Urek Pyke

The bastard of Old Wyk, Urek Pyke, is the youngest child born to the previous Lord of House Drumm, Meldred. He is the issue of an affair with a woman they know only as Nesgred, and for the entirety of his life he has been raised alongside the legitimate heirs to Meldred's holdings.

Following the support of his sister Victaria in the Black Prophet's Rebellion, he was named steward of Old Wyk when she took the house seat.

Appearance & Character
Urek is small, slight and generally well-mannered. His meek stature matches well the man's sense of propriety, for amongst the Ironborn he frequently seems a sheep running with wolves.

Drumm hallmarks confirm him as a man of their blood; brown hair, burnished by red on a scraggly beard. His locks are often unkempt and matted, the man shrouded in mottled robes that lead many to mistake him as a priest. Green eyes, however, set him aside from his siblings. Where their features are dark and sharp to a point, even a similar gauntness of face cannot deny the difference to be found in his sage gaze.

Childhood
The final child Meldred Drumm would sire was a bastard boy, some short few years following the birth of his last legitimate child; a girl, Victaria Drumm. Raised dutifully by his father's wife, Gysela, Urek was not shunned nor reviled for his status. Though his importance would never mirror his siblings, the easy acceptance of his fact made his life just that; easy. So long as Urek was content with his lot, he had a place in House Drumm by virtue of his blood alone.

Not particularly given to numbers nor letters at an early age, all three of the children did not take to their education. It was only later, devoid of any other talent that could prove useful, that Urek would commit himself to forging one no other Drumm had.

Adolescence
Juvenile years on Old Wyk were troublesome, filled with friction and fighting between his siblings Victaria, and the heir to the house, Harren. Bonds that seemed immutable in childhood began to wither, and Urek watched as familial love was soured to tolerance. Caught between the salt and the stone, for years he struggled to balance loyalties - for as adolescents, siding with one in an argument could render him a traitor to the other for moons on end.

He left the debates of ideology to his betters, staying far from dogma and doctrine and the role of House Drumm in the greater scope - the Iron Islands was in flux, and Urek wanted no part in it. For him, or his family.

When Victaria and Harren began training with swords, he would sit and read. Watch, and adjudicate when one had played afoul the rules of engagement. When they sailed, he helped old maester Kromm with ledgers and letters. Had it not been for his sister's intervention he may never have learned to be even a poor seaman, but Victaria would not have it. Their relationship was characterised almost wholly by her pushing, demanding, and in many ways controlling Urek - but even then, there was no denying it was to his benefit. Though he would never be a master of the tide, he worked his way up the rungs to become as competent as the next man. Lacking for the physical talent, Urek took to studying ships and their construction, convincing Kromm to take him to the shipwright's guild on several occasions. Had his father allowed, likely would he have remained to apprentice beneath the crafters.

Adulthood
When his sister departed early in 428 A.C, Urek found himself free from a cycle of ebbing and rising favour. With Victaria gone from the picture, he need only contend with Harren. A task that proved more difficult than anticipated; Harren, too, was pushing, demanding, and controlling. More than this, he was oppressive. More and more Urek isolated himself away from his elder brother, apathetic toward the religious zeal that drove him.

He had never wanted a part in the rebellion. As when he was a child, Urek desired himself and his family far from the dark business of war - and all the pain it wrought upon them. The last loyalties he felt toward Loren Greyjoy died with his father during the Scouring, and like many in House Drumm, grew disillusioned with Harren. The new lord cared not for the dragon in the skies, nor the recuperation of tactical prowess by the Greyjoys following the loss of Alannys Harlaw.

Urek was no fighter, but even he knew the odds turned against them. Victaria's return had done little to bolster their strength, and instead councils were bedraggled with arguments and dissent. When, on one of the final few nights of the war, his sister came with a plan - it was, mayhaps, the darkest thing he had ever done in accepting.

Together they organised a mutiny that saw Harren clapped in irons and his loyal retainers executed upon the deck of The Red Tide. Once delivered to the new Lord Reaper and with Victaria firmly secured as the new Lady of Old Wyk, for his loyalty she saw him named steward.

A task Urek did not initially excel at, but with perseverance, came to make his own.