Alyce Banefort

Lady Alyce Banefort is the youngest - and only remaining - child of Lord Tybolt Banefort and his wife, Lady Genna Stackspear. She is the current Lady of Banefort, coming to her station at the age of 19 after the mysterious death of her father.

Appearance and Character
Striking blue eyes adorn the face of a woman too used to being scorned to view the nobles around her with anything but contempt. Her gaze seems to pierce straight through you, as though she knows each and every secret you have hidden away. Yet this is not the most surprising of her traits. Alyce's fiery red hair immediately picks her out of most crowds, and cascades around her face and down her shoulders like a waterfall of flame. She is often found to be dressed in gowns of gold, purple, or blue - and that are perhaps less than modest, though never as much as to cause outrage or scandal.

Alyce herself is calculating, and cold - almost as much so as the stark winter that defined so much of her younger life. Living through the Scarlet Winter in such conditions as she found herself forged her desperation into determination and honed her need into ruthlessness.

The Gods Give, and They Take Away
Alyce was born in 395 AC, the only daughter of Tybolt Banefort and his wife Genna Stackspear, at the Banefort manse in the capital. It was not an easy birth, and though Alyce lived to be a healthy child, her mother did not survive that fateful night. This was not the only factor from which her father's disdain for her grew - he made it no secret he had hoped for another son - but the sight of the fiery hair of his dearly departed wife only made him grow more distant, and his scorn passed onto Alyce's brothers.

It was but a year after her birth that her father took a ship and several men, and departed. He never said where, but it was years before she saw him again, leaving Damion as his regent.

By her fourth name day, it was clear to Alyce that she would not be granted anything more than the barest minimum from her family. That if she should want for anything she must take it instead. From that moment she began learning to sneak into places she was not supposed to be, and take that which she was not supposed to have. Most of these things were books, for she had ambitions even then. It was these books that taught her about statecraft and holding management.

The Twins
Alyce was five years old when her father returned from his travels. With him, he brought two raven-haired bastards - Melara and Reynard. He cared little for them, indeed it was a stroke of luck that he even brought them back at all. Yet when she saw them, and how they were shunned as she was, Alyce decided she would care for them if her family would not, and teach them from what she knew of taking things.

Though much of that would have to wait, as they were still young, and hardship would soon visit upon all the realm.

The Scarlet Winter
Her father had barely been back two years when the cold swept down from the North. Even at such a young age, Alyce knew it would take all she had to last it out, and keep the twins alive. It did not take long for her to learn a lesson she had so far not needed - to thrive, she must truly disregard those who stand in her way, or who conceivably could.

Had she not learned this lesson she likely would not have survived as well as she did, for in taking from others she guaranteed for herself and those she cared about a life of comfort. She even found that the lowly figures around the keep - those of her father's servants who were the most desperate - would do great deeds for the lady who gave them even a little food. It rather amused Alyce to see how loyal these servants would be to her, all for giving them the food she had stolen from their tables - even as far as to inform on the rest of her family.

Before long, the twins were old enough to begin what Alyce had to offer them. They both by now had grown to trust her, and took to the hushed lessons in shadowy corners well. Although as the lessons progressed, Alyce found herself taken aback by the eagerness with which her younger half-sister took to the more practical side of lessons - even going as far as to steal a fine dagger from Robert, and practice with it many days. It was a stark contrast to Reynard's preference for books and statecraft - a preference which would no doubt have earned him the ire of his father if he had been aware of such things.

A Death in the Family
Some four years after the winters receded, Robert had become rather fond of drinking, having grown steadily more and more abrasive and bitter for years. It was one simple afternoon when Alyce found herself cornered by him in the courtyard, threatening her. While most of her family would have overlooked such an act, fortune had it that Melara happened to bear witness from the shadows. The next morning Robert was found laying in his bed, throat slit from ear to ear.

Needless to say, this was not well received by her lord father. He was enraged by the news, and ordered the guard doubled, regardless of the the peasants' ability to produce the food to feed so many guards. He lost little sleep over this, though discontent began to grow among the populace, and wouldn't cease for some time.

All Men Must Face Consequences
Three years after the order that strained the peasantry so, they finally decided enough was enough. Tybolt and Robert rode out with the garrison to put down the uprising, and put it down they did. Though not so easily as for Tybolt to return bearing wounds, and dark news of his son's passing. Dark news to all but one, that is.

Where most would see this as a tragedy, Alyce saw little but opportunity. She had sent many of her spies elsewhere while those who would stop them leaving were away, however many still remained. It was those remaining agents who procured the poison that would be added to her father's medicines. Alyce stood and watched from the shadows of her father's chambers - empty save for the two of them - as the man who had made her life such misery from the day she was born died an agonising death. The very next day she was named Lady of Banefort.

Four years, and a far more consolidated power base later, Alyce arrived in the very capital where she had taken her first breath, not so powerless now.

Recent Events
TBD

Family
Family Tree
 * Tybolt Banefort b.358 AC d.414 AC
 * Melara Hill b.400 AC
 * Reynard Hill b.400 AC
 * m. Genna Stackspear b.361 AC d.395 AC
 * Damion Banefort b.383 AC d.414 AC
 * Robert Banefort b.388 AC d.409 AC
 * Alyce Banefort b.395 AC

Retinue at King's Landing

 * Melara Hill - Chief Spymistress

Retinue at Banefort

 * Reynard Hill - Steward
 * Petyr - Maester