The Citadel: Concordance

2. Westeros

Summer's heat can be stifling in the lower six parts of the kingdom (I: 34)
Peasants have been known to sell misshapen offspring into slavery, or leave them to die (I: 103)
Small communities have holdfasts of wood or stone to defend them (I: 99)
The oversight of the daily needs of castles is generally given over to stewards (I: 107)
Castles keep captains of the guard and masters of horse (I: 108)
Silver coins are named stags (I: 112)
Golden coins are named dragons (I: 128)
A silver stag as a gift to each oarman for rowing quickly is very generous (I: 139)
A royal tournament might have a purse of 40,000 dragons to the winner of the joust, 20,000 dragons to the man who comes in second, 20,000 dragons to the winner of the melee, and 10,000 dragons to the winner of the archery competition (I: 163)
The crown is more than six million dragons in debt. Three million to the Lannisters is the largest part of it, but the Tyrells, the Iron Bank of Braavos, Tyroshi trading cartels, and the Faith are also involved (I: 163)
Some twenty-five years before, there was a short and cruel three year winter. Since then, there have been eight or nine summers (I: 175)
Summer has lasted nine years at the outset of the book (I: 175)
Maekar's summer lasted seven years. It broke suddenly and led to a short autumn and a terrible long winter (I: 211)
A hundred dragons make a typical wager for high lords (I: 261)
Freeriders are mounted mercenaries who are not knights (I: 22, etc.)
Sellswords are swords for hire, unmounted mercenaries (I: 29, etc.)
Hedge knights are knighted men of no particular house with no lands to their name (I: 247, etc. )
Not all people are literate. Of those, some hold writing in disdain, while others reverence the written word as if it were magical (I: 349)
The hot, humid days towards the end of a summer are called spirit summers, (I: 467)
In the Seven Kingdoms, it is seen as looking for death to bare steel against one's liege lord (I: 480)
The armies of Westeros are made largely of smallfolk, lleavenedwith undisciplined freeriders and sellswords (I: 504)
There can be false springs and spirit summers which present unusual variations in the seasons (I: 526. II: 189. SSM: 1)
A man might ask three coppers for a tart if he was suspicious of the prospective buyer (I: 599)
Red lamps hung outside buildings indicate brothels (I: 648. II: 174)
A silver coin can buy four mugs of ale, bread, lamb, roast duck, and butter pease and still get back a fistful of coppers in change (THK: 461)
Since the last dragon died, summers are believed to be shorter and winters longer and harsher (THK: 465)
A copper can buy a sausage (THK: 465)
A new hauberk of mail, gorget, greaves, and greathelm made by a good smith can cost 800 silver stags (THK: 466)
Offering to trade old armor to be salvaged for metal can lower the price by 200 stags (THK: 466, 467)
A riding palfrey of good quality might sell anywhere in the range of 700 stags (THK: 476)
700 stags plus the bargained cost of a good saddle convert to three gold pieces and a handful of stags (THK: 477)
Golden dragons bear the face of the king in whose time they were minted in, as well as his name (THK: 477)
Shaving gold from the edge of a coin means another few silvers and a fistful of coppers to make up the weight lost (THK: 477)
One can live well for a year on three gold dragons (THK: 477)
A Lysene pirate prince with two dozen ships under his command might command 23,000 gold dragons a month for his service as a sellsail (II: 115, 116)
Goods such as jewelry can be pawned (II: 146)
There are sometimes bountiful spirit summers before the cold fully sets in in autumn (II: 189)
There are hedge wizards who attempt to divine the future, including how the weather shall be (II: 189)
The cheapest sort of whores can provide their services for a clipped copper (II: 194)
There are three royal mints (II: 200)
Admirals of fleets in Westeros are given the title Lord Captain or Lord High Captain (II: 284, 600)
A lord might show give a warrant to a servant who has to carry out some important action, often using a ribbon in the color or colors of a house bearing a wax seal (II: 326)
The Ice Dragon (its name may be different outside of the North) is a constellation used to help mark direction, because the blue star in the rider's eye points the way north (II: 381)
A soldier's tent would be of heavy canvas (II: 449)
Men living near bogs and mires can sell leeches they collect at twelve for a penny (III: 5)
The narrow sea is often wet and rainy in the autumn (III: 55)
Freeriders and hedge knights are always attaching themselves to royal processions, seeking employment (III: 83)
The narrow sea is often stormy (III: 87)
Commoners who have turned to outlawry because of harsh circumstances, such as war, are known as broken men. Many are deserters (III: 122. IV: 374-375)
The autumn storms on the narrow sea make sea travel hazardous, so much so that most travel seems to end. Winter storms on the narrow sea are even worse, but less frequent (III: 213, 286. IV: 217)
Shires exist (III: 252)
There have been no slaves in Westeros for thousands of years (III: 264)
Six coppers for a melon, a silver stag for a bushel of corn, and a gold dragon for a side of beef or six skinny piglets are all shockingly high prices (III: 354)
Thirty golden dragons is enough to take passage to the Free Cities and make a long, comfortable sojourn there, at least for a singer (III: 356)
Three hundred dragons is a fair ransom for a knight (III: 503)
The Ice Dragon's tail points the way south (III: 530)
The sea voyage from the Arbor around Dorne and through the Stepstones is a long one (III: 671)
Most people in Westeros, even among the nobility, do not know High Valyrian (III: 676)
Markets and fairs are places where news and gossip is often swapped (III: 733)
The drought that troubled the realm for nearly two years, following the Great Spring Sickness, ended in 211 (TSS: 155)
A virgin whore might be had from an inn for the price of a golden dragon (IV: 1)
A donkey can be bought for 9 silver stags or less (IV: 2)
There are copper coins known as stars (IV: 67, 345)
The brother of a great lord, if well-rewarded for his service and remembered in the will of his father, may well have wealth enough to feed two hundred knights, and have the means to double that number, support freeriders, and purchase sellswords at need (IV: 114)
A coin known as a groat (IV: 175)
Serjeants serve in the hosts of lords and kings (IV: 203. V: 58)
Before the Conquest, the golden coins of the Reach were known as hands. They still exist in some number, with each coin roughly half the value of a dragon (IV: 233)
A hide, a measure of land (IV: 404)
It's said 900,000 gold dragons could feed the hungry and rebuild a thousand septs (IV: 422)
In autumn, the leaves of trees in the kingswood turn their color, and autumn flowers and chestnuts can be found in plenty (IV: 425)
It's suggested that a journey from the Shield Islands to the far side of the narrow sea is so hazardous in autumn that two-thirds of a fleet might be lost in the attempt (IV: 440)
The Seven Kingdoms has no significant banks (IV: 535)
Summer continued at least through the year 211 or perhaps the early part of 212 (TMK: 649)
A small tent would cost a silver stag, in King Aerys I's day (TMK: 652)
The cost to cross a river on a ferry was a few coppers around the year 205, although prices may well have risen in the intervening years (TMK: 652)
Mounted crossbowmen (TMK: 653)
Hedge knights are nearer to common servants than noble knights in the eyes of most lords, and are rarely invited to ride beside them (TMK: 656)
A knight and his squire could "feast like kings" for a year on the ransom won at a tourney (TMK: 658-659)
In the reign of Aerys I, a ferry across a narrow part of the God's Eye cost 2 coppers a man, and then was raised to 3 coppers each. Three horses cost 10 coppers to carry across (TMK: 659)
Misty Moor, probably in the Reach, mentioned by the hedge knight Ser Kyle the Cat (TMK: 661, 663)
A small tourney thrown by Lord Butterwell has a very rich grand prize of a dragon's egg, but the other prizes are much smaller, being 30 dragons for the knight who came second and 10 dragons to each of the knights defeated the previous round (TMK: 672)
In the reign of King Aerys I, 10 gold dragons could buy a palfrey, a suit of plate for a young squire, a proper pavilion, and good food for a time (TMK: 672)
Most of the roads in Westeros are little more than narrow, muddy tracks (V: 77)
The Lannisters and the Tyrells are the two most powerful houses in Westeros; the Lannisters are wealthier than the Tyrells, while the Tyrells command more troops than the Lannisters (SSM: 1)
The unpredictable nature of the seasons and the harshness of long winters, combined perhaps with the past strength of magic, undoubtedly played a part in the slow progress and advancement of technology in Westeros (SSM: 1)
A sellsword is a mercenary, either mounted or unmounted, who fight for wages. Most are experienced professional soldiers. Freeriders are always mounted, but they include anyone who is not part of a lord's retinue or a feudal levy. They generally do not collect wages, but instead fight for plunder or to impress a lord and become a permanent part of his retinue (SSM: 1)
There are five cities in Westeros. In order of size they are King's Landing, Oldtown, Lannisport, Gulltown, and White Harbor (SSM: 1)
There have been attempts in the past to lay claim to the Stepstones, a chain of large islands in the narrow sea east of Dorne and Storm's End (SSM: 1)
No one has ever successfully crossed the Sunset Sea to learn what lives on its other side (SSM: 1)
The journey from Dorne to the North is a long one, taking months (SSM: 1)
Infantry outnumbers cavalry in Westeros. However, with few exceptions, infantry is largely made up of feudal levies and town militias with poor training and equipment (SSM: 1)
Westeros is more strongly affected by winters than the eastern continent, because it extends further north while the eastern continent's boundary is the icy polar sea (SSM: 1)
There are twelve turns of the moon to the year (SSM: 1)

Last revised February 21, 2016
PermaLink

2.1. The Targaryens

The Targaryen kings (and their successors) styled themselves King of the Andals and the Rhoynar and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms, and Protector of the Realm (I: 12)
The Targaryen kings (and their successors) kept a King's Justice, a royal executioner. (I: 13-14, 122, etc.)
Aegon took both of his sisters to bride (I: 26)
For centuries the Targaryens have often wed brother to sister, following the custom of Valyria (I: 26, 692, II: 364)
The Targaryens are called the blood of the dragon, descendants of the high lords of Valyria (I: 26, 692)
The Targaryens were known as the Dragonlords. They were the only dragonriders of Valyria to survive the Doom. (I: 35. SSM: 1)
The three-headed dragon, red, on black is the emblem of House Targaryen. It represents Aegon and his two sisters (I: 36, 692)
Tywin Lannister was the Hand of the King for twenty years. Aerys came to the throne young and wanted a young court, and had known Tywin from youth (I: 103. SSM: 1)
Prince Aemon the Dragonknight's championing of Queen Naerys's honor against evil Ser Morgil and his slander is a well-known story drawn from true events (I: 123. SSM: 1)
Targaryens may feel heat from dragon eggs, where everyone else feels only cold (I: 192)
Baelor the Blessed once attempted to replace all the messenger ravens with doves, but it did not succeed (I: 552)
Aemon Targaryen, son of King Maekar I, became a maester and his brother Aegon reigned in his place. Aemon eventually became of a member of Night's Watch (I: 554)
It was rumored that Daeron II's true father was not Aegon IV but his brother, Prince Aemon the Dragonknight (I: 554, 693. TSS: 136)
At the head of the plaza beneath the steps of Baelor's Sept is a painted marble plinth with a statue of Baelor the Blessed, the septon king, at its peak (I: 605, 606)
Dorne was not joined to the Seven Kingdoms until two hundred years after Aegon, and then it was by marriage and treaty rather than war. Baelor the Blessed negotiated the marriage of Daeron to Myriah Martell as a means of making peace with Dorne after Daeron I's failed conquest. Later, when Daeron was king, he negotiated the marriage of his much younger sister Daenerys (who was born after he had already had a son of his own) to the Prince of Dorne, thereby uniting the realms. (I: 690. SSM: 1)
The Targaryens have a striking (or, as some say, inhuman) beauty: lilac, indigo, or violet eyes and silver-gold or platinum hair (I: 692)
The Targaryens were on Dragonstone for about two centuries after the Doom before invading Westeros (I: 692. SSM: 1)
Rhaenyra Targaryen was the daughter of Viserys I and mother to Aegon III the Dragonbane and Viserys II, but died a traitor's death all the same (I: 693. III: 407. SSM: 1)
The Prince of Dragonstone, the crown prince, in the time of Daeron II was his eldest son Prince Baelor, who was accounted the finest knight of his age and called Baelor Breakspear. He was Hand of the King in his time as well. His two sons were Valarr and Matarys (THK: 467, 475, 476, 486)
Daeron II had four grown sons, three of them with sons of their own (THK: 475)
In Aegon IV's time the line of the dragon-kings and almost died out, but it was said that Daeron and his sons had left it secure for all time (THK: 475)
Prince Maekar Targaryen's sons were the drunken Daeron who had pale brown hair, the skilled but cruel Aerion (known alternately as Brightflame, Brightfire, or the Bright Prince), a third son who was so unpromising they sent him to the Citadel to become a maester (Maester Aemon), and the young boy Aegon (THK: 484, 486, 496, 500, 505. II: 76. TSS: 138. SSM: 1, 2)
Prince Baelor Breakspear had dark hair, as did his son Valarr (THK: 484, 493)
The youngest of Daeron II's sons was Maekar, Prince of Summerhall who was said to be a redoubtable warrior in his own right. The middle two sons were the bookish Aerys and the mad, meek, and sickly Rhaegel (THK: 486, 496)
For striking a Targaryen, no matter the circumstances, a man of lesser nobility will be tried and punished. The last time it happened, the man who did it lost his offending hand (THK: 507, 508)
Aerion Targaryen thought himself a dragon in human form (THK: 512)
Daeron Targaryen, son of Prince Maekar, had dreams that came true (THK: 513)
Prince Baelor Breakspear died in 208 or 209, taking the part of a knight in a trial of seven against his own brother and nephews. The stroke that killed him came from his own brother, although Prince Maekar claimed he never meant it (THK: 529. SSM: 1)
The Targaryens always cremated their dead (THK: 529. IV: 523)
Prince Baelor died at the age of thirty-nine (THK: 530)
As a result of the trial of seven, Maekar sent his son Aerion to Lys and the Free Cities for a few years. He still there by 211. (THK: 530. TSS: 107)
Aegon Targaryen, son of Maekar, squired to the hedge knight Ser Duncan the Tall after the trial of seven (THK: 532, 533)
If a Targaryen prince has no sister or other female kin to wed, it's possible that men will be sent to the Free Cities to find some suitable bride. This is what happened when Prince Rhaegar, who had no sisters, needed a bride of suitable Valyrian blood with a sufficiently noble lineage. Lord Steffon Baratheon was sent to search, but it proved futile and in the end he and his wife died when their ship broke up not far from Storm's End (II: 5. SSM: 1)
House Hollard was almost entirely destroyed at King Aerys's command following the Defiance of Duskendale, except for the young Dontos Hollard who was allowed to live at Ser Barristan Selmy's request (II: 33. IV: 134)
Aerys Targaryen's last Hand was killed in the Sack of King's Landing, although he had been appointed only a fortnight earlier. The Hand before him had burned to death. The two before them had died landless and penniless in exile. Lord Tywin Lannister was the last Hand of the King to depart King's Landing safely (II: 41)
Aemon Targaryen was sent to study at the Citadel in Oldtown when he was nine or ten (II: 76)
Baelor Breakspear's sons and father died during the Great Spring Sickness (II: 77. TSS: 119)
Aerys I wed his own sister (II: 77)
King Maekar Targaryen wished Maester Aemon to be part of his councils, but he refused. Instead he served his elder brother Prince Daeron at his keep, until he died of some disease he got from a whore. Daeron left a feeblewitted daughter as his heir (II: 77)
Prince Aerion Brightflame, known as Aerion the Monstrous later on, was drunk when he drank a cup of wildfire while claiming it would turn him into a dragon. He died, leaving an infant son. The story, "The Prince Who Thought He Was A Dragon", recounts his death (II: 77)
King Maekar died a year after his son, fighting an outlaw lord who was not one of the Blackfyre Pretenders (II: 77. SSM: 1)
In the year of Maekar's death, the Great Council was convened to decide who should rule. Maester Aemon refused the throne because of his vows. They passed over Aerion's infant son for fear of madness and Daeron's lackwit daughter. This left Prince Aegon, thereafter Aegon V who was known as Aegon the Unlikely (II: 78)
Maester Aemon took vows in the Night's Watch when he realized that those who disliked his brother would try to use him against him (II: 78)
Aegon Targaryen knelt to pray in Dragonstone's sept the night before sailing to conquer Westeros (II: 109)
The idols of the Seven on Dragonstone were carved from the masts of the ships that had carried the first Targaryens from Valyria (II: 109)
The Targaryens rode their dragons, and were carried by them even in flight (II: 144)
Aerys II was known for roasting his enemies over fires with the aid of the pyromancers that he was patron to (II: 228)
There are blood ties between Storm's End and the Targaryens, related to marriages some hundred year's past. Most recently, they have Targaryen blood from their descent from Aegon V's daughter, Rhaelle, who was mother to Lord Steffon. These ties were used as justification for Robert Baratheon's ascension to the throne after the rebellion (II: 258. IV: 522. SSM: 1)
The Targaryens had to train their dragons, to keep them from laying waste to everything around them in their wildness (II: 427)
It is said that Prince Aemon the Dragonknight wept the day his sister Naerys wed their brother Aegon (II: 432)
Aerys Targaryen was descended from Aegon and Rhaenys through their son Aenys and their grandson Jaehaerys (II: 640)
Aerys required applause (III: 51)
Baelor the Blessed put his sisters in a keep, that afterwards became known as the Maidenvault, for fear that sight of them would lead him to sinful thoughts. There is a children's story of three princesses locked in a red tower by the king for the crime of being beautiful which may be drawn from this event (III: 65, 814. IV: 420)
Lady Olenna of House Redwyne almost wed a Targaryen prince, but put an end to that (III: 65)
King Aerys II could be very harsh to those he thought his enemies (III: 90)
It was said that no man ever knew Prince Rhaegar (III: 90)
Myles Mooton was Prince Rhaegar's squire, and Richard Lonmouth after him. When they won their spurs he knighted them himself, and they remained his close companions (III: 90)
Young Lord Jon Connington was a dear friend of Rhaegar's (III: 90, 752. SSM: 1)
Price Rhaegar's oldest friend was Ser Arthur Dayne (III: 90)
Ser Arthur Dayne, the Sword of the Morning, was said to be the only knight in the realm who was Rhaegar's peer (III: 90)
Prince Rhaegar was a most puissant warrior (III: 90)
Prince Rhaegar was able, determined, deliberate, dutiful, and single-minded (III: 91)
As a young boy, Prince Rhaegar was bookish to a fault. He was reading so early that it was said that the Queen had swallowed some books and a candle while he was in the womb. Rhaegar had no interest in the play of other children. While the maesters were awed by wit, the King's men jested sourly that he was Baelor the Blessed come again (III: 91)
One day, while still a boy, Prince Rhaegar supposedly found something in his scrolls that changed him. None know what it might have been, but one early morning he appeared in the yard as the knights were donning their steel. He went to Ser Willem Darry, the master-at-arms, and said, "I will requier sword and armor. It seems I must be a warrior" (III: 91)
Rhaenys and Visenya were Aegon's wives at the same time (III: 99)
Being caught smuggling by the sea watch about Dragonstone was death in the days of Aerys (III: 110)
Prince Rhaegar's wife, Elia Martell, was never the healthiest of women (III: 128)
King Aerys tore out the tongue of Lord Tywin the Hand's captain of guard, Ser Ilyn Payne, for boasting that it was the Hand who truly ruled the realm (III: 128. IV: 394)
By choosing Ser Jaime Lannister for the Kingsguard, King Aerys lost his Hand of twenty years. In a fury, Lord Tywin gave up his office and removed himself and his daughter to Casterly Rock (III: 128)
King Aerys was always cutting himself upon the Iron Throne (III: 130)
Maegor the Cruel had three of his Grand Maesters executed (III: 133)
Aegon II had Grand Maester Gerardys fed to his dragon (III: 133)
King Maegor wanted the means to make a secret escape from the Red Keep should his enemies ever trap him (IIII: 136)
Maegor the Cruel had a queen named Jeyne of House Westerling (III: 162)
Prince Aemon the Dragonknight is said to have protected his sister Naerys night and day (III: 183)
Aegon the Unworthy had never harmed Queen Naerys, perhaps for fear of their brother the Dragonknight (III: 184)
When a knight of the Kingsguard, a Toyne, had fallen in love with one of Aegon the Unworthy's mistresses, King Aegon had both their heads taken off (III: 184. SSM: 1)
There was no higher honor than receiving knighthood from Rhaegar, Prince of Dragonstone (III: 272)
The Knight of the Laughing Tree was a mystery knight who appeared at the great tournament at Harrenhal, fighting for the honor a young Howland Reed of Greywater Watch (and may well have been Lord Howland himself). He won King Aerys's enmity (III: 279, 283)
The Dragonknight once won a tourney as the Knight of Tears, so he could name his sister the queen of love and beauty In place of the king's mistress (III: 282)
The Targaryens and perhaps others have sought a way to bring dragons into the world once more. There have been incidents with the nine mages and the alchemists, and a dark incident at Summerhall it seems. No good has ever come of the attempts (III: 292. IV: 535)
Aegon IV had as many as nine mistresses, and many bastards. Supposedly, he had any woman he wanted whether they were married or not (III: 322. SSM: 1)
After Ser Jaime Lannister donned the white cloak of the Kingsguard at the great tournament at Harrenhal, King Aerys sent him away to King's Landing before he could take part in the jousting (III: 345)
The brothers Toyne died for treason - this may be the Kingsguard who was executed for coveting King Aegon the Unworthy's mistress and his brothers, or perhaps Simon Toyne and some sibling(s) who were part of the Kingswood Brotherhood (III: 369, 407)
Daemon Blackfyre died for his treason, as did Grand Maester Hareth and Rhaenyra Targaryen (III: 407)
Proud Lord Belgrave was famously commanded by King Baelor the Blessed to wash a beggar's ulcerous feet (III: 408)
Aerys cut himself so often on the Iron Throne that men took to calling him King Scab (III: 410)
Aegon commanded the Painted Table to be painted accurately to represent the Seven Kingdoms as they then were, but without any borders to signify that it should be one realm alone instead of many (III: 412)
Robert Baratheon and his allies were the greatest threat to House Targaryen since Daemon Blackfyre (III: 418)
Queen Rhaella's eyes were closed for years to what Aerys was (III: 418)
King Daeron I, the Young Dragon, was the first to observe that there were three types of Dornishmen (III: 430)
Thousands of years after the creation of Brandon's gift, Good Queen Alysanne visited the Wall on her dragon Silverwing some two hundred years ago, and she thought the Night's Watch was so brave that she had the Old King (who followed after her on his own dragon) double the size of their lands to fifty leagues, making the New Gift (III: 453. IV: 73)
King Jaehaerys the Concilliator was young when he came to the throne, but ruled for a very long time. In the first years of his reign it was his wont to travel all over the realm. When he came to Winterfell, he brought his queen, six dragons, and half his court. He had matters to discuss with his Warden of the North, however, and Queen Alysanne grew bored and took her dragon Silverwing northwards. Good Queen Alysanne slept in a holdfast in the North, so the folk of the village painted the holdfast's merlons gold in her honor and their village was named Queenscrown (III: 454, 468)
One of the castles on the Wall was named after Good Queen Alysanne, being called Queensgate. It was once Snowgate (III: 468)
Prince Rhaegar's prowess as a warrior was unquestioned, but he seldom entered tourneys, never loving fightng as much as Robert Baratheon or Ser Jaime Lannister did. It was simply something he had to do, a task set for him, and he did it well as he did everything well as was his nature. But he took no joy of it (III: 485)
Men said that Rhaegar loved his harp much better than his lance (III: 485)
When Rhaegar was young, he rode brilliantly in a tourney at Storm's End, defeating Lord Steffon Baratheon, Lord Jason Mallister, and the Red Viper of Dorne. He broke a dozen lances against Ser Arthur Dayne that day, but he lost the tournament to another knight of the Kingsguard (III: 485. SSM: 1)
It had been long years since King Aerys had last left the Red Keep when he went to Harrenhal for Lord Whent's tourney (III: 485)
There was a melancholy to Prince Rhaegar, a sense of doom. It was the shadow of Summerhall and the tale of his birth that haunted him. And yet, Summerhall was the place he loved best, going there from time to time with only his harp for company. He liked to sleep in the ruined hall, beneath the moon and stars, and whenever he came back he would bring a song. When one heard him sing of twilights and tears and the death of king, one could not but feel that he was singing of himself (III: 486)
Thoros of Myr was sent to the Seven Kingdoms because of his gift of tongues and his ability to sometimes see visions in flame. It was hoped that he might convert King Aerys, with his love fire, but he preferred his pyromancers and their tricks (III: 490)
There was a great grief at Summerhall (III: 492)
There is a song about Jenny of Oldstones, with the flowers in her hair, and her Prince of Dragonflies. There is a brief lyric (III: 492, 520, 920)
Duncan, the Prince of Dragonflies and Prince Duncan the Small are one and the same person (III: 520, 752. SSM: 1)
Aegon IV legitimized all his bastards, both the Great Bastards gotten on noble mothers and the baseborn, on his deathbed, and the pain, grief, war, and murder that wrought lasted five generations because of the Blackfyre pretenders (III: 521. TSS: 132)
Aerys felt the need to remind men that he was the king, and was passing fond of ripping tongues out (III: 591)
Nine mages crossed the sea to hatch Aegon the Third's cache of eggs, but failed (III: 598)
Baelor the Blessed prayed over his cache of eggs for half a year, but the prayers went unanswered (III: 598)
Aegon IV built dragons of wood and iron, but they burned (III: 598)
The Targaryens often chose Hands from their own blood, with results as various as Baelor Breakspear and Maegor the Cruel (III: 604)
Septon Barth, the blacksmith's son plucked from the Red Keep's library by the Old King Jaehaerys I, gave the realm forty years of peace and plenty. He understood that that the gender of dragons was changeable. (III: 604. IV: 520)
King Daeron I was very brave in battle (III: 606)
The Young Dragon never won three battles in a day (III: 606)
King Daeron I wrote Conquest of Dorne with elegant simplicity (III: 607)
The Nightfort was the first castle abandoned by the Watch, back in the time of the Old King. Even then it had been three-quarters empty and too costly to maintain. Good Queen Alysanne had suggested that the Watch replace it with a smaller, newer castle at a spot seven miles to the east, where the Wall curved along the shore of a beautiful green lake. Deep Lake was paid for by the queen's jewels and built by the men the Old King had sent north (III: 628)
There's a story of an old lord of House Plumm who wed a Targaryen princess in the day of one of the Aegon's (not the Fifth). He was a famous fellow, for the story goes that his member was six feet long (III: 647)
Grand Maester Kaeth wrote Lives of Four Kings, a history of the reigns of Daeron the Young Dragon, Baelor the Blessed, Aegon the Unworthy, and Daeron the Good. Kaeth scants Viserys II terribly, however, as his short reign as king came after Baelor's (III: 662, 664)
Viserys II is a controversial figure in history. Some point towards the peace and propserity he brought the realm while he was Hand for Daeron I and Baelor the Blessed for some fifteen years, and a year as king on how own right, but others say he poisoned Baelor to steal his throne. This is countered with the claim that King Baelor died by starving himself to death because of his fasting (III: 664. IV: 456)
Baelor the Blessed is not seen as a great king and would have ruined the realm with his follies were it not for his uncle (III: 664)
Baelor the Blessed walked the Boneway barefoot to make peace with Dorne and rescued the Dragonknight from a snakepit. Legend says the vipers refused to strike him because he was so pure and holy, but the truth is that he was bitten half a hundred times and should have died from it. Some say that he was deranged by the venom (III: 664, 665)
Barristan Selmy won the name of "the Bold" in his 10th year when he donned borrowed armor to appear as a mystery knight at a tourney in Blackhaven, where he was defeated and unmasked by Duncan, Prince of Dragonflies (III: 752)
Barristan Selmy was knighted in his 16th year by King Aegon V Targaryen after performing great feats of prowess as a mystery knight in the winter tourney at King's Landing, defeating Prince Duncan the Small and Ser Duncan the Tall, Lord Commander of the Kingsguard (III: 752)
Ser Barristan brought King Aerys II to safety during the Defiance of Duskendale despite an arrow wound in his chest (III: 752)
It is said that every child knows that the Targaryens had always danced too close to madness, and King Jaehaerys II once said that with the birth of a new Targaryen the gods would throw a coin to decide whether the child would be great or mad (III: 811)
Queen Rhaella sheltered her young son Viserys from the truth about his father Aerys II as much as possible (III: 815)
King Aerys II always had a little madness in him, it seems, but he was charming and generous as well, so his lapses were forgiven. His reign began with much promise, but as the years passed the lapses grew more frequent (III: 815)
There are those who say there is some good to say of the Mad King, as well as of his grandfather Jaehaerys II and his brother, their father Aegon V, Queen Rhaella, and of Rhaegar most of all (III: 815)
Maegor the Cruel called for four dungeon levels beneath the Red Keep. The lowest of them was set aside for torment (III: 875)
After the Great Spring Sickness, the summer following brought a drought that lasted nearly two years and displaced thousands of smallfolk, most who disobeyed edicts to return to their lands (TSS: 79, 81, 99, 118)
Many blamed the drought following the Great Spring Sickness on King Aerys and his Hand, Brynden Rivers (more commonly known as Lord Bloodraven), because of his status as a kinslayer (TSS: 81, 121)
A riddle was said regarding Lord Bloodraven, concerning his network of spies and informers: "How many eyes does Lord Bloodraven have A thousand eyes, and one." (TSS: 81. TMK: 650)
Lord Bloodraven was an albino, marked with a blotch of discolored skin on his chin and across one cheek which some claimed to resemble a raven. His personal guard were called the Raven's Teeth, and he carried the Valyrian steel sword Dark Sister on his hip. He lacked an eye, which he lost to Bittersteel on the Redgrass Field. He was the bastard son of Aegon the Unworthy by his sixth mistress, Lady Mylessa Blackwood, who was known as Missy. His personal arms were a white dragon with red eyes (TSS: 81. SSM: 1)
Lord Bloodraven was named Hand to King Aerys I on his ascension to the throne (TSS: 81)
Lords in Westeros once had the right to the first night (the custom of bedding newlywed common women before their husbands), but Queen Alysanne convinced King Jaehaerys I to abolish it (TSS: 94)
Coldmoat was taken from Lord Osmond Osgrey following his speaking out against King Maegor's supression of the Poor Fellows and the Warrior's Sons (TSS: 105)
Lord Bloodraven's paramour was Lady Shiera, who was alleged to bathe in blood to keep her beauty. She was the daughter of Aegon the Unworthy by his ninth and final mistress, Lady Sereni of Lys, who was the last of an ancient but impoverished Valyrian line. "Sweet Sereni" died giving her birth, but not before naming her Shiera, Star of the Sea. Shiera was born with one blue eye and one green eye, and was considered the most beautiful woman of her age.She wore her silver-gold hair very long, and preferred to wear cloth-of-silver and ivory; she found gold vulgar. She had a silver necklace with alternating emerald and star sapphires. Men killed themselves at her rejection, fought duels for her favor, and Bloodraven himself asked her to marry him half a hundred times but she never agreed as she preferred to keep him jealous. She was very learned, speaking a dozen languages and reputed to practice dark arts as her mother before her was said to have done (TSS: 107. SSM: 1)
Maekar I had at least two daughters, one known as Rhae (probably a diminutive) and another as Daella (TSS: 107)
Daemon Blackfyre reversed the colors of the Targaryen arms for his own banner, as many bastards did. In the years following his rebellion, asking if someone had followed the red dragon or the black was considered a dangerous question (TSS: 110)
Daemon Blackfyre was also known as Daemon the Pretender. He was the bastard son of Aegon the Unworthy by his cousin, Daena Targaryen, sister and briefly wife of Baelor the Blessed. She and her two sisters were placed in the Maidenvault when he ascended to the throne, and it is there that she conceived Daemon despite Baelor's efforts to isolate he from the corruption of men. She refused to divulge the father and became known as Daena the Defiant because of this. It was only years afterwards that Aegon IV acknowledged him after he bested a score of squires in a melee (TSS: 110. SSM: 1)
Aegon IV the Unworthy gave his Valyrian steel sword, Blackfyre, which had been carried by Aegon the Conqueror and all the Targaryen kings after him, to his bastard Daemon when he knighted him at the age of 12, instead of to his his heir, Daeron; talk of Daemon becoming Aegon's heir began after this point.. Daemon was his son by one of his cousin's, one of the princesses in the Maindenvault who were sisters to King Baelor the Blessed.(TSS: 111, 137. SSM: 1, 2)
Blackfyre was the most famous Valyrian steel sword that the Targaryens possessed. It would be long lost by the time of the battle of the Trident (TSS: 111. SSM: 1)
Lord Bloodraven and his Raven's Teeth used longbows to kill Daemon Blackfyre and his twin sons, Aegon and Aemon, at the Redgrass Field (TSS: 111-112)
It was rumored that King Aerys I was ensorceled by his Hand, Lord Bloodraven, who was thought to be the true power behind the throne (TSS: 112)
Those who died during the Great Spring Sickness, of which there were many tens of thousands, were said to have died in the spring (TSS: 118-119)
Bittersteel and Daemon Blackfyre's surviving sons fled to Tyrosh, where they plotted their return (TSS: 121)
King Aerys was considered to be too uninterested to try and put a halt between a private war between the Brackens and Blackwoods, while his Hand would at best do nothing and at worst help his Blackwood cousins (TSS: 122)
Brynden Rivers' father was Aegon IV (TSS: 122)
Lord Bloodraven controlled the throne for a number of reasons. King Aerys I kept to his apartments by 211 and no man could see him without Bloodraven's leave. Aerys's queen, Alienor, prayed daily that the Mother might bless her with a child. Prince Maekar Targaryen sulked at Summerhall, nursing grievances against his brother King Aerys, while Prince
When Lord Bloodraven was named Hand, Prince Maekar refused to be a part of the king's small council (in part because he felt he should have been named to that office) and removed himself to Summerhall (TSS: 132)
Prince Maekar was regarded by some as the finest battle commander in the Seven Kingdoms, after Baelor (TSS: 132)
Brynden Rivers was a lord only by courtesy (TSS: 132)
Aegon IV's bastards gotten on noble mothers were called the Great Bastards. These were Brynden Rivers, Bittersteel, and Daemon Blackfyre (TSS: 132)
King Daeron II was called Daeron the Falseborn by Daemon Blackfyre's followers (TSS: 136)
Some disdained Daeron II because he was a spindly man with a pot belly and little ability for martial feats but who surrounded himself with maesters, septons, and singers. His court was filled with Dornishmen, thanks to his marriage to a princess of Dorne and his arranging the marriage of his sister to the Prince of Dorne. (TSS: 137. (SSM: 1)
Daemon Blackfyre was a great warrior, and some claimed that with Blackfyre in his hand no knight who ever lived could have matched him, even Ulrik Dayne with Dawn or Aemon the Dragonknight with Dark Sister (TSS: 137)
It was said that Daeron II's sister and Daemon Blackfyre were in love when Daeron married her to the Prince of Dorne (TSS: 137)
Bittersteel seems to have been considered the greatest of the knights and champions who flocked to Daemon Blackfyre's banner (TSS: 137)
When Daeron the Good married the Dornish princess Myriah and then brought Dorne into the realm, it was agreed that Dornish law would always rule in Dorne (IV: 43)
The Defiance of Duskendale occurred approximately in the year 270, give or take five years. The Lord of Duskendale refused to pay taxes, demanding certain rights and the town charter following the influence of his wife from the Free Cities (IV: 65. SSM: 1, 2)
Prince Maekar's son Aemon was sent to the Citadel over the objections of his father, at the behest of King Daeron II. Daeron had sired four sons and three had sons of his own. Given the Blackfyre Rebellion and ensuing troubles, Daeron felt that too many Targaryens was as dangerous as too few (IV: 84)
It's said that the great admiral Lord Oakenfist, Alyn Velaryon, had a bastard son named Jon Waters (as well as a daughter, Jeyne Waters) by one of King Baelor's sisters in the Maidenvault, Elaena. This son had a trueborn son in turn, who gave himself the surname Longwaters to mark his legitimacy (IV: 120-121. SSM: 1)
The Darklyns no longer exist, destroyed by Aerys following the rebellion of Lord Denys Darklyn known as the Defiance of Duskendale. The rebellion was urged by his wife Lady Serala, a Myrish woman who became known as the Lace Serpent. Lord Denys and all of his family, including women and children, were executed. His wife was burned alive, but not before having her tongue and female parts torn out (IV: 133, 134)
It’s said that Lord Denys Darklyn’s rebellion was urged by his wife, Lady Serala, (IV: 134)
Like the Darklyns, the Hollards were destroyed by King Aerys. Their lands were seized, their castle was torn down, and their villages were put to the torch (IV: 135)
Archmaester Marwyn's Book of Lost Books, containing among other things information concerning three pages from Signs and Portents, a book of visions written down by the maiden daughter of Aenar Targaryen before the Doom (IV: 162)
When the Young Dragon was killed, a Kingsguard knight named Ser Olyvar Oakheart, known as the Green Oak, died at his side (IV: 185)
Ser Terrence Toyne was found abed with the mistress of Aegon the Unworthy. Toyne and the mistress were executed, and it led to the downfall of his house and the death of Aegon the Dragonknight, considered by some the noblest knight who ever lived (IV: 192-193)
It's claimed that the rumors of Daeron the Good being the son of the Dragonknight were false, put about by Aegon the Unworthy when he considered putting aside his son for one of his bastards (IV: 193)
Ser Lucamore Strong, in later days known as Lucamore the Lusty, kept three wives and sixteen children in secret. When this was discovered, King Jaehaerys I had his Sworn Brothers castrate him, and then sent him to the Wall to serve out his days in the Night's Watch (IV: 193)
The Golden Company has never broken its contract, boasting that its word is as good as gold since the days of their founder Bittersteel. They were founded approximately 200 AC. (IV: 197. V: 78)
The Golden Company is a brotherhood of exiles, united by the dream of Bittersteel to return to Westeros (IV: 198. V: 78)
Bittersteel rode in at least three of the Blackfyre Rebellions (IV: 198)
Maester Aemon joined the watch at the age of thirty-five. He was escorted by Ser Duncan the Tall, and arrived with pomp that the Watch had not seen since Nymeria sent them six kings in golden fetters. His brother, King Aegon V, emptied the dungeons to send an "honor guard" with him, and one of the released prisoners was none other than Brynden Rivers, known as Bloodraven (IV: 218-219)
Bloodraven was eventually chosen as lord commander of the Night's Watch (IV: 219)
A song about Bloodraven exists called, "A Thousand Eyes, and One" (IV: 219)
Relations between Aerys II and his sister and queen Rhaella were poor in the last years of his reign. The two slept apart and avoided one another as much as possible. The king forced himself on her after giving men to the flames, however, and was known to abuse her at those times (IV: 232)
Queen Visenya personally received the homage of the men of Crackclaw Point, who submitted to her after having seen what was done to Harren the Black. She promised them that they would be vassals to no one but the Targaryens, a mark of distinction that the people are proud of (IV: 283)
While Hand, Tywin Lannister planned to wed his daughter to Prince Rhaegar, and promised her this when she was six. When Rhaegar was a new-made knight, he visited the west with King Aerys. Lord Tywin hosted a grand tourney, which Rhaegar won, and it was at the feast afterwards where the betrothal was to be announced. King Aerys rejected the proposal, however, saying that kings do not wed their sons to their servants (IV: 360-361)
The Targaryens created the office of Lord Confessor, who resided in the prison tower and oversaw questioning and torture of prisoners. This office was abolished by Daeron II (IV: 396)
During the reign of Baelor the Blessed, King Baelor caused a stone mason to be made High Septon because he thought the man's work was so beautiful that he must be the Smith made flesh. The mason could neither read nor write, and could not remember even the simplest prayers. It's rumored Baelor's Hand, the future Viserys II, had the man poisoned to spare the realm humiliation. After him, Baelor saw an eight-year-old boy raised to High Septon, believing he could work miracles, but the boy High Septon could not save Baelor during his final fast (IV: 412)
Aegon the Conqueror dated the beginning of his reign from the day the High Septon anointed him as king in Oldtown. Since then, it has been traditional for the High Septon to give their blessing to every king (IV: 413, 421)
It's said that King Baelor forgave those who conspired against him (IV: 420)
Jaehaerys the Conciliator swore upon the Iron Throne that the crown would always defend the Faith (IV: 420-421)
King Maegor's decree prohibited the Faith from arming itself (IV: 422)
The ancient blessed orders known as the Swords and the Stars comprised the Faith Militant, until Maegor's decree. The proper name of the Swords is the Warrior's Son, and it's said they wore fabulous armor over hair shirts and carried swords with crystal stars in their pommels. The Stars were named for their sigil, the red seven-pointed star on white, and were properly called the Poor Fellows. They were far humbler than the other order, for the most part, and were often little more than armed begging brothers who protected the faithful as they travelled from sept to sept and town to town (IV: 422-423)
The Kingswood Brotherhood's downfall was Ser Arthur Dayne's winning the love of the smallfolk of the kingswood, expanding their grazing lands, winning them the right to fell more trees, and so on. Once they saw Ser Arthur and the king protected them better than the outlaws did, the Brotherhood was lost (IV: 453)
Baelor the Blessed never consummated his marriage to his sister Daena, and set her aside as soon as he was crowned (IV: 457)
Aegon the Conqueror treaded lightly with the Faith, so that the militant orders would not oppose him. When he died, however, they were in the thick of the rebellions that his sons faced (IV: 500)
King Maegor put a bounty on members of the Faith Militant: a dragon for the head of a Warrior's Son, and a stag for the scalp of a Poor Fellow. Thousands were killed, but as many still roamed the realm defiantly until Maegor's death and Jaehaerys the Conciliator's agreement to pardon all those who gave up their swords (IV: 500)
The Black Pearl, Bellegere Otharys, was a pirate queen some four generations ago who was taken as a lover by a Targaryen prince. She gave him a daughter, who became a famed courtesan in Braavos, and her daughter and granddaughter have been courtesans in turn (IV: 512)
The Dragonknight is said to have been a hero who died too young (IV: 519)
A fire devoured Summerhall on the day of Rhaegar Targaryen's birth (IV: 520)
Baelor the Blessed ordered the writings of Septon Barth to be burned (IV: 522)
A comet was seen above King's Landing on the day that Rhaegar's son Aegon was conceived (IV: 520)
Jaehaerys the Conciliator had the kingsroad built (IV: 548)
Of old, the High Septons might appoint seven judges to try a case, and if a woman was accussed, three of them might be women, representing maidens, mothers, and crones (IV: 645, 651)
In Oldtown, there is a statue of King Daeron the First in the Citadel, along a path from the Scribe's Hearth. He sits upon a tall stone horse, his sword pointed towards Dorne (IV: 677)
Bloodraven was reputed to be able to change the appearance of his face, turn himself into a one-eyed dog, turn into a mist, command packs of grey wolves to hunt down his enemies and carrion crows to spy on the people of the realm (TMK: 650-651)
Goods were more expensive in 211 than they were a few years before, in some part due to the Great Spring Sicknes and the long drought that followed it (TMK: 652)
The roads during King Aerys I's reign were not so safe as they were under his father, Daeron the Good (TMK: 653)
The Seven Kingdoms were seemingly left to fend for themselves against Lord Dagon Greyjoy and his ironborn reavers troubling all the lands on the western coast, as King Aerys I ignored the trouble so he could be closeted with his books, while Prince Rhaegel was said to be so mad as to dance naked in the halls of the Red Keep and Prince Maekar so angry at his brother and his advisors that he sat and brooded at Summerhall. Some blamed Lord Bloodraven, the Hand of the King, for this state of affairs, while others claimed his attention was focused on Tyrosh where the sons of Daemon Blackfyre and Bittersteel plotted another attempt to seize the Iron Throne (TMK: 664)
Prince Rhaegel stood as heir to Aerys I, despite being mad, and his twin children after him. (TMK: 665)
It was a custom of the Targaryens to place dragon eggs in the cradles of their children (TMK: 668)
The last dragon had a clutch of five eggs, and the Targaryens had others on Dragonstone that had been laid before the Dance of the Dragons. One of the eggs is gold and silver with veins of fire running in it, and another is swirled with white and green (TMK: 668)
King Aerys I read a prophecy that he believed indicated that the dragons would return (TMK: 668)
Ser Quentyn Ball was called Fireball for his hot temper and red hair. He had been promised a place in the Kingsguard by Aegon the Unworthy, and forced his wife to become a silent sister so he could take up the honor. By the time a place was open, however, it was Aegon's son Daeron who ruled and he preferred to give the cloak to another man (TMK: 668-669)
Fireball would go on to help convince Daemon Blackfyre to claim the crown, and rescued him when King Daeron sent the Kingsguard to arrest him (TMK: 669)
Prince Maekar was considered a kinslayer by many after the death of his brother at Ashford (TMK: 686)
There have always been Targaryens who dreamed of things to come, since long before the Conquest, and it was no surprise that the same gift appeared among their descendants such as the Blackfyres (TMK: 735)
Bloodraven believed that Daemon Blackfyre's dream that a dragon would hatch at Whitewalls came true, but that it was Prince Aegon whom he dreamed of (TMK: 735)
Aerion Brightflame did not remain exiled in Lys all his life, and probably fathered a few bastards there (SSM: 1)
The Targaryens were heavily interbred because of centuries of marriages between close kin, even brothers and sisters. This accentuated both flaws and virtues, pushing the line towards extremes. Further, some of the great kings (such as Daeron I, the Young Dragon, and Baelor I, the Blessed) of the line could be seen as mad in a certain light. (SSM: 1)
It has never been the case that all Targaryens are all immune to all fires at all times (SSM: 1)
Viserys II was a younger brother of Aegon III (SSM: 1)
Aegon the Conqueror was married to his sisters Rhaenys and Visenya at the same time (SSM: 1)
Summerhall was a lightly fortified castle that Daeron II built on the Dornish marches, roughly where Dorne, the Reach, and the Stormlands come together. It was a Targaryen castle and a royal residence, especially when Daeron was young, but as he grew older he left King's Landing less frequently, and Summerhall passed to his youngest son, Maekar (SSM: 1)
The only fleets comparable to the Greyjoy fleet in the Seven Kingdoms are the royal fleet and the Redwyne fleet based at the Arbor (SSM: 1)
The largest and most famous sellsword company on the eastern continent is the Golden Company, that was founded by one of Aegon the Unworthy's bastards (SSM: 1)
The most notable rebellions against the Targaryens came from the Blackfyre pretenders (SSM: 1)
Aerion Brightflame was also known as Aerion Brightfire (SSM: 1)
Rhaegar's daughter Rhaenys looked more a Martell, while his son Aegon looked more Targaryen (SSM: 1)
There were tensions between King Aerys and Prince Rhaegar (SSM: 1)
The War of the Ninepenny Kings was fought on the Stepstones (SSM: 1)
Maegor the Cruel had eight or nine wives, all or most from other houses, some of whom he was married to at the same time. He executed a number of them for failing to provide him an heir, a test which all of them ultimately failed (SSM: 1, 2)
The Targaryens had many weapons of Valyrian steel (SSM: 1, 2)
Targaryen bastards have had various last names (SSM: 1)
The first Targaryen kings attempted to control their realm more directly.After Jaehaerys the Conciliator, however, they tended to delegate and rule through the great lords (SSM: 1)
Jaehaerys II was only 39 when he died. His son Aerys II was 19 when he assumed the throne (SSM: 1)
The role of the wardens are to defend their assigned regions from invaders, and are in theory the supreme generals of their area so as to avoid disunity (SSM: 1)
Prince Duncan was Aegon V's heir at some point, but his younger brother Jaehaerys became heir at least for a time for unknown reasons (SSM: 1)
The Targaryens are not immune to fire, although they can stand somewhat more heat than most. (SSM: 1), 2)
Bittersteel was Ser Aegor Rivers, the bastard son of Aegon the Unworthy by his fifth mistress, Lady Barba Bracken. Angry at his lot as a bastard, he was dark-haired, lithe, and hard. He wore a horsehead crest upon his helm and his arms featured a red stallion with black dragon wings, snorting flame against a golden field (SSM: 1, 2)
Daemon Blackfyre was about 26 at the time of his rebellion, Bittersteel 24, and Bloodraven 21. Daemon's eldest sons, Aegon and Aemon, were 12 (SSM: 1, 2)
Blackfyre was a larger sword than either Dark Sister or Lady Forlon (SSM: 1)
Aegon Targaryen was tall, broad-shouldered, and powerful. His battle armor included a suit of black scale armor with greaves and gauntlets. His hair was cut very short, and he wore a crown featuring a simple circle t of Valyrian steel set with square rubies (SSM: 1)
Aegon's Valyrian steel crown was worn by Maegor the Cruel, Aegon II, and Daeron I (SSM: 1)
Aenys Targaryen was a weakling, as tall as his father but soft and slender. He had a silky beard and a pointed mustache. He wore many jewels, and his golden crown was large and elaborate (SSM: 1)
Maegor the Cruel was huge and powerfully built, with a beard following his jawline. His armor was plate, covered with a surcoat blazoned with the Targaryen arms (SSM: 1)
Jaehaerys the Conciliator ruled for fifty-five years. In his old age he was not stooped, and had a long white beard to his waist. Wearing robes of black and gold, his crown was a simple golden circlet set with seven stones of different colors (SSM: 1)
Viserys I was a plump and pleasant king, always jesting, who ruled at a time of peace and plenty. He had a bushy silver-gold mustache, and wore Jaehaerys's crown (SSM: 1)
Aegon II resembled his father strongly, but his manner was petulant rather than pleasant. He acted the warrior, but it did not suit him. He only had a faint whisp of a mustache (SSM: 1)
Aegon III always wore black, and rarely smiled. Slender and somber, he wore a plain gold circlet with no ornamention (SSM: 1)
Daeron I was young, clean-shaved, and very handsome with long hair. He wore an elaborate suit of black-and-gold plate armor (SSM: 1)
Baelor the Blessed was a thin, reedy young man with a nearly beatific way about him. He wore a simple septon's robe bound with a rope, and a crown of vines and flowers. His long hair and beard were the typical Targaryen coloring (SSM: 1)
Viserys II came late to the throne in his fifties. He was clean-shaved, long-haired, and bushy-browed with a prominent nose and a shrewd manner. He wore Viserys I's unornamented crown (SSM: 1)
Aegon the Unworthy began his reign young and handsome, but at its end he was old and corrupt, his body bloated and fat. His legs could not support his weight, and his eyes and mouth were small and mean. He ornamented and dressed himself richly, and unsuccessfully tried to hide his double-chins with a big beard. He wore a massive crown of red gold, each of its points a dragon's head with gemstones for eyes (SSM: 1)
Daeron II was no warrior, kindly and round-shouldered, with a pot belly. He was dignified and had a quiet strength to him, however. He wore Aegon the Unworthy's crown (SSM: 1)
Aerys I was bookish, spindly, and stooped. His hair was long, his face was long, his pointed mustaches were thin and long, and his beard was pointed and long. He wore Aegon the Unworthy's crown (SSM: 1)
Maekar I's crown was of black iron and red gold, and was sharply pointed. He used his personal arms during his reign, the Targaryen dragon repeated four times (SSM: 1)
Aegon V was tall and slender, with hair falling to his shoulders. He was handsome, strong, yet approachable. He wore the crown of Aegon III, a simple gold circlet (SSM: 1)
Jaehaerys II was amiable, clever, but sickly and died young. He was pale and frail,with very large purple eyes. His hair was shoulder-length and he had a silky beard. He concealed one arm behind a cloak (SSM: 1)
Aerys II, the Mad King, was in his forties at his death, but looked much older. He wore the elaborate crown of Aegon the Unworthy (SSM: 1)
Visenya Targaryen was a year or two older than her brother Aegon the Conqueror, while Rhaenys was a year or two younger. Both had long silver-gold hair, but Visenya's often braided hers and bound it with rings, while Rhaenys wore hers long and loose. Both were warriors and dragonriders in their own right. Visenya was sterner and more passionate, but she could be cold and unforgiving while Rhaenys was more playful and cheerful. Visenya was likelier to don a warrior's arms and armor, and often carried Dark Sister (SSM: 1)
Dark Sister was somewhat more slender than a typical longsword and was better-suited to a woman's hand (SSM: 1)
Naerys Targaryen was beautiful, but she was frail and delicate, almost unworldly. A small wisp of a woman, her skin was very pale, almost translucent, and she large purple eyes. She was sickly as a child and almost died as an infant. She found most physical activities taxing, but loved music and poetry and enjoyed sewing and embroidery. She was very pious, and dressed simply and modestly. Her marriage was an unhappy one, and Aegon refused to release her from her marriage to him after she gave him his son Daeron. It was said only Daeron or her brother Aemon the Dragonknight could make her laugh (SSM: 1)
Queen Alysanne was sister and wife to Jaehaerys I. Like him, she lived a long life. She was straight and unbowed in her old age, and in her youth was a fine archer and hunter. She was Jaehaerys's right hand and councillor, and often worn a slimmer, more feminine version of his crown. She was much loved by the people of Westeros for her charity (SSM: 1)
Rhaenyra Targaryen was the first-born child of Viserys I, and was almost ten years older than her next sibling, Aegon II. She was Viserys's only living child by his first wife of House Arryn. When her second brother died, Viserys began to treat her as his heir. Many flocked to her, looking for favor. But Viserys's second wife, a Hightower, promptly gave him three healthy sons and a daughter in rapid succession. At her father's death, she was stout, wearing many rings which she often twisted on her fingers when anxious. She was proud and stubborn, generally charming but quick to anger and unable to forget slights. She wore her hair similarly to Visenya, Aegon the Conqueror's sister, though she was no warrior. She wore her father's crown during the Dance of Dragons (SSM: 1)
Daena the Defiant was beautiful, wilfull, and fearless. With long, thick silver-gold hair, she was very outgoing and athletic. She was a skilled archer and very good at riding at rings. She worshipped her father and idolized her brother Daeron. As a child, she affected all black, as her father did. When Baelor failed to consummate their marriage, she changed to white to try and shame him, but he preferred her in such an innocent color. When confined to the Maidenvault at the age of sixteen, she made several escapes, often disguised as a washerwoman or serving girl; her cousin Aegon IV assisted her on one occason. She always wore a three-headed dragon pendant that her father gave her. 1)
Rhaena Targaryen, sister to Daeron I and Baelor the Blessed, was two years younger than her elder sister Daena., Dutiful, meek, and pious under Baelor's influence, she did not chafe at being confined in the Maidenvault, and in her later years she became a septa. At fourteen she had an innocent, gentle beauty, and often passed her time with sewing and embroidery, often decorating her garments with religious scenes and images (SSM: 1)
Elaena Targaryen was the youngest of Aegon III's children, and was only eleven when her brother placed her in the Maidenvault. Her hair was platinum white with a bright gold streak, very unusual for the Targaryens. She often dressed in black, in emulation of Daena, and like Daena she was very wilfull. She cut off her long braid of hair in hopes that Baelor would decide she was no longer so beautiful as to tempt men to sin, but he did not release her. After that, she kept her hair short. Her prized possession was a stony dragon's egg, its colors matching her hair. She lived a long and tumultuous life. Her greatest love was her cousin Alyn Velaryon, known as Oakenfist, by whom she bore twin children named Jeyne and Jon Waters. She married three times, twice at a king's behest and once for passion. She gave birth to seven children. Though never a great beauty, her features improved with age. Her intellect was keen, especially with money, and it was said that she did most of the work of her second husband, who sat on the small council as master of coin (SSM: 1)
The Targaryens had been happy to sit on Dragonstone until Aegon developed his ambitions. There had also been pressure for Aegon to go east instead of west, with the Volantenes trying to convince Aegon and his sisters to join a grand alliance against other Free Cities. This offer was made when Aegon was quite young (SSM: 1, 2)
Baelor the Blessed was a peace-loving king, and never considered rearming the Faith (SSM: 1)
Daeron I was not homosexual. He was married, but died without issue (SSM: 1)
Targaryen polygamy was accepted largely because of their dragons, which gave them enough power to do as they pleased (SSM: 1)
Aegon the Conqueror followed the Faith for political reasons (SSM: 1">

