♛ → THE RIVERLANDS presents BENJICOT BLACKWOOD/BLOODY BEN, the RULING LORD of RAVENTREE HALL/MASTER OF WAR. when the dragons danced in the sky they thought THE BLACKS would still fly, but in the blink of an eye, they would all die. the TWENTY-FIVE year old MALE who was PLAYFUL & COURAGEOUS before they saw the first of the flames, is now ABRASIVE & ROWDY after seeing the last. they’re often associated with the sound of metal upon metal, fields of red, the feelings hundreds of eyes upon you in the forest ( archie renaux. )
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tws: war, death, violence
history.
one
it was a shock to the riverlands when the widowed samwell blackwood announced his second marriage, a scandalous elopement to a dornish woman of house allyrion that took place not long after the death of his first wife. of benjicot’s mother, very little is said, nowadays - she did not cope well with the rumours that swirled about her marriage, and so, spent most of the rest of her life in raventree hall, where not a year after her wedding, a son was born, the first trueborn son and heir of the blackwood lordship, despite being the third of samwell's children.
of those who remember the second lady blackwood, most say she was kind. for benjicot’s part, he remembers her as such, but sensitive, so much so that he struggles to recall a time where she did not have tears in her eyes. he remembers clutching her silk skirts, the smell of her, the lullabies sung to him in a language none else in the riverlands spoke, but little else perhaps if she had lived longer, he would have more happy memories with his mother, but she did not. at four years old, a fall from a horse causing an injury that led to an infection, an infection that led to her death. this, ben recalls clearly, being a small child at his mother's bedside, watching her slip away.
his earliest memory of his father was after his mother’s funeral. samwell came to his tearful son, and the young ben expected words of comfort, for that was what his mother would have offered him - but what followed was a harsh example of the expectations his father would set for him. and from that moment, ben resolved to never been seen as sensitive again, for that was to be seen as weak.
from that point on, contact with his father was limited, samwell’s looming expectations felt primarily by his absence from ben’s life, his lack of interest in his true born heir. another wife followed ben’s mother, two more sons of house blackwood born, and still, samwell showed little but apathy for ben - until the dance broke, and it became apparent the blackwoods would need to pick a side. perhaps samwell knew what was to come, or perhaps he was just preparing for a likely inevitability, but when ben was a young boy, he was called to his father’s solar, and entrusted with a task a child of his age could not comprehend - if samwell were to perish, willow wylde was not to get her hands on raventree hall. her family had declared for the greens, and samwell would not see his legacy fall into the hands of the enemy. a few weeks later, he was dead.
two
the eleven-year-old ben, suddenly ruling lord in a time of war, made the only decision he was sure his father would have approved of, one somebody should have stepped in to stop him making, and ended his childhood then and there. from now on, he was a soldier, and so he dressed himself in armour that a smith had to hastily make to fit his stature, and picked up a sword, and, before he had even reached his teenage years, benjicot blackwood rode to battle.
his father’s wishes at the forefront of his mind, ben placed his elder sister, agnes, still a girl herself, as regent of raventree hall, something his stepmother took as a grave insult.
on the battlefield, ben found a talent with a blade, an innate skill at warfare that made him a fierce soldier. though many were reluctant to follow a boy, a child, at first, he soon won them over, making a name for himself for his capabilities - and with notoriety came a name that stuck to him, one he still carries to this day : bloody ben.
the blackwoods carry magic in their bloodline, the sole practitioners of the faith of the old gods in the riverlands, but ben has always doubted that such power exists in him - however, it does. he has always been an incredibly intuitive boy, often plagued by a sense of deja-vu, always a able to see what is coming a few seconds before it is able to happen. he is no seer, nor greenseer, but he does have a very, very weak gift of premonition, a foresight that told him in the heat of battle when to duck, when to swing, that gave him a unique feeling of what the enemy might do. it isn’t enough for him to believe there’s anything special about him, beyond an uncanny gut instinct - but it is there.
