Cassana Vance

Cassana Vance is the granddaughter of Queen Visaera Targaryen's former Hand, Perceon Vance, and his wife, Shiera Velaryon. After the death of her grandfather, she was wed to a distant relation from House Vance of Atranta, Bryndemere Vance, and became the his lady wife. She is the only surviving child of Elana Frey's union with her father, Preston Vance. She is the last in the original line of House Vance of Harrenhal save for her aunt Minisa.

Appearance
Long legged and slight of frame, Cassana is a petite woman; she is thin and narrow-shouldered, with long brown curls and a heart-shaped face. The Lady of Harrenhal dresses in only blacks chased with gold and silver in mourning for her grandfather, who was her main role model and parent throughout her youth. Despite her melancholy reputation, she carries herself with an air of elegance and poise, a relic the sharp expectations of her grandmother, Shiera Vance, who raised her with extremely strict expectations for how she ought to live as a highborn lady.

Recent Events
In 438AC, Cassana mourns the death of her mother, Elana Frey, despite never truly having the opportunity to know her so well as her half-siblings at the Crossing. In the 10th Moon, she attends the Festival of Fairmarket to swear fealty to the Lord of Riverrun, Androw Tully, and later attends his wedding alongside her faithful friend and servant, Tansy Rivers. Her husband, Bryndemere, does not accompany her to Riverrun, and instead still broods at Harrenhal, mourning the loss of his own father and brother in the span of only two moons.

Background
Cassana was born in 418 AC, and is the only surviving child of the former heir of Harrenhal, Preston Vance and his widow, Elana Frey. She was primarily raised and mentored by her grandfather, Perceon Vance, who had long served Queen Visaera Targaryen as Hand, as well as for her husband before her.

As a child, Cassana was tutored by the highest of scholars beneath the close scrutiny of her grandmother, Shiera Vance in King's Landing. Born a Velaryon, Shiera was the daughter of a Targaryen princess and the former Hand of the King herself, Lord Vaemond Velaryon; she allowed Cassana no room for failure, and assured each day and night that her husband's heiress would be well-groomed for ladyship. She was always a sad girl, as one of her tutors once remarked "She is just as like to burst into tears as most children are like to burst into giggles."

Ofttimes, her books were her only escape from the pressures of duty, and remain so still. Cassana proved sharp of wit as a girl, and seemed only to sharpen as she grew. She flourished at the capital, delving far into her studies and becoming formidably well-versed in histories and laws, as well as the economic state of the realm. Her grandmother chose to harness her mind rather than her social influence, understanding well that her husband's name could very well depend on it, despite that her way of birth had already cruelly separated her from her mother and half-siblings, and her vigorous education seemed only to further isolate her from society.

Her strict lessons made Cassana to feel as though the walls would close in around her, even within a most cavernous keep such as her home of Harrenhal or King's Landing, the sprawling city of her youth. For what reprisals and discipline has had to be taught to her, Cassana teems with an unthinkable measure of anxiety, and has been known to immerse herself all the more fully in her studies to better preoccupy her mind, rather than dwell on her most nagging thoughts and mental afflictions. A girl prone to her weeping, she was encouraged by her grandmother to hide her tears and never show a wet face at court. Cassana would become all the more closeted and reclusive for it, still, no matter that she had become lovelier as she grew older.

She was twelve when Shiera left this world for the realm of the Gods. Left alone with only the guidance of her grandfather, Perceon, Cassana grew even more melancholy, even more reclusive, and was subjected to frequent solitude between the Lord Hand's many political transactions, much to her own chagrin. When the two did spend time together, her grandfather labored from dawn till dusk to instill his values within her, mentoring her as his heir and future Lady of Harrenhal should she be forced into such a situation. Though she gained a measure of his compassion, his morality, his piety, and most of all, his wisdom, her tendencies to retreat within often overpower her teachings and lessons.

Seven years later, her aging grandfather too would pass. Cassana stayed by his bedside for the full turn of day and night that he was bedridden, before he died of a burst belly on the morning after he first complained of a stitch in his side. The maesters announced his departure in 437 AC, following The Bleeding, when the Four Year Winter proved its coldest and most disadvantageous for his health and livelihood as an elderly man.

With a succession crisis upon them, as if by sent by the gods themselves, an unexpected intervention saved House Vance of Harrenhal; that of the Lord of Atranta, Laswell Vance. He attended her grandfather's funeral and lit the pyre personally, and afterwards, gave her an offer that would come to save her house. Upon the urging of Lord Laswell, as well as that of her aunt Minisa, Cassana married Laswell's second son, Bryndemere Vance. The two were wed within a fortnight of the agreement, and he ascended to Lordship of Harrenhal and it's surrounding holdings and lands, with her at his side as his wife and Lady of Harrenhal.