Aldo

Aldo is a tall, broad shouldered man. His hair is short cropped as well as his beard. He is of a medium complexion, with vivid green eyes. One slightly discolored due to damage done to it when he was younger.

He is a quiet person with a deliberate turn to him. He doesn't speak at any great length or often.

He will answer what is asked of him and offer little details beyond that.

He customarily wears black, like his brothers of the wall. He has become the stablemaster of the Night's Watch at Castle Black.

Aldo was born to a middle class, working family. His mother and father were tradespeople- His father an Architect, his mother a baker. They lived well, being free people his family didn't experience the bondage of serfdom or peasantry. But, they also lacked the privilege of nobility. They did well, working their trades till a fire brought down his mother's bakery and their house that was connected to it. His father had been home at the time, and was unable to escape the fire. That night the family lost both means to survive in the world, and to do so comfortably.

Things got hard for his family. There was only his mother, Aldo himself, and his younger brother and sister left to ply what trade they could, though the other two were considerably younger than Aldo himself. His older sister had married off at the age of fourteen - To a wealthy traveling merchant. With the bakery gone, his mother started working at the Smoking Log, in Wintertown. She never quite made the money she had before, and things only got harder and harder from there.

One night, Aldo visited the Log to spend a little time with his mother. He saw the nasty manner in which the men treated his mother. Dirty and mean, uncouth and hateful. It filled Aldo with a rage he had never felt before. He knew she depended on this job as well as the work he was able to do, but he couldn't stand to see her cuffed and cussed, groped and molested.

There was nothing he could really do though. After all, he was still just a boy. That night he returned to the Log to walk home with his mother. However, things didn't pan out quite the way he had intended. As she was leaving, Aldo's mother was snatched down an alley. Seeing this Aldo, being a big lad as it were, saw this and ran down the alley after Chrysha and her assaulter. The only thing he had to offer any kind of resistance was a single tanner's knife that he carried to and from work. As the man pushed his mother against the wall, Aldo charged, burying the knife to the hilt, into the man's ribs. Shock, then pain, and the realization that he was going to die struck the assaulted man. He jerked away, had just enough strength draw his dagger and slice at the boy's face before he fell back.

Hot pain flashed. Up from his lip, toward his eye, the gash was deep, and, it nearly took out the sight of his right eye.

It wasn't long till a guardsman, having heard the ruckus, ran into the alley to investigate. Realization dawned upon the man as he saw the scene laid out before him. His heart pang-ed for the lad, but there was little else he could do but arrest him.

Taken to Winterfell, he faced the Lord Stark. Being the fair man that he was, Stark ordered five lashes for impudence in Aldo's actions. And a days worth of a Guard's wages. A compromised was made, however. Aldo accepts the lashes, but he and his family were unable to afford the time spent down from that. Instead of that, he vowed to take the Black if Lord Stark watches out for his family. The boy, though young, was an honorable lad, and one could tell just that in the very actions and manners of which he held himself.

Timeline:

360 – The year Brienna was born.

363 – The year Aldo was born.

367 – The year Airis was born.

369 – The year Jorran was born.

384 – The year the house and bakery caught fire. Father died. Aldo was nine years old at the time.

387 – The year Aldo killed a man and vowed to take the Black. Three month's after that day he left for the wall.

Family Tree:

Chrysha – Mother - Still alive.

Gidden – Father - Dead.

Siblings:

Older sister – Brienna – Married and moved away to the Vale.

Younger sister – Airis – Also married and moved away, only to King's Landing.

Younger brother – Jorran – Still in Wintertown.