Laenor Longwaters

Ser Laenor Longwaters is Ser Vance Longwater’s only son and the head of House Longwaters. He serves as a sworn sword to Queen Visaera I Targaryen.

Appearance
Laenor has wavy, brown hair; deep set, brown eyes; a wide, previously broken nose; and a square chin and jaw. He has an extremely wiry and sinewy physique, his every vein and muscle seemingly prominent to the eye.

Laenor seldom keeps his face clean-shaven. He wields a bastard sword and a tall shield, and adorns himself in heavy mail and gambeson.

History
Laenor was born on the 1st day of the 3rd moon in 385 AC to Ser Vance and Jeyne Longwaters. From the day he could walk, he aspired to become a career knight like his father, touring the realm, fighting in tournaments, and dispensing justice on behalf of the downtrodden. Being forced to stay behind at home all the time only bolstered these ambiions in Laenor. He would often steal his father’s retired swords to practice with them, or slip under the radar of his mother’s supervision to play knights and castles with his Kingslander friends. As the tallest and strongest amongst his peers, he very rarely lost a game, or much of anything. He only ever lost to men, and it was to a group of conniving and malicious men that Laenor, at the age of ten, would lose his father.

Laenor had run away to fetch the gold cloaks after the group of drunken hedge knights descended upon his father, only to return and discover his father’s corpse, facedown and abandoned, in a nearby alleyway. In a fit of rage and tears, he swore over his father’s body he would never flee from a fight again, vowing to protect anyone who might come under his care with his life. He also vowed revenge on his father’s killers, and promised to live twice the life he would have otherwise lived.

For years, day in and day out, Laenor honed his body and his sword hand. Armed with his father’s equipment, he ventured out from his family’s new home on Rhaenys Hill into the Street of Silk and Flea Bottom, distributing his own brand of justice to thugs, rapists, pickpockets, and murderers alike. His vigilante streak came to an end in 399 AC, however, when the Targaryens of Dragonstone took his family into their service. While his mother and his sister, Laena, were invited to join Princess Visaera‘s court on Dragonstone, Laenor stayed behind in King’s Landing to squire under Prince Aemon Targaryen, the Master of Laws and universally loved knight of the realm.

Prince Aemon‘s effect on his young and vitriolic squire was nothing short of totalizing. The Crown Prince instilled patience, kindness, and temperance in Laenor, and taught the boy how to wield a sword and shield in earnest; he went to tournaments, attended court, and assisted in the apprehension of criminals, all under his guardian’s oversight. As the years went by, Laenor came to emulate the Prince’s demeanour almost entirely. When the Prince’s friends in the Gold Cloaks dredged up the scum who had killed Laenor’s father in 404 AC, Laenor exercised forgiveness and sent them to the Wall instead of executing them. For this pivotal act of mercy, Aemon, who by then was Hand of the King, proudly granted Laenor his spurs.

Kept on as a sworn sword to Aemon, Laenor had found satisfaction in life, for a time. He forged closer bonds with his remaining family, and found love in the arms of a dragonseed. That life came to an abrupt halt, however, when Aemon disappeared at sea in 405 AC. Laenor was the first to depart in search of the man he had come to consider his second father, and the last to return empty handed. He had scoured the Narrow Sea and the western Essosi seaboard, searching every city, forest, and hill he could find, but to no avail. He reluctantly returned to King’s Landing two years later, only to find the life he had once known had also disappeared; King Aenar had died, Visaera was now Queen, and Laena, his dearest sister, was missing and presumed dead. On the precipice of falling back into his old ways, Laenor cursed the Gods for their malice, and vowed he would never rely upon them again.

Ninth Moon

 * Having spent two years in Essos searching for Prince Aemon Targaryen, Laenor finally returns to King’s Landing, only to discover everything he once knew has changed.

Family

 * Ser Vance Longwaters (359-395)
 * m. Jeyne Longwaters (b. 369)
 * Ser Laenor Longwaters (b. 385)
 * Laena Longwaters (387-407)

Household and NPCs

 * Jeyne Longwaters, mother and widow