Victor Karstark

Victor Karstark is a fictional character in a roleplaying game.

Description
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Vital Statistics
The vital statistics of the character

Status in society
Knighted noble lord, pure-born.

House
Karstark

Age
29

Affiliation
The North

Title/position
Captain of the Winterfell Household guard, Lord Marshall of the North.

Aspirations

Long term:

Rebuild Moat Caillin

Short term:

Acquire a Valyrian Steel sword

Keep House Bolton in line

Improve upon House Karstark

Personality
Victor is more a Stark than a Karstark. Having been raised by every Stark of the recently passed generation, it's easy to see traces of every one of them in him. Growing up in different places, first a castle, then a battle encampment and finally coming into his manhood in the wilderness, he is definately an interesting character. While he doesn't look like a Stark, he behaves like one, and is referred to as "The Stark of the Karstarks" and has often been mistaken for one of Eddard's children, as many imagine that Victor is exactly what the child of a Stark and a Tully would look like, and as it is, there is some semblence between Robb Stark and himself, but it's his personality that truly marks him as a Stark in the eyes of onlookers. Having no relationship to his family in Karhold, his many nephews and two uncles (who are only a few years his senior) are all strangers to him.

He sees his family as having fallen from grace, too far from the original ideals of the Starks and seeks to rectify this somehow. Though he realizes that his family is large enough to bear his absence should he take the black or join the Kingsguard, he deep down realizes that only future generations, by him, will be able to carry on the true Stark ideals in the Karstark cadet branch and that he has a duty to return these ideals to his family.

In many ways, it's easy to accuse Victor of vanity, in that he seems to think that the right choice for him is necessarily on the Wall or in the Kingsguard, but perhaps that's just the Starks love for self-sacrifice which has taken root in him. He has been accused of considering himself the youngest of Rickard Stark's sons, which would make sense in that it's usually the youngest Stark who takes the black. His only true sign of vanity is his aspiration to acquire a Valyrian steel sword for his house.

History
Victor Karstark was born as the early son of Harrion Karstark, eldest son of Rickard Karstark, the lord of Karhold.

Pre-birth
When Harrion was just a squire himself, he met his future wife at the court of a lord in the Stormlands. Victor was concieved not long thereafter, so it's often said that it was prudent of them to get married straight away.

Birth
The birth of Victor robbed Harrion of his wife, his first wife, anyway, and not wanting to take his negative emotions out on the boy, he sent him away with a wetnurse, to the court of the Starks.

Childhood
Benjen Stark was only a few years older than Victor and seeing as Eddard Stark was away studying as a ward under Jon Arrynand the oldest Stark son, Brandon Stark, was much older than both of them, they bonded, Benjen serving as something of a mentor to Victor. Their relationship wasn't that of two friends, it was that of two brothers, and Victor was of course the younger of the two, looking up to Benjen. Through Benjen and his father, Victor learned the true notion of Stark honor and what it meant to be of the first men, and to follow the old gods and the old ways. Victor was trained in engineering, mainly to understand how to take a castle, but also to understand how to built one, repair one and how to unmake a castle entirely, but he was very taken with the idea of creating these magnificent structures. During his childhood, himself and Benjen managed to tag along to see some of the impressive keeps, such as the Eyrie and Storm's End. He dreamt of one-day being able to rebuild the broken tower of Winterfell.

Teenage years
Victor was taken as a squire by Rickard Stark, who had grown used to having the boy around his keep, and figured he would do him the honor of allowing him to stick around for a few more years, much to the pleasure of Benjen Stark who was third in line to inherit Winterfell, and therefor hadn't been sent out to be fostered by anyone. Together, both of the boys were trained by Rodrik Cassel who at this time was the master-at-arms in Winterfell. Squiring for a lord like Rickard was hard work, requiring more travel, and sadly this often involved leaving Benjen behind, as "there must always be a Stark in Winterfell". Eventually however, Rickard decided that the boys were old enough to occasionally entrust them with small matters such as courtesy visits, and in such events, Victor instead served as a squire to Benjen. These small visits were mostly between friends of the family, as training. It came as a bit of a surprise when Victor was sent to squire for Brandon Stark, who was being fostered by Lord Dustin (the father of Willam Dustin), lord of Barrowton. Brandon Stark was a grown man almost, ready to enter Knighthood soon, and he required a squire. Victor squired for the older Stark who was completely different from Benjen, there was a reason they called him "the Wild Wolf". Brandon was a very skilled swordsman and rider, as well as ladies man, and it was a new life for Victor, serving under this lordling. While Victor learned much about the art of horsemanship and fencing from Brandon, the high-point of Victor's servitude to the lordling was in 281 at the tournament in Harrenhal where crown prince Rhaegar Targaryen secretly entered the lists and unhorsed Brandon and proceeded to win the tournament, defeating even Barristan Selmy (who is renown as possibly the greatest warrior in Westeros), afterwards naming Brandon's sister Lyanna Stark as the Queen of love and beautydespite his own wife being present at the tournament, and a year later, when he kidnapped her, Victor's time as a squire under Brandon ended. It was fortunate that Victor was the one they sent to the Eyrie to tell Eddard Stark that Lyanna had been kidnapped (of course they also sent a raven), but they wished to relay a more personal message to Eddard and Robert Baratheon (who was engaged to Lyanna) who were both fostered by Jon Arryn . However, shortly after arriving in the Eyrie, news reached the Valethat both Rickard and Brandon had been executed by the king and that the King demanded from Arryn that he would hand over both of his wards, and this was when Jon Arryn started the rebellion, and Eddard, who was only a year younger than Brandon took Victor as his squire when they fought Robert's rebellion.

