Alexander "Hex" HextallIndex | HomePage | PlayerCharacters | Hex  Alexander "Hex" Hextall, 25, is a Dornish trader. Alexander is the son of Boren Hextall, a knight in the service of House Wyl (a minor house sworn to House Martell). The Hextalls reside in lands south of the Dornish Marches, north of the sand seas of Dorne gifted to Boren by House Wyl in gratitude for long loyal service (and an arranged marriage). Boren is in his early sixties, still relatively healthy but with his soldiering days behind him. Boren is an adequate steward of his lands. Boren's first wife, Rosemayre Hextall, gave him three children: Sander Hextall, 40, a knight and master at arms for House Wyl; a daughter Johanne Hextall, 35, now a Silent Sister in service to the Crone and residing at a nunnery in the south country; and Byron Hextall, 27, a useless gadabout with pretentions of greatness. Rosemayre died in birthing Byron, and after an appropriate period of mourning the lord Wyl arranged a marriage for Boren with a woman of the sandy Dornish, firming up trade relations and bringing an end to raids on Wyl properties. The marriage brought with it lands and income for the retiring knight. Boren fufilled his duties in marrying Jayelle and fathering a child (Hex), but felt no deep affection for the woman or what he viewed as "her child." Hex grew up with a distant father. Sander tolerated the young Hex, Johanne had some affection for the babe but grew increasingly distant as her calling to the Seven Gods began to dominate her life. Byron made it his young life's purpose to torment Hex. Although never blamed by his family for Rosemayre's death, Byron blamed himself and took it out on the new child and his mother. Jayelle was an attentive mother, raising Hex as a son of the sand. At bed time she would tell him stories of her people relating the adventures of wily mice and courageous hares struggling to eke out life in the deep sands of Dorne while avoiding predators. Half Aesop's Fables and half Senrayuku the stories passed on the lore of the sandy people. Hex was an intelligent child physically able to compete, and often surpass, his older brother Byron (simply increasing the enmity). Although a skilled archer, Hex envied Johanne her studies and the tranquility of an aesthetic life. Jayelle considered academic pursuits unmanly, and at 10 Hex was sent as a ward to his mother's people deep in the desert. After the romance and mystery of his mother's tales, the harsh reality of desert life was a bit disappointing to the young Hex. The struggle for the basic necessities of life left little time for study, though Hex had brought a number of books of poetry and theology with him. He studied when he could, sneaking time after lights out or on long treks seeking out water or game animals. He learned the skills of the desert people, and took to heart their motto of "brother against brother, brothers against father, family against clan, clan against clan and all against the northmen." At 15 Hex followed a cousin into military service for House Martell, a decision sped by Byron dispatching sell swords to dispose of his "rival." Hex served first as a squire for a cousin and later a bowman. During his military service Hex learned that while bowmen could easily be replaced at almost any village, every army needed a quartermaster and every quartermaster needed a scrounger. By the time his cousin returned to the sands, Hex was 18 and an accomplished scout and scrounger. Knights and gentlefolk needed food and shelter as much as common folk, but often wouldn't lower themselves to treat with the common. A task they were more than happy to delegate to the dornish bowman. Although retiring by nature, Hex learned to play the "hail fellow, well met" to speed negotiations. After three more years in the service of House Martell (and another visit by Byron's agents) Hex signed on with the Brave Companions, travelling the whole of the north country in service to one petty lord after another. The violent excess of the "Bloody Mummers" wore on Hex, and after another three years he left their company. Wherever Hex travelled, he always found opportunity in serving as a middleman between buyer and seller. He carved a niche in translating and negotiating between dornish traders and local merchants and lords. Over the last four years he has built a reputation as a wine merchant, importing dornish wine, barc and other spirits (as one rarely loses money gambling on the thirst of the northmen). Hex maintains a correspondence with his mother, and has a sideline as an information trader both between north and south and the various houses of the north country. Hex has maintained his skills as a bowyer/fletcher and still carries the whip he made as a youth in the desert. Hex likes nothing better than quiet time with a soothing tisane and esoteric treatise or intellectual debate with his cousin Rhys. He has been a stranger his whole life and has few close friends, reluctant to let anyone get too close. He still has a deep love of the desert in the abstract, but secretly prefers the gentle northern climate and the bland food of the north sits better than the heavily spiced dishes of the south. Casting is Alexander Siddig circa Kingdom of Heaven. |
