Josian was born into the Sons of the Tree, one of the mountain clans of the Vale, in 264 AC. His father Jorras was one of the tribe’s most prestigious warriors, while his mother Drisha was a wise woman whose dreams occasionally proved oddly prophetic. While his childhood was certainly one of material hardship, given the harsh circumstances of the clans’ existence, Josian was free to explore the starkly beautiful Mountains of the Moon. On one of his many excursions, clambering over boulders and outcroppings, he encountered and befriended an orphaned eagle hatchling who he promptly named Branch. From then on, she never left his shoulder for more than a day.
When Josian was 11, the Sons of the Tree ambushed and killed a party escorting a young daughter of House Waxley to be fostered at the Eyrie. Ser Denys Arryn, Keeper of the Gates of the Moon, vowed to exact revenge for the Waxleys’ loss. By making common cause with the Sons’ enemies the Stone Crows, Ser Denys was able to lead his men in an attack on the weirwood grove which served as the Sons’ refuge. Josian was out hunting with Branch when the attack began, but he returned in time to see the end of the assault from a mountain slope above the carnage. Jorras had already been killed, but Drisha was being chased down by one of the Arryn knights. Josian was too far away to help his mother, but in this moment of desperation he suddenly found himself looking down through Branch’s eyes. Acting on instinct, he dove from the sky and attacked the knight. The distraction allowed Drisha to escape, though not before the knight gave her a ghastly scar across her left cheek. When Branch was also cut, Josian’s consciousness was thrown back to his own body and he was eventually able to meet back up with Branch and Drisha. The Sons of the Tree, however, were no more.
The enmity between the mountain clans eliminated fleeing to another one as an option, but Drisha knew more about the world of the kneelers than most clanswomen. Her father had been a peasant who fled into the mountains when he was caught poaching and managed to find a place in the Sons of the Tree, and his stories gave her some idea of how to survive down below the mountains. After a few weeks hiding while she used her herbal knowledge to prevent her wound from festering, Drisha, her son and his eagle began an arduous journey out of the Mountains of the Moon and into the Riverlands. Despite initial suspicion, Drisha eventually succeeded in establishing herself as an herbalist and midwife for the smallfolk living along the Trident. Josian resumed his explorations in this new environment, spending days on end wandering the meadows and forests with Branch. He slowly learned to control his strange ability to inhabit her body, and even to slip into the skins of other animals. Josian also began to fantasize about one day developing his power to the point that he could take revenge on the knights who had destroyed his clan, killed his father, and disfigured his mother.
At the age of 16, Josian’s wilderness skills earned him a position as a woodsman for the newly-founded House Naelareon. Shortly thereafter, while serving as a guide on a hunt, he saved the life of Lothar Naelareon. Lothar had insisted on facing a particularly ferocious boar alone, and his initial spear thrust left the enormous beast impaled but still alive. Its frantic thrashings would have gored him had Josian not leapt forward and jabbed his knife into the boar's haunch, distracting it for long enough that it died of its injuries. As a reward for this act of courage, Josian was made a house retainer and given a fine longbow which he put to good use at Harrenhal, making it to the final round of the archery competition. Still haunted by the sense of powerlessness he felt as his home was destroyed, Josian hopes to achieve the status and skill to prevent another such loss. He has thus far managed to keep his peculiar abilities secret from all save his mother, though the fact that he has an eagle companion continues to arouse suspicion.
