Victaria Vance is the youngest daughter of the late Lord of Atranta, Laswell Vance, and his wife, Lady Rohanne Vypren. She is the younger sister of Lord Theowyn Vance of Atranta, and Lord Bryndemere Vance of Harrenhal, the wife of Lord Edmund Vance of Wayfarer's Rest, and the Lady of Wayfarer's Rest.

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Appearance

Like her brothers, Victaria is quite tall, with long legs and a full figure. She has broad shoulders and a broad chest to match, with clearly defined muscle structure on her arms and legs, hardened from years of training at arms, despite her youth. She has the trademark raven black hair of her family worn long, as well as pale blue eyes and sharp, imperious features that her elder brothers carry. She has three thin scars on her left cheek as the result of a childhood trip turned kidnapping.

Victaria dresses in the same blacks, blues, and purples that her brother Bryndemere does, preferring darker, cooler colors. Just as comfortable in mail as she is in silks, she wears heavy cotton and quilted gowns in court, and wears a suit scale armor of midnight black in battle. Else-wise, she is most often found in blackened riding leathers, or some other drab form of work wear.

Background

Victaria Vance was born the youngest and final child of Lord Laswell Vance and his wife, Lady Rohanne Vypren. She was raised at Atranta with her elder brothers, Theowyn, Bryndemere, and Bryon. She was an angry and fussy babe, and became the menace of all the wet nurses of Atranta when her teeth came in. As a child, she was known to bite other children rather than play with them, but grew a certain fondness for her own brothers, constantly toddling after them and trying to follow in their footsteps. In such time, she grew particularly close to Bryndemere, and constantly chained herself to his side, much to his annoyance. Despite their general dislike of other children, the two grew thick as thieves within time however, and her father's act of sending him away to Wayfarer's Rest was the first of several incidents that would keep her at odds with her parents, and her elder brother Theowyn in particular.

Her life would soon take a different direction entirely after a particular incident completely changed the trajectory of her youth. After relentless harassment of her father, Laswell finally relented, and allowed her a short trip to Wayfarer's Rest in order to visit Bryndemere for a time. If the visit went well, then he would allow her to split time between Atranta and Wayfarer's Rest more often.

Unfortunately, things did not go as intended. Midway between the two homes of House Vance, her retinue was set upon by bandits, and her escort of men-at-arms were quickly slaughtered (it was later learned that these were no ordinary outlaws, but indeed deserters from several different lordships of the Riverlands, and trained soldiers at that), and she was taken captive for nigh on half a year. After a long period of negotiations, Laswell finally relented to their ludicrous demands, and paid a fortune to secure her return to Atranta.

But the damage was already done. Having been held hostage for half a year, Victaria had come back bruised and bloodied, raped and defiled. She blamed her father for her imprisonment, and the horrors she had to endure while he negotiated and wheeled with the kidnappers, instead of hunting them down and putting them all to the sword. Fueled by a bitter resentment of her father, and a black rage to never be caught so helpless again, she started training at arms and warfare with her brothers, Byron and Theowyn, Theowyn objecting quite harshly to having to share even more time with her. Laswell found it difficult to not relent to her however, for the guilt of all that she'd gone through was overpowering.

The next seven years were long and hard with accomplishment and self growth for her. Though the learning curve for a sword was high for a small, spindly little girl of eight, she grew much and more into her newfound joy, and often found herself defeating Theowyn and Bryon in duels, much to Theowyn's displeasure in particular.

The year 432 AC saw milder changes. Her much beloved elder brother, Bryndemere, finally returned from Wayfarer's Rest, much to her delight ,and the two became fast friends once more, although both had changed drastically in the time they had last seen one another. Victaria had later attended her brother Bryndemere's wedding to Cassana Vance and assuming of Lordship over Harrenhal in 435.

Early in the year 438 AC, Lord Laswell Vance finally breathed his last. While hunting in the woods surrounding Atranta, he was beset upon by a band of roving outlaws. Though the late lord fought admirably, and slew several of his attackers, he caught a quarrel to the throat, and died nearly instantly, after being dragged from his horse. His squire managed to escape the carnage, and told the remaining Vances of what had happened. A raven was sent to Harrenhal, and Bryndemere rode out alone to Atranta immediately, riding all through the night to arrive the next day, haggard, but kept upright from the wrath that stirred within. Theowyn, with Bryndemere in tow, left in a black rage, the two taking thirty men at arms to scour the forests for their father's assassins. The remainder of the rogues were found within a day of the murder, and those that had managed to escape Laswell's blade were taken prisoner. Theowyn, still wracked with grief, was hastily made the Lord of Atranta, and after Bryndemere tortured confessions out of all of the offending peasants, sentenced them all to death by hanging. Their rotting corpses still remain outside the postern gates of Atranta as a warning to all brigands and would-be lawbreakers.

Despite her deep seated resentment of her father, for numerous reasons, Victaria was outraged at her exclusion from the justice that was dispensed to his killers, and fully blames Theowyn for being left out of the slaughter, even though he was in equal parts to blame as Bryndemere for her being forced to wait at Atranta until they returned.

Their sorrows were far from over, however. For Byron, who had been fighting a winter chill he'd first gotten at the beginning of the infamous Four Year Winter, as it would later be known, suddenly took a turn for the worse, and perished within the moon's turn. Hardened yet by another loss in the family, and still taking out her misplaced hatred on Theowyn, the year 439 AC dawned at the end of the Four Year Winter, with tensions still at an all time high in Atranta.

Foreword: Bolded names indicate those that were lord of their respective house at some point or another. Italicized names indicate that the character is now deceased. (m.) denotes a marriage into the family.

Davos Vance, the late Lord of Atranta, b.372 AC

(m.) Margot Rivers, dowager Lady of Atranta, (possibly) b.372 AC Laswell Vance, the late Lord of Atranta, b.390 AC ( m.) Rohanne Vypren, wife of Laswell Vance, b. 390 AC Theowyn Vance, Lord of Atranta, b. 409 AC (m.) Rhialta Piper, Lady of Atranta, wife of Theowyn, b. 411 AC Jon Vance, heir to Atranta b. 438 AC Bryndemere Vance, Lord of Harrenhal, b. 316 AC (m.) Cassana Vance, Lady of Harrenhal, b 418 AC Byron Vance, third son of Laswell, b. 417 AC Victaria Vance, daughter of Laswell, b. 418 A



Skills