Arthor Flint

Arthor Flint, known by his clan as The Flint, is the leader of the Old Flints and rules over their lands, keeps and holdfasts. The most feared and influential clansman of the Northern Mountains, he earned his fearsome reputation through many brutal years of warfare against his own brother. Little but rumour has spread to the rest of the North - but what is whispered does not bear repeating.

Appearance and Character
To look at Arthor one would think he was holding off old age by very force of will. His hair still held some colour from his youth and his body stood strong as any man half his age. His face told a different more sombre story. As many scars dotted his tired and weary visage as he had seen battles - each with their own story to tell. The largest lay across one foggy, blind white eye to accompany his other piercing one.

Reputation would have you believe that Arthor is a vile, base creature who loves nothing more than violence. Perhaps once, as a wild youth, this was true - but no more. Age has brought a certain kind of wisdom and with it respect among his fellow clansmen. He leads his men not by fear as was once the case, but through strength of character. He is often found feasting and carousing with fellow warriors and is friend to all but any man who dares see this as weakness is a fool as the stony nature of his clan runs as strong in Arthor as in his forefathers.

History
Clansmen have much the same upbringing as one another. Little separates 'Lord ' from commoner - they are all Flint. Along with his brother, Damon, and other youngsters from his clan, Arthor learned to fight, hunt, climb, ride and track from a young age. The mountains are a rough crèche and many do not survive the tough upbringing but those that do are moulded into men who can survive the worst conditions. Fortunate then for Arthor - who would need these skills from a very early age.

With barely enough hair on their chins to be considered men Arthos and his brother would wage war. Their father had died in suspicious circumstances whilst climbing a particularly tricky cliff with Damon. His brother had claimed The Flint had lost his grip and plummeted to an untimely death. Arthos had seen his father ascend that particular mountain countless times and to describe his feelings as disbelief was an understatement.

So it was that the Flint's descended into civil war that would come to encompass all of the mountains. Their squabble lasted nearly a decade - with both gaining black reputations during the fighting.

As the younger son, Arthor found a following much smaller than his brother. Fleeing to the high places he fought a gruesome war of attrition for years before he finally gathered enough strength to challenge his brother in the field. At one point his position had grown so dire he had but a dozen loyal men, mostly with him out of fear than any love, trapped on a freezing peak.

It was this desperate situation that led to one of Arthor's most famous exploits. Trekking alone across unforgiving country he infiltrated Wull land and keep to steal away one of The Wull's daughter. After marrying Arra in front of the Old God's he boldly strode back into the keep and declared them now his ally.

The bravado worked and with fresh warriors he took to fighting his brother in the open. It would still four years of brutal fighting in which Arthor would ally and betray multiple other clans or they would do the same to him before he finally cornered his brother in a small holdfast. Damon had by this time sunk to the basest depravities. Executing captives, torture and pillage were the least of his crimes and the clansmen were through with his wanton profligacy. Betrayed by his own, he was murdered in his sleep. Arthor cried not for a brother he considered kinslayer.

Somehow, among the desperate skirmishes and hair-raising retreats, he had managed to foster two children on his wife during those manic years - Sara, his eldest and a son and heir fit to carry his own name. Unfortunately his Wull wife would die to a winter sickness before she could see her children become adults.

If Arthor had any hopes of settling down to peace after becoming The Flint he would be in for a rude awakening. He had left many enemies among the clansmen and it would take decades before these were resolved. In this time he rode north, beyond the wall, with his liege to fight the wildling threat. On his return he saw his daughter married to an Umber.

Arthor would pacify the mountains, whether through brute force or the strength of personality, all the clans came to respect him. They were all sworn to House Stark, of course, but if one clansmen could unify them in common course it was Arhtor, who would often rally them to fight wildlings or Ironborn raiders.

He remarried in due course, to distant kin and had a final child, duly named Brandon.

Family

 * Owen Flint (362-400)
 * m. Mara Liddle (370-408)
 * Damon Flint (382 - 410)
 * Arthor Flint b. 384
 * m. Arra Wull (385-409)
 * Sara Flint b. 401
 * m. Robb Umber b. 401
 * Brandon Umber b. 422
 * Dacey Umber b. 426
 * Arthor Flint b. 404
 * m. Lyessa Flint b. 400
 * Brandon Flint b. 419