Myles Mooton

Myles Mooton was the heir to Maidenpool from 403 AC to present. The only surviving son of Lord Desmond Mooton and Lady Serra Cox, he had one sister Lady Orianna Mooton.

Appearance and Character
A man of average height (5 ft 10 in) with a head full of brown hair and sparkling blue eyes, Myles Mooton would not stand out overly much amongst a crowd of other nobles. Neither blessed with a particular handsomeness nor cursed with an unappealing countenance, the heir to Maidenpool is endowed with a stocky and athletic build earned through long hours in the training yard or riding at the quintain.

Educated as a nobleborn male ought to be in both arms and books, Myles also possess a degree of natural charm to accompany a humorous twinkle in his eyes. A good-natured man most of the time, nonetheless the knight can be a holy terror if his temper is roused - a trait inherited from his lordly father.

History
Myles Mooton was born in 381 AC, the second son of Lord Desmond Mooton and his lady wife Serra Cox. For years he resided in the shadows of his elder brother Androw, the perfect heir that their lord father desired, with a quick smile, good humor, a face as handsome as any in the tales of princesses and great knights, and a strong arm with which to wield his favored mace.

In his youth, Myles enjoyed the relative freedom that being a second son unexpected to rule afforded him, carousing at nights in the taverns of his family’s town, taking his time whenever he wished to visit King’s Landing or the other towns of the Riverlands. Naturally this carousing was not always alone, and his own good cheer - as well his good birth, for it was not his looks in general - oft enough ensured that he could easily find a woman with whom to tumble into bed.

More recent days, however, have necessitated a more sober mind on his part. With the passing of his brother and the retreat of his father from public life, Myles was needed to assume leadership over Maidenpool. Through fits and starts, mistakes and successes alike, he is starting to learn what it will mean to someday be lord in his own right.

388 - 390 AC - The Hammer Uprising
He was but a boy of eight years when unrest amongst the smallfolk led to the series of events known as “the Hammer Uprising.” Along with his father and elder brother Androw, Myles was present at the tourney at Foolskeep held by House Follard that began the uprising proper, where he found himself most impressed by Brynden Hammer’s showing in the joust - especially after the commoner unhorsed both his father and brother.

Having grown up on tales of heroism and great deeds, the young Myles cared little for the fact that the victor was neither nobleborn nor a knight, and in fact beseeched his father during the arguments that followed to grant the man a knighthood so that he could keep his earnings. The hero worship was short-lived, however, as the scene escalated to bloody conflict - and the rebels stole away with Lord Follard’s maiden daughter.

As Hammer’s forces continued their campaigns and won victories against men loyal to the Crown and nobility, Lord Desmond remained abreast of their movements back in Maidenpool. When word arrived that Hammer and his lackeys were killed at the Battle of Kingsbridge, a celebration was held in the Mooton keep, to which all the nobility of the surrounding countryside was invited. The festivities were interrupted when word arrived that commoners had seized the market town of Fairmarket. Swiftly did Lord Desmond, Myles, and many others set off to retake the town, leaving behind Androw to defend their own lands.

Only a few weeks later Maidenpool itself would feel the effects of dissent in a direct way. A man calling himself “Florian the Foolish” incited the smallfolk to riot against their noble overlords, setting several areas of the town ablaze. In short order the town watch was overwhelmed and the insurgent dared assault the Mooton keep itself. This would prove to be his undoing. Androw might have been young, but he was a fighter through and through and the garrison of the keep rallied behind him. The heir himself was the one who slew the rebel leader, then rode through the town with the man’s head held aloft on the end of a spear. Just like that, the fight went out of the commonfolk and order was slowly restored.

At Fairmarket, Myles would take his first life, firing an arrow into the eye of a man that attempted to strike down his lord father. It would not be his last kill of the day, and the cruel necessity of such actions would linger with him for some time to come even as Lord Desmond and Androw both would assure him that it was merely the price of doing his duty to put down those who would cause trouble.

392 - 394 AC - The Great Famine
As cold snaps worked their ravages across the Riverlands, laying low fields of crops left and right, even the nobles of Maidenpool felt the effects of great hunger caused by the food shortages in the realm. Lady Serra came down with an illness from which she never recovered. She passed away in the year 393, leaving behind a family with little time to grieve.

King Aenar’s shrewd management in nearby King’s Landing became a model for Lord Desmond to follow, which served Maidenpool and its lands well, even if he was not willing (nor, in truth, able) to spend the vast sums of gold that the king possessed.

As such, there were still cases of banditry and poaching alike, which were met with excursions by Ser Androw and Myles into the countryside to quell these smaller cases of unrest. Once more Myles was forced to confront the gruesome realities of death, whether in the form of arms striking a human body or dead bodies wasted away from unsatisfied hunger.

