History Characters / AlysanneLadyOfWinterfell

* ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections: Unwittingly. In the first months of her training, the guards go easy on her because they don't want to anger her brother. When Derryk is sent away to Stonedance, however...

[[folder:Lady Darklyn]]

* FridgeHorror: [[invoked]] When he throws a tantrum demands for Jonquil to be raised in Dun Fort, he shouts at his mother that he doesn't have any other siblings and threatens to stop eating unless Jonquil is allowed to stay. Later, looking back, he realizes it was a ''lot'' harsher for his mother to hear than he thought, since Lady Darklyn had lost several infant children and always feared for Derryk's health as a result.

* PretendingToBeOnesOwnRelative: In the last year of Maegor's reign, she posed as her own sister-in-law several times to save the latter from being chosen as a Black Bride.

Alysanne's fiercely loyal sworn shield, half-sister to Derryk Darklyn.

!! House Darke
[[folder:Lady Jonquil Darke]]
Alysanne's fiercely loyal sworn shield.
* ActionGirl: As per canon, she is an excellent fighter.
* AllThereInTheManual: There is a prequel which details her backstory.
* BigBrotherWorship: She has practically idolized her half-brother Derryk since birth, considering he is the only one in Dun Fort who has always treated her with love and care. After they grew up, she became less blind to his flaws but remained absolutely devoted to him.
* ConflictingLoyalty: She had to choose between staying with her beloved family and going to protect Alysanne for the good of the realm.
* ImprobableAge: Played with. She is made a junior captain in Dun Fort's guard at thirteen. However, her father does it out of concern for her safety, wanting her to get well-acquainted with the servants and smallfolk in case she needs to quickly escape from the castle.
* MoralityPet: She used to be one for her brother Derryk when he was little, since he was a major SpoiledBrat and she was the only one around whom he became caring and responsible.
* ParentalNeglect: Her mother [[MissingMom died soon after she was born]]. Meanwhile, her father didn't pay her much attention and her stepmother only tolerated her for Derryk's sake (until Jonquil saved her father's life, that is).
* RedIsHeroic: As mentioned in canon, she has a suit of ceremonial armor which is "as scarlet as the setting sun", in Alarra's words.
* PretendingToBeOnesOwnRelative: In the last year of Maegor's reign, she posed as her own sister-in-law several times to save the latter from being chosen as a Black Bride.
* StealthExpert: Before she began her training in arms, she developed excellent spying skills which she still puts to use on occasion.

!! The Faith of the Seven
[[folder:High Septon (Lemmar Hightower)]]
The High Septon who holds the position at the start of the story.
* AdaptationalVillainy: He does it InUniverse to ''himself'' while he's thinking up the plot of ''The Royal Penance''. The play!High Septon is a ruthless KnightTemplar who makes the heroine climb the highest mountain as penance for incest, separates her children from her and makes them join the begging brothers. The actual High Septon's most harsh suggestion was for Alysanne to join the septas or silent sisters, and he took that back precisely because she reminded him she had three small children to care for.
* HiddenDepths: Turns out to be quite an expert on theatre.
* KnightTemplar: Unlike his own counterpart from the play, he is a downplayed version. He does push Alysanne to get married again to someone not related to her, but his scenes show he genuinely wants what's best for the realm and the people and is very sorry for Alysanne and her children (or at least is polite enough to act like he is).

[[folder:Septa Rhaella]]
Alysanne's cousin, a septa in Oldtown.
* CowardlyLion: She is timid and fearful, but offers to become one of a new group of WalkingTheEarth Seven Speakers, if sending them out is what's needed to [[spoiler:secure Aemon's claim on the throne]].
* OrSoIHeard: She says that the plays performed in Oldtown end with a magnificent grand finale, and immediately adds that it's what she's been told and that she wouldn't dream of attending one.
* ShrinkingViolet: As in canon, she is extremely shy with everyone save for Alysanne, the High Septon, and the septa who tutors her.
* StutterStop: She stammers all the time, except when she talks to the few people she really trusts.

[[folder:Elinor Costayne]]
Previously one of Maegor's Black Brides, later one of the Seven Speakers who defended the legitimacy of Jaehaerys's marriage to Alysanne.
* GoodParents: Even though King's Landing is a place full of terrible memories for her, she stayed there for her youngest son's sake. She only decides to move to Lannisport after her son leaves for the Reach to become a squire.
* MissingMom: She has been forced to stay away from her eldest son for so long that he barely remembers her.
* TakingTheVeil: She decides to take vows in a motherhouse in Lannisport.
* YoungerThanTheyLook: She has a wrinkled face despite only being in her thirties.

!! The Sunflowers
One of the theatre troupes invited to stage ''The Royal Penance'', whose rehearsals Alarra attends.
[[folder:Myribeth]]
The playwright and leading actress, born on Oakenshield.
* AffectionateNickname: She is Myrie to friends.
* TheChainsOfCommanding: She is finding it extremely tough to lead a theatre troupe; thanks to the Sunflowers' uncertain future, she is almost constantly on edge.
* DawsonCasting: She is middle-aged and plays an {{Expy}} of Alysanne, who is supposed to be in her mid-twenties at most. Her thoughts reveal there is simply no one else in the troupe able to be a leading lady. [[invoked]]
* FollowInMyFootsteps: She wants Brennan to be a mummer, though he has little acting ability and dreams of becoming a sailor.
* HiddenHeartOfGold: She has [[HairTriggerTemper quite the temper]], but a kind heart beneath it all. It's gradually revealed that, despite the Sunflowers' constantly precarious financial standing, she adopted Brennan after he was orphaned, allowed Obella to stay in the troupe after she got pregnant and gave birth to Garnet, and let Ellara and Melara join the troupe after the girls were orphaned (and, in Melara's case, widowed), even though they are terrible actresses.
* IWasQuiteALooker: She used to be very pretty when she started acting, but more than twenty years of a traveling mummer's life had taken their toll, and she is aware she'll soon be unable to portray the beautiful main characters.
* ImproperlyParanoid: She is wary about trusting Alysanne, thinking that she uses the women's courts to gain information that can be used against the women later. Alysanne has no such designs.
* {{Nepotism}}: She tries to defy it so furiously that she goes straight to [[AbusiveParents the opposite extreme]], constantly yelling at and belittling Brennan at the rehearsals and claiming he can do nothing right.
* NiceCharacterMeanActor: Downplayed. She plays a gentle virtous queen but is quite an unpleasant person offstage. However, a lot of it comes from the strain she has to bear rather than genuine nastiness.