Last revised February 21, 2016
PermaLink

2.1.1. Dragons

The Targaryens were known as the Dragonlords. They were the only dragonriders of Valyria to survive the Doom. (I: 35. SSM: 1)
Dragonbone is light and flexible, but very strong. It has a high iron content, and is black because of it. Dragonbone bows are prized by the Dothraki (I: 101)
The three dragons of Aegon and his sisters were named after the old gods of Valyria (I: 102. II: 141)
Balerion the Black Dread was Aegon's dragon. It could have swallowed an aurochs or a mammoth whole, its fire was black as its scales, and when it flew whole towns were darkened by its shadow (I: 102. II: 141)
Vhaghar was Visenya's dragon. Vhagar's breath could melt a knight's armor and cook the man inside, and it could swallow a man on horseback whole (I: 102. II: 141)
Meraxes was Rhaenys's dragon. Meraxes was larger than Vhaghar (I: 102. II: 141)
The two last Targaryen dragons had skulls no larger than mastiffs and were misshapen. They were born on Dragonstone. The last, a stunted green female whose eggs never hatched, was said to have been poisoned by Aegon III Dragonbane after seeing his mother eaten by one in the Dance of the Dragons (I: 102, 682; THK: 465)
Dragon eggs are huge, patterned in brilliant colors that make them seem almost jewelled. They are very heavy, as if of solid stone. The surface of the shell is covered with scales (I: 86)
Dragon eggs may have many colors, such as a deep green with bronze flecks, pale cream streaked with gold, and black alive with scarlet ripples (I: 86)
Books exist concerning the properties of dragons (I: 101)
Dragons are largely believed to be dead and gone from the world, although some disagree (I: 106. IV: 2)
Targaryens may feel heat from dragon eggs, where everyone else feels only cold (I: 192)
Some hold that dragons came first from the east, from the Shadow Lands beyond Asshai and the islands of the Jade Sea (I: 197)
There appear to be no more dragons, all dead or killed over the centuries, although some maesters believe they may still exist in unkwown lands (I: 197. IV: 2)
One legend in the eastern continent, repeated by a Qartheen, is that dragons were hatched from a second moon that came too close to the sun and cracked. The dragons drank up the fire of the sun, which is why they breathe flame. One day the remaining moon will come to close as well, and dragons will be reborn (I: 198)
Balerion's teeth are as long as swords (I: 287)
Aegon the Conqueror had the Iron Throne made from the swords of his enemies, saying that a king should never rest easy (I: 386)
Balerion is supposed to have heated the swords that were used to make the Iron Throne (I: 388)
Dragons have long, sinuous necks (I: 674)
Newly-hatched dragons already have streams of smoke coming from their mouths. Their wings are translucent (I: 674)
Since the last dragon died, summers are believed to be shorter and winters longer and harsher (THK: 465)
Aegon the Conqueror had knelt to pray in Dragonstone's sept the night before he sailed (II: 109)
Dragon eggs are more precious than rubies, and living dragons are beyond price (II: 139)
Newly hatched dragons are no larger than scrawny cats, but their translucent wings are large and marvellously colored (II: 140)
New dragons are mostly neck, tail, and wing (II: 140)
Dragons will not eat raw meat. It must be cooked and seared (II: 141)
New dragons will gulp down several times their own weight each day (II: 141)
Heat pours out of dragons, so palpable that in a cool night they steam (II: 141)
The horns, wing bones, and spinal crests of dragons are differently colored from the scales, having such hues as gold, bronze, or scarlet (II: 141. III: 87, 88)
The Targaryens rode their dragons, and were carried by them even in flight (II: 144)
The bones of a dragon, so immense that a man on horseback can ride through the jaws (II: 148)
At least some people from the Shadow (including shadowbinders) say that dragons are fire made flesh (II: 313)
Dragons have eyes like molten gold (II: 316)
Newborn dragons have wings too weak to fly (II: 317)
The maesters believe that the dragons are no more (II: 325)
It takes years before dragons are large enough to be useful in war (II: 427)
The Targaryens had to train their dragons, to keep them from laying waste to everything around them in their wildness (II: 427)
Certain steps in making wildfire work better and more efficiently now. A pyromancer speculates that this could have something to do with dragons, as an old Wisdom said to him once that the spells for making wildfire were not as effectual as they once were because dragons had gone from the world (II: 523)
Young dragons will eat rats and even flying fish (III: 87, 88)
Dragons always preferred to attack from above, especially if they are between the sun and their prey (III: 88)
Young dragons practice diving and attacking one another, and do not fear tumbling into the sea as they can fly right out of it again (III: 88)
Young dragons can fly many miles (III: 88)
Growing dragons are often hungry, and the larger young dragons seem to be nearly always hungry (III: 88)
A dragon at two or three years could be large enough to ride (III: 88)
Grown dragons have an impressive range, able to fly the distance across the narrow sea and perhaps even further without pause (III: 88)
Dragons some half a year old can range to the size of small dogs, or a little larger (III: 88)
Dragons are lighter than they look (III: 88)
Dragons can fly high enough to lose themselves amidst the clouds (III: 88)
There are tales of dragons grown so huge as to be able to pluck giant krakens from the seas (III: 88)
Tales tell of wise old dragons living a thousand years (III: 89)
A dragon's natural span of days is many times as long as a man's (III: 89)
The dragons of House Targaryen were bred for war, and in war they died. It is not easy to kill a dragon, but it can be done (III: 89)
Balerion the Black Dread was two hundred years old when he died during the reign of Jaehaerys the Conciliator (III: 89)
A dragon never stops growing so long as he has food and freedom (III: 89)
The Targaryens raised an immense domed castle, the Dragonpit, to keep the royal dragons. It was a cavernous dwelling, with doors of iron so wide that thirty knights could ride through them abreast (III: 89)
None of the pit dragons ever reached the size of their ancestors. The maesters said it was because of the walls around them and the great dome above (III: 89)
Different dragons seem to breathe flames of different colors. A young black breathes orange, scarlet, and black flame, and a young cream-colored dragon breathes pale golden flames (III: 93, 94)
Dracarys means dragonfire in High Valyrian (III: 94)
The spinal crest seems to extend down the tail (III: 270)
A dragon's talons are black (III: 270)
The Targaryens and perhaps others have sought a way to bring dragons into the world once more. There have been incidents with the nine mages and the alchemists, and a dark incident at Summerhall it seems. No good has ever come of the attempts (III: 292. IV: 535)
Dragons coil into balls, wings and tails tight and eyes hidden, when they sleep (III: 311)
Horses are frightend of dragons (III: 312)
Good Queen Alysanne, wife to the Old King, had a dragon named Silverwing that she rode to visit the Wall at one time (III: 453)
King Jaehaerys and Good Queen Alysanne brought six dragons north with them to Winterfell (III: 468)
Nine mages crossed the sea to hatch Aegon the Third's cache of eggs, but failed (III: 598)
Baelor the Blessed prayed over his cache of eggs for half a year, but the prayers went unanswered (III: 598)
Aegon IV built dragons of wood and iron, but they burned (III: 598)
Dragons may be partial to those with Targaryen or Valyrian blood (III: 647)
It's said in Ironborn legend that Nagga was the first sea dragon (IV: 268)
The dragonlords of old used enchanted dragon horns to call and command their dragons, it's claimed (IV: 277, 279)
Creatures called firewyrms, possibly akin to dragons, are said to exist in the mines and caverns beneath the Fourteen Flames of Valyria. They breathe flames, but have no wings, instead boring through soil and stone. The youngest are as skinny as a girl's arm, but they can grow to monstrous size (IV: 321)
Dragons are neither male nor female, but changeable like flame, shifting between genders. This truth was understood by Septon Barth (IV: 520. SSM: 1)
It's claimed that the Citadel is behind the deaths of the last Targaryen dragons, because of a conspiracy against magic and prophecy (IV: 683)
During Daemon Blackfyre's rebellion, one of his followers, known as Quickfinger, was caught with stolen dragon eggs (TSS: 136)
After guesting at Lord Butterwells's castle for a night and allegedly impregnating his host's three maiden daughters, King Aegon IV the Unworthy gave him the gift of a dragon's egg (TMK: 663)
It was a custom of the Targaryens to place dragon eggs in the cradles of their children (TMK: 668)
The last dragon had a clutch of five eggs, and the Targaryens had others on Dragonstone that had been laid before the Dance of the Dragons. One of the eggs is gold and silver with veins of fire running in it, and another is swirled with white and green (TMK: 668)
The dragon's egg King Aegon IV gave to Lord Butterwell is described as having fine red scales, smooth to the touch and with a shummering quality with flecks of gold and whorls of midnight black. It is said to be heavy enough to smash in a man's skull (TMK: 681)
A young dragon of about two years of age is capable of eating a sheep a day (V: 44)
Dragons had lifespans much longer than humans. However, because so many were involved in wars -- the Dance of the Dragons in particular -- many of them died young (SSM: 1)
There were dragons all over the world once, including Westeros (SSM: 1)
Dragonlore has been accumulated in Valyria, the Citadel, Dragonstone, some of the Free Cities, and perhaps Asshai as well (SSM: 1)
Dragons could be large enough to ride in five years or less (SSM: 1)
Dragonbone was not used in the process of making Valyrian steel (SSM: 1)
All the Targaryen dragons were descended from the three great dragons of Aegon the Conqueror and his sisters (SSM: 1)
Dragons have two legs and wings only -- they do not have forelimbs as well (SSM: 1, 2)

Last revised March 15, 2013
PermaLink

2.1.2. Dragonstone

The Targaryens were on Dragonstone for about two centuries after the Doom before invading Westeros (I: 692. SSM: 1)
A thousand gargoyles sit on the walls of the ancient Valyrian fortress, each some twelve feet high. Among them are hellhounds and wyverns (II: 1)
The stones of the fortress are black (II: 1)
Behind the castle is the Dragonmont, an active volcano (II: 2)
Dragonstone was the westernmost outpost of the Freehold of Valyria (II: 3)
The towers of the citadel of Dragonstone are shaped by some art lost to the Seven Kingdoms, to seem like dragons so that they would appear more fearsome, just as the gargoyles around the walls replaced crenelations (II: 3)
One of the fortress towers is named the Sea Dragon Tower (II: 6)
The Chamber of the Painted Table is within the Stone Drum (II: 6)
The Stone Drum is the central keep of Dragonstone, named such because its walls boom and rumble during storms (II: 6-7)
Going down the stairs of the Sea Dragon Tower, one must then cross the gallery, pass through both the middle and inner walls with their gargoyles and black iron gates, and climb even more steps to reach the Chamber of the Painted Table (II: 7)
The gallery has a row of tall arched windows from which the outer bailey, the curtain wall, the fishing village beyond, and the practice yard can be seen (II: 7)
The Chamber of the Painted Table is a great round room with walls of black stone and four narrow windows that looked out to the four points of the compass. In the midst of chamber is a huge table of carved wood fashioned at the behest of Aegon Targaryen before the Conquest (II: 9)
The painted table is more than fifty feet long, perhaps half that wide at its widest, but less than four feet across at its narrowest. Aegon's carpenters had shaped it after the land of Westeros, its surface painted with the Seven Kingdoms as they then were; rivers, mountains, castles, cities, lakes, and forests were all marked (II: 9)
There is a single chair in the room, raised up and sitting precisely where Dragonstone would have been off the coast of Westeros (II: 9)
Dragonstone, though old and strong, commands the allegiance of only a few lesser lords whose islands are too thinly populated to provide any great numbers of troops (II: 11)
The doors to the Great Hall are set in the mouth of a stone dragon (II: 16)
Dragonstone's sept contains carved statues of the Seven. The Crone had pearl eyes, the Father a gilded beard, and the Stranger looks more animal than human. Many layers of paint and varnish has been applied to them over the centuries (II: 108, 109)
Aegon the Conqueror had knelt to pray in Dragonstone's sept the night before he sailed (II: 109)
The idols of the Seven on Dragonstone were carved from the masts of the ships that had carried the first Targaryens from Valyria (II: 109)
Over the centuries the statues had been painted, repainted, gilded, silvered, and/or jewelled (II: 109)
An old inn at the end of the stone pier of the port, a waist-high gargoyle so weathered as to be nearly obliterated standing outside (II: 112, 113)
The Gullet is a stretch of water beyond Blackwater Bay, between Massey's Hook and Driftmark (III: 109)
Driftmark has a long point, and by the time one passes it the island of Dragonstone has begun to come into view (III: 109)
The citadel of Dragonstone is wrought all of black stone (III: 110)
Being caught smuggling by the sea watch about Dragonstone was death in the days of Aerys (III: 110)
It is said that there are shafts and secret stairs leading from the citadel to the heart of the Dragonmont (III: 114)
The castle gates are made of iron-studded wood (III: 116)
From the citadel gates one can go through an arch named the Dragon's Tail and enter Aegon's Garden (III: 117)
Aegon's Garden has a pleasant pine scent, with tall dark trees on every side. Wild roses grow there, and towering thorny hedges, and there is a boggy spot where cranberries grow (III: 117)
Cells in the dungeons beneath the citadel are warmer than they ought to be, and as dank as one might expect for an isle such as Dragonstone (III: 285)
The passages beneath the mass of Dragonstone are smooth and stony and always warm. It's often said that they grow warmer the further down one goes (III: 285)
Old tales say that Dragonstone was built with the stones of hell (III: 285)
No windows pierce the thick stone walls of the dungeons (III: 286)
The houses sworn to Dragonstone are known as the lords of the narrow sea (III: 291)
At the third turn up the turnpike stairs from the deep dungeons one will encounter an iron gate, and another at the fifth turn nearer the surface as the dark, rough stone grows cooler to the touch. The door after that is wooden, but still the turnpike stairs climbs as it continues past the ground (III: 405)
A high stone bridge arches over emptiness to the massive central tower called the Stone Drum, connecting it to the dungeon tower (III: 405)
The bridge has a waist-high side (III: 406)
Four tall pointed windows look out to the north, south, east, and west in the Chamber of the Painted Table (III: 406)
Claw Isle is a few hours' sail from Dragonstone (III: 408)
Aegon commanded the Painted Table to be painted accurately to represent the Seven Kingdoms as they then were, but without any borders to signify that it should be one realm alone instead of many (III: 412)
Dragonstones grotesques and gargoyles are shaped in many fashions, each different from all the others. There are wyverns, griffins, demons, manticores, minotaurs, basilisks, hellhounds, cockatrices, and a thousand queerer creatures on the battlements (III: 602)
There are dragons everywhere at Dragonstone. The Great Hall is a dragon lying on its bellow, men entering it through its open mouth. The kitchens are a dragon curled in a ball, the smoke and steam of the ovens vented through its nostrils. The towers are dragons hunched above walls or poised for flight; the Windwyrm seems to scream defiance, while the Sea Dragon Tower gazes serenly out across the waves. Smaller dragons frame gates, and dragon claws emerge from walls to grasp at torches, great stone wings enfold the smithy and armory, and tails form arches, bridges, and exterior stairs (III: 602)
It is often said that the old wizards of Valyria did not cut and chisel stone, but worked it with fire and magic as one might work clay (III: 603)
From the cellar of the Sea Dragon Tower, one can exit through a door, walk across a courtyard and take steps down under the tail of a dragon, and arrive at a postern gate which is not far from the sea (III: 708, 709)
There is much obsidian to be found in the old tunnels beneath the mountain, in chunks, boulders, and ledges. The great part is black, but some is green, some red, and some even purple (III: 885)
Dragonlore was once accumulated on Dragonstone (SSM: 1)
Dragonstone is the least populous region in the Seven Kingdoms (SSM: 1)
The Valyrians settled Dragonstone not long before the Doom (SSM: 1)

Last revised August 05, 2009
PermaLink

2.1.3. King’s Landing and its Environs

If the wind's are good, a person might sail from White Harbor to King's Landing and arrive well ahead of a party that have had two or more weeks on horseback from Winterfell (I: 115)
Three hundred years before, the site of King's Landing was hills and forests, with only a handful of fisherfolk living north of the Blackwater Rush (I: 141)
King's Landing is where Aegon the Conqueror first landed, and on the highest hill the first fortress of wood and earth was made (I: 141)
King's Landing sprawls across the shore with arbors, granaries, manses, storehouses, inns, graveyards, brothels, taverns, merchant stalls, etc. A person at sea would see that the city would cover the shore as far as the eye can see (I: 141)
King's Landing has a fish market (I: 141)
Visenya's Hill is crowned by the marble-walled Great Sept of Baelor and its seven crystal towers (I: 141. II: 549)
Rhaenys's Hill is peaked by the collapsed ruins of the Dragonpit dome, its bronze doors shut for a century (I: 141)
The Street of the Sisters runs straight as an arrow between the hills of Visenya and Rhaenys (I: 141)
A hundred quays line the waterfront (I: 141)
Ferrymen pole back and forth across the Blackwater (I: 141)
Trading galleys from the Free Cities come to trade at King's Landing (I: 141)
Whalers from the Port of Ibben might trade at King's Landing (I: 142)
Halfway up Visenya's Hill is Eel Alley, where an inn may be found (I: 143)
The City Watch wear golden cloaks and black armor (I: 143)
The City Watch is led by its Commander (I: 229)
The Great Sept of Baelor has a rainbow pool (I: 229)
The Street of Steel is where most smiths have their forges. It begins on the market square besides the River Gate and climbs up Visenya's hill. The higher up one goes, the more expensive the shops (I: 234)
The River Gate is better known as the Mud Gate (I: 234)
Large tournaments are held outside of the city, beside the Blackwater (I: 246)
The King's Gate leads tourney goers back into the city (I: 255)
A network of tunnels under the city are part of the Targaryen secrets. One can reach the Blackwater Rush through one that exits into a sewer pipe (I: 290)
The spears of the City Watch are topped by black iron heads (I: 440)
Some members of the City Watch wear mail and plate (I: 448)
The Street of Flour is named so for holding numerous bakeries (I: 599)
The cloaks of the City Watch are wool dyed a golden hue (I: 600)
The seven towers of the Great Sept of Baelor each have bells. All of them ringing for a day and a night mark the death of a king (I: 600)
The other gates of King's Landing are the Dragon Gate, the Lion Gate, the Old Gate, the Gate of the Gods, and the Iron Gate (I: 601)
The Blackwater Rush is wide and deep, its currents treacherous (I: 601)
In Flea Bottom there are pot-shops along the alleys where huge tubs hold simple stews. For half a pigeon one can get a heel of yesterday's bread and a bowl of the stew (I: 601)
It is said that the pot-shops will pay a fistful of coppers for a litter of puppies (I: 602)
Below the Street of Flour, as one makes one way down Rhaenys's Hill, the maze of twisting alleys and crossing streets that make up Flea Bottom are encountered (I: 602)
The buildings of Flea Bottom lean in so closely over the narrow alleys that they nearly touch (I: 602)
The River Gate leads to the docks (I: 602)
Flea Bottom's streets are narrow, crooked, and unpaved (I: 603)
Flea Bottom stinks of pigsties, stables, tanneries, and winesinks (I: 603)
When the king dies, all the bells in the city are rung (I: 604)
One tower tolling from Baelor's Sept is a summoning for the city (I: 604)
No one is taken to the Great Sept of Baelor to be executed (I: 605)
A white marble plaza atop Visenya's Hill is before the Great Sept (I: 605)
At the head of the plaza beneath the steps of Baelor's Step is a painted marble plinth with a statue of Baelor the Blessed, the septon king, at its peak (I: 605, 606)
Around the doors of the Great Sept is a raised marble pulpit (I: 606)
The gatehouse of the Gate of the Gods is carved exquisitely with figures, their eyes done so that they might seem to follow those who pass through (II: 49)
An officer of the City Watch wears a black enamelled breastplate ornamented with four golden disks (II: 65)
Officers of the City Watch captain the gates of the city (II: 91)
There are stone-and-timber manses in King's Landing with their own wells, stables, and gardens (II: 96)
Shadowblack Lane leads to the foot of Aegon's High Hill (II: 173, 330)
From the Red Keep to a place behind the hill of Rhaenys, a litter can take an hour to be carried the distance should the streets be busy (II: 174)
Behind the hill of Rhaenys, the Street of Silk is lined with brothels of various expense (II: 174. III: 437)
Rosby and Stokeworth are near the city, not far north from it (II: 193)
A claim that there are a hundred whore houses in the city of the cheapest sort, where a clipped copper is enough to buy as much sex as one could want (II: 194)
The entrance to the Guildhall is atop broad curving steps that front the Street of the Sisters, not far from the foot of Visenya's hill (II: 229)
The gatehouse of the Gate of the Gods has a windowless guard room (II: 230)
A postern gate in the north wall of the Red Keep leads to Shadowblack Lane (II: 330)
From the foot of Aegon's High Hill one can take Pigrun Alley past rows of tall timber-and-stone buildings whose upper stories leaned out so far over the streets that they nearly touch those of the buildings across from them (II: 330)
A manse in the city would be fenced, its gates having some way for someone within to look out such as an ornate eye that opens (II: 332)
The City Watch has men who can act as mounted lancers (II: 433)
From the Mud Gate, one crosses Fishmonger's Square to reach the Muddy Way before turning onto the narrow, curving Hook which leads up Aegon's High Hill (II: 433-434)
Flea Bottom is relatively near to the Guildhall of the Alchemists (II: 438)
A bell is rung in the city to mark evenfall (II: 438)
The wealthier neighborhoods of King's Landing might be found near the Old Gate (II: 439)
There is a street named Sowbelly Row (II: 439)
Pisswater Bend is probably in the area of Flea Bottom (II: 439-440)
Coppersmith's Wynd is another street (II: 466)
Fishwives sell their catches about the quays, in stalls or with just a barrel or two to mark their place (II: 518)
Behind the quays outside of the walls, there tend to be ramshackle buildings which extend to the walls. The buildings are bait shacks, pot shops, warehouses, merchant's stalls, alehouses, and the cribs where the cheaper sort of whores do their business (II: 519)
The Dragonpit has been abandoned for a century and a half (II: 523)
Along the riverfront there are brothels, homes, and warehouses (II: 548)
There is room for thousands of people inside of the Great Sept of Baelor (II: 595)
Merling Rock is apparently an island in Blackwater Bay (II: 601)
There's a sally port at the King's Gate (II: 616)
The Iron Gate exits to the north (II: 633)
Barren spires, sea monts, jut out of the water of Blackwater Bay, some standing as much as a hundred feet above the sea. Sailors know them as the spears of the merling king. For every one that breaks the surface, a dozen more are just beneath the surface to rend a ships hull, and ships stay far away from them (III: 55, 56)
Some spears of the merling king are barren of anything but lichen, with even seabirds shunning them, but larger ones provide safe nesting places for the birds (III: 55)
While honest sailors stay away from the spears of the merling king, smugglers have made use of them the better to stay unseen (III: 57, 58)
The Targaryens raised an immense domed castle, the Dragonpit, to keep the royal dragons. It was a cavernous dwelling, with doors of iron so wide that thirty knights could ride through them abreast (III: 89)
The Gullet is a stretch of water beyond Blackwater Bay, between Massey's Hook and Driftmark (III: 109)
The Sharp Point watch tower, belonging to the Bar Emmons, has a great fire kept lit atop it. Sharp Point is at the end of Massey's Hook (III: 108)
Water fowl teem in the marshes across the Blackwater Rush from the city (III: 183)
Someone may reach King's Landing from Maidenpool by taking the Duskendale road southwards (III: 236)
There are various guilds in King's Landing who are consulted with concerning matters in the city, such as rebuilding after some catastrophe (III: 352)
King's Landing is the realms principle harbor, rivaled only by Oldtown (III: 353)
A maze of small streets cluster about the foot of Visenya's High Hill (III: 355)
Duskendale has a port, lying as it does on the narrow sea (III: 356, 397)
The Kingswood Brotherhood was almost legendary as an outlaw band. Its members included Simon Toyne and the Smiling Knight, Oswyn Longneck the Thrice-Hanged, the young and comely Wenda the White Fawn, Fletcher Dick (who some say was the finest archer that ever lived), Big Belly Ben, and others (III: 369. IV: 452)
Simon Toyne was infamous, the chief of the Kingswood Brotherhood. He once took part in a tourney as a mystery knight. He was killed by Ser Barristan Selmy (III: 485, 752. SSM: 1)
The Great Sept of Baelor has two towering gilded statues of the Father and the Mother, between which a royal bride and groom place themselves for their wedding vows (III: 660, 667)
King's Landing is many times larger than White Harbor (III: 694)
Brindlewood may is a village or town along the kingsroad (III: 695)
From the Gate of the Gods one can take the Street of Seeds to get to the Red Keep, passing brothels, bakers, and alleys, and going through Cobbler's Square (III: 696, 697)
There are so many hiding places in the deep of the kingswood that outlaws often evaded capture for decades (III: 739)
Kings are laid to rest in tombs in the Great Sept of Baelor (III: 751)
Barristan Selmy was knighted in his 16th year by King Aegon V Targaryen after performing great feats of prowess as a mystery knight in the winter tourney at King's Landing, defeating Prince Duncan the Small and Ser Duncan the Tall, Lord Commander of the Kingsguard (III: 752)
Ser Barristan rescued Lady Jeyne Swann and her septa from the Kingswood Brotherhood, defeating Simon Toyne and the Smiling Knight, and slaying the former (III: 752)
Big Belly Ben of the Kingswood Brotherhood nearly killed Lord Sumner Crakehall, but his squire Jaime Lannister defended him and sent him fleeing (III: 753)
The Smiling Knight was a madman, chivalry and cruelty all jumbled together, but he did not know the meaning of fear. When Ser Arthur Dayne broke the Kingswood Brotherhood, he fought against the squire Jaime Lannister and then against the Sword of the Morning with Dawn in his hands. The outlaw's sword had so many notches by the end that Ser Arthur had stopped to let him fetch a new one. When the robber knight told Dayne that it was Dawn that he wanted when the fight resumed, Ser Arthur responded that he would have it and made an end of it, killing him (III: 753)
Kingslanders have a certain way of speaking that can make them distinctive (TSS: 120)
Fires to destroy the remains of the dead during the Great Spring Sickness changed King's Landing. A quarter of the homes were gone, and another quarter stood empty (TSS: 121)
By 211, drought had left the kingswood so dry that fires raged through it by day and night (TSS: 121)
The sort of "teasing" that can go on between the children of Flea Bottom could include the cutting off of a toe (TSS: 124)
King's Landing roads are unpaved and muddy, with many of its buildings are of daub-and-wattle or of wood with thatched roofs, in contrast to Oldtown's cobbled streets and primarily-stone construction (IV: 12)
The shortest road from Kings Landing to Duskendale passes through Rosby and moves in a northeastern direction. (IV: 56, 57)
Perhaps a day's ride past Rosby one can come to the Old Stone Bridge, a tall, timbered inn sitting astride a stone bridge over a river junction (IV: 67)
On entering the Great Sept of Baelor, one passes beneath colored globes of leaded glass in the Hall of Lamps (IV: 101)
Past the inner doors of the Great Sept is its cavernous center, with seven broad aisles which meet beneath the dome (IV: 101)
The Great Sept's dome is lofty and made of glass, gold, and crystal (IV: 101)
The Great Sept has high windows (IV: 116)
The altars of the Seven in the Great Sept feature towering likenesses set in transpets, and are surrounded by lit candles. The floors are of marble and the transepts alone are larger than many septs (IV: 116, 124)
The Great Sept can be accessed via the Father’s Door, the Mother’s Door, the Stranger’s Steps, and other entryways (IV: 124)
Weasel Alley (IV: 125)
Crackclaw Point is a dismal land of bogs, wild hills, and pine barrens (IV: 141, 213)
The Whispers is a castle in Crackclaw Point, ruined for a thousand years, which was once associated with the Crabbs. It was once a smuggler's cove, but has been abandoned for thirty years or more (IV: 213-214)
The Gate of the Gods is grander and more magnificent than the Lion Gate (IV: 226)
East of Maidenpool, the hills are wilder and covered with pine (IV: 280)
The coast road east from Maidenpool is the shortest, easiest way towards the Whispers. It is seldom out of sight of the bay. There are towns and villages along it, growing progressively less populace the further one travels into Crackclaw Point (IV: 280)
The coast road that starts east of Maidenpool eventually gives out in the northern reaches of Crackclaw Point (IV: 280)
The people of Crackclaw Point know their bogs and forests like no other, and when hard-pressed will disappear into the caves that can be found throughout the hills (IV: 282)
Limestone hills rise beyond the Dyre Den, the castle of Lord Brune in Crackclaw Point (IV: 286-287)
The Whispers are roughly three days' ride from the Dyre Den (IV: 288-289)
The Whispers is an ancient ruined castle at the edge of a cliff above the narrow sea. Built of unmortared stones, its name comes from the whispering sound the sea makes as it rumbles through caves and tunnels the water has worn through the cliff. The castle is triangular in shape, with ruined square towers, but the keep and bailey have been swallowed up by growth; the gate has rotted, but a rusted portcullis remains behind it and there is a postern in the north wall. The castle is overgrown, its godswood engulfing its stones. There was once a beacon tower, and steps down to the ocean, but when these collapsed with the cliff they were on some decades past, smugglers no longer made use of the cove as they once had (IV: 289-291)
The hilltop castle of the Hayfords is a day's ride north from King's Landing. A stream runs along the foot of the hill (IV: 396-397)
Travelling north from Hayford castle over the next five days, riders might come across a stable, an inn, an old stone barn, a small wooded island in a stream, and an open field in succession at each night's rest (IV: 399)
Sow's Horn, a towerhouse held by knights of House Hogg, is at least 5 days north of Hayford (IV: 400)
The boundary between the lands sworn to King's Landing and those sworn to Riverrun, marked by a stream, is only a day north of Sow's Horn (IV: 400)
The Great Sept of Baelor has large gardens, capable of holding hundreds (IV: 414)
There are cells for pentinents in the Great Sept of Baelor (IV: 418)
The vaults of the Great Sept hold costly vestments, rings, crystal crowns, and other treasures of the Faith (IV: 419)
The sept-proper of the Great Sept is reached through double-doors in the Hall of Lamps. The floors are of marble, light enters through great windows of leaded, colored glass, and the seven altars are set about with candles (IV: 419)
In autumn, the leaves of trees in the kingswood turn their color, and autumn flowers and chestnuts can be found in plenty (IV: 425)
The Kingswood Brotherhood's downfall was Ser Arthur Dayne's winning the love of the smallfolk of the kingswood, expanding their grazing lands, winning them the right to fell more trees, and so on. Once they saw Ser Arthur and the king protected them better than the outlaws did, the Brotherhood was lost (IV: 453)
A comet was seen above King's Landing on the day that Rhaegar's son Aegon was conceived (IV: 520)
There are small cells atop the slender towers of Baelor's Sept, eight feet by six feet, with a single window barely wider than an arrow slit (IV: 649)
There are rooms and cells beneath Baelor's Sept, dug into the heart of Visenya's Hill. Among them is a seven-sided audience chamber of the High Septon. The room is plain, with bare walls, but the faces of the Seven have been carved into. Though they are crude, there is power to them, and their eyes are of malachite, onyx, and yellow moonstone (IV: 651)
The only fleets comparable to the Greyjoy fleet in the Seven Kingdoms are the royal fleet and the Redwyne fleet based at the Arbor (SSM: 1)
King's Landing is a much bigger city than Lannisport (SSM: 1)
The City Watch were likely known as gold cloaks even before Robert's ascension, and seem to have used gold and black before his reign (SSM: 1)

