*

*

*

ROLE

The Master of Ships

HOUSE

Greyjoy

FULL NAME

Tarilyn Grievance Greyjoy

tarilyn- meaning waterfall of stars, she was named for the light that shimmers on the surface of the sea, tumultuous, churning, and lighting the way. Her mother had wanted to give her a name from her own culture, but of course that wasn't allowed, so she conceded to a name that reminded her of the lanterns and rivers of her home. 

grievance- her father had a belief that middle names held a certain power in the way they lie unknown between one's other names, so he gave his daughter a secret strength in becoming a grievance to all those that opposed her. All of her siblings have similar unconventional middle names.

greyjoy- the ancestral name given to her by her father that binds her to the iron islands and its people.

NICKNAMES

Tara

- a more colloquial name she prefers in less formal settings

Grievance Grey

- a pirates name used less now that she's a respected member of the small council, but still circulating when tales of her exploits are told or sung, or in snarling whispers of those she has bested

TITLES

Master of Ships

Captain Greyjoy

The Salt Traitor

Tara the Blessed

GENDER

Female

SEXUALITY

Heterosexual

APPEARANCE

Imaan Hammam

APPEARANCE DETAILS

- A tattoo of a sea serpent curls up her neck and behind her ear, its fangs bared above the shell of her left ear.

- Three piercings on each ear 

- A long scar trailing down her right shoulder

PERSONALITY

Tarilyn has the bearing of someone who has stepped into leadership comfortably, with a blazing conviction in her eyes and steel in her posture, speaking orders confidently and swiftly and watching them being carried out without hesitation to paint a success over her enemies with a smirk on her lips. Tara is confident in front of all those she must be, unflinching even when facing a hurricane or dismal odds.

Tara has a mind for strategy, for seeing a path through chaos and destruction and manipulating the world about her until it's realized. She approaches the issues that lay in front of her with her head rather than her heart, and is very practical and level-headed when making her decisions, never feeling much guilt with deception if it serves a greater purpose. It is not mere luck that has landed her as part of the small council at such a young age- she has the intelligence and drive to bring her ambitions into reality. And with this intelligence came the wisdom that charming others was her quickest way to gain herself allies- people liked to help those they liked or admired. She can have a silver tongue when so inclined, finding exactly what others want and using it to further her own agenda.

Tara lived all her life being underestimated, but was intelligent enough to choose her battles carefully. She simply smiles at those who spit in her face or taunt her, appearing for all as an easy mark. But the moment the winds shifted and the battle began, Tara would strike hard and fast, making every blow count. Between both ally and foe, she will not pull her punches when the situation calls for it. She is ruthless in her efficiency, and while she does not believe in needless violence, will do what is necessary to meet her goals. This makes her a powerful ally and a dangerous enemy. Further, Tara is the type that will scheme and fight until the bloody end, a tenacity that is responsible for many close scrapes and escapes in the past.

Under all that steel, there's something like a generous heart. Tarilyn has a habit of giving others second chances, and is not a vengeful person (for the most part- there is one glaring exception). Many leaders feel the need to assert their dominance through violence, but Tara has done so by proving herself and her capabilities over again and again, fighting harder and fiercer than any of her other competitors. Those under her command on her ships who have seen her plot and fight are loyal because they trust in her abilities to lead them true, not because they fear her wrath. Some see this as a feminine weakness, but to that Tara will simply invite them to challenge her authority properly through a duel and utterly humiliate them as she taunts and toys with them.

BACKSTORY

She had been born under the rule of the current Lord of Greyjoy's father, who also happened to be her uncle. As an Ironborn part of the family that ruled the Iron Islands, her bloodline was steeped in glory- but because she was a girl, Tara was destined to be confined to the shore and a fortress, to build and raise the next generation of raiders and leaders instead of partake herself. But Tarilyn had never been content sitting on the sidelines.

The tradition of the Iron Islands of leaving the women behind as they pillaged and conquered left Tarilyn to spend most of her time by her mother's side- a strong woman named Jalceen who always had a song on her lips and fury in her heart. She was taken as a salt wife from her home in Braavos, a city-state entrenched in the ideal that no human deserved to be property. She had once been a courtesan from a wealthy noble family, highly respected and admired, there were songs sung about her beauty and a barge with servants to pole her wherever her next Lord or Prince bought her services. Her brother had been a Bravo, skilled in the water dance, and had taught Jalceen some of the technique when they were young.

In the long days that her husband was gone, Jalceen passed these on to her daughter, who she was raising far from her home. Her anger at being taken and forced to marry against her will never abated, even as her husband Wyrin treated her with kindness and respect. Tarilyn learned from her the pain and evilness of slavery, and how flawed the Ironborn mantra of 'we do not sow' could be. With many other salt wives and children to occupy his time, Wyrin did not spend all that much time with Tarilyn, and she was left to take her mother's lessons to heart.

But when Tara wasn't with her mother, she was at the sea. It was a captivating presence that drew her in with its salty breath and hypnotic waves, and she loved to play in it when she was young, learning to swim at the same time she learned to walk. Tarilyn fell in love with the ships bobbing along the piers and dreamed of the day she could ride them, before she was told they weren't meant for her.