[[folder:Garris]]
An orphan of the Greenblood, specializing in villains.
* HonoraryUncle: "Uncle Garris" to Garnet.
* IronyAsHeIsCast: InUniverse. In the production of ''The Royal Penance'', he plays the High Septon. The orphans of the Greenblood very pointedly refuse to accept the Faith of the Seven.
* MasterActor: Easily the most gifted of the Sunflowers. Only Obella gets as much praise from other characters, and her acting is hindered by her inability to play romantic leads ([[DarkAndTroubledPast for no fault of her own]]).
* MeanCharacterNiceActor: He is an honest, reliable and kind CoolOldGuy with a knack for playing terrifying villains.
* SupremeChef: His cooking wouldn't look out of place on a high lord's table, in Myribeth's opinion.

[[folder:Brennan]]
A Lyseni orphan and adopted child of Myribeth.
* CrosscastRole: InUniverse. He used to play girls occasionally before his voice broke, and after [[spoiler:Ellara is traumatized and unable to act]], he gets cast as the crackling-voiced Crone.
* TheDutifulSon: He stays in the Sunflowers, despite having no interest in acting and no talent for it, because he feels deeply indebted to Myribeth for taking him in. He plans to leave and become a sailor only when he's certain Myribeth won't want for anything.
* UnderageCasting: InUniverse. He is a teenage boy playing twenty-six-year-old {{Expy}} of Jaehaerys in ''The Royal Penance''. Since the king in the play gets an early PlotTriggeringDeath, Myribeth deliberately gave the part to Brennan; it's his first speaking role.

[[folder:Obella]]
A dancer from Sandstone.
* EnsembleDarkHorse: InUniverse. She plays the minor part of the Mother, but Alysanne thinks she is the best among the Sunflowers.
* HypotheticalCasting: InUniverse. Alysanne thinks she would be much better at playing the queen than Myribeth.
* IronyAsSheIsCast: Absolutely nails the role of the Mother, but has a troubled relationship with her own daughter. [[invoked]]
* MaternityCrisis: Gave birth to Garnet in the Sunflowers' cart when it was on the road.
* MyBelovedSmother: She is overprotective towards Garnet, who, in turn, resents it.
* ParentsAsPeople: She loves her daughter but, it's implied, struggles to keep a close relationship with her.
* RapeAsBackstory: She was raped twelve years earlier and still hasn't fully recovered, considering ThereAreNoTherapists in Westeros. Even Myribeth, who is generally sympathetic towards her, views her trauma as a pesky reason why Obella can't succeed her as the Sunflowers' leading lady.

[[folder:Garnet]]
Obella's daughter.
* ChildByRape: She was conceived when her mother was raped by an ironborn.
* ConvertingForLove: In a platonic version, she is so close to her ParentalSubstitute Garris that she converted to the Rhoynish faith when she was eight.
* CrosscastRole: At the start of the fanfic, since she is eleven years old, very slim and has a deep voice, she plays boys. [[invoked]]
* SweetTooth: She's very fond of sweetmeats.

[[folder:Caleotte]]
A handsome Reachman.
* IgnoreTheFanservice: He pays no attention to the numerous hopeful girls who try to make his acquaintance.
* ImpliedLoveInterest: Alarra thinks he is in a relationship with Myribeth – she is strangely mild towards him (and since he is young, handsome, and healthy, it can't be out of pity like in Ellara's case or out of respect for old age and experience like in Garris's case), and he never shows any interest in his fangirls.
* MrFanservice: He is drop-dead gorgeous, graceful and tall, with a beautiful voice, and is always smartly-dressed. Many girls in the audience swoon over him.
* TheQuietOne: He is strangely reclusive and is rarely seen anywhere except the stage and the Sunflowers' cart.
* SuperSenses: He has excellent hearing, which Jonquil finds out when she's sent to spy on him.

Alysanne's loyal sworn shield.

* AllThereInTheManual: There is a midquel which details her backstory.

* MarriageBeforeRomance: She enters her second marriage without any romantic feelings for Alaric (unlike Alaric himself). As time passes, she gradually becomes fonder of him.

* OCStandIn: Whoever the master of whisperers under Jaehaerys was, he/she has so far never been described in canon.

* GreenEyedEpiphany: For the first time, she admits to herslef she might have fallen in love with Alaric after she fears he has grown too friendly with Florence Fossoway.

The one actually doing the master of coin's work.

* WiseBeyondTheirYears: An able master of laws, despite being appointed at fifteen.

* PushedInFrontOfTheAudience: When Ellara fails to show up for the Sunflowers' premiere of ''The Royal Penance'', Alarra offers to play the Maiden herself instead. Since the audience consists of her father, stepmother, siblings and Jonquil Darke, she is allowed to do so.

* CrosscastRole: InUniverse. Since she is eleven years old, very slim and has a deep voice, she plays boys.

* ConvertingForLove: In a platonic version, she is so close to her ParentalSubstitute Garris that she converts to the Rhoynish faith.