Last revised November 30, 2009
PermaLink

2.1.3.1. The Red Keep

The Iron Throne is the seat of kings in the Seven Kingdoms (I: 26, 39)
The Red Keep was raised by the Targaryens (I: 64)
19 dragons skulls were kept in the Red Keep after the death of the last dragon. Many, if not all, decorated the throne room of the Targaryen kings (I: 101-2)
The Red Keep sits on Aegon's high hill (I: 142)
The Red Keep consists of seven huge drum-towers with iron ramparts, an immense barbican, vaulted halls and covered bridges, barracks and dungeons and granaries, massive curtain walls with archers' nests, all in pale red stone (I: 142)
Aegon the Conqueror commanded the raising of the keep, his son Maegor the Cruel saw it completed and slew every living person who worked on it to keep its secrets to the Targaryens alone (I: 142)
Narrow postern doors are near the great bronze gates and portcullis (I: 144, 160)
The gate and portcullis into the Red Keep are kept closed during the night (I: 144)
The Tower of the Hand is reserved for the use of the Hand of the King (I: 160)
The chambers of the King's small council are richly furnished with Myrish carpets, carved screens painted with a hundred fantastic beasts from the Summer Isles, tapestries from the Free Cities, and a pair of Valyrian sphinxes (I: 161)
The small council chambers are near the great outer gate. One crosses the courtyard and enters into the inner bailey to make his way towards the Tower of the Hand (I: 164)
The Red Keep is a castle-within-a-castle (I: 164)
Relics of the Targaryens, dusty suits of black armor with dragon scales cresting their helms, sit in halls (I: 165)
There is a secret way to get out of the Red Keep onto the cliffs facing the sea. Narrow handholds, impossible to see from the ground, have been cut into the rock so one may climb down to a trail beside the Blackwater (I: 165)
The throne room is large enough to seat a thousand people for feasts (I: 181. III: 214)
The Small Hall of the Tower of the Hand is a long room with a high vaulted ceiling and bench space for two hundred (I: 181)
Doors are made of oak banded with black iron (I: 184)
The heart tree of the Red Keep's godswood is an ancient oak (I: 214)
The Red Keep is full of cats (I: 284)
The Red Keep is smaller than Winterfell (I: 286)
The Red Keep has a network of secret tunnels under it. One, a shaft twenty feet wide with steps leading down into the darkness, can be sealed away by a huge stone sliding down to stop it (I: 289)
Some tunnels are of stone, others are earth supported by timbers (I: 290)
The throne room of the Red Keep has high narrow windows and is cavernous (I: 386)
The Iron Throne is a monstrosity of spikes and jagged edges and twisted metal, made of the swords of conquered foes. It is uncomfortable, and the back is fanged with steel which makes leaning back impossible. Aegon the Conqueror had it made, saying that a king should never sit easy (I: 386)
When the king is presiding, only he, his family, and his council may sit. All others must stand or kneel (I: 386)
Smallfolk can be present at royal petitioning sessions. They stand in the gallery, among lesser nobles and merchants who are not part of the regular court (I: 387, 390)
The court stands in the throne room, to the sides (I: 387)
The throne on its dais sits high above the floor of the hall (I: 388)
The Iron Throne is supposed to have taken a thousand blades to make, heated in the breath of Balerion the Black Dread. The hammering had taken fifty-nine days. The chair still has sharp points and edges, and can kill a man; and story has it that it has (I: 388)
The king or his Hand might hear disputes between rival holdfasts, petitions, and the adjudicating of the placement of boundary stones (I: 390)
The steps of the throne dais are of iron, and are both steep and narrow (I:393, 440)
The royal apartments are in Maegor's Holdfast (I: 429)
Maegor's Holdfast is a massive square fortress inside the heart of the Red Keep behind walls twelve feet thick and a dry moat lined with iron spikes. It is a castle-within-a-castle (I: 420)
The king's bedchamber has twin hearths (I: 420)
The throne room is oriented north to south, with windows on the eastern and western walls (I: 516)
A hundred lords both great and small might be accustomed to wait upon a king when he holds audience (I: 517)
To the rear of the throne room, there is another exit with tall doors (I: 517)
The doors of the throne room are oak-and-bronze (I: 521)
The doors of the Red Keeps' dungeons are four-inch thick gray wood with iron studs. The walls are of the same red stone the entire Keep is made of, but untended so that nitre grows in patches and the rushes are unclean (I: 524)
Thick stone parapets, some four feet high, protect the outer edge of the wall ramparts. Crenelations are cut into it every five feet for archers (I: 626)
Between the crenels at the gatehouse, atop the wall, are iron spikes on which the heads of traitor's are traditionally placed (I: 626)
There is a well in the Red Keep's lower bailey (II: 194)
From the godswood, one can take a river walk past a small kitchen and through the pig yard to reach the serpentine steps that lead down to the drawbridge of Maegor's Holdfast (II: 207)
Supplicants to the crown cluster about the high oak-and-bronze doors of the throne room (II: 294)
Rushes are used on the floors as the weather cools, even in the Tower of the Hand (II: 326)
A postern gate in the north wall leads to Shadowblack Lane, which itself leads to the foot of Aegon's High Hill (II: 330)
A cobbled square fronts the Red Keep's barbican (II: 435)
The secret entrance into the Hand's chambers in the Tower of the Hand is reached by a strange passage. One goes down a ladder (from some unknown beginning point), walks a long distance that turns in many directions, meets an iron gate. Past the iron gate is a room in which a dragon is done in a mosaic of red and black tiles on the floor. Then another ladder is taken, this time going up, with a tunnel to left being reached after climbing 230 rungs in which a full-grown man must crawl. Sixty feet on is a secret door (II: 472, 570. III: 876. IV: 118)
There are chestnut trees in the godswood (II: 548)
The sept of the Red Keep has high windows set with crystals which break the light into rainbow hues. Candles burn at every side. There are altars to each of the Seven and benches where people may pray and sing and listen to sermons (II: 595)
The Red Keep's sept is in the outer castle (II: 596)
The Queen's Ballroom is not a tenth of the size of the Red Keep's Great Hall (which can seat more than 1,000 people) and only about half the size of the Small Hall of the Tower of the Hand (which can seat two hundred people.) Beaten silver mirrors back every wall scone so that light is reflected into the room, the walls are paneled in richly carved wood, and sweet-smelling rushes are scattered on the floor. Musicians use a gallery above it. Arched windows with heavy velvet drapes run along the south wall (II: 597)
Long trestle tables are used in the Queen's Ballroom (II: 597)
The tall doors at the end of the Queen's Ballroom can be closed and barred (II: 598)
The Red Keep sits on steep and rocky bluffs spotted with lichen and gnarled thorny trees (II: 604)
The Queen's Ballroom has a back door (II: 617)
It's said that the Iron Throne can be dangerous to those not meant to sit in it (II: 668)
There is a bedchamber on the floor above the Queen's Ballroom (II: 687)
There are many small inner yards within the castle (III: 63)
A long slate-roofed keep behind the royal sept has been named the Maidenvault since King Baelor the Blessed confined his sisters there, so that sight o them might not tempt him into sinful thoughts (III: 64, 65)
King Aerys was always cutting himself upon the Iron Throne (III: 130)
There are snug, windowless chambers beneath the north wall (III: 133)
King Maegor wanted the means to make a secret escape from the Red Keep should his enemies ever trap him (IIII: 136)
There are kennels in the Red Keep, where men might sometimes set dogs to fighting (III: 137)
One of the chambers beneath the north wall contains a large flat stone meant for a bed. By the use of counterweights, it can be made to float upwards to reveal secret steps after pushing at a secret place (III: 140)
Aerys cut himself so often on the Iron Throne that men took to calling him King Scab (III: 410)
The royal nursery in Maegor's holdfast is on the floor below the royal apartments (III: 594)
The Kitchen Keep is outside of Maegor's Holdfast. It has spacious apartments at the top, with a large bedchamber and adequate solar, a bath and dressing room, and small adjoining chambers for serving men and women. Some of those cells even have windows, though mostly they're little more than arrow slits (III: 655)
The Kitchen Keep is only across the courtyard from the castle's main kitchen (III: 655)
Much of the castle is connected underground, and the Kitchen Keep is no exception with passages leading from its vaulted cellar (III: 655)
The Kitchen Keep has a roof garden (III: 659)
Traitor's Walk (III: 659)
The throne room has a long carpet stretching from the great bronze doors to the Iron Throne (III: 740)
A round white room, its walls whitewashed stone hung with white woolen tapestries, forms the first floor of White Sword Tower, a slender structure of four stories built into an angle of the castle wall overlooking the bay. The undercroft holds arms and armor, the second and third floors the small spare sleeping cells of the six brothers of the Kingsguard, and the topmost floor is given over to the Lord Commander's apartments. His rooms are spare as well, but spacious, and they stand above the outer walls (III: 750)
The tunnels beneath the Red Keep are supposedly full of traps for the unwary (III: 875)
Maegor the Cruel decreed four levels of dungeons for his castle. On the upper level are cells with high narrow windows where common criminals are confined together. The second level has smaller cells without windows for highborn captives, torches in the halls casting light through the bars. The third level cells, the black cells, are smaller still and have doors of wood so that no light enters them. The lowest level is the fourth, and once a man is taken down there he never sees the sun again, nor hears a voice, nor breathes a breath free of agonizing pain, for the fourth level is set aside for torment (III: 875)
It is supposedly safer to go through the fourth level of the dungeons in darkness, because there are things one would not wish to see (III: 875)
In the chamber of the five doors beneath the castle, one of the doors will lead the way to the river. It has not been opened in a long time (III: 876)
In 211, the Red Keep was garrisoned by the Raven's Teeth, the private guard of Brynden Rivers, Lord Bloodraven (TSS: 122)
The Red Keep’s dungeons are managed by the King’s Justice and the gaoler. Under them is the chief undergaoler, the undergaolers, and the turnkeys. There are wages paid for a score of turnkeys and six undergaolers, but in Robert’s reign there were no more than twelve and three respectively (IV: 121-122)
There are said to be more than half a hundred secret passages. Among them are crawlways too small for an adult, a passage to the black cells, a stone well with no bottom. Also found is a room full of skulls and bones (IV: 174)
At the end of Traitor's Walk are the dungeons and prison cells of the Red Keep, in a squat, half-round tower. The upper levels are divided into cells for prisoners afforded some comfort. At ground level is the entrance to the dungeons, behind a splintery grey and iron door. Inbetween are chambers for the King's Justice, the Chief Gaoler, and the Lord Confessor in the days when the Targaryens kept such an office. The King's Justice serves not only as a headsman, but as the man in charge of the dungeons and the men who labored there (IV: 396)

Last revised July 07, 2009
PermaLink

2.1.3.2. The Kingsguard

The Kingsguard wear snow-white cloaks (I: 32)
Ser Arthur Dayne, the Sword of the Morning, was the deadliest of the Kingsguard in the time of Aerys II (I: 55)
It was said that Eddard Stark slew Ser Arthur Dayne in single combat (I: 55)
The Kingsguard are said to be the finest knights in the Seven Kingdoms (I: 64)
There are only seven Kingsguard, who wear white armor and have neither wives nor children. They live only to serve the king (I: 64)
Famous Kingsguard include Serwyn of the Mirror Shield, Ser Ryam Redwyne, Prince Aemon the Dragonknight, the twins Ser Erryk and Ser Arryk who died on each other's swords during the Dance of the Dragons, Ser Gerold Hightower the White Bull, Ser Arthur Dayne the Sword of the Morning, and Ser Barristan Selmy the Bold (I: 65)
The Kingsguard split during the Dance of the Dragons, some supporting Aegon II and others supporting Rhaenyra (I: 65. IV: 232. SSM: 1)
Jaime Lannister, the Kingslayer, breaks tradition and wears gold-plated armor with a helm shaped like a lion's head and blazons his shield with the emblem of his house (I: 97, 262)
The Kingsguard wear intricate suits of white eenamelledscales, their fastenings for breastplate and other pieces made of silver (I: 120, 520)
The shields of the Kingsguard are pure, unblazoned white (I: 257)
Ser Barristan Selmy was the best sword in the realm during his youth (I: 266)
The days that men like Ryam Redwyne and Prince Aemon the Dragonknight wore the white is seen as dead and gone. Only Barristan the Bold is judged to be of the true steel (I: 270)
Ser Arthur Dayne, Ser Gerold Hightower, and Ser Oswell Whent were ordered by Rhaegar to stand guard at the 'tower of joy' near Dorne. All three died there (I: 354-356)
Queen Naerys was supposed to have loved Prince Aemon the Dragonknight greatly (I: 399)
Prince Aemon and his love for his brother's queen was doomed (I: 461)
A member of the Kingsguard gives up his inheritance and any chance at children when he swears his vows (I: 519)
The Kingsguard is a Sworn Brotherhood, vowing to serve for life. Only death may relieve one of his sacred trust (I: 520)
A Kingsguard swears to ward the king with all of his strength and to give his blood for his ruler's (I: 520)
The Sworn Brothers of the Kingsguard are always knights (I: 521)
The rite for making a new member of the White Swords can vary. In common there seems to be the fact that it is a solemn and formal event, in which the knight kneels as he makes his vows before the kings, and that he receives the white cloak of the Kingsguard from the Hand of the king or the Lord Commander himself (I: 526. II: 520)
It was rumored that Daeron II's true father was not Aegon IV but his brother, Prince Aemon the Dragonknight (I: 554, 693. TSS: 136)
Ser Roland Crakehall, Ser Willem Wylde, and the knight Ser Donnel of Duskendale (who might have been a hedge knight) were among the Kingsguard of King Daeron II (THK: 476, 512)
House Hollard was almost entirely destroyed at King Aerys's command following the Defiance of Duskendale, except for the young Dontos Hollard who was allowed to live at Ser Barristan Selmy's request (II: 33. IV: 134)
The White Swords take turns at shielding the king and the royal family (II: 211)
Prince Aemon the Dragonknight was said to have a wept when his sister Naerys wed their brother Aegon (II: 432)
The twin brothers Ser Arryk and Ser Erryk were said to have wept when they dealt mortal wounds to each other in the Dance of the Dragons (II: 432)
The Kingsguard do not marry (II: 577)
Jaime Lannister was the youngest knight to ever wear the white cloak of the Kingsguard at the age of 15 (II: 581. SSM: 1)
Ser Barristan Selmy was born on the Dornish Marches and squired for Lord Swann of Stonehelm in his youth (II: 646. III: 651)
Cersei Lannister seems to have had much to do with the chosing of her brother Jaime for the Kingsguard (III: 128)
Ser Jaime was chosen to the Kingsguard only a little over a month after the death of old Ser Harlan Grandison, who passed away in his sleep (III: 128)
Ser Ilyn Payne had been captain of Lord Tywin's guard while he was Hand. He once boasted that it was the Hand who truly ruled the realm, and Aerys ripped his tongue out for it (III: 128)
Lord Tywin was furious that he had lost his heir to the Kingsguard. He gave up the Handship on a thin pretext and returned to Casterly Rock, taking Cersei with him (III: 129)
Ser Arthur Dayne rode against the Kingswood Brotherhood, and knighted Jaime Lannister on the battlefield for his valor (III: 129, 130)
Ser Mandon Moore was brought from the Vale by the Hand, Lord Jon Arryn, and made one of Robert's Kingsguard (III: 134)
Prince Aemon the Dragonknight is said to have protected his sister Naerys night and day (III: 183)
Aegon the Unworthy had never harmed Queen Naerys, perhaps for fear of their brother the Dragonknight (III: 184)
When a knight of the Kingsguard, Ser Terrence Toyne, had fallen in love with one of Aegon the Unworthy's mistresses, King Aegon had them executed. Toyne was dismembered piece by piece, while the mistress was forced to watch before meeting her own death. His brothers attempted to avenge him by killing Aegon, but Prince Aemon the Dragonknight died defending him instead, and they paid for their treason with their lives
The Dragonknight once won a tourney as the Knight of Tears, so he could name his sister the queen of love and beauty In place of the king's mistress (III: 282)
Barristan the Bold twice donned a mystery knight's armor, the first time when he was only ten (III: 282)
After Ser Jaime Lannister donned the white cloak of the Kingsguard at the great tournament at Harrenhal, King Aerys sent him away to King's Landing before he could take part in the jousting. The White Bull offered to take his place, but Aerys refused (III: 345, 502)
A former member of the Kingswood Brotherhood, Ulmer, claimed to have put an arrow through the White Bull's hand to steal a kiss from a Dornish princess, as well as her jewels and a chest of gold (III: 369)
Growing frantic, Aerys gracelessly reminded Prince Lewyn Martell that Princess Elia was in his power and sent him to take command of 10,000 Dornishmen coming up the kingsroad (III: 418)
Jon Darry and Barristan Selmy of the Kingsguard were sent towards to Stoney Sept to rally what they could of Lord Connington's scattered men (III: 418)
King Aerys kept Ser Jaime Lannister close, not trusting him, and so Ser Jaime learned all of his plans before the Sack of King's Landing (III: 419)
Jon Arryn came to Sunspear the year after Robert took the throne to return Prince Lewyn's bones and speak with Prince Doran (III: 436, 593)
Barristan Selmy slew the last of the Blackfyre Pretenders, Maelys the Monstrous, in single combat on the Stepstones during the War of the Ninepenny Kings (III: 521, 752)
Ser Ryam Redwyne was the greatest knight of his day, and one of the worst Hands ever to serve a king (III: 604)
Ser Barristan Selmy was born on the Dornish Marches and squired for Lord Swann of Stonehelm in his youth (II: 646. III: 651)
The Dragonknight was saved from a snakepit by Baelor the Blessed, who had walked the Boneway barefoot to make peace with Dorne (III: 665)
Crippled or whole, a Kingsguard serves for life. If crippled, they'll be allowed to serve out their life with honor while other White Swords take up the burden in their place (III: 703. SSM: 1)
Supposedly, a suitable gift to the Faith would persuade the High Septon to release a Kingsguard from his vows (III: 703)
The first floor of the White Sword Tower contains a white book on a white table. (III: 750)
A round white room, its walls whitewashed stone hung with white woolen tapestries, forms the first floor of White Sword Tower, a slender structure of four stories built into an angle of the castle wall overlooking the bay. The undercroft holds arms and armor, the second and third floors the small spare sleeping cells of the six brothers of the Kingsguard, and the topmost floor is given over to the Lord Commander's apartments. His rooms are spare as well, but spacious, and they stand above the outer walls (III: 750)
The winter raiment of the Kingsguard are a tunic and breeches of white wool and a heavy white cloak (III: 750)
The Round Room has white wool hangings covering the walls anda white shield and two crossed longswords mounted abov the hearth. Behind the table is a chair of old black oak with cushions of blanched cowhide, the leather worn thin (III: 751)
Prince Aemon the Dragonknight, Ser Ryam Redwyne, the Demon of Darry, Ser Duncan the Tall, and the Pale Griffn Alyn Connington were all past Lord Commanders (III: 751)
The table in the Round Room is carved of old weirwood, pale as bone, shaped as a huge shield supported by three white stallions. By tradition, the Lord Commander sits at the top of the shield and the brothers three to a side on the rare occcasions when all seven were assembled (III: 751)
The book atop the table in the Round Room is massive, two feet tall and a foot and ahalf wide, a thousand pages thick, fine white vellum bound between covers of belached white leather with gold hinges and fastenings. It is called The Book of the Brothers but is most often simply called the White Book (III: 751)
Every knight who has ever served in the Kingsguard has a page in the White Book, to recod his name and deeds for all time. On the top left-hand corner of each page was drawn the shield the man had carried at the time he was chosen, inked in rich colors. In the bottom right corner is the pure white shield of the Kingsguard. In the space between the shields were written the facts of each man's life and service (III: 751)
The drawings and illuminations in the White Book are done by septons sent from the Great Sept of Baelor three times a year (III: 751)
It is the duty of the Lord Commander to keep the entries in the White Book up to date (III: 751)
Barristan Selmy won the name of "the Bold" in his 10th year when he donned borrowed armor to appear as a mystery knight at a tourney in Blackhaven, where he was defeated and unmasked by Ducan, Prince of Dragonflies (III: 752)
Barristan Selmy was knighted in his 16th year by King Aegon V Targaryen after performing great feats of prowess as a mystery knight in the winter tourney at King's Landing, defeating Prince Duncan the Small and Ser Duncan the Tall, Lord Commander of the Kingsguard (III: 752)
Ser Barristan the Bold defeated Lormelle Long Lance and Cedrik Storm, the Bastard of Bronzegate (III: 752)
Barristan Selmy was named to the Kingsguard in his 23rd year by Lord Commander Ser Gerold Hightower (III: 752)
Ser Barristan brought King Aerys II to safety during the Defiance of Duskendale despite an arrow wound in his chest (III: 752)
Ser Barristan avenged the murder of his Sworn Brother, Ser Gwayne Gaunt, who was cut down by Ser Symon Hollard, master-at-arms at Duskendale, when Lord Darklyn seized King Aerys (III: 752. IV: 134)
Ser Barristan rescued Lady Jeyne Swann and her septa from the Kingswood Brotherhood, defeating Simon Toyne and the Smiling Knight, and slaying the former (III: 752)
Ser Barristan served in the honor guard that brought Lady Cersei Lannister to King's Landing to wed King Robert (III: 752)
Barristan the Bold led the attack on Old Wyk during Balon Greyjoy's Rebellion (III: 752)
Ser Jaime Lannister served in the honor guard that brought his sister the Lady Cersei to King's Landing to wed King Robert, and was champion in the tourney held at King's Landing on the occasion of their wedding (III: 753)
The Smiling Knight was a madman, chivalry and cruelty all jumbled together, but he did not know the meaning of fear. When Ser Arthur Dayne broke the Kingswood Brotherhood, he fought against the squire Jaime Lannister and then against the Sword of the Morning with Dawn in his hands. The outlaw's sword had so many notches by the end that Ser Arthur had stopped to let him fetch a new one. When the robber knight told Dayne that it was Dawn that he wanted when the fight resumed, Ser Arthur responded that he would have it and made an end of it, killing him (III: 753)
When the Kingsguard meets in the Round Room, the Lord Commander formally asks, "Sers, who guards the king?" They reply with what other knights have been asked to see to his protection. "Will they keep him safe?" asks the Lord Commander after, and when they respond in the affirmative he replies, "Be seated, then" (III: 754)
There have been times during its history where the Kingsguard has been divided against itself, most notably and bitterly during the Dance of the Dragons (III: 754)
The Kingsguard are sworn to obey the king, but the first duty laid on them is to protect him (III: 757)
The vows of the Kingsguard require them to protect the king's secrets as they would his life (III: 815)
Ser Gwayne Corbray was a knight of the Kingsguard during Daeron II's reign. He wielded a Valyrian steel sword named Lady Forlorn, and fought against Daemon Blackfyre on the Redgrass Field for nearly an hour before being defeated. Daemon dismounted to make sure he was not accidentally trampledand ordered that he be helped to the rear (TSS: 111)
Aemon the Dragonknight carried the Valyrian steel sword named Dark Sister (TSS: 137. IV: 69)
Knights of the Kingsguard have a ceremonial suit of scale armor made of mother-of-pearl chased with gold (IV: 101)
A shield of Ser Duncan the Tall, painted with his arms, resides in the armory in Evenfall Hall (IV: 132, 140)
No house had as many knights in the Kingsguard as House Darklyn's seven (IV: 132)
Ser Barristan the Bold’s rescue of King Aerys from captivity at Duskendale led to Lord Denys’s immediate surrender (IV: 134)
Ser Symon Hollard, master-at-arms of Duskendale under Lord Denys Darklyn, killed Ser Gwayne Gaunt of the Kingsguard when King Aerys was seized. He was killed in turn by Barristan Selmy when he rescued the king (IV: 134-135)
When the Young Dragon was killed, a Kingsguard knight named Ser Olyvar Oakheart, known as the Green Oak, died at his side (IV: 185)
It's claimed that the rumors of Daeron the Good being the son of the Dragonknight were false, put about by Aegon the Unworthy when he considered putting aside his son for one of his bastards (IV: 193)
Ser Lucamore Strong, in later days known as Lucamore the Lusty, kept three wives and sixteen (or perhaps thirty) children in secret. When this was discovered, King Jaehaerys I had his Sworn Brothers castrate him, and then sent him to the Wall to serve out his days in the Night's Watch (IV: 193, 236)
It's claimed that Prince Lewyn Martell kept a paramour, a great beauty in her day, while he was in the Kingsguard (IV: 193)
Ser Criston Cole, Lord Commander of the Kingsguard at the time of the death of Viserys I, convinced his son Aegon II to claim the rule of the Seven Kingdoms as his father lay dying. This led to the war between Aegon and his elder sister Rhaenyra, whom Viserys had long groomed as his successor. Ser Criston became known as the Kingmaker, and ultimately died because of his actions. It was later claimed that he acted from ambition, or to defend ancient Andal custom giving precedence to sons over daughters, or because he had once had an affair with Rhaenyra until she spurned him (IV: 194)
Some of King Aerys's Kingsguard, such as Jonothor Darry, believed that though their vows included protecting the queen, it did not mean that they could protect her from her husband despite his abuses (IV: 232)
A famed knight of the Kingsguard, known as the Greatheart (IV: 236)
Oriel Greycloak was a knight of the Kingsguard who became a traitor (IV: 236)
Orivel the Open-handed was a knight of the Kingsguard who became known for his cowardice (IV: 236)
Long Tom Costayne served as a knight of the Kingsguard for sixty years (IV: 236)
Ser Addison Hill and Red Robert Flowers rose to command the Kingsguard despite being bastards (IV: 236-237)
Ser Michael Mertyns, known as the White Owl, and Ser Jeffrey Norcross, called Neveryield, were two knights of the Kingsguard who were famed in their day but were less well-known in later days (IV: 236)
Ser Rolland Darklyn was the youngest man to serve in the Kingsguard until Ser Jaime Lannister. He was made a knight of the Kingsguard on the battlefield, and died within the hour, but his king survived (IV: 237)
The arms of Ser Criston Cole before he donned the white cloak were ten black pellets on scarlet (IV: 237)
A number of knights from Crackclaw Point have served in the Kingsguard: a knight each from House Hardy, House Cave, and House Pyne, and no less than three from House Crabb by the names of Ser Clement, Ser Rupert, and Ser Clarence the Short (a tall man, but shorter than his legendary ancestor) (IV: 283)
It's said that Prince Lewyn Martell of the Kingsguard was killed at the Trident by Ser Lyn Corbray, although it's reported Prince Lewyn was already sorely injured at the time (IV: 331)
Though court protocol suggests many must bend the knee when the king or queen enter a place, the Kingsguard do not do so, standing guard as is their duty (IV: 349)
It is generally the Lord Commander who decides who will lead the Kingsguard in his stead when he is called to some other duty (IV: 392)
Knights of the Kingsguard do not give up their swords, even in the presence of their king (IV: 417)
The Kingswood Brotherhood's downfall was Ser Arthur Dayne's winning the love of the smallfolk of the kingswood, expanding their grazing lands, winning them the right to fell more trees, and so on. Once they saw Ser Arthur and the king protected them better than the outlaws did, the Brotherhood was lost (IV: 453)
The Dragonknight is said to have been a hero who died too young (IV: 519)
The valiant death of a Kingsguard might lead to a statue or other monument being raised to him (IV: 532)
Only a knight of the Kingsguard can champion a queen in a trial by battle if she has been accused of treason (IV: 647, 652)
Ser Quentyn Ball was called Fireball for his hot temper and red hair. He had been promised a place in the Kingsguard by Aegon the Unworthy, and forced his wife to become a silent sister so he could take up the honor. By the time a place was open, however, it was Aegon's son Daeron who ruled and he preferred to give the cloak to another man, Ser Willem Wylde. (TMK: 668-669)
Daemon II dreamed that Ser Duncan the Tall would be a knight in his Kingsguard (TMK: 682-683)
Three knights of the Kingsguard were part of the army that appeared at Whitewalls when the conspiracy to crown Daemon II was revealed (TMK: 731)
Ser Roland Crakehall was one of the Kingsguard knights at Whitewalls (TMK: 732)
It's said Barristan Selmy cut a bloody path through the Golden Company before slaying Maelys the Monstrous (V: 79)
Prince Lewyn of Dorne was an uncle of Doran Martell and died fighting on the Trident (SSM: 1)
If a member of the Kingsguard is seriously crippled but survives, he wouldn't be forced out of the White Swords but allowed to live out his life with honor while other members take up the burden (SSM: 1)
The Kingsguard are sworn to celibacy along with giving up their wives and inheritance, but no doubt some have lapsed (and one White Sword was killed for sleeping with the mistress of a king (SSM: 1)
The oaths of the Kingsguard do not envision rebellion, so there is nothing which says that a successful rebel is an improper king to serve. In the case of Jaime Lannister and Barristan Selmy, they were pardoned by Robert Baratheon and were allowed to choose whether they would remain as part of the White Swords (SSM: 1)
The Kingsguard are not necessarily always the best knights, as sometimes the best knights are not interested in taking such stringent vows. Further, politics, favoritism, rewards for past service, and other factors play a part as being a member of the Kingsguard is a fine position for younger son of a lord (SSM: 1)
Robert Baratheon's need to fill five positions in the Kingsguard at once was highly unusual (SSM: 1)
Ser Jonothor Darry, brother to Ser Willem Darry, was the second member of the Kingsguard to die at the Trident (SSM: 1)
Kingsguard often commanded forces for the Targaryen kings (SSM: 1)
The king chooses the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard. Seniority may be a factor, but it is not decisive (SSM: 1)
The Kingsguard are bound to follow the orders they receive, generally, and cannot pick and choose orders to follow (SSM: 1)

Last revised February 21, 2016
PermaLink

2.1.3.3. The Hand of the King

The Hand is the second most powerful man in the kingdom. He speaks with the king's voice and wields his authority, leads his armies and drafts his lays, and can sit on the Iron Throne to pass judgement when the king is absent. (I: 39)
It is said 'What the king dreams, the Hand builds.' The lowborn put it: 'The king eats, and the Hand takes the shit.' (I: 39)
Tywin Lannister was Hand of the King for twenty years (I: 103)
The Hand is quartered in the Tower of the Hand in the Red Keep (I: 160)
The Small Hall of the Tower of the Hand is a long room with a high vaulted ceiling and bench space for two hundred (I: 181)
The household guard of the Hand bear the emblem of the hand on their garb (I: 181)
The Hand has a solar (I: 182)
The Hand wears a badge of office, fashioned in the shape of a hand (I: 297)
Aerys Targaryen's last Hand was killed n the Sack of King's Landing, although he had been appointed only a fortnight earlier. The Hand before him had burned to death. The two before them had died landless and penniless in exile. Lord Tywin Lannister was the last Hand of the King to depart King's Landing safely (II: 41)
The Hand's private audience chamber is not so large as the king's, nor anywhere near the size of the throne room, but its Myrish rugs, wall hangings, and golden-tinted round window give it a sense of intimacy (II: 172)
The Tower of the Hand has rushes on the floors at need (II: 326)
The Hand's rooms include a garderobe (II: 326)
The secret entrance into the Hand's chambers in the Tower of the Hand is reached by a strange passage. One goes down a ladder (from some unknown beginning point), walks a long distance that turns in many directions, meets an iron gate. Past the iron gate is a room in which a dragon is done in a mosaic of red and black tiles on the floor. Then another ladder is taken, this time going up, with a tunnel to left being reached after climbing 230 rungs in which a full-grown man must crawl. Sixty feet on is a secret door (II: 472, 570. III: 876)
It seems that the Hand picks his own particular way of showing his office - a chain made up for a Hand is called his chain of office, while an earlier Hand used a less extravagant badge to show the same rank (II: 564)
While Hand, Lord Tywin had had hopes to make a royal marriage between his daughter Cersei and one of the Targaryen princes, either Prince Viserys when he matured or Prince Rhaegar should his wife have died in childbed. He kept her with him at court to further this end (III: 128)
Lord Tywin gave up his office on a thin pretext and removed himself and his daughter to Casterly Rock because of his anger at King Aerys for choosing his son and heir Ser Jaime for the Kingsguard (III: 128)
Of Aerys's Hand's after Lord Tywin Lannister, Lords Owen Merryweather and Jon Connington had been exiled, Lord Qarlton Chelsted had been dipped in wildfire and burned alive, and Lord Rossart the Pyromancer was gutted by the Kingslayer (III: 129, 130, 327, 418, 752. IV: 184. SSM: 1)
The Hand of the King, Lord Jon Connington led the royalists at Stoney Sept during the Battle of the Bells, personally wounding Lord Hoster Tully and killing Ser Denys Arryn, cousin to Lord Jon Arryn and the darling of the Vale. He lost the battle however and was forced to flee. Aerys then exiled him for his failure (III: 327, 418, 752. SSM: 1)
Jon Arryn came to Sunspear the year after Robert took the throne, and was questioned closely, along with a hundred others, about what happened during the Sack and who was responsible for deaths of Elia and her children (III: 436)
Ser Ryam Redwyne was the greatest knight of his day, and one of the worst Hands ever to serve a king (III: 604)
Septon Murmison's prayers are said to have worked miracles, but as Hand he soon had the whole realm praying for his death (III: 604)
Lord Butterwell was renowned for wit, Myles Smallwood for courage, Ser Otto Hightower for learning, yet every one of them failed as Hands (III: 604)
The Targaryens often chose Hands from their own blood, with results as various as Baelor Breakspear and Maegor the Cruel (III: 604)
Septon Barth, the blacksmith's son plucked from the Red Keep's library by the Old King Jaehaerys I, gave the realm forty years of peace and plenty. He understood the changeable genders of dragons (III: 604. IV: 520)
Lord Tywin became Hand when he was no more than 20 years of age (III: 745)
Lord Rivers, better known as Bloodraven was named Hand to King Aerys I on his ascension to the throne (TSS: 81, 121)
Lord Hayford was a noted loyalist who was appointed Hand by King Daeron II just before the Redgrass Field, as Lord Butterwell had done such a terrible job in that office that some questioned his loyalty. Lord Hayford was killed during the battle (TSS: 110)
It was rumored that King Aerys I was ensorceled by his Hand, Lord Bloodraven, who was thought to be the true power behind the throne (TSS: 112)
Brynden Rivers, Lord Bloodraven, was considered unlikely to put a halt to a private war between the Blackwoods and Brackens that was formenting in 211. In fact, he was a Blackwood on his mother's side and was thought capable of assisting his cousins against the hated Brackens (TSS: 121)
Bloodraven ordered the pyromancers to burn the many bodies that had collected in the Dragonpit during the Great Spring Sickness. The light of their wildfire could be seen as a glow throughout the city during the night (TSS: 121)
Lord Bloodraven controlled the throne for a number of reasons. King Aerys I kept to his apartments by 211 and no man could see him without Bloodraven's leave. Aerys's queen, Alienor, prayed daily that the Mother might bless her with a child. Prince Maekar Targaryen sulked at Summerhall, nursing grievances against his brother King Aerys, while Prince Rhaegel was both meek and mad and children were too young to be of any use in dislodging Brynden Rivers (TSS: 122)
Baelor Breakspear was known to argue that rebels should have the hope of recieving a pardon, so as to encourage them to bend the knee. Lord Bloodraven, on the other hand, believed that pardoning rebels sowed the seeds for future rebellions (TSS: 131)
When Lord Bloodraven was named Hand, Prince Maekar refused to be a part of the king's small council (in part because he felt he should have been named to that office) and removed himself to Summerhall (TSS: 132)
Brynden Rivers was a lord only by courtesy (TSS: 132)
House Butterwell, whose lord had been Hand to King Daeron I before being dismissed for his suspicious incompetence, kept a foot in both camps during Blackfyre's Rebellion (TSS: 135)
A grand funeral for a Hand of the King might include morning services for the deceased with nobles in attendance, afternoon prayers for the commons, and evening prayers open to all (IV: 100)
A dead Hand might be shown in full armor on the stepped marble bier of the Great Sept, with knights standing vigil (IV: 101-102)
Lord Merryweather appears to have been on the small council before he succeeded Lord Tywin as King Aerys's Hand (IV: 102)
The Tower of the Hand has crenellated battlements and looms over the outer ward (IV: 183)
After burning Lord Chelsted, Aerys visited Queen Rhaella's bedchambers and abused her (IV: 232)
Tywin Lannister was not even twenty-one when Aerys named him his Hand (IV: 235)
While Hand, Tywin Lannister planned to wed his daughter to Prince Rhaegar, and promised her this when she was six. When Rhaegar was a new-made knight, he visited the west with King Aerys. Lord Tywin hosted a grand tourney, which Rhaegar won, and it was at the feast afterwards where the betrothal was to be announced. King Aerys rejected the proposal, however, saying that kings do not wed their sons to their servants (IV: 360-361)
Lord Jon Connington was sent into exile by King Aerys, with his castle, wealth, lands, and more stripped from him. When Robert became king, he restored the castle and a small portion of the lands to a cousin who had remained loyal, but did not name him a lord while also retaining the gold and gave most of the rest of the land away to other supporters (IV: 408)
During the reign of Baelor the Blessed, King Baelor caused a stone mason to be made High Septon despite his being utterly unable to carry out the duties, being unable to read, write, or even remember simple prayers. It's rumored Baelor's Hand, the future Viserys II, had the man poisoned to spare the realm humiliation. (IV: 412)
Baelor the Blessed ordered the writings of Septon Barth to be burned (IV: 522)
Bloodraven was reputed to be able to change the appearance of his face, turn himself into a one-eyed dog, turn into a mist, command packs of grey wolves to hunt down his enemies and carrion crows to spy on the people of the realm. Hated and feared, there were those who spoke treason against him and the king, and some of these were executed (TMK: 650-651)
Lord Butterwell was Master of Coin when Aegon IV sat the throne, and then was made Hand for a time by Daeron II, but not for long. During the first Blackfyre Rebellion, his second son fought with the rebels, his eldest with the king, while he kept out of the fighting (TMK: 658)
Lord Butterwell's own grandfather had also been Hand of the King at one time, serving Aegon IV, and apparently gave him great leeway in the use of both his property and his daughters (TMK: 662-663)
The Seven Kingdoms were seemingly left to fend for themselves against Lord Dagon Greyjoy and his ironborn reavers troubling all the lands on the western coast, as King Aerys I ignored the trouble so he could be closeted with his books, while Prince Rhaegel was said to be so mad as to dance naked in the halls of the Red Keep and Prince Maekar so angry at his brother and his advisors that he sat and brooded at Summerhall. Some blamed Lord Bloodraven, the Hand of the King, for this state of affairs, while others claimed his attention was focused on Tyrosh where the sons of Daemon Blackfyre and Bittersteel plotted another attempt to seize the Iron Throne (TMK: 664)
The initial replacement for Lord Tywin as Hand as the elderly, amiable Lord Merryweather, famed for throwing lavish feasts and flattering the king shamelessly. When the rebellion began, he declared the rebels outlaws and sent commands to various minor lords to deliver them or their heads but he himself never stirred from King's Landing. His methods proved so ineffectual that he was exiled by the king and stripped of all his lands and wealth. Robert later restored the title of lord and the castle and the lands, but not most of the wealth. (SSM: 1, 2)
Lord Jon Connington was Aerys's second hand after Tywin, and was chosen for his youthful vigor, courage, and fame as a warrior (SSM: 1)
Lord Jon Connington was stripped of lands, titles, and wealth before being exiled across the narrow sea. A cousin of his, however, supported Robert and after the war was rewarded by having the castle given to him to hold as Knight of Griffin's Roost, less most of the lands and treasury (IV: 408. SSM: 1)

