Gerrad Stone

Ser Gerrad Stone is the current Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, and Commander of Castle Black. Born to Celesse Pryor, an insignificant female member of House Pryor of Pebble, a minor house in the Vale and a travelling merchant who vanished after impregnating Celesse. Born as a bastard to a minor member of a minor House, Gerrad had nearly nothing to look forward to in terms of rank and prestige.

When he was seven years of age, he became a servant in Pebble, and was treated quite poorly, as he was a bastard. In his childhood, he would work on his swordplay in secret, hoping one day to be a Knight. His many years of training would end up turning him into a master swordsman.

At the age of 17, a wandering crow by the name of Kelan stopped by Pebble to scout the dungeons for prisoners. Gerrad, who didn't have anything to his name, voluntarily went along with Kelan to join the Night's Watch. He hoped he would find glory at the Wall.

Gerrad excelled through training and was assigned to the Rangers. He quickly rose through the ranks of the Watch, and soon enough was known as one of the best rangers at Castle Black. In 378, he was knighted at the age of 19 by Ser Aden Wendwater, a fellow ranger.

In 386, Gerrad was named First Ranger by former First Ranger, and recently elected Lord Commander, Dantis Wairant. Until 394 he would serve in this role, until Dantis Wairant died of scurvy. Without a Lord Commander, the Night's Watch held an election, which saw ten men, Gerrad included, put in their bid to be Lord Commander. Gerrad won the election by a landslide, due to his reputation as a brilliant swordsman and commander, and was named as the 1005th Lord Commander of the Night's Watch.

Work-In-Progress

Appearance and Character
In his youth, Gerrad was tall, incredibly strong, and lean. Despite entering his older years, Gerrad has maintained much of his strength that he had in his youth. His body, despite showing early signs of old age, still remains vibrant, and hasn't weakened thanks to decades of intense exercise.

He keeps his wavy hair at shoulder length, and his black strands of hair have slightly greyed. His beard stays close to his face, and is much greyer than his hair is. His eyes are a piercing blue.

Gerrad is generally known as an honorable man, and always attempts to do what he believes is right. He is a humorous, charismatic, and ultimately kind man. Despite his kindness, he can be very firm when he needs to be, and he has a tendency to get frustrated at his failures due to his perfectionism. He expects his men to be nothing short of perfect, and would go as far as to personally train any man who is struggling just to ensure the Night Watch's strength.

Gerrad is incredibly determined, though some call it stubbornness. He holds a strong sense of brotherhood with his fellow men of the Watch, and considers each black brother to be a true brother of his. It is this that has made Gerrad a popular Lord Commander throughout the Watch. His willingness to dirty himself for the good of the Watch, his bravery, and his fighting ability have earned him much respect.

Birth and Early Life
Gerrad Stone was born in the 7th Moon of the Year 359 AC to Celesse Pryor and a travelling merchant. His mother was a very minor member of House Pryor of Pebble, and his father, who had seduced and impregnated his mother while stopping by Pebble, disappeared after Gerrad's conception.

Early on in his life, Gerrad already felt the brunt of bastardy, as even lowborn boys in and around Pebble treated him with disdain. At seven, he was given either the option to leave Pebble on his own, or stay in Pebble as a servant. Reluctantly, he picked the latter of the option in order to stay close to his mother, and to stay protected by Pebble's walls.

As a servant, Gerrad worked from dawn until long past nightfall, only given short periods throughout the day to eat. He barely saw much of his mother, and his days of work exhausted him to the core. Yet, in what little offtime he had, he would practice his swordsmanship, hoping one day to be a valliant Knight despite his low birth.

Over the next ten years, Gerrad would grow to be very tall, strong, and handsome, and quite a few females took note. At the age of seventeen, Gerrad laid with a girl for the first time. After this experience, the woman of eighteen that he had laid with turned out to be pregnant, though Gerrad would never discover this, as it would not be long after that he would travel north to take the black.

Taking the Black
In 376 AC, Kelan, a Night's Watch recruiter, had stopped by Pebble to scout the dungeons. Though he took the two prisoners in the dungeons, he found another willing to join the Night's Watch: Gerrad. Gerrad, who had no titles, nor any pestige, wished to take the Black to make something of himself. Kelan, who was more than happy to take any man willing to join, agreed to let Gerrad join him in the journey back to Castle Black. There were only a couple other volunteers travelling with Kelan and his men, while there were around 30 former prisoners in total.

Upon arriving at Castle Black, Gerrad underwent the same grueling training that the other recruits did, yet he thrived due to his many years of strength building and swordplay. His performance in training gathered the attention of Lord Commander Krelon, who respected the young man's strength and determination. Whilst in training, Gerrad befriended a few other recuits. Alecor was the son of a poor carpenter in the Riverlands, who voluntarily took the black in order to find steady shelter and food. Myle was a thief from Lannisport who was given the option to either take the black, or lose both of his hands. Gerrad ended up bonding and befriending both of these men.

With his training mostly finished, Gerrad was assigned to the Rangers, and he swore his oaths in the sept located at Castle Black. Alecor and Myle were both assigned to the Rangers as well.

Black Brotherhood
Now having sworn his oaths, Gerrad was bound to a lifetime of service at the Wall. Soon after becoming a ranger, he was assigned to one of the various patrols that ventured beyond the Wall in the Haunted Dorest. In one of such patrols, Gerrad, along with the other four men he was with, encountered a group of seven wildlings. Though the rangers were victorious, two of them died, while all of the wildlings they fought with were killed, except for one who was taken prisoner. Returning to Castle Black immediately, Gerrad personally buried his two fallen comrades. He requested to interrogate the wildling prisoner himself, but his request was denied by Lord Commander Krelon, who felt as though Gerrad's anger at the loss of his fellow rangers would impair his judgement during interrogation.

