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6. The Mountains of the Moon


Last revised February 28, 2007
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6.1. Geography
  • The road that meets the kingsroad north of the confluence of the Trident is wild and dangerous, climbing through rocky foothills and thick forests in the Mountains of the Moon, past high passes and deep chasms to the Vale of Arryn (I: 240)
  • The Fingers are stony (I: 240)
  • The mountain road is perilous, teeming with shadowcats, rock slides, and the lawless mountain clans (I: 240)
  • The Bloody Gate is made by a pair of twin watchtowers, connected by a covered bridge, on the rocky mountain slops over a very narrow path which is scarcely wide enough for four men to ride abreast (I: 302)
  • Once one rides a little past the Bloody Gates, a huge vista opens up and the Vale of Arryn is open to view (I: 303)
  • The Vale of Arryn is a land of rich black soil, wide slow-moving rivers, and hundreds of small lakes, protected on all sides by sheltering peaks (I: 303)
  • The highroad crests the last pass on the western end of the valley and moves into a winding descent to the bottomlands two miles below. The Vale is less than half a day's ride wide at this point (I: 303)
  • The largest mountain is the Giant's Lance, three and a half miles high. Over its western shoulder flows Alyssa's Tears (I: 303)
  • Men from the Three Sisters are called Sistermen (II: 268)
  • Sisterton is on one of the Three Sisters (III: 370, 968)
  • In the higher western hills of the mountains, near the high road, stands a tiny and isolated village. There is another village some eight miles distant (III: 731, 732)
  • Frost and snow can make the high passes extremely dangerous, when combined with predators and marauding clansmen (III: 732)
  • The Fingers were one of the places where the Andals first landed, to wrest the Vale from the First Men (III: 770)
  • There's a small village of a dozen families in huts of piled stone beside a peat bog in the smallest of the Fingers, on the Baelish lands (III: 770)
  • Maidenpool is a short sea voyage away from Gulltown (IV: 206)
  • The Three Sisters are Sweetsister, Longsister, and Littlesister (IV: 706)
  • Gulltown is either a large town or a small city, with room enough for more than one noble house. It is much smaller than Lannisport, which in turn is much smaller than King's Landing or Oldtown (SSM: 1)
Last revised July 29, 2009
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6.1.1. Trade and Resources
  • Wheat, corn, and barley. Not even in Highgarden do the pumpkins grow any larger nor is the fruit any sweeter (I: 303)
  • House Waxley, ruled by a lord, seems to be known for producing scented candles on its lands. The candles can be scented with nutmeg and other costly spices (IV: 335-336, 338)
Last revised May 18, 2009
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6.2. The Arryns
  • The Arryns are Wardens of the East (I: 37)
  • The Knight of the Bloody Gate is appointed to challenge any who would pass through the Gates. The questions and responses are fairly ceremonious (I: 303)
  • The Arryn lords style themselves Defenders of the Vale (I: 315)
  • 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)
Last revised August 05, 2009
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6.2.1. The Eyrie
  • The High Hall of the Eyrie is where the household takes meals. It is long and austere, built in blue-veined white marble and has many slender pillars. Fifty silver sconces line the walls (I: 261, 345. IV: 151)
  • The Eyrie can be seen as a mark of silver on the Giant's Lance even from the western end of the valley (I: 303)
  • The climb up the Giant's Lance to the Eyrie takes half a day (I: 304, 313)
  • The Eyrie has seven white towers (I: 304)
  • The climb up the Giant's Lance to the Eyrie takes half a day (I: 304, 313)
  • Ravens can be sent to the Eyrie and the Gates of the Moon (I: 305)
  • The Gates of the Moon are a stout castle with watered moat, drawbridge, portcullis, and gate house. The High Steward of the Vale has it as Keeper of the Gates of the Moon (I: 307)