Last revised September 04, 2012
PermaLink

2.1.3.4. The Small Council

The King's Spider is styled lord, and sits on the council. He is master of whisperers (I: 93, 145, 161, 677)
The Lord Commander of the Kingsguard has a seat on the small council (I: 145, 677)
The master of coin sits on the council (I: 145, 677)
The Hand is part of the small council (I: 160)
The chambers of the king's small council are richly furnished (I: 161)
The Grand Maester of the Seven Kingdoms has a place on the council (I: 162, 676)
The Hand sits to the right of the king (I: 162)
The small council chambers are near the great outer gate (I: 164)
The master of ships and the master of laws hold council seats (I: 676)
The master of coin oversees many of the king's officials: the four Keepers of the Keys, the King's Counter and the King's Scales, the officers in charge of mints, harbormasters, tax farmers, customs sergeants, wool factors, toll collectors, pursers, wine factors, and so on (II: 200)
There are three royal mints overseen by the Master of Coin (II: 200)
Officials in the past have been highborn, and those of middling birth or even foreigners have been rare of non-existent in such positions (II: 200)
Some say the rot in King Aerys's reign began with Varys, the Master of Whisperers (III: 411)
The small council was said to lick the hand of Lord Bloodraven, Hand of King Aerys I in 211 (TSS: 122)
Lord Merryweather appears to have been on the small council before he succeeded Lord Tywin as King Aerys's Hand (IV: 102)
Lord Rykker appears to have been on the small council in the latter half of King Aerys's reign (IV: 102)
Lord Butterwell was Master of Coin when Aegon IV sat the throne, and then was made Hand for a time by Daeron II, but not for long. During the first Blackfyre Rebellion, his second son fought with the rebels, his eldest with the king, while he kept out of the fighting (TMK: 658)
It was said that Elaena Targaryen, sister of Baelor the Blessed, she did most of the work of her second husband, who sat on the small council as master of coin (SSM: 1)

Last revised October 09, 2011
PermaLink

2.1.4. Bannerhouses

House Celtigar of Claw Isle (I: 677. II: 718)
House Velaryon of Driftmark (I: 677. II: 600)
House Seaworth (I: 677)
House Bar Emmon of Sharp Point (I: 677. II: 718)
House Sunglass of Sweeport Sound (I: 677. II: 718)
House Hayford (II: 30. III: 49. IV: 396)
House Hollard was an ancient and noble house, who had three daughters wedded to Darklyn kings during the Age of Heroes. They were almost entirely destroyed at King Aerys's command following the Defiance of Duskendale, except for the young Dontos Hollard who was allowed to live at Ser Barristan Selmy's request (II: 33. IV: 134)
The lord of House Velaryon is styled Lord of the Tides and Master of Driftmark (II: 110, 718)
The Velaryons have the blood of ancient Valyria and have thrice provided brides for Targaryen princes (II: 110)
House Rosby's lands and castle are north of King's Landing. Their castle is found at the village of Rosby, where there are daub-and-wattle huts, a sept, and a well. (II: 193. IV: 56)
House Stokeworth's lands and castle are north of King's Landing (II: 193)
At best, the bannerhouses and wealth of Dragonstone might allow 5,000 men-at-arms, sellswords, and knights to be gathered, of which less than 400 would be mounted (II: 351)
Duskendale is eastwards from Harrenhal. Its lands are rich (II: 653)
Claw Isle is the ancient seat of House Celtigar (III: 408)
The Celtigars are reputedly quite wealthy, their castle said (probably unreliably) to be stuffed with Myrish carpets, Volantene glass, gold and silver plate, jeweled cups, magnificent hawks, an axe of Valyrian steel, a horn that could summon monsters from the deep, chests of rubies, and more wines than a man could drink in a hundred years (III: 408)
The Rosbys have never been robust (III: 561)
The Stokeworths are accounted a minor house (III: 738)
Lord Hayford was a noted loyalist who was appointed Hand by King Daeron II just before the Redgrass Field, as Lord Butterwell had done such a terrible job in that office that some questioned his loyalty. Lord Hayford was killed during the battle (TSS: 110)
The shortest road from Kings Landing to Duskendale passes through Rosby and moves in a northeastern direction. (IV: 56, 57)
Duskendale has a port (IV: 57)
The Defiance of Duskendale occurred approximately in the year 270, give or take five years. The Lord of Duskendale refused to pay taxes, demanding certain rights and the town charter following the influence of his wife from the Free Cities (IV: 65. SSM: 1, 2)
House Rosby is considered wealthy in comparison to its peers (IV: 113)
The town of Duskendale is surrounded by a pale stone wall. It’s southern gate opens into a market square (IV: 130-131)
The Seven Swords in the largest inn in Duskendale, being four stories high. Seven painted white swords hang above its doors, commemorating the seven Darklyn knights who served in the Kingsguard (IV: 131-132)
Duskendale is built around its harbor. Chalk cliffs rise north of it, while to the south a rocky headland shield ships from storms coming from the narrow sea (IV: 131-132)
Duskendale's castle is known as the Dun Fort. It overlooks the port and can be seen from every part of town. It features a square keep and large drum towers (IV: 132)
Duskendale's streets are cobbled (IV: 132)
No house had as many knights in the Kingsguard as House Darklyn's seven (IV: 132)
The Darklyns no longer exist, destroyed by Aerys following the rebellion of Lord Denys Darklyn known as the Defiance of Duskendale (IV: 133)
There are a number of families claiming descent from the Darklyns in Duskendale, including the Darkes, Darkwoods, and Dargoods (IV: 133)
The Darklyns were petty kings before the Andals came, during the Age of Heroes (IV: 133)
House Rykker was given Duskendale following the destruction of House Darklyn (IV: 133)
House Leek, serving House Rykker (IV: 133)
The Hollards served the Darklyns first as subjects and then as vassals, all the way through to the Defiance (IV: 134)
Ser Symon Hollard, master-at-arms of Duskendale under Lord Denys Darklyn, killed Ser Gwayne Gaunt of the Kingsguard when King Aerys was seized. He was killed in turn by Barristan Selmy when he rescued the king (IV: 134-135)
Like the Darklyns, the Hollards were destroyed by King Aerys. Their lands were seized, their castle was torn down, and their villages were put to the torch (IV: 135)
House Crabb, a family from Crackclaw Point (IV: 213)
Ser Rolland Darklyn was the youngest knight to join the Kingsguard, until Ser Jaime Lannister. Given the white cloak on a battlefield, he died within the hour, but his king survived (IV: 237)
It's said every valley in Crackclaw Point has its lord, and the lords are united against outsiders (IV: 281)
The Darklyn kings and the Mootons and Celtigar lords have all tried to impose their rule over Crackclaw Point in the past, but to no avail (IV: 282)
When not fighting outsiders, the lords and knights of Crackclaw Point fight among one another. Occasionally some champion manages to enforce peace over the point, such as Lord Lucifer Hardy, the Brothers Brune, Crackbones, or Ser Clarence Crabb (IV: 282)
The lords and knights of Crackclaw Point were made vassals to the Targaryens by Queen Visenya when she accepted their homage after the defeat of Harren the Black. Despite this, the Mootons, Celtigars, and Lords of Duskendale have occasionally attempted to impose their taxes and claims there, to no avail (IV: 283)
House Hardy, House Pyne, and House Cave of Crackclaw Point have had a knight each serve in the Kingsguard. House Crabb had three (IV: 283)
Lord Brune rules the Dyre Den, a small castle with three crooked towers above bleak cliffs. It is sited above the end of the coast road. There is a narrow path carved up the cliffside (IV: 286)
The Stokeworth motto is "Proud to be Faithful" (IV: 358)
The hilltop castle of the Hayfords is a day's ride north from King's Landing. A stream runs along the foot of the hill (IV: 396-397)
The arms of House Hayford are pale green fretty and a wavy pale over gold (IV: 397)
A towerhouse held by the Knights of Sow's Horn, of House Hogg, who are sworn to the Hayfords, is at least 5 days north of Hayford castle. They command only a small force, perhaps half a score men-at-arms and crossbowmen and a score of peasants. The towerhouse is of stone, with walls eight feet thick (IV: 400, 738)
The boundary between the lands sworn to King's Landing and those sworn to Riverrun, marked by a stream, is a mere day's ride north of Sow's Horn (IV: 400)
House Brune, the Knights of Brownhollow, vassals to the senior branch. They are an old family (IV: 612, 738)
House Brune, the Lords of the Dyre Den (IV: 738)
An army appeared outside Whitewalls, a host raised at Lord Bloodraven's command. Lord Mooton and Lord Darklyn were among its leaders, and there were Hayfords, Rosbys, Stokeworths, and Masseys involved (TMK: 731)
The bannerhouses of Dragonstone present the weakest military force on land in the Seven Kingdoms (SSM: 1)
Elaena Targaryen was the youngest of Aegon III's children, Her greatest love was her cousin Alyn Velaryon, by whom she bore twin children named Jeyne and Jon Waters. (SSM: 1)

Last revised March 09, 2013
PermaLink

2.2. History of the Seven Kingdoms

About the year 205, old Lord Dondarrion and Lord Caron burned out the Vulture King (who may have been a Blackmont) out of the Red Mountains. There were some eight hundred knights and nearly four thousand foot with them (THK: 482. SSM: 1)
The roads during King Aerys I's reign were not so safe as they were under his father, Daeron the Good (TMK: 653)
Roughly around 210, House Stark was in a difficult situation, with the current lord of the house slowly succumbing to wounds he received fighting the ironborn. Lady Stark and four Stark widows struggled over who would succeed him. There were a number of potential heirs, with some ten Stark children about (SSM: 1, 2)

Last revised March 31, 2011
PermaLink

2.2.1. The Wars of Conquest

Aegon Targaryen and his sisters Visenya and Rhaenys unleashed three dragons on the seven kingdoms of old (I: 102)
The King Loren of the Rock and King Mern of the Reach joined together to throw out the Targaryen invaders. They flew six hundred banners with five thousand mounted knights and ten times that in freeriders and men-at-arms (I: 102)
The Targaryens had perhaps an army the fifth the size of that of the Two Kings, or so chroniclers say, and most of those were conscripts from the last king they had slain, loyalty unsure (I: 102)
The hosts met on the plains of the Reach amidst fields of wheat ripe for harvest. The charge of the Two Kings broke the Targaryen army, but Aegon and his sisters joined the battle with their dragons. It was the only time the three dragons were on the field of battle together (I: 103)
Nearly four thousand men burned on the Field of Fire, among them Mern of the Reach. It was later said that their swords melted in their hands (I: 103. TSS: 144)
Loren of the Rock escaped and pledged his fealty (I: 103)
Aegon the Conqueror first landed and made a wood-and-earth fort at the site that would later become the royal seat King's Landing (I: 141)
When Aegon slew Black Harren, Harren's brother was Lord Commander of the Night's Watch and had 10,000 swords at his command - but he did not march (I: 553)
The last King of the North, who bent the knee to Aegon the Conqueror, was Torrhen Stark. He chose to swear fealty rather than give battle (I: 613, 678)
Aegon the Conqueror granted the castle and lands of the old Storm Kings to one of his commanders, Orys, who was rumored to be his bastard brother. Orys slew the last Storm King, Argilac the Arrogant and married his daughter. Taking her with the castle and lands, he also took the words of the Storm Kings, but his last name was his own (I: 676. SSM: 1)
During the Wars of Conquest, the riverlands belonged to Harren the Black, King of the Isles (I: 684)
Harren the Black was a vain and bloody tyrant, little loved. When Aegon the Conqueror threatened, many of his lords deserted him to join Aegon's host (I: 684)
Harren the Black and his line died in the burning of Harrenhal by Aegon the Conqueror (I: 684)
Aegon raised Lord Edmyn Tully to overlordship of the Trident, requiring all other lords to swear fealty to him (I: 684)
Harlen Tyrell, steward to King Mern, surrendered Highgarden to Aegon after the death of the king (who was last of his line.) Aegon granted him the castle and dominion over the Reach (I: 686)
Lord Vickon Greyjoy of Pyke was chosen by the surviving ironborn lords to have primacy over them after Aegon conquered them (I: 688)
Dorne was never conquered by Aegon the Conqueror (I: 690)
Torrhen Stark gave up his crown to Aegon the Conqueror when he bent the knee. What became of the crown afterwards is unknown (II: 79)
Harren the Black had taken up residence in the completed Harrenhal on the very day news reached him of the landing of Aegon the Conqueror (II: 88)
Aegon the Conqueror had knelt to pray in Dragonstone's sept the night before he sailed (II: 109)
There are claims that Harren the Black and his sons haunt the cellars of the Wailing Tower, even though they died in the Kingspyre Tower (II: 335)
It's said that Aegon the Conqueror received the submission of King Torrhen Stark on the south bank of the Red Fork in the riverlands, at the place where the river bends to flow southeastwards (III: 121)
Aegon the Conqueror had fewer than 1,600 men with him when he and his sisters set out to conqueor the Seven Kingdoms (III: 598)
Queen Visenya was sent by her brother Aegon to receive the homage of the lords of Crackclaw Point following the death of Harren the Black. They bent the knee to her without qualm, and in return she promised them that they would be direct vassals of the Targaryens (IV: 283)
Aegon the Conqueror dated the beginning of his reign from the day the High Septon anointed him as king in Oldtown. Since then, it has been traditional for the High Septon to give their blessing to every king (IV: 413, 421)
When news arrived in Oldtown of the landing of Aegon and his sisters, the High Septon fasted and prayed for seven days and nights under the dome of the Starry Sept in Oldtown. He then announced that the Faith would take not oppose the Targaryens, because the Crone had shown him that to do so would mean the destruction of Oldtown in dragonflame. Lord Hightower, a pious man, kept his forces at Oldtown and would later freely open his gates to Aegon when he came to be anointed by the High Septon (IV: 421)
There were Targaryens on Dragonstone for about two centuries after the Doom before invading Westeros (SSM: 1)
Dorne avoided being ruled by Aegon the Conqueror by refusing to assemble huge armies to be burned by dragons as happened to the army of the Two Kings, nor did they hide in their castles as Harren the Black and his sons did. They fled before the dragons instead and returned to harrass and murder when they could (SSM: 1)
The name of the Seven Kingdoms comes from the realms that existed at the time of the Conquest, being the kingdom of the North, the kingdom of the Rock, the kingdom of the Reach, the kingdom of Mountain and Vale, the realm of the Storm King, the kingdom of the Iron Islands and the Riverlands, and the kingdom of Dorne (SSM: 1)

Last revised November 30, 2009
PermaLink

2.2.2. The Dance of the Dragons

Brother fought sister during the Dance of the Dragons (I: 65)
Ser Erryk and Ser Arryk were twin brothers who served in the Kingsguard. They took opposite sides in the contest, and died fighting one another (I: 65)
The Kingsguard split during the Dance of the Dragons, some supporting Aegon II and others supporting Rhaenyra (I: 65. IV: 232. SSM: 1)
Rhaenyra Targaryen was the daughter of Viserys I and mother to Aegon III the Dragonbane and Viserys II, but died a traitor's death all the same (I: 693. III: 407. SSM: 1)
Aegon III's mother Rhaenyra contested her young brother King Aegon II for the throne. Aegon III lived to see Rhaenyra devoured by his uncle's dragon and grew to have a deep fear of dragons (THK: 465)
The twins Ser Arryk and Ser Erryk died with tears on their cheeks after each had given the other a mortal wound (II: 432)
Ser Criston Cole, Lord Commander of the Kingsguard at the time of the death of Viserys I, convinced his son Aegon II to claim the rule of the Seven Kingdoms as his father lay dying. This led to the war between Aegon and his elder sister Rhaenyra, whom Viserys had long groomed as his successor. Ser Criston became known as the Kingmaker, and ultimately died because of his actions. It was later claimed that he acted from ambition, or to defend ancient Andal custom giving precedence to sons over daughters, or because he had once had an affair with Rhaenyra until she spurned him (IV: 194)
Both sides used dragons during the civil war. Many of these dragons seem to have been killed in the process (SSM: 1)
Rhaenyra Targaryen was the first-born child of Viserys I, and was almost ten years older than her next sibling, Aegon II. She was Viserys's only living child by his first wife of House Arryn. When her second brother died, Viserys began to treat her as his heir. Many flocked to her, looking for favor. After her mother's death, Viserys remarried. His second wife, a Hightower, promptly gave him three healthy sons and a daughter in rapid succession (SSM: 1)

Last revised August 07, 2009
PermaLink

2.2.3. The Conquest of Dorne

Daeron the Young Dragon conquered Dorne at 14 (I: 45)
The conquest of Dorne lasted a summer (I: 45)
The Boy King spent 10,000 men taking Dorne, and 50,000 trying to hold it (I: 45)
Daeron I died at the age of 18 (I: 45)
King Daeron I, the Young Dragon, was the first to observe that there were three types of Dornishmen: salty Dornishmen, sandy Dornishmen, and stony Dornishmen (III: 430)
King Daeron I was very brave in battle (III: 606)
The Young Dragon never won three battles in a day (III: 606)
King Daeron I wrote Conquest of Dorne with elegant simplicity (III: 607)
Baelor the Blessed walked the Boneway barefoot to make peace with Dorne and rescued the Dragonknight from a snakepit. Legend says the vipers refused to strike him because he was so pure and holy, but the truth is that he was bitten half a hundred times and should have died from it. Some say that he was deranged by the venom (III: 664, 665)
After the Submission of Sunspear, the Young Dragon left the Lord of Highgarden to rule Dorne for him. He moved with his train from one keep to the next, chasing rebels and keeping the knees of the Dornishmen bent. It was his custom to turn the lords of the keeps he stayed in out of their chambers, to sleep in their place. One night, finding himself in a bed with a heavy velvet canopy, he pulled a sash near the pillows to summon a wench. When he did so, the canopy opened and a hundred red scorpions fell upon him. His death led to rebellion throughout Dorne, and in a fortnight all the Young Dragon had won was undone (III: 747)
When the Young Dragon was killed, a Kingsguard knight named Ser Olyvar Oakheart, known as the Green Oak, died at his side (IV: 185)
King Daeron wrote in his Conquest of Dorne that the favorite weapons of the Dornishmen are the spear and the sun, but that the latter was by the deadlier (IV: 308)
Dorne is the least populous of the Seven Kingdoms, though many outside of this do not realize it because of Daeron I's account of his conquest of Dorne, in which he inflated the numbers of the enemy to glorify his victories, and the Princes of Dorne have been happy to allow the rest of the realm to believe this (IV: 598)

Last revised July 16, 2009
PermaLink

2.2.4. The Blackfyre Pretenders

Daemon Blackfyre died for his treason, as did Grand Maester Hareth and Rhaenyra Targaryen (III: 407)
Aerys originally acted as if Robert was nothing but a mere outlaw lord, but Robert Baratheon and his allies were the greatest threat to House Targaryen since Daemon Blackfyre (III: 418)
Aegon IV legitimized all his bastards on his deathbed, and the pain, grief, war, and murder that wrought lasted five generations because of the Blackfyre pretenders. It only ended when Ser Barristan the Bold slew the last of them, Maelys the Monstrous, in single combat on the Stepstones during the War of the Ninepenny Kings (III: 521, 752)
Lord Bloodraven lost an eye to Bittersteel on the Redgrass Field (TSS: 81, 112)
The Blackfyre Rebellion ended in the battle of the Redgrass Field in 196 (TSS: 90)
All three of Ser Eustace Osgrey's sons died at the end of the Blackfyre Rebellion in 196, on the Redgrass Field. Edwyn and Harrold were knights, while Addam was a squire (TSS: 90)
Roger of Pennytree, squire and nephew to Ser Arlan of Pennytree, was young when he died on the Redgrass Field. He was killed by Lord Gormon Peake, whose arms were three black castles on an orange field (TSS: 98, 111. TMK: 653, 657-658)
Addam Osgrey was killed by a knight wearing the arms of House Smallwood, who took off the boy's arm with an axe (TSS: 110)
Daemon Blackfyre reversed the colors of the Targaryen arms for his own banner, as many bastards did. In the years following his rebellion, asking if someone had followed the red dragon or the black was considered a dangerous question (TSS: 110)
Daemon Blackfyre was also known as Daemon the Pretender (TSS: 110)
Ser Arlan of Pennytree fought in Lord Hayford's host at the Redgrass Field (TSS: 110)
Lord Hayford was a noted loyalist who was appointed Hand by King Daeron II just before the Redgrass Field, as Lord Butterwell had done such a terrible job in that office that some questioned his loyalty. Lord Hayford was killed during the battle (TSS: 110)
The Redgrass Field was named for all the blood that shed on it during the great battle (TSS: 110)
Aegon IV the Unworthy gave his Valyrian steel sword, Blackfyre, which had been carried by Aegon the Conqueror and all the Targaryen kings after him, to his bastard Daemon when he knighted him at the age of 12, instead of to his his heir, Daeron; talk of Daemon becoming Aegon's heir began after this point.. Daemon was his son by one of his cousin's, one of the princesses in the Maindenvault who were sisters to King Baelor the Blessed.(TSS: 111, 137. SSM: 1, 2)
It is said that ten thousand men died on the Redgrass Field (TSS: 111)
No one could stand against Daemon Blackfyre during the batte. He broke Lord Arryn's van, slaying the Knight of Ninestars and Wild Wyl Waynwood, then fought Ser Gwayne Corbray of the Kingsguard. The two fought for nearly an hour, their Valyrian steel swords Blackfyre and Lady Forlorn shrieking as they clashed, until Daemon clove through Corbray's helm and blinded him with his own blood. As he dismounted to see to his fallen foe and sending Redtusk to conduct him safely to the rear, Bloodraven and his Raven's Teeth gained the the Weeping Ridge. From three hundred yards away, Bloodraven and his company used longbows to slay the eldest of Daemon's twin sons, Aegon, and then Daemon himself after piercing him with seven arrows. The younger twin, Aemon, took up Blackfyre, only to die in the same fashion (TSS: 111-112)
The rebels routed following the death of Daemon and his sons, but the rout was turned by Bittersteel, who led a mad charge. Bittersteel and Bloodraven fought a battle second only to that of Blackfyre and Corbray. Finally, the battle was ended when Baelor Breakspear charged the rebel rear, his Dornishmen and stormlords striking a hammerblow that shattered the enemy (TSS: 112)
Had Daemon Blackfyre won on the Redgrass Field, the road to King's Landing would have been open and undefended (TSS: 112)
Bittersteel and Daemon Blackfyre's five surviving sons fled to Tyrosh, where they plotted their return (TSS: 121. TMK: 650)
In the aftermath of the Blackfyre Rebellion, wherein House Osgrey of Standfast supported Daemon Blackfyre while House Webber supported King Daeron, the Osgreys were stripped of control over the Chequy Water, which was granted to House Webber, who also gained other rights associated with Wat's Wood. Furthermore, Ser Eustace Osgrey's wife killed herself when she learned that her daughter and only surviving child, Allysane, was to be made a hostage in King's Landing (TSS: 128-131)
Daemon Blackfyre promised Coldmoat to Ser Eustace Osgrey (TSS: 129, 136)
Those who followed King Daeron called themselves loyalists (TSS: 135)
Daemon Blackfyre was known as the King Who Bore the Sword by his followers, who also claimed that he was the rightful king (TSS: 135)
Following Blackfyre's Rebellion, many of those who followed him drew away from the public eye, in part because Lord Bloodraven and his Raven's Teeth put the fear in them (TSS: 135)
Half the realm rose for the black dragon, and the other half for the red (TSS: 135)
Fireball was one of the champions who followed Daemon Blackfyre, but he was slain on the eve of battle. A famous knight of the Reach, Ser Quentyn Ball had been master-at-arms in the Red Keep and had been all but promised a place in the Kingsguard by Aegon IV, a promise Daeron the Good chose not to honor. This led Fireball to becoming one of the men who urged Blackfyre to his rebellion (TSS: 135. TMK: 666, 668. SSM: 1)
Hightower, Oakheart, Tarbeck, and Butterwell had a foot in both camps, so did not lend either side their full strength (TSS: 135)
Manfred Lothston betrayed Daemon Blackfyre, which may have been a pivotal factor in his defeat and death (TSS: 135)
Lord Bracken was delayed by storms on the narrow sea, which kept him from arriving with Myrish crossbowmen to support Daemon Blackfyre (TSS: 135-136)
Quickfinger, a Blackfyre loyalist, was caught with stolen dragon's eggs during Blackfyre's Rebellion (TSS: 136)
Daeron II was known as Daeron the Falseborn to those who followed the Blackfyres, no doubt alluding to the rumors that Daeron was the son of Aegon IV's brother, Aemon the Dragonknight (TSS: 136)
King Daeron pardoned those who rebelled against him, so long as they bent the knee and gave over a hostage (TSS: 136. TMK: 657)
Daemon Blackfyre was a great warrior, and some claimed that with Blackfyre in his hand no knight who ever lived could have matched him, even Ulrik Dayne with Dawn or Aemon the Dragonknight with Dark Sister. He was tall and powerful, and no more pious than he had to be (TSS: 137)
King Daeron marrying his sister Daenerys to the Prince of Dorne when she is said to have loved Daemon Blackfyre was one of several causes of Blackfyre's rebellion (TSS: 137. SSM: 1, 2)
Great knights flocked to Daemon Blackfyre's banner: Robb Reyne, Gareth the Grey, Ser Aubrey Ambrose, Lord Gormon Peake, Black Byren Flowers, Redtusk, Fireball, and Bittersteel (who seems to have been considered the greatest of all) (TSS: 137)
The Golden Company has never broken its contract, boasting that its word is as good as gold since the days of their founder Bittersteel. They were founded approximately 200 AC, and were made up of the hundreds landless knights and lords who followed Bittersteel and the surviving sons of Daemon Blackfyre into exile. Some of these men joined existing sellsword companies, such a the Ragged Standard, the Second sons, or the Maiden's Men, but seeing this Bittersteel formed the Golden Company to bind the majority together. Since then, the Golden Company has spent its career in the Disputed Lands, fighting the wars between the Free Cities and hoping to return to the Seven Kingdoms (IV: 197. V: 78)
The Golden Company is a brotherhood of exiles, united by the dream of Bittersteel to return to Westeros (IV: 198. V: 78)
Ser Brynden Tully won renown fighting the Ninepenny Kings (IV: 495)
The Ebon Prince was involved in the War of the Ninepenny Kings, probably as one of the aggressors claiming a crown (IV: 495)
Tensions were high in 211-212, as there were those who openly incited the king's subjects to rise against him in support of the Blackfyres and against his Hand, Brynden Rivers. Some who spoke treason were executed by loyal lords (TMK: 650)
Daemon II Blackfyre, the second Blackfyre Pretender, disguised himself as a hedge knight called John the Fiddler. His arms were a golden engrailed cross, with a golden fiddle in the first and third quarter, and a golden sword in the other quarters. He travelled in company with Lord Alyn Cockshaw and Lord Gormon Peake to a wedding tourney at Lord Butterwell's seat of Whitewalls, which was to serve as a gathering place for his supporters (TMK: 654-655)
Lord Gormon Peake lost two of the three castles he ruled, due to having supported Daemon Blackfyre. He retained only Starpike. Because of this, he led the conspiracy that brought Daemon Blackfyre from across the narrow sea (TMK: 657, 721)
Lord Butterwell was Master of Coin when Aegon IV sat the throne, and then was made Hand for a time by Daeron II, but not for long. During the first Blackfyre Rebellion, his second son fought with the rebels, his eldest with the king, while he kept out of the fighting (TMK: 658, 673)
Lord Ambrose Butterwell's -tourney in the reign of Aerys I featured the dragon's egg his grandfather received from Aegon IV as the champion's prize (TMK: 663, 721)
The Seven Kingdoms were seemingly left to fend for themselves against Lord Dagon Greyjoy and his ironborn reavers troubling all the lands on the western coast, as King Aerys I ignored the trouble so he could be closeted with his books, while Prince Rhaegal was said to be so mad as to dance naked in the halls of the Red Keep and Prince Maekar so angry at his brother and his advisors that he sat and brooded at Summerhall. Some blamed Lord Bloodraven, the Hand of the King, for this state of affairs, while others claimed his attention was focused on Tyrosh where the sons of Daemon Blackfyre and Bittersteel plotted another attempt to seize the Iron Throne (TMK: 664)
Armond Caswell, Lord of Bitterbridge, was among those who fought for King Daeron II against Daemon Blackfyre. In one battle, his banner-bearer was killed and he was allegedly saved by Ser Kyle, the Cat of Misty Moor (TMK: 665)
Lord Costayne fought in the left battle of Daemon's host at the Redgrass Field (TMK: 667)
Lord Shawney fought on the right with Bittersteel at the Battle of the Redgrass Field, and was nearly killed there (TMK: 667)
Ser Quentyn Ball was called Fireball for his hot temper and red hair. He had been promised a place in the Kingsguard by Aegon the Unworthy, and forced his wife to become a silent sister so he could take up the honor. By the time a place was open, however, it was Aegon's son Daeron who ruled and he preferred to give the cloak to another man, Ser Willem Wylde. This was the reason why he supported Daemon Blackfyre (TMK: 668-669)
Fireball would go on to help convince Daemon Blackfyre to claim the crown, and rescued him when King Daeron sent the Kingsguard to arrest him. He slew Lord Lefford at the gates of Lannisport and sent Lord Lannister, the Grey Lion, fleeing. At the crossing of the Mander, he slew Lady Penrose's son one by one, but let the youngest live as a kindness (TMK: 669)
Fireball was struck down by a nameless archer's arrow as he dismounted at a stream for a drink of water (TMK: 669)
The Old Ox, Ser Buford Bulwer, is claimed to have killed forty men at the Redgrass Field. This number is dubious, however (TMK: 671, 675)
Daemon II's attempt to win the Iron Throne lacked the support of Bittersteel, despite his dream that he would hatch a dragon from an egg, much as he had dreamed of his elder brothers dead (TMK: 677-678)
Daemon II dreamed that Ser Duncan the Tall would be a knight in his Kingsguard (TMK: 682-683)
Daemon II was seven when his elder brothers, Aemon and Aegon, died at the age of twelve at the Redgrass Field (TMK: 683)
Lord Sunderland attended Lord Butterwell's wedding in the reign of Aerys I. He had fought for the Black Dragon during Daemon Blackfyre's rebellion (TMK: 685-686)
Lord Butterwell's sons fought on both sides during the first Blackfyre Rebellion (TMK: 687)
Ser Glendon Ball (also called Flowers), Ser Argrave the Defiant of Nunny, Ser Duncan the Tall (as the Gallows Knight), Lord Joffrey Caswell, Ser Kyle, the Cat of Misty Moor, Ser Uthor Underleaf, Ser Eden Risley, Lord Smallwood's nephew, Ser Addam Frey, Lord Cockshaw, Ser John the Fiddler, Ser Tommard Heddle, ,Ser Clarence Charlton, and Ser Galtry the Green were among the knights who rode at Butterwell's tourney (TMK: 689, 691, 694-695, 697, 709, 713)
Daemon Blackfyre struck his own coinage during his rebellion. Possession of the coins was considered treasonous (TMK: 700-701)
It's said that Glendon Ball, the Knight of Pussywillows, was the son of a camp follower named Jenny. She was called Penny Jenny, and then Redgrass Jenny for all the men it's claimed she bedded before the battle. There's little doubt Fireball did sleep with her at some point, but the question of Glendon's paternity is open. Glendon was raised with his sister at a brothel called the Pussywillows (TMK: 703-704)
Ser Uthor Underleaf was paid to try and kill Ser Duncan the Tall in the lists by Lord Alyn Cockshaw. The price was six gold dragons, and four more when Ser Duncan was declared dead (TMK: 705, 716)
Ser Glendon Ball was offered a place at Starpike by Lord Peake if he deliberately lost to "John the Fiddler", Daemon Blackfyre, as part of Peake's plan to convince the realm of Daemon's worthiness as a successor to his father. When he refused, and the dragon's egg was stolen, Peake deliberately accused him of the theft so as to get him out of the way (TMK: 707, 726-727)
The occasion of Lord Butterwell's wedding was used by supporters of the black dragon to meet together and secretly plot rebellion against the Iron Throne. Among those who appeared was one of Daemon Blackfyre's sons, in the guise of Ser John the Fiddler (TMK: 712)
Many of the hostages that King Daeron took from the supporters of the black dragon died in King's Landing when the Great Spring Sickness ran rampant (TMK: 713)
Lord Butterwell's dragon egg was stolen during the wedding tourney, allegedly by a spy of Lord Bloodraven who supposedly murdered the guards who watched over it. Tommard Heddle claimed that a dying guard blamed Glendon Ball (TMK: 714)
Alyn Cockshaw was obsessed and in love with Daemon II, and dreamed of commanding his Kingsguard, but became jealous when Daemon's eyes turned to Duncan the Tall (TMK: 716)
Daemon Blackfyre fathered seven sons. His third son was named Daemon as well. He and Alyn Cockshaw spent their childhoods together, suggesting Cockshaw was fostered with Daemon (TMK: 716-717)
Bittersteel carried off Daemon's surviving sons into exile (TMK: 717)
Alyn Cockshaw drowned in a well after being thrown into it by Ser Duncan the Tall, following his attempt to do the same to Ser Duncan (TMK: 717)
Ser Maynard Plumm, who attended Lord Butterwell's wedding, was obviously a spy for the one-eyed Lord Bloodraven. At one point, Dunk sees him hooded and believes he can only see one eye, until he realizes that was just a brooch. Plumm reveals Bloodraven knew a good deal about the plots of Daemon Blackfyre and Lord Peake (TMK: 718)
Ambrose Butterwell was never a firm supporter of the conspiracy to crown Daemon II, especially when he learned that he had neither the support of Bittersteel nor the sword Blackfyre. The theft of the dragon's egg made him even less inclined to be part of the conspiracy (TMK: 719)
Black Tom Heddle, who was deeply involved in the conspiracy and had suborned Lord Butterwell's own men against him, was killed by Ser Duncan the Tall in single combat (TMK: 721, 724)
Lord Frey abandoned the conspiracy immediately when Prince Aegon, son of Prince Maekar, revealed himself to him and Lord Butterwell and claimed he and Ser Duncan were spies for his father (TMK: 722)
The dragon's egg allegedly taken from Ball's saddle was nothing but a painted stone, as the real dragon's egg had been stolen by persons unknown (TMK: 727)
Daemon Blackfyre decided to allow Ser Glendon to defend himself in a trial by combat, and jousted against him. Despite Ball having been beaten and tortured, he defeated Daemon who was dubbed the Brown Dragon for the mud that covered him after he fell to the ground in the lists (TMK: 728, 730)
As the conspiracy unravelled, many of the wedding guests who had entertained being a part of it fled Whitewalls in the night (TMK: 729)
An army appeared outside Whitewalls, a host raised at Lord Bloodraven's command. Lord Mooton, Lord Blackwood, Lord Darklyn, and Lady Lothston were among its leaders, and there were Hayfords, Rosbys, Stokeworths, Masseys, the king's sworn swords, three of the Kingsguard, and three hundred of Bloodraven's Raven's Teeth involved. Bloodraven himself was present (TMK: 731)
Daemon II's attempt to be crowned ended ignominiously when no one was willing to ride against Lord Bloodraven's army. He rode out alone and challenged Bloodraven to single combat, but was simply dragged down from his horse and arrested (TMK: 731-732)
One of Lord Vyrwel's men-at-arms boasted he had been among Bloodraven's spies, but had his throat cut by one of Lord Costayne's knights (TMK: 732)
Ser Maynard Plumm vanished from Whitewalls some time during the night (TMK: 732)
Ser Roland Crakehall was one of the Kingsguard knights at Whitewalls (TMK: 732)
Lord Peake was executed by beheading for his treason. His head was displayed with Tom Heddle's (TMK: 733)
Lord Butterwell submitted to Lord Bloodraven's judgment, and lost nine-tenths of his wealth and his pride, Whitewalls. Lord Bloodraven intended to pull the castle down and sow the ground in salt so that it would soon be forgotten (TMK: 733)
Erstwhile supporters of the Blackfyres would make pilgrimages to the Redgrass Field to plant flowers where Daemon Blackfyre fell (TMK: 733)
Lord Frey was permitted to depart Whitewalls by Lord Bloodraven, without any apparent loss to himself (TMK: 734)
There have always been Targaryens who dreamed of things to come, since long before the Conquest, and it was no surprise that the same gift appeared among their descendants such as the Blackfyres (TMK: 735)
Bloodraven believed that Daemon Blackfyre's dream that a dragon would hatch at Whitewalls came true, but that it was Prince Aegon whom he dreamed of (TMK: 735)
Bloodraven intended to suggest that King Aerys keep Daemon Blackfyre as a hostage at the Red Keep as a means of preventing Bittersteel from crowning his brother Haegon (TMK: 735-736)
Bloodraven appears to have arranged the theft of the dragon's egg with the help of a troupe of dwarf mummers who crept up a privy shaft (TMK: 736)
It's said Ser Barristan Selmy cut a bloody path through the Golden Company before slaying Maelys the Monstrous (V: 79)
The most notable rebellions against the Targaryens came from the Blackfyre pretenders (SSM: 1)
Bittersteel was Ser Aegor Rivers, the bastard son of Aegon the Unworthy by a a woman of House Bracken. Angry at his lot as a bastard, he was dark-haired, lithe, and hard. He wore a horsehead crest upon his helm and his arms featured a red stallion with black dragon wings, snorting flame against a golden field (SSM: 1)
Daemon Blackfyre was about 26 at the time of his rebellion, Bittersteel 24, and Bloodraven 21. Daemon's eldest sons, Aegon and Aemon, were 12 (SSM: 1)
Daemon Blackfyre rebelled when he did for several reasons. Among them were that he was increasingly resentful of his status as a bastard, councilors urged him to it such as Fireball, (SSM: 1)

