Ryam Redwyne

Ryam Redwyne is the Lord of the Arbor and current head of House Redwyne. He assumed these titles after the disappearance and presumed death of his second cousin, Eryk Redwyne. He is the twin brother of Renly Redwyne, and is married to Lady Renata Redwyne.

Appearance and Character
A tall, fairly handsome man, Lord Ryam Redwyne is a Reachman through and through. Warm brown eyes look over a pronounced nose, his angular cheekbones granting his face a certain dignity. Though in particular lights his hair takes on a reddish hue, in most settings its seems more brown than not.

Although the events of the Upheaval saw Ryam's line of House Redwyne put into dire straits, he nonetheless grew up with a taste for finery and luxury and all things courtly. He hawks and hunts and rides rather well, though he is no wonder with a blade. A cautious man, his ambition drives him to push his abilities and his resources to their limits - though yet tempered by morality and religion both. Not as pious as his late second cousin, he is still a man of the Seven, attempting to adhere to their will while doing what he can to restore and advance House Redwyne.

Early Life (384-389AC)
Ryam Redwyne was born to Ser Paxter Redwyne and his wife Ceryse Mullendore in Arbor settlement of Vinetown. A mere sixteen minutes older than his twin brother Renly, they two babes were nonetheless opposites in nearly every way. They were raised together in Vinetown, in the small manse owned by their father. For a time, their lives were peaceful.

The Upheaval (389-394AC)
That peace ended in 389AC when the Lord of the Arbor died, leaving a young son as his heir. The conflicts between Septon Maldwin and the Lady Dowager Mallysa Redwyne soon gripped the town, search parties scouring the settlement for the missing lord. For a time it seemed that the boy would be missing forever - but after the death of Lady Mallysa, he reemerged in the possession of his new regent - the Septon Maldwin.

Beneath the priest-regent trade still managed to flow, though religion soared to the forefront of the public's mind. The coffers of House Redwyne were turned towards throwing constant, lavish feasts for the poor and dispossessed, while religious figures were forcibly stationed on every vessel to leave the island. Ser Paxter found himself under careful watch, his meager fleet of ships often outfitted with the most zealous of preachers. When the Septon stepped down many hoped that things would get better, but the ascension of the fourteen year old Lord Eryk saw matters go from bad, to worse.

The young lord traveled the island, from settlement to settlement, and held court to deliver justice to those deemed heretics. Those found guilty were summarily executed, and allowed no funerals, no rites, or any anointing. Their bodies were buried without grace and their possessions were obtained by House Redwyne. When the fourteen year old lord arrived in Vinetown, Ser Paxter Redwyne was one of the first to die.

Oldtown (394-400AC)
Gathering what supplies she could, the heavily pregnant Ceryse Mullendore fled Vinetown with five young children. She took refuge in Oldtown, managing to purchase a small house in the city. It was there that Ryam would grow up, a minor noble in a city on the coast; forever looking across the Whispering Sound towards the Redwyne Strait, where his mother told him of a legacy that had been taken from him.

While peasants and rebels were slaughtered on the Arbor, Ryam Redwyne grew of age in Oldtown. He was a charming boy, clever and friendly, with a mind for business. Soon enough he turned the ship that had borne his family to their new home into a trading vessel in service to the merchant family of House Rosillon. He learned then of trade and sailing, of the seas and how best to use them. It was a hard life, but it was a good one - and in time, his involvement with the Rosillon family shifted from service into something deeper.

Love and Marriage (400-407AC)
In 400AC, Ryam Redwyne began to court Alicent Rosillon. They were fairly close, though both were young and reckless; while the Rosillon family approved of the marriage Ryam's mother, Ceryse, certainly did not.

She attempted to curb her son by pushing him towards a proper marriage, sending him to visit with her Mullendore kin in the Uplands. There he met the young Olenna Rhysling, a dark-haired scion of that noble line whom Ceryse hoped would win her errant son. Though the two would briefly become entangled, in the end Ryam was not convinced - he returned to Oldtown less than a year later, and with it, Alicent Rosillon.

Sometime later word arrived that Olenna had sired a bastard - a boy, whom he would name Arys Flowers. The birth of his bastard son seemed to spark a change in the young Redwyne scion, producing a difference that was night and day. He took charge of the boy, though he did not return to his mother: instead, he married at once to Alicent Rosillon.