Her many siblings were often at odds with each other- Wyrin had yet to choose a rock wife, so any of them could become his heir, and then they would be next in line for ruling House Greyjoy after their cousin. She had two half-sisters and five half-brothers, two of which tried to drown her when she was five. They, as all the other Ironborn, believed in paying the iron price- in other words, taking what they wanted through blood- and when Tara had one day wandered away from the protective eyeline of her mother, they saw their chance. She'd never been closer to death, and still remembers the tumbling waves and the hands pushing her down and the terror that lead into nothingness. Her mother had saved her, hitting her one brother over the head with a rock and breaking the arm of the other, bringing her suffocating child back to the surface and saving her with the kiss of life.

They said it was a miracle of the Drowned God, that Tara had been blessed to die and be born again, and after that was treated with more respect than her siblings. It made her and her mother even more hated within the family- especially as the boy Jalceen bludgeoned never woke up. They were outcasts together, and Tarilyn clung to her mother even more tightly as the years went by- the only thing that could tempt her away from her side being the sea. 

As she grew and her desire grew with her, Tara's father began to take notice. Tarilyn would rush through her chores so that she could hide out on the docks, analyzing the knots the crewmen tied or dressing as one of her brothers to ask a navigator how he went about reading his maps on the open ocean. Wyrin sought to settle her down with a more domestic task, and he and his nephew, the Lord Greyjoy, agreed that she should spend her time looking after the heir. Though the task of babysitting had at first infuriated and frustrated her to no end, the child's wide-eyed awe when she told Nerissa to sit down and be quiet while she practiced her water dance and the enthusiastic questions she had for her eventually won Tarilyn over, and she took to the task of teaching the young girl all the important things that she was sure her father neglected to teach her. Eventually, irritated with the untraditional things she was teaching Nerissa, Lord Greyjoy gave the task to another of her siblings- but by then, the two were already friends and Tara considered herself something like her mentor/aunt/older sister.

It took years of planning for Tara to construct an irrefutable reason for her to sail on one of her father's ships- a possible important betrothal mixed with a Lord led to believe she would be of more use married off then staying around to corrupt his daughter. A master of maneuvering by seventeen, Tarilyn had finally gotten her wish and set sail. Three years later, after harmlessly breaking the engagement and slowly moving up ranks on the ship, gaining her crew's trust and admiration, Tarilyn arrived back on Pyke as their first mate (the former dying in a battle against three ships that were far more heavily armed than their own- Tara had taken the wheel and steered them through an unnavigable rocky stretch that the pursuing ships had crashed themselves into to earn her place). Her father and Lord Greyjoy were stunned that the crew had given her such a position and that they hadn't simply dropped her off back on the Iron Islands when the betrothal was called off, but the Captain argued vehemently on her behalf as a sailor, claiming that not to use her skill would be 'a waste of what the Drowned God had bestowed upon her.' Because the Captain was so well respected, Tarilyn finally got her wish- with a ship she called 'The Grievance' and a crew of her own, she became a Captain.

It was almost as difficult to deal with the hatred of thousands of her brethren waiting for her to fail as it was leaving her mother at the shore. Under the cover of night Tarilyn had offered to sail her back home, to give her her freedom back- but Jalceen knew that Tara would never be allowed back to her own home if she did such a thing, and refused.

The first five years she spent at sea learning of the world around her, making allies and enemies and overcoming the latter through creative means. Tara was an eager observer of other cultures and ways of life, meeting people that expanded her worldview from the narrow vision of the Ironborns. In her occasional visits back to her homeland she would share what she learned with the Greyjoy heir, bringing a piece of the sea back to the girl who always craved it.

But during one of these visits, she came home to find her father poisoned to death, and her mother drowned for the crime of being the one who killed him. Tara knew Jalceen would never have done it- that she had loved her daughter more than she even desired freedom, and it was hard to believe that after 27 years of enduring her marriage she would do something so desperate and rash when Jalceen hadn't even accepted her own offer to spirit her away years ago. There was one who had gained her freedom from her parent's death, however- Wyrin's rock wife, a girl closer to her age which had never been happy stuck in her political marriage. Tara knew that she must have been the true culprit for her father's death, and knew that her shrewd cousin must have known that too- and yet, still condemned her mother to death.

It fractured her faith in Lord Greyjoy, and she craved justice for her mother who had lived a life of suffering at their hands. It sparked an ambition past travel and fighting on the Greyjoy's behalf- she craved the power to make a true difference, to eradicate the kind of slavery that her mother had suffered under. And so began her journey to becoming the Master of Ships, a careful observation and execution in speaking to the right people and proving herself in the right moments. She cut the Greyjoy flag from her mast and replaced it with her own sigil of salt and blood, embracing the title of salt traitor that her own people snarled at her whenever she made port at home. With the connections she'd made while captaining her ship, Tara grew her forces and waited for the right moment until a sizable threat moved on King's Landing and she moved her small armada in place to intercept them, successfully neutralizing the threat against the odds with her smaller numbers and more motley crew. Her cleverness, courage, and loyalty was taken notice of, and ultimately earned her a place on the council a few months later.

OTHER

- Is a master at water dance, having learned from her mother and continuing to study it on visits to Braavos

- Taught herself to read so that she could become the Master of Ships

- Can speak the common tongue, Braavosi, High Valyrian, Lhazereen, trade talk, the Summer tongue, and even some Rhoynar

*

*

*