Roderick Reyne

So, you want to hear my story, eh? The story of a broken lord. Aye, it’s quite the tale.

It begins more than two hundred years ago, when my house was still alive and the name Reyne was more than just some words in a song. Back then it wasn’t the Lannisters and the Starks who were tearing at each other’s throats. They’re calling it the war of the five kings. A conflict I have no part in and I want it to remain that way. I’ve had my fair share of fighting.

Do you believe in life after death? That, when you leave this world, you’re gone for good? That you spend the rest of eternity in paradise? I don’t want to disappoint you, but it isn’t like that. Let’s just say it’s not something you’d want to experience for yourself. I did and I came back. Aye, I still remember the day I died like it was yesterday.

I was fighting in a dumb war, trying to place a Targaryen’s arse on the iron throne. I was young, fierce and stupid. In the end, it got me killed. The war in which I fought was the dance of the dragons. My house sided with the greens. We fought for Aegon II Targaryen, although you might know him as Aegon the Usurper. So, how’d I die? We were fighting by the Lakeshore. I was stabbed through the gut with a lance by a charging horseman. I can still recall how the bastard looked and the pain that shot of that iron head piercing my chainmail and ripping its way through my chest.

I was the lord of one of the richest houses in Westeros. We were respected and praised. Now, our home is nothing but a ruin, a pile of fucking stones. And my name? It faded from people’s memories. Now, the name Reyne is merely a trophy of Tywin Lannister’s military achievements.

After the battle by the Lakeshore, I was found by a woman. One of those red priestesses that follow the Red God and spout religious nonsense. She’s the reason I’m alive. Somehow she brought me back to life. But, she did much more than just that. As I’ve already said, I died more than two hundred years ago. She gave me the gift or the curse, if you’d prefer, of eternal life. She herself is also immortal and we’ve spent the last two centuries in each other’s company.

Being unable to die does have a few bad sides. After my supposed death, I went into hiding. I stopped using my family name and became a sellsword. I had to watch my family deteriorate from the shadows. I sat back idly when my family was murdered by Tywin fucking Lannister.

My family was slaughtered. No one was spared. Their bodies were hung from the gates of Casterly Rock, left to rot for the entire summer. Westeros thinks the Reynes are extinct, killed by the ‘Old Lion’, but as long as I’m still breathing my house will never truly die. I will not rest until Lannister blood is dripping from the tips of my fingers.