Jon Wintersblood
The Disgraced Knight
Sir Jon Wintersblood of Dun Gemrad (a.k.a. Jon the Hunter, Jon the Handsome, Jon the Drunkard)
Syre Jon, Known as the Handsome of House Wintersblood, Captain of the Wintersguard, Knight of the Order of the Glen, True Blood of Winter
History
Jon, despite his role as Captain of the Wintersguard, would often be found around the Bekkar Marketplace at the nearby Talvel's Point. Being close friends with the Captain of the Guards at the city, Jon would become intertwined with the lawmaking of Talvel's Point being a main influence in the brutality the Watchmen became infamous for. Most nights, Jon would be found drunk at the Bloody Sword Tavern seemingly drinking the nights away and singing the songs a bard would. Many believe this was because once the mighty Jon Wintersblood, brother to the High King, was a Knight of Frostern and titled a Sir and Vigil of his own personal fort but it was all stripped from him. Many rumours speculate as to why but the most common of these is the fact that during his days as a knight, Jon fathered many bastard children- something extremely taboo in Korg society - who now roam the wilderness as snowed hair rangers, one for each Hold.
This rumour, while romanticised into a story by incomers, is the truth of the matter. Jon has 5 known illegitimate children but was forbidden from meeting them by his father, High King Alfrid, and is now forced to stay in Dun Gemrad and the immediate area (which includes Talvel's Point) as Captain of the Wintersguard. While at home however, Jon did something even more taboo which is still a secret from anyone else in Court. The Disgraced Wintersblood started an incestuous romance with his older sister Alfhild who was still a Lady of Frostern at the time. Alfhild was due to marry the Earl of Streamwood the next year and so the two siblings would make the most of what little time they had left. They didn't see themselves as Korg anymore, they were Imperial, and so their love wasn't impaired by conscious nor morality. Even on Alfhild's wedding day, Jon implanted his seed inside of his sister. Nine months later, the Earl and Countess of Streamwood declared a son born with silver hair and pale skin, no Aesmann features. Countess Alfhild named the future Knight of Streamwood as Jon Aesmann, telling her brother that he was in fact the father.
While Jon was stuck in the Great Glen and Alfhild stuck in Streamwood Hold, the two would not see each other again, furthering Jon's descent into alcoholism. The two would write each other letters disguised as formalities but full of incestuous lust and Jon's renown poems. Letters which Alfhild would burn but Jon has kept every one in a breast pocket of his tunic, carrying them close to his heart at all times. Alfhild would go on to birth more children for Earl Fingal Aesmann, every single one taking their father's complexion. Young Jon stuck out in the household but no one thought anything of it, being known as the nickname Little Bear of the Forest, or just Little Bear.
After the First Blood of Winter
The celebration of Earl Roddvig of Skyral's 60th birthday at Dun Gemrad was planned to be an extremely large occasion, one that would bring both formerly rivalled Houses together in their entireties. Jon at first opposed allowing Wolfspacks inside the castle but after discovering it would also mean the Earl and Countess of Streamwood coming he supported his elder brother to go ahead with the plans. All Jon wanted to do was meet his nephews but, most importantly, his son the Little Bear. During the dinner, Jon managed to escape the subsequent bloodshed because he was outside the Keep with Young Jon teaching him how to use a bow.
He was the only one to escape the Wolfspack Betrayal - to his knowledge - which broke him completely. He thought his entire family was murdered, heard his sister-lover was raped before being killed, and watched the only one of his sons he knew be ripped apart by Wolfspack hunting hounds while they fled. He didn't know his nephew and niece, Varg and Ingjald, had also managed to escape just before the First Blood and so proclaimed himself as the new Earl of Frostern and the last of the trueblooded Wintersbloods. Seeing himself as the rightful Earl and heir to High Kingship, Jon decided he would no longer be the absent father he had been forced to be. While winter settled in and the Wolfspacks amassed their rebel Pack army, thinking none of the other Houses would learn of the betrayal till spring, Jon Wintersblood rode east to Streamwood, the south to Dawnsmarch and east again to Mountainwatch. He visited every orphanage, farmstead and whorehouse he knew he had travelled to in the past to find any silver-haired children, on the way informing and preparing the Houses and Holds of the deaths and rebellion. By the time Jon reached Mountainwatch, he had 5 of his bastard children with him and, with the Earl of Mountainwatch as his witness, legitimised all of them, forming House Jonsson of Frostern.
