| Ser Trajan Fenster |
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Background
Ser Trajan Fenster was born in 261 to Ser Anders (the younger brother of Lord Jek Fenster) and Lady Lucretia Fenster. He was the third son in a modestly sized family with only one younger sibling that being his sister. The Anders branch of the Fenster family were unlanded and as a result valued martial prowerse above all else and Trajan's two elder brothers stood as paragons of the family model and Trajan on the other hand was a disgrace. Though he did not want for ability when pressed and even had a weapons master describe him as having great potential he was a craven and generally interested in other pursuits. Trajan liked poetry and merchantile endeavours. Though not without use in home administration his fortes were unconventional and regarded as effeminate. It followed that his home life was generally miserable. An initial connection with his eldest brother Varag was severed under the influence of his two other siblings. He was then violently bullied by his two older brothers and even his younger sister joined in the fun. Favourite games in the family chambers and courtyard of their manse were "squeal piggy" in which Trajan was hunted and beaten till he squealed like a pig by his siblings.
Trajan's parents would not admit defeat with respect to their youngest son and saw that he was squired and received at least a strong rudimentary education in the family profession of soldiering. Trajan again showed ability but no interest or heart. He learnt his lessons without passion. Progressing from page to squire was a transition that held little interest for the romantic youth. At the age of thirteen Trajan was unhorsed at a practice tourney by an opponent considered inferior enough for even him to best. This was considered a great public humiliation to the family and his mother oft silent or neutral throughout the ordeal that was Trajan's childhood declared herself - telling the bruised youth that she wished that he had never been born. This wounded Trajan greatly but as a sentimental youth he could not sever the nexus between him and his family he kept hoping for improvement no matter how dashed his hopes proved. Adopting the strategy of avoidance he grew up keeping his own company. As his siblings grew the physical abuse they piled upon him devolved into mere glib mockery. Trajan occasionally threw a few coarse barbs back. He had been developing a black sense of humour to cope with his darkening lot in life.
Around 282 at the start of Robert's Rebellion Trajan was an early mover with the knight he was squired to joined on the side of Robert well before the Charlton House proper. He fought alongside his charge at the Battle of the Bells and the Battle of the Trident. The end of the war saw Trajan finally achieving the rank of Knight having both proved himself in battle and finished his turn as a Squire. Many others rose to Knighthood. For once Trajan was himself satiated with his progress. He was not obsessed with the pursuit of martial ability but he had found his peace with it. Those that he met and befriended knew his as a quiet, reserved and kindly young man and spoke of this to others on the infrequent times his name came up. Perhaps a little too soft for the Knighthood he had earned.
His performance in the war elevated the perception of him in his household to at least 'useful'. Trajan's father and mother saw fit to use him seek a marriage that would be advantageous for their house securing an alliance with another house like in power through their youngest daughter. Trajan took some coaxing to entertain the notion. Weak as he was he was not his parents puppet. When he saw the girl however Amelia being her name he fell head over heels in love. A raven haired beauty with eyes like ice and smooth alabaster skin and a curvaceous figure she stood as most men's ideal as a spouse in Westeros. Trajan was soon to learn that Amelia had little time for him after their marriage ceremony was complete. The first and last time he saw her naked was at the bedding - and she was back in her gown after that having kicked him out of their bed. It did not take her long to take his eldest brother Varag as her lover. It was common knowledge in the family that this had occurred and something of an in joke. His parents did not care so long as someone in the family was bedding their youngest's wife.
Hurt beyond reason Trajan stuck to the delusion that his circumstances might improve. His truant wife might succumb to his pathetic romantic overtures and the little not inexpensive gifts he furnished her with. But his home situation grew ever more hopeless. His wife cuckolding him with a child of hers and Varag's get - and - even waving the fact in front of his face privately. Trajan was impossibly humiliated by this and ranged further spending as much time on Charlton business as possible away from his so called family.