it is said that, after his first battle was fought and won, bloody ben looked upon the dead and wept. the bards would make much of the story, using it as a symbol of the tragedy of war, often holding it as a noble action that showed the boy possessed both bravery and compassion, but ben views things quite differently. he hates being reminded that it happened - for to him, it is his greatest shame.
three
the war was over, and now a man in every sense of the word, ben returned to raventree hall, and tried to settle into a life of peace in the newly-created kingdom of the riverlands, his tully cousins leading their homeland into a new era. in times of peace, it soon became clear that though he was an incredible, formidable commander, bloody ben was not suited to the life of a lord. perhaps it should have been expected, that a boy who became a man in the camps of war, surrounded by men who live each day as their last, would not adapt well to peace. chaos and bloodshed is all ben has ever known, his battle-hardened mind constantly attuned to the need to strike back, fight back, and greatly unsettled by peace and quiet.
and so, he turned to his siblings. both agnes and lucius are held in high regard by benjicot, both able to extend great influence over their younger brother, and in turn, raventree hall - his sister, through diplomacy and encouragement. lucius, through expectation and candour. ben craves their approval like water, even when the path to their approval seems mutually exclusive.
and then, there is the brackens. without a true enemy to focus on, it is they that ben looked to for a foe, a way to turn his world to a battlefield once more. during the conflict with lys (the first time his mind has felt clear in so very long), there was a brief reprieve to his hatred, but with the threat ended, bloody ben once again finds himself in need of something to fight. samwell had fallen at the hands of a bracken, and ben had avenged his death and relished in it - the blood is too fresh to put the feud to bed.
for the majority of his time as lord of raventree hall, he has had little to do with his stepmother, the lady willow, but upon the dance reaching its conclusion, they have found themselves having to share a roof for the first time since he was a child. it has not been a pleasant experience. he does not get on with her, but he does bear affection for her children - particularly her youngest son, who he spends a lot of time with.
personality.
basics
ben does not go out of his way to look for trouble, and would not consider himself an argumentative man, but he is certainly an abrasive one. he has a way of speaking before he thinks, almost a direct contrast to his thoughtful and strategic demeanour on the battlefield. as somebody raised in the company of men on the battlefield, he has grown accustomed to a direct, brusque way of thinking, and he can be very uncouth.
he doesn’t start fights, but he’s determined to finish them.
there is a very confident swagger to the way ben carries himself. it is a little bit of a front - this is the way he believes he should be perceived, the way his house needs him to be perceived. he does not want to invite any talk of uncertainty or weakness.
the day to day of ruling, however, holds little interest for him. he has been known to make impulsive decisions and overlook details, leaving it to his sister to undo any potential mess he makes and check over his work. the transition from battlefield commander to ruling lord is a slow, ongoing, painful one.
despite everything, he’s not a serious man - he is often found laughing loudly, talking freely and openly, and enjoying himself wherever he goes. ben is a man who values levity in the most trying of times.
goals
a large part of ben is still figuring out who he is and what he wants away from being bloody ben. until he does so, any goals he holds are short-term and superficial.
fears
similar to the above, until he figures out who he is, an overarching fear isn’t likely to present itself, but for now, he is very fearful of loss or hurt to his siblings.
other.
ben's education was paused when he rode to war, and as it lasted ten years, was never resumed. as a result, ben is illiterate. he can read short words and his own name, but little else..
he feels most at peace in the outdoors, surrounded by his gods. he often takes his horse and goes riding, with no plan to return for several days on end, just to sleep under the stars.
he whittles in his spare time, and carries with him at all times a small figurine of a tree with a face carved into it.
he is hyper aware of the expectations of his father, and spent most of his teenage years trying to live up to that. since he has returned home, however, that sense of needing to live up to expectations has transferred from his long-dead father - it is now lucius rivers he looks to the most for approval.
