Ser Preston Vance is the eldest child of Lord Perceon Vance, Lord of Harrenhal and Hand of the Queen, and his wife, Lady Shiera Velaryon. Born in 387 A.C., Preston had spent most of his life in and around King’s Landing, given his parents many connections with the royal court. Unlike his father Preston has taken more to the affairs of the blade, rather than those of the state.

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Appearance and Character

Tall, handsome, and proud, Ser Preston cuts a dashing figure that might have been plucked from any of the old tales. While inheriting much of his coloring from his father, the Lord of Harrenhal, his eyes are that of his mother, Lady Shiera of House Velaryon. Like her his irises are as windows to the tides that crash onto the shores of her girlhood home. Days filled with training have seen him gifted with an impressive physique, that is complemented by an austere, knightly style of dress.

Unlike his father, Preston has never cared for the intricacies of statecraft. Instead he has spent his days training for the lists. The proudest moment of his life was being anointed in the oils of the Seven and beginning his life as a knight in his own right. While he may not have his father’s talent for numbers, he makes up for it with his skill atop a horse or with a sword in hand. As a boy growing up to stories of his great-grandfather, the legendary Ser Peremore, the weight of his family’s legacy weighs upon him.

Though shy by nature, he revels in the adulation of a crowd. His reputation as a tourney knight is almost of as much importance as his skill at arms. While not ambitious in the political sense, the young knight is eager to prove himself on the field of battle. For all this glimmer and potential, however, Preston is not without some measure of subtlety. He holds his personal secrets close to his chest, and rankles at the slightest mark upon his name.

History

Early Childhood

Preston Vance was born in 388 A.C., the firstborn son of Ser Perceon Vance and his wife, Lady Shiera of House Velaryon. Preston was a hale babe and had the most exuberant cries. A sound that might have maddened his mother and wet-nurses, if not for the indication that he had a most healthy set of lungs. From the time he could walk he was quite taken with the men in the yard, and would often practice with tree limbs until he was of an age to be brought under the wing of the Master-at-Arms.

His grandfather, Lord Perwyn, was quite partial to the boy and invested a great deal of energy in his upbringing. A welcome addition, as his father, Ser Perceon, was endlessly taken with the affairs of House Targaryen, as intimately connected as he was to the Silver Hand and his son. All in all his was a relatively happy childhood, no matter how many times he had been forced to practice his letters at the behest of the maester and his lady mother.

As adolescence began to fade, Preston had shown more than his fair share of potential in the ways of the shield, and he was more than comfortable in the saddle of a horse. When the time came for him to be taken on as a page, there was a small bit of discourse between Lord Perwyn, and Preston’s father. Perceon felt confident he could arrange for Preston to serve, as he had done, with a member of the royal family. Perwyn, on the other hand, felt it essential that they not forget the importance of relations within the Riverlands, preferring to see him squired with his, Brandon Tully.

In the end, the head of the family had his way, and Preston was sent to page for the auspicious Lord of Riverrun.

The War of the Three Thieves

Life serving under Lord Brandon was not particularly hard, and Preston found himself taken well underwing during his time accompanying the man. The Lord of Riverrun was a magnetic, charismatic man who imparted much more onto the Preston than he had hoped for. He preferred to hone his skills with the blade, but with Lord Brandon as his tutor, he came to understand the real power behind words. After learning this less, Preston took some of his studies more seriously.

When the call to war came, Preston followed. He was young, but he insisted that it was his right to accompany the Lord of Riverrun so that he could fulfill his duties. He was a page no longer, after all, having been taken on as Lord Brandon’s squire in the previous year. He saw little actual battle, but it was in the Stepstones that he first bloodied his sword, standing just near his father and Lord Tully as Ormollen’s men took them by surprise.

He was spared the sight of Ormollen’s Pyre, but it was not a matter of chance. His father was privy to the machinations of Aemon’s wife, the fearsome woman, Visaera Targaryen. At the time he had been furious not to be sent along with the others, but how could a young boy understand the real horror that was dragon fire?

The war ended when Prince Maekar, atop Stormsong, slew Alequo and Arranax alike. A clash Preston witnessed, and would forever remember as one of the most exhilarating encounters he would ever observe in his life. Tragedy struck, however, shortly after winter fell in the Riverlands, and Lord Perwyn was taken from them. He had gone to war a squire and returned to become the heir of Harrrenhal.

Son of the Hand

Lord Brandon Tully followed Perwyn to the grave only two years later, before Preston could be anointed in the seven oils of knighthood. Perceon arranged for him to squire for Prince Daeron Targaryen, a knight of the Kingsguard. Shortly after, Aemon Targaryen, the Prince of Dragonstone, vanished without a trace. After all, hope that the heir apparent might reappear dissipated, Preston’s father was named Hand of the King in his place. For the Vances the appointment was both fortuitous and melancholic, even for young Preston, who had always thought Aemon Targaryen the pinnacle of what a man of the sword ought to be.