Last revised February 21, 2016
PermaLink

2.2.5. The War of the Usurper

Mad King Aerys II demanded the heads of Eddard Stark and Robert Baratheon from their guardian, Lord Arryn of the Eyrie. Rather than comply, Lord Arryn raised his banners in revolt (I: 21)
Aerys' Queen fled to Dragonstone from King's Landing. Aerys feared that Robert -- Eddard Stark's best friend and Lyanna Stark's betrothed -- would support Eddard in avenging the murders of his father and brother. He also believed that with Lord Arryn's men surrounding them in the Vale, it would be easier to see them dead (I: 25. SSM: 1)
Prince Rhaegar Targaryen died at the hand of Robert Baratheon, fighting at the ruby ford of the Trident for the woman he loved (I: 25, etc.)
King's Landing was sacked by the Lannisters (I: 25 ,etc.)
Jaime Lannister of the Kingsguard opened Aerys' throat with a golden sword (I: 25)
Rhaegar's wife, the Dornish princess Elia, and their children were butchered (I: 25)
Daenerys Targaryen was born during a storm nine months after the flight from Dragonstone. Not long after Robert Baratheon's brother Stannis came with a new-built fleet to the island (I: 25)
By the time Robert's fleet sailed, only Dragonstone remained to the Targaryens of their old realm (I: 25)
The Tyrells, Redwynes, and Darrys fought for the Targaryens, among other houses. (I: 28)
Brandon Stark was heir to Winterfell, 20 years old, when he was killed by King Aerys only a few days before he was to marry Catelyn Tully. Eddard Stark, his brother, married her instead as custom decreed (I: 35)
Lyanna Stark died at 16, betrothed to Robert Baratheon (I: 35)
Eddard Stark remained only a short time with Catelyn Tully before he rode off to war beside Robert Baratheon and Jon Arryn against the Targaryens (I: 54-55)
The War of the Usurper lasted about a year (I: 54-55, 96)
Eddard Stark and his companions faced three of the Kingsguard at the place where Lyanna was kept. Howland Reed, the crannogman, was present. It was said that Eddard Stark slew the Sword of the Morning singlehandedly, but Howland Reed in fact helped him, saving his life (I: 55. II: 243)
Eddard Stark took Arthur Dayne's sword to Starfall and his sister, Ashara Dayne. Ashara Dayne threw herself from the castle walls (I: 55)
Tywin Lannister presented Robert Baratheon with the bodies of Rhaegar's wife and children. The children were wrapped in a crimson cloak so as to hide the blood. Lord Tywin knew that Robert was aware his throne was not secure while the children lived, but he also knew that Robert considered himself too much of a hero to dirty his own hands with it (I: 93, 403-403. III: 595)
Eddard Stark and Robert Baratheon argued over the killing of Rhaegar's family. Eddard Stark fought the final wars in the south, and they were only reconciled by the death of Lyanna (I: 94)
Aerys also killed Lord Rickard Stark (I: 94)
Rhaegar is said to have kidnapped and raped Lyanna Stark (I: 94)
Robert was wounded by Rhaegar Targaryen during their single combat. When the Targaryen host broke, Eddard Stark was given the pursuit. He was the first of Robert's men to reach King's Landing, to find the Lannister lion already raised (I: 96)
The Lannisters appeared before King's Landing with 12,000 men after the defeat of Rhaegar at the Trident. Aerys threw his gates open, only to have the Lannisters sack the city and kill the Targaryens (I: 96)
Jaime Lannister sat the Iron Throne when Eddard Stark arrived at the Red Keep, but he stood (I: 97)
The Darrys fought for the Targaryens in the War of the Usurper (I: 128, 241)
Aerys Targaryen left a treasury flowing with gold (I: 163)
Tywin Lannister gave knights at King's Landing who fought for the Targaryens the choice of having their heads on spikes or taking the black (I: 172)
Stannis Baratheon held Storm's End through a year of besiegement by the Lords Tyrell and Redwyne. Near the end he and his men were reduced to rats and boot leather (I: 233)
The Rygers, Darrys, and Mootons were sworn to Riverrun but took the side of the Targaryens in the war (I: 241)
The Freys brought their levies into the war on Robert's side only well after the Battle of the Trident was won, leading to Lord Walder being known as the Late Lord Frey by Hoster Tully (I: 241)
Jason Mallister cut down three of Rhaegar Targaryen's bannermen at the Trident (I: 247)
Gregor Clegane was a new-made knight of seventeen years at the sack of King's Landing. Some say it was Clegane who dashed Aegon Targaryen against a wall, and it was whispered afterwards that he raped the princess Elia before putting her to the sword (I: 263)
Barristan Selmy cut down a dozen men, friends of the Baratheons and the Starks, at the Trident. He was wounded nearly to the death, but Robert would not kill a man who kept his vows and fought bravely (I: 295)
Rhaegar brought 40,000 men to the Trident, but no more than a tenth were knights (I: 326)
Eddard Stark with six companions faced three of the Kingsguard at the Dornish mountains, before a tower that Rhaegar had been said to have called the tower of joy. Only two people, Lord Stark and Howland Reed, survived (I: 355, 356)
The sister of Arthur Dayne, Ashara Dayne, threw herself into the sea after Eddard Stark brought her the familial sword Dawn which the Sword of the Morning carried (I: 407)
Lord Rickard Stark and his heir Brandon had gone south with two hundred of their best men. None ever returned (I: 481)
In the year of the false spring (approximately a year or two prior to the rebellion), when Eddard Stark was 18, there was a great tourney at Harrenhal which spanned over 10 days. He, Robert Baratheon, and Jon Arryn had come from the Eyrie for it. Many notables came there, including the King and Crown Prince, and Jaime Lannister was named to the Kingsguard on that day (I: 526. SSM: 1, 2)
At the tourney in Harrenhal, Rhaegar Targaryen seemed unstoppable and defeated even Ser Arthur Dayne, the Sword of the Morning. Taking the winter rose crown for the Queen of Love and Beauty, he revealed his interest in Lyanna Stark by passing his wife the Princess Elia of Dorne and setting it in Lyanna's lap (I: 526)
During the siege of Storm's End, Redwyne galleys blockaded the castle from support by the sea (II: 8)
The castle was in dire straits, living off of roots and rats after the dogs, cats, and horses were all slain, when the infamous smuggler Davos glided past the Redwyne cordon in his black-hulled ship crammed with salt fish and onions. It proved enough to keep the garrison going until Eddard Stark lifted the siege (II: 9)
Stannis Baratheon rewarded Davos lands in the Cape of Wrath, a small keep, and knighthood. He also decreed that Davos must lose the joint of each finger of his left hand in punishment for his years of smuggling. At Davos' request, Lord Stannis removed the joints himself (II: 9)
After the war was done and Stannis Baratheon had sailed to Dragonstone to secure it, Robert Baratheon gave his brother Dragonstone to hold - presumably as it was tradition under the Targaryens that Dragonstone was held by the heir to the throne - and gave lordship of Storm's End to Renly Baratheon (II: 11)
Aerys Targaryen's last Hand was killed in the Sack of King's Landing, although he had been appointed only a fortnight earlier. The Hand before him had burned to death. The two before them had died landless and penniless in exile. Lord Tywin Lannister was the last Hand of the King to depart King's Landing safely (II: 41)
The Hightowers of Oldtown were loyal to the Targaryens during the War of the Usurper (II: 145)
The pyromancers made many jars of wildfire for King Aerys II. It was his fancy to shape the jars as fruits (II: 226)
So many full-fledged pyromancers were slain in the Sack of King's Landing that the novices that remained were unable to deal with the large numbers of wildfire jars that should have been destroyed before becoming too volatile (II: 226)
Many of the jars of wildfire made for Aerys II were lost, unable to be accounted for, because of the massacres of the sack of King's Landing(II: 226)
Aerys II had at least 4,000 jars of wildfire prepared (II: 227)
Aerys II was known for roasting his enemies over fires with the aid of the pyromancers that he was patron to (II: 228)
Howland Reed had been one of Eddard Stark's staunchest companions during the war against the Targaryens (II: 242)
There are blood ties between Storm's End and the Targaryens, related to marriages some hundred year's past between "second sons and elder daughters." These ties were used as justification for Robert Baratheon's ascension to the throne after the rebellion (II: 258)
It was Grand Maester Pycelle who convinced mad King Aerys to open his gates to the Lannisters, which was done over the objections of Lord Varys. He felt the realm needed a new king after Rhaegar's death, and hoped it would have been Tywin, but Eddard Stark moved too quickly and Robert Baratheon was too powerful (II: 301. III: 419)
Near the end of the war the master-at-arms of Storm's End, Ser Gawen Wylde, and three others attempted to steal out a postern gate to surrender. Captured by Stannis, he ordered them to be flung from the walls with catapults. Maester Cressen, serving at Storm's End, told Stannis that they might be reduced to eating their own dead. If it were not for Davos Seaworth, the Onion Knight, they might have come to that point. Ser Gawen died in captivity (II: 365-366)
Davos Seaworth's timely smuggling of supplies to Storm's End took place 16 years before (II: 453)
There is a vision which shows Prince Rhaegar and his wife Elia with their newborn son Aegon. There is a suggestion that Rhaegar has had a prophetic vision and dreams of a promised prince who has "the song of ice and fire" He also says that there must be one more, apparently referring to a Targaryen child (II: 512)
Brandon Stark was on his way to Riverrun to wed Catelyn Tully when he heard something about Lyanna, which made him angry enough to go to King's Landing and the Red Keep. There, he shouted aloud for Rhaegar to come out and fight him in a duel to the death. Aerys arrested him and his companions (his squire Ethan Glover, Jeffory Mallister, Kyle Royce, and the nephew and heir of the Lord of the Eyrie Elbert Arryn) for treason and the plotting the murder of the crown prince (II: 582)
Aerys ordered the fathers of the men to come south to answer the charges against their sons. When they did this, they and their sons were murdered without trial (II: 582)
Lord Rickard Stark demanded a trial by combat and Aerys granted the request. Lord Rickard prepared himself as if for combat, only to learn that Aerys chose fire as the champion of his house. To win the trial, Lord Stark would have to survive being roasted in all his armor over a fire. His own son was forced to watch and given the false hope of saving him - he was put in a strangulation device, with a sword a little from his reach. Brandon Stark strangled himself trying to reach it (II: 582-583)
Jaime Lannister stood at the foot of the Iron Throne as Rickard and Brandon Stark died, and the Lord Commander Ser Gerold Hightower may have been there as well (II: 583)
At Robert's coronation, Ser Jaime Lannister, Grand Maester Pycelle, and Lord Varys were made to kneel before the king to receive his forgiveness for their crimes before he would take them into his service again (II: 583)
The marriage between Jon Arryn and Lysa Tully was hastily arranged and loveless because of Lord Jon's prickly pride and age and Lady Lysa's youth and soiled state from a bastard child she had had aborted at her father's demand. Without the marriage, Lord Tully might not have joined the rebellion (III: 32)
Lord Jon Arryn's gallant cousin, Ser Denys Arryn, was killed in the Battle of the Bells (III: 32, 327)
Of Aerys's Hand's after Lord Tywin Lannister, Lords Merryweather and Connington had been exiled, Lord Chelsted had been dipped in wildfire and burned alive, and Lord Rossart the Pyromancer was gutted by the Kingslayer (III: 129, 418. SSM: 1)
Lord Rossart was the last of King Aerys's Hand's, having the position only a fortnight before the Sack of King's Landing. He was killed by Ser Jaime Lannister before he went on to kill his king (III: 129, 130)
King Aerys had commanded Ser Jaime Lannister to bring him the heads of all the traitors, especially Lord Tywin's (III: 130)
Lord Roland Crakehall, Ser Elys Westerling, and others of Lord Tywin's knights burst into the throne room in time to see Ser Jaime's kingslaying (III: 130)
Ser Gregor Clegane and Ser Amory Lorch were scaling the walls of Maegor's Holdfast even as Targaryen loyalists were doing in the armory and the serpentine steps and Lord Eddard Stark was leading his northmen through the King's Gate (III: 130)
Princess Elia and her child Aegon were in Maegor's Holdfast (III: 131)
Mace Tyrell has won few battles. His reputation rests on an indecisive victory over Robert Baratheon at Ashford, in a battle largely won by Lord Randyll Tarly's van before the main host had arrived. The siege of Storm's End, where Mace Tyrell actually held the command, dragged on for a year with no result (III: 211)
Lord Rickard Karstark stood with Lord Eddard Stark on the Trident (III: 231)
All of Lord Lychester's sons died in Robert's Rebellion, some on one side and some on the other (III: 247)
Babies were butchered in the Sack, and old men and children at play as well. More women were raped than could be counted (III: 271)
Lord Eddard Stark won a famous battle at the town of Stoney Sept in the riverlands. Aerys's men had been hunting Robert, trying to catch him before he could rejoin Eddard. He was wounded and being tended by friends when Lord Connington the Hand took the town with a mighty force and started searching for him from house to house. Before they found him, however, Lord Eddard and Lord Hoster Tully stormed Stoney Sept (III: 327)
Lord Connington fought back fiercely at Stoney Sept and there was fighting everywhere as the septons rang all their bells to warn the smallfolk to lock their doors and hide. Robert came out of hiding and slew six men, they say; one of them was Myles Mooton, a famous knight and Rhaegar's former squire. Robert would have slain Connington as well, but the battle never brought them together. The Hand wounded Lord Hoster gravely and killed Ser Denys Arryn, Lord Jon Arryn's cousin and the darling of the Vale (III: 327)
When Lord Jon Connington saw the day was lost, he fled and then was exiled by Aerys for his failure. The battle at Stoney Sept was called the Battle of the Bells, and Lord Robert always said that it was Lord Eddard who won the battle for him (III: 327, 418, 752)
Robert won three battles in a single day at Summerhall when Lords Grandison, Cafferen, and Fell sought to join their strength at Summerhall and march on him at Storm's End after he first came home to call his banners. He learned of their plans from an informer, however, and rode at once with all his knights and squires. As the plotters came up on Summerhall one by one, he defeated each in turn (III: 407, 408, 606, 607)
Robert killed Lord Fell in single combat at Summerhall and captured his son Silveraxe. After the battles, he brought Lord Grandison, Lord Cafferen, and Silveraxe back to Storm's End as prisoners. He hung their banners in the hall as trophies and yet they would sit beneath those banners drinking and feasting with Robert. He later took them hunting, and threw axes with them in the yard, and they became fast friends. Silveraxe became his man, Lord Cafferen died at Ashford Castle, cut down by Randyll Tarly while fighting for Robert, and Lord Grandison was wounded on the Trident and died of it a year after. Lord Cafferen's head was sent to Aerys by Lord Tarly (III: 408, 607, 884)
Some say the rot in King Aerys's reign began with Varys, the Master of Whisperers (III: 411)
Lord Stark argued that Jaime Lannister should be stripped of the white cloak of the Kingsguard and sent to the Wall, but Robert chose to listen to Lord Arryn's council and allowed him to remain a White Sword (III: 411)
Aerys originally acted as if Robert was nothing but a mere outlaw lord, but Robert Baratheon and his allies were the greatest threat to House Targaryen since Daemon Blackfyre (III: 418)
Growing frantic, Aerys gracelessly reminded Prince Lewyn Martell that Princess Elia was in his power and sent him to take command of 10,000 Dornishmen coming up the kingsroad (III: 418)
Jon Darry and Barristan Selmy of the Kingsguard were sent towards to Stoney Sept to rally what they could of Lord Connington's scattered men (III: 418)
Prince Rhaegar returned from the south after the defeat at Stoney Sept and persuaded King Aerys to summon Lord Tywin from Casterly Rock, but the summons went unanswered, making the king even more paranoid about traitors. Varys was always present to point out traitors that he missed (III: 418)
King Aerys had caches of wildfire placed by his alchemists all over King's Landing, from Baelor's sept to the hovels of Flea Bottom, under stables and storerooms, at all seven gates, and even in the cellars of the Red Keep itself. He intended to leave nothing but ashes for Robert, and perhaps thought it would make a fitting funeral pyre or a suitable way to transform himself into a dragon (III: 418, 419)
Prince Rhaegar was busy marshalling the royalist army after he returned from the south (III: 418)
Lord Chelsted, the last Hand before the pyromancer Rossart, saw what was being done and found courage somewhere to confront the king about it. He did all he could to dissuade him, reasoning, jesting, threatening, and finally begging. When he failed he took off his chain of office and flung it to the floor. He was roasted alive for that (III: 418)
When the word of Rhaegar's death and the defeat of his army reached King's Landing, King Aerys sent the queen to Dragonstone with Prince Viserys. Princess Elia would have gone as well, but he forbade her, thinking that Prince Lewyn must have betrayed Rhaegar at the Trident but that Dorne would remain loyal so long as he kept Elia and Aegon at his side (III: 419)
Varys warned against letting the Lannisters into the city but Aerys ignored him (III: 419)
Ser Jaime was left holding the Red Keep as the Sack began. He asked the king's leave to make terms but instead Aerys commanded him to bring him Lord Tywin's head, if he was no traitor. Jaime also learned that Rossart was with him, and he realized what that meant. He came on Rossart first, finding him dressed as a common man-at-arms hurrying to the postern gate. He killed him and then he killed Aerys before he could find someone else to carry his message to the pyromancers (III: 419)
Days after the Sack, Jaime hunted down Belis and Garigus, the two master pyromancers who with Rossart aided Aerys (III: 419)
No one knew of the story behind the Kingslaying because the Kingslayer decided to hold to his vow to keep the king's secrets, in part out of outrage at being judged by men like Lord Stark (III: 420)
Jon Arryn came to Sunspear the year after Robert took the throne, and was questioned closely, along with a hundred others, about what happened during the Sack and who was responsible for deaths of Elia and her children (III: 436)
Allyria Dayne says her sister Ashara fell in love with Lord Eddard Stark of Winterfell at the great tournament at Harrenhal, and killed herself because of a broken heart (III: 495)
When Lord Goodbrook stayed loyal to the king even after the Tullys declared for Robert, Lord Hoster came down on him with fire and sword. Lord Goodbrook's son later made his peace with Robert and Lord Hoster after the Trident (III: 493, 497)
Prince Oberyn attempted to raise Dorne for Prince Viserys. Ravens flew and riders rode, and Jon Arryn came to Sunspear to return Prince Lewyn's bones and ended all talks of war when he spoke with Prine Doran. Robert never visited Dorne thereafter, however, and the Red Viper rarely left it (III: 593)
Ser Amory Lorch killed Princess Rhaenys during the Sack, bringing the body to Lord Tywin. He killed her with half a hundred thrusts, claiming she had kicked him and would not stop screaming (III: 594, 595)
Lord Tywin ordered the deaths of Rhaegar's children, but had not desired Princess Elia to be harmed at all (III: 594, 595)
Ser Barristan Selmy was wounded by arrow, sword, and spear on the Trident (III: 752)
The Darrys once stood high in King Aerys's favor, and had been prominent Targaryen loyalists. This cost them half their lands, most of their wealth, and almost all of their power (III: 918)
Prince Rhaegar claimed that he intended to call a council after the Trident, to make changes which he had intended to put into motion long before (IV: 119)
After burning Lord Chelsted, King Aerys visited Queen Rhaella's bedchambers and abused her while Ser Jonothor Darry and Ser Jaime Lannister stood outside the chambers, hearing her pleas but doing nothing. She would remain secluded until the morning of the day that she took ship for Dragonstone, hooded and cloaked from sight. Her maids gossiped that she bore scratches and bites as if some beast had savaged her (IV: 232)
The men of Crackclaw Point were loyal to the Targaryens. Crabbs, Brunes, and Boggses were present in Rhaegar's army at the Trident (IV: 283)
By the end of his reign, Aerys II had become so terrified of plots against them that he allowed no blades in his presence, except those of the Kingsguard. His hair and nails grew untended (IV: 232)
Ser Lyn Corbray earned his spurs during Robert's Rebellion, first fighting against Lord Arryn at Gulltown and then beneath his banners at the Trident. He is said to have cut down a number of men, including Prince Lewyn Martell of the Kingsguard. It's said that Prince Lewyn was already gravely wounded before Ser Lyn killed him (IV: 331)
Ser Lyn took up his father's sword when he fell wounded at the Trident, cutting down the man who injured them. While his brother, the heir Lyonel, took his father to the rear, Ser Lyn led the charge against the Dornish which was threatening Robert's left flank, breaking their lines to pieces (IV: 332)
Lord Jon Connington was stripped of lands, titles, and wealth before being exiled across the narrow sea. A cousin of his, however, supported Robert and after the war was rewarded by having the castle given to him to hold as Knight of Griffin's Roost, less most of the lands and treasury (IV: 408. SSM: 1)
Ser Denys Arryn was a distant cousin of Lord Jon Arryn, from a poor but proud cadet branch. A famous jouster, handsome and gallant, he was wed to Jon's eldest niece by his sister Alys and Ser Elys Waynwood. Denys was killed at the Battle of the Bells, and his wife died of grief soon after, as well as their newborn child (IV: 626)
Prince Lewyn of Dorne was an uncle of Doran Martell and died fighting on the Trident (SSM: 1)
Jaime Lannister and Barristan Selmy were pardoned by Robert Baratheon and were allowed to choose whether they would remain as part of the White Swords (SSM: 1)
Ser Jonothor Darry, brother to Ser Willem Darry, was the second member of the Kingsguard to die at the Trident (SSM: 1)
Jon Snow was born about 8 or 9 months before Daenerys Targaryen (SSM: 1)
Ashara Dayne was not stuck in Starfall the entire time of the war, apparently, and was a lady in waiting to Princess Elia in the first few years of her marriage to Prince Rhaegar (SSM: 1)
Ser Mark Ryswell, a companion of Eddard Stark who died at the Tower of Joy, was not the lord of House Ryswell which is a northern house (SSM: 1)
The Targaryens had lost a number of battles, and won some, but they were not really losing the war proper until Rhaegar's death at the Trident and the Sack of King's Landing (SSM: 1)
The siege of Storm's End was an important task, since the loss of it could have meant that some of the stormlords would have switched sides or refused to continue fighting against the Targaryens (SSM: 1)
Mace Tyrell had sizeable host, but a part of that was with Rhaegar (SSM: 1)
Rhaegar Targaryen outnumbered Robert Baratheon's forces at the Trident, but Robert's troops were the more battle-tested (SSM: 1)
There were a number of battles, sieges, ambushes, escapes, duels, and forays during the war. Fighting took place as far away as the Vale and the Dornish Marches (SSM: 1)
When Eddard Stark came to Dorne at the end of the war, he did not bring his army with him (SSM: 1)
There was no fighting in Dorne during the war, although there were minor skirmishes along the borders (SSM: 1)
There were Dornish troops with Rhaegar at the Trident, under the command of Prince Lewyn of the Kingsguard. However, the Dornishmen did not support him strongly, in part because of Rhaegar's treatment of his wife Elia and in part because of Doran Martell's innate caution (SSM: 1)
Benjen Stark joined the Night's Watch shortly after Lord Eddard had returned to Winterfell and Lady Catelyn had taken up residence with the infant Robb (SSM: 1)
Ashara Dayne's body was never recovered from the sea (SSM: 1)
The initial replacement for Lord Tywin as Hand as the elderly, amiable Lord Merryweather, famed for throwing lavish feasts and flattering the king shamelessly. When the rebellion began, he declared the rebels outlaws and sent commands to various minor lords to deliver them or their heads but he himself never stirred from King's Landing. His methods proved so ineffectual that he was exiled by the king and stripped of all his lands and wealth. Robert later restored the title of lord and the castle and the lands, but not most of the wealth. (SSM: 1, SSM: 1)
Lord Jon Connington was Aerys's second hand after Tywin, and was chosen for his youthful vigor, courage, and fame as a warrior (SSM: 1)
There were tensions between King Aerys and Prince Rhaegar (SSM: 1)
Howland Reed fought with the northern host throughout Robert's rebellion (SSM: 1)
Sandor Clegane was part of Lord Tywin's host at the Sack of King's Landing (SSM: 1)
Robert proclaimed for the throne only some time around the Trident (SSM: 1)
Davos Seaworth smuggled his onions into Storm's End out of a belief that he'd be handsomely rewarded (SSM: 1)
Rhaegar's body was cremated, according to the customs of the Targaryens (SSM: 1)

Last revised November 17, 2009
PermaLink

2.2.6. Greyjoy’s Rebellion

Balon Greyjoy's rebellion took place nine years before the start of the first book. It was the last time Eddard Stark and Robert Baratheon had seen each other (I: 33)
Balon Greyjoy proclaimed himself King of the Iron Isles (I: 33)
Greyjoy's stronghold fell to the forces of the Seven Kingdoms, and Lord Greyjoy tendered his surrender. His son Theon, ten years of age at the time, was taken as ward of Eddard Stark (I: 33. II: 123)
The warrior-priest Thoros of Myr scaled the walls of Pyke with a flaming sword in hand (I: 247)
Gregor Clegane was one knight amongst thousands when Greyjoy's Rebellion was put down (I: 263)
Balon Greyjoy wore his crown for only a season (II: 85)
Balon Greyjoy took his crown in an attempt to bring back the Old Way (II: 125)
The stronghold of the Botleys and the village of Lordsport beneath it were razed by Robert Baratheon as he put down the rebellion. It was later rebuilt in stone (II: 126)
The sept of Lordsport was also destroyed by Robert Baratheon's forces, but unlike the stronghold of the Botleys and the village it was never rebuilt (II: 126)
Rodrik Greyjoy, son to Balon Greyjoy, assaulted Seagard during his father's great rebellion. Jason Mallister slew him beneath the castle's walls and threw the ironborn reavers back into the sea (II: 131)
Robert Baratheon breached the south tower along the wall of Pyke, collapsing it (II: 132)
Maron Greyjoy, the second of Balon Greyjoys sons, was killed in the collapse of the old south tower along the curtain wall (II: 136)
The final battle during the rebellion was at Pyke. When the wall of the castle was breached, Thoros of Myr was the first to go through, but Jorah Mormont was not far behind. He won his knighthood for that act of valor (II: 146)
To celebrate his victory, King Robert had a tourney held in Lannisport (II: 146)
Jorah Mormont won the champion's laurels at Robert's tournament, and because of this received the permission of Lord Leyton Hightower to wed his daughter, Lynesse (II: 146)
Victarion, Lord Captain of the Iron Fleet and brother to Lord Balon Greyjoy, sailed into Lannisport with his other brother Euron Croweye during Balon's rebellion and burned the ships there. Victarion is a fearsome warrior, sung of in the alehouses, but it was Euron who made the plan (II: 284)
Thousands of men were mustered by King Robert at Pyke (II: 646)
Barristan the Bold led the attack on Old Wyk during Balon Greyjoy's Rebellion (III: 752)
The Iron Fleet was caught and smashed in a trap by Stannis Baratheon off the coast of Fair Isle. Aeron Greyjoy's ship, Golden Storm, was broken in half by Stannis's ship Fury during that battle (IV: 25)
The Faith was little tolerated on the Iron Islands following the failure of the rebellion (IV: 160)
Lord Rodrik Harlaw's sister, Lady Gwynesse, took up permanent residence at Ten Towers out of mourning for her husband, who died off Fair Isle during Greyjoy's Rebellion (IV: 160)
Lord Rodrik Harlaw's two sons were killed off Fair Isle during Greyjoy's Rebellion (IV: 167)
Balon Greyjoy proclaimed himself king beneath Nagga's Ribs, and was crowned by the priest Tarle the Thrice-Drowned with a driftwood crown (IV: 255)
Baelor Blacktyde, Lord of Blacktyde, was a child when he was taken away to Oldtown as a hostage following the end of the rebellion; his father died in the war. He returned after eight years as a follower of the Seven (IV: 259)
Ser Balman Byrch defeated a number of knights at the tourney in Lannisport following the defeat of Balon Greyjoy (IV: 359)
Lord Balon believed that few lords would support Robert in supressing his rebellion (SSM: 1, 2)

Last revised November 17, 2009
PermaLink

2.3. Customs

Every noble house has a motto (I: 19)
Eleven is seen as old enough for a girl to be betrothed, but marriage tends to wait a few years (I: 39)
Fools in motley entertain nobility. Many are misshapen, dwarfs or the mentally deficient (I: 47, etc.)
If a nobleman dies before he can go through with contracted marriage, custom decrees that a sibling or heir should take on the obligation (I: 50)
Boys might be as young as seven or eight when they are sent out to be fostered by some other noble house. It is a common practice (I: 54. SSM: 1)
Noble girls are taught womanly arts, such as knitting, singing, dancing, and playing instruments (I: 57, 59)
Noble boys begin weapons practice as early as the age of seven (I: 60)
It is customary for lords to cover the cost if the king and his entourage choose to stay for a time at his seat (I: 107)
Fifteen is considered almost a man grown (sixteen is age of majority) (I: 150. SSM: 1)
A lord with a bared sword across his knees is making a traditional sign that he is denying guest right (I: 204. SSM: 1)
Boys are apprenticed to various trades, including singing (I: 219, 226, etc.)
The baseborn have few rights under the law and custom, when it comes to claims (I: 267)
Commoners might be addressed as goodwoman or goodman (I: 389)
Clothes for mourning are always black (I: 455)
Burial or entombment are customary in the Seven Kingdoms, although some houses send their dead into the sea. The Targaryens always cremated their dead (THK: 529)
Fratricide is seen as an evil thing (II: 14)
Sitting at the right hand of a lord is seen as a high place of honor (II: 19)
When someone of the Faith is buried, a crystal is left on their grave (II: 61)
Feasts are held to celebrate the harvest (II: 179)
Nobles and knights can often be ransomed, so it's common to take them prisoner rather than to slay them in battle (II: 216)
At a large feast presided over by a lord, he would receive the first choice of all dishes. If the dish is especially choice, he might send some of it down to some of his guests as token of friendship and respect (II: 238, 239)
A champion (whether in war or in tournament) might salute his liege with an upraised weapon (II: 251)
A noble bridegroom wears a mantle of expensive fur and cloth, such as miniver and velvet, even for some days after the marriage to make it known (II: 295)
A girl is not considered a woman until her first menstruation, or flowering as the folk of the Seven Kingdom say. More precisely, she is a maiden who is both still a child and a woman at the same time (II: 360. SSM: 1)
Noble prisoner tend to be treated with honor, unless they make serious offense (such as breaking an oath to not attempt escape) (II: 338, 415, 577)
Marriage contracts can be broken (II: 388)
In accepting the oath of a liegeman, one way to respond is: "I vow to you that you shall always have a place by my hearth and meat and mead at my table, and pledge to ask no service of you that might bring you into dishonor. I swear it by the old gods and the new" (II: 411)
A challenge to a duel can be issued by throwing a glove or gauntlet down (II: 445)
A soldier's tent would be of heavy canvas (II: 449)
Men (besides maesters and perhaps husbands) are not supposed to be present in birthing rooms (II: 555)
Menstrual blood is referred to as moonblood (II: 620)
A peace banner can be shown to signal a wish to parley (II: 672)
Coz is used as a diminutive for cousin (III: 18)
Smallfolk often name their daughters after flowers and herbs (III: 29)
The guest right protects a guest who has eaten his host's food from harm, at least for the length of the stay. It is a sacred rule as old as the First Men (III: 83)
Houses can show unspecified marks of mourning after the deaths of family members (III: 116)
Tipping the cap in deference to women (III: 117)
For a great wedding, all manner of entertainments may be made available: a singers' tourney, a fools' joust, tumblers, dancing bears, and more (III: 139)
Being set at a table below the salt is a place for the lowborn and the little regarded (III: 139, 432)
A toast: "Seven save the king!" (III: 150)
Young ladies of high status often share their beds with one or two of their lady attendants (III: 182; IV: 173)
Noblewomen wear a maiden's cloak when they're to be wed, bearing their family's colors and sometimes their arms (III: 317)
A father, a man who stands there in his place, removes the noble maiden's cloak from about her shoulders so that her husband may place a cloak of his colors there in its place to signify her passing into his protection (III: 319)
Marriage feasts have many toasts and dancing. The bedding is seen to afterwards, where the men will carry the bride up to the wedding bed, undressing her along the way and making rude jokes about her fate, while the women do the same for the groom. Though they'll leave them alone in the bedchamber after bundling them both naked into bed, they'll stand outside the door shouting ribald suggestions (III: 320)
Kin by marriage are referred to as "good [relation]", such as good uncle (III: 408, 423)
Dowries are paid by a bride's family to the groom (III: 422)
Dornish custom gives a special status to mistresses, or paramours as they name them, that places them above mistresses in the rest of the Seven Kingdoms but beneath wives (III: 431. SFC2)
Boys who share a wetnurse, even at a few years remove,could be considered to be milk brothers. More usually, it is used for boys who were nursed by the same woman at the same time (III: 494. SSM: 1)
The peace banner of the Seven is a rainbow-striped flag with seven long tails, a seven-pointed star topping the stave is hangs from (III: 503)
The most proper way of receiving the guest right is to eat bread and salt (III: 556, 562)
Entertainment at weddings among the nobility can feature singers, musicians, jugglers, tumblers, or troupes of comic dwarfs (III: 574, 678. TMK: 664)
It seems only maids and mothers take part in the bedding ceremony, stripping the groom as they lead him to his wedding chamber (III: 579)
A bridgegroom being bedded can throw back jests and attempt to unclothe the women trying to strip him (III: 772)
A passing reference to chastity belts, suggesting that they exist (TSS: 121)
In Dorne, brothels are called pillow houses (IV: 31)
A grand funeral for a Hand of the King might include morning services for the deceased with nobles in attendance, afternoon prayers for the commons, and evening prayers open to all (IV: 100)
A dead Hand might be shown in full armor on the stepped marble bier of the Great Sept, with knights standing vigil (IV: 101-102)
It's bad luck for a man to sleep apart from his bride on their wedding night (IV: 174)
In Dorne, it's claimed that women would duel, bare-breasted and knife to knife, over a man (IV: 190)
It is not uncommon for a noble maiden, betrothed early, to wed within the year following her first flowering (IV: 203)
Sailors believe that having a woman aboard a ship can bring bad luck (IV: 223)
The funeral procession of a great lord might include an escort of fifty knights, a number of vassal lords, a hundred crossbowmen, three hundred men-at-arms, and drummers to beat the funeral march. Six silent sisters would ride attendance on the wagon containing his bones (IV: 226-227)
In embalming a body, the bowels, internal organs, and blood are removed and replaced with salt and fragrant herbs. The silent sisters often carry out such tasks (IV: 241)
Some nobility employee whipping boys, common children who are beaten whenever their offspring deserve punishment (IV: 344)
Some believe black cats bring bad luck (IV: 360)
After some weddings, the bedsheets of the newlywed couple are displayed to show the blood from the breaking of the bride's maidenhead (IV: 411)
It's said common girls are likelier to bleed heavily from the loss of the maidenhead, but that noble girls are less so because riding horses tends to gradually tear the maidenhead (IV: 411)
Torn clothing as a mark of mourning (IV: 663)
Refusing to drink and emptying the cup one holds during a toast is a show of disrespect towards the person toasted (TMK: 674)
While marriages to women who have not reached their majority or even their first flowering have happened, they are rare. Moreover, bedding these girls before they are at the least flowered is seen as perverse. Generally, weddings are postponed until the girl has passed into maidenhood with he flowering, although betrothals may happen earlier (SSM: 1)
Most women outside of Dorne take the names of their husbands, although not in all cases. If a woman is of higher birth or station than her husband, for example, she may use his name little if at all (SSM: 1)
There is a stigma attached to homosexuality everywhere in the Seven Kingdoms, save in Dorne (SFC)

Last revised February 21, 2013
PermaLink

2.3.1. Laws

The punishment for poaching is losing a hand (I: 3)
Taking the black is an alternative to criminal punishment (I: 3)
The punishment for oathbreaking is death (I: 12)
Wildlings are executed if caught south of the Wall (I: 12)
Slavery is illegal in the Seven Kingdoms. The punishment for enslaving a person is execution (I: 30)
Younger sons of the Great Houses would be bannermen to their elder brother, and hold small keeps in his name (I: 45)
The punishment for rape is castration, but taking the black is an alternative (I: 100)
The baseborn have few rights under the law, when it comes to claims (I: 267)
A king can put aside his queen and marry another (I: 289)
The highborn cannot be denied trials under the law (I: 351)
Trial by combat is allowed, and those who stand accused and make the accusations can have champions (I: 352)
The king or his Hand might hear disputes between rival holdfasts, petitions, and the adjudicating of the placement of boundary stones (I: 390)
Dornish law, in part based on the laws and customs of the Rhoynar, allow lands and titles to be passed to the eldest child, regardless of gender (I: 690. SSM: 1)
By law, only a trueborn son may inherit a knight's arms (THK: 487)
If a crime takes place far from King's Landing, and it is sufficiently important (such as the striking of one of royal blood), the judges shall be the heirs to the throne if available, the lord of the great house holding dominion in that area if available, and the lord on whose actual domains the crime happened (THK: 507)
For striking a Targaryen, no matter the circumstances, a man of lesser nobility will be tried and punished. The last time it happened, the man who did it lost his offending hand (THK: 507, 508)
An offended party can demand a trial of seven, another form of trial by combat (THK: 508, 509)
The trial of seven is seldom used, coming across with the Andals and their seven gods. The Andals believed that if seven champions fought on each side, the gods thus honored would be more likely to see justice done. If a man cannot find six others to stand with him, then he is obviously guilty (THK: 509)
There had not been a trial by seven in more than a hundred years in (HK) (THK: 516)
If the accused is killed in a trial of seven, it is believed that the gods have judged him guilty and the contest then ends. If his accusers are slain or withdraw their accusations, the contest ends and he is decreed innocent. Otherwise, all seven of one side must die or yield for the trial to end (THK: 521)
The Great Council is a rare event which has not been called in a hundred years, and is the gathering of the assembled lords of the kingdom to decide some matter. The last time it was convened, it choose the next king of the Seven Kingdoms, over-riding proper lines of inheritance to give the crown to the youngest son of Maekar I, Aegon V (II: 78, 366. SSM: 1)
Marriages can very well be completed between children, even babies or a baby to a young boy, especially if inheritances are the chief concern (II: 210)
A bastard may inherit if the father has no other trueborn children nor any other likely kin to follow him (II: 185)
If a house's succession is uncertain, a related kinsman might well be seen as the best choice to be heir. He would then take the House's name as his own, despite his father being of another house (II: 190)
Septons witness marriages for those who follow the Faith, and in those who follow the old gods the heart trees also serve the same use (II: 384)
Witnesses may be called upon to witness the bedding of a newly wedded couple. How far this witness duty goes is uncertain (II: 384)
Vows said at swordpoint are not valid (II: 384)
Marriage contracts can be broken (II: 388)
The punishment for theft is the loss of a hand (III: 5)
Being caught abed with another man's wife can lead to being sent to the Wall (III: 5)
Being caught smuggling by the sea watch about Dragonstone was death in the days of Aerys (III: 110)
The father of a child whose descent makes him heir to a noble's lands and titles can garner the title of Lord Protector (III: 222)
Lords have bailiffs to help them in keeping the peace, taking on such tasks as overseeing hangings (III: 247)
There have been no slaves in Westeros for thousands of years, for the old gods and the new alike hold slavery as an abomination (III: 264)
The king can dispose of a lady's hand, standing in her father's place, if her direct male kin are declared traitors (III: 317)
Iron cages in which criminals are placed to die from exposure and hunger are known as crow cages, due to the crows the dead bodies attract. Being left to die in a crow cage is a particularly harsh death, though lords can vary widely as to what crime merits such punishment (III: 328, 329. TSS: 79)
A marriage that has not been consumated can be set aside by the High Septon or a Council of Faith (III: 362)
Death has always been the penalty for treason (III: 407)
A bastard can inherit if he is legitimized by a royal decree (III: 521, 819)
Justice is said to belong to the throne (III: 735)
Trials, at least among the nobility, often begin with a prayer from a septon beseeching the Father Above to guide them towards justice (III: 740)
A septon will swear a man to honesty before he gives testimony at a trial (III: 741)
Bills of attainder can be signed by the king to strip lords of their lands and incomes (III: 818)
Not even the High Septon himself can declare a person married if they refuse to say the vows (III: 907)
Robbers, rapers, and murderers are among those criminals who might be executed (TSS: 79)
Lords in Westeros once had the right to the first night (the custom of bedding newlywed common women before their husbands), but Queen Alysanne convinced King Jaehaerys I to abolish it (TSS: 94)
Some lords ban smallfolk from keeping bows as an attempt to keep them from poaching (TSS: 95)
In ancient days, wrongful deaths could be addressed by the paying of a blood price, and in the Age of Heroes a man's life might be reckoned at being worth no more than a sack of silver (TSS: 104, 126)
A lord might use his will to lay out specific terms for the inheritance of his title and lands. For example, if his heir is a daughter without a husband, he might specify that she must wed by a certain time or the inheritance will pass to a cousin (TSS: 123)
Lords have the right of pit and gallow over their own lands, according to the king's law, while landed knights cannot exercise the same right without the leave of their liege lord (TSS: 127. SSM: 1)
Slitting a man's nostrils may be deemed a suitable punishment for injuring an innocent maliciously (TSS: 127)
A lord may choose to leave substantial wealth and incomes on younger children (IV: 114)
It is customary to punish thieves to the loss of a finger for their crime (IV: 206)
A man who steals from a sept might be judged to have stolen from the gods, and so receive a harsher punishment (IV: 206)
A prostitute accused of carrying a pox might be punished by having her private parts washed out with lye before being thrown into a dungeon (IV: 207)
If one person stabs another in the hand as part of a dispute, they may be punished by having a nail driven through their palm (IV: 207)
In some cases, poachers and thieves might be forced to row ships as a punishment for their crimes (IV: 249)
If the queen of the Seven Kingdoms were to commit adultery, it would be considered high treason (IV: 577)
Of old, the High Septons might appoint seven judges to try a case, and if a woman was accussed, three of them might be women, representing maidens, mothers, and crones (IV: 645, 651)
Only a knight of the Kingsguard can champion a queen in a trial by battle if she has been accused of treason (IV: 647)
The age of legal majority for men and women is 16 (SSM: 1)
The laws of inheritance in Westeros are vague. Outside of Dorne, a man's eldest son is his heir, followed by the next youngest son, and so on. After the sons, most would say that the eldest daughter would inherit but there might be argument from the dead man's brother or a nephew. There are many other questions with murky answers, in particular having to do with the rights of legitimized bastards (SSM: 1)
Noble holdings are seldom divided, nor are they generally combined, although one person could concievably hold more than one title. If a lord intended to pass his lands in some unusual fashion, however, that would carry some weight (and likely lead to disputes) (SSM: 1)
Lords are not bound by custom or law to support relatives. Some do, however, by giving them posts and positions, or by granting them vassal holdfasts (SSM: 1)
The difference between a landed knight and a small lord is the title. A lord has greater powers over his domain than a landed knight, and the title is seen as more prestigious than knighthood. On the other hand, a knight is a fighting man and the title has its own martial and religious meanings with its own special prestige. It is concievable that a landed knight would have more lands and wealth than a small lord (SSM: 1)
A lord is expected to arrange matches for his children and his younger, unwed siblings, but he cannot force the marriages if they refuse to say the vows. However, there would be serious consequences to this. Moreover, he does not necessarily arrange marriages for his vassals and household knights, but they would be wise to consult him and respect his feelings when arranging their own matches (SSM: 1)
No one needs to be present for the High Septon to annul the marriage, but at least one of the wedded pair must request the annulment (SSM: 1)

