Qhorwyn Goodbrother

Qhorwyn Goodbrother is the firstborn son and eldest child of Lord Galon Goodbrother of Hammerhorn. Qhorwyn was born a triplet, along with brothers; Theon and Gormond. In recent years, as consequence of his Father's ailing status, Qhorwyn has all but ascended to the title he so covets.

Appearance and Character
Qhorwyn was never a monster of a man. His physical figure alone would never be a sight to scare men in the way that so many Ironborn come before him had. As a youth, he grew alongside other boys and never grew to tower above all the rest. Atop his head, rests a crown of short and messy brown hair, which is oft left unwashed, coarse, and smelling of the sea. Qhorwyn's eyes appear holes into the very depths of the Drowned God's watery halls itself, with some having likened them to the black of the midnight sky.

The Heir to Hammerhorn had always been one to staunchly favour the Old Ways, with reaping and raiding having ever proved two of the Heir's passions in life. Qhorwyn, in stark contrast to his Father, is a man whom unwaveringly practices the Iron Price and despises the more peaceful route the current Lord of Greyjoy has taken.

While his fellow Ironborn whom hold true to their culture and faith have no reason to name Qhorwyn a harsh and unforgiving man, both those whom have betrayed their ancestors and forsaken the watery halls of the Drowned God stand alongside Greenlanders in the Heir to Hammerhorn's eyes.

392 - 402 A.C. The Horn Sounds
392 A.C. was a hard and trying year for the main line of the House of Goodbrother. During the First Moon of the year, the Lady Harra Merlyn, Wife to Lord Galon Goodbrother found herself waking the Castle of Hammerhorn deep into the night's slumber with her cries of childpain. For her eldest, for Qhorwyn, she laboured a day and a half day, after which Theon would come a quarter day later, and finally, the birth of the two elder boys gave way to the birth of Gormond.

Triplets, a characteristic of the Goodbrothers as old as the Grey King himself, as old as their House words, "Answer the Call", as old as the Drowned God and his Watery Halls. While the Goodbrothers prided themselves upon their direct descent from the eldest loyal brother of the Grey King, loyalty was a trait inherent to all for eternal time to come. As the triplets aged, they found themselves accompanied in this world by a Sister some years later, for it had taken their Mother quite some years to recover from their birth.

In 397 A.C., Sansa was born. While she would possess no bonds of triplet or twin, her birth was one of great toll, taking the life of their Mother, Harra Merlyn in the process. As had happened with so many thousands of women before, Harra Merlyn was torn apart and left to bleed out as she held her baby girl in her arms, her fourth child, her second pregnany concluded.

Of the triplets, Qhorwyn and Theon had never been a greater representation of the Grey King and his Goodbrother. They were thick as thieves, close as two knives in the night, and as tight as a knot. Yet, Gormond never truly managed to find himself amongst their ranks. Where Qhorwyn and Theon played and practiced and parleyed with servants for more treats, Gormond watched on with a fire to his eye, a glare alight, and a negative disposition toward his Brothers. Yet, the divide between the two eldest Brothers and Gormond would not come to be truly illustrated and yield consequence of any significant note until 402 A.C., when Gormond placed the blame of their Mother's untimely death at Sansa's feet.

Qhorwyn and Theon missed their Mother, yes, as all children in their position would, but alas, it had never occurred to them to blame their Sister, she was such a darling compared to them after all, and they felt nothing but love for the girl five years their junior. Yet, midway through the first year of the Scarlet Winter, Gormond came to prove himself nothing more than the badbrother his Brothers had always thought him. A mockery of Sansa came alongside a comment that she should be their supper one night, so that they might extend the time before they needed make use of their winter rations. The Brothers two, Qhorwyn and Theon never meant to do what came next, they were just boys after all, and were not whollly aware of the strength they held when combined as one.

A few days later, they watched on as the Drowned Priest pushed their Brother's body out to sea, atop a wooden raft. Their Father had refused to believe what they had done, his Greenland indulgences had made him soft, had made him weak, and had broken the Ironborn spirit of Goodbrother. Yet while the Brothers cried and mourned the loss of their lesser third, they were finally able to stand content in the knowledge that their sweet Sister Sansa would never again be so threatened by one of her flesh and blood, by one of salt and steel.

403 - 408 A.C. The Hammer Finds it's Anvil
Lord Galon Goodbrother. A man ahead of his time, so many had oft commented. Many of House Goodbrother had oft rebuffed against his rule, angered against his favouring of the Greenlander ways, and held great disdain for his preferred focus on mining and peace, to reaving and raiding.

