Penance

[reek]

OOC Info
Name: Hannah
Age: Pretty old
Contact: muttonchops/🍗🍗#5873
Current Characters: N/A


IC Info

Name: Theon Greyjoy
Canon: A Song of Ice and Fire
Age: 20
Appearance: here
Canon Point: The end of A Clash of Kings.
Background: here

Personality:

Theon Greyjoy first appears in A Game of Thrones with a fitting introduction: kicking a freshly severed head with a smirk on his face as Jon Snow rolls his eyes and calls him an ass. Theon is an ass. He’s an arrogant, smug young man with a sly disposition which, along with his house name, makes him difficult to trust. He's incredibly proud, smiles at things that shouldn't be smiled at, and laughs in the face of bloodshed.

More often than not, the people of Winterfell mistrust Theon. This is largely due to his family's notorious habits of rebelling and reaving, but also because of Theon's overall sneaky nature. As Catelyn Stark puts it, "That young man had a way of looking as though he knew some secret jest that only he was privy to; Catelyn had never liked it."

In truth, Theon has manufactured this image for himself. It's his idea of what an Ironborn man is and how he should behave, and his impression of the role he should fit. His sister, Asha, recalls him as "a shy child who lived in awe, and fear, of [his brothers] Rodrik and Maron", both of whom were likely the inspiration for his adult persona. At the age of ten, Theon was taken as a ward of Eddard Stark in order to secure Balon Greyjoy's good behavior after an attemped uprising. If Balon messes up, his only living son is the one who dies. Theon is living every day with a price on his head when he’s an innocent in all of this. While the Starks don't treat Theon cruelly, they don't offer him much warmth either. He isn't their family, after all. Essentially, he is their prisoner, and he's has had to live with that knowledge for his entire adult life. You'd be insecure as well. Theon's feelings on the matter are best displayed here:

"Lord Eddard had raised him among his own children, but Theon had never been one of them. The whole castle, from Lady Stark to the lowliest kitchen scullion, knew he was hostage to his father's good behavior, and treated him accordingly...Lord Eddard had tried to play the father from time to time, but to Theon he had always remained the man who'd brought blood and fire to Pyke and taken him from his home. As a boy, he had lived in fear of Stark's stern face and great dark sword. His wife was, if anything, even more distant and suspicious."

When Theon does return home for the first time in years, he gets a rude awakening when he finds that nothing is quite as he recalls and he's a strange in his own homeland. His father and sister both humiliate him and regard him with more coldness than the Starks ever did, with his father even implying that he is too soft, that he's been living with the Starks for too long and refusing to listen to any plans he may have to share.

Basically, Theon is like that kid who acts out as a cry for attention. He's a glory hound, but more than anything, he wants to be accepted. While living with the Starks, he finds that even Jon Snow (i.e. Ned Stark's bastard...as far as he knows) is received with more warmth than he ever was, sparking a great deal of jealousy. Jon may be baseborn, but Jon has a place in his family. Theon can fit into neither his "adoptive" family nor his true family. He tries terribly hard to impress people, almost to the point of desperation. By offering to kill the direwolf pups right away, he's trying to impress Ned (and in his defense, the other men initially agree it’s the right thing to do). When his father mocks his attire, he insists right away that he will change it if it offends him so much. He brags to Robb about his excursions with women around Winterfell. And when he finally devises his plan to take Winterfell for House Greyjoy, his intent is genuinely not to betray the Starks. His intent is to force his father to accept him and see him as someone worthy.

Theon isn't a stupid man. He knows what the Starks will think, but he pushes those thoughts back, and initially doesn’t intend to betray or harm anyone. Even when Winterfell is under his control, he does his best to control it without unnecessary cruelty. He knows it isn't his place and it doesn't belong to him, and he later calls it "...my home. Not a true home, but the best I ever knew". When a disguised Ramsay Bolton suggests stripping the skins from those who don't comply to his rule, Theon's response is this:

"There will be no flaying in the north so long as I rule in Winterfell," Theon said loudly. I am your only protection against the likes of him, he wanted to scream.

It's only when he begins to lose his hold on Winterfell that desperation and anger slip in and he starts to flounder. "It is better to be feared than laughed at”, is a thought he has at one point, showing just how deep his insecurities run. He allows Ramsay to manipulate him, and allows himself to do things he would ordinarily never do, all for the sake of his pride. He has two choices: he can either sacrifice his pride and any hope at carving out a place in his real family, or he can sacrifice his time with the family who cared for him and raised him, but essentially held him captive. He opts for the latter. When Bran and Rickon Stark escape, Theon turns almost ruthless. He allows Ramsay to finally get into his head and aids him in killing and flaying the miller's sons in order to pass them off as the Stark Boys, hoping to keep his grip on Winterfell with fear.

Theon is a rash man with a streak of cruelty, but not without reason. He's been hurt, he feels as though he's been abandoned. He wants to be loved and accepted. Rather than show that weakness, he opts instead to hide all his insecurities behind cruel japes and smirks and laughter. In the end, even he doesn't know who he is; not really.

Weaknesses/Temptations:
Theon is his own worst enemy. No one hates Theon Greyjoy more than Theon Greyjoy, and his own self loathing could very easily trip him up and lead him astray. There’s also the fact that, as mentioned briefly in the personality section, he has no idea who he really is. His identity is something of a facade, an act of who he thinks he’s supposed to be, and without a real grasp of identity, how do you really know what you want in life or what you want to overcome? All this insecurity also makes Theon very easy to manipulate. Twisting his mind is not that difficult, and it could be easy to turn him down the wrong path. You could probably get him to do just about anything if you play to his pride or his paranoia, and he’s just stubborn, so he might decide he doesn’t feel like admitting to any sins today, thank you very much.

Sins:
-Lies
-Manipulation
-Pride
-Vanity
-Wrath, and lots of it
-Multiple counts of murder
-Corpse desecration
-Betrayed his best friend
-Stole a castle for his own
-Threaten of death
-Just kind of cruel to women and people who he deems as lesser than himself
-Made a fart joke in his first POV chapter…the biggest sin of all…


Powers/Abilities: Despite his status a political prisoner, Theon received the same training and education as Eddard Stark’s sons. Although we never see him using a sword, we can assume he at least has a good grip on the basics. He’s also decent at hand-to-hand combat, but his true skill lies in archery. Theon is an exceptional archer. He can shoot down a gull on the wing, and he’s incredibly braggadocios about his skills. He’s also decent at battle strategy, but I wouldn’t trust him with your castle, y’know? He also tells....decent jokes? Sometimes?

Items:
-His bow and a handful of arrows--if this wouldn’t fit, please disregard! I can’t quite figure out if it would.
-A small dagger
-Bran Stark’s wolfs-head pin (for the extra guilt; he would still have it on him)



SAMPLES

Network: From a previous game
Log: On the tdm!