Adulthood
It was an ugly war. Victor especially remembers the Battle of the Trident where Robert slew Rhaegar Targaryen, where he also killed his first man on the battle-field. A tall somewhat wirey young lordling who was just as confused as Victor, though unfortunately for him, he hadn't had Rodric Cassel and Brandon Stark as fencing instructors and as such, Victor managed to defeat him. Being the squire for one of the leaders of the rebellion, he experienced first hand what leadership on the battlefield meant, and he was always present in the commander's tent when strategy was discussed. He was often praised for your strategic tallent as he spoke out of turn to point out grevious errors in the battle plans, having been an avid student of military history and strategy during his time as a ward with the Starks. He spotted his father on several occasions in the encampments, and noticed that he didn't even recognize him. Eventually, they happened to be in the same tent at the same time when Victor was adressed, and that was when Victor's father finally pulled him aside, and explained to him that he was proud and impressed with his accomplishments, but also explained why he had sent him away. Not really a good excuse, but a reason is a reason, and there was a battle to be won. During some of the final battles, Victor was allowed to ride into battle with the Cavalry, alongside Eddard Stark and the future claimaint to the Iron Throne, Robert as he had on several occasions proved himself a more than capable fighter and rider.

When the battle was won, Eddard Knighted Victor almost straight away, and Victor was more or less forced to return to Karhold. Just as well, as Benjen had decided to take the black and join Night's Watch. Benjen quickly became the leader of the Wall's militant order, known as the Rangers, and this gave Victor and excuse to gather some soldiers and travel north, beyond the Wall, where he helped Benjen campaign against some of the closest Wildling villages, raiding from the sea and occasionally going inland. It was beyond the wall, and in the company of the rangers that he learned much about the strange myths and legends about the creatures rumored to be beyond the wall, and he even saw some things that he to this day swears is only explainable by these myths, among others, he once slew a wildling, only to have that very same wildling attack him the night after, or so he could swear.

Shortly after Victor's campaigns ended, the Greyjoy rebellion started, and Eddard called upon Victor to serve in the upcoming battles, due to his recently acquired experience in sea-raiding. Victor was behind some of the instrumental battles against the Greyjoys, and was after this battle hired on as the Marshall of Winterfell. In that same rebellion however, Victor lost both his grandfather and his father, leaving him as the head of House Karstark. He appointed his grand uncle, Arnolf Karstark as the regent of Karhold while he serves Winterfell. He is unsure whether he can trust his family however, as all of them seem much more ambitious than the Starks he is used to being around.

Victor is now the leader and commander of the Eddard's household guard, and the marshall of all of the North. Victor never had ambitions to become Lord of a castle, and often envied Benjen that he could take the Black with no consequences, but he realizes that his family has become too far removed from the original ideals of the Starks, and knows that he has a duty to restore this to his line. The fact that they refer to hims as the Stark of the Karstarks is something he takes as a compliment.

While Victor is mostly a northerner, he, unlike the other northmen, has spent too much time in the rest of Westeros to enjoy confinement in the cold North. He would see Lord Eddard's aspiration to reforge the Iron Throne under Robert Baratheon's rule fulfilled, even though many Norherners are happy to be a sovereign Kingdom again. Robert Baratheon has promised him, that if he hasn't taken wife and still has no desire to hold lands when the Iron Throne is taken, Victor may join the Kingsguard.