Abelar Tarly

Introduction
Lord Abelar Tarly is the Lord of Horn Hill and a Marcher Lord of the Dornish Marches. Born in 387 A.C. Abelar Tarly is the first and only child of Gareth Tarly. His mother died in childbirth. His father, in sorrow, stabbed himself through the heart with the ancestral sword of House Tarly, Heartsbane. Abelar became the Lord of Horn Hill at only a few hours old. For the next 14 years, he would live under constantly changing regents. But at his fourteenth name day, he took control over Horn Hill despite the protests of his counselors.

Appearance and Character
When Abelar enters a room it is as though all life is sucked out the room. Abelar has no patience for fun and will rarely if ever allow himself such luxuries. Often he will wear a grey or blue robe with few accessories, even though he could easily afford it. His brown hair from his father is kept combed and his cold blue eyes from his mother. With his lean figure, high cheekbones and finely kept beard, calling him pretty would be accurate.

Calling Abelar cold would be an underestimation. He will often stand listening to someone talk for hours without uttering a single word. That's not to say he is dumb. Quite the opposite. Abelar is a master of numbers and strategy. At the age of ten, he devised a plan to improve the income of House Tarly by one hundred crowns. During his childhood, Abelar would prefer to sit in his room studying rather than practice sword fighting. If he is not studying or reviewing the finances of Horn Hill, Abelar can be found either playing Cyvasse or inspecting his soldiers.

Every day is a strictly organized routine. It is carefully planned, making sure to the most out of each and every day. But when things don't go according to his plans he becomes destructive, when this happens he will start flinging tables, crushing chairs and hurting anyone nearby.

To his courtiers, he is the manifestation of all that is good and bad about House Tarly. He has their rigid discipline combined with their unquenchable anger. He has nothing against resorting to his own two hands when necessary. Though he did prefer to delegate the responsibility, Abelar does understand that sometimes extreme measures are necessary. In Horn Hill, he has gained a fearsome reputation as a ruthless individual. After he seized the gold of the nobles of Horn Hill one courtier stood up and complained. The courtier's sentence was cut off by his own screams. His arm had been chopped clean off. Heartsbane was covered in blood.

When Abelar is alone he almost always has Heartsbane in his lap. If this is because of paranoia or a sick sense of love to the blade not even he knows. He always delegates half an hour each day to take care of the blade.

Early Life
After the tragedy that took place at his birth Abelar was now the new Lord of Horn Hill. But due to his age, a regent was chosen to rule in his name. During his childhood, many regents would come and go. At the age of seven, he found himself disinterested in the matters of the court of Horn Hill. Even then he could see the number sycophants at court grow each day. In an attempt to weaken the Tarly lord the regent at the time sent him to the Maester in hopes that he would not learn how to govern. The Maester quickly discovered Ablear's talent with numbers and educated him accordingly. At the age of eight, he was reading through all the finances of Horn Hill. At the age of nine, however, his education took a drastic turn. The regent changed once again, but this time the regent wished for Abelar to learn how to lead armies. For two years, he was drilled in the arts of leading, outsmarting the enemy and inspiring troops. It was during this time Abelar would first see the corruption of Horn Hill. He saw the regent at the time accept a bribe from some landless noble. Later that very same noble would receive a small piece of land outside of Horn Hill. After this incident three years would pass, different regents would come to power and promptly lose it. His education would therefore constantly shift between learning Statecraft and learning Tactics. At the age of fourteen, the regent at the time died. Instead of nominating a new regent Abelar decided that he would do a far better job than any regent and took power in Horn Hill.

Management of Horn Hill 401 - 402
With him coming to power his entire council who had been in power since his father's death were imprisoned and have been there ever since. He quickly reorganized his entire court. Removing courtiers from their honourary positions and imprisoning anyone who objected. After his purge of the sycophants of Horn Hill, he instituted widespread administrative reforms. His first reform was adding the council of efficiency. The second was obligating every large village to send at least one member to the court. This was commonly called "the peasant court." After instituting his second reform Abelar went on a large journey, revoking all who had been granted titles during the regencies. He did, however, invite every noble who had their land revoked to Horn Hill so as to argue for their case. Once they arrived in Horn Hill they would be imprisoned on charges of corruption.

The Council of Efficiency
The council is dedicated to maintaining and improving the efficiency of Horn Hill and its surrounding lands. The council itself is made up of 21 individuals, equally split between nobles and the different masters from the peasantry. The council itself does not wield any executive power. Their duty is more focused on providing sound advice to Abelar and coming with any suggestions they might have so as to improve efficiency. All members of the council are appointed directly by Abelar via a process that could best be described as "extremely uncomfortable."

The Peasant Court
In an attempt to extend the reach of the reforms he invited peasants from as many villages possible. Their duty was less to represent the common folk and more to quickly bring his reforms to the countryside. A region notorious for falling behind on any reforms. The peasant court would prove very useful when Abelar decided to fix the housing situation in the region. Most peasant houses were, thanks to the Peasant Court, quickly brought up to regulation. The Peasant Court once again proved instrumental in his agricultural reforms, where he improved the amount of grain by 20 bushels per village. Without the Peasant Court, however, this would have proven impossible.

The Agricultural Reform
The Agricultural Reform is not one consistent policy that was adopted by Horn Hill. Rather it was multiple reforms who have been lumped together. These reforms included everything from, improving storage conditions for produce, instituting a strict policy on irrigation, expansion of farmlands, increasing the number of farm animals and using them as a source of manure. The Agricultural reforms cost House Tarly and unprecedented amount of gold, but it would be well worth it just one year later.

The Scarlett Winter
Having come into power before the winter Abelar had already prepared large stores of food in case this winter would be a bad one. His earlier agricultural reform had proven essential to this stockpile. Then the Scarlett Winter hit and it was the worst winter in a long time. Abelar immediately issued a strict rationing program for the peasants taking from the castles on supply. The food supply within the castle only lasted for about a year and a half. Even with the strict rationing. Abelar could only see one solution to this problem, and so he seized the funds of all nobles within the castle. With those funds managed to purchase a large amount of food. The imported food from the far east arrived just in time. Now Abelar imposed even stricter rules upon food distribution, the peasants stayed alive, if barely. By the time the winter ended the food storage had close to no food left within it.

Recent Events
Abelar has recently attended the tourney of Harrenhal though he did not compete. With the tourney done he is now traveling back to Horn Hill, but is the meantime stopping in King's Landing.