Last revised August 05, 2009
PermaLink

2.3.2. Bastards

Snow is the surname for bastards north of the Neck (I: 12)
Bastards are said to grow up more swiftly than other children (I: 45)
It is not unexpected for noblemen to have bastard children (I: 54)
It is not typical for a noble to bring his bastards home and raise them with his own children. It's more usually expected that he will see to the child's well-being to some degree (I: 55)
The baseborn have few rights under the law and custom, when it comes to claims (I: 267)
Stone is the bastard name in the Vale (I: 309)
Flowers is the bastard name in the Reach (I: 309)
Each of the Seven Kingdoms have bastard surnames decreed by custom, although only noble bastards receive them (I: 309. SSM: 1)
Rivers is the bastard name in the riverlands (I: 541)
Pyke is the bastard name on the Iron Islands (I: 654. III: 364, 550)
Storm is the bastard name in the stormlands (II: 119)
A bastard may inherit if the father has no other trueborn children nor any other likely kin to follow him (II: 185)
Hill is the bastard name for the westerlands (III: 10)
Blackfyre was a name carried by a bastard of Aegon IV and his sons, but does not seem to have been a bastard name commonly used for Targaryen for Targaryen bastards, as his half-brother, whose mother was a Blackwood, used Rivers (III: 407, 521. TSS: 121-122)
Sand is the bastard name of Dorne (III: 431)
A bastard can inherit if he is legitimized by a royal decree (III: 521, 819. SSM: 1)
Aegon IV legitimized all his bastards, both the Great Bastards gotten on noble mothers and the baseborn, on his deathbed, and the pain, grief, war, and murder that wrought lasted five generations because of the Blackfyre pretenders (III: 521. TSS: 132)
It is rude to pry into the origins of a man's natural children (III: 766)
Men say that bastards are born from lust and lies, and so their nature is wanton and treacherous (III: 830)
Waters is the bastard name of Dragonstone and the King's Landing region (III: 929. IV: 120. SSM: 1)
Many noble bastards take the arms of their fathers with the colors reversed (TSS: 109. IV: 569)
Bastards whose parents are both of the nobility are not considered baseborn (TSS: 132)
The trueborn children of a bastard might change their surnames to show their legitimate nature. For example, a legitimate son of a Waters might change their surname to Longwaters (IV: 120-121. SSM: 1)
If two bastards from different regions married (such as a Snow and a Rivers), their offspring would probably take the name of their father (SSM: 1)
Any man can be knighted, even a bastard (SSM: 1)
Targaryen bastards have had various last names (SSM: 1)

Last revised August 12, 2010
PermaLink

2.3.3. Pastimes

Noble girls are taught womanly arts, such as knitting, singing, dancing, and playing instruments (I: 57, 59)
Dicing is one way to pass the time (I: 155)
Children play games like monsters-and-maidens, hide-the-treasure, come-into-my-castle, hopfrog, and spin-the-sword (I: 183. III: 776)
Children play with toys such as wooden knights, joints pegged together and strings set through so that they can be made to move (I: 254)
A game involving tiles and bets is played (I: 317. II: 98)
Children chase after hoops (I: 602)
Children often play rough-and-tumble games. One example is lord of the crossing, where a child plays at being the lord. Holding a stick he guards the crossing over a pool of water (necessary to the game) and others challenge him. The only way to win is to slip "mayhaps" amidst the play oaths that the lord makes them swear and then to push him into the water. Only the lord carries a stick (II: 56-57)
Lord of the crossing usually comes down to shoving, hitting, and falling into the water, with many arguments over whether "mayhaps" has been said or not (II: 57)
Nobles enjoy hawking (II: 120)
Women can go hawking (II: 216)
Drinking games (II: 239)
Peak-and-sneak is probably a game played by children (II: 330)
Travelling follies of mummers from the Free Cities travel among them on ships, and some visit the shores of Westeros plying their trade. These follies take on apprentices (II: 473)
Bear baiting (II: 534)
A mummer's dragon is a cloth dragon on poles, used to give heroes something to fight (II: 641)
Setting dogs to fighting (III: 137)
Young pages and squires can practice their skills by riding at rings (III: 493)
Children play games in pools and fountains, such as climbing on one another's shoulders and trying to push their opponents into the water (IV: 33)
The game of cyvasse, recently introduced to Westeros by a Volantene ship trading at the Planky Town in Dorne. The game involves two players, and features ten pieces with different powers and attributes. The board changes from game to game, depending on how the players array their home squares. (IV: 186-187)
Cockfights and boar baiting (IV: 495)
Children play with wooden blocks (IV: 660)
Jugglers and tumblers at a wedding feast (TMK: 678)
A troupe of painted dwarfs with inflated pig bladders that make rude noises (TMK: 679)

Last revised March 04, 2013
PermaLink

2.4. The Faith

The Faith holds that there are seven hells (I: 14)
The Faith has a child naming ceremony, involving anointing with seven oils (I: 18)
Crystals and light are important elements of the Faith (I: 18)
The building where religious worship is done is called a sept (I: 18)
The gods of the Faith have names (I: 18)
The religious leaders are septons, who lead worship with incense and censers, seven-sided crystals and songs. (I: 18)
Female godsworn are named septas and wear white robes (I: 57, 626. TSS 117)
Prayer is done to each of the seven faces of the gods (I: 78)
Visenya's Hill in King's Landing is crowned by the marble-walled Great Sept of Baelor and its seven crystal towers (I: 141. II: 549)
Candles are lit to the Seven to draw their aid (I: 161)
The Great Sept of Baelor has a rainbow pool (I: 229)
The gods frown on gamblers (I: 242)
Upon a death a family member, friend, or even a concerned stranger stands last vigil (I: 256. IV: 116)
A septon presides over a trial by combat, raising a crystal sphere above his head and chanting in a singsong voice for the gods to look down and bear witness, find truth in the man's soul, to grant him life and freedom if innocent and death if he were guilty (I: 365)
Inside a sept, a great crystal catches light and spreads it in a rainbow around the altar (I: 430)
In the North, only a few houses do not worship the Old Gods, following the Seven instead (I: 476)
The seven towers of the Great Sept of Baelor each have bells. All of them are only rung on momentous occasions, such as the death of a king (I: 600)
One tower tolling from Baelor's Sept is a summoning for the city (I: 604)
No one is taken to the Great Sept of Baelor to be executed (I: 605)
The High Septon wears long white robes and an immense crown of spun gold and crystal (I: 606)
The Faith was brought to Westeros by the Andal invaders nearly 6,000 years ago. Their warriors painted seven-pointed stars on their bodies (I: 618)
When a man is laid in his grave, a septon usually says some prayers for him (THK: 458)
The trial of seven is seldom used, coming across with the Andals and their seven gods. The Andals believed that if seven champions fought on each side, the gods thus honored would be more likely to see justice done. If a man cannot find six others to stand with him, then he is obviously guilty (THK: 509)
There are wandering and begging brothers of the Faith who wear brown robes and can say blessings over the faithful (THK: 515)
Dead bodies are given over to the silent sisters for ritual cleansing (II: 46. BNC)
When someone of the Faith is buried, a crystal is left on their grave (II: 61)
The seven gods of the Faith are the Mother, the Father, the Warrior, the Maid, the Stranger, the Smith, and the Crone (II: 108, 362)
A person might pray to the Warrior before a battle, to the Smith when launching a ship, and to the Mother when a woman grew great with child (II: 109)
Leaded glass windows in the septs often depict scenes and pictures (II: 208)
Altars at the greater septs are sometimes inlaid richly with mother-of-pearl, onyx, and lapis lazuli (II: 208)
The begging brothers are marked by their robes, which are undyed and belted with a hempen rope (II: 232)
The silent sisters wear cowled grey robes (II: 339. BNC)
Most septons claim that the Faith has but one god with seven aspects and that that is why septs are single buildings with seven walls. However, some say it's easier for the smallfolk to grasp seven separate gods than they do the mystery of the Seven Who Are One (II: 362. III: 803. IV: 370)
Wealthy septs have statues of the Seven and altars to each, and septs in the North might have carved masks to represent the Seven, but poor village septs might have only crude charcoal drawings (II: 362)
The Father is always bearded, the Mother is depicted as smiling with love and protection, the Warrior and the Smith always have their swords and hammers, the Maid is always beautiful, and the crone is always wizened (II: 362)
The Stranger is neither male nor female, always the outcast and the wandered from far places (II: 362)
Some say that each of the Seven embodies all of the Seven, in a way (II: 363)
Incest is a monstrous sin before the gods, but the Targaryens followed the practices of ancient Valyria and didn't answer to religions when it came to such issues (II: 364)
The Smith is known as a mender of broken things, and might be called upon to protect the crippled (II: 364)
Even in the North, septons witness marriages (although this may not be the case if both parties follow only the old gods) (II: 384)
The High Septon has a crystal crown (II: 431)
Holding hands with others while in the sept to worship and pray seems common (II: 595)
There is an example of a hymn to the Mother (II: 595)
There is room for thousands inside of the Great Sept of Baelor (II: 595)
The Smith might be asked to lend strength to a warrior's arms and armor, the Warrior might be asked to give him courage, and the Father might be asked to defend him in need by a septon seeking divine intervention (II: 596)
The High Septon may be involved in confirming the propriety of a marriage contract being broken if the parties are sufficiently important enough (II: 664)
The Father is also known as the Father Above (III: 32)
The Crone let the first raven into the world when she peered through the door of death (III: 33)
The Mother is also known as the Mother Above (III: 185)
All the septons agree that the Mother is merciful (III: 197)
Kissing the High Septon's ring is a sign of proper devotion (III: 208)
Old gods or new, it makes no matter, no man is so accursed as the kinslayer. However, there are degrees of kinslaying, and killing a distant cousin in the midst of a battle is much less of a problem than killing a brother in cold blood (III: 232. SSM: 1)
Carved wooden likenesses of the gods, some having chalcedony eyes (III: 244)
A sept with windows of leaded glass and icons of the Seven with the Mother wearing costly robes, the Crone carrying a gilded lantern, and the Father wearing a silver crown. They have eyes of jet, lapis, and mother-of-pearl. There is a vault beneath the sept where wine and other things were kept (III: 247, 248)
A silly song about Big Belly Ben and the High Septon's goose (III: 248)
There is a motherhouse at Oldtown (III: 251)
The silent sisters of the dead swear vows of chastity, but they are not accounted septas (III: 261)
The Faith holds slavery as an abomination (III: 264)
Prayers at the sept seem to take place three times each day (III: 288)
There are seven "wanderers" in the night sky which the Faith hold sacred (III: 294)
The red wanderer is held to be sacred to the Smtih (III: 294)
Marriages by the Faith take place before the marriage altar, where the septon waits between the Mother and the Father to join a man and a woman in wedlock (III: 319)
Prayers, vows, and singing are part of the marriage ceremony. Many tall candles are lit as well (III: 319)
A bride's father removes her maiden cloak so that her husband may place his cloak about her shoulders, passing her into his protection (III: 319, 669)
The final words a couple says at the end of a marriage ceremony: "With this kiss I pledge my love, and take you for my lord/lady and husband/wife" (III: 320)
The septon ends the marriage ceremony be declaiming: "Here in the sight of gods and men, I do solemnly proclaim [Groom's name] of House X and [Bride's name] of House Y to be man and wife, one flesh, one heart, one soul, now and forever, and cursed be the one who comes between them" (III: 320)
A marriage that has not been consumated can be set aside by the High Septon or a Council of Faith (III: 362)
Seven years seems typical as a time for serving as a begging brother, as a penance (III: 403)
A septry can have a mill, brewhouse, and stables. Prosperous septries can have forty or more memebers, with a dozen milk cows and a bull, a hundred beehives, a vineyard, and an apple arbor (III: 438, 442)
Members of a septry are known as brown brothers (III: 441, 442)
People may wear small emblems to show their devotion to a particular god, such a small iron hammer on a thong for the Smith (III: 442)
The leader of a septry is known as Elder Brother (III: 442)
There are young novice brothers at septries (III: 442)
The peace banner of the Seven is a rainbow-striped flag with seven long tails, a seven-pointed star topping the stave is hangs from (III: 503)
"The Song of the Seven", a children's lullaby, has all the gods but for the Stranger (III: 531, 532)
No one ever sings of the Stranger, as his face is the face of death (III: 532)
Septons speak of the seven aspects of grace (III: 589)
Septon Murmison's prayers are said to have worked miracles, but as Hand he soon had the whole realm praying for his death (III: 604)
Septon Barth, the blacksmith's son plucked from the Red Keep's library by the Old King Jaehaerys I, gave the realm forty years of peace and plenty (III: 604)
The Great Sept of Baelor has two towering gilded statues of the Father and the Mother, between which a royal bride and groom place themselves for their wedding vows (III: 660, 667)
A wedding includes the making of seven vows, the invocation of seven blessings, and the exchange of seven promises. A wedding song is sung after this point, and a challenge is made to speak against the marriage. If the challenge goes unanswered, the wedding cloaks may be exchanged (III: 668)
Flower petals are sometimes scattered before newlyweds as they leave the sept (III: 669)
"Maiden, Mother, and Crone", a song that delights septons (III: 676)
The prayer for the dead begins with, "Father Above, judge [person] justly" (III: 684)
The Stranger is thought to lead the newly dead to the other world (III: 699)
Supposedly, a suitable gift to the Faith would persuade the High Septon to release a Kingsguard from his vows (III: 703)
The septons teach that a person should pray to the Crone for wisdom, to the Warrior for courage, and to the Warrior for strength (III: 706)
There is a constellation named the Crone's Lamp, four bright stars enclosing a golden haze (III: 710)
Some claim that the silent sisters cut out the tongues of young members of their order who talk too much (III: 727, 728)
Trials, at least among the nobility, often begin with a prayer from a septon beseeching the Father Above to guide them towards justice (III: 740)
A septon will swear a man to honesty before he gives testimony at a trial (III: 741)
Kings are laid to rest in tombs in the Great Sept of Baelor (III: 751)
The drawings and illuminations in the White Book are done by septons sent from the Great Sept of Baelor three times a year (III: 751)
There are devotional books (III: 766)
In a trial of combat, a septon will ask the Father Above to help in judgement and that the Warrior would lend his strength to the arm of the man whose cause was just (III: 797)
In a trial by combat, some knights might paint their shields with the seven-pointed star of their Faith (III: 798)
Not even the High Septon himself can declare a person married if they refuse to say the vows (III: 907)
Villages too small to support a septon may receive visits from the septons of larger neighbors twice a year, or from wandering septons who travel a regular circuit. While there, the septon will dispense the Mother's forgiveness and peform rituals such as marriage ceremonies for the sins of the villagers, but during that time the village must house and feed him (TSS: 93, 96, 98. IV: 368)
The Poor Fellows and the Warrior's Sons, also known as the Stars and the Swords, were supressed by King Maegor (TSS: 105)
The Lord of the Seven Hells is said to command demons and practice black arts (TSS: 107)
The High Septon, a third of the Most Devout, and nearly all the silent sisters in King's Landing died during the Great Spring Sickness (TSS: 121)
The High Septon who died in the Great Spring Sickness counseled Prince Maekar against Lord Bloodraven, claiming that as bastards were born of men's lust and weakness, so too were they weak and could not be trusted (TSS: 133)
Septs greet each morning by ringing their bells (IV: 12)
There are a number of septs in Oldtown: the Sailor's Sept by the harbor, the Lord's Sept, the Seven Shrines in gardens across the Honeywine from the Quill and Tankard, the Starry Sept which was the seat of the High Septon for a thousand years until the Targaryens came (IV: 12)
The Starry Sept is made of black marble and has arched windows. The manses of the wealthy and more pious inhabitants of the city crowd around its feet (IV: 12)
When the Andals first invaded Westeros, some of their warriors had the seven-pointed star of the Faith carved into their flesh (IV: 63)
Maidens and mothers seem to be sorts of ranks or orders for women in the Faith (IV: 64)
It's said by some that the silent sisters are wives to the Stranger, and that their female parts are cold and wet as ice (IV: 64)
The oldest histories in Westeros were written after the Andal's came to Westeros, because the First Men only used runes for carving on stone. Everything written about the Age of Heroes, the Dawn Age, and the Long Night originates from stories written down by septons thousands of years later. There are archmaesters who question all these histories, noting the kings who seem to live for centuries and knights who fought a thousand years before there were knights (IV: 80)
There is a sept in Braavos, known as the Sept-Beyond-the-Sea (IV: 89)
A grand funeral for a Hand of the King might include morning services for the deceased with nobles in attendance, afternoon prayers for the commons, and evening prayers open to all (IV: 100)
The High Septons robes have sleeves encrusted with golden scrollwork and small crystals (IV: 101)
On entering the Great Sept of Baelor, one passes beneath colored globes of leaded glass in the Hall of Lamps (IV: 101)
The High Septon carries a weirwood staff topped by a crystal orb (IV: 101)
The Most Devout appear to be a high rank within the Faith. They wear robes of cloth-of-silver and crystal coronets (IV: 101, 124)
Past the inner doors of the Great Sept is its cavernous center, with seven broad aisles which meet beneath the dome (IV: 101)
The Great Sept's dome is lofty and made of glass, gold, and crystal (IV: 101)
The Great Sept has high windows (IV: 116)
The altars of the Seven in the Great Sept feature towering likenesses set in transpets, and are surrounded by lit candles. The floors are of marble and the transepts alone are larger than many septs (IV: 116, 124)
Evensongs are sung in septs as night falls (IV: 116)
The Great Sept can be accessed via the Father’s Door, the Mother’s Door, the Stranger’s Steps, and other entryways (IV: 124)
The robes of septons are belted with woven belts of seven plaits, each a different color (IV:124)
White-robed septas often reside in cloisters (IV: 124)
Brothers of the Faith wear robes of various hues, such as brown, butternut, dun, or even undyed roughen (IV: 124)
Brothers of the Faith may wear iron hammers on thongs in reverence of the Smith, or begging bowls (IV: 124)
Novices of the Faith take part in religious ceremonies by swinging censers filled with burning incense (IV: 127)
Many holy brothers wear tonsures, cutting the hair on their scalps as an act of humility and to show the Father that they have nothing to hide (IV: 137)
A husband swears his love and devotion to his bride during the wedding ceremony (IV: 176)
Six silent sisters might attend the bones of a great lord as they travelled in a funeral procession to their place of burial (IV: 226)
The bells of the Great Sept ring to herald the death of a High Septon (IV: 238, 240)
Silent sisters remove bowels and organs, as well as drain blood, from corpses in their care. They may also stuff the body with fragrant herbs and salts to preserve it and hide the smell of decomposition (IV: 241)
The Most Devout elect the High Septon, and those ambitious for the office often play politics to try and secure votes. Generally, the Most Devout select the new High Septon from their own ranks, but this is not always the case (IV: 242-243, 412)
The High Septon can pronounce an anathema upon a person, banishing them from the Faith (IV: 243)
Wandering septons are seen as one step above the begging brothers. Some will carry extra food to distribute to the poor and hungry, and will avoid staying too long in any one place to avoid taxing their resources as hosts. Innkeepers might occasionally find a space for them to rest in kitchens or stables, and there are septries, holdfasts, and even castles that will show them hospitality (IV: 369)
Not all septons can read or write. They memorize a hundred prayers, rituals, and ceremonies, however, and can recite long passages from The Seven-Pointed Star. (IV: 369)
The Seven-Pointed Star is the chief religious text of the Faith. Among its contents is the Maiden's Book (IV: 370)
Septons teach that the afterlife is a surcrease from budens, journeying to a far sweet land where there is no want or sadness (IV: 382)
It is written in The Seven-Pointed Star that all sins may be forgiven, but that crimes must still be punished (IV: 407, 653)
The High Septon puts aside their name, even if they are of a great and noble lineage, when they assume the mantle and crystal crown because it is said they serve as an avatar of the gods themselves (IV: 412)
During the reign of Baelor the Blessed, King Baelor caused a stone mason to be made High Septon because he thought the man's work was so beautiful that he must be the Smith made flesh. The mason could neither read nor write, and could not remember even the simplest prayers. It's rumored Baelor's Hand, the future Viserys II, had the man poisoned. After him, Baelor saw an eight-year-old boy raised to High Septon, believing he could work miracles, but the boy High Septon could not save Baelor during his final fast (IV: 412)
Aegon the Conqueror dated the beginning of his reign from the day the High Septon anointed him as king in Oldtown. Since then, it has been traditional for the High Septon to give their blessing to every king (IV: 413, 421)
The Great Sept of Baelor has large gardens, capable of holding hundreds (IV: 414)
It's said that work can be a form of prayer, pleasing to the Smith (IV: 418)
There are cells for pentinents in the Great Sept of Baelor (IV: 418)
In the Seven-Pointed Star, it's written that as men bow to lords, lords bow to kings, and kings and queens must bow to the Seven (IV: 418)
The vaults of the Great Sept hold costly vestments, rings, crystal crowns, and other treasures of the Faith (IV: 419)
The sept-proper of the Great Sept is reached through double-doors in the Hall of Lamps. The floors are of marble, light enters through great windows of leaded, colored glass, and the seven altars are set about with candles (IV: 419)
The Mother and the Maid are the most beloved of the Seven, while the Stranger is the least worshipped (IV: 419)
Jaehaerys the Conciliator swore upon the Iron Throne that the crown would always defend the Faith (IV: 420-421)
When news arrived in Oldtown of the landing of Aegon and his sisters, the High Septon fasted and prayed for seven days and nights under the dome of the Starry Sept in Oldtown. He then announced that the Faith would take not oppose the Targaryens, because the Crone had shown him that to do so would mean the destruction of Oldtown in dragonflame. Lord Hightower, a pious man, kept his forces at Oldtown and would later freely open his gates to Aegon when he came to be anointed by the High Septon (IV: 421)
King Maegor's decree prohibited the Faith from arming itself, and he fought for years in an attempt to repress the militant orders (IV: 422, 458)
The ancient blessed orders known as the Swords and the Stars comprised the Faith Militant, until Maegor's decree. The proper name of the Swords is the Warrior's Son, and it's said they wore fabulous armor over hair shirts and carried swords with crystal stars in their pommels. The Stars were named for their sigil, the red seven-pointed star on white, and were properly called the Poor Fellows. They were far humbler than the other order, for the most part, and were often little more than armed begging brothers who protected the faithful as they travelled from sept to sept and town to town (IV: 422-423)
It's said 900,000 gold dragons could feed the hungry and rebuild a thousand septs (IV: 422)
There are many tales of the Warrior's Sons, with members who were said to have been sorcerers, demonhunters, ascetics, holy men, dragonslayers, and fanatics united in their opposition to anyone that threatend the Holy Faith (IV: 423)
The Seven-Pointed Star states that lives are like candle flames, easily snuffed out by errant winds (IV: 456)
The faithful in their zeal to repent their sins might wear hair shirts, which are uncomfortable and painful to wear (IV: 457)
Some septries, such as the one found on the Quiet Isle, house penitents who swear vows of silence. The Elder Brother and proctors are the only ones who may speak, though the proctors may do so only once in seven days (IV: 461-462)
If a septry is known for its healers, men and women who are injured, or women heavy with child, might seek aid there (IV: 462)
A typical septry might have a windmill, cloisters where the brothers rest, a common hall for meals, and a sept among their larger structures (IV: 464)
The Elder Brother at a septry may depend on how many years they have served at a place, rather than just their age (IV: 464, 470)
The septry at the Quiet Isle has the Hermit's Hole, a cave where a holy hermit took residence and allegedly performed miracles two thousand years before (IV: 464-465)
Much of the furnishings at the Quiet Isle are made from driftwood (IV: 465)
Only septons can hear the confessions of brothers of the Faith, and giving confession is one of the exceptions to vows of silence (IV: 466)
Men and women do not lodge together at a septry, unless they are wed. Sometimes modest cottages are set aside for women who visit the septries (IV: 467)
Aegon the Conqueror treaded lightly with the Faith, so that the militant orders would not oppose him. When he died, however, they were in the thick of the rebellions that his sons faced (IV: 500)
King Maegor put a bounty on members of the Faith Militant: a dragon for the head of a Warrior's Son, and a stag for the scalp of a Poor Fellow. Thousands were killed, but as many still roamed the realm defiantly until Maegor's death and Jaehaerys the Conciliator's agreement to pardon all those who gave up their swords (IV: 500)
Septon Barth wrote of the changing genders of dragons (IV: 520)
It's said that those who are worthy will feast forever in the Father's golden hall in the afterlife (IV: 522)
Baelor the Blessed ordered Septon Barth's writings to be burned (IV: 522)
The Warrior's Sons wear seven-stranded belts, have crystals decorating their sword pommels and the crests of their greathelms, and bear old-fashioned kite-shaped shields which bear the emblem of the rainbow sword upon a black field. Their robes are rainbow-striped (IV: 536, 648)
The full name of the Warrior's Sons is the Noble and Puissant Order of the Warrior's Sons (IV: 536)
The saying of a grace over a meal (IV: 555)
The holy day known as Maiden's Day involves maidens fasting and purifying themselves in preparation, then clad in white they proceed to a sept to light candles at the Maiden's altar and hang paper garlands about or near her depiction. Only maidens can enter the sept and sing the devotional songs of the innocent (IV: 585)
It's suggested that the seven hells are reserved for various kinds of sinners, and that some of them are worse than others in their torments (IV: 586)
There is a book called Lives of the High Septons (IV: 590)
The High Septons used to be able to try men and women for crimes such as high treason, lewdness, fornication, and adultery. Jaehaerys the Conciliator took from them the scales of justice, however (IV: 643, 645, 651)
Of old, the High Septons might appoint seven judges to try a case, and if a woman was accussed, three of them might be women, representing maidens, mothers, and crones (IV: 645, 651)
Novice sisters wear roughspun shifts (IV: 649)
There is a septry on the grounds of the Citadel (IV: 677)
The High Septon is known as Father of the Faithful, Voice of the Seven on Earth (IV: 693)
Knights often light candles to the Warrior while attending tourneys, praying for strength and courage (TMK: 720)
The Stranger rarely has candles burning to him. The Mother and the Father receive the most candles, save perhaps when war or tourney beckons knights and men-at-arms to pray to the Warrior, while the Smith and the Maiden tend to receive fewer devotions (TMK: 720)
The Faith teaches that the Seven walked the hills of Andalos in human form (V: 79)
Andalos is said to have been the realm of Hugor of the Hill (V: 79)
From The Seven-Pointed Star: "The Father reached his hand into the heavens and pulled down seven stars, and one by one he set them on the brow of Hugor of the Hill to make a glowing crown" (V: 79, 80)
There are a number of holy books (V: 79)
The Seven-Pointed Star concerning Hugor of the Hill: "The Maid brough him forth a girl as supple as a willow with eyes like deep blue pools, and Hugor declared that he would have her for his bride. So the Mother made her fertile, and the Crone foretold that she would bear the king four-and-forty might sons. The Warrior gave strength to their arms, whilst the Smith wrough for each a suit of iron plates" (V: 80)
Some local septons are not very educated, but there are great centers of religious training in Westeros, with the Great Sept of Baelor being preeminent among them (SSM: 1)
No one needs to be present for the High Septon to annul the marriage, but at least one of the wedded pair must request the annulment (SSM: 1)
Dorne accepted the High Septon even after Maegor the Cruel and Jaehaerys the Concilator disarmed the Faith and carried undue influence over the Faith (SSM: 1)
Septs raised as part of a castle or its grounds are the property of the lords of the castle (SSM: 1)
Baelor the Blessed was a peace-loving king, and never considered rearming the Faith (SSM: 1)

Last revised February 21, 2016
PermaLink

2.4.1. Knighthood

Knighthood is a religious matter open only to those who profess to follow the Seven, involving anointing. Being anointed by the High Septon is a great honor (I: 30. SSM: 1)
Ser is the title given to knights (I: 30, etc.)
A knight may be as young as 15 or 16 (I: 249. II: 292.)
To be a knight one customarily stands vigil in a sept and is anointed with the seven oils by a septon before taking the vows, although any knight can make a knight (I: 476. HK: 472, 473)
Hedge knights spend their lives riding from keep to keep, taking service with different lords and eating in their halls until the lords saw no more need for them and sent them off (THK: 458)
Some hedge knights turn robber in lean times (THK: 458)
Most hedge knights tie up most of their worldly wealth in their arms and horses (THK: 458, 459)
True knights are supposed to be cleanly as well as godly, but some take cleanly to mean a bath once every few weeks (THK: 464)
Merchants are notoriously mistrustful of hedge knights (THK: 467)
Part of becoming a knight is a dubbing with a sword, the blade touching each shoulder in turn as words are spoken (THK: 472)
Knights practice their jousting against quintains (THK: 478)
Wealthier knights wear gilded spurs (THK: 492)
Knights may carry badges that have no connection to their house's arms (THK: 493)
Part of the knighting ceremony: "<Person and House, if he has one>," a touch on the right shoulder with the blade. "In the name of the Warrior I charge you to be brave." The sword moves from right shoulder to left. "In the name of the Father I charge you to be just." Right shoulder. "In the name of the Mother I charge you to defend the young and innocent." The left. "In the name of the Maid I charge you to protect all women...." (THK: 518)
A more formal knighting ceremony involves a night's vigil, followed by walking barefoot from the sept to the knighting place to prove their humble hearts. They wear shifts of undyed wool to receive their knighthood, which is marked by the putting on of the swordbelt after dubbing (II: 667)
Three hundred dragons is a fair ransom for a knight (III: 503)
Pages and squires might practice by riding at rings (III: 493)
Barristan Selmy was knighted in his 16th year by King Aegon V Targaryen after performing great feats of prowess as a mystery knight in the winter tourney at King's Landing, defeating Prince Duncan the Small and Ser Duncan the Tall, Lord Commander of the Kingsguard (III: 752)
Some knights never name their horses, so as to lessen the grief when they die in battle (TSS: 93)
Once, one in every ten members of the Night's Watch had been a knight, but now the figure is more like one in every hundred (IV: 74)
The vigil prior to receiving the vows of knighthood are carried out before the figure of the Warrior. The squire might lay his sword before or upon the figure, and their armor may be piled at its base (IV: 124)
There are knights who refuse to name their horses, for fear of feeling attached to them when they are likely to be killed in battle or in mishap (IV: 394)
In a duel, it seems the challenger may be able to determine the weapons used (IV: 482)
Hedge knights are nearer to common servants than noble knights in the eyes of most lords, and are rarely invited to ride beside them (TMK: 656)
It's claimed that Glendon Ball, the Knight of Pussywillows, bargained for his knighthood. Ser Morgan Dunstable knighted him in return for a night with Ball's maiden sister (TMK: 704)
There are tales of knights winning their knighthoods with favors, threats, and coin (TMK: 704)
Social pressure keeps knighthood from being exploited by unscrupulous knights who might give the accolade for money (SSM: 1)
Knighthood is seen as primarily a martial position, so even the sons of powerful lords are not necessarily knighted if they are incapable of fulfilling the requirements. Doing otherwise would lose honor rather than gain it, and would make a lord and his family be held up to ridicule (SSM: 1)
Any man can be knighted, even a bastard (SSM: 1)
Squires can be men of any age, even into their 40's. They are men who either had too little money and thus were unable to keep themselves equipped, or they were men who didn't have the inclination to become knights for any number of reasons (SSM: 1)
The difference between a landed knight and a small lord is the title. A lord has greater powers over his domain than a landed knight, and the title is seen as more prestigious than knighthood. On the other hand, a knight is a fighting man and the title has its own martial and religious meanings with its own special prestige. Not all lords are knights, and it is concievable that a landed knight would have more lands and wealth than a small lord (SSM: 1)
Some knightly families have strong castles, extensive lands, and great wealth -- lords in all but name, and often much more powerful than lesser lords or petty lords. They lack only in certain privileges that only lords hold in the Seven Kingdoms, such as the rights of pit and gallows (SSM: 1)

Last revised March 09, 2013
PermaLink

2.4.1.1. Tournaments and Heraldry

The high lords and ladies sit apart and watch the events (I: 246)
In one sort of tilt, if three passes are ridden without result, the king can grant the victory to one or another according to such things as who sat the better horse or had the steadier lance (I: 247)
Knights all wear cloaks (I: 247)
The jousters are separated in the lists (I: 247)
Killing someone's horse is seen as a disgrace, and forfeits a match (I: 249)
Pageantry is spectacular at tourneys. Knights wear the finest plate, and cloaks and horse caparisons are sometimes sewn with flowers. Lances are painted or made of rare woods to suit the knight who uses it, and sometimes the points are gilded (I: 246, 249, 261. HK: 491, 493, 497)
If a resultless tilt is even enough that the king cannot judge between them, both competitors may move on to new opponents (I: 249)
Knights in tournaments display their shields outside of their tents. Particularly ostentatious shields might be enormous and made of iron (I: 257)
Tourney lances are made to break (I: 263)
Melees are fought with blunted weapons and are chaotic. Alliances form and break by turns, until one man is left standing. A tournament of forty men, knights and freeriders and squires, can last three hours. The number of injuries to both men and horse are many (I: 265)
Knightly pavilions may be small or large, round or square, and made of sailcloth, linen, or silk according to wealth (THK: 463)
According to the whims of the host, a tourney may be open only to knights (THK: 472)
In many tournaments, defeated competitors must either pay a ransom or forfeit their armor and horse (THK: 472. II: 146)
Tourney barriers might be whitewashed (THK: 478)
Some tourneys have several men tilt at once, so lists with several lanes are not uncommon (THK: 478)
In a typical tournament, the nobles and particularly wealthy townsfolk would sit in multi-tiered stands with a canopy to shield them from the sun. Most would sit on benches, but the hosting lord and other particular nobles would have seats for themselves (THK: 478, 490)
One kind of tournament is called a hastilude (THK: 485)
There are a dozen different forms of tourney. Some are mock battles between teams, others wild melees. Where single combats are the rule, pairs might be chosen by lot or perhaps by the master of the games (THK: 480)
One form of tourney is thrown in honor of a noble lady, who reigns as Queen of Love and Beauty. Five champions wearing her favors would defend her, and all others would be challengers. If any man defeats a champion by making him yield or incapacitating him after tilting and then single combat, he takes his place until he himself is unseated. After three days of jousting the five remaining would determine who would wear the crown of Queen of Love and Beauty (THK: 480, 481, 492)
In a tournament where challengers may choose their opponent, the right of first challenge goes to knights of high birth or great renown, lords and their heirs, and champions of past tourneys (THK: 489)
Tourney lances 12 feet long, longer than war lances (THK: 491)
Knights tend to wear elaborate crests on their helms for tournaments. They are made of carved wood or shaped leather, sometimes gilded and enamelled or made of pure silver (THK: 491, 495)
The organization of tournaments to mark important occasions (such as namedays) might be handled by someone appointed as master of revels (II: 34)
The High Septon may be involved in confirming the propriety of a marriage contract being broken if the parties are sufficiently important enough (II: 664)
The Knight of the Laughing Tree was a mystery knight who appeared at the great tournament at Harrenhal, fighting for the honor a young Howland Reed of Greywater Watch (and may well have been Lord Howland himself). He won King Aerys's enmity (III: 279, 283)
The great tourney at Harrenhal had five days of jousting planned, a great seven-sided melee in the old style fought between seven teams of knights, archery, axe-throwing, a horse race, a tourney of singers, a mummer show, and many feasts and frolics (III: 282, 485)
Mystery knights often appear at tourneys, with helms concealing their faces and shields that were blank or bore some strange device. Sometimes they were famous champions in disguise (III: 282)
In a tourney at Storm's End when he was young, Prince Rhaegar defeated Lord Steffon Baratheon, Lord Jason Mallister, the Red Viper of Dorne. He broke twelve lances against Ser Arthur Dayne that day, but lost to Ser Barristan of the Kingsguard in the final tilt (III: 485, 752. SSM: 1)
It had been long years since King Aerys had last left the Red Keep when he went to Harrenhal for Lord Whent's tourney (III: 485)
Tournaments might have contests for pages and squires, such as riding at rings (III: 493)
The heraldic drawings and illuminations in the White Book are done by septons sent from the Great Sept of Baelor three times a year (III: 751)
Barristan Selmy won the name of "the Bold" in his 10th year when he donned borrowed armor to appear as a mystery knight at a tourney in Blackhaven, where he was defeated and unmasked by Duncan, Prince of Dragonflies (III: 752)
Barristan Selmy was knighted in his 16th year by King Aegon V Targaryen after performing great feats of prowess as a mystery knight in the winter tourney at King's Landing, defeating Prince Duncan the Small and Ser Duncan the Tall, Lord Commander of the Kingsguard (III: 752)
Ser Barristan the Bold defended the passage against all challengers in the tourney of the Silver Bridge, won a melee at Maidenpool, defeated and unmasked the mystery knight Blackshield, revealed as the Bastard of Uplands, at the Oldtown tourney, wa sole champion of Lord Steffon Baratheon's tourney at Storm's End where he unhorsed Robert Baratheon, Prince Oberyn Martell, Lord Leyton Hightower, Lord Jon Connington, Lord Jason Mallister, and Prince Rhaegar, and was champion at the tourney in King's Landing in his 57th year (III: 752)
In a tourney tilt, one's opponent is always on the left side (IV: 230)
Three knights travelling in a company for a tournament might have two dozen servants, grooms, men-at-arms, and mounted crossbowmen with them, as well as a dozen heavily-laden drays carrying armor, tents, and provisions (TMK: 653)
It is not customary to hold a melee to celebrate a wedding, and the suggestion of having one is shocking (TMK: 659, 672)
A small tourney thrown by Lord Butterwell has a very rich grand prize of a dragon's egg, but the other prizes are much smaller, being 30 dragons for the knight who came second and 10 dragons to each of the knights defeated the previous round (TMK: 672)
If a knight hates his foe enough, he may refuse to give over his horse for ransom, and could go so far as to ruin his armor before sending it to his enemy (TMK: 707)
Knights often light candles to the Warrior while attending tourneys, praying for strength and courage (TMK: 720)
The rules of heraldry are unregulated and rather freeform in the Seven Kingdoms, with individuals able to choose personal arms to their own taste (SSM: 1)
The rules for tourneys are many and diverse, and are up to each hosting lord or king to choose for their own particular event. There are wild team melees over acres of land, exhibitions of jousting, free-for-all-last-man-standing melees, and so on (SSM: 1)
There exists an ancient melee format which uses seven teams (SSM: 1)
The Reach is the chivalric heart of the Seven Kingdoms and the place where stringent requirements to entry in tournaments are most likely to be placed. Other areas are more likely to be a little looser, and in the North where knighthood is rare tournament rules are likely to be made up as they go along rather than follow set tradition (SSM: 1)
Heraldry in the North is significantly simpler and more basic than that in the South, showing the differing amounts of influence that chivalry has had there (SSM: 1)
The quartering of arms is not the usual practice in Westeros, and there are no set rules as to how it's to be done (SSM: 1)

