#▫️ task ╱ hold the vision ; trust the process

[norbiegrafton]

NORBERT GRAFTON - the inspirations

barcus wroot (baldur's gate III)

"and if we meet again… we will have met again"

cody martin (the suite life of zack and cody)

"i've gotta win this science award. then i can get into m.i.t.. and invent a nanobot that eats oil spills and be able to retire comfortably while taking care of my aging mother and paying my brother's bail money."

leonardo da vinci

"iron rusts from disuse; water loses its purity from stagnation… even so does inaction sap the vigour of the mind."

samwell tarly (a song of ice and fire)

"he could help you, He can do sums, and he knows how to read and write. i know chett can’t read, and clydas has weak eyes. sam read every book in his father’s library."

ross gellar (friends)

(after a long, serious lecture) “all of which proves that i thought of jurassic park first.”

victor frankenstein (frankenstein)

"the world was to me a secret which I desired to divine."

bilbo baggins (lord of the rings)

"I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve."

dr. emmett "doc" brown (back to the future)

"if my calculations are correct, when this baby hits 88 miles per hour… you're gonna see some serious shit."

[norbiegrafton]

january 4th 114 ac - norbert grafton is born

norbert grafton was the first-born son of house grafton, a quiet, serious baby who hit all his mental milestones way before most of his peers, but was slow to learn to sit and to walk. as a child, he had a mild speech impediment he grew out of- but not before he acquired the nickname most people, friends and enemies alike, know him as. he struggled with pronounced his own name, and thus, became simply norbie. as a child he was bullied and laughed at when in the company of other boys, and still feels more comfortable in the company of women to this day.

pre-dance

before the dance broke out, norbie was fostered with the swann family in the stormlands, and grew close to wylliam swann.

129 ac - the dance begins

the dance broke out when norbie was just shy of his 16th birthday. it was a difficult predicament to find himself in, as at the time, he was still in the stormlands, who supported the greens, whilst his family and homeland supported the blacks. for a while, nobody knew what to do with norbie. eventually, it was decided he would go to the citadel to become a maester, leaving gulltown to a younger brother, which he did after he turned 16, where he met lucerys estermont. however, he hated it, and after a few weeks left to return to gulltown as its heir. norbie makes a single attempt to fight with the men of the vale. it does not go well, and he breaks both knees. he is never again asked to lift a sword, but does make a name for himself when it comes to his skills as a steward, businessman, inventor and architect over the course of the dance. in my mind, i like to think he contributed by inventing some powerful siege equipment and making sure gold kept coming into gulltown to fund their troops, predominantly by travelling around and offering his services to places and keeps who needed help rebuilding after the destruction of the dance. in the immediate aftermath of his injuries, he spends time recovering at ninestars with house templeton. during the dance, norbie's father dies, leaving him as the ruling lord.

140 ac - the dance ends, the vale becomes independent

norbie is relieved when the dance ends. he has spent the last few years either focusing on business matters in gulltown, supporting his brother, or travelling around the continent working on architectural commissions when offered. notably, he has completed a lot of building work in gulltown. when the realms gather, norbie is usually in attendance. however, he was not in the north when the nobles gathered there. norbie was present at: - the peace talks in dorne - king cedric's wedding in the reach - the coronation of king jaehaerys ii - the celebrations following the birth of prince arthur - the riverlands' litha festival he follows the political situation in the vale from a distance, but with care. since the fracturing of the kingdoms, norbie has been happy to support house arryn, regardless of which arryn sits the throne. that's for them to decide.