Lady Valda Tordane

Background

A grand-daughter of Lord Walder Frey, Valda was married to the young Geoffrey Tordane, heir to Stonebridge, on the day of his knighting. The match was seen as an olive branch of sorts; the marriage of a Frey daughter to the son of a Terrick bannerman. Those who knew the couple observed that Valda was by far the more clever, though without her husband's effortless habit of making friends. She bore a son and daughter (Geonis and Isolde) but the couple had no other children, and many suspected the relationship to have cooled. This may have something to do with the arrival and acknowledgment of Geoffrey's bastard son Gedeon, who Ser Geoffrey insisted on keeping at Stonebridge.

After the deaths of Geoffrey and Geonis under the Terrick/Mallister banner at the Battle of the Trident, Valda briefly became regent for Isolde until her daughter reached majority, though even for years after the fact, Valda was the decisive presence at Stonebridge, going so far as to break the unwritten agreement to marry Isolde to the Terrick heir and seek a Nayland betrothal. As part of the bargain in which Isolde was betrothed to Ryker Nayland, Valda was promised the post of Castellan. She is reputed to be a pitiless and calculating woman, with a full dose of the Frey talent for holding a grudge.

There have been rumors and allegations that Valda was unfaithful to her husband, and that Isolde is the daughter of another man.

Family

Isolde Nayland - Valda's daughter loses no love toward her domineering mother, and Valda has shown lost patience at her daughter's naive idealism, 'So like her father'. Isolde is considered too weak to rule well, yet.
House Frey - Among the better regarded of the 'nee Frey's, the Frey presence at Stonebridge has only increased since the marriage that brought Stonebridge out from the Mallister loyalty, and into the Frey camp.

Physical Features

Above average height for a woman and lean, her most notable feature are intense blue eyes. Accounted by many to be a quite attractive woman entering her middle years, she does not often smile and rarely ever does so with warmth.

Allies and Foes

Lord Jerold Terrick - There is significant personal animosity between the lord of the Roost and the woman he calls a 're-cloaked Frey'. Although the childhood best friend of her late husband, Jerold and Valda loathe each other.
Ryker Nayland - Her goodson has made public his dislike of Valda, having vocalized an un-realized wish to be rid of her. (In private, the words 'skewered on a pitchfork' have been said). Valda is no more fond of him, thinking the Lord an ignorant, blustering fool.
Rygar Nayland - The co-conspirator with whom Valda negotiated the defection of Tordane lands to the Nayland banner. Valda's most prominent ally, the two are the de facto administrators of Stonebridge in the absence of Lady Isolde and Lord Ryker.

Gallery