He ranged far from family estates. On one such ranging Trajan was taken captive by Handsome Bren a famous bandit. Bren seized Trajan's retinue and executed most of his men keeping Trajan alive ostensibly to ransom him back to his family. Though publicly a gentleman bandit Bren had a fearsome cruel streak running through him and Trajan's families failure to ransom him after a month led to piecemeal tortures and mutilations of Trajan. His right hand side of his face was branded and scarred. Trajan's ear was cut off and sent to his family as a threat. A horrible wound that would never really heal was inflicted on his arm. An infection left Trajan incoherent on the table that Bren had strapped him to in order to effect his unnecessary surgeries. For the smallest of moments during one of Bren's sessions Trajan in the delirium had a vision of sorts before he came back to reality. When he returned he was a very different man.
To hear Trajan's account of what he saw is to immediately draw the conclusion that he went mad so he rarely tells it. Suffice to say he found himself in a fiery pit standing before a twelve foot creature that had needle teeth like a deep sea lantern fish and the body portions of some form of grotesque infant (large head small arms and body). It was stuffed into a black jesters outfit and had dark eyes that mirrored Trajan's. When it spoke to him it claimed that indeed he was in hell where all worthless things wind up. Trajan finally snapped at this revelation and laughed and cried at the same time for what seemed like an eternity. When he finally regained his composure he asked the creature who he was to which the Dark Jester replied that it was Trajan. All men meet themselves in Hell it claimed. It went on to relate a story of a rich young man whose wife and brothers had set up to be captured by an exceptionally cruel bandit in order to loot him through the wife's claim on his property. It asked him who this sounded like. Trajan who was already on his knees sobbing fell flat on his back with the revelation - one that he could have just as easily surmised himself if he weren't so innocently nave. Worst of all he did not understand why he of all people had found his way to the warm place.
Reading his mind the creature told him that he was not dead yet and soon he would return to the table with Bren in the "real world". But before this happened the creature had a message for him. The message was a philosophical inversion - a reverse epiphany. His path was dark and all that was good in the world would be denied him but there were things that could serve as practical substitutes for virtue. Just as the dark could be a substitute for light, arrogance could serve as a substitute for courage, cruelty could serve as a substitute for kindness, lies for truth and finally and above all else hatred could be a perfect substitute for love. The words burned into Trajan's soul tearing apart the kindly sweet victim that he was and turning him into something else. The vision was false - a result of deprivation and torture - on some level Trajan's residual logical self knew this. But that didn't matter. Very little mattered at all. When he awoke on the torture table Trajan was a creature of cruelty and darkness. A man who self styled himself as the Dark Jester after the insane but compelling vision his mind had generated.
In a blur of violence Trajan freed himself a kick to the head knocked Handsome Bren out. The bandit found himself tied to his own table and gagged. Trajan cut off his nose making Bren not so handsome and kept the olfactory appendage as a trophy. He promised a terrified Bren that he would return and take a new piece of him every month until he had a complete set. Trajan disguised himself and made good his escape but not before finding letters that served as proof of the vision he'd had earlier. Correspondence between his wife and the bandit as well as a letter that seemed to be from Varag tipping Bren off as to the likely time and route of travel he would be following with the caravan. He found himself thankful for Bren's greed in trying to ransom him to his parents effectively double dipping.
Trajan's re-emergence came as a nightmare for his family. Varag came at Trajan with his sword claiming the scarred stranger was not his brother but an imposter. Trajan disarmed him. It was a satisfying public humiliation in any event and made worse when Trajan was able to prove his identity. Since his disappearance his mother Lucretzia had effected something of a change of heart she desperately begged for her husband and sons to go looking for Trajan. Though his father Anders had little time for his youngest evidence of his siblings attempt to murder him through the bandit Bren proved a slight too far. He quietly exiled both of his eldest sons to minor tasks on the borders of the realm but did not go so far as to disinherit them. The family was effectively destroyed and Trajan was almost even satisfied. His wife was allowed to remain on the estate but at the sufferance of Anders and Lucretzia. She was not allowed to see Varag again but their child remained with her. Since Varag refuses to support her or his child Anders and Lucretzia are on poor terms with her the likelihood of her joining the two brothers in exile is great.
