fair skin, and dark brown hair which he cuts short, along with a short beard.

Fiery and bellicose, none would dare question Lord Myles' courage, even when it might be best for him to do so himself. He has a ribald and often cutting sense of humor, but complements this with a healthy appetite for life and a deep love of good cheer, strong drink, and worth company. He takes great pride in his eloquence (for a Northman), and often entertains his friends and drinking companions with improvised japes and mocking poems or songs - all in good fun, of course.

Myles' love of japes, jests, and bawdy songs should not distract one from his temper, however: when roused, his fury burns white-hot, and being the warrior that he is, Lord Myles is quick to suggest a test of martial prowess in response to a sleight against him or his.

History
When Lord Jakob Mormont was ousted from his position as lord of Bear Isle and sent to the Wall to live out his days, lordship of the house passed to his younger brother Brandon Mormont. Lord Brandon was an even-tempered and just lord, but otherwise an utterly-unremarkable one, save for one regard: his marriage to Lady Lysanna Flint produced a single child who would go on to grow into Lord Myles.

As a child, Lord Myles was a terror to his household, always rushing to get into whatever trouble he could, whether it was loosing his father's hunting dogs in the castle yard during a feast, or attempting to climb the highest tree in the Godswood to spy on the maester in his tower.

His youthful exuberance was accompanied by an apparent utter disregard for his own safety, and some whispered that the young lordling was like to meet his end long before he ever had the chance to rule in his own right.

Yet despite a bevy of scars to show for it, Myles lived and grew. As he did so, however, so did the friction between him and his father. Lord Brandon was a calm, level-headed, and scholarly man - wholly unlike his son - and did not approve of Myles "disregard for life or even common decency," as Lord Brandon called it.

Their squabbles came to a head in Myles' nineteenth year, when his mother Lady Lysanna died in childbirth at the age of three-and-forty. Her bones had scarcely been interred when Lord Brandon remarried - a woman less than half his age from one of the Northern Mountain Clans - eager for more children. Myles was incensed, and quickly let his father know what he thought of Lord Brandon's new bride - in full view and hearing of a host of assembled lords who had come to feast in celebration of the wedding. Shaking with rage, Lord Brandon ordered Myles to leave Bear Island and never return, for he was no son of his.

Exile and Sellsword Life
If Myles was aggrieved at being cast out of his family home, he hid it well. Sailing to the mainland and then crossing the breadth of the North to White Harbor, he boarded a ship bound for Braavos. From there he traveled to the Disputed Lands and other parts of Essos, and sold his sword with one free company or another for years to come. During this time he boasted that he bedded women and killed men from every civilized land in Essos, from Braavos to Qarth, and from the Stepstones to the Dothraki Sea. The validity of these tales is a matter of conjecture, but the truth is this: Myles Mormont fought in many places and killed many men, and became damn good at both fighting and killing.

Return to Westeros
Late in the last year AC, while resting his heels in Pentos awaiting a new contract for the company he was fighting with at the time, Myles was called upon by an old friend: Jorry Snow, the bastard son of Bear Island's master-at-arms, and Myles' childhood playmate. Jorry said that Lord Brandon had died, and as his new marriage - the one so contentious to Myles - had produced no children, Myles was the sole heir and therefore sole claimant to Bear Island's lordship.

Though initially reluctant to return to Westeros after so many years away, Jorry was able to convince Myles by saying that if he did not return to Bear Island and claim it as his own, the fiefdom would go to a distant relation, likely a cousin or perhaps an even more dubious claim from one of his mother's family members. By playing on Myles' dedication to the honor and legacy of his house, Bear Isle's one true heir was convinced to return to Westeros. Along with the pair came two of Myles' closest companions from his days as a mercenary: a Crownlander and fellow expatriate named Harlan Waters, and a Braavosi woman called Tessa the Third.

To say that much has changed would be an understatement. Myles is a great warrior, and a capable leader, but he never wished to be lord of Bear Isle and has never before found himself as the leader of anything greater than a squadron of sellswords. In the Disputed Lands and the Free Cities, things are simpler: conflict can be resolved by a blade, if not by words. And while the North can claim to be a world apart from the rest of Westeros, one thing remains the same: the game of thrones is deadly, and those who do not learn to play quickly risk being the first to fall.

Current Events
Following his return to Westeros, Lord Myles spent less than a fortnight upon Bear Island, burying and paying half-hearted respects to his late lord father before setting out with a small household retinue for Riverrun, where he introduced himself to his fellow lords of the North at the wedding of Lord Androw Tully and Jocelyn Stark.

When word reached the northern lords at Riverrun of the death of Lady Berena's Lord Consort Domeric Umber at the hands of Wildling raiders, Myles dispatched a raven instructing Bear Island to call its banners, while Myles himself and his household accompanied Lady Berena to Winterfell for a war council. Myles also dispatched his most trusted lieutenants - Harlan Waters and Jorry Snow - to prepare and organize Bear Island's fleet and levies, respectively.

While at Winterfell, Myles began to fear for the future of his house, knowing that if he perished in the fighting the titled line of House Mormont would end with him. To this end, a hasty marriage was arranged between Myles and the sole daughter of Lord Jojen Glover, Lady Sansa. Despite the circumstances of their wedding, which took place shortly after Myles' arrival at Winterfell, Myles vowed to be a good husband to his new bride, and the two quickly affirmed an affection for one another that went beyond the necessity of the match.

