Alysanne Stark

Lady Alysanne Stark is the reigning Lady of the Dreadfort, and until the recent death of her second husband, was the Lady of Winterfell. She is the eldest daughter of the late Lord Torrhen Stark, and his wife, Lady Dawn of House Reed. Having outlasted all viable male relations after the usurpation of her uncle, Eyron Stark, she assumed her father’s title following her uncle’s death by wedding his son, Lord Benjen Stark. As her father was afflicted with tragedies and setbacks, so too was she. Rather than yielding to such challenges she has, time and again, risen above them to become a formidable peer of the North in her own right.

Appearance and Character
Lady Alysanne Stark is a lithe, thin woman with a face that might once have carried with it the harshest sense of beauty. As with all that dwell in the realm of the living, time has begun to take its toll upon her features. Her dark brown, near black, hair has begun to be silvered with age. Wrinkles have formed at the corners of her mouth and increasing lines have become visible upon her forehead. Nevertheless, her bearing is proud and her demeanor as sharp, as exacting as the cool grey eyes with which she surveys the world.

As a girl, Alysanne had indulged in vibrant gowns, richly colored and poignant in their flair. This frivolous sense of style abated with maturity, and most notably so when she assumed her father’s title and became Lady of the Dreadfort in her own right. Since she has tended to the darker, more austere dress that has so often been associated with the great expanse Alysanne calls her home. Jewels, by her accounts, belong to the softer Southron ladies, and so despite the wealth of her house, she possesses only a handful of necklaces, rings, and brooches.

In many ways, the lady’s wardrobe, and its evolution reflects the change in her nature as she transformed from girl to woman to lady in her own right. Her father had taught her to be an unassuming woman, bringing her up to charm and demure. As a child, she had been quick to smile and possessed an easy laugh. In that way, she was meant to facilitate the goals and ambitions of her future husband so that she might curate his bloodline quite as tenderly as her mother had done in the name of her lord father.

Those easy smiles and gales of glee have long since passed for the woman her second husband’s men had taken to calling the Dread Wolf of Winterfell. For so like her relations, Alysanne’s life has been riddled with tragedy and tribulation. It is a testament to her heritage and her will that time and again she has remained an indomitable, unyielding force. Time and again enemies and chance alike have sought to see her laid low, and so time and again did she endure.

Hardened though the Lady of the Dreadfort may be, motherhood awoke her to a deep sense of affection for those children that, like her, had displayed an elemental mettle to survive. Loveless as her marriages have sometimes been, Alysanne knows naught but boundless devotion to her children, even in the face of their flaws. Since they day each was born she has zealously guarded their interests and done all within her power to facilitate the futures that have yet to come.

Infancy
Lord Torrhen Stark and Lady Dawn Reed brought Alysanne into the world in 391 AC. From her first breath, she was calm and well-tempered. She slept peacefully, rarely burst into a fit, and giggled more than she cried. As a newborn, she was the delight of the otherwise maliced Starks of the Dreadfort.

Childhood
With two elder brothers and a younger one on her heels, Alysanne was groomed by her parents for marriage and diplomacy. Unlike her next eldest sibling, Cregard, she complied with her predetermined fate, committing fully to the educational regimen her father had prescribed her. She stayed out of trouble, remained honest with her parents, and often aided her eldest brother, Eddard, when trying to mediate between Cregard and Torrhen. The unsung hero of her family even as a child, she rarely took credit for keeping the peace, settling instead for the personal satisfaction produced by her efforts.

Adolescence
Alysanne’s penchant for honesty fostered in her a vigilance against deception and a desire to discover the truth. She often snooped on the handmaidens and ladies-in-waiting at the Dreadfort, if only to uncover their true and honest opinions about her. For her inner circle of friends, she chose only the most blunt or transparent of girls, and was decisive in ousting those who crossed her.

Though she always presented herself as a contented individual, the majority of her adolescence was marked by repeated tragedy. She lost Eddard to frostbite in 405 AC, Torrhen to scurvy in 407 AC, Cregard to Lord Mormont’s blade in the same year, and all of her rightful titles to Benjen, her undeserving cousin, in 408 AC. Forced out of her own home, she escaped with her mother, Dawn, and her sister, Arrana, to Greywater Watch, where she would remain in hiding for the next seven years.

Adulthood
Though Lord Jon Stark had granted Alysanne’s titles to Benjen following Eyron’s execution, the disputed Lady of the Dreadfort refused to relinquish her rightful claims. She was, however, unable to pursue them at first. For years, her uncle, Lord Errold Reed, barred her from leaving the security of Greywater Watch, citing dangers from the Dreadfort and the surrounding bogs - it had been thanks to her mother’s knowledge of the landscape that Alysanne was able to find the mythical castle in the first place. Half a decade for her was thus spent in tutelage. From survival off the land to starless navigation, she adopted some of the Crannogmen’s ways while still remaining loyal to her more proper, Northern upbringing.

In 415 AC, Alysanne had set out with her kin and retainers from Greywater Watch to pursue her claims. After a year of visits to various keeps and castles, she presented a petition signed by a host of Northern lords to Jon, requesting that her titles be restored. Although Jon initially refused, a compromise was eventually reached: Alysanne would marry her recently widowed cousin, and together they would jointly rule the Dreadfort.

Eight years prior, the two cousins were once excited to marry one another; but following the circumstances of their kinsmen's deaths, it was initially difficult for them to suffer one another's presence. It was only after the tragic loss of their only son, Beron, that they became close, finding shelter in each other's hearts from their family's continued, dreadful fate.

6th Moon

 * Alysanne heeds Lord Jon Stark's request to attend the Winter Council.

Family

 * Dorren Stark (363 - 398)
 * Mallador Snow (b. 388)
 * Lord Eyron Stark (367 - 407)
 * m. Lady Evelyne Stark, née Mormont (b. 377)
 * Lord Benjen Stark (b. 393)
 * m. Lady Donella Manderly (393 - 415)
 * Daryn Stark (b. 415)
 * m. Lady Alysanne Stark (b. 391)
 * Beron Stark (416 - 417)
 * Lord Torrhen Stark (369 - 407)
 * m. Lady Dawn Reed (b. 370)
 * Eddard Stark (386 - 405)
 * m. Leona Ryswell (b. 389)
 * Lyanna Stark (b. 405)
 * Lord Cregard Stark (388 - 407)
 * Lady Alysanne Stark (b. 391)
 * m. Lord Benjen Stark (393 - 419)
 * Beron Stark (416 - 417)
 * m. Lord Jon II Stark (371 - 434)
 * Theon Stark (b. 419)
 * Cregard Stark (b. 420)
 * Sybelle Stark (b. 422)
 * Wynafryd Stark (b. 424 d. 424)
 * Torrhen Stark (b. 427 d. 436)
 * Serena Stark (b. 428)
 * Maester Rickon (b. 392)
 * Arrana Stark (b. 396)
 * m. Hoarfrost Umber (b. 400)


 * Edwyn Stark (370 - 417)
 * Osric Stark (370 - 422)
 * Brandon Snow (b. 378)

Household

 * Dawn Reed, mother and stalwart ally
 * Arrana Stark, sister, heir, and crannogwoman to the bone
 * Benjen Stark, husband, cousin, and co-lord
 * Ser Harrion Whitehill, Captain of the Household Guard and formerly Cregard’s closest companion
 * Garris, Maester and Old Gods dilletante