Editing Balder Durrandon (son of Durran XIX)

[[File:Balder Stormblessed.png|thumb|Balder Stormblessed with his gem-eye. Roughly 30 years old.]]
'''Balder Stormblessed''' (78-151 A.I.) was a son of [[Durran XIX Durrandon|Durran XIX]] [[House Durrandon|Durrandon]] and claimant during the [[Great Stag Duel]].

== Appearance ==
Balder was known to have a half-mad look to his only remaining eye. The gem in his left eye socket often sparked and thrummed. By the time of the Great Stag Duel, he kept a thick beard that nearly met his collarbone, and wore his hair long in the back with a small knot or ponytail. He had black hair and stormy blue eyes.

== Personality ==
Widely regarded by his detractors as insane, Balder was known for his insatiable lust for power, though not worldly power. Despite his avarice, Balder did not covet men's worldly items or lands, but the power of the gods themselves.

[[File:BlueStagCOA.png|thumb|The standard used by Beron the Boring's forces during the Great Stag Duel. His supporters were often called 'Blacks' and he was sometimes referred to as 'the Blue Stag.']]
== History ==
Balder was raised on Tarth with the [[House Blacktyde of Tarth|Blacktydes]]. His youth was spent watching and listening to Andals and Ironborn and Stormmen all argue about the finer aspects of their own faiths, and came to appreciate the majesty he believed resided within storms. When he was near twenty, he sailed out into [[Shipbreaker Bay]], and carved out his eye in offering to the various storm gods - the gods of the Ironborn, the gods of the Sisterfolk, and the gods of the Stormmen. He claimed to have been chosen by the gods to rule, and awoke on the shores of the bay unharmed, with a sparking gem at his feet. He lodged it into his empty eye socket, and when his father later abandoned the throne, he would press his claim.

His armies clashed with [[Durran Durrandon (son of Durran XIX)|Durran the Kingslayer]]'s in the heartlands of the kingdom, but was soundly defeated by Durran's men. He fled to the Slayne in 113 A.I., and retained his claim as king, ruling from the river valley while his brothers continued the war. [[Beron I Durrandon|Beron the Boring]] captured Storm's End in this time, and Durran's forces couldn't beat back the support Beron accrued from the Rainwood, having lost many of their own forces in the battles with Balder.

Balder was defeated in 120 A.I. by the combined might of Storm King Beron and his new regent, Durran the Kingslayer. The two former enemies united to see Balder deposed, and they initially declared that he be sent to the Night's Watch. However, an intervening force attacked the escort, ordered by none other than the Green Queen, for reasons not fully understood. Balder was instead kept prisoner at Storm's End, with the Storm King finding it safer to keep him under close watch than sending him out into the wilderness again.

Balder's time while imprisoned turned him into a fearful man, a shadow of himself. After near a decade, his brothers granted him freedom, no longer considering him a threat to the throne. He promptly went out into the peasantry in search of a man who could be king, a worthy heir, amongst the lowborn bastards of the realm. Few took his attempts seriously.

During battle in 134 A.I., at Blackstripe, Balder was struck in the head by a mace, and he was rendered barely conscious for the rest of his life. He was unable to care for himself, and his basic faculties fell to the responsibility of his family.

Balder died seventeen years later, never waking from his stupor.

== Quotes by Balder ==
''"I am the Storm King, Raina. There is no question, no loyalty to barter like barley. Your husband either follows the true king, or I will mount him on the cliffs of Storm's End in offering to the gods."''

—Balder to his sister.

== Quotes about Balder ==

[[Category:Characters]]
[[Category:The Stormlands]]