  • The narrow path up to the Eyrie, which mules can manage but horses cannot, is guarded by three waycastles: Stone, Snow, and Sky. Past Sky, one must go on foot to the Eyrie, as mules cannot manage the narrow steps of the stone ladder that leads to the Eyrie (I: 308, 313) (I: 308)
  • The Eyrie clings to the mountain above Sky, and its cellars hold six great winches with long iron chains to draw supplies and occasionally guests up from down below. Some have great wicker baskets and others large wooden buckets taller than a maiden and big enough to hold three men. Oxen are used to raise and lower them (I: 308. IV: 612-613, 614-615)
  • Ascents at night without a full moon are seen as inviting danger (I: 309)
  • One must enter the Gates of the Moon and its upper bailey before being able to take a postern gate to access the narrow path up the mountain (I: 310)
  • The steps up the Giant's Lance starts directly behind the Gates of the Moon, amidst a forest of pine and spruce (I: 310)
  • At first the steps are roofed by the canopy of trees, but the wood grows sparser the further up the mountain one goes (I: 311)
  • The trail grows steeper and more worn, the path littered in places by pebbles and broken stones. From time to time the steps double back on themselves. At the steepest parts near Sky, they zigzag back and forth, a crooked series of stone steps (I: 311. IV: 617)
  • Stone has massive ironbound gate. Iron spikes are set along the top of its walls, and two wide round towers overtop the keep (I: 311)
  • Snow is a single fortified tower and timber keep with a stable hidden behind a low wall of unmortared rock, but it rests in such a way as to command the entire stair between it and Stone (I: 311)
  • Sky is little more than a high, crescent-shaped wall of unmortared stone raised against the side of the mountain. Inside the walls are a series of ramps and a great tumble of boulders and stones of all size ready to throw down or even cause a minor avalanche. There is a cavern containing a long natural hall, stables, and supplies. Handholds carved into the rock lead to the Eyrie, while earthen ramps give access to the walls (I: 313. IV: 615)
  • The barracks and stables of Sky are carved directly into the mountain (I: 313. IV: 615)
  • The Eyrie is six hundred feet above Sky (I: 313. IV: 615)
  • The last part of the climb to the Eyrie is within the mountain itself, something of a cross between a chimney and a stone a ladder. It leads to an undercellar (I: 313. IV: 612)
  • The Eyrie is small by the standards of the other great houses, its seven towers bunched tightly together. It has no stables, kennels, or smithies, but its granary is as large as that of Winterfell and the towers can house 500 men. The granary can sustain a small household for a year or more (I: 313. IV: 330)
  • The Eyrie is made all of pale stone (I: 313)
  • The Eyrie is considered impregnable (I: 315)
  • Prisoners over the centuries have been executed by being thrown from the Eyrie (I: 344)
  • The prison cells of the Eyrie are open to the air, six hundred feet above Sky (I: 344)
  • The sky cells slope, so that a man might roll when he is asleep. The sky cells have driven men mad because of this (I: 344)
  • The throne of the Arryns is a seat of carven weirwood in the High Hall. A smaller throne for the Lady of the Eyrie sits beside it (I: 345)
  • The High Hall has a blue silk carpet leading to the throne of the Arryns. The floors and walls are all of milk-white marble veined with blue. Daylight can enter down through narrow arched windows along the eastern wall, and there are some fifty high iron sconces where torches may be lit (I: 350. III: 908)
  • In the High Hall, the Moon Door is of weirwood carved with a crescent moon is between two pillars. It opens out into the sky (I: 352)
  • The apartments of the Lady of the Eyrie open over a small garden planted with blue flowers and ringed on all sides by white towers. The builders had intended it as a godswood, but the soil brought up could not support a weirwood so grass was planted and scattered statuary around low, flowering shrubs(I: 362)
