Artos Cassel

Artos Cassel is the heir to Master Ellard Cassel of Whitehowls. Currently, he serves House Rogare in Lys as a sworn sword.

Appearance and Character
Artos shows the typical appearance of a Northman, especially in his height and his dark hair, while his features have become softer over the time spent in Lys, as he usually keeps his face shaven and his hair groomed. Yet, some of the ferocity ascribed to the First Men is left in him, present in the physical strength he possesses despite not necessarily showing in his build.

Where his father is a man of moderation and patience, Artos took to his role as a warrior, like the men of House Cassel before him were, with determination and the will to fight. In the time of peace that filled his father, who spent too little time with him to influence him in that regard, with bliss, Artos grew impatient and adventurous, gaining a sentiment that drove him across the Narrow Sea, and years later into the arms of his current lover.

Childhood
Artos Cassel was born in 396 AC at Whitehowls to Mariah Cerwyn, the wife of Master Ellard Cassel, who served Lord Stark as an advisor at Winterfell. Not long after his birth, his father departed his home to fight for the North and the Seven Kingdoms across the Narrow Sea, only returning in 402 AC, when Artos already had grown for six years. In Master Ellard’s absence, Artos often enquired for his father, but his mother could only share hopes that he would return.

When at last he did, Master Ellard took an interest in Artos’ early training, making sure he would become a warrior in skill, but not too thirsty for war, as he had seen terrible things across the Sea, but soon after, he would often be called to Winterfell and spend little time with his family, which was increased by Artos’ younger brother Rickon, who had been conceived shortly after Master Ellard’s return.

When in 408 AC Lord Eyron Stark was executed and Master Ellard became Regent of the Dreadfort, Artos was once again left alone to train only with the Maester and the Captain of Guards, frustrated about his father’s renewed absence. The lessons of peace resounded in his mind, but the growing young man did not want to believe them, and so decided that his fate would have to be war.

Sellsword
At the age of five-and-ten, in the year 411 AC, a time during which the North was peaceful and prosperous, Artos decided that he would have gained enough skill at arms and that he would have to prove it. One day, he packed a bundle of clothes, a pouch of coins and his castle-forged sword, and after a short farewell to his mother and his brother, he made for White Harbour to take a passage to Essos to serve as a sellsword.

Artos served various companies, and with them various employers, throughout the Free Cities, guarding properties and fighting minor skirmishes, in which he first bloodied his sword and killed his first men. He did not stand out particularly among the other sellswords, being good enough with his blade, but not extraordinarily talented, though still it served well enough to be paid sufficiently.

While he was in Myr’s lands with the Company of Vultures in 414 AC, he had to decide between the factions in that the company splintered after its leader’s death. Not having forgotten his roots in the North and the Old Gods, he chose to follow a fellow Westerosi, Ambrose Blackwood, who shared his Faith and like Artos was of a noble house, although higher-ranked than the Cassels were. With the newly-formed Company of the Raven, he travelled the Free Cities for the next years.

Lys
When the Company of the Raven came to the Free City of Lys in 417 AC, the men of noble birth among their ranks, after a rather peaceful time mainly paid for their protection through mere presence, often attended the Pristine Gardens within the City, spending the less dangerous time of their lives as sellswords. There, one day Artos met Erina Rogare, a woman slightly his junior, who managed the gardens for her family.

Through both her beauty and her courtesy, Erina soon found an admirer in Artos, and where his mind had revolved around warfare when he first crossed the Narrow Sea, he now had become a man who found love in the arms of such a woman, and so they became lovers after a while, not in the least owed to the sensual nature of relationships formed in the Lovely City of Lys.

When the Company of the Raven moved on, Artos instead wished to stay with his lover, and so left the company to be employed as a sworn sword to House Rogare, continuing his service of guarding their premises, now at all times close to Lady Erina.