Last revised March 09, 2013
PermaLink

2.5. The Maesters and the Citadel

The sleeves of a maester's robes are sewn with myriad pockets (I: 51. II: 16)
The maesters wear simple collars of forged links, of many metals (I: 51)
The Grand Maester of the Seven Kingdoms has a place on the council (I: 162, 676)
The Grand Maester wears a dozen heavy chains wound together in a heavy necklace that covers from throat to breast, the links forged of every metal known to man such as platinum, copper, brass, bronze, lead, steel, tin, silver, black iron, red gold, electrum, and yellow gold. Gems adorn the work (I: 162. IV: 716)
The Grand Maester Aethelmure wrote that all men carry murder in their hearts (I: 213)
Maesters appear to customarily ride mules or donkeys (I: 333. TSS: 145. IV: 38)
Maesters never remove their chains (I: 375)
The many metals of the links of a maester's collar represent different sorts of learning. Gold is for the study of money and accounts, silver for healing, iron for warcraft. (I: 376. IV: 2, 8)
The order of maesters are sometimes called the knights of the mind (I: 484)
Maesters know many things, among them history, healing, herblore, the speech of ravens, the building of castles, navigating by the stars, the measurement of days and the marking of seasons. At the Citadel in Oldtown, a thousand other things might be taught, but not magic (I: 485)
House names are put aside when maesters take their vows and don their collars (I: 554)
Maesters of the Seven Kingdoms have performed autopsies for centuries to better understand the workings of the human body (I: 561. IV: 82, 110)
The maesters make star maps (I: 615)
As the maesters have noticed, most highborn girls flower earlier than girls of the smallfolk, at the age of twelve or thirteen (I: 625. SSM: 1)
The maesters breed white ravens, sending them to herald the changing of seasons (II: 2, 4)
A maester might be as young as twenty-five, if not younger (II: 3)
The maesters say that comets are stars with tails, lost in the heavens (II: 3)
The maesters at the Citadel meet in a gathering called a Conclave. There the reports and measurements of all the maesters are considered to decide whether a season has ended (II: 4, 85)
When a maester dons his collar he places himself under vows of celibacy (II: 14)
A student at the Citadel does not take final binding vows until he has completed his training (II: 76)
A student at the Citadel begins to forge his chain even before he has become a maester. However, "forge" is a metaphor; maesters do not actually make the links themselves (II: 77. SSM: 1)
Maesters are only found in castles, not towns, and the opinion of many is that they will not dirty their hands helping smallfolk as their service is only to the highborn. This does not hold for all maesters, however (II: 217)
Once the Alchemists' Guild was powerful, but in recent centuries the maesters of the Citadel had supplanted them through most of the Seven Kingdoms. Now only a very few alchemists remain (II: 226)
Maesters are supposed to be celibate (II: 300)
A link of black iron in a maester's collar is for ravenry, and a link of dark grey Valyrian steel represents the study of magic, which they call "the higher mysteries" in the Citadel (II: 324. IV: 3)
Only one maester in a hundred wears a link of Valyrian steel (II: 324)
All those who study the higher mysteries try their own hands at sorcery eventually, but they always fail (II: 324)
The maesters concede that magic may once have been a mighty force in the world, but if any still remains it's but a lingering wisp of smoke from dying embers (II: 324-325)
The maesters say that Valyria was the last ember of magic, and even that is now destroyed (II: 325)
The maesters believe that the dragons are no more, the giants are all dead, that the children are as forgotten as their lore, and that no living man has the greensight (II: 325)
Men (besides maesters and perhaps husbands) are not supposed to be present in birthing rooms (II: 555)
A maester can be thrown out of his order, apparently, for such crimes as practicing "necromancy" (II: 653)
The order of the maesters serves the realm and the appointed keep of each member, no matter whether who controls it is rightful lord or not (II: 670)
Maesters buy leeches at twelve for a penny (III: 5)
The archmaesters of Oldtown (III: 133)
Some archmaesters argue that only the Conclave may make or unmake a Grand Maester (III: 133)
Maegor the Cruel had three of his Grand Maesters executed (III: 133)
Aegon II had Grand Maester Gerardys fed to his dragon (III: 133)
The Conclave makes a pretense of putting ability before birth, but this is not usually the case in its final choice for Grand Maester (III: 133)
The Conclave met in Oldtown behind closed doors, its deliberations secret (III: 133)
There is an old rhyme known to the maesters in Westeros and perhaps elsewhere that goes, "Bricks and blood built Astapor, and bricks and blood her people" (III: 267)
Maesters teach the stars to their pupils, giving them the names of the twelve houses of heaven and the rulers of each, the seven wanderers sacred to the Faith, and many constellations (III: 295)
The Sow, the Ghost, the Ice Dragon, the Shadowcat, the Moonmaid, the Sword of the Morning, the King's Crown, the Stallion, the Swan, the Galley, and the Crone's Lamp (also known as the Crone's Lantern) are constellations (III: 295, 343, 710. TSS: 133)
The Sword of the Morning is still visible and hangs in the south even as the eastern sky lightens with the dawn. A bright white star is in its hilt, blazing like a diamond (III: 336)
The King's Crown moves through the zenith (III: 343)
The Moonmaid is shy and hangs low in the sky (III: 343)
The smallfolk believe dragonglass is truly made by dragons, but the maesters think not, saying instead that it comes from the fires of the earth (III: 373)
Sometimes the maesters' ravens do not win through because some bowman might have decided to shoot one down for a meal (III: 395)
Grand Maester Hareth died for his treason (III: 407)
There are maesters interested in more occult matters, but the archmaesters do not much care for their ideas (III: 508)
The Ice Dragon's tail points the way south (III: 530)
The Stallion gallops up the sky as sun sets (III: 616)
Grand Maester Kaeth wrote Lives of Four Kings, a history of the reigns of Daeron the Young Dragon, Baelor the Blessed, Aegon the Unworthy, and Daeron the Good. There are only four copies existing illuminated by his own hand, one of them in the Citadel. Kaeth scants Viserys II terribly, however, as his short reign as king came after Baelor's (III: 662, 664)
The Galley, a constellation, moves westwards in the night (III: 710)
The Crone's Lamp is a constellation of four bright stars enclosing a golden haze (III: 710)
The Galley, the Crone's Lamp, and the eye of the Ice Dragon are used in navigation at sea (III: 710)
Maesters give counsel, not commands (III: 724)
In 211, the Grand Maester was considered new to the office, and was alleged to be as steeped in sorcery as Lord Rivers, the Hand of the King (TSS: 122)
The Quill and Tankard, found on an island in the Honeywine river, is an Oldtown inn popular for all classes of patrons, including novices and acolytes (IV: 1, 4)
New students at the Citadel without any links are novices, while those with at least two are considered acolytes (IV: 1-2, 717)
Pewter is one of the links symbolizing a particular area of learning (IV: 2)
Most acolytes treat novices as if they were slow-witted (IV: 2)
Some students of the Citadel who learn something of a healing and little else may become barbers, serving smallfolk with leeches, setting broken bones, and shaving and cutting their hair (IV: 2)
The Citadel gives archmaesters renowned for their knowledge of a particular subject a mask, ring, and rod corresponding to that link of chain. The archmaester considered most knowledgable in ravenry, for example, retains the mask of black iron and is said to sit beneath it. (IV: 3, 9)
An archmaester who is grown too feeble of mind to continue his duties under a mask might be replaced by a succesor, who could be a maester rather than an archmaester (IV: 3)
Most acolytes take a year to earn each link, although exceptional students have been known to gain three links in that same span of time, and unexceptional students have been known to go five years or more without a single link (IV: 5)
When a student at the Citadel believes they are ready to earn a link, they will go before the preeminent maester in that area of knowledge and be questioned. If they meet the archmaester's approval, they gain a link. Those who do very badly may be so demoralized that it may take years before they make another attempt (IV: 5)
Green marbles sphinxes flank the main gate of the Citadel (IV: 6)
A student of the Citadel who violates the rules of behavior given to them can be ordered confined to their rooms by the maesters (IV: 7)
Some maesters of the Citadel claim the world is 40,000 years old, while others argue that it is 500,000 years old (IV: 7)
The Citadel allegedly has four glass candles from Valyria, brought to Oldtown a thousand years before the Doom. One is green, the other three are black. They are made of razor-sharp obsidian. When an acolyte is prepared to take his vows and become a maester, he is placed in a completely dark room with one of these candles. He must stay in that room for the entire night in darkness unless he is able to light the candle, as a lesson about truth and learning (IV: 9)
Archmaesters give open lectures on various subjects, which students can come to or not as they desire (IV: 10)
The Quill and Tankard is not far from the Citadel as the raven flies, but Oldtown is a veritable labyrinth (IV: 11)
The towers and domes of the Citadel lie on both sides of the Honeywine. Stone bridges, crowded with halls and houses, connect them (IV: 12)
Each archmaester is said to carry a heavy, black iron key that will open most of the doors in the Citadel. They keep them close on their person, or hide them well (IV: 13-14)
Maester Thomax's Dragonkin, Being a History of House Targaryen from Exile to Apotheosis, with a Consideration of the Life and Death of Dragons contains illustrations of dragons such as Balerion the Black Dread done in colored inks (IV: 76)
Archmaester Marwyn's Book of Lost Books, containing among other things information concerning three pages from Signs and Portents, a book of visions written down by the maiden daughter of Aenar Targaryen before the Doom (IV: 162)
There are archmaesters who question all the old histories that deal with the time before the Andals, because they were written down by septons thousands of years after the fact (IV: 80)
Haereg's History of the Ironborn discusses Urron of Orkmont's massacre at a kingsmoot to establish House Greyiron's rule in the Iron Islands until the Andals came a thousand years later (IV: 165)
Archmaester Rigney once wrote that history is a wheel, because the unchanging nature of men means that what happened before will happen again (IV: 165)
Though it's traditionally said the last kingsmoot took place four thousand years ago, Denestan's Questions suggests the true date is less than half that (IV: 165)
A maester might use beetles to clean flesh from bones (IV: 240)
It's said that the moon can "crown" the constellation known as the Moonmaid (IV: 306)
A young girl of a highborn family is likely to have been taught some High Valyrian (IV: 314)
The Braavosi count their days differently from Westeros (IV: 323)
Some archmaesters teach that mother's milk has many healthful properties (IV: 333)
A comet was seen above King's Landing on the day that Rhaegar's son Aegon was conceived (IV: 520)
The maesters pay good silver, and sometimes even gold, for books (IV: 521)
It is a great shame for any maester to surrender his chain (IV: 521)
Kaeth was chosen as Grand Maester at the age of 80, and Ellendor was almost 90 when he was chosen after him. Both died within the year of being raised. After them was Grand Maester Merion, 66 years of age, who died of a chill while on his way to King's Landing. After them, King Aegon suggested to the Conclave that a younger man would be better, and Pycelle was raised to Grand Master at the age of 42. (IV: 542)
Some maesters believed prophecy is possible, and cite certain spells in old books. However, though it may be possible, they council against it (IV: 543)
Maesters say that the size of a woman's breasts does not indicate how much milk she will produce when nursing (IV: 619)
The gates of the Citadel are flanked by a pair of towering green Valyrian sphinxes. They have the bodies of lions, the wings of eagles, and the tails of serpents. One has a man's face, the other a woman's (IV: 677)
Just beyond the gates of the Citadel is Scribe's Hearth, where Oldtowners look for acolytes to write wills or read letters for them. Half a dozen scribes might be found, sitting in open stalls, while at other stalls books are bought and sold (IV: 677)
From Scribe's Hearth, a path divides around a state of King Daeron the First astride a horse with his sword pointed towards Dorne. The left fork follows the river, passing the Weeping Dock which is a short boat trip away from the Bloody Isle. There is a septry near it. Going on, one reaches the Seneschal's Court (IV: 677)
A cook's boys might catch frogs under the Weeping Docks (IV: 677)
At the Seneschal's Court, rectors deal out punishment to novices and acolytes, such as placing them in stocks from stealing from the kitchens; acolytes may throw rotten vegetables at them (IV: 677)
Beyond the doors of the Seneschal's Court is a high hall with a stone floor and high, arched windows with benches beneath them. At one end is a gatekeeper, who keeps appointments for the Seneschal of the Citadel. It seems expected to bribe him with a penny to hurry up the process if one is not yet enrolled (IV: 677-678)
A new Seneschal is appointed each new year. The archmaesters tend to see it as a thankless task, and so the archmaester is selected by lot each year, with the one who draws the black stone taking on the office (IV: 679)
The Isle of Ravens is not far from the Seneschal's Court, linked by a weathered drawbridge on the east bank of the Honeywine. On it is the castle called the Ravenry, the oldest building at the Citadel. It's said that in the Age of Heroes, a pirate lord robbed ships as they came down the slow-moving river. An ancient weirwood fills it, half its branches dead but a few still have leaves. Ravens fill it, perching upon the branches (IV: 680)
The west tower of the Ravenry contains the white rookery, where the white ravens are kept, as they quarrel with the black ravens. There is also a northern tower (IV: 680)
It's claimed that the Citadel is behind the deaths of the last Targaryen dragons, because of a conspiracy against magic and prophecy (IV: 683)
The west tower of the Ravenry has a good view of the Honeywine (IV: 684)
The Hightowers were instrumental in the founding of the Citadel (IV: 715)
The election of the Seneschal for the coming year appears to take place shortly after the Seneschal of the waning year assumes his place (IV: 715)
Copper is the metal of the link for history (IV: 716)
Bronze is the metal of the link for stargazing or astronomy (IV: 716)
Some lords trust their maesters to open and read letters, and then convey their contents to them, but others prefer to do so for themselves (V: 51)
The Citadel has no requirements for entry, not even age requirements. The Citadel is very loosely structured and open to all, although not everyone becomes a maester. It is full of ageing novices and acolytes who never completed their maesters chain (or, in some cases, never even began) (SSM: 1)
The maesters have noted that very young mothers (12-14) have a significantly higher mortality rate in childbed, so lords tend not to bed their maiden wives until they have reached 15 or even 16 years out of concern for their safety (SSM: 1)
Dragonlore has been accumulated in the Citadel (SSM: 1)
The maesters and the more educated classes realize the world is round, but many common folk may believe it is flat (SSM: 1)
Maesters monitor temperature variations and the march of the seasons closely, so as to better advise what to plant and when to expect a harvest (SSM: 1)
Maesters serving on the Wall take the oaths of the Night's Watch (SSM: 1)
The Citadel is financed by the lords who pay for having their maesters, and from certain taxes that the Citadel collects at Oldtown (SSM: 1)
A maester's chain may have multiple links of a single metal, to indicate especially great accomplishment in that area of learning (SSM: 1)

Last revised February 02, 2016
PermaLink

2.5.1. Medicines and Poisons

Milk of the poppy is a powerful medicine that sets men to sleep despite great pain (I: 21, etc.)
Honey, water, and herbs are mixed together to feed patients in a coma (I: 77)
Salves for bruises or sprains (I: 152)
Wasting potions and pepper juice are used to purge potentially dangerous matter from the body (I: 212)
The tears of Lys is rare and costly, clear and sweet as water and leaving no trace. It is a cruel poison that eats at a man's bowels and belly, and seems like an illness of those parts (I: 270. IV: 516)
Myrish fire is dabbed on cuts and feels like it burns (I: 284)
Boiling wine is used to clean out wounds (I: 322. THK: 528)
Firemilk is a pale red ointment used to clean wounds (I: 616)
Dreamwine is used against pain (I: 659. II: 575)
Maesters are known to shave the heads of patients to treat lice, rootworm, and certain illnesses (THK: 469)
A poison which seems as small, extremely purple crystals made from a certain plant that grows only on the islands of the Jade Sea. The leaves are aged and soaked in a wash of limes and sugar water and certain rare spices from the Summer Isles. Afterwards the leaves could be discarded, but the potion must be thickened with ash. The process is slow and difficult, leading to its cost. The alchemists of Lys, the Faceless Men, and the maesters of the Citadel know how to make it (II: 15)
The leaf has a particular name amongst the Asshai'i and the Lysene have a name for the crystals. To the maesters, the poison is known as 'the strangler' for causing the throat to clench so powerfully that the windpipe shuts (II: 15)
Various poisons: sweetsleep (a pinch will bring sound and dreamless sleep, while three pinches brings death, nightshade, powdered greycap (taken from the toadstool), wolfsbane, demon's dance, basilisk venom, blindeye, and widow's blood (named so for its color, it's a cruel potion that shuts down bladder and bowels so the victim drowns in their own poisons) (II: 193. III: 743, 872. IV: 516)
There appears to be no knowledge of birth control outside of the interruption method (II: 329)
Leeching is known of and used medicinally. Some take the practice to an extreme with regular leeching in the belief that it helps purge 'bad blood' and lead to a longer life (II: 507)
Wounds that seem near to mortification are treated with boiling wine and maggots (II: 686)
Hot wine is said to be better than compresses for colds and fluxes (III: 112)
Moon tea is used to abort children. It is made of tansy, mint, wormwood, a spoon of honey, and a drop of pennyroyal (III: 171, 913)
A posset of herbs and milk and ale, supposedly for the purpose of increasing fertility (III: 233)
Tansy tea appears to be used by the smallfolk to induce abortions (III: 252)
Hot garlic broth and milk of the poppy are given to people with bad fevers, to warm them and take away the aches and shivers (III: 285)
Leeching is done to drain off bad blood from the ill (III: 285)
Boiling wine and a poultice of nettles can be used to try to burn out infection in severely corrupted flesh (III: 349, 350)
Catgut is used for stitches (III: 350)
There are herbs that can be mixed into wine and drunk to help bring down fever (III: 351)
Leeches are used to drain bad blood from inflamed wounds (III: 351)
Myrish fire, mustard salve, ground garlic, tansy, poppy, kingscopper, and other herbs are used in healing (III: 366)
Licorice steeped in vinegar, with honey and cloves, helps restore strength and clear heads (III: 421)
Maesters will heat their medical irons (III: 549, 551)
Nettle, mustard seed, and moldy bread can be used in a poultice to combat an infected wound (III: 553)
Chewing willow bark helps to ease pain (III: 610)
A poison using manticore venom thickened by some method (possibly magic) so rather than killing instantly upon reaching the heart, it instead takes much longer to reach the heart and thereby delays death while causing excruciating pain. The flesh mortifies and oozes pus, so much so that maggots will not do their work. Violent convulsions ensue. The rotting of the flesh cannot be treated by normal means such as boiling wine and bread mold, and the veins in an arm are turning black. Leeches used to drain blood die of the poison as well (III: 821. IV: 110)
A fit of the shaking sickness is treated with dreamwine to calm the victim, and then leeching is performed to thin the blood in the belief that bad blood leads to anger or other strong emotion that attract the fits (III: 906)
If needed, a maester could carry antidotes and purges against the twenty most common poisons (IV: 173)
A scratch from a crannogman arrow is said to be enough to leave a man in agony with bloody bowels, screaming as blood and watery feces runs down his legs until he dies (IV: 257)
The poisons used by the House of Black and White can stunt growth (IV: 324, 517)
Sweetsleep is named in part because of its taste. A small pinch can soothe an anxious child, but too large a dose or too regular use can be dangerous (IV: 333, 516)
Boiled vinegar to clean out a wound (IV: 431)
A paste spiced with basilisk blood that gives meat a savory smell, but brings a violent madness on any creature with warm blood, whether man or beast (IV: 516-517)
A poison that induces blindness, deposited in warm milk and giving it a slightly burnt smell and a bitter aftertaste (IV: 518)
An older man with an illness that leads to severe coughing might be treated with purges, poultices, infusions, mists, sweetsleep, and bleeding (IV: 537)
A poison known as heart's bane, served in a cup (IV: 545)
It's claimed that a woman would only drink moon tea to avoid giving birth to a child (IV: 577)

Last revised July 15, 2009
PermaLink

2.5.2. Illness

Pockmarks on a face (I: 120)
Victims of the shaking sickness tremble uncontrollably. Bleeding is one possible treatment (I: 314. IV: 152)
Gout (I: 350)
The grey plague (I: 517)
Greyscale, a disease that can leave flesh stiff and dead and the skin cracked and flaking, mottled black and grey and stone-like to the touch (II: 2)
Baelor Breakspear's sons and father died, as well as the Hand who succeeded him, during the Great Spring Sickness which killed many tens of thousands more besides. It was bad in Lannisport, worse in Oldtown, but worst of all in King's Landing where four in ten succumbed to it. A strong man could wake up healthy on the morning and die by the evening, so swiftly did the plague strike. Fire was used to destroy the remains of the dead, and it was noted that there were no rats to be found alive (II: 77. TSS: 119, 121)
A pox gotten from a whore (II: 77)
The bloody flux (II: 305)
Greywater fever, probably known only in swampy lands (II: 320)
Brownleg (III: 645)
A fit of the shaking sickness is treated with dreamwine to calm the victim, and then leeching is performed to thin the blood in the belief that bad blood leads to anger or other strong emotion that attract the fits (III: 906)
The High Septon, a third of the Most Devout, and nearly all the silent sisters in King's Landing died during the Great Spring Sickness (TSS: 121)
Dorne and the Vale did not suffer from the Great Spring Sickness, as they closed off their passes and ports (TSS: 121)
Lord Bracken's eldest son died during the Great Spring Sickness (TSS: 121)
Lady Rohanne Webber's fourth husband, Ser Rolland Uffering, died during the Great Spring Sickness (TSS: 122-123)
The grey plague struck Oldtown in the past (IV: 120)
Redspots, a common childhood affliction named after the red, itchy spots that appear on the body. Nothing can be done for it but to allow it to run its course, and use salves to soothe the itching. Once suffered, children no longer fall prey to it (IV: 305)
It's said the orphans of the Greenblood have great knowledge of the healing arts, able to cure warts and producing the most skillful midwives (IV: 306)
A child afflicted with the sleeping sickness may be regularly leeched (IV: 333)

Last revised May 18, 2009
PermaLink

2.6. The Alchemists’ Guild

The Alchemists' Guild makes wildfire (II: 47)
The Guildhall of the Alchemists has cold, dank vaults that run deep under Visenya's hill (II: 225)
Pyromancers wear striped black-and-scarlet robes (II: 226)
Pyromancers call wildfire 'the substance' and title each other 'wisdom' (II: 226)
The Pyromancers customarily hint at vast stores of knowledge that they do not really possess (II: 226)
Once the Alchemists' Guild was powerful, but in recent centuries the maesters of the Citadel had supplanted them through most of the Seven Kingdoms. Now only a very few alchemists remain (II: 226)
The pyromancers used to claim they could transmute metals, but as hard times have fallen upon the order they have stopped putting that forward (II: 226)
The pyromancers made many jars of wildfire for King Aerys II. It was his fancy to shape the jars as fruits (II: 226)
Many pyromancers were killed during the Sack of King's Landing. In fact, so many died that the few novices left were quite unable to take up the task of destroying the Aerys II's jars of wildfire before they became too volatile (II: 226)
Many of the jars of wildfire made for Aerys II were lost, unable to be accounted for, because of the massacres of the sack of King's Landing (II: 226)
Aerys II had at least 4,000 jars of wildfire prepared (II: 227)
The pyromancers have trained acolytes prepare wildfire in a series of bare stone cells. Apprentices immediately carry the substance to the cold storage vaults once complete (II: 227)
Above each workroom is a room filled with sand. Any fire in the room below will cause the floor above to collapse so that the sand can fall down and completely douse the blaze. The pyromancers claim that this is done through protective spells (II: 227)
The last Hand to visit the Guildhall of the Alchemists' was a Lord Rossart, a member of their own order, in Aerys' day (II: 228)
The Guildhall is imposing, a warren of black stone. Through many twists and turns one can reach the polished black marbled-walled Gallery of the Iron Torches, where black iron columns twenty feet tall are sometimes bathed in flaming wildfire to impress visitors. Wildfire is so costly, however, that such displays are ended as soon as the visitors are gone (II: 228-229)
The entrance to the Guildhall is atop broad curving steps that front the Street of the Sisters, not far from the foot of Visenya's hill (II: 229)
Flea Bottom is relatively near to the Guildhall (II: 438)
A cache of wildfire from Lord Rossart's time was hidden in the Dragonpit, numbering over three hundred jars (II: 522)
Lord Rossart was the last of King Aerys's Hand's, having the position only a fortnight before the Sack of King's Landing. He was killed by Ser Jaime Lannister before he went on to kill his king (III: 129, 130)
The alchemists Rossart, Belis, Garigus aided Aerys in placing caches of wildfire throughout King's Landing, for the purpose of destroying the city should Robert sack it. Only a handful of master pyromancers did the task, their own acolytes untrusted (III: 418)
Days after the Sack, Jaime hunted down Belis and Garigus, the two master pyromancers who with Rossart aided Aerys (III: 419)
Master pyromancers can conjure up beasts of living flame to tear at each other with fiery claws (III: 677)
Pyromancers using wildfire burned the bodies of the dead of King's Landing during the Great Spring Sickness at the command of the King's Hand, Lord Bloodraven (TSS: 121)
A pyromancer claims that the guild can make a flaming hand burn in the sky above King's Landing (IV: 104)

Last revised February 04, 2007
PermaLink

2.6.1. Wildfire

Wildfire is considered a treacherous substance (II: 47)
The alchemists place wildfire in small jars of pottery, the clay roughened and pebbled to improve grip (II: 225)
Wildfire is a murky green in color, and oozes slowly when thickened by cold (II: 225)
Water cannot quench wildfire (II: 226)
Once wildfire takes fire, the substance will burn until it is no more. It will sleep into cloth, wood, leather, and even steel so that they take fire as well (II: 226)
A thin coating of wildfire on a sword can burn for an hour, although the blade will be ruined by it (II: 226)
Wildfire will also seep into the clay jars it is generally held in, but it takes time (II: 226)
The more volatile jars of wildfire are sealed in wax and placed in rooms pumped full of water (II: 226)
Extremely volatile jars of wildfire (such as would have been made fifteen or more years ago) are dealt with carefully. They are moved from place to place only by night, in carts filled with sand to lessen any jostling at all (II: 226)
Old wildfire is 'fickle.' Any flame, any spark can set them off. Too much heat - such as that caused by being exposed to sunlight for even a short time - could lead to blazing as well. Once the fire begins, the heat makes the wildfire explode violently which can lead to a vast chain reaction (II: 226-227)
Making wildfire is a lengthy and dangerous process (II: 227)
Certain steps in making wildfire work better and more efficiently now. A pyromancer speculates that this could have something to do with dragons, as an old Wisdom said to him once that the spells for making wildfire were not as effectual as they once were because dragons had gone from the world (II: 523)
A massive explosion caused by a thousand jars of wildfire makes a tower of green flame fifty feet high (II: 610)
Wildfire will burn even when floating on water (II: 610)
Wildfire can burn so hot that flesh melts almost like tallow (II: 614)
Wildfire will burn on a sword blade, but it will ruin the steel (III: 254)
The pyromancers say that only three things burn hotter than wildfire: dragonflame, the fires beneath the earth, and the summer sun (IV: 183)

Last revised September 25, 2008
PermaLink

2.7. Clothing

Sable furs are used as expensive trimmings (I: 2)
Moleskin is used for gloves (I: 2)
In the heat of the summer, women often wear little more than short gowns of silk or cotton, thinly cut (I: 34)
Silk of many hues (I: 27, 42, etc.)
Satin cloaks (I: 42)
Chokers (I: 42)
Embroidery (I: 42, etc.)
Velvet (I: 43, etc.)
Squires and servants wear livery according to the house they serve (I: 61)
Knights wear surcoats (I: 61, etc)
Fur cloaks (I: 91)
One hundred gold dragons are far too much for a wolf pelt (I: 131)
Vest of woven gold (I: 145)
Loose gowns of silk (I: 145)
Pointed slippers of soft velvet (I: 145)
Velvet doublets with embroidery (I: 161)
Cloth-of-gold half capes (I: 161)
Woolen scarves (I: 177)
Light linen undertunics (I: 231)
Doublets that lace up the back (I: 233)
Black velvet coats (I: 235)
Linen doublets (I: 265)
A doublet sewn with pearls (I: 285)
Slashed velvet doublets (I: 299. III: 291)
Cloaks trimmed with black fox (I: 299)
Trousers (I: 318)
Sachets filled with fragrances sewn to tunic sleeves (I: 324)
A surcoat with silver buttons (I: 337)
Fools wear motley (I: 362)
Women wear underskirts (I: 398)
Damask gowns (I: 398)
Hunting greens (I: 405)
Velvet tunics with puffed sleeves (I: 427)
Smallclothes (I: 449)
Dresses of wool, plainly cut but richly embroidered around collar and sleeves, might be worn by noblewomen (I: 453)
Mourning clothes are black (I: 455)
Robes of thick velvet with golden fastenings and fur collars, sleeves heavy with scrollwork (I: 517)
Velvet doublets sewn with scales (I: 519)
Greatcloak (I: 572)
Sleeved surcoats are used (I: 585)
Whores might wear wisps of painted silk (I: 604)
Doublet sewn with beads (I: 606)
Bedgowns (I: 621)
Felts (THK: 465)
Leather brigandine covered in silver studs (THK: 484)
Velvet doublet with long dagged sleeves (THK: 501)
Parts of horse barding: chinet and chamfron (THK: 515)
Jewelled hair nets (II: 29)
Cloth-of-silver garb (II: 113)
Samite (II: 114)
Oilskin pouches (II: 122)
A robe of heavy roughspun dyed in mottled greens and blues (II: 127, 128. IV: 19)
Lambswool breeches (II: 134. V: 52)
Bleached white leather belts (II: 134)
Sealskin robes (II: 134)
Codpieces (II: 198)
Red-dyed leather boots ornamented with black scrollwork (II: 199)
Quilted breeches (II: 225)
A doublet with sleeves and collar trimmed with vair (II: 237)
Ermine mantles (II: 237)
Wide, floppy hats, some of them made of straw (II: 261. TSS: 79)
Sheepskin jerkins (II: 264)
Bearskin vests (II: 280)
A bridegroom's mantle of miniver and velvet (II: 295)
A tunic or doublet of slashed red velvet with black silk undersleeves (II: 326)
Quilted doublets (II: 346. V: 52)
White fox fur (II: 394)
Bronze-colored horse trappings (II: 400)
A hairnet decorated with moonstones (II: 433)
A cloth-of-silver sash used to belt a dress (II: 466)
At least among noble women, a cloth is worn between the legs during menstruation (II: 554)
A low-cut gown baring the shoulders (II: 564)
A woven belt studded with gemstones (II: 564)
Fur-trimmed boots (II: 586)
A studded leather belt (II: 586)
A satin tunic striped black and gold (II: 586)
Felted black wool (II: 586)
A fine linen tunic worn by the son of a knight (II: 595)
A white linen dress with long dagged sleeves that show a lining of gold satin (II: 597)
Quilted jerkins (II: 653)
Gloves made of soft wolf-pup fur (II: 655)
A cloth-of-gold gown slashed in burgundy velvet (II: 662)
Lilac brocade (II: 662)
Gowns of turquoise silk and vair (II: 662)
Golden lace (II: 662)
A black mantle studded with rubies (II: 662)
Green velvet garb trimmed with sable (II: 663)
Calfskin boots (II: 679)
Gloves of black wool (III: 1)
Cruppers, crinets, and chamfrons are articles of covering for horses (III: 18)
A wide belt studded with nuggets of silver (III: 42)
Rosewater is used to scent the body (III: 65)
A wine-colored tunic and high boots of bleached white leather inlaid with silver scrollwork (III: 111)
Caps (III: 117)
A silver inlaid saddle (III: 124)
A checkered saddlecloth (III: 124)
Lemon is used as a scent (III: 132)
Tight satin breeches (III: 136)
A doublet of heavy black velvet, studded with lion's heads (III: 136)
Jasmine scent (III: 137)
A necklace of silver and jade with a matching pair of bracelets (III: 141)
A bright yellow greatcloak (III: 144)
Fingerless leather gloves (III: 144)
A gown of silk and Myrish lace, with satin linings (III: 181)
Hose for a woman (III: 182)
Kirtles and mantles (III: 182)
Double lambswool tunic (III: 196)
Thick quilted coat (III: 196)
A triple-thick cloak with a bone button fastening at the neck (III: 196)
Heavy fur mitts over thin wool-and-leather gloves (III: 196)
A tight-fitting fleece-lined cap to pull down over the ears beneath a hood (III: 196)
Wine velvet tunic (III: 208)
A girl's dress, of some lilac cloth, decorted with baby pearls (III: 256)
A brown doeskin jerkin studded with iron (III: 256)
Men wear rings (III: 291)
Jeweled cloak (III: 291)
A young noblewoman's hair is curled (III: 316)
A sharp sweet fragrance with a hint of lemon in it under the smell of flowers (III: 316)
Silken smallclothes (III: 316)
A gown of ivory samite and cloth-of-silver, lined with silvery satin. Long dagged sleeves almost touch the gown, and the bodice is slashed almost to the belly, the deep vee covered over with a panel of ornate Myrish lace in dove-grey. The skirts are long and full, and the waist very tight. It's clearly a gown meant for a woman, not a girl (III: 316)
Slippers of soft grey doeskin (III: 316)
A costly maiden's cloak, meant for a wedding ceremony, made of velvet heavy with pearls, embroidered in silver, and fastened by a silver chain (III: 317)
Black velvet doublet, covered with golden scrollwork (III: 318)
Thigh-high boots that add three inches to height (III: 318)
A huge and heavy crimson velvet marriage cloak, richly worked with lions and bordered with gold satin and rubies (III: 319)
Girdles and undersilk are worn under a noblewomans gown (III: 324)
Socks (III: 369)
Dornish lords wear silk and satin robes with jeweled belts and flowing sleeves (III: 431)
Swaddling clothes for infants (III: 435)
A pale blue gown with a lacy bodice (III: 561)
Splotchy green roughspun and a soot-grey mantle with a hood (III: 568)
Boots that lace up (III: 610)
A wedding gown of ivory silk and Myrish lace, skirts decorated with floral patterns picked out in seed pearls (III: 667)
A maiden cloak made of a hundred cloth-of-gold roses sewn to green velvet (III: 667)
A doublet of dusky rose (III: 667)
A gown of silvery satin trimmed in vair, with dagged sleeves that almost touch the floor, lined in soft purple felt (III: 672)
A doublet of crimson velvet with padded shoulders and puffed sleeves slashed to show a black satin underlining (III: 672)
Striped black-and-crimson breeches (III: 674)
A cloth-of-gold doublet with black satin sleeves and onyx studs (III: 674)
A gown of pale green samite with a tight-laced bodice, baring shoulders and the tops of the breasts (III: 674)
A dress of thick brown wool, its bodice decorated with freshwater pearls (III: 686)
Simple and sturdy shoes with flat heels and square toes (III: 686)
A Dornishman's flowing robe, striped orange, yellow, and scarlet (III: 740)
The winter raiment of the Kingsguard are a tunic and breeches of white wool and a heavy white cloak (III: 750)
A long yellow surcoat (III: 797)
A low cut white gown, baring shoulders and the tops of the breasts, decorated with swirls and spirals of tiny emeralds at the bodice and the ends of the wide sleeves (III: 822)
A dress of blue lambswool over a linen shift and silken smallclothes, a pair of hose, boots that lace to the knee, heavy leather gloves, and a hooded cloak of soft white fox fur worn by a young lady against the cold (III: 901)
A blue velvet robe trimmed with fox fur (III: 903)
A gold arm ring (III: 907)
A belt studded with moonstones (III: 907)
A fine tunic from Dorne, made of sandsilk and painted with heraldic achievments (TSS: 107)
Septas wear white robes (TSS: 117)
A gown of dark blue damask trimmed with Myrish lace, with long hems that trail on the ground (TSS: 117)
A horse's caprison and a woman's cape made up of silverly silk strands, to look like webs (TSS: 145)
A ring of onyx and gold, bearing a royal signet (TSS: 148)
A brooch shaped like a spider, of ivory and with legs of silver, with crushed garnets making spots on its back (TSS: 155)
A doublet of satin striped in green and gold, worn with a black silk half cape pinned at the shoulder with a jade brooch (IV: 7)
A sealskin clout (IV: 18)
A mottled sandsilk cloak of dun and gold worn in Dorne (IV: 31)
Worn riding clothes of brown leather (IV: 31)
A billowing cloak of dun-and-yellow sandsilk worn in Dorne (IV: 37)
Shimmering lilac robes and great silk cape of cream and copper worn in Dorne (IV: 38)
Snakeskin sandals laced to the thighs worn in Dorne (IV: 41)
A band of copper suns worn around the brow (IV: 41)
A jeweled girdle and loose layers of flowing purple silk and yellow samite, worn in Dorne (IV: 41)
A gown of pale blue samite with sleeves of Myrish lace (IV: 42)
A spiked doeskin jerkin (IV: 58)
A quilted doublet of charcoal-colored wool (IV: 112)
The robes of septons are belted with woven belts of seven plaits, each a different color (IV:124)
Brothers of the Faith wear robes of various hues, such as brown, butternut, dun, or even undyed roughen (IV: 124)
Sky blue breeches and a white tunic with puffed sleeves (IV: 153)
Layered linen robes worn in Dorne, the hooded outer robe of turquoise stripes and golden suns , and the lighter inner robe in orange. Beneath that, a striped silk undertunic is worn (IV:185, 192)
A winding bracelet shaped like a serpent, with gold and copper scales (IV: 189)
A plush yellow doublet worked with beads of lapis (IV: 241)
A simply cut gown of brown lambswool, with vine and leaf embroidery on the bodice, sleeves, and hem in golden embroidery, worn with a ribbon of autumn gold velvet about the neck (IV: 336)
A gown of alternating stripes of shining green satin and plush black velvet, and intricate, costly black Myrish lace above the bodice (IV: 356)
A gown of jade green silk with sleeves of silver Myrish lace (IV: 391)
A golden chain with an emerald the size of a pigeon's egg (IV: 391)
A Dornish noblewoman's most revealing garments, wisps of silk that covered everything and hid nothing (IV: 589)
A simple Dornish gown of ivory linen, with vines and purple grapes embroidered around the sleeves and bodice (IV: 597)
A young lady's winter garments: woolen hoose beneath skirts over a double layer of small clothes, a lambswool overtunic, a hooded fur cloak, a scarf, and a pair of fur-lined leather gloves (IV: 613)
A white bearskin cloak (IV: 614)
A quartered gown of silk brocade, featuring a house's quartered arms (IV: 632)
A soft woolen dress covering from throat to ankle, with a few small vines embroidered on the bodice and sleeves embroided in golden thread (IV: 647)
An ivory gown with freshwater pearls on the bodice (IV: 649)
A necklace of golden seashells (IV: 661)
Torn clothing as a mark of mourning (IV: 663)
A doublet of dark blue silk edged in gold satin (TMK: 654)
A cloak with a pocket large enough to hold half a roast capon (TMK: 675)
A white silk doublet with dagged sleeves lined with red satin, so long their points droop past the knees, and a heavy silver chain studded with huge, dark amethysts (TMK: 675)
A damask tunic (TMK: 692)
A boy's clothing consisting of burgundy breeches and a blue velvet doublet lined with cloth-of-gold (V: 25)

