Brandon Reed

Brandon Reed is the Lord of Greywater Watch and only son of Jon Reed and Raya Stark. He is childless, therefore his nephew Horford Reed is his current heir. He is a Greenseer, although he is prone to misinterpretation.

Appearance and Character
Lord Reed dons deep red hair that is always just a bit too shaggy, paired with a beard that is just a bit too overgrown. He's always far too skinny. He is a frail, light man, resembling more of a pauper than a lord. Bags have drooped under his eyes since he was a child. To some, this gives off a crazed look. To others, they believe him sickly or cursed. He is relatively tall for a Crannogman, only adding to how slender and skinny he appears. He believes this is from his mother, Raya Stark's, side.

Brandon is a quiet man who seldom talks without a reason. As a child he did not speak until he was 8, causing his father to believe he was slow in the head. Several tutors were employed to counteract his behavior, yet they were unsuccessful coaxing the tenacious child out of his shell. It's difficult enough to engage the Lord of the Neck in a conversation, but if you do he prefers short sentences, getting right to the point. If asked to explain his positions, he writes passionate essays - which don't often bring second rounds - if only for their length.

For the few that he does preserve words for, Brandon is fiercely loyal. He is not above using his shrewdness and cunning to serve his Liege Lord. More than anything, he understands his limitations. Whether that be in combat or conversation, he is ill equipped in either battleground. Instead, the Lord of Greywater Watch takes advantage of his quiet and lithe form to sneak and snoop. He listens and blends in, in ways that a more polished lord would be incapable of doing.

Lord Reed is a very private man, as most Reeds have been throughout their generations. He has always been a coward, yet a loyal one at that. He suffers from a great deal of paranoia and guesswork regarding his dreams, many of which are probably being grossly over analyzed.

History
Born in 408 AC, Brandon was the first and only of Jon Reed's sons to survive birth, and the second child to make it past two days. His mother and father's union had been a trying one, built on strife and worry. It did not help that their children had been continuously born lame. Until Brandon, that is. He was a small infant, but he was healthy - and that was the important detail in his father's eyes.

The young Lord had a good childhood. A traditional upbringing for a Crannogman in the swamps of the Neck. He would play in the safest parts of the marshes by day, catching frogs, bugs, and fish. Whilst at night Brandon was haunted by vivid dreams, for which he would wake up screaming about. The men of Greywater Watch would joke that it was the only time they had heard the boy's voice. It had been so loud that even the sounds of the bog at night had been drowned out by the boy's shrieks and howls of fear.

There were rumors he was cursed. Jon Reed's enemies would say he cut his own son's tongue out. Children should look youthful and free, they said. Not like... that. Not like Brandon Reed. The boy did not speak at all. Especially not about the dreams he had that haunted him at night. Not to the maesters who dosed him with milk of the poppy, not to his mother who held him as he fought sleep, and not to his own father, who prayed to the Old Gods that his son would find a resolution.

At age eight, Brandon finally began to talk. While he would not speak without being spoken to first, it was a massive improvement in the eyes of the maesters and his father. He began to properly be tutored, and although he was years where his father would have liked him to be, Brandon was to be given a proper education. He still experienced the dreams at night, but this was the first step to eventually understanding them.

He and his sister both lost their mother 420 AC, during an outbreak of disease in the Neck. His mother, Raya Stark, was far too young to pass on, being so young and fruitful. Her death had hit his father particularly hard, forcing him to become a stern and solid man.

By 424 AC, Lord Jon Reed received word that his cousin, Berena Stark was being sent to Kings Landing. It was requested of him to send one of his children to keep the girl in Northern company, so Brandon's father opted to send the boy. At age sixteen, Brandon was a skinny weed growing tall. He was light on his feet with a friendly face and overgrown hair - which his father insisted on trimming short before his trip. Brandon did not fit in well in the capitol. Although he thoroughly enjoyed going unnoticed by others, he quickly made a friend in Berena Stark, for she too was different than the others.

Most of his time in Kings Landing was spent reading. Brandon had never gained such an appreciation for books back home. In Greywater Watch, there wasn't room for books. Crannogmen were more concerned with hunting and fishing. Here in the Red Keep, there were hundreds - nay, thousands - of books, and Brandon did not have to say a single word to get them to talk to him. He could silently pour through their pages and live a thousand lives in one mere afternoon if he so pleased.

