Lady Ammara Costayne was born in the year 126 AL to Lord Gaston Mooton of Maidenpool, and his wife, Lady Helya of House Smallwood. In 142 AL, she was wed to the Heir of House Costayne, since which time she has devoted herself to her duties as wife, mother, and the Lady of the Three Towers.
To look at her you would scarcely know she was born a Mooton of Maidenpool.
She prefers simple gowns in dark colours, cut to fit well over her lean body and wide shoulders, accented with the occasional lace inset but a stark absence of frills and furbelows—and you can tell she does her own hair. Its sleek blackness is interspersed with her first faint threads of white, and she wears it in a plain knot on the back of her head on ordinary days, or in an arrangement higher up and slightly more elaborate, secured with a pearl comb her husband gave her as a wedding present, on special occasions.
Her nimble hands are a little long and large for a woman. Everything else about her is long, too, putting her in a position to look straight across at men with the fine dark eyes that are her best feature. Below those eyes, her oval face loses some of its charm but none of its character: a nose that, once seen, is never forgotten, and a wide mouth more like a longbow than the perfect pink crossbow of a beauty. She has a sharp tongue in it, too.
She’s strong, healthy, definitely a woman but not an overly feminine one. There is no pretense about her and no timidity, and while her nose takes up a certain amount of space, it can never be found in the air.
18-10-142 AL Her marriage to the Costayne heir.
22-4-148 AL The birth of her son, Haston.
29-5-149 AL The birth of her daughter, Mesella.
10-6-154 AL The birth of her daughter, Daena.
25-12-162 AL Her return to court, as her elder daughter’s chaperone.
Her long, voluntary absence from King’s Landing has left Lady Costayne without the wide social circle and finely-honed political sense of a veteran lady of the court.
Apart from acting as her husband’s ears in the councils of the Reachlords present in the capital, her inclination is to remain apart from the jockeying for status, position, and royal favour which is so much a part of life in the Red Keep — either above it all, or below it, depending upon one’s perspective. This may change now that she has been taken up as a protegee by Lady Taria Buckwell.
Her favourites amongst the younger court ladies are Lady Serry and Lady Alyce Bar Emmon; she is also seen often riding in the company of Ser Josmyn Reyne, or engrossed in conversation with Maester Talbard, who has been good enough to set aside time to tutor her in Valyrian.
She is known to be on cordial terms with her cousin Ser Farin Prester.
On court life: “Perhaps a week at court did leave me over-eager to get out in the fresh air and shoot something.”
On betrothals: “Love is not enough to make a marriage — love is not even a significant consideration in arranging a marriage, especially for ladies born as you and I were into the families whose ancient duty it is to rule and husband our lands. We are not smallfolk women, whose choices of this man or that have no repercussions beyond their own lives. From our marriages, our alliances, the future of the realm is born. It is too important to be decided upon the whims of young people in love, who cannot see beyond their love to the larger and more enduring considerations of family, posterity, and duty.”
On falsehoods: “Normally I only lie to my children, as is from time to time a parent’s duty.”
On the occasion of being snubbed by Ser Falon Tyrell: “I’m sure you fought with bravery, Ser Falon. And when your most famous part has burned holes in all your breeches, it would be my honour, as the wife of your cousin’s loyal vassal, to lend you a pair of mine.”
On prayers granted: “[The gods] surely have the greatest opportunities to grant one’s prayers for aid, if one is open to that aid and seeks to make good and proper use of it. I’m sure each prayer granted is in its way a test. The gods wait to see what we’ll do with their blessings, and by that method judge whether we deserve to receive further indulgence.”
At the conclusion of one of her famous lectures on the care of horses: “We bring our animals into the world, and the gods know there are times when we take them out of it. In between, we have a duty.”
On giving a gift of socks: “It’s normal to bring a sick or injured person something good to eat, or an interesting piece of gossip. But I had expected a devotee of the Smith might appreciate what it means to make something with one’s own hands as an expression of familial feelings. Flowery words are but air; keeping someone’s feet warm and dry, that’s something real.”
A confidential explanation of her decision to name her dapple gelding after her brother, a ranger of the Night’s Watch: “My brother Arbert is a horse’s arse. Behold, the rest of the horse. Fortunately for the breeds, neither of them will be siring any foals.”
In which Lady Costayne attends the Serry wedding: A Most Marvelous Marriage
In which Lady Costayne accidentally ends up with a new horse: Fortune Favours the Bold
Category://King’s Landing -> People