Marya Darry

Marya Darry is the youngest child of Lady Amerei Darry and Clement Hayford. She is currently a ward of the Red Keep. A spirited soul since she was a child, Marya is now a charismatic storyteller and able swordswoman with a network of friends and contacts that stretches throughout the Seven Kingdoms, but remains -- oddly -- unmarried.

Appearance & Personality
Marya stands at 5'7", her posture upright and held easily by muscles trained by swordplay and bones steeled by resolve. Pale lips curl into a natural smile on an even paler face, all curves that end in sharp points at her nose and chin. Her hair is a burnt umber, the same color as the smoldering embers of a dying fire, offset by her hazel eyes and penchant for wearing watery blues in honor of her homeland, the Riverlands.

Her motions are loose and fluid and very often animated, as she loves to tell stories and converse. She walks lightly, despite the heavy weight of rich jewelry and self-imposed responsibility pressing down on her. It's very rare for anyone to see her not smiling, if not laughing, and her voice has a melodic timbre that carries even in a noisy room. Somehow, she is able to drink most anyone under the table, even with her slight frame, and almost always has a glass of wine in her hand and a decanter within reach.

Adolescence
Marya Darry was the sibling that everyone remembered — except her own family.

The youngest of five children, and not a particularly well-behaved child at that, Marya often found herself running backwards from her siblings’ long shadows. Even her birth was overshadowed by her sister Bethany’s first birthday soon after. To be fair, this unfortunate circumstance suited Marya just fine. Trouble rarely found her and when it did, she all-too-easily slipped out of mind in favor of Rowena’s successes or Desmond’s potential. Unable to sit still for anything, she learned quickly how to talk herself out of anything she did not want to do, whether it be lessons with the septa or practicing etiquette with her sisters, and how to get others to do what she wanted, like convince her father, Clement Hayford, to teach her how to use a sword.

For the most part it was a matter of deflection (“Bethany ruined her best dress!” or “Symond isn’t feeling well, I was going to take him some soup!” or “I’m just accompanying Desmond to watch his training, don’t mind me.”), but as Marya grew so did her stories. Her forward attitude and natural charisma drew a crowd at every gathering, as people both young and old came to listen to tales spun by the youngest Darry daughter. Charming to a fault, she made friends with ease before leaving adolescence, including Jeyne Frey and Ravella Celtigar, and practiced her letters by keeping regular correspondence with all of them.

She expressed no interest in matters of statescraft — that had always been Rowena and her mother — and found herself rather terrible at any of the more “womanly” practices such as healing and needlework. Instead, Marya looked up to her father and her brother Desmond on the training grounds, and the heroes of old in the library of Castle Darry. Something in her longed to pursue the sense of adventure these things instilled but she knew that as a lady she could not, at least for the time being.

As the years passed, Marya blossomed into young womanhood in beauty and passion as fiery as her hair. Suitors soon doubled her pool of admirers, and she visited often upon invitation, partying and revelling to keep them engaged with new stories from one end of the continent to the other. Her friends were spread across all seven kingdoms, from Edmyn Drumm to Daena Velaryon, and even back in her home region she met the young Bryndemere Vance. She also favored befriending journeying bards and playwrights, especially those from across the Narrow Sea, exchanging ideas and narratives to take back to their respective homes.

By this time the youngest Darry sibling had become an adept swordswoman, practicing at night with her father long after the more proper residents of Castle Darry found their beds. If she was to travel as much as she was, Clement slept better knowing that his daughter could take care of herself should the worse come to pass. No longer bound to septa-run classes or expected to follow her older sisters, and with her favorite brother Desmond already married, Marya took to the woods in her spare time — a girl of seven-and-ten wandering amongst the trees, in trousers, still dreaming of the adventure she was sure would one day arrive.

Adulthood
Shortly after her eighteenth nameday, Marya found herself in an inevitable predicament: marriage. Or, at least, the possibility of it. Her response was vehement, if absolutely predictable, and for the first time in nearly two decades, the Lady Darry turned her eye to her youngest child. For the next year the pair of them argued constantly, the castle often echoing with screams of protest and disappointment. Only her father was able to calm them and one night, much to his own dismay, he finally shattered his daughter’s dreams of traversing to far-off places like the sellsword she would never be. “You have a duty here, to your family. To House Darry,” he said. “You have many friends, a gift of connection... You can help your mother, and someday your brother. Please, Marya. Promise me you will let this go.” She promised.