From then on Ryam devoted his energies to his ambitions, and to his young family. He would spend the next seven years expanding his reach, until by 407AC he had a small fleet of ships and a fairly respectable merchant fortune.

Heir (407-411AC)
In the middle of 407AC, word arrived from the Arbor about the death of young Terrence Redwyne. With the death of Malora Tarly following shortly after, Ryam and his siblings turned their eyes towards the succession. According to the laws of the Arbor and the Reach - Ryam Redwyne now stood as his second cousin's heir.

This change in his standing awoke something in Ryam, much as the birth of his bastard son had years before. He began to study the Arbor excessively, reading what he could of his history and its people, as well as gathering all information he could find on its current lord. While Eryk and the majority of the fleet were away in Lannisport at the beginning of 408AC -- Ryam returned in secret to the town that he was born in.

Vinetown had changed; the years had been rough to the settlement and its people, executions and zealous purgings having left their mark. The Goldwyns, kin to the Redwynes, welcomed their lost kinsman with open arms -- and told him all that had occurred in the years since he had been away. Ryam was outraged to hear that the very same Brotherhood that had orchestrated the death of his father had now been granted full control of the island. He spent nearly a year there, speaking with the Goldwyns and the Redflowers and those nobles, knights, merchants, and smallfolk that would hear him, and together they began to conspire against the Septon Regent and his zealous Lord.

Ryam returned to Oldtown in 409AC, and suddenly his previous life was no longer enough for him. Having seen the plight of his homeland, and sitting so close to a seat of great power, he could no longer be content with the life of a merchant. His new ideals saw his marriage with Alicent Rosillon begin to crumble, the cracks laid by their failure to sire any children compounding beneath the stress of Ryam's new purpose. Seeking solace, but more than that - seeking an understanding ear - it was during this time that Ryam first became truly aware of Renata Florent.

The two carried on a secret affair until late in 411AC. The sudden death of Alicent Rosillon made a widower out of the twenty-seven year old scion, and he was more than happy to use his newfound freedom to court and win the young Florent girl. They were married shortly thereafter in 413AC, and it was but a few months before she gave birth to their first child. As Florys Redwyne came into the world - early, if one counted the weeks since the wedding - her father's heart was all the more resolved to giving her a future to be proud of.

The Seven Year Regency (411-418AC)
When Eryk returned to the Arbor, many thought he would soon take a new wife - thus disrupting the plans of Ryam and his allies who wished to dispose of him and retake the isle. Instead, the zealous Lord left again soon after; roaming the Reach under a false name for seven years. He left the island of the Arbor beneath the control of his infamous Septon Maldwin, who further expanded his zealous policies with the execution of heretics and the castration of political opponents -- including the heir to House Goldwyn, an eight year old Willas.

While this went on, Ryam traveled between Oldtown and Vinetown, organizing with the men and women of the Arbor that could still be trusted in an effort to make way for his return. By 416 they were all but ready; they waited only for Lord Eryk to make his appearance.

At the dawn of 418, the Lord of the Arbor at last returned; his arrival being the final piece to the treasonous puzzle. While Ryam and his brothers traveled east, their agents back home set in motion the final acts that would see a new Lord in the Arbor.

Recent Events
Ryam attended the Tournament at Summerhall in 418AC; ostensibly unaware that by the time of his arrival at the castle, his predecessor Lord Eryk Redwyne was already dead.

Family and Household

 * Lord Ryam Redwyne, Lord of the Arbor
 * m. Alicent Rosillon (d. 411AC)
 * w. Olenna Rhysling
 * Arys Flowers (b. 401AC)
 * m. Renata Redwyne née Florent, Lady of the Arbor
 * Florys Redwyne (b. 413AC)
 * Rossart Redwyne (b. 416AC)
 * Renly Redwyne, a knight of House Redwyne
 * Desmera Redwyne,
 * Melara Redwyne,
 * Alerie Redwyne, Lady of House Goldwyn
 * m. Loras Goldwyn, Master of Ryamsport
 * Desmond Redwyne, Admiral of the Redwyne Fleet

Household

 * Captain of the Guard: Alekyne Redding
 * Admiral of the Fleet: Desmond Redwyne
 * Maester Lucantine, replacing the previous Maester Elyas.
 * Master of Vinetown: Thaddeus Redflower
 * Master of Ryamsport: Loras Goldwyn
 * Master of Starfish Harbor: Rickard Wright