The War Beneath the Wall
At Winterfell, word reached the northern lords of several new developments: first, Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen - a friend of Lady Berena Stark - and her husband King Aegon VII would be joining the northern host, along with their dragons Silanax and Viserion. In less fortunate news, word also reached them of the fall of the Shadow Tower to a massive host of Wildlings, more an army than a raiding party. Lady Berena tasked Myles and Lord Harwyn Umber with retaking the Shadow Tower, and the two set out to rendezvous with Benjen Glover and Lord Commander Theodan Wull of the Night's Watch at Castle Black. Before setting out, Lady Sansa revealed to Myles that she was with child.

While final preparations for the assault on the Shadow Tower were being made, reports trickled in of Wildling sieges of Bear Island and Deepwood Motte. Myles had previously ordered Bear Island's fleet, along with 1500 soldiers, to land west of the Shadow Tower and march to catch the fortress between two northern armies, but these plans were stymied by the lack of suitable landing areas. Harlan Waters instead took the fleet back south, landing close to the besieged Deepwood Motte, though the Mormont army and fleet had no idea of the present condition of the Glover holdfast. Myles remained at Castle Black, but efforts to retake the Shadow Tower were delayed. Lady Berena, Queen Rhaenyra, King Aegon, and many other northern lords soon arrived with a host numbering nearly 20,000.

While Lady Berena was understandably irate at the delays of efforts to retake the Shadow Tower, it proved fortuitous that the Mormont, Umber, and Glover armies had not yet marched, as the Wildling army - led by the Crippled King himself - was moving westward from the Shadow Tower toward Castle Black. On the 18th Day of the 2nd Moon of the year 439 AC, King Aegon VII rode forth alone astride Viserion to lay waste to the Wildling host. Queen Rhaenyra, Lady Berena, and the rest of the assembled army quickly followed, with Myles placed in command of the left flank of the combined northern army.

At the Battle of Castle Black, Myles commanded the left flank of the Northern Army, facing the enemy under the personal command of the Crippled King. Though tactically outmatched by his enemy, Myles proved an incredibly stalwart commander, holding the line against the wildling host for hours. Even as the center and left flank of the wildling army retreated, pushed back by the Stark and Umber hosts, the Crippled King pushed unsuccessfully to exploit the flagging left flank. Despite suffering the heaviest casualties among the Northern host, Myles and his line held until the end of the day.

The following day the battle resumed, with the wildlings reinforced by giants and mammoths equipped for war. Alesander led a charge directly into the oncoming mammoth herd, even as Queen Rhaenyra rained dragonfire all around. In the chaos, the mammoths and giants were turned. Myles dueled and slew the wildling warlord Brun the Brown, and as the remaining wildlings retreated en masse Myles led a charge, cutting down hundreds of fleeing savages as the battle wound down to its bloody conclusion.

The Great Council, and the War Within
Myles was severely traumatized by the loss of so many of the men under his command, and his own near-death on several occasions during the War Beneath the Wall. Dreams of blood and dragonfire haunted him as he accompanied the other northern lords south, to King's Landing: the death of King Aegon VII had plunged the realm into a dynastic struggle.

Like many northern lords, Myles felt a great debt towards Queen Rhaenyra - especially after she flew to Bear Island and helped to break the siege that had by that time stretched for nearly a full moon's turn. Even after Lady Berena changed her vote to support Maekar Velaryon, Myles - along with lords Umber, Glover, and Karstark, among others - gave his vote to Prince Viserys.

His trauma nearly drove Myles to suicide amidst the whirlwind of the Great Council, as Myles left his apartments in the dead of night and waded into the Blackwater Rush, intending to drown himself. Instead, he awoke on the strand nearby after losing consciousness and, convinced that the gods had spared his life so that he may pass some further test or serve some greater purpose, dedicated himself to becoming the lord and husband his people and new bride deserved.

Returning North
After the Great Council, Myles and Sansa returned to Bear Island. By the time of their arrival, rebuilding was significantly underway, and Sansa was nearing the end of her pregnancy.

Family

 * Lord Medryck Mormont (350 AC - 393 AC) -- Jeyne Mormont (nee Glover) (354 AC - 394 AC)
 * Lord Jakob Mormont (374 AC - 429 AC)
 * Lady Sarra Stark (nee Mormont) (375 AC - 404 AC)
 * Lady Evelyne Stark (nee Mormont) (b. 377 AC)
 * Lord Brandon Mormont (381 AC - 437 AC) -- Lysanna Mormont (nee Flint) (386 AC - 429 AC)
 * Lord Myles Mormont (b. 410 AC) -- Sansa Mormont (nee Glover) (b. 414 AC)

Household

 * Maester Ulrich, a maester of the Citadel
 * Ser Howard the Hound, Master-at-arms
 * Jorry Snow, childhood friend and head of Myles' household guard
 * Harlan Waters, mercenary companion of Myles and member of his household guard
 * Tessa the Third, a Braavosi archeress and member of Myles' household guard