After this Marya fell into a deep depression as she came to terms with the responsibilities of her station. Though she was never one to regularly commune with family, her parents and siblings saw even less of her for almost two moons. When she eventually emerged, Marya Darry looked a different woman: she wore her richest dress and best jewels, and her long burning hair had been elaborately braided by skilled fingers. The flame in her eyes still echoed her locks but they’d been dulled somewhat, their crystalline color cooled to impenetrable steel. And to her mother’s surprise, she agreed to see suitors.

Not that her acquiescence made much of a difference. While the young woman had lost none of her grace and charm, she successfully brushed off a dozen men over the next five years, and did so with a curtsy and a smile. Having seen the coldness of Desmond’s union, the oddity of Symond’s marriage, and the heartache of her sister Bethany, Marya wasn’t fond of the idea of tying herself to someone with such unfettered access to her feelings. Though the woman had long since realized it was foolish to continue to prepare as if she would one day find adventure, she also knew it would do neither party good if a controlling husband attempted an iron-fisted rule of his independent wife. If she was to marry, it would be a partnership that suited her, from which she could best raise House Darry -- as she had promised her father that fateful night. Until she found such, she reasoned that as the youngest child she would be far more useful to her family as she was.

When Marya turned four-and-twenty and remained unmarried, Lady Amerei accepted the offer to ward her in King’s Landing. She had already been staying at Symond and Vaella’s manse for several moons, extending her network in the capital to Anna Brax, handmaiden of Visenya, and Erryk Wilde, advisor of the King, and while she enjoyed the privacy of the Darry manse it made more sense to move to the Red Keep to further her goals. She’s been living there for a little over a year now, and the list of spurned suitors continues to grow...

Current Events

 * Marya has recently obtained a dog named Beatrice from her sister Bethany.
 * 9th Moon of 439 A.C. - Marya hosts a party, meeting a few of the newer residents of King’s Landing. It’s here that she makes a pact with her long-time friend Edmyn to join in the King’s upcoming tourney as mystery knights: he the Drowned Knight and she the Ember Knight.
 * 10th Moon of 439 A.C. - Marya participates in the King’s tourney as the Ember Knight, and manages to reach the semi-final bracket after unseating Ser Maekar Dirgewood on the first pass. She loses afterwards, however, to Ser Tywald Lannister. She resolves to then travel to Harrenhal to see her family and also participate in the tourney there held by Lord Bryndemere Vance.

Family Tree
* PC in bold

Lord Harrold Darry, Lord of Darry (366-409)  m. Lady Rhea Royce (369-431)

..↳ Lady Amerei Darry, Lady of Darry (387-) m. Ser Clement Hayford (388-)

....↳ Lady Rowena Darry (408-)

....↳ Ser Desmond Darry (409-), m. Lady Rosalind Tully (408-)

......↳ Marq Darry (428-)

......↳ Falena Darry (430-)

......↳ Jonquil Darry (432-)

....↳ Ser Symond Darry (409-), m. Lady Vaella Velaryon (402-)

......↳ Mariya Darry (430-)

......↳ Aegon Darry (432-)

......↳ Alyssa Darry (434-)

......↳ Aurane Darry (437-)

....↳ Lady Bethany Darry (412-)

......↳ Brynden Rivers (436-), illegitimate child with Symond Frey

....↳ Lady Marya Darry (413-)

..↳ Lady Alyssa Darry (388-), life partner to Lady Alys Tully (386-)

....↳ Ser Jon Rivers (411-), illegitimate child with Walys Mooton

....↳ Willow Rivers (413-), illegitimate child with Walys Mooton

..↳ Lady Mina Hunter nee Darry (394-435), m. Lord Karl Hunter (396-)**

..↳ Lady Eleyna Peake nee Darry (397-), m. Lord Loras Peake (394-)**