I was born to a close family in Oldtown. The second of 5 kids, I was the first girl. I had one older brother, Thaddeus. Growing up, we would follow our father around as he worked as a port master, half paying attention, and half goofing off behind him. Thaddeus and I were only a year and a half apart in age, so I was his little shadow, wanting to do everything he did. He was a clever boy, learning to read at a young age, and I learned right along with him. As my father was a successful port master, we were able to buy books from local traders and as shipments came in, we were able to steal a few books along the way.

Growing up in Oldtown, Maesters are a large part of daily life. Thaddeus, around 10 years old, declared he intended to be one. He started reading more scholarly books and taught me about the old religions and some initial healing. We would help the sailors traveling through the port with their rope burn or any minor cuts, beginning to develop a skill for the art of healing. At age 11, Thaddeus entered the Citadel as a novice. It took him until age 12 to gain his first chain (made of black iron, for ravenry) and thus, became an acolyte.

I would visit with him in secret and he would teach me all he was learning from the old maesters. After he had his first black iron chain, he entered study under a new maester, working on his iron chain for warcraft. This new maester, Daman Blacktyde, was hard on my brother. And my brother was waining in interest on the new warfare studies. He would get in trouble for not paying attention during lecture and Maester Blacktyde was very rough on Thaddeus. As is often the case for acolytes, he would beat Thaddeus when he was caught being inattentive. One day, as Thaddeus and another acolyte were goofing off in lecture, as he tended to do, they got up to leave and Thaddeus slipped on the stone stairs and fell. He hit his head on the ledge of the bottom stair and crumpled. He was alive, but would not wake. We brought him back to the family home quickly to attempt to mend him.

We kept Thaddeus alive for a few weeks, but he never awakened and passed away in his long slumber. With this tragedy, my family gathered together and found strength in each other. As I was yet young at 11 years old, and similar in stature and looks to my brother, I decided that I was going to attempt to carry on his studies. My father had but the one son, so I was to carry on the path of my older brother. We took time to figure out how to dress me to be most like Thaddeus. I practiced his mannerisms and way to speaking. And within two months, I returned to the Citidel to resume his study.

I found that Thaddeus had done a decent job keeping me informed of his current lessons! I had missed too much on the warfare chain, and wanted to avoid the abusive Maester Blacktyde, so I took pause on his iron chain and continued to work on my other links.

As the years passed and I became more and more knowledgable, hiding who I was became slightly difficult as I was going through my womanly changes. Thank goodness the maester robes are so forgiving, I was able to hide my banging bod under the awful outfit. I became accustomed to lowering my voice, but was so thankful to be able to be myself around my family, though I had to be prepared to slip into Thaddeus’ role at a moments notice if family friends came by. We had told people that I, Belinda, had run off and married a low born farm boy and we had all disowned me as he was a horrible fit. Thankfully, as Thaddeus had been away at the Citidel for a few years, I was able to assume his role within the social circle and no one seemed to question it.

As my studies continued, I had grown very opinionated on a few topics. I had abandoned the Faith of the Seven and became athiest, along with many of my fellow acolytes. I had heard of the dealings at Slavers Bay and was very against the treatment of any humans as property. As a woman with limited options in life, I feel very strongly that in everything I do, I should work towards creating more chances for women and in my heart of hearts, I hope to one day be able to serve my family as maester, not as Thaddeus, but as Belinda. I am anti-war and believe that blood shed for the sake of men’s egos is a waste of life. I took on healing and medicine as my favorite and longest studied chain. I loved my time learning how to help those who need it and became very comfortable with using herbal remedies and micro-dosing poisons to help rather than hurt.

I have always loved listening in and paying attention to those around me. I am perceptive by nature (except when I roll the dice poorly), and like to talk to others about the current scuttlebutt. I joined House Jasper recently and hope to make in-roads with the family and be an integral part to the going-ons of the house.