  • In the center of the garden is a pale and weathered marble statue of a weeping woman, no doubt a representation of Alyssa Arryn (I: 365)
  • The Eyrie is no bigger than Maegor's Holdfast (III: 900)
  • The Gates of the Moon are much larger than the Eyrie (III: 907)
  • The lord's audience chambers are cozy and warm, and have a view of Alyssa's Tears (III: 908)
  • The door into the High Hall is barred with a long, thick spear (III: 908)
  • Behind the dais on which the throne sits is a huge banner displaying the Arryn arms (III: 908)
  • There is an entrance into the High Hall behind the dais, for the lord of the castle (III: 912)
  • The Eyrie's cells, open to the sky as they are, allows sounds made by prisoners to be heard from within the castle (IV: 145)
  • The Moon Tower (IV: 150)
  • The Lower Hall is the common dining area (IV: 154)
  • The Eyrie's solar has a fireplace (IV: 154)
  • The Eyrie grows too cold to be lived in during winter, and can become inaccessible thanks to snows and ice storms (IV: 328, 608)
  • One of the towers is called the Maiden's Tower. It is the easternmost of the seven slender towers, so all the Vale can be seen spread out beyond its windows and balconies without obstruction (IV: 328)
  • The Gates of the Moon typically has a garrison of fewer than three hundred men (IV: 328)
  • The Morning Hall is where the Lord of the Eyrie might typically break his fast (IV: 330)
  • The Eyrie does not keep chickens or pigs on hand. All fresh foodstuffs, eggs, bacon, and other such things must be brought up from the Vale below (IV: 330)
  • After arriving at the Eyrie, guests might be greeted in the Crescent Chamber (IV: 336)
  • From the Crescent Chamber to the solar, one travels a steep flight of marble steps bypassing undercrofts and dungeons, and passes under three murderholes. There is a portcullis at the top of the steps (IV: 338)
  • The door into the lord's chambers is solid oak and four inches thick. There are curtains of plush velvet, covering windows with small diamond-shaped panes of glass (IV: 605, 606)
  • The oxen that turn the winches are slaughtered and butchered when the Eyrie is abandoned for winter, their meat left for the falcons. Any meat that remains which is not spoiled is roasted in the spring, and it's said that bountiful meat after a long winter foretold a bountiful summer (IV: 613)
  • The waycastle of Sky is above the tree line (IV: 617)
  • The path down from Sky passes under a wind-carved arch, followed by a narrowing of the path and a plunge downwards for a hundred feet where the steps have been worn smooth over the centuries by the iron-shod hooves of mules, leaving shallow depressions where water and ice can gather. At the end is a rocky spire where the path levels off, but that is followed by a narrow, high stone saddle where the path narrows to just a yard wide over its eight yard length (IV: 620-621)
  • A snowstorm can deposit five feet of snow near Stone overnight (IV: 622)
  • Below Stone the way is broader and less steep, winding among tall pines and grey-green sentinel trees (IV: 622)
Last revised July 18, 2009
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6.2.2. Ancestors and History
  • A dozen armies had dashed themselves against the Bloody Gate in the Age of Heroes (I: 303)
  • Alyssa's Tears are ghostly waters that plunge over the shoulder of the Giant's Lance. The story has it that 6,000 years ago Alyssa Arryn had seen her husband, brothers, and children slain and yet never shed a tear. The gods decreed that she would not rest until her tears reached the valley floor below (I: 361)
  • It has been hundreds of years since the clans have threatened the Vale with anything more than occasional raids (I: 508)
  • The Kings of Mountain and Vale are ancestors to the Arryns, who are among the oldest and purest lines of Andal nobility (I: 682)
  • Lord Jon Arryn's gallant cousin, Ser Denys Arryn, was killed in the Battle of the Bells by Lord Connington the Hand (III: 32, 327)
  • 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)
  • The Fingers were one of the places where the Andals first landed, to wrest the Vale from the First Men (III: 770)
  • Lord Arryn's van was smashed by Daemon Blackfyre at the Redgrass Field (TSS: 111)