Last revised February 02, 2016
PermaLink

2.7.1. Arms and Armor

Ring-mail armor is worn with boiled leather, and wool in cold weather (I: 2)
Weapons such as longswords might be ostentatiously decorated with gemstones and precious metals (I: 5, etc.)
Common warriors may use short swords, double-bladed axes, bows, and other weapons (I: 2, 5, etc.)
Dirks are one kind of dagger (I: 6)
Nothing holds an edge like Valyrian steel (I: 12, 147)
Valyrian steel is folded hundreds of times in the process of forging (I: 20)
Daggers, swords, and greatswords exist that are made of Valyrian steel (I: 20, etc.)
Gilded swords (I: 25)
Warhammers are used (I: 36)
Bejewelled plate armor (I: 36, 263)
Tourney blades have blunted edges (I: 62)
Plate armor is worn (I: 74)
Helms may have visors, and can be shaped as animal heads or other fanciful shapes (I: 74)
The bravos of the Free Cities use slender swords, edged and balanced for the thrust (I: 81)
The Dothraki use long, curved swords called arakhs (I: 85)
A fine dagger of Valyrian steel, with a dragonbone hilt, would not go unnoticed in a place like King's Landing (I: 114, 115)
Intricate suits of scale armor (I: 120)
Steel plate of deep forest green, the armor put in the metal itself (a rare skill) rather than enamel or paint (I: 120, 235)
Iron chainmail over layers of boiled leather (I: 121)
A blued steel sword (I: 124)
Spears tipped with iron (I: 178)
Arms makers have a mark to proclaim their work on the items they produce (I: 185)
Morningstar (I: 188)
Padded doublets (I: 219)
Wood-and-leather shields (I: 219)
Silvered steel plate armor, with jasper and mother-of-pearl ornamentation (I: 232)
Some armors are made by men trained in the Free Cities, where some of them know how to put color directly into metal (I: 235)
Paint is used on armors (I: 235)
Some to claim to still know the spells that must be used to rework Valyrian steel, and some master armorers have revealed their ability to properly reforge it (I: 235. III: 359. SSM: 1)
Ancient bronze armor, engraved with runes that are supposed to ward the wearer from harm (I: 246)
Plate enamelled in many colors (I: 249)
Gorgets are fastened to helms and armor (I: 248, 253)
Gilded ringmail (I: 261)
Horse armor (I: 261)
A lance made of golden wood from the Summer Isles, possibly of the fabled goldenheart (I: 261. IV: 6)
Tourney lances are made to break (I: 263)
Extremely skilled archers can shoot a small target accurately at 100 paces (I: 265)
The Braavosi style of fighting is flamboyant (I: 266)
Pot helms with narrow slits for the eyes (I: 279)
Helms decorated with silken plumes (I: 279)
Peasants, clansmen, and brigands might use old spears and swords, sharpened scythes, spiked clubs, and mauls (I: 280)
Miniature swords for children (I: 285)
Silvered ringmail (I: 309)
Gauntlets and greaves (I: 320)
Dothraki bows outrange those of the Seven Kingdoms (I: 325)
Broadhead arrows (I: 332)
Coifs (I: 332)
Heavy plate armor over mail and padded surcoat. Large rondels protect the juncture of arm and breast. (I: 365)
Skirts of lobstered metal covering to mid-thigh (I: 365)
Solid gorgets (I: 365)
A helm with a beaked visor (I: 365)
Round halfhelms with nasal guards (I: 365)
Boots with steel shinguards and gloves sewn with discs of black iron (I: 365)
Heavy triangular shields, almost four feet tall, made of heavy oak and studded with iron (I: 366)
Engraved swords (I: 366)
Oilstones are used to sharpen blades (I: 381)
The spears of the City Watch are topped by black iron heads (I: 440)
Steel codpieces (I: 446)
Pikes (I: 475)
Crossbows (I: 508)
Outriders tend to be in leather and mail (I: 534)
Swords tapered to thrust as well as cut, incised with three fullers (I: 546)
Carved stone pommels weighted with lead for swords (I: 546)
Bastard swords or hand-and-a-half swords (I: 546)
Visored, flat-topped greathelms (I: 556)
Pointed steel boots (I: 570)
A shield of ironwood, banded with steel (I: 571)
Archers wear their quivers on their belts (I: 571)
Greathelm with roaring, clawing lion crest all in gold (I: 572)
Spears can be thrown (I: 575)
Oval shields reinforced with iron studs, used by footmen (I: 577)
Burnished, bronzed steel plate (I: 578)
Mail gloves (I: 585)
Iron cudgels used by the City Watch (I: 600)
Black lacquered, gold-filigreed armor (I: 606)
The children of the forest used knives, leaf-shaped spear heads, and arrows made of obsidian (which is also known to smallfolk as dragonglass (I: 616. II: 378. IV: 10)
Spiked maces (I: 665)
Eight-foot war lances of turned ash, banded against splitting (THK: 459, 520)
Blunted longaxes for tournaments (THK: 463)
Fantastic helmets shaped like birds and beasts, chased with precious metals (THK: 466)
A new hauberk of mail, gorget, greaves, and greathelm made by a good smith can cost 800 silver stags (THK: 466)
Offering to trade old armor to be salvaged for metal can lower the price by 200 stags (THK: 466, 467)
Double-linked chainmail (THK: 481)
Greathelms with rounded tops to better deflect blows (THK: 481)
12 foot tourney lances, with pennons on the ends (THK: 491)
An elaborate, enamelled crest for a helm (THK: 491)
Wealthier knights wear gilded spurs (THK: 492)
Tourney lances tipped with golds (THK: 497)
Poleaxes (THK: 497)
The armor of a Targaryen with black dragons teeth running across the shoulders and back of his breastplate, and the crest of his helm (THK: 516)
Poniard daggers (THK: 526)
A child's armor (II: 35)
A blunted silver longsword with a leaf-shaped blade made for a boy (II: 35)
Saddle armor (II: 36)
An officer of the City Watch wears a black enamelled breastplate ornamented with four golden disks (II: 65)
Men use oilcloth to polish armor (II: 102)
A suggested armor made of enamelled plate and gilded scales (II: 173)
Scorpions and spitfires are used in the defense of a city (II: 197)
Spitfires are a sort of small catapult (II: 231)
Sleeveless jerkins covered in scale armor (II: 241)
Weapons and armor used by the crannogmen of the Neck: frog spears, bronze knives, woven nets, and round leather shields (II: 241)
Siege engines such as mangonels, trebuchets, rams on wheels, and wheeled siege towers covered in rawhide (II: 248, 249)
Armor hued and enamelled to a deep cobalt color (II: 249, 251)
Winged helms (II: 259)
A short-hafted battleaxe, gold scrollwork inlaid in the black steel (II: 266-267)
Mauls (II: 267)
Throwing axes (II: 287)
Ungainly crossbows from Myr that can throw three quarrels at a time (II: 297)
A sword belt studded with chunks of black diamond (II: 347)
Most freeriders have poor armor, usually made of boiled leather (II: 351)
Armor covered in enamelled yellow sunflowers (II: 365)
Backplate and breastplate worn over a quilted tunics (II: 365)
Padded caps are worn beneath great helms (II: 366)
Steel caltrops are used in warfare and the defense of encampments, and can be flung with trebuchets at enemies (II: 375. III: 721)
Iron spikes may be set underwater to hamper crossings (II: 411)
Gold inlay brightening armor (II: 442)
Silken plumes, feathers, and wrought heraldic beasts with gemstones for eyes decorating helmets (II: 442)
A red-gold fox on a breastplate surrounded by a circle of lapis-lazuli flowers (II: 443)
Fire arrows are used (II: 480)
A leather jerkin sewn with overlapping iron disks (II: 488)
Trebuchets are made of wood, such as old oak wood, and iron banding to keep them from splitting (II: 520)
A leather jerkin studded with iron (II: 526)
Gilded mail (II: 593)
The pommel of a sword which is a gaping lion with a heart-shaped ruby in its mouth (II: 594)
Scorpions shoot out yard-long iron-headed shafts (II: 596)
Halberds (II: 597)
A long hauberk of black mail (II: 597)
A greatsword nearly as tall as a man (II: 597)
A visorless pothelm (II: 605)
Staves (II: 644)
Chainmail armor is cleaned by putting it in a barrel filled with sand and rolling the barrel around so that the sand scours any rust from the iron (II: 650)
Warm stockings (II: 659)
A spear with a silver-banded haft (II: 665)
Dark red enamelled plate with a rounded helm and gorget that are wrought like a screaming flayed man's face and shoulders (II: 678-679)
Small bows of wood-and-horn (II: 695)
The frog spears of the crannogmen are triple-pronged (III: 104)
Quilted jerkins (III: 119)
A studded brigantine (III: 144)
Pothelm (III: 153)
Gloves or gauntlets maid of mail (III: 157)
A chain worn from the neck from which a sword hangs (III: 195)
Mail hauberks or shirts of sewn rings are very common armor among the lords and soldiers of the North (III: 226)
A poleaxe, used for execution (III: 231)
Dornishmen, especially those from from the deserts, wrap long bright silk scarves around their helms to ward off the sun (III: 241, 430. IV: 37)
A costly scabbard made of cherrywood, bound in red leather and ornamented with a row of lion's-head studs in pure gold with rubies for eyes (III: 358)
A sword with a crossguard shape as golden lions' paws with ruby claws unsheathed (III: 358, 60)
A Valyrian steel sword, its blade so dark as to be nearly black as is true of most Valyrian steel weapons, but among many of the folds was a red as deep as the grey. The two colors lap together, like waves of night and blood (III: 358, 359)
Valyrian steel is much lighter than one might expect, because it is the only metal that can be beaten as thin as it is and still retain its strength. The ripples in the steel, a mark of steel that has been folded on itself many thousands of times, is also a hallmark (III: 358, 359)
Valyrian steel blades are scarce and costly, yet thousands of them remain in the world, perhaps some two hundred in the Seven Kingdoms alone (III: 359)
Valyrian steel can be colored with great difficulty, but it is stubborn. Some say the old swords remember and do not change easily (III: 359)
A gilded dagger with an ivory grip and a sapphire pommel (III: 360)
A rumored axe of Valyrian steel (III: 408)
Dornishmen favor round metal shields and short throwing spears or double-curved Dornish bows they use skillfully from horseback (III: 430)
Dornish lords favor armor that is heavily enameled and inlaid with burning copper, shining silver, and/or soft red gold (III: 430, 431. SSM: 1)
A Dornish lords armor of a shirt armored with overlapping rows of bright copper disks, a high gilded helm displaying a copper sun on the brow, and a round shield of polished metal (III: 431)
Bodkin point arrowheads (III: 440)
Crossbows are rewound (III: 440, 512)
Longaxes have spiked heads (III: 585)
A longbow of smooth, thick Dornish yew (III: 616)
Valyrian steel can shear right through bronze (III: 619)
Wooden turtles on wheels, often covered with hide to protect them from fire, can be used for sieges to protect men assaulting a gate (III: 644, 780, 781)
A dagger with a jewelled pommel and inlaid goldwork on the blade (III: 668)
A greatsword, six feet of ornate silver bright with runes, its pommel a chunk of dragonglass carved in the shape of a grinning skull with ruby eyes (III: 682)
Valyrian steel is always dark (III: 682)
Bolts for scorpions can be prepared with fire, making fire spears (III: 721)
A dagger with a pretty pink stone in the hilt (III: 729)
A kettle helm (III: 729)
The greatsword Dawn is far superior to normal steel (III: 753)
Rolling mantlets behind which several archers can hide (III: 779)
Dornishmen are fond of spears (III: 794)
A spear eight feet long of turned ash, the shaft smooth, thick, and heavy. The last two feet of the spear is steel, a slender leaf-shaped spearhead narrowing to a wicked spike with very sharp edges (III: 794)
The joints of plate armor are vulnerbale, with less protected places at elbows, knees, and beneath the arms (III: 794)
A padded leather tunic worn beneath armor (III: 795)
A chainmail byrnie to protect the upper body (III: 796)
A greathelm bolted to a gorget with breaths around the mouth and nose and a narrow slit for vision, with a crest atop of it (III: 797)
A spaulder, which is a piece of armor (III: 797)
A massive shield of oak rimmed in black iron (III: 798)
Jacks, a sort of armor such as freeriders, mounted bowmen, and men-at-arms might wear (III: 841. IV: 133)
A lion-headed mace (III: 878)
Lord Bloodraven and Prince Aemon the Dragonknight before him carried the Valyrian steel sword named Dark Sister (TSS: 81, 137)
Aegon the Conqueror and the kings after him wielded Blackfyre, a Valyrian steel sword, until Aegon IV gave it to his bastard son Daemon on his attainment of knighthood at the age 12 (TSS: 111, 137)
Blackfyre was the most famous Valyrian steel sword that the Targaryens possessed. It would be long lost by the time of the battle of the Trident (TSS: 111. SSM: 1)
A woman's close-fitting suit of scales, enameled green and chased with gold and silver (TSS: 145)
A longbow made of the fabled goldenheart wood of the Summer Isles. Goldenheart is the best wood with which to make bows (IV: 6. SSM: 1)
Dornish style arms, being a copper scale shirt befitting the rank of the captain of House Martell's guard and an iron halfhelm with a cloth wound around it (IV: 37)
Knights of the Kingsguard have a ceremonial suit of scale armor made of mother-of-pearl chased with gold (IV: 101)
Shields of linden and pine (IV: 131)
A tall black warhelm wrought in the shape of an iron kraken, its arms coiling down as guards across the cheek to meet under the chin (IV: 257)
Dornish throwing spears have short, thick shafts while fighting spears can be shorter and even thicker (IV: 293, 295. SSM: 1)
A triple morningstar, with three spiked heads (IV: 293)
The Valyrian steel sword, Lady Forlorn, owned by House Corbray. It is a longsword with a smoke-grey blade and a ruby cut in the shape of a heart in its pommel (IV: 331, 338, 341)
A tall helm shaped like a kraken (IV: 427)
The unusual heavy plate armor of an Ironborn reaver, its only weaknesses in the joints where only leather and mail provide protection (IV: 429)
The double-curved goldenheart bows used by Summer Islanders can send a shaft four hundred yards (IV: 523)
Kite shields, considered old-fashioned since the Conquest, carried by the Warrior's Sons (IV: 536.)
Pauldrons and poleyns of blackened steel (IV: 561)
Archers might smear their arrows with night soil to try and ensure that they poison those they wound with disease (IV: 566)
A suit of grey enameled scales (IV: 676)
An old-fashioned, kite-shaped shield made of pine and rimmed with iron (TMK: 653)
An open-faced helmet of gilded steel (TMK: 653)
A wildling's knife made of bone (V: 6)
The Targaryens had many weapons of Valyrian steel (SSM: 1. SFC)
Plate armor is more common in the Reach, while mail is more the rule in the North, and the wildlings beyond the Wall are much more primitively armored (SSM: 1)
Some hems are in the style of bascinets (SSM: 1)
Dornishmen wear lighter armor than in the rest of the Seven Kingdoms, because of the heat (SSM: 1)
Dragonbone was not used in the process of making Valyrian steel (SSM: 1)
Valyrian steel must be made, as it cannot be found as a raw material (SSM: 1)
Blackfyre was a larger sword than either Dark Sister or Lady Forlon (SSM: 1)
Dark Sister was somewhat more slender than a typical longsword and was better-suited to a woman's hand (SSM:1)
Valyrian steel weapons are owned not only by great houses, but by lesser nobility who acquired them for the prestige, and even mere knights or lesser men who won them on the battlefield from fallen enemies (SSM: 1

Last revised March 15, 2013
PermaLink

2.8. Food, Drink, and Eating

Summerwine is red, with a sweet and fruity flavor (I: 12, 41)
Roasted meats (I: 41)
Fresh bread (I: 41)
Pewter cups and mugs (I: 41)
Honeyed chicken (I: 43)
Roasted onions, dripped in gravy (I: 44)
Trenchers (I: 44)
Spiced wine (I: 46)
Beer (I: 74, etc.)
Honeyed duck (I: 82)
Sausage (I: 84)
Pastries (I: 84)
Honeyed wine (I: 84)
Blackberry preserves (I: 113)
Mint tea (I: 113)
Soft-boiled eggs (I: 113)
Bacon (I: 113)
Lemon cakes (I: 119)
Crab (I: 171)
Pomegranate (I: 172)
Sweet pumpkin soup (I: 181)
Ribs roasted in a crust of garlic and herbs (I: 181)
Suckling pig (I: 208)
Pigeon pie (I: 208)
Turnips soaked in butter (I: 208)
Dates (I: 211)
Iced milk sweetened with honey (I: 211)
Pork pie (I: 223)
Blueberry tarts (I: 225)
Blood melons (I: 234)
Silver goblets (I: 235)
Sweetgrass (I: 250)
Strawberries (I: 250)
Salads of sweetgrass, spinach, and plums (I: 251)
Sweetbreads (I: 251)
Trout baked in claw (I: 251)
Snails in honey and garlic (I: 251)
Thick soup of barley and venison (I: 251)
Baked apples fragrant with cinnamon (I: 251)
Lemon cakes frosted in sugar (I: 251)
Pepper (I: 257)
Drinking horns (I: 257, etc.)
Dark, strong beer (I: 259)
Black bread (I: 261)
Boiled goose eggs (I: 261)
Oranges (I: 261)
Lamprey pie (I: 299)
Mead (I: 327)
Boiled beans (I: 343)
Dish of peas and onions (I: 343)
Pitchers of cream (I: 362)
Sweet orange-scented wine (I: 362)
Sour red wine (I: 371)
Rack-of-lamb baked in garlic and herbs, garnished with mint (I: 372)
Mashed yellow turnips in butter (I: 372)
Salads of spinach, chickpeas, and turnip greens (I: 372)
Iced blueberries and sweet cream (I: 372)
Strawberry pies (I: 396)
Blood oranges (I: 397)
Porridge (I: 397)
Boar with an apple in its mouth, skin seared crisp (I: 422)
Applecakes (I: 430)
Blood sausage (I: 431)
Sweet Dornish summerwines (I: 492)
Dry red wine from the Arbor (I: 492)
Garlic sausage (I: 566)
Apricot tarts (I: 599)
Cherries (I: 602)
Buttermilk (I: 623)
Sweet biscuits (I: 623)
Beef-and-bacon pies (I: 647)
Boiled eggs (I: 652)
Ham steak (I: 652)
Plums (I: 652)
Lemon in beer (I: 652)
Salted beef (THK: 464)
Fried bread (THK: 489)
Pease porridge (THK: 504. TSS: 120)
Salt fish (II: 9)
Fish stew (II: 17)
Boar cooked with apples and mushrooms (II: 45)
Honeycomb (II: 58)
Oxtail soup (II: 90)
Summer greens tossed with pecans (II: 90)
Red fennel (II: 90)
Crumbled cheese (II: 91)
Crab pie (II: 91)
Spiced squash (II: 91)
Quails drowned in butter (II: 91)
Wheels of cheese (II: 102)
Sweetcorn eaten on the cob (II: 103)
Minced lamb with pepper (II: 115)
Oatmeal (II: 123)
Peppercrab stew (II: 124)
Salt cod (II: 124)
Capon (II: 183)
Brown oatbread (II: 183)
Stewed plums (II: 192)
Stuffed goose sauced with mulberries (II: 195)
Cream stews (II: 195)
Potted hare (II: 199)
Acorn paste that tastes awful, but can be eaten at need (II: 214. V: 66)
Wine sweetened with honey and fragrant with cinnamon and cloves (II: 238)
Auroch joints roasted with leeks (II: 238)
Venison pies chunky with carrots, bacon, and mushrooms (II: 238)
Mutton chops sauced in honey and cloves (II: 238)
Peppered boar (II: 238)
Skewers of pigeon and capon (II: 238)
Beef-and-barley stew (II: 238)
Cold fruit soup (II: 238)
Whitefish and winkles, crabs and mussels, clams, herring, salmon, lobster, and lampreys are all eaten (II: 238)
Oat biscuits (II: 238)
Beets (II: 238)
Berry tarts (II: 238)
Pears poached in strongwine (II: 238, 255)
Wheels of white cheese (II: 238)
Chilled autumn ale (II: 238)
Goose-in-berries (II: 239)
Nettle tea (II: 246)
Tiny, savory fish rolled in salt and cooked crisp (II: 255)
Capons stuffed with onions and mushrooms (II: 255)
Venison stewed with beef and barley (II: 255)
Pastries, cream swans, spun-sugar unicorns, spiced honey biscuits, and apple crisps served as desert (II: 255)
Dinnerware such as gravy boats exist (II: 256)
Leg of lamb, sauced with mint and honey and cloves (II: 270)
Onion pie (II: 289)
Pigeon pie (II: 325, 576)
The extremely poor will eat whatever is necessary to survival - including dead cats (II: 330)
Barley stews with bits of carrot and turnip (II: 334)
Cinnamon, nutmeg, honey, raisins, nuts, and dried berries are used in hot spiced wine. Some southrons use lemons as well, but some consider this heresy (II: 374)
Some men put lemon in their morning beer (II: 374)
Ripe blue cheese (II: 404)
Oatcakes (II: 405)
The Arbor is said to make the finest wines in the world (II: 423)
Soups made of roots (II: 458)
Roasted rabbit basted with honey (II: 501)
An example of a breakfast: porridge, honey, milk, boiled eggs, and crisp fried fish (II: 555)
Creamy chestnut soup (II: 565)
Greens dressed with apples and pine nuts (II: 565)
Honeyed ham (II: 565)
Buttered carrots (II: 565)
White beans and bacon (II: 565)
Roast swan stuffed with mushrooms and oysters (II: 565)
Trout wrapped in bacon (II: 572)
Salad of turnip greens, red fennel, and sweetgrass (II: 572)
A golden vintage of wine from the Arbor, rich and fruity (II: 617)
Mutton roasted with leeks and carrots (II: 620)
Sweet plum wine (II: 621)
Barley bread (II: 655. III: 190. TSS: 116)
Peaches in honey (II: 669)
Pale amber wine (II: 686)
Hardbread (III: 121)
Oatcakes (III: 121)
Cider (III: 123)
Smoked salt fish (III: 125)
Molasses (III: 136)
A wedding feast of seventy-seven courses (III: 139)
A great wedding pie with a hundred live doves baked within to fly out when the crust is broken (III: 139)
Squab (III: 145)
A fine page's doublet (III: 145)
Duck with lemons, which may be a Dornish recipe (III: 148)
Fowl are hung outdoors for a few days before cooking (III: 149)
Lemons, olives, and pomegranates come chiefly from Dorne (III: 149)
Rabbit roasted on a spit (III: 149)
Rabbit stewed with ale and onions (III: 149)
Honeyed wine (III: 182)
Dried apples (III: 190)
Boar's ribs (III: 233)
Stewed onions (III: 233)
Mutton and mushrooms (III: 252)
Pease pudding (III: 252)
Baked apples with yellow cheese (III: 252)
Eels (III: 274)
Cakes with pinenuts baked in them (III: 277)
Blackberry cakes (III: 277)
Broth with chunks of whitefish, carrots, and onion (III: 286)
Meat and mash (III: 286)
Fish stew (III: 286)
Lamprey pie (III: 286)
The wine from the Arbor is known as Arbor gold (III: 323)
Pork crackling (III: 324)
Six coppers for a melon, a silver stag for a bushel of corn, and a gold dragon for a side of beef or six skinny piglets are all shockingly high prices (III: 354)
Thick cream of wheat with honey and butter (III: 372)
Dried berries (III: 377)
Beef-and-bacon pie (III: 404)
Hippocras (III: 421)
Prunes (III: 422)
Dornish tastes in food and wine are markedly different from those of the Seven Kingdoms, preferring hot spicy meals and strong wine without much sweetness (III: 434)
Mashed turnips (III: 449)
A bowl of venison stewed with onions (III: 530)
Sweet cakes (III: 533)
Casks of salt pork (III: 568)
Casks of pickled pigs' feet (III: 568)
Leek soup (III: 574)
Salad of green beans, onions, and beets (III: 574)
River pike poached in almond milk (III: 574)
Jellied calves' brains (III: 575)
A leche of string beef (III: 575)
Barrels of salt mutton (III: 612)
Iced wine (III: 614)
Buns with raisins, bits of dried apple, and pine nuts within (III: 614, 615)
Mutton cooked in a thick broth of ale and onions (III: 616)
Honeycakes baked with blackberries and nuts (III: 661)
Gammon steaks (III: 661)
Fingerfish crisped in breadcrumbs (III: 661)
Autumn pears (III: 661)
A Dornish dish of onions, cheese, and chopped eggs cooked with fiery peppers (III: 661)
A creamy soup of mushrooms and buttered snails (III: 674)
A pastry coffyn filled with pork, pine nuts, and eggs (III: 675)
Sweetcorn fritters (III: 676)
Oatbread baked with bits of date, apple, and orange (III: 676)
Trout cooked in a crust of crushed almonds (III: 676)
Roast herons (III: 676)
Cheese-and-onion pies (III: 676)
Crabs boiled in fiery eastern spices (III: 676)
Trenchers filled with chunks of chopped muton stewed in almond milk with carrots, raisins, and onions (III: 676)
Fish tarts (III: 676)
Honey-ginger partridge (III: 676)
Peacocks served in their plumage, roasted whole and stuffed with dates (III: 676)
Blandissory, a mixture of beef broth and boiled wine sweetened with honey and dotted with blanched almonds and chunks of capon (III: 677)
Buttered pease, chopped nuts, and slivers of swan poached in a sauce of saffron and peaches (III: 677)
Roundels of elk stuffed with ripe blue cheese (III: 678)
A leche of brawn, spiced with cinnamon, cloves, sugar, and almond milk (III: 678)
Hot, spiced pigeon pie covered with a lemon cream (III: 682)
Cups of onion broth (III: 718)
Dornish plums so dark as to be almost black (III: 743)
Gulls' eggs and seaweed soup are eaten by poorer people in coastal areas (III: 765)
Claret (TSS: 92)
Blackberries in cream (TSS: 147)
Suckling pig in plum sauce, stuffed with chestnuts and white truffles (IV: 7)
A Dornish meal of purple olives, with flatbread, cheese, and chickpea paste (IV: 36)
Heavy strongwine, apparently favored in Dorne (IV: 36)
Gull’s eggs diced with bits of ham and fiery peppers (IV: 37)
Water mixed with lemon squeezings (IV: 47)
A wayfarer's meal of roast squirrel, acorn paste, and pickles (IV: 62)
A cup of goat's milk (IV: 68)
Bean-and-bacon soup (IV: 71)
Hot crab stew (IV: 136)
Mustard from Oldtown in a stone jar (IV: 161)
A breakfast of two boiled eggs, a loaf of bread, and a pot of honey (IV: 172)
Dornish food is very spicy. One delicacy is grilled snake meat, served with a fiery snake sauce featuring mustard seeds, dragon peppers, and even a drop of snake venom (IV: 186)
Salted ham (IV: 200)
The crew of a Night's Watch galley might eat oat porridge in the morning, pease porridge in the afternoon, and salt beef, salt cod, and salt mutton washed down with ale in the evening (IV: 219)
Unsweetened lemonwater (IV: 300)
A Dornish meal of dates, cheese, and olives, with lemonsweet to drink (IV: 303)
Sweetwine, which the orphans of the Greenblood drink (IV: 309)
Various kinds of sweets: cakes and pies, jams and jellies, and honey on the comb (IV: 333)
Sharp white cheese and a smelly blue cheese (IV: 333)
Nutmeg is a costly spice (IV: 338)
A meal of buttered beets, hot-baked bread, herb-crusted pike, and ribs of wild boar washed down with hippocras (IV: 360)
Oranges are rare and costly for the smallfolk (IV: 372)
Roast ox, stuffed ducks, and buckets of fresh crabs (IV: 438)
River pike baked in a crust of herbs and crushed nuts (IV: 452)
Sweet cider (IV: 465)
Thick stews of mussels, crabs, and three kinds of fish (IV: 467)
Spiced rum from the Summer Isles, rare in Westeros (IV: 520)
Boiled beef with horseradish (IV: 530)
A breakfast of fried eggs, fried bread, bacon, and blood oranges (IV: 543)
Ham studded with cloves and basted with honey and dried cherries (IV: 578)
Baked apples with sharp white cheese (IV: 578)
A Dornish meal of kid roasted with lemon and honey, and grape leaves stuffed with a mixture of raisins, onions, mushrooms, and fiery dragon peppers (IV: 589)
Favorite foods of a Dornish noblewoman might include figs, olives, or peppers stuffed with cheese (IV: 591)
A Dornish breakfast of spiced eggs (IV: 591)
Berries and cream (IV: 606)
A meal of mushroom soup, venison, and cakes (IV: 608)
A hot meal of stewed goat and onions (IV: 622)
Frogs caught at the Weeping Dock in the Citadel, by a cook's boy (IV: 677)
Well-peppered wild boar with onions, mushrooms, and mashed neeps (TMK: 660)
At the high table during a wedding feast: suckling pig, a peacock roasted in its plumage, a pike crusted with crushed almonds. Below the salt: salt pork soaked in almond milk and peppered, capons stuffed with onions, herbs, mushrooms, and roasted chedstnuts, flaky white cod in a pastry coffyn with a brown sauce, as well as pease porridge, buttered turnips, carrots drizzled wih honey, and ripe white cheese with a strong smell (TMK: 674-675)
Wine is made in the riverlands (TMK: 679)
Barley beer (TMK: 687)
A breakfast of boiled eggs, black sausage, and apples stewed with prunes (V: 47)
Stuffing of chopped prunes and carrots in a hen (V: 47)
Goat's milk is known as a substitute for mother's milk for an infant, superior to cow's milk (V: 56, 99)

Last revised February 09, 2016
PermaLink

2.9. Songs, Stories, Books, and Legends

The life of the Grand Maester Aethelmure is written down (I: 72)
Maesters have written discourses on the changing of the seasons (I: 72)
Grumkins and snarks are fanciful monsters of children's stories (I: 104)
Prince Aemon the Dragonknight's championing of Queen Naerys' honor against evil Ser Morgil and his slander is a well-known story drawn from true events (I: 123. SSM: 1)
It is said that a long summer always means a long winter (I: 175)
Fisherfolk often claim to glimpse merlings (I: 175)
A story about a child who did not like stories (I: 201)
Grand Maester Malleon wrote a ponderous tome on the lineages of the great houses titled The Lineages and Histories of the Great Houses of the Seven Kingdoms, With Descriptions of Many High Lords and Noble Ladies and Their Children. The book is over a century old (I: 213, 231)
Lann the Clever is supposed to have winkled the Casterlys out of Casterly Rock, and taken gold from the sun to brighten his hair (I: 231)
Lann the Clever and Brandon the Builder are seen as merely legendary figures among those who are more discerning, although Lann is more popular among the singers and taletellers (I: 231)
Troupes of singers perform the complex round of interwoven ballads named "The Dance of the Dragons" (I: 266)
The Iron Throne is supposed to have taken a thousand blades to make, heated in the breath of Balerion the Black Dread. The hammering had taken fifty-nine days. The chair still has sharp points and edges, and can kill a man - and tale has it that it has (I: 388)
White harts are supposed to be rare and magical (I:395)
In songs, knights never kill magical beasts, they simply go up to them and touch them and do no harm (I: 395)
The Night's Watch are called the black knights of the Wall in songs (I: 396)
The tale of Jonquil and Ser Florian the Fool (I: 399. THK: 481)
Lady Shella and the Rainbow Knight (I: 461)
Books contain stories of brave knights and noble ladies (I: 461)
Symeon Star-Eyes was a legendary blind knight of the Age of Heroes with star sapphires in the empty sockets of his eyes. He fought with a staff with blades at both ends (I: 611)
Seeing a falling star is supposed to bring luck (THK: 470)
A song called "The Bear, the Bear, and the Maiden Fair" (THK: 477)
Puppeteers do many of the famous tales. Among them is that of Jonquil and Florian the Fool in his armor of motley (THK: 488)
An old shield rhyme: Oak and iron, guard me well or else I'm dead and doomed to hell (THK: 514)
A book kept in Castle Black on the Wall, written by a ranger named Redwyn in the time of King Dorren Stark, which tells of fighting giants and trading with the Children of the Forest (II: 70)
Castle Black's library also contains drawings of the faces in the weirwoods, a book about the language of the children of the forest, works that the Citadel doesn't have, scrolls from Valyria, and counts of seasons written by maesters dead a thousand years (II: 71)
The Prince Who Thought He Was a Dragon is a gruesome story recounting the death of Aerion the Monstrous (II: 77)
There is a belief in demons (II: 193)
Some songs say that Florian the Fool was the greatest knight of all (II: 208)
Florian was homely but a young man in the songs (II: 210)
Musicians often play at feasts, using harps, fiddles, horns, and bladders (II: 238, 242)
Pipers are part of musical entertainment (II: 292)
Some people believe that the morning mist, as it begins to disappear under the rising sun, are morning ghosts - the spirits of the dead returning to their graves (II: 369)
Prince Aemon the Dragonknight was said to have a wept when his sister Naerys wed their brother Aegon (II: 432)
The twin brothers Ser Arryk and Ser Erryk were said to have wept when they dealt mortal wounds to each other in the Dance of the Dragons (II: 432)
It is believed that a man who slays his own kin is cursed in the sight of gods and men (II: 469)
Some stories relate that, when given wishes by a grumkin, you had to be careful with the third wish because it was last (II: 498)
Skinchangers and wargs are creatures of story (II: 561)
It's said that the Iron Throne can be dangerous to those not meant to sit in it (II: 668)
A singer once said that all maids are fair in silk (III: 22)
A story of the three princesses locked away in the red tower by the king, for the crime of being beautiful. This refers to Baelor the Blessed putting his sisters in the Maidenvault (III: 65, 814. SSM: 1)
Some lyrics to "The Bear and the Maiden Fair" (III: 70-73)
Some lyrics to "The Dornishman's Wife" (III: 78, 79)
There are tales of dragons grown so huge as to be able to pluck giant krakens from the seas (III: 88)
Tales tell of wise old dragons living a thousand years (III: 89)
Even demons can be killed by cold iron, the singers say (III: 114)
Beldecar's History of the Rhoynish Wars makes mention of elephants (III: 136)
There may be a song that says, "When the sun has set, no candle can replace it" (III: 137)
Stories about knights and their ladies whou would sleep in a bed with a blade between them for honor's sake (III: 169)
"Two Hearts that Beat as One", a romantic song (III: 179, 333, 772)
Prince Aemon the Dragonknight is said to have protected his sister Naerys night and day (III: 183)
A song about the Kingswood Brotherhood, a fearsome outlaw band (III: 191)
Maidenpool takes its name from the pool where Florian the Fool was said to have first glimped Jonquil bathing with her sisters (III: 235)
A lyric of "Six Maids in a Pool", presumably concerning Jonquil and her sisters (III: 234)
A silly song about Big Belly Ben and the High Septon's goose (III: 248)
A love song titled "Oh, Lay My Sweet Lass Down in the Grass" (III: 252)
A love song titled, "Let Me Drink Your Beauty" (III: 252)
Lyrics of a love song, perhaps "Oh, Lay My Sweet Lass Down in the Grass" (III: 255)
There is an old rhyme known to the maesters in Westeros and perhaps elsewhere that goes, "Bricks and blood built Astapor, and bricks and blood her people" (III: 267)
Old tales say that Dragonstone was built with the stones of hell (III: 285)
"The Maids that Bloom in Spring" (III: 332)
In the Seven Kingdoms, it's said that the Wall marks the end of the world (III: 337)
Smallfolk and others in the Seven Kingdoms believe in the evil eye (III: 434)
Dirges (III: 442)
Various songs suited to rainy weather: "The Mother's Tears", "When Willum's Wife Was Wet", "Lord Harte Rode Out on a Rainy Day", and "The Rains of Castamere" (III: 445, 446)
Drinking songs such as "A Cask of Ale" or "Fifty-Four Tuns" (III: 486)
There is a song about Jenny of Oldstones, with the flowers in her hair, and her Prince of Dragonflies (III: 492, 520)
Amusing songs: "The Name Day Boy" and "The King Without Courage" (III: 497)
"The Song of the Seven", a children's lullaby, has all the gods but for the Stranger (III: 531, 532)
No one ever sings of the Stranger, as his face is the face of death (III: 532)
"Alysanne", a sad song (III: 574. IV: 148)
"Flowers of Spring", a song (III: 577)
"The Lusty Lad", a song (III: 578)
King Daeron I wrote Conquest of Dorne with elegant simplicity (III: 607)
There's a story of an old lord of House Plumm who wed a Targaryen princess in the day of one of the Aegon's (not the Fifth). He was a famous fellow, for the story goes that his member was six feet long (III: 647)
Grand Maester Kaeth wrote Lives of Four Kings, a history of the reigns of Daeron the Young Dragon, Baelor the Blessed, Aegon the Unworthy, and Daeron the Good. There are only four copies existing illuminated by his own hand, one of them in the Citadel. Kaeth scants Viserys II terribly, however, as his short reign as king came after Baelor's (III: 662, 664)
Baelor the Blessed walked the Boneway barefoot to make peace with Dorne and rescued the Dragonknight from a snakepit. Legend says the vipers refused to strike him because he was so pure and holy, but the truth is that he was bitten half a hundred times and should have died from it. Some say that he was deranged by the venom (III: 664, 665)
"A Rose of Gold", a song associated with the Tyrells (III: 676)
"Maiden, Mother, and Crone", a song that delights septons (III: 676)
"My Lady Wife", a romantic song (III: 676)
"The Dance of the Dragons" is more properly sung by two singers, male and female (III: 676)
"Bessa the Barmaid", a song with ribald lyrics (III: 676)
In children's stories, grumkins craft magic things that could make wishes come true (III: 687)
Some claim that the silent sisters cut out the tongues of young members of their order who talk too much (III: 727, 728)
There are devotional books of the Faith (III: 766)
Some people, such as some old hermits, are thought to have the gift of prophecy (III: 770)
"The Vow Unspoken", a love song (III: 772)
There's a bawdy version of "Milady's Supper" (III: 772)
There are books of children's stories, with tales of animals (III: 776)
There's a children's song about a chicken who dresses as a fox (III: 776)
Some lyrics of "The False and the Fair" (III: 911, 912)
"The Day They Hanged Black Robin", a song (III: 923. TSS: 80. IV: 148)
Spotted Pate the pig boy is a popular folkhero of the smallfolk, who often name their sons for him. In the stories, he's a good-hearted, empty-headed lout who always manages to defeat the lordlings, knights, and septons who troubled him. The stories always end with him victorious, sitting in a lord's high seat or bedding his daughter (IV: 7-8)
Ser Galladon of Morne is a legendary hero (IV: 69)
Ser Galladon of Morne, Florian the Fool, and Prince Aemon the Dragonknight all carried famous swords (IV: 69)
The Annals of the Black Centaur, an exhaustive chronicle by Septon Jorquen of the nine years in which Ser Orbert Caswell was Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch (IV: 72)
Colloquo Votar was a Volantene adventurer who visited all the lands of the Jade Sea and wrote the Jade Compendium, a thick volume of tales and legends from the east (IV: 76, 85)
Maester Thomax's Dragonkin, Being a History of House Targaryen from Exile to Apotheosis, with a Consideration of the Life and Death of Dragons contains illustrations of dragons such as Balerion the Black Dread done in colored inks (IV: 76)
The oldest histories were written after the Andal's came to Westeros, because the First Men only used runes for carving on stone. Everything written about the Age of Heroes, the Dawn Age, and the Long Night originates from stories written down by septons thousands of years later. There are archmaesters who question all these histories, noting the kings who seem to live for centuries and knights who fought a thousand years before there were knights (IV: 80)
Sad songs such as "Fallen Leaves" and "Six Sorrows" (IV: 148)
"On a Misty Morn" a song meant for a woman singer representing a mother's lament as she searches a battlefield for her dead only son. The lyrics mention Wendish Town (IV: 149)
Archmaester Marwyn's Book of Lost Books, containing among other things information concerning three pages from Signs and Portents, a book of visions written down by the maiden daughter of Aenar Targaryen before the Doom (IV: 162)
Haereg's History of the Ironborn discusses Urron of Orkmont's massacre at a kingsmoot to establish House Greyiron's rule in the Iron Islands until the Andals came a thousand years later (IV: 165)
Though it's traditionally said the last kingsmoot took place four thousand years ago, Denestan's Questions suggests the true date is less than half that (IV: 165)
Ser Clarence Crabb of Crackclaw Point was said to be eight feel tall and able to uproot trees with his bare hands. He rode an aurochs because no horse could bear him. His wife was a woods witch, who would kiss the lips of the heads of knights, lords, and pirates he would bring her, and bring them back to life. Among the heads was a king of Duskendale. Ser Clarence would keep the heads in his castle, where they would constantly whisper. His castle became known as the Whispers (IV: 213-214)
"The Mermaid's Lament", "Autumn of my day", "Seven Swords for Seven Sons", "Her Little Flower", and "Meggett Was a Merry Maid, a Merry Maid Was She" are various songs; the last two are bawdy (IV: 218)
A song about Bloodraven called, "A Thousand Eyes, and One" (IV: 219)
There are books with obscene drawings (IV: 236)
In Crackclaw Point, they tell of squishers, monsters that look like mine at a distance but who have over-large heads and pale flesh with scales instead of hair. The squishers are said to come out at night, padding on webbed feet to steal children for their meals. Some claim they were all killed by the First Men, but others say it's untrue (IV: 284-285)
Ser Clarence Crabb is said to have once fought the squisher king (IV: 285)
Ser Clarence Crabb is said to have been dead a thousand years (IV: 291)
Crackbones, a legendary champion of Crackclaw Point, is said to have defeated a dragon by tying it in a knot so that its flames burned its tail. He was long dead when the Targaryen came (IV: 283)
Baelor the Blessed ordered Septon Barth's writings to burned (IV: 522)
A book called Lives of the High Septons (IV: 590)
Dornish books such as Ten Thousand Ships and The Loves of Queen Nymeria (IV: 590)
A book about archery (V: 51)
Maidens - young women who has flowered but not yet reached legal majority, and so to the cultural mindset have both sexual woman qualities but also have innocent adolescent qualities - are favorite topics of the singers (SSM: 1)
The maesters and the more educated classes realize the world is round, but many common folk may believe it is flat (SSM: 1)

Last revised February 02, 2016
PermaLink

The Citadel

The Archive of 'A Song of Ice and Fire' Lore

Concordance