Rodrik Connington

Lord Rodrik Connington is the Lord of Griffin’s Roost and the master of laws on Queen Visaera I Targaryen’s small council. He is married to Lady Argella Baratheon, his fourth wife, with whom he has three children: Stannis, Desmond, and Gwyneth.

Appearance and Character
Rodrik is tall and well built for his age. He is bald, though he boasts a grey beard. He is well known for his unbroken, stoic demeanour.

His reputation as a fair but ruthless jurist has spread across Westeros and the Narrow Sea. He is comprehensive with his rulings, but exceedingly severe with his sentences. Through his hundred or so justiciars roaming the realm, the people of Westeros have grown to both fear and respect him in equal measure. Few do not known him by name.

Childhood
Rodrik was born in 363 AC as the first son and child of Lord Axell Connington. Rodrik’s mother was Lady Shyra Connington, who passed away after giving birth to his brother, Criston. Though Rodrik was once like any other child, being both curious and energetic, his child’s spirit followed his mother to the grave. He eschewed the wonderment of his youth, turned to books and quiet maesters, and donned a frown so permanent that the statues at Griffin’s Roost found it difficult to emulate.

Adolescence
Rodrik squired at the age of ten and four under Ser Corwin Dondarrion, the Lord of Blackhaven’s brother. Under Ser Corwin’s tutelage, a quickly growing Rodrik learned to wield two-handed swords. With his own, he killed and beheaded bandits from the Red Mountains as he and Ser Corwin sought to quell their numbers around Blackhaven. Rodrik earned his spurs from Ser Corwin five years later after saving his teenage neice, Cyrenna Dondarrion, from an attempted kidnapping along the Boneway.

After earning his spurs, Rodrik married another Cyrenna at his father’s behest, mending the longtime rift between House Morrigen and House Connington.

Adulthood
Following a number of stillbirths, Rodrik lost his first wife three years after marrying her. There was no love lost between them, and Rodrik was eager to marry his next wife, Cyrenna Dondarrion.

As the Hammer Uprising started to spill over into the Stormlands, Lord Axell tasked Rodrik with harrying the heretics in the region and dispensing justice across the restive countryside. For two years, he presided over the trials of criminals and religious fanatics. His fierce sense of fairness combined with his uncompromising need to punish the guilty earned him a frightening reputation across his future holdings. As heads, hands, and limbs were severed, so too was dissent in the region.

At the height of his prime, Rodrik fought alongside his father in the War of the Three Thieves. Together, they laid siege to Gray Gallows and breached its walls. Midway through the war, however, he lost his second wife to complications following her third miscarriage.

Rodrik was sent back into the Roost’s countryside to carry out justice after the Scarlet Winter struck. Though the boom in bandits, loooters, and arsonists was universal to the realm, Rodrik was able to thin their numbers around the Roost. He had married Corenna Swann at the season’s brutal onset, only to lose her by its tragic end. After a second failed miscarriage, she committed suicide after jumping out of her tower window.

Without an heir or a child to call his own, Rodrik began to treat his niece, Arianne, as if she were his own daughter. He took great interest in her education and sought to inspire her more intellectual pursuits. Though her fiery spirit sometimes clashed with his glacial one, especially as she grew older, they remained close throughout the years.

407-408 AC
Rodrik did not attend the tournament at Harrenhall.

Along with his father and brothers, he marched in the Mummer's War and witnessed the surrenders of Bitterbridge and Highgarden.

Seniority
Rodrik ascended to lordship after his father succumbed to a second bout of shaking illness in 408 AC. Upon becoming lord, Rodrik quickly enacted a series of legal reforms across his holdings, establishing among other things the right to an investigation: both the accused and the accuser for any crime committed on his land reserved the right to have a full investigation completed by him or one of his agents. Though the cost of hiring more bailiffs was onerous at first, the subsequent decline in crime over the years justified the expenses.

Family

 * Lord Axell Connington (348-408)
 * m. Lady Shyra Connington, nee Estermont (346-375)
 * Lord Rodrik Connington (b. 363)
 * m. Lady Cyrenna Connington, nee Morrigen (365-387)
 * m. Lady Cyrenna Connington, nee Dondarrion (370-399)
 * m. Lady Corenna Connington, nee Grandison (383-405)
 * m. Lady Argella Baratheon (b. 389)
 * Stannis Baratheon (b. 412)
 * Desmond Baratheon (b. 415)
 * Gwyneth Baratheon (b. 416)
 * Ser Criston Connington (b. 375)
 * m. Lady Jeyne Swann (b. 375)
 * Edric Connington (393-394)
 * Arianne Connington (b. 395)
 * m. Lady Mylenda Selmy (360-414)
 * Ser Hugh Connington (b. 378)
 * m. Lady Helaena Connington, nee Merryweather (b. 380)
 * Gerald Connington (b. 395)
 * Cassana Connington (b. 381)
 * m. Ser Steffon Caron (b. 378)
 * Axell Caron (b. 399)
 * Jon Caron (b. 401)
 * Johanna Connington (b. 389)
 * Tyana Tarth, nee Connington (b. 355)
 * m. Lord Balon Tarth (b. 350)
 * House Tarth