Personality
Jon is regarded as being brutal but never cruel. He is extremely loyal and trustworthy to the people he loves, but the opposite to those he does not know personally. This has led him to care deeply for the housewives and whores that fathered his bastards even though he hasn't been allowed to see them, as well as acting like a father figure to the Wintersguard under him.
He respects and is interested in the culture and history of Imperial lands and Dagorland, where the Great Western Empire's heart lies, more so than the Frosian culture he was born into. He wishes for Frostern to be culturally and religiously fully integrated into the GWE rather than just, as he sees it, hanging off the side. And so, he shows no remorse for the incestuous relationship and adultery he has shown in the past and is - while not devout - a worshipper of Saint Vortarius rather than the Elder Gods.
Appearance & Equipment
Like the rest of his family, Jon wears a dyed blue leather tunic embroidered with silver and in the front chest has the sigil of the white bear. To signify his status as Captain of the Earlsguard, Jon will sport a light blue cloak with red teardrop patterns instead of a full fur cloak, as well as steel bracers and greaves. In battle, Jon replaces the tunic with spots of silver plate armour over a full dark mail shirt.
Since fleeing from the First Blood of Winter, Jon's body has suffered heavy scars from burning, mostly obscured by his clothing but can still be seen creeping up his neck.
Coat of Arms
Originally, Jon's personal Coat of Arms was just a variation of the House Wintersblood Shield with a golden border added to signify he was the second born son. House Wintersblood skips silver as it mixes with the white background of the shield; Argent, on a bend azure, a crowned bear passant argent, within a bordure or, which means a white bear with a crown, standing on a white field with blue diagonal line, bordered with a gold trim. After having his Knighthood stripped upon the spreading rumours of his bearing of bastard children with possibly married women, a gusset was added to signify adultery; Argent, on a bend azure, a crowned bear passant argent, a gusset dexter sanguine, within a bordure or. Finally, when he was granted the title of Captain of the Wintersguard to keep him at Dun Gemrad, he changed his personal shield to represent the cloak of office he now wore; Celeste a gouttée-de-sang, a gusset dexter sanguine, which means a pattern of red teardrops on a sky blue field, covered on the left by a dark red gusset. The House Jonsson of Frostern Jon would go on to found with his bastard children would adopt this Coat of Arms as their own, removing the gusset.
Quotes
My dearest sister, How long will this go on? The sneaking around, the missed opportunities. I feel like I can't take it anymore. I love you, and you love me. That's all that matters. Anyone who has a problem with it doesn't really care for either of us. - Jon
Jon, I know it's hard, but please. Try and be patient. We must keep to ourselves for now. You know that our family would react so very badly if they knew... if they even suspected. There will be a time when we don't need to hide. I promise you that. Someday they will understand. - A
Necromantic rituals? Fell spirits hungry for children? What a load of mammothcrapdung!
Species
Ethnicity
Children
Aligned Organization
Family
- Alfrid Wintersblood (Married Bernadette Hawksperch, Lady of Mordwynn)
- Alnitak Wintersblood (Married Marie Morasof, Lady of Dawnsmarch)
- Ingjald Talvelson (Married Idolaf Talvelson, Lord Provost of Talvel's Point)
- House Wintersblood of Talvel's Point
- Sir Kristan Wintersblood
- Sir Olfrid Wintersblood
- Sir Ivarr Wintersblood
- Varg Wintersblood
- Ingjald Talvelson (Married Idolaf Talvelson, Lord Provost of Talvel's Point)
- Sir Jon Wintersblood
- House Jonsson of Frostern
- Alfhild Aesmann (Married Fingal Aesmann, Earl of Streamwood)
- House Aesmann of Dun Fur
- Alnitak Wintersblood (Married Marie Morasof, Lady of Dawnsmarch)
Notable Relatives
The Emperor Doughtaticus III of House Dragorlan - First cousins through his mother, Bernadette, being sisters with the Emperor's mother, Margarethe.
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