Vyrmidon Melos

Introduction
Vyrmidon Melos is the fifth born son of Triarch Benerro Melos of Volantis, an eminent member of the Elephant party. He and his older brother Aleron Melos left the noxious influence of the Triarch in search of a life of adventure, one that led them to join the Lost Legion sellsword company.

Appearance and Character
Vyrmidon inherited his father’s height, standing at six feet two inches. Hardened by years of warfare and combat in Essos, his build is muscular, his shoulders broad. He carries several scars upon his person, and like most Volantene sellsword, has tattoos that adorn his physique - though never his face, for that is the mark of a slave.

He is of typical Valyrian stock, with violet eyes and long silver hair. Vyrmidon prefers to sport a short beard, more so since his time in the Stepstones due to the cooler climate.

Having always been a man prone to vanity, Vyrmidon is keen to remind all of his pedigree. He wears armour typical of the Lost Legion, though with gilding to denote his new rank, and often with tunics of dark purple or black.

Vyrmidon is a severe man, one who ruled Bloodstone and his other islands with a grip of Valyrian steel. Few would dare meet his penetrating gaze, let alone cross him. The dragonlord is a vain man, as demonstrated by the towering monument of Lysene marble that stands in the main square of Harbinger Sound, carved in his likeness. He plays the part of the Essosi warlord well, inspiring loyalty in his subjects by virtue of the rack. Volantene justice is a unique brand, and one which Vyrmidon knows all too well. He is no monstrous brute, however, no ravening sadist. Vyrmidon is stern when he needs to be - such as in the cases of uprisings - and even handed at other times.

Childhood
Vyrmidon was born in the year 400 AC in a manse within the Black Walls of Volantis, before a shrine of Meraxes. The fifth son of an especially fecund man, Triarch Benerro, Vyrmidon was always a wayward child. He and Aleron, the fourth son, were inseparable from an early age. Together they suffered the tutor, watched the annual chariot races, and snuck out of the Black Walls to explore the city proper. They were a constant headache to the Triarch, and he to them.

The matured in the shadow of their older siblings - bankers, merchants, heiresses who married into noble families and wrote elegant Valyrian poetry. Vyrmidon found better company with the soldiers who played dice at the gates of the Black Walls, or the mummers who wove such intricate tales.

The Lost Legion
There were countless sellswords who called into Volantis to drink the oversweet wine or lie with a bedslave with silver hair. They infested the east of the city across the Long Bridge, a far cry from the order of the west maintained by the Tiger Cloaks. Such a temptation was not lost on Vyrmidon, who spent his youth drinking and gambling with with warriors and cutthroats.

There were the Tatterbacks, the Stormcrows, the Black Half-Hundred. But Vyrmidon and his brother were captivated by the allure of the Lost Legion - promising higher pay for those of pure Valyrian blood. Some companies prides themselves on being the most honourable, others the most ruthless, but the Legion promised purity. It was a hard offer to refuse, one that suggested a life of adventure and reckless abandon - life across the length of the sword! Vyrmidon and Aleron signed their names, and left port on the first war galley at dawn. It was 423 AC, and the world beckoned.

The next decade was varied, to say the least. Some jobs were pleasant, such as guarding wealthy magisters from would be assassins and ogling the lithe forms of their pure-blood daughters. Others were less so - touching bloodfly stricken slums in the swampland to the east of Bolantis; pitched battles on the fertile plains of the Rhoyne that left fields burning; quelling slave uprisings in the blood soaked streets of Meereen. Occasional trips back home to Volantis brought fleeting joy, but for select memories - the marriage of his younger sister, for instance, who was always dear to his heart.

Stomrsong
It was a sordid affair that brought the Lost Legion to Tyrosh in 433 - or would have done, had not a fierce tempest seen one of their war galleys strewn on the rocks of a nameless island to the west of Bloodstone. It was here that Vyrmidon and his brother sought refuge as the sole survivors of their expedition - here that they chances upon the cave of the fabled dragon Stormsong. When Vyrmidon slew Aleron in a fit of rage he would later remember as some act of Valyrian blood magic, Stormsong became bound to him, their souls entwined.

When the rest of the Legion came searching for the missing vessel, they found not only but skeletons in Legion armour and tattered banners, but their Officer astride a relic from the Doom. They pledged their fealty to Vyrmidon, for they were of the purest blood of Opd Valyria, and recognised their leader for what he was - a conqueror born again.

Bloodstone
The Stepstones had barely got used to self-governance before a new dragon rider appeared, and Bloodstone submitted to their new warlord without open defiance. The pirate lords and the native societies feared him, and gradually got used to their foreign ruler over time.

Vyrmidon swiftly winged his way across the Stepstones to seize the territories that had one belonged to Aeryn Targaryen, his predecessor in many respects. He bent the Saan and the Vunatis dynasties to his will, rendered them servile. When the Otherys boy arrived on dragonback, Vyrmidon tried to take him under his wing, to mould the young rider to his will. Instead, the Saan family sunk their claws into him, and their noxious influence emboldened their claim over Grey Gellows.

It was the arrival of Mira Sunderland that ensured the fragmentation of Vyrmidon’s fledgeling fifedom. The Westerosi rider took Last Refuge by force, and when Vyrmidon had seen the flames on the horizon he had donned his armour, leaped atop Stormsong and flew to the island without his fleet. He had not suspected dragonfire, and upon seeing Meleyx his furious assault was checked. Vyrmidon and Mira circled each other atop their mounts high above Last Refuge, before Vyrmidon had retreated to Titansreach. Later, when the call from parley came from the newest dragon rider, Vyrmidon met with Mira. She rebuffed his attempts to seduce her with deft grace, and before long the Triumvirate of the Stepstones was born, with the Otherys inheritor also joining their coalition.

It was a bold new era for the Stepstones, and one in which which Vyrmidon would play an active part.

Notable ties
The Triumvirate of the Stepstones The Triarchy of the Three Daughters The Lady Consort Valessa Forion The Lost Legion
 * Mira Sunderland
 * Baldassare Otherys
 * Lysaro
 * Ahkoz
 * Others to come

Family
Melos Family Tree
 * Immediate Family
 * Benerro Melos
 * m. Trianna Melos
 * Volaena Tagaros - nee Melos
 * Benerro Melos
 * Pyraeos Melos
 * Byzos Melos
 * Aleron Melos
 * Vyrmidon Melos
 * Sallanei Nysare - nee Melos