Jon Connington
Jon Connington was the last Lord of Griffin's Roost and Hand of the King to Aerys II Targaryen, a man whose life was defined by a single, catastrophic failure: the Battle of the Bells. During Robert's Rebellion, he commanded the royal forces tasked with hunting down the rebel Robert Baratheon, who was wounded and hiding in the town of Stoney Sept. Connington, young and hungry for glory, refused to burn the town to the ground, preferring a house-to-house search that would allow him to claim the rebel's head in single combat. Robert escaped, and the arriving armies of Eddard Stark and Hoster Tully crushed Connington's forces. Aerys, in a fit of paranoid ingratitude, stripped him of his lands and titles and sent him into exile. The shame of that day, and the sound of the bells that rang during the battle, haunted him for the rest of his life.
Exile and the Secret Pact
For seventeen years, Connington lived as a fugitive, eventually joining the Golden Company, the famed sellsword company of exiled Westerosi. He rose to a place of honor at the right hand of its captain-general, Myles Toyne, known as Blackheart. It was Toyne who, along with the eunuch Varys and the Pentoshi magister Illyrio Mopatis, conceived a secret plan to restore the Targaryen dynasty. The plan centered on Prince Aegon, the infant son of Rhaegar Targaryen, who was supposedly murdered during the Sack of King's Landing. Varys claimed to have swapped the prince with a lowborn child and smuggled the real Aegon across the narrow sea. To hide his identity, Connington faked his own death, dyed his hair blue, and took the name "Griff," posing as a sellsword and the boy's father. He spent years training the prince in arms, languages, and statecraft aboard the poleboat Shy Maid, preparing him for his destiny.
The Return and the Greyscale
When Daenerys Targaryen remained in Slaver's Bay instead of sailing west, Connington grew impatient with the cautious plans of Illyrio and Varys. After a harrowing journey down the Rhoyne, during which he rescued Tyrion Lannister from drowning and was himself infected with greyscale by a Stone Man, Connington revealed his true identity to the Golden Company. He persuaded them to abandon the plan to join Daenerys and instead invade Westeros directly, landing on Cape Wrath. The invasion was swift and brutal; Connington's forces captured his own ancestral seat, Griffin's Roost, in a matter of minutes. He then began planning a campaign to take Storm's End by guile, hoping to secure a stronghold and rally the storm lords to Prince Aegon's cause.
The Hidden Wound
Throughout his return, Connington was secretly dying. The greyscale he contracted in the Sorrows was slowly creeping up his arm, turning his flesh to stone. He hid the disease, soaking his blackened hand in wine and wearing gloves to conceal the decay, knowing that the men who would follow him into battle would abandon him if they knew he was afflicted. He saw his mission as a final, desperate act of redemption for his failure to save Rhaegar, and he was determined to see the prince he had raised seated on the Iron Throne before the disease claimed him. His last thoughts as he prepared for the campaign were of returning to his home and ending the Usurper's line for good.