  • The Vale closed its ports and the high pass during the Great Spring Sickness, thereby sparing itself from the plague (TSS: 121)
  • Legends claim that the Winged Knight, Ser Artys Arryn, drove the First Men from the Vale and flew to the top of the Giant’s Lance on a huge falcon to slay the Griffin King. There are hundreds of stories about his adventures (IV: 150, 606)
  • The Gates of the Moon were raised by the Arryns when they wore the Falcon Crown and ruled the Vale. The Eyrie was their summer castle, but when the seasons turned colder, they would reside at the Gates. For many years, the post as Keeper of the Gates were granted to kinsmen of the Arryn kings and lords, but it was never hereditary (IV: 155)
  • Lord Jasper Arryn was Lord Jon Arryn's father. His younger son Ser Ronnel married a Belmore woman and died as his son Elbert was born. His younger daughter Alys had nine children by Ser Elys Waynwood, but the only boy died at the age of three when a horse kicked him in the head; two of his sisters died of the pox, as well. One of them, however, wed Ser Denys Arryn, a distant cousin; but he died during Robert's Rebellion and his bride and newborn child died soon after. Of the rest of Alys's children, one was scarred by the pox that killed her sisters and became a septa, another was cast out after being seduced by a sellsword and eventually became a silent sister after her bastard child died as an infant, yet another was carried off by the Burned Men when travelling to the riverlands to wed a Bracken, another married the Lord of the Paps but proved barren. One daughter, however, wed a landed knight of House Hardyng, and their only son stands in line as a possible heir to the Vale after Lord Arryn's son Robert (IV: 626-627)
  • There are several cadet branches of House Arryn in the Vale, as poor as they are proud, except for the Gulltown Arryns, who had the wisdom to wed wealthy merchants (IV: 626)
  • As youths, Eddard Stark and Robert Baratheon would have occasionally visited their homes or travelled outside of the Vale with Jon Arryn. When they reached their majority, their stays at home would be more frequent, but they would have visited the Vale often as it had become a second home to them, and Jon Arryn a second father (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 (SSM: 1)
Last revised May 12, 2012
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6.2.3. Bannerhouses
  • House Corbray (I: 310)
  • House Hunter of Longbow Hall (I: 350. II: 735)
  • House Egen (I: 683)
  • House Belmore of Strongsong (I: 683. IV: 329, 707)
  • House Melcolm (I: 683)
  • House Hersy (I: 683)
  • House Tollett, the Lords of the Grey Glen. They are vassals of the Royces of Runestone. (II: 151. IV: 155, 706)
  • House Hardyng (THK: 490)
  • House Moore (III: 134)
  • Ser Mandon Moore was brought from the Vale by the Hand, Lord Jon Arryn, and made one of Robert's Kingsguard (III: 134)
  • The junior branch of the Royces has existed for at least some sixty years. Lord Rickard Stark had no siblings, but his father had a sister who married a younger son of Lord Raymar Royce of that branch. They had three daughters, all of whom wed Vale lordlings, a Waynwood and a Corbray among them, and perhaps a Templeton (III: 520, 521)
  • The Knight of Ninestars was slain by Daemon Blackfyre at the Redgrass Field (TSS: 111)
  • 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)
  • House Shett, the Knights of Gull Tower. They are vassals of the Royces of Runestone (IV: 155, 706)
  • House Coldwater, Lords of Coldwater Burn. They are vassals of the Royces of Runestone (IV: 155, 706)
  • The Royces of Runestone, Waynwoods, Redforts, Templetons, Belmores, Hunters, Tolletts, Shetts, and Coldwaters might raise as many as twenty thousand men between them (IV: 155)
  • The Royces of Runestone, Waynwoods, Redforts, Templetons, Belmores, and Hunters can easily raise a thousand men each (IV: 328)
  • 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)
  • The Corbrays own an ancestral Valyrian steel sword, named Lady Forlon (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)
