Sovereign Timeline

236 ❀ Born in Dornish borderlands as the second son of a well-respected tradesman.
242 ❀ Betrothed to the third daughter of a minor noble. Moves to her father's household.
244 ❀ The War of Thorns begins, the noble household is destroyed. Taken captive and held as consort for the men.
247 ❀ Taken as personal property of the future Lord Graves
254 ❀ Given as a gift to a high-ranking military official.
254-255 ❀ Passed from person to person until the war's end.
255-267 ❀ Living on the streets of King's Landing, getting by by any means necessary.
267 ❀ Taken in by Bansai, begins living and working at Irogenia.
277 ❀ King Aerys's coronation.

Souza Samonji was born as the second son to an esteemed blacksmith of considerable skill in Kingsgrave. As a reward for many years of faithful service arming the men serving house Manwoody, Souza's father was allowed to send him to be betrothed to the third daughter of a branch of the house, to live with her family in their estate, and to learn the ways of being a very minor lord. A nominal reward, but one that brought some esteem to the family nonetheless, so at the age of six, he moved to her father's house and began his courtly studies.

Two years later, the War of Thorns began and hit their house - being in a border town - almost immediately. They fought valiantly, as any true, red-blooded Dornishmen would, but eventually fell as many more would after them. The men were killed. The women, children, and boys under fifteen taken captive, Souza among them. The captives were turned over to the men for purposes of psychological warfare, and at this point Souza couldn't know if the psychological warfare tactics worked on the general populace, only that he wished he'd been old enough, or brave enough to take up a sword with the men in the fight. Perhaps then he might have died and been spared.

Instead, as a captive, he was used as an outlet for the frustrations of the men, and quickly gained a lasting reputation for not fighting back or protesting to any atrocities levied on him. His reputation got the attention of the future Lord Graves, and he was taken and trained as property, for the majority of the duration of the war. In the final year of the war, he was passed between several other high-ranking officials, until he was finally thrown out on the streets of King's Landing when his current master returned home - it was too inconvenient having someone like him around, but it was equally troublesome finding somewhere to place him, so he was left to his own devices. After all, who would care if a broken, Dornish, prisoner of war died in the streets?

No one would care, which was the sole motivation for Souza to scrape by from day to day. He wouldn't have cared if he died, but it was too pathetic, even for someone whose pride had been beaten down and nearly stamped out, to simply lie down and give up in an alleyway somewhere. So he didn't. He was already thoroughly familiar with the desires of men, so it was a simple matter to start selling himself for enough coin to occasionally buy himself a decent meal. A bed came more infrequently - usually only when someone encouraged him to stay the night - but he minded that less when his work usually took place at night and during the day very few people paid mind to someone resting idly on a bench or on the side of the road. Occasionally, he would find himself an honest job or two, usually only for the duration of an afternoon or a few days at most, filling in for an absent worker in a merchant's stall or an errant barmaid, but those were infrequent at best. From time to time he also resorted to stealing scraps out of desperation, but he learned quickly that a quick favor or two for the peddler of whatever necessity was at stake was a far simpler and easier method of getting what he needed.

Like this, he managed to scrape by for twelve years until he encountered an up and coming brothel owner who was in need of employees to fill his rooms. The offer was irresistible, the temptation of food and water, of bathing daily if he so chose to, of a comfortable bed, of - most importantly - protection was something he accepted in a heartbeat and promptly moved into Irogenia and began working that night. He's been there ever since, and has watched the establishment grow and earn a highly-respected reputation (or as highly-respected a reputation one can earn, as an establishment on the Street of Silk).

Working in a brothel is different than working on the streets, but he's found that the politics inside the walls are not dissimilar from those he'd noticed at court in his youth, and in the tents of officials in his tenure as a prisoner. The clientele were those who could afford the luxury of a brothel, and were thus easily flattered, and light conversation netted Souza with more delicate information than he could have ever anticipated. Information which he both filters to his employer, and which he freely sells for the right price, rather indiscriminately. Politics interest him little, so he has little need to protect the reputation of anyone who wishes him to not spill their secrets, and the incentive to keep them secret must outweigh the reward for telling anyone who might idly inquire about things he may or may not know.