Daemon Valhar


 * "A Demon of the Seas."
 * ―Vario Rogare, former wielder of 'Truth'

Daemon Valhar is the captain of the infamous Bligewater Pirates. Well known and feared among those whose who sail the narrow sea. Known for his compulsive gambling strategies, that win him great battles or less often lose him great gains, which has lead him to his nickname as the 'Demon of the Seas' for his unpredictable nature.

Early Life
Born in 254 AC in the Disputed Lands of Essos, his father a Lysene little known sellsail whom had married a merchants daughter then he had purchased her dowry. Daemon's mother would die when he had was around five, his father had never been truly faithful and with his wife gone, began to more openly solicit whores and pillow slaves. Despite this Daemon doted after his father, taking all the man had to offer and absorbing the man's knowledge that he could. While it was not a easy childhood, Daemon looked upon its trials of the eagerness of a blissfully ignorant child.

Daemon had been around ships near most of his life, and by the age of twelve he was taking to the waves with his father on missions. He took to the craft of the sails quickly, and was soon a reliable hand upon the ship. By fourteen, Daemon had seen the ugliness of battle and its bloody carnage, even having killed a man himself in a quick slaughter raid of a Westerosi vessel.

Becoming a Captain
Skilled as a captain and now a full member of the small sellsail company his father controlled, Daemon began to desire his own ship and his own crew, as while his fathers company had treated him well, he was outgrowing his fathers constant whoring, and lack of overarching ambitions. Seeing a massive warship on the horizon, Daemon begged his father to attack, knowing there overall numbers could surround and evidently take the more massive but ultimately alone warship. Daemon's father would not budge, insisting it was too great a risk. This act sored Daemon to his father, as he could see plainly that his father wanted nothing of danger and glory, wanting only to spend his money and time on cheap women, slaves, drink, and food until his life was over. Daemon could not stand that idea, and lead his fathers forces against his will as he staged a mutiny against his own father.

The attack that followed was a bloody one, many ships and men where lost taking the great beast known as the 'Sea Dragon'. Yet in the end, the massive warship lay before them, the greatest spoil of war they had ever claimed. These men where now Daemons, and despite his fathers lack of courage Daemon did not want him dead. Taking his new prize and declaring himself Captain, Daemon would sail home to Lys, leaving his father and all those who would not swear themselves to him in Lys. Few took the option to leave, and so Daemon took the seas once more, with a crew eager for all the wealth he could bring them, and ambitions that Daemon hoped to bring to reality.

Adulthood
When Daemon was twenty, the call for Sellsails and its like were called upon by his homeland of Lys. Daemon for his part was already becoming renowned as a pirate, and yet the call of war intrigued him. Taking his men to the Disputed Lands he would form the Silver Standard, a Sellsword company. Former pirates now calling themselves Sellswords, Daemon would spend the better part of a year recruiting men, buying mounts, and gearing his men for the battles to come. While serving Lys, they had small amounts of success, but as the Tyrosh had hired the infamous Golden Company; Daemon and his band would try to avoid outright battles against their forces, for fear of outright annihilation. Instead using their skills as raiding parties, and assault teams, to weaken the opposing army with attrition tactics.

However their hit and run tactics could not last forever, and the Silver Standard was forced to fight in open conflict with the greatest force Essos had. Unsurprisingly, the Tyrosh army emboldened by the Golden Company defeated their band soundly, forced to flee to the ships their employer had brought along as ships of their own company had been left at their base for repairs. When they reached the ships however, the Lysene Lord denied them access, intent to leave him to die at the enemies hands. Faced with death, Daemon and his men broke their contract, attacking like men with nothing to lose, and while nearly half of his remaining men had died, Daemon took control of the few ships the Lord had brought and sailed for his base. Swearing revenge upon Lys, and vowed to one day destroy them for their betrayal.

Having earned the hatred of Lys, Daemon and what was left of his crew took their time, slowly gaining strength and attacking mostly Lysene ships, stripping them of all they had and killing those who did not surrender peacefully. He would later go on to establish a permeant base upon Greystone, where he would take prisoners, and important people he wished to ransom.

Despite the ill taste of his pervious employer, Daemon would sell his sails numerous times in the service of Myr, but only when the Free City was at war with his hated homeland. Daemon would true to his word, make the Lysene lives hell, like a fly Daemon would strike and sink away. His attacks did little damage mostly, but they caused a distraction for the Myrish to exploit, and Daemon would find himself tremendously rewarded for his efforts, as Myr seemed to value his skills. During this time, Daemon would find himself amongst the Myrish elites, and ingratiated himself within them. Making allies and friends with those in power, namely one of the various Magisters of the city.

Daemon would use his contracts in Myr as a source of constant income, as with his friends in place he had no issue selling his stolen loot, and ships to the Myrish as long as they where not implicated in Daemons attacks, or as long as Daemon did not attack their allies.

Recent Events
Using Lys' hatred for him, Daemon would spread a rumor of the some of Lysene nobility being captured by Daemons attack, this enraged the Free City which sent a detachment of ships to finally stomp out the pirate lord. Leading the larger army into a narrow pass, his smaller and faster ships attacked like ghosts, assaulting the fleet from out of the mists, and Daemon himself would strike a vital blow at the heart of Lys himself, as the Battle of Narrow Pass begin. Daemon would use his gambit, to attack the commander of the forces a man known to all of Essos as one of its deadliest swordsmen and commanders a man known as Vario Rogare. Daemon using his quick attack, surprised the man and his ship, and a fight began to spill over to the Lys Lords ship. Having taken heavy damage from a ramming, Daemon knew the man's ship would not last long, and went to attack on the Lys Lord. Daemon was outmatched, and he knew it before attacking, yet he waited and waited...taking more and more damage as cuts and bruises covered his body, but never giving the kill shot.

In one moment of hesitation, Daemon struck a single wound on the Lysene man, as he had been unsure of Daemons attack, little did the Lysene know the battle was already over. Poison now in the man's system, Daemon played the waiting game, as the man's attacks got weaker and weaker, his attacks slower and slower until the man could no longer move. Daemon took his prize the Valyrain Steel blade 'Truth', and left the man to drown with his ship, as he fled with his prize. His own fleet had taken a lot of damage, and many men and ships had been lost, but he had caused Lys to loss its greatest commander and a portion of it's fleet, and in the end he was happy with the results.

Now armed with the legendary blade, Daemon sought out a way to use the blade to grant him fortunes, and came into contact with one of his various spies, a man whom worked for the Pirate Family of Saan. Having heard of a deal that was to be made with the Golden Company, and the family. Daemon raced to Tyrosh before the family and made contact with the Company himself. Having made a deal with the commanders, and earning a new enemy as well.

Daemon used his various information on the Stepstones and its warlords to assault the rocky islands with swift precision, as the Company took the Islands with little to no loss of life, and those who surrendered to the company joined Daemons' ranks. As his fleet began to regrow from those captured, and his supply of men bursting to new found numbers.

Finalizing the deal for his employment Daemon sailed to Tyrosh to serve the company once again, rooting out a spy in the Archon's employ, but not before turning many of those working for the man into his own informants, and using his skills to manipulate the Archon, into allowing Daemon to settle the Disputed Lands without Tyrosh's interference, the first step to his grand play.

Personality
Daemon is a gambler, willing to risk it all on one score or one great adventure. He is loyal to a fault to those who follow his orders. Yet those who disobey feel his wrath, as he expects all his men to die for him if need be. He does not shy away from doing what is needed to, even if its uncomfortable or unlikely to make him friends. Willing to lie, cheat and steal from those he feels he can, and yet loyal to the end for those who he makes pacts with.