Historical Spotlight: Ser Helena Darlynton (689pb-748pb)

She stood nearly six feet in height, long brown hair cascading from her head and sticking out of the bottom of her closed helm. The image made Romidor think of a wild creature bursting from its clothes, like the stories of werewolves that the governess would tell him before bed. In a choice between the wolves in the stories and the woman in front of him, the prince thought he'd have better odds with the wolves - at least wolves didn't wield hammers.

Ser Helena Darlynton, known amongst the tourney circuit as "The Bear of Crosser's County", was a knight and lady paramount of Crosser's County during the reign of King Gregor the Third and his grandson King Romidor the Golden. She was a tall and muscular woman with long, curly brown hair and hazel eyes - one of which was blinded later in life by a bear claw during a hunt. She sat the family seat at Aureswind after the death of her father, Lord Roderick and took the position of Sword of the Forests in both King Gregor and King Romidor's Council of Swords.

Ser Helena took the position of Sword of the Forests at only seventeen years of age. Her father's death, which is believed to have been related to a complication of the appendix, was sudden and unexpected, leaving Ser Helena and her twin brother Ronald to pick up the pieces of their house. Their mother had already passed when they were children, leaving the pair truly alone in the world. Raised by a father who valued statescraft and diplomacy, Lord Ronald took to the art of politics like a duck to water - though the same cannot be said for his sister Helena, who much favoured the teachings of her knight-master Ser Jason Whitecliff. Ser Jason Whitecliff was a rugged man from a rugged coastline, a knight of thirty-five at the time of Ser Helena's squirehood. He had spent much of his knighthood putting down peasant revolts during The Black Summer, a drought so terrible that much of Oakenshire and Rider's Ruin's peatland burned for weeks on end, and so had become disillusioned in a world of shining armour and chivalric combat. Additionally, Ser Jason had been a vital commander during the Defiance of House Krane - a failed rebellion to free Rider's Ruin from Cornayan influence - and had been one of the lords present for the signing of the peace accords by Lord Glyn Holton. Despite his sullen nature, Helena thrived under his tutorship - becoming a talented combatant with the traditional polehammer associated with the Stone Coast and a fierce contender in mounted sports. Whilst she trained away, Lord Ronald worked to run his family home - often being overlooked by history as the weaker of the twins, despite his talent with quill and budget.

Upon her knighthood, Ser Helena immediately took to the tourney circuit - winning almost every tourney in the realm for the first three years of her knighthood. She is noted to have been a favourite of nobility and commonfolk alike, he dashing good looks and her skill on and off horseback proving to make her the favoured contender in almost every game. The only place she truly lacked was in the realm of courtesy and manners, with her brash and often argumentative nature causing its fair share of arguments at the feasts and celebrations to which she was obliged to attend. Ser Helena would take great pleasure in causing arguments and disagreements in the nobility of such affairs, most notably her utter disdain for Ser Albert Silver, the famed head of the throneguard, whom she would unsuccessfully try countless times to goad into losing his composure and honour for the sport of it.

When the infamous Tourney at Bearsport occurred in 723 PB, Ser Helena Darlynton faced off against a disguised knight errant in the single melees in what should have been an easy victory of Ser Helena - in reality the fight went on for much longer than expected and, though Ser Helena took the victory in the end, the knight was revealed to in fact be the realm's future king Romidor. Prince Romidor, against the wishes of his grandfather, who feared the loss of his heir in the wake of his son's death, had disguised himself to enter the tourney at Bearsport and made his way through the brackets by his skill with a spear instead of his royal protection - something that Ser Helena greatly respected. The two would form a solid friendship from this day onwards, a friendship that would be vital to the future of the realm.

Throughout the reign of King Gregor the Third, rumours and whispers of a rebellion to place Lady Gwendolyn Starwick on the throne had spread like the fires of the Black Summer itself - the king's incompetence and declining health had many Starwick insurrectionists longing for the Lady of Easthold to take the throne. Lady Gwendolyn Starwick was a cunning woman, a talented politician and a well-connected noble - she had married the younger Asterland brother, Lord Thomelin, and had three strong children to the Starwick name. To many people in the realm, Lady Gwendolyn represented a return to form for the Cornayan throne - a return to the Cornay royal line and a time people looked back on as a period of great strength rather than the weakness of King Gregor the Third. When King Romidor the Golden was coronated, the realm was largely divided on whether he would prove to be a good king or if the throne would be better in Starwick's hands.