In 406 A.C., Preston Vance finally earned his spurs, as Prince Daeron knighted him near the end of that year. The heir to Harrenhal swelled with pride that day, as the first of his many life goals had been accomplished. He was not the youngest knight to have ever lived, but his progress had been steady, and in that regard, he was much pleased. This pride was wounded, however, at the Grand Tourney at Harrenhal, where he was unhorsed in his very first bout of the lists. This left a bitter taste in the young knight’s mouth, but even still when the time came, he traveled alongside his father to the capital with the royal entourage. A part of him had desired to remain at Harrenhal so that he might avoid the shame of such a loss, but then there were certain delights within the city that he could not entirely pass up.

After the death of Berena Tully, Preston, like the rest of his family, was somewhat rankled by the decision to wed his sister, Rhialta, to the newly legitimized Damion Tully. That was until he met the young Lord of Riverrun. Damion’s wit, charm, and overall image did much to assuage the doubts. If his sister was to wed someone who had been baseborn, better this man than another. Naturally, when the time came, he departed with his father and mother to see Rhiatla and Damion wed in Harrenhal.

Relieving the Twins

Preston accompanied Damion and Rhialta and was present when those left behind by the delegitimized Landon Rivers yielded Riverrun to its new lord. This disappointed Preston, as he had hoped in a siege, or in an assault, he could garner himself some level of redemption by displaying his valor in battle. Despite the taking of Riverrun being a bloodless affair, fate, and chance allied with Preston’s desires, as the Vale’s incursion into the Riverlands rallied the crown and those faithful to Queen Visaera to battle.

The Battle of the Ford saw Preston given men of his own to command. A small contingent, but one afforded him given his status as the Hand’s son. He proved an able commander, with his robust vigor shoring up the shortcomings of youth. Unlike his father, he was not a man to command from behind a line of reserves. Ser Preston Vance was a man to lead the charge, and so lead the charge he did. By battle’s end, he had bloodied his sword and avenged what men he had lost when the Vale forces overran the positions of the Riverlords.

As Rhialta had been wed to Damion, so too hand Preston’s hand been promised to the Lady of the Crossing, Elana Frey. It was of no surprise then that the young knight was eager to accompany Lord Damion in the relieving of the Twins. When they wed he would be hailed as Lord of the Crossing, and so to be left out of such an affair would have been an insult not only to him but the children Elana would one day bear for him. Like the Battle of the Ford, this proved a fruitful endeavor and saw the forces of Lady Belmore driven from his wife-to-be’s childhood home.

Matrimony

A couple of years after the conclusion of the Mummer’s War, in 410 A.C., Preston wed Lady Elana Frey at the Great Sept of Baelor in King’s Landing. An honor offered to the couple by virtue of Perceon’s position as Hand of the Queen. To the outside world, they looked like a princely couple. Preston had always taken excellent care of himself, and he looked every bit a knight. Elana, likewise, seemed as fair a maiden as House Frey could produce. One might have expected theirs to be a fruitful union, but alas this was not to be. A realization Preston’s lady wife came to on their wedding knight, when Preston seemed too taken with wine to display the proper interest a groom should for his bride.

Preston would sometimes satisfy his duties as a husband, but when he did it was often a task abetted by drink. Even still, there were none who could claim he performed these duties with any amount of regularity. They may have had more success when it came to the construction of the legacy his father desired, if not for that, despite his lack of interest, the two were often apart. The Crossing was a fine keep, and after their marriage, it was made more exquisite still, but he preferred to remain in Harrenhal or even the capital. Invariably there were times when the couple was obliged to travel together, but even still Elana proved willful when it came to the stewardship of the lands under the aegis of the Twins. As years passed so too did that oblige Preston to take part in these endeavors, and while he did not shy from lordly tasks, there were few prospects that he thought to enjoy. During this period, he became somewhat surly, but despite this displeasure, was not overtly cruel to his lady wife.

Things began to take an upturn later in the year 414 A.C. when Elana had become thick with child. The prospect of a son or even a daughter thrilled Preston. If only because it meant he would be given to endure less of the chiding he had in the intervening years between his marriage to Elana and her pregnancy. That joy turned to ash in the Eighth Moon of 415 A.C. A child was born, a boy, whom they named Petyr. At first, it seemed Petyr would be as strong a babe as his father had been, but only a few short days after the birth he’d taken a turn and died.

If the relationship between Elana and Preston had been chilly before, after Petyr’s birth, it turned positively glacial. Preston expressed his displeasure at the loss in many ways, at one point even openly criticizing his wife, claiming that it was her actions, her demeanor that had allowed an ill wind to see them bereft of their son. His visits to her bedchamber became even less frequent, and while he acted with quite as much subtlety as he always had in his pursuits, he made less effort in hiding his favorites from the Lady of the Crossing.

It would be a little over two years before their relationship began to thaw when his wife informed him that she was, once again, with child. Due to the encouragement of his mother, Lady Shiera, Preston treated his wife a bit more delicately, seeing to it that all her needs were met. In the Second Moon of 418 A.C., Elana gave birth to a scrawny girl, whom they named Cassana in honor of Elana’s mother who had also been Preston’s paternal aunt. The weeks following their daughter’s birth were tense, as they feared she might go the way of the son they had lost those years before.

Fortune smiled, however, as the infant girl grew in strength, and it seemed that, at last, Preston had an heir. That she was a girl bothered him not, no matter what other members of his house felt about the subject. Like Elana, he became very protective over his daughter and even approved of Elana’s choice to forego a wet-nurse. Little Cassana provided him with a new sense of pride, and hope for his future.

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