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 married to Lady Renata Redwyne.

Appearance and Character
Tall and handsome in his youth, remnants of Ryam's earlier appeal still remain. He carries himself with grace and prestige befitting his place as the Lord of the Arbor. His auburn hair is greying and he no longer wears a beard, making his striking facial features even more evident to onlookers.

Though born into a modicum of obscurity, Ryam ensured he was surrounded by luxury, as was only befitting a Redwyne, no matter said Redwyne's station. Since his youth, Ryam's tastes have tempered slightly, though he is still very much a believer in displaying his wealth and power through his appearance.

Ryam is a proud man, though has shown very little in the way of martial dominance for many years now, focusing instead on ensuring the coffers of Ryamsport are ever overflowing. Many throughout the Seven Kingdoms know and respect the Lord Redwyne, even if his appearances are limited.

Early Life (384-389AC)
Ryam Redwyne was born to Ser Paxter Redwyne and his wife Ceryse Mullendore, the first of four children the pairing would produce. As a cousin to the main line of the Redwynes, Ryam was raised in a small manse in Vinetown, removed from the political center of Ryamsport, though such removal afforded him a peaceful childhood.

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 four 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.

Lord of the Arbor (418-Present)
Ryam's coup was swift and silent. Eryk's death was deemed an accident by some, a result of his near-despotic rule by others, and a coup by none. Ryam assumed his position as Lord of the Arbor, and set about consolidating his rule over the island. Most of the nobility on the island had helped him secure his seat, and so marriages of Ryam's siblings were arranged with the houses Redding, Rhysling, and Goldwyn. House Lowther -- located on the isolated Mermaid's Palace, and thus not part of the coup -- were left scorned.

Winter's arrival provided the new lord a suitable reason for secluding himself on his island. For the next few years, Ryam restructured the Redwyne Fleet to delegate power across his vassals and his supporters, and improved the output of his vineyards. Slowly, but surely, the towns of Vinetown and Ryamsport began to prosper once more, and the Redwyne Fleet reemerged as a power in the south.

Though indeed a renewed threat, Ryam made little use of his massive fleet in the following years, preferring to use them to safeguard the shores of the Arbor and the southern shores of the Reach. Ryam's place as the rightful lord of his lands were solidified when Lord Tyrell elected to have his thirdborn son Alyn page for Ryam. The young Tyrell boy was of an age with Ryam's eldest child Florys, and took on a position of an older brother to his true children, though it was Arys Flowers that cared for them all, Alyn included.

The following decades of war and strife were not fully felt by Ryam and House Redwyne, largely due to his policy of non-involvement. The Redwyne Fleet was his and his alone, and its duty was the safeguarding of the Arbor. Doubtless, many would come to resent House Redwyne for the perceived cowardice of their lord, but this was of no concern to Ryam. War only served a purpose when it was necessary, and thus the various voluntary spats of Westeros were of little consequence to him, beyond their effect on trade.

In recent years, Ryam has further consolidated his family's standing in the Seven Kingdoms through various alliances of marriage. The wedding of his eldest son Denys to the daughter of the Lord of Oldtown secured their dominance over the south, while his controversial decision to wed his youngest daughter Alerie to the Lord of Pyke, Alyn Greyjoy, has ensured his family's naval dominance for generations to come, much to the chagrin of many, no doubt.

Recent Events
Fully aware of his obligations to the realm, Ryam elects to send his sons Denys and Raymun to Oldtown, to attend the wedding of his goodson Arthur and the Princess Naerys.

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. 413 AC)
 * m. Garlan Tyrell
 * Denys Redwyne (b. 414 AC)
 * m. Alys Hightower
 * Raymun Redwyne (b. 416 AC)
 * Alerie Redwyne (b. 420 AC)
 * m. Alyn Greyjoy
 * Melara Redwyne (b. 386 AC)
 * m. Lord Rhysling
 * Desmond Redwyne (389-436 AC)
 * m. Lady Redding
 * Alerie Redwyne (b. 393 AC)
 * m. Loras Goldwyn, Master of Ryamsport

Household

 * Captain of the Guard: Alekyne Redding
 * Admiral of the Fleet: Desmond Redwyne
 * Knight Courtier: Garland the Merry
 * Maester Lucantine, replacing the previous Maester Elyas.
 * Master of Vinetown: Thaddeus Redflower
 * Master of Ryamsport: Loras Goldwyn
 * Master of Starfish Harbor: Horas Seablossom