Otho Bracken, called the Brute of Bracken, was the second son of the Lord of Stone Hedge and a knight in the reigns of Daeron II and Aerys I Targaryen. He earned his byname in 206 AC at a tourney in King's Landing, where, fighting with a blunted longaxe, he struck Lord Quentyn Blackwood so fiercely that he stove in the visor of his helm and the face beneath, killing him and pouring fresh blood into the ancient feud between their houses.
He rode at the tourney at Ashford Meadow in 209 AC, pitching his brown-and-red tent well away from the Blackwoods. When Ser Duncan the Tall came begging a seventh sword for his trial of seven, Otho alone among the great champions had the grace to answer him, though he refused a hedge knight he did not know. The death of his elder brother in the Great Spring Sickness left Otho heir to Stone Hedge, and in the troubled years that followed it was widely feared that the Brute of Bracken would carry his house to the Blackfyre cause.