Appearance & Personality[]
At first glance, the Lord of Harenhall is a hard, casually cruel man who tries to assert his own cynical view of the world onto others. To those who know him better, Gareth is a realist that does not allow circumstance or belief to stand in the way of truth. His opinions are objective, and he does not bother to dance around delicate sensibilities.
Towering at six feet and three inches with Greyscale making the bottom part of a mask across his face and nose, Gareth brings an aura of awe and hush to a room. While always having a somewhat hard and stony expression, the ravages of his disease have made it entirely literal. Many might mistake him for a monster, but his green eyes still glimmer with intelligence and he speaks as a man of noble birth.
Despite his ailment - or perhaps because of it - Gareth has a sanguinous, devil-may-care attitude about most things. He cracks dark jokes and even feeds the rumors about the curse that afflicts him. The world is his to laugh at, and he finds something to enjoy in every gloomy day that unavoidably falls upon the cursed keep of Harenall.
Unlike his direct approach in conversation, tactically, he finds diversions and indirect ambushes to be more effective. Some may call him dishonorable for the way he wages war, but never the wives of the men that return home, and certainly not the dead fools that thought to cross him.
Interests and Hobbies[]
Gareth enjoys riding and doing whatever he can to escape the gloom of Harenhall.
He hawks, hunts, and enjoys a good game of Cyvasse. Gareth also dabbles in numbers and figures, able to manage the books of his and other households, their businesses, etc.
Rumors and Sayings[]
Though respected in the Riverlands, in other regions, smallfolk often refer to the Lord of Harenall as some variation of "Gargoyle."
During a blood moon, Lothston is said to turn into a great, winged bat and hunt down Aegon's remaining bastards. They say he devours them whole.
When his children are quarreling, he tells them to kiss and make up. If they refuse, he'll threaten them with his own kiss to be sure they never fight again.
Folk say that Seven punished Lady Stokeworth's indiscretions with Aegon by cursing her son with Greyscale. They also say that Gareth redeemed her of those sins by murdering the bastards he found. If he would but burn Jeyne Stokeworth - his half-sister - the Greyscale would vanish entirely.
Gareth Lothston may or may not believe the smallfolk's sayings are a load of dragon shit.
History[]
155 AC - A guard discovers Felena Stokeworth and Aegon sleeping together.
162 AC - After acts of infidelity continue with Aegon and other men, Lucas Lothston locks Felena up and forces an heir out of her that he can recognize publicly as his own.
163 AC - Gareth is born to Lucas Lothston and Felena Stokeworth. Jeyene Stokeworth, an acknowledged bastard of Aegon's, comes to live at Harrenhall.
173 AC - Gareth begins squiring for Dorayne Ryger, a knight of some renown in the Riverlands.
175 AC - Lucas Lothston makes a deal that promises Gareth to Sylvia Smallwood.
180 AC - Gareth and Sylvia are wed.
181 AC - Their firstborn son, Jorah, is born.
182 AC - Sylvia and Gareth have a daughter, Merella.
186 AC - Lucas Lothston is struck down by agent's of the red dragon's forces (or so Gareth believes). By some twist of fate, Gareth contracts Greyscale and attributes the cause to a rotting corpse. His Greyscale does not progress much during the war.
187AC - The war is finished. Gareth buries his father's bones and tries to restore what house Lothston can recover. Sylvia and Gareth have another son, Gerold.
190 AC - Terrors from the war linger upon Gareth's mind, and the strain causes the Greyscale to spread. It's now grown beyond his shoulders and up around the bottom of his face. His family fears that he'll go mad or die. Near Seventy, Lady Stokeworth dies in her sleep.
191 AC - As tough as he is stubborn, Gareth's Greyscale has seemingly stopped growing. The man's demeanor has taken an upward swing, giving him a more sanguine humor than before. Gareth makes a name for himself outside of war as a fair, though exacting man. He assists businesses in his domain, aids local farming efforts, and sees to it that men who fought at his side during the recent uprising are well rewarded. His troops become some of the most well-provisioned and well-trained in the Riverlands.
195 AC - Gareth's wife, no longer occupied by the need to bear children (and perhaps too afraid to touch her husband, besides) and their eldest son have begun work on restoring Harrenhall to its former glory. Their youngest is off squiring. Jeyene Stokeworth remains at Harenhall, though any sons of Aegon's that Gareth knew of were either relocated in secret or killed quietly. Some folks say that Gareth burned them alive, and that's what stopped the Greyscale; killing the would-be traitors pleased the gods.
Present Day - Gareth and his retinue arrive in King's Landing to celebrate the new King's Ascension.
Family[]
Wife - Sylvia Smallwood
Son - Jorah Lothston
Daughter - Merella Lothston
Son - Gerold Lothston