  • House Lynderly, ruled by the Lord of the Snakewood (IV: 334, 610, 706)
  • House Waxley, ruled by a lord, seems to be known for producing scented candles on its lands (IV: 335-336)
  • House Belmore has six silver bells on purple as its arms (IV: 336)
  • The head of House Templeton is the Knight of Ninestars. Their arms are nine black stars on a golden saltire (IV: 336-337)
  • House Hunter has a fan of five silver arrows on its arms (IV: 337)
  • House Corbray has three ravens gripping red hearts in their claws on its arms (IV: 337)
  • The seat of House Corbray is Heart's Home (IV: 338)
  • House Hunter rules Longbow Hall (IV: 339)
  • House Corbray has vassals (IV: 610)
  • There are petty lords in the Vale (IV: 610)
  • House Waxley, ruled by the Knight of Wickenden, possibly a cadet branch (IV: 706)
  • House Sunderland, Lords of the Three Sisters (IV: 706)
  • House Borrell, Lords of Sweetsister (IV: 706)
  • House Longthorpe, Lords of Longsister (IV: 706)
  • House Torrent, Lords of Littlesister (IV: 706)
  • 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)
  • The North and the Vale are approximately on par when it comes to military strength. However, the North's population is spread over a much greater area, and harvests are even more important when colder seasons draw near (SSM: 1)
Last revised March 04, 2013
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6.2.3.1. The Baelishes of the Fingers
  • The family holdings are a few acres on the smallest of the Fingers (I: 140)
  • Petyr Baelish was fostered at Riverrun for a time (I: 141)
  • Petyr Baelish owns brothels in King's Landing (I: 167, 318)
  • The Baelishes are seen as barely a step up from a hedge knight. They have no banners, no armies of retainers, no great strongholds, poor holdings, and poor prospects of great marriages (II: 200)
  • Petyr Baelishes grandfather was a landless hedge knight and his father was the smallest of lords with only a few stony acres on the Fingers for his lands (II: 202)
  • The Baelishes have an old, nameless flint tower as their seat (III: 763)
  • Thin grass grows between the sheepfold and the thatched stable of the flint tower. The tower itself is small, an open stone stair winding around the inside wall from undercroft to roof, each floor but a single room. Servants live and sleep in the kitchen at ground level, sharing the space with dogs. Above that is a modest hall and above that a bedchamber. There are no windows, but arrowslits are embedded in the outer wall at intervals along the curve of the stair (III: 765)
  • Above the hearth in the tower is a broken longsword an old, battered oaken shield. Painted on it is a grey stone head with fiery eyes, upon a light green field. The shield belonged to the first knight of the house, Littlefinger's grandfather, who was a Braavosi sellsword in the hire of Lord Corbray. When he was knighted, he took the head of the Titan as his sigil when he was knighted (III: 765)
  • It takes less than half a day to walk around the Baelish holdings. Much of it is rock. One of those rocks is a boulder chiseled with the seven-pointed star of the Faith, which marks the site as one of the places the Andals first landed to wrest the Vale from the First Men (III: 770)
Last revised February 28, 2007
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6.2.3.2. The Royces of Runestone and the Gates of the Moon
  • Lord Royce wears bronze armor, reputedly thousands of years old, worked with runes that are supposed to ward him from harm (I: 246)
  • The junior branch of the Royces has existed for at least some sixty years (III: 520)
  • The Gates of the Moon were raised by the Arryns when they wore the Falcon Crown and ruled the Vale. The Eyrie was their summer castle, but when the seasons turned colder, they would reside at the Gates. For many years, the post as Keeper of the Gates were granted to kinsmen of the Arryn kings and lords, but it was never hereditary (IV: 155)
  • The Royces of Runestone can easily gather 1000 soldiers (IV: 329)
  • Vassals of the Royces include Lord Coldwater of Coldwater Burn, the Knights of the Gull Tower of House Shett, and Lord Tollett of the Grey Glen (IV: 706)