As a boy Qhorwyn had never held any great philosophical stance on whether the Ironborn should grasp tightly upon the Old Ways, or make to adopt the New, and continue doing so. Yet, as both he and his Brother, Theon, the surviving, and stronger two thirds of the once three sons of Galon Goodbrother grew, they found themselves much akin in their stance with regard to their Father's modern notions. As they had been when Gormund had stood in opposition to them, they were united as ever, and as ready as ever to weather the great storms of the seas. First, it was their Father's insistance upon them not learning to be skilled warriors, then, it was his dismissive tone when it came to a need for education in naval tactics and warfare, but alas, the greatest blow, was when their Father, the Lord of one of the mightiest and most feared Houses in the Iron Islands, was overcome with joy at the rise of Lord Dagon Greyjoy, and his Wife, the Lady Alannys Harlaw, and their Reformist Faction.

Qhorwyn could stomach no more of this insult to his history, to who he was, to who his people were. In late 408 A.C., Brothers two, Qhorwyn and Theon bid their sweet Sister well, and set asail with some five warships from their Lord Father's fleet. They told some of the men they had permission to do so, others, were alligned with them in their beliefs, in the Old Ways, in their steadfast opposition of the New. Alas, it mattered naught. The Goodbrothers would not see Great Wyk and Hammerhorn again for some years to come.

409 A.C. Combined, the Hammer and the Horn are Unbreakable
Qhorwyn and Theon set forth, wide grins upon their visages, for they were most eager to make their mark upon the world. Yet, nigh disastrously, one of their first night's upon the seas was met with a most vicious storm. All night long, waves washed across the decks of their five vessels, the wind howled and tugged at them and their men, loose belongings were long lost to the depths of the Drowned God's watery halls, and a number of men joined those lost belongings. By the time morning came, the Brothers two had not a clue where they were. One of their Captains posed the possibility that they had been blown so far north and west as Lonely Light, while another said they were on the far side of the Sunset Sea, and would not return to the Iron Islands again. The second of said Captains soon found himself bound and drowned, there would be no such talk aboard these ships.

Yet, it was naught a Captain whom correctly identified their position, but instead a Second Mate to the now drowned Captain, earning himself a swift promotion. Some weeks later, just as had been earlier stated, they arrived at the shores of the Summer Islands. The people here were a kind of which Qhorwyn had never before seen. He enjoyed their slaughter and enslavement greatly. It was in this time, in these acts, that Qhorwyn felt himself come alive, that he felt his blood run hot as had that of so many come before him. He was Ironborn.

Soon enough, the Brothers found themselves in Slaver's Bay, and with a reasonable bounty acquired from the sale of their newfound property. From Slaver's Bay, the Brothers two sailed east, further than they already had, exploring much of the Summer Sea and travelling as far as Faros upon the island of Great Moraq, and as far south as the Basilisk Isles and Naath. While these alien islands and isles proved bountiful in slaves, thralls, and saltwives, Qhorwyn and Theon dared not step foot upon Sothoryos, for their time spent upon the seas had made them cautious and concerned of its indescribable power, and mysterious legends.

413 A.C. Horns Signal Return
Four years had passed. These years had seen the seas and what they did possess in great number - peoples for the claiming - never before had the Goodbrothers Qhorwyn and Theon felt greater belonging. Alas, as all things do, their adventures upon the wild seas came to a close, and they were met with the briefest bout of anger from their Father, the only bout of anger they had ever seen from him. He was a weak man, a man thoroughly devoid of strength and Ironborn muscle, it was an estranged blessing upon him that he had survived his drowning as a boy.

Yet, it did not take long for the tides of Great Wyk and Hammerhorn to shift in a manner more disturbing toward reformist efforts. The Lord Goodbrother, the frail Hammer, the Horn without wind, collapsed in a fit, soon after renderred thoroughly incapable. Qhorwyn saw the oppourtunity that sat before him with an eagerness the like of which Hammerhorn had not seen since the days before his Lord Father sat the seat of the Goodbrothers.

However, as the sea gives bounty, the sea also takes as it pleases. Rodrik Goodbrother. A distant relation. Nothing more. A distant relation, one to be ignored, one to be forgotten, one to swim with the ebb and flow of the tide, but not this time. Their damned weak Father had left this distant relation as Commander of their Fleet, ensuring the crippling of Qhorwyn's plans, of Theon's desires, and of the chance at Ironborn once more.

Much to Qhorwyn's dismay, his Father's incapacity lasted only a mere week. Somehow, his Father's health had mysteriously, even magically, recovered itself. Whisperings of the Seven, of the Greenlander Gods were awash within the walls of Hammerhorn, and Qhorwyn's resentment of his Father and his ways was never more obvious, to everyone except his Father.