Marston Forrester

Marston Forrester is the current Lord of Ironrath. He is a cousin to Teora Stark and Dacey Mormont.

Biography
Since the birth of Roderick Forrester in 150 AC, one could never say that the Forrester household was a content or happy one. Ever a malaise of tension hung about as the Whitehill-Forrester feud occupied their minds. For Roderick, it was all that he could think about and when he took the reigns of the Lordship he devoted his time and energy to ending the feud one way or another, often stopped by his liege lords. This was the environment that Marston was born into, the son of Eddard a brother of Roderick. For the couple, Maege Reed and Eddard, the birth was a happy one. They had been trying for a child without luck for some time and Marston came out a healthy robust child. Yet it seemed as if their child would be stolen away from them by Eddard's brother.

Roderick has not been able to have an heir and saw in Marston a child who he could mold to hate the Whitehills just as much as he could if not more. And so it was that Marston even at a young age was taken under the wing of the Lord of Ironrath. Perhaps they were made for each other, the perceived change in guardianship left Marston feeling betrayed by his parents and Roderick felt alone in his hatred. To be sure other members of House Forrester shared some animosity towards the Whitehills who they had been feuding with for some time, but even they recognized the bounds that the feudal contract held with the Glovers and the Starks limited their actions. The relationship between the two was not a healthy one, however. To add to the betrayed feelings towards his parents that Marston felt, Roderick made sure that the other children avoided him by either spreading petty rumors or keeping him away from them. This sense of isolation only entrenched the dependence of the young Marston on his new father figure. To add the frosting on the cake Roderick had Marston's father lead a raid into Whitehill territory which led to him being killed. While never close with his father this only served to isolate Marston more and fuel his hatred of the Whitehills though there lay some evidence that Roderick knew that the raid was going to fail and it served as a way to get a vocal opponent of his insanity out of the way. With all these pieces in place, it seemed time for the molding and training of Marston to begin.

Though training would be overly generous to call it that. Roderick spent hours upon hours exercising, making Marston do servants' tasks, and having him face-first in books to learn numbers and how to rule. The exercising was like training a pet, and when his performance was not up to the standards of Roderick Marston was beat or made to do humiliating tasks. Those, including serving the rest of the household, was meant as a strange object lesson of the humiliation that House Whitehill had reaped upon the Forresters for so many years. It did have the effect of deeply burning into Marston's mind of a hatred towards his uncle and the Whitehills. The worst of it occurred when any martial training would occur. Marston was not the best built for combat, strong but not quick and sturdy if not agile. Regardless Roderick seemed fixated on molding Marston into the model warrior and would spar with him personally despite their size and age difference. Beating after beating occurred, leaving the young child scarred mentally and physically. Perhaps if there was any consolation Marston watched as the man who abused him ran further down into madness, still not succeeding in having an heir of his own with his Whitehill wife. Eventually, the Whitehill would die, the worst kept secret in the castle and Roderick would marry a Manderly and have a parcel of daughters by her.

Perhaps it was sick fate that Roderick would not have a son of his own, or at least that proved the thoughts of Marston. Intent on both spiting his daughters and securing the rule of House Forrester with someone that he trusted would take the feud seriously he made Marston and Serena, his eldest daughter, marry. Through talking with his new wife Marston would realize that he was not the only one in the household that Roderick abused. If it had only been him perhaps he could have stomached it, but Marston found a new hyper fixation. With a gusto not normally about, Marston would take his surrogate father on a hunting trip deep into the Wolfswood. No one really knows what happened there, for Marston would always say that he did not want to remember such an event, but the story went that Roderick was mauled by wolves and Marston was unable to save him. Perhaps such an event would have shaken the fixation on the feud from other people but for Marston it only intensified it. He saw it as the reason for the abuse that he and his family had undergone, if House Whitehill were gone then Roderick would have no reason to delve into insanity as he did. Something needed to be done but Marston was willing to play the long game unlike Roderick and finish this well. A moment of happiness in Marston's life, one of his first was the birth of his son. He promised himself that he wouldn't be anything like his father or his uncle in raising him.

He would break the cycle once and for all.

Family tree
FamilyEcho

Timeline
183 AC - Marston Forrester is born to Maege Reed and Eddard Forrester

208 AC - Married between Marston and Serena

210 AC - Marston and Serena have their child which they name Rickon

215 AC - Marston travels to Harrenhal