His work done Trajan left his family estate for the last time salvaging what wealth he'd put aside that hadn't been spent on luxuries by Amelia his disloyal wife. The only real justice that emerged from the mess was Trajan was effectively given a choice of fates. Since the appeal of task abroad was winnowing on him (and partially the cause of his mutilation) he chose to discharge the vassal obligations of the Fensters to the Charltons more directly and was sent to train and serve with the aforementioned house. Apart from buffing and improving greatly upon his existing training. The Charltons also used Trajan as an enforcer because of his dreadful appearance. Trajan is not yet one of fearsome reputation but began here humbly discretely indulging his predisposition for murder and torture on behalf of his masters whether they willed it or not. The Ironborn invasions and his horrible treatment of the Ironborn he defeated or captured served to expand his reputation as a fighter and a captor to be feared.
Reclusive but theatrical Trajan runs his discrete errands on behalf of the Charltons. The moniker he gave himself "the Dark Jester" or "Hell's Fool" has become a much more common way of referring to him than his first or family name. Likewise he has adopted an aesthetic appropriate to this wearing a black suit and coxcomb style hat for his few public appearances. A mummers farce but for the deadly utility of the patchwork armor and multiple knives that bedeck his mangled form. His horribly mutilated face finishing the picture. He composes vicious and desolate verse in his spare time and has acquired three more pieces of Handsome Bren since last they met the latter being more ironically named "handsome" now. Though hardly as famous as other "monsters" such as the Mountain or even his brother those that know of Trajan sensibly fear him as possibly the worst of the Charlton family's enforcers. Lately his pain has gotten worse and Trajan not having the constitution to drink the same levels of milk of the poppy as say the Mountain has taken to using small doses of a potent poison under the discrete supervision of an interested Maester. This has worked to a large extent to deaden the sensation in some of his nerves but has rendered Trajan's visage even more unnatural and ugly changing his hue of skin and dying his gums a dark near to black shade. This has helped Trajan pick up a little bit of herb lore and medicine but has also forced the cerebral Knight even more under ground and deepened his insanity.
Family
Lord Jek Fenster (uncle); Lord Alric Fenster (cousin); Ser Varag Fenster (Eldest brother); Ser Marlow Fenster (Middle Elder Brother); Lady Bella Fenster (Younger sister); Ser Anders Fenster (Father); Lady Lucretia Fenster (Mother); Lady Amelia Fenster (wife).
Physical Features
Standing at a mere five foot ten a lupine figure stands before you. Trajan Antabolis Fenster appears half a corpse even though he is plainly living and breathing. His skin is an off white almost grey that exposes numerous veins with its translucent character. Contrasting with the white skin is rich raven coloured hair cut short. His build is medium and of tone muscle and might even be considered attractive but for his other features. His arms seem too long for his frame and when they are not moving dangle awkwardly by his sides. But more disturbing than his toned yet misshapen body is his face. A horrible burn or perhaps burn and knife wound marks the right half of his face drawing it up in a half of a rictus grin. The teeth that are partially displayed where his lip involuntarily lifts are in immaculate condition but his gums are a dark and ugly colour. A permanent half smile on a face that communicates predatory malice. Paired with this mutilation his right hand side lacks an ear. Twin large eyes so brown they look black gaze out upon the world with amused indifference. His face is angular and long. The left side that is undamaged suggests that the angular features of this man may have once been attractive. His clothing and grooming are immaculate for someone who would probably scare himself if he looked in the mirror. His clothing looks custom made. Dark leather - form fitting and giving one a good sense of the well toned physique underneath. His right arm appears to bear an old injury and is bandaged with small specks of blood showing against the clashing white of the bandage. On the end of his injured arm five silver thimbles with claw like points are present completing the utter weirdness of this already idiosyncratic noble's ensemble. The rest of the outfit seems to be designed to carry knives. He would possess at least ten on his person front and back. These coupled with the wicked curved sword and axe on the mans belt muster an aggressive fashion statement.
Allies and Foes
The entire Anders branch of the Fenster family.
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