At the same time that Romidor the Golden was being named as king of Cornay, political insurrection was already occurring amongst the Council of Swords, with Lords Warren and Holton being convinced of the strength of their Sword of the Sky as the rightful replacement to the throne. After being approached by Lord Boros Warren, then the sword of the rivers, with the council's plans of insurrections, Ser Helena would refuse to take part in open rebellion and instead reported the brewing trouble directly to King Romidor. Sensing their options rapidly running out, Lady Gwendolyn would offer the new King the option to forgo a violent, long war and instead take part in a trial by combat for the throne. Lord Boros Warren would suggest his own son, Ser Killian, as Lady Gwendolyn's champion - a dangerous threat for any champion of King Romidor - but the knight was unreachable in time. Instead, Lady Gwendolyn put forward her sister and a member of the throneguard as her champion - Ser Jenna Starwick. Ser Jenna was not openly a supporter of her sister's insurrection; she was, in fact, one of the voices against the idea of removing King Romdior from power. Despite her personal feelings, her loyalty to her sister was ultimately what called her to act as her champion. The Starwick knight was known to be a great knight, though her reputation was one of action over thought - many times her knight commander, Ser Albert Silver, would reprimand her for abandoning her duties to aid the commonfolk at the Skyhold or for being rumoured to be shirking her vows of celibacy for her lover and fellow thronesguard, Ser Kelin Snakebite.

Representing King Romidor was, of course, Ser Helena Darlynton. A knight of thirty-four at the time, Ser Helena was out of her prime as a fighter but still outmatched many in the nation. The fight between "The Bear of Crosser's County" and the Starwick thronesguard would be an incredibly intense one, leading to the cracking of the paving stone at The Skyhold's balcony gardens, which remains to this day. Starwick would shatter Darlynton's shoulder with her flail near the end of the duel, causing Darlynton to abandon their polehammer and tackle Starwick at the waist. It is noted that Ser Kelin Snakebite had called for Lady Gwendolyn to yield on behalf of her champion around this time, though the Lady of House Starwick would do no such thing. King Romidor had also offered the same mercy at this time, but the calls for an end to the bloodshed had fallen on deaf ears. After a bout of wrestling over Ser Helena's rondel dagger, Darlynton managed to slip the blade through the visor of Starwick's helm and killed the throneguard with a series of brutal stabs.

The trial was concluded, and Lady Gwendolyn had accepted her fate as a traitor; the usual punishment would be execution by beheading. Instead, King Romidor would restore Lady Gwendolyn to the position of Sword of the Sky - proclaiming "What is the sky without both Suns and Stars?" Additionally, King Romidor would strip Lord Boros Warren of his position of Sword of the Rivers and instead instate Lord Harinor Asterland - Lady Gwendolyn's brother-in-law.

With her shoulder damaged, Ser Helena's fighting days were ended. She was named Sword of the Forests once more for King Romidor and instead spent her elderly years hunting and feasting whilst her brother Ronald sat in her stead. She would surprise the realm by marrying Lord Willem Graves, who, in the days of Ser Helena's tourney successes, was considered one of the realm's weakest nobles both physically and politically. The relationship would result in no children, with future Darlyntons being of Lord Ronald's descent rather than Lady Helena. "The Bear of Crosser's County" would die in 748 PB, at the age of fifty-nine, due to a hunting accident in the forests of Aureswind. She would be shot through the neck by a stray arrow from one of her hunting party, though the individual who fired the arrow would never be identified. Some rumour this was revenge for ending the Starwick revolt early or an assassination by an unhappy vassal, but no evidence to support these claims has ever been found.

Ser Helena is looked back on as one of the realm's great warriors, with many young squires claiming she is a hero to be looked up to. It is common for young nobles to name their horses or their favourite toys after the Darlynton knight, her legacy is one of an archetypal heroic tourney knight rather than the complex and often brash individual she likely was. Her brother Lord Ronald would fund the construction of a small walled garden within the hunting forest to memorialise Ser Helena after her death, a garden where Lady Georgina Darlynton and Lord Bill Mudwood would spend many of their summer days in the present day.