The wildling refused to say anything during his interrogation, despite being tortured, and was promptly executed in front of all the men at Castle Black. Gerrad, still desiring vengence for his fallen brothers, requested that a ranging be sent out to investigate the recent events. Krelon relented after First Ranger Dantis Wairant agreed with the young Ranger.

Dantis led the ranging himself, and took along with him twnety-nine other men, Gerrad included. The goal of the ranging was to discover why the small squad of wildlings were at the Haunted Forest, and why they attacked the rangers on sight. For the first couple weeks, they found nothing. While searching further north into the forest, a larger group of wildlings ambushed them, and they were forced to retreat to Castle Black.

Now very clear that there was a hostile group of wildlings beyond the wall, Krelon ordered his men to stay put at their stations, as he was afraid that attempting to find and attack them in their territory would lead to another ambush. So, Gerrad and the other rangers stayed put at the wall, despite wishing to go out on another ranging to confront the enemies.

As two years passed, they heard nothing of the wildlings that had ambushed them previously. A routine patrol of four rangers had been sent out into the Haunted Forest, yet only one returned, severely wounded and near death. Before dying, he revealed to Lord Commander Krelon that there had been outnumbered by wildlings, and told him that they were numerous now. Krelon, left with no other choice, declared a great ranging. Eight hundred black brothers departed on the ranging: Four hundred from Castle Black, and two hundred from Eastwatch and the Shadow Tower each. Gerrad was included in the eight hundred men.

They ventured North into the Haunted Forest, and soon enough encountered a small wildling patrol, whom they immediately took captive. A paticularly weak-willed wildling spilled information. A chieftain by the name of Vigarun had gathered a tribe of other wildlings and was intent on ambushing the Night's Watch, to "keep the North free from the tyranny of the Crows". Though it was clear that Vigarun's tribe had no intent on assaulting the Wall, it was also clear that they intended on killing every black brother that the Watch sent north.

Determined on destroying Vigarun's tribe, Krelon marched east, where Vigarun had settled for the time being. Bringing the might of the Watch, the black brothers assaulted Vigarun's settlement, burning down it's wooden walls and it's shabby tents. During the battle, Gerrad had slain over fifteen wildlings, and had saved the life of Ser Aden Wendwater. Ser Aden knighted him on the field after the battle. Most of the wildlings following Vigarun were killed, and Vigarun was executed by Krelon in front of the few survivors of his tribe. Krelon allowed the survivors to flee North if they promised to not interfere with the affairs of the Night's Watch again, and the black brothers marched back to their respective castles.

First Ranger
Now having avenged the deaths of his fallen brothers, Gerrad continued his duties as a ranger. Events that followed for the next eight years were unimportant for the most part, although he encountered the odd wildling every once in a while.

In 186, Lord Commander Krelon died of a strange illness, and Dantis Wairant, the former First Ranger, was elected as the 1005th Lord Commander of the Night's Watch. Dantis immediately appointed Gerrad as First Ranger. Now at the age of 27, Gerrad's tenure as First Ranger was mostly uneventful, with very few rangings to deal with Wildlings being held.

Dantis's command was much like that of his predecessor's in that the Watch was dwindling. The boosted number of men that had joined the Watch after the Second War of Conquest was all but a memory now. As the Great Famine hit Westeros in 392, the Wall saw possibly the worst of it, with many men losing their lives to starvation and malnutrition. Lord Commander Dantis would end up being a casualty of the Great Famine, having contracted scurvy due to lack of food. Dantis died in the late hours of the 11th Moon of 394 AC, leaving the Night's Watch without a Lord Commander once more.

Lord Commander
As the Watch learned that they were without a Lord Commander, ten men put forward their bid for the prestigious position. Gerrad was one of these men, feeling as though the Night's Watch needed a reform. As his fighting and commanding skills were legend throughout the Watch, he won the election by a landslide, becoming the 1005th Lord Commander of the Night's Watch at the age of thirty five.

As the new Lord Commander, Gerrad began to set fourth new ideologies for the Night's Watch to follow. Gerrad viewed each man of the Watch as a brother of his own, and wished for them to view each other in the same way. Despite being Lord Commander, Gerrad would take the time to personally train his men in his methods of combat, and would often join rangings when he wasn't busy with other work. This earned him the respect of many of his men, as it showed that he wasn't afraid to do the lower work himself, and it showed his bravery. Benjen had apponted his old friend Alecor, now middle-aged like him, First Ranger. Alecor would unfortunately end up dying after contracting an illness beyond the wall, and Gerrad mourned his death for weeks.

In 396, the War of the Three Thieves started, which resulted in the deaths of many throughout Westeros, although the Wall remained safe due to it's neutrality to the affairs of the world. The Scarlet Winter struck Westeros soon after the end of the war though, and the Night's Watch was the first to feel it's might. Luckily enough though, due to their resources not being depleted during the war, their grain storages weren't depleted either. Still, food became scarce as more and more joined the Watch in an attempt to find a steady source of food and shelter during the terrible winter, and Gerrad would go out on nearly every hunt just to ensure that Castle Black didn't run out of food.

As the Scarlet Winter released it's grips on Westeros, Gerrad focused his efforts on recruiting as many as he could for the Night's Watch, sending many recruiters out across all ends of Westeros. Gerrad was determined on restoring the glory and might of the Night's Watch once more, and hoped to restore at least a few of the abandoned castles that lined the Wall. He intended on ensuring that the Watch was strong once more.

Family

 * Celesse Pryor(†)
 * Gerrad Stone

NPC's

 * Ser Aden Wendwater, a 55 year old Ranger and friend/advisor to Gerrad.