These were not easy things for a boy of eleven to confront, even if his emotions were somewhat numbed by the loss of his mother. Nevertheless, Myles resolved to continue in his duty to his family, and only rarely did he shy away from raising steel or drawing back a bowstring.

396 - 402 AC - The War of the Three Thieves
Maidenpool did not answer King Aenar’s first summons for men and ships to sail on the Stepstones. Lord Desmond and his family were otherwise occupied with recovering from the famine and still rebuilding portions of the town burnt down during the uprisings prior to that.

Once the threat posed by these upstart Kings of the Stepstones was evident following the Battle of Splinters, however, House Mooton met the King’s call. Ser Androw led the house’s forces under the banner of House Tully, while Myles himself was honored with a position as Lord Brandon Tully’s squire. It was during this time that Myles truly came into his own, showing that he carried within himself the same indomitable warrior spirit that was infused in his older and more lauded brother.

He became friends of a sort with Landon Rivers, Lord Brandon’s bastard son - friendly at the least, if not overly warm, for the two boys were oft enough in one another’s company.

Island hopping was a constant over the course of the war, with battles fought frantically upon land and sea alike. For a young man born to a naval house, each was as familiar as the other, and Myles proved to be as adept fighting in leather upon a blood-stained deck as he was in platemail upon a desolate beach.

His brother, too, earned great fame as the commander of House Mooton’s naval contribution to the Crownlander fleet, particularly during such infamous engagements as the Second Battle of Splinters and the Battle of the Broken Arm.

Myles was present at Grey Gallows, fighting beside his lordly mentor and his bastard friend, when Prince Maekar of the House Targaryen slew the final King of the Stepstones in a glorious and awe-inspiring - and, yes, terrifying too - dance in the skies far above. It was far from the first time the young Riverlander witnessed those great beasts unleashing the inferno of dragonfire, but it was the first that he’d seen two of the creatures fighting one another. This would haunt his dreams at night for weeks and fill him with a dread hope to never see such a sight again.

At the close of the war, now a man of twenty-one years, Myles was knighted by Lord Tully.

402 - 405 AC - The Scarlet Winter
As strong as Ser Androw was in life, even illness can strike down the mightiest warrior. So it came to pass in the year 403, as even the forks of the once-indomitable Trident fell victim to the freezing temperatures, that the heir to Maidenpool became stricken with pneumonia. He was not alone, as Lord Desmond himself came down with consumption and Ser Myles suffered a bout of influenza. Others of the family, too, suffered illnesses, but none near so severe as these three.

Where the second son and the father would recover in time, however, pneumonia took its toll on Androw, and by the end of the year he had departed the mortal world to join his lady mother in the embrace of the Seven.

Never having anticipated that it would come to pass nor ever having hoped that it might, Ser Myles Mooton was now the heir to Maidenpool.

He started to build a reputation in these days for quick thinking and judicious decisions, opting to follow the lead of other houses in holding austere winter festivals where merchants might gather for the ease of smallfolk in the countryside to purchase their wares. Men and horses of Maidenpool, using carriages and wagons and carts, were used to ferry these merchants to some of the nearer villages even, or to bring the smallfolk from the surrounding area into the town itself. Even despite this, many would inevitably die, as no measure could truly contain the wrath of the Scarlet Winter.

405 - 407 AC - An Heir Now
In the months that followed Myles becoming the new heir to Maidenpool, his father grew reclusive, an old and bitter man for the losses his house suffered. Even though Myles was growing into his own and showing that he might become a formidable presence, the old man could only lament the death of his eldest son, and cared little for his second son or any others of his family.

There was little and less time for Myles to reflect on this most days, however, or to let bitterness take root in his own heart. With his father withdrawn, it was now the younger man’s turn to take the lead - to deal with merchants and petitioners, to ensure matters of justice were administered in the town, to see that the castle’s coffers in both gold and food reserves were replenished. Not an easy task for a man that never expected to be in such a position, but he was fortunate to have a maester and uncle castellan to advise him.

Family
Family Members Past Members
 * Desmond Mooton, Lord of Maidenpool, b. 350,
 * m. Serra Cox, Lady of Maidenpool, b. 353, d. 393
 * His eldest son, Ser Androw Mooton, b. 370, d. 403
 * His heir, Ser Myles Mooton, b. 381,
 * His daughter, Orianna Mooton, b. 390,
 * His brother, Ser Emmon Mooton, b. 352,
 * William Mooton, Lord of Maidenpool, d. 310


 * Eleanor Mooton, Lady of Maidenpool, b. 287, d. 342
 * m. Dickon Tarly, Lord of Horn Hill and Maidenpool, b. 287,


 * Randyll Mooton, Lord of Maidenpool, b. 304, d. 354

Household
 * Hendry Mooton, Lord of Maidenpool, b. 325, d. 385
 * Maester Lomas