| Taleryth |
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Background
Taleryth Miralen was born, under irregular circumstances, into an unusual family, the Miralens. Some of the most prosperous commoners in Westeros, these merchants, originally of Braavosi origin, had become prominent in the little port of Saltpans before being expelled in a fit of mercantile jealousy. The clan then moved inland and flourished among the traders of Fairmarket, and it was here, in 264 AL, that the Miralen patriarch’s eldest daughter gave birth to Taleryth.
The babe was certainly a bastard under Westerosi law, as his mother refused to name his father and shortly afterwards fled their manse to make a reputed living as a courtesan back in the Free Cities. But the merchant family’s influence and their continuing connections to high-placed Braavosi envoys permitted the boy to go by the Miralen name for a time. Nonetheless, the scandal was irreversible, and it was agreed that Taleryth, instead of inheriting a slice of the Miralen wealth, should be reared for the Citadel, far away in Oldtown.
As luck would have it, the lad proved quick, helpful and obedient, and never questioned the path laid out before him. Only a vaguely hangdog, guilty look, constantly straying across his cautious face, intimated that he felt at all disturbed by the situation to which he had, without choosing, been born and bred. At any rate, at thirteen his private tuition lapsed and he began his training as an Acolyte.
The Citadel was the perfect place for a faintly displaced boy, and Taleryth flourished in the twelve-odd years he spent there. He forged links of iron, black and otherwise; copper, steel, and two each of silver and pewter, eight in all, a short but very serviceable chain. Taleryth expected to have many more decades to lengthen it further; he loved life in Oldtown and the Citadel, and had inchoate ambitions to some day rise to Archmaester.
It was not to be. To his surprise and shock, Taleryth found himself ordained as Maester early and suddenly, and appointed to Tordane Tower, which was in urgent need of a new Maester by royal command, to accompany a new lord, Gedeon Tordane. This accounted for Taleryth’s position of unusual responsibility for so young and inexperienced a Maester; another blow to his pride – need, not knowledge had made him rise. And now he was torn away from his beloved Oldtown to serve some obscure backwater holdfast in the Riverlands, where he had been born but never belonged, and far north of his native town of Fairmarket - quite probably for life.
Worse and worse, the now Maester Taleryth arrived at his new post to find chaos. During his journey, the royal appointee Ser Gedeon had been killed in a duel with a local rival, Ser Rygar Nayland. Now Taleryth finds himself obliged to counsel the Naylands, instead, as best he can – even as Gedeon’s widow, backed by the neighbouring force of the Charltons, closes in. The Citadel teaches its products to advise the lords of their posts, whoever they may be, and young Maester Taleryth feared he would soon experience this complexity of allegiance first hand. He made sure to keep open all channels of courtesy by meeting with Lady Danae Tordane in secret.
In the event, the Charltons were repelled, but the young Maester oversaw quite a different change of masters, as Lord Frey awarded the fief's stewardship to Ser Tyroan Nayland, summoning his grand-daughter and great-grand-daughter Ladies Valda and Isolde to sequestration at the Twins. Ser Bruce Longbough had speculated that Lady Danae's rule would prove more 'delicate', but Ser Tyroan is anything but. The careful, neatly turned out, well spoken Maester Taleryth is hardly suited to the beer-swilling, profanity-yelling veteran's smile, and Tyroan has also denied him or any nominee of his the vacant rank of Castellan. Yet their rapport is in fact surprisingly strong, as the old knight always hears out his advice, even if he but rarely takes it! Taleryth is not so sure about that sorceress of a wife the Steward has, though…
Family
The Miralens are respectable merchants in Fairmarket, if slightly suspect because of their Braavosi heritage. But Taleryth's mother Ceciloca, now a runaway in Essos if she still lives, is anything but respectable. In any case, they are the past: the Citadel is all the kin Taleryth owns now.
Physical Features
A slight young fellow with thin, sallow features, dark brown hair, and clean-shaven cheeks, Taleryth is the very picture of a new-minted Maester out of Oldtown - with a touch of foreignness appended, a hint of spice and sunburn born of stormy ocean, and exiles' breezes. His robe is very light grey, almost white, and generally very clean; this Maester obviously keeps to himself indoors, and tries to stick to duties that don't dirty him unduly. This immaculate turn out somehow emphasises the impression that he has only just taken in exactly where he is - and has not yet started to warm to it. His voice has nothing of the exotic by Reach standards, but may sound a bit plummy up in the Riverlands.
Allies and Foes
Currently serves the Naylands, though at least once conversed politely with Danae, the possible Lady Tordane.