The books and his dreams would eventually grow so similar he would not be able to tell them apart. He would often wonder what was reality and what was his own imagination. The monsters spoken of in books looked so vivid in his nightmares. The historical events he would read about during the day and picture in his mind's eye would play like scenes in front of him at night; it was like he was actually standing there and witnessing history. He was oft to question his own sanity. Who would believe him? He couldn't tell anyone about the dreams. He could barely speak a coherent sentence.

Of course, Berena Stark changed things - as Starks tend to do for Reeds. He dreams of Skagos, the island in the far North. He knows because he's flying high above it, and its northern rocky shore is unmistakable. White caps form within the bay and he sees Driftwood Hall perched upon a snowy clifface. It's different from his other dreams, as he is free to roam around and this one has happened over and over again. His dream always ends with a lone direwolf trudging through the deep snow. It's the first dream he actually recognizes as a real place. The first time that he's made the realization that his dream may not be completely random. Almost twenty years later.

It didn't take long for Berena to talk him into going with her. There was no way he would have been able to convince her to not go. It would have been neglectful to not escort his Lady, he tells himself over and over again. Mainly it's the way she seems so certain that Brandon's dreams are more than just dreams. In the end, maybe it's just having someone believe in him. He doesn't realize it will be two years until he sees his family again. While Brandon may have garnered the loyalty of his future liege, his father was less impressed when he came home to the Neck. Although he's ultimately 'relieved he did not sully the Stark girl's honor by putting a bastard in her belly.'

Some five years before his father passes, the Reed family comes to a breaking point regarding Brandon's inability to find a wife and do his duty for the family. His father opens a contract to matrilinially marry his daughter to a Crannog clansmen, a second son, but it will strengthen the ties in the Neck nonetheless. The most important part is that the Reeds need and heir. And they get one in the form of Horford Reed.

Brandon became Lord of Greywater Watch in 431 AC, following the death of his father. He has yet to find a suitable wife, which was his father's final wish.

With secrets come rumors, and the Reeds have played host to many rumors. Lord Reed's lack of wife led to many rumblings that he preferred men, or that he had a lowborn lover. When he had left King's Landing with Berena for two years, it had caused a stir, having been wildly improper for a two unwed nobles to run off as they did. Of course, the rumors between the two were quelled quickly. Nothing was more effective than a Stark's stern word. For that Brandon is thankful.

Greendreams
As Brandon has made the connections between his dreams and reality, he has become increasingly paranoid. He now is apt to interpret the vaguest of dreams as possible signs of doom. While it may be normal for a man to dream of a stag or a wolf, Brandon may view a stag drinking at a stream as an increased sign of hostilities between the Baratheons and the Riverlands. He makes great leaps on otherwise quite tranquil visions. Brandon is a man who bends like hot steel to his liege, but the madness inside of him fosters a strong conviction for what he believes in - for he knows what he has seen.

Recent Events
Brandon Reed has ignored his father's advice to get a wife for the past seven years, and he's at peace with that. The Crannogman has ruled the Neck quietly and without issue. Over the years he's been wary of the many conflicts close to his borders, keeping a close eye on them, but none dare test the combined strength of the North. He's probably the most paranoid of all the Northern Lords in that respect.

Brandon met the Stark riders and the rest of the North at Moat Cailin before traveling to Fairmarket. The day before their arrival he had a dream about a bird picking the carcass of a wolf clean. Domeric Umber, husband of Lady Berena Stark, was unexpectedly slain by wildlings North of the Wall. He interprets his vision - much too late - as this death. Brandon travels to Winterfell with the party of northern lords after festivities at Riverrun, raising 200 men to aid in the fight against the wildlings.

Family

 * Raya Stark (Mother, deceased 420 AC)
 * Jon Reed (Father, deceased 431 AC)
 * Joceyln Reed (Sister) - Mother of Horford Reed, blonde-brown hair with loose curls and a short, stout frame. Brandon does not enjoy her company. The name 'Jocelyn' alone gives him shivers.
 * Wylis Crag (Brother by-law, deceased 433 AC) - Briefly married to Jocelyn Reed before perishing in a freak swamp accident.
 * Horford Reed (Nephew) - Squire under Lyonel Baratheon. Blonde with freckles and a compact frame. Aspires to be a knight someday. Current Reed heir. Brandon enjoys his nephew but keeps him at arm's length. Horford's position is precarious and unique, given his father was below Joceyln's rank. Brandon's state of celibacy and lack of interest in women pushed Jon Reed into marrying off his daughter matrilineally to a lesser lord of the Neck toward the end of his life. Unfortunately said lesser lord passed away after a freak accident in the marshes.