Last revised July 18, 2009
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6.2.3.3. The Waynwoods of Ironoaks
  • The Waynwoods prefer ceremony (I: 303)
  • Wild Wyl Waynwood was slain by Daemon Blackfyre at the Redgrass Field (TSS: 111)
  • The Waynwoods can easily gather 1000 soldiers (IV: 329)
  • The seat of House Waynwood is named Ironoaks, or Ironoaks Castle (IV: 339, 707)
  • Though the Waynwoods are a very old and proud house, they are not as wealthy as they pretend (IV: 625)
Last revised July 18, 2009
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6.2.3.4. The Redforts of the Redfort
  • The Redforts are an old house, with the blood of the First Men in them (I: 310)
  • The Redforts can easily gather 1000 soldiers (IV: 329)
  • House Redfort has a red castle on its arms (IV: 336)
  • The seat of the Redforts is named the Redfort (IV: 339)
Last revised May 18, 2009
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6.3. The Clans
  • Even the Lord of the Eyrie rides past his Bloody Gate only in strength, for fear of marauding clansmen (I: 240)
  • Raiders from the clans might spare a woman they've captured from death if she's still young enough to bear children (I: 278)
  • The clans include the Milk Snakes, the Moon Brothers, the Stone Crows, the Black Ears, the Burned Men, the Painted Dogs, and the Sons of the Mist (I: 279, 507. II: 517. III: 732)
  • The clansmen wear mismatched armor, things they have looted in the past (I: 280)
  • Clansmen have but a single name, but they state who their father was as well (I: 384)
  • Lowland lords have made promises; and broken them; to the clansmen in the past (I: 507)
  • The clans believe that every man's voice should be heard in council, even their women (I: 508)
  • It has been hundreds of years since the clans have threatened the Vale with anything more than occasional raids (I: 508)
  • The clans used small, scrawny garrons that are as surefooted as goats (I: 508)
  • The Moon Brothers and the Black Ears have strong bonds together (I: 508)
  • The Burned Men are feared by all other clans, for they mortify their flesh with fire to prove their courage (and, so its claimed, roast babies at feasts) (I: 508)
  • A Burned Man typically burns off a nipple or a finger when coming to manhood. The truly brave might choose an ear. An especially fearsome Burned Man might put out an eye; for doing this he would be named a red hand, a sort of war chieftain (I: 508)
  • There are at least three thousand warriors among the clans (I: 512)
  • The Black Ears cut the ears from their opponents and wear them openly. They do not kill the men they take the ears from; they say it as a braver thing to leave the man alive so he might try to win his ear back (I: 513. II: 48)
  • Clans might demand blood money of other clans for perceived wrongs, such as the killing of a member of the clan (I: 565)
  • The Burned Men might rattle swords and spears in show before a battle, but they do not shout (I: 573)
  • The clans can be fiercely loyal, but quarrelsome and proud as well, usually answering threats real or imagined with steel (II: 46)
  • The clansmen will take all the grain they can from raided villages, and all the women as well regardless of whether they are wedded or not (III: 732)
Last revised February 28, 2007
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6.4. Songs, Stories, and Legends
  • Alyssa's Tears are ghostly waters that plunge over the shoulder of the Giant's Lance. The story has it that 6,000 years ago Alyssa Arryn had seen her husband, brothers, and children slain and yet never shed a tear. The gods decreed that she would not rest until her tears reached the valley floor below (I: 361)
  • A song about riding to Gulltown to see a fair maid (THK: 457. III: 142)
  • All the songs say that the Vale of Arryn is beautiful (III: 764)
  • Legends claim that the Winged Knight, Ser Artys Arryn, drove the First Men from the Vale and fle to the top of the Giant’s Lance on a huge falcon to slay the Griffin King. There are hundreds of stories about his adventures (IV: 150, 606)
Last revised July 16, 2009
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