Hester Arryn (application for major character)
(ooc)
Name: Starr
Age: 22
E-mail: alphagam1032 [at] gmail [dot] com
AIM: slance5
RP Experience: About two, two and a half years. I've played at Tabula Rasa on LJ, private games with friends and currently play at Hearts and Minds. I've been playing Catelyn Stark on both Hearts and Minds and a private game for about 2 months.
(ic)
Name: Hester Arryn
Journal ID: skymaiden
Date of Birth and Age (the year now is 908 AL): 889 AL (19 years old).
Gender: female
House: House Arryn of The Eyrie
Stronghold(s): The Eyrie
Fealty: House Stark (albeit reluctantly—she does hold a grudge against her cousin.)
Occupation: An unmarried maiden living at The Eyrie and plotting to go to court.
History *SPOILERS*:
Hester Arryn is last-born to Randall and Jocelyn Arryn, lord and lady of The Eyrie and much younger than her sister Vianna and brother Stewart. Growing up in The Eyrie as such was hard on Hester and left her to spend more time daydreaming about life outside the white marble walls than focusing on what was inside them. The halls of marble and stone were no place for a half-forgotten youngest daughter and certainly not for one of Hester's spirits and ambition.
As Hester had no siblings close in age, most of her playmates were the sons and daughters of the sworn houses of the Vale and, on rare occasions, her cousins. She also enjoyed a fairly close relationship with her parents since Stewart had been fostered and wed by the time she was a small girl and Vianna flitted from house to house to make connections and look for a potential match. The only times The Eyrie was full of life were when Stewart came to bring his wife and babe or when her cousins came for an extended stay. Otherwise, the blue-veined marble of The Eyrie yielded only empty echoes.
Empty echoes—The Eyrie knew them better than any other stronghold in the Seven Kingdoms. Notorious for neutrality, The Eyrie also suffered from a distinct lack of allies and in times of peace, the halls were not usually filled with the sounds of feasting and visiting parties from other houses. Most of the activity within The Eyrie's walls consisted of discussion about the mountain clans (an ever present bane) and whether or not there would be enough supplies for the winter ahead—never anything that Hester had much interest in learning about, despite the fact that she should.
Hester has spent the past six years asking to go to court in hopes that she would be able to escape the stifling silence of her home and for six years she had been denied. At first, she was deemed too young. This explanation worked well enough from thirteen to fifteen, but after her flowering Hester no longer accepted that as a suitable reason. Still, her mother and father were reluctant about sending her out to other houses, especially since Hester was starting to display more than a little defiance and ambition.
They thought it best, in light of that, to provide Hester with anything she could want within the walls of The Eyrie itself—singers, harpists and anything else that she could desire. With that sort of luxury, however, came responsibility and her parents entrusted her with the everyday running of their home.
With Stewart married and with a family of his own, it would only be proper for Vianna to court and marry first and for Hester to stay behind to care for the affairs of The Eyrie itself. This proved fascinating at sixteen years—learning how to manage the day to day running of a castle such as The Eyrie would prepare her, no doubt, for the day to day running of her future lord husband's castle, after all. Still…it was not enough.
When the announcement was made that Kaelyn would be marrying Lord Stark of Winterfell, all of the disappointments of the past six years turned into bitterness for Hester. Kaelyn was older, yes, but she was not even from the main branch of their House—why should she get such a well-made match? Whispers among the household spoke of Kaelyn's Northern blood as being the reason, but that did not sit well with Hester.
Now that William Stark has been named King and Kaelyn Queen, Hester's animosity toward her cousin has only grown. She has plans to show up her niece in court and hopefully make a strong match of her own.
Personality:
Hester is, above all, ambitious. While the words of House Arryn are "As High As Honor," Hester feels that these are merely a starting point. Honor, after all, cannot buy one strong alliance in the time of war or make a strong marriage, especially when the dishonorable are there to sweep it from beneath your feet.
While for the most part she is tender and caring, she does hold a grudge (and has an impossibly long memory, especially when it's about something that she has strong feelings about). Much of her strife for the past few years has had to do with feeling trapped within the walls and mountains of The Eyrie and, by extension, the Vale itself, and the animosity she feels about that has been twisted toward her cousin, Kaelyn, and only magnified by the fact that not only did Kaelyn marry before her, she also made a much better match than Hester could ever hope to achieve.
Since she does not have much experience in courtship and court life in general, Hester generally keeps her own counsel in an attempt not to embarrass herself. She is pleasant, if a bit withdrawn, and engages after she's had time to assess the situation and what she has to contribute.
Appearance:
Slender, with dark curling hair and brown eyes. Somewhat tall, in keeping with others in the Arryn line. She favors wearing blue and white, the colors of her house, and is quite fond of fine things. Nothing austere for this lady.
Desired PB (please provide three, with links to samples, in descending order of your choice):
Emmy Rossum: i ii
Katharine McPhee: i ii
Natalie Portman: i ii
HESTER"My lady, would it not be better for you to ride up in the winches?" Hester shook her head. She'd always used the winches and basket to ascend Sky up into The Eyrie itself but today she felt more adventurous than she had before. Perhaps it was growing into a woman and, if her parents had their way, into the woman of The Eyrie, or perhaps it was just a way to sublimate the anger she still felt at being trapped within the Mountains of the Moon for yet another year.
With it being summer's end, the weeks ahead would be dedicated to preparing the stores for winter and setting up trade alliances. The Mountains of the Moon were not particularly laden with foodstuffs and it was Hester's responsibility to make the necessary trade alliances to get them all through the winter ahead. She sighed at the thought. She
should be out on her own or, barring that, her father should be making her a match with another lord.
That was the way to make an alliance, or so it seemed to Hester.
Instead she was spending another day at summer's end arguing with a knight about whether or not she was too delicate to climb the stone steps of Sky. She'd done it as a child (against the advisement of the septa) and she was more than willing to do it now. Her steps might not be as sure, but she had anger to steady them today.
"We'll be able to send more loads up if I'm not riding in the basket. I'll climb today, Ser." She did climb, up and up the winding steps of the tower. A lesser man would have blanched at the dizzying drop from the white marble to the ground below, but Hester had grown up with the mountains as her playmates. She was nowhere near as nimble as the garrison who walked the steps daily or the bastards from the villages who played lords and ladies at the step stones, but she did well enough.
Perhaps, if her uncle would stop playing at being the Knight of the Bloody Gate, she would be able to make her own home at the Gates of the Moon and not at The Eyrie itself. It was difficult to host a tourney or a feast when you had nowhere to house men, Hester mused, and The Eyrie was hardly welcoming. She would much rather hold
her court down on the ground. Even Snow would be preferable to this.
As her thoughts turned to finally having the marriage she deserved, Hester's foot caught on a loose stone and she slipped. For one paralyzing moment she thought of the old stories of Bran Stark, the great climber, and how he'd lost his handhold at some old tower at Winterfell. He'd been crippled, Bran, and had to be carried around the rest of his days. Just her luck, crippling herself on the sides of her own tower.
Just as soon as she'd slipped, however, the footing was found again. Hester breathed a sigh of relief and winced as she glanced at her palms—scraped and bloody. Still, much better than breaking her neck. She thanked the seven quickly and made her way up the steps to The Eyrie more slowly, watching each foot go in front of the other like a small child playing a game.
Safe at the top of The Eyrie now, she rested against the stone walls and let out another relieved breath before glancing down at the ground below. The turnips and wheat that had taken her place in the basket were comfortable and Hester gave them a cross look—for them, she was nearly bloodied and broken at the bottom of the Vale.
Someday I will be going down those steps. Forever. Hester's thoughts held no question in them. It was just a matter of when.
First-Person POV Sample: All I write about these days is wheat. Wheat and barley, several bushels, good color—a maiden shouldn't think of these things. To think, I once thought it fine to run The Eyrie day in and day out. Never has there been anything more trifling. You cannot tell me that Mother used to do this. I won't have it.
Kaelyn's gone to court. She hasn't been here much of late anyway, usually staying down at the Gates of the Moon with her father, but she could have troubled to come up to say goodbye. I suppose it's only fitting—I could have troubled to go down just the same.
I would give anything to be in her place now, married to a fine lord and to have that lord named king of the Seven Kingdoms. I would give
everything.I would give all the wheat in the Vale and go hungry for a winter if it meant I could leave at winter's end. However, if dreams were stallions, then maidens would ride. I am not meant for this.
(optional)Where did you hear about us?From an LJ ad.
Plot suggestions?Hester could certainly be recruited to dethrone the king, especially if by someone slick enough and handsome enough. While not openly opposed to Stark rule, her irritation at being at The Eyrie still and her jealousy of her